Best melee builds

[Aethelwyna]

As searching around brings tons of completely different builds, and people arguing in the comments, I just decided to make this topic to ask for a straight answer.

What would be the best, completely maxed endgame build(s) for the following melee weapons, without any 'economical' limitations (up to 9 formas, expensive mods like maiming strike & primed mods available,..). As helpful as 'low-cost' builds can be, it's not what I'm looking for at the moment. This is not about purely damage either, as, for example, we all know how amazing primed reach is on the boltace.

-Nikana prime

-Galatine prime

-Venka prime

-Telos boltace

-Broken war

-Destreza

-Melee weapons & their builds best used for valkyr/excalibur/wukong/..

-Other interesting weapons are welcome too~

Thank you in advance for the help. d(^-^d)

Edited March 19, 2017 by Aethelwyna

[CherryPauper]

There is no "best build." It's all situational and there are already many recent forum posts about this that you should look at. Though what I like running with is the following:

Telos Boltace

Relentless Combination, Condition Overload, Maiming Strike, Primed Reach
Primed Pressure Point, Drifting Contact, Berserker, 1x90% (cold is good for slowing and heat is good if using Ember's Accelerant) or Buzzkill

Slide attack on Telos Boltace has guaranteed slash procs (if equipped) which procs Condition Overload's damage buff and then Relentless Combination quickly increases combo to reach damage multipliers. Then Maiming Strike for stupid damage. Works well for me. 

Edited March 19, 2017 by CherryPauper

[W00FR]

Here is the issue. You are looking for a Best Build. There is none. The fact is all the melee weapons are useful in different mission.

Good example is none of these are the best in a solid stealth mission. A gas build Orvius can do insane damage without any problems... But don't get too close to it when it goes off. If you want to kill everything. Galatine Prime, Nikana prime, Dual Prisma Cleavers, Telos Boltace, yata yata yata. That is kinda the point of warframe in general, there are so many weapons that any build can be viable...

Expect for in secondary weapons. The Cestra is never okay. Ever... Never.

[Kidiv]

Situationalism of builds and sets is a beauty of this game. Please don't kill it for newcomers!

[Endless_Destruction]

Hello there. The problem is, the people above me are correct: There is no best build. It comes down to situation and playstyle and preference.

However, there are ways to maximize whatever you need out of a weapon at a particular time. There are Tried-and-True Crit builds, and Tried-and-True Status builds, Tried-and-True hybrid builds, and Tried-and-True cheese builds (Gas+Stealth is "not working as intended," so there, it'll be patched. Eventually.). I'll go over what you need for the crit melee weapons, and for exalted weapons. These are GENERIC builds, not particularly for one weapon over another. They are a good starting point.

First off, stances. I'm assuming you want brute force, not style or mobility. So, you want Blind Justice/Decisive Judgement for Nikanas, Crimson Dervish for Single Swords, Cleaving Whirlwind for Heavy swords, and the other weapon types pretty much either have one stance, or one good stance and one okay stance.

In order to maximize your awesomeness via crit, without maiming strike, 15% is the minimum chance worth building for, and 2.0 is the minimum multiplier, except in Broken War's case, which can totally work with a Crit build. With maiming strike, anything is fine, because it provides a flat +90% chance, but seriously not recommended if the weapon has super low crit because then you are limited to slide attacks only for effective play. For Crit, the Naramon Focus school is advised. If you haven't played The Second Dream, ignore the previous sentence.

So, the mods you'll need for a crit build: Primed/Pressure Point (damage), Blood Rush (awesome crit chance booster), Body Count or Drifting Contact (extends combo counter reset timer), Berserker(Primed/Fury isn't as fast, this works better for crit weapons), Organ Shatter (crit damage), and Maiming Strike if your weapon lends itself to slide attacks or needs the extra crit chance to make this work. That's 5-6 mods you need. For the last 2-3 mods, you have a lot of options. Primed/Reach is recommended if the weapon is short, though in the case of Venka Prime, it might still not be enough. I haven't used it, so I can't say. If your weapon also has nice status, put two 60% dual stat mods on it, of course appropriate to whatever faction you are fighting, corrosive if you're too lazy to change. You can also try Spoiled Strike for some extra damage, and I personally like 90% elementals, though the 120% physical mods can help swing your status procs in those directions if you are so minded. Buzz Kill is the best example, because Slash procs are highly desirable.

In order to maximize your awesomeness via Status, you essentially want as much status chance as possible, but going over 100% is wasteful. I personally prefer crit, so I don't use "adventurous" builds for status, because I'm not too sure of my knowledge there.

For Status builds, I'm on much shakier footing, so take these recommendations with a bit of salt. You want Primed/Pressure Point, at least 3 60% elemental mods, Primed/Fury, Weeping Wounds, Condition Overload, and Drifting Contact (not body count, you want the extra status chance). That's 8 mods.This setup assumes you want to deal decent damage as well as spread status, but if not, get rid of Condition Overload for a 4th 60% elemental. Attack speed is crucial to spreading status (more hits = more status procs), so Primed/Fury is absolutely necessary. Primed Reach is another option if you don't want/have condition overload/some 60% elemental, and is an excellent choice. I suppose if you really wanted to go for the "no damage, just status," you could dispense with Primed/Pressure Point, but that's rather pointless. Unless you're doing it for some really niche purpose I'm unaware of, don't do it. There's not too much room to maneuver with my generic build, and most weapons have something you might want to consider changing the build for.

Important-it does matter in what order you put your status mods on-damage types are read right to left, then up to down. Heat+Cold+Electric=Blast+Electric, while Heat+Electric+Cold=Radiation+Cold. Be aware of this when fiddling with your setup.

In order to maximize your awesomeness via Exalted Weapon, use whatever melee weapon you have that can achieve the highest mod capacity. Stance nor weapon type nor damage types matter. Your exalted weapons have stats of their own, and your melee is a stat stick-slap something on, and it, only the mod, not the weapon, affects the exalted weapon, at least for Hysteria, Exalted Blade, and Primal Fury.

Get Primed/Pressure Point, Berserker, True Steel, Organ Shatter, and 4 90% elementals for exalted blade. Or, sub out one elemental for Primed Reach for Hysteria. Or, sub out two elementals for Primed Reach and Primed Heavy Trauma for Primal Fury. LIFE STRIKE IS DEFINITELY WORTH GETTING RID OF AN ELEMENTAL FOR, except for Hysteria, because of its inherent lifesteal.

Again, the above (partial) builds are for maximizing some particular aspect of play. To get the most out of a weapon, you might want to use a hybrid build, or a new one of your own devising. THERE IS NO BEST BUILD. Several of the weapons you listed have great crit viability, but you are seriously mistaken if you think that my generic Crit build is the only way to play them, or is even the best way to play them in every scenario. Crit will pump out the damage, but sometimes, you want crit to take a back seat to status, for instance. Customizing your weapons is the beauty of this game, and you will be bored out of your skull following generic crit/status/hybrid builds for every weapon.

Good luck, Tenno.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Endless_Destruction
Added disclaimer at bottom, grammar fixes

[Aethelwyna]

1 hour ago, Endless_Destruction said:

Hello there. The problem is, the people above me are correct: There is no best build. It comes down to situation and playstyle and preference.

However, there are ways to maximize whatever you need out of a weapon at a particular time. There are Tried-and-True Crit builds, and Tried-and-True Status builds, Tried-and-True hybrid builds, and Tried-and-True cheese builds (Gas+Stealth is "not working as intended," so there, it'll be patched. Eventually.). I'll go over what you need for the crit melee weapons, and for exalted weapons. These are GENERIC builds, not particularly for one weapon over another. They are a good starting point.

First off, stances. I'm assuming you want brute force, not style or mobility. So, you want Blind Justice/Decisive Judgement for Nikanas, Crimson Dervish for Single Swords, Cleaving Whirlwind for Heavy swords, and the other weapon types pretty much either have one stance, or one good stance and one okay stance.

In order to maximize your awesomeness via crit, without maiming strike, 15% is the minimum chance worth building for, and 2.0 is the minimum multiplier, except in Broken War's case, which can totally work with a Crit build. With maiming strike, anything is fine, because it provides a flat +90% chance, but seriously not recommended if the weapon has super low crit because then you are limited to slide attacks only for effective play. For Crit, the Naramon Focus school is advised. If you haven't played The Second Dream, ignore the previous sentence.

So, the mods you'll need for a crit build: Primed/Pressure Point (damage), Blood Rush (awesome crit chance booster), Body Count or Drifting Contact (extends combo counter reset timer), Berserker(Primed/Fury isn't as fast, this works better for crit weapons), Organ Shatter (crit damage), and Maiming Strike if your weapon lends itself to slide attacks or needs the extra crit chance to make this work. That's 5-6 mods you need. For the last 2-3 mods, you have a lot of options. Primed/Reach is recommended if the weapon is short, though in the case of Venka Prime, it might still not be enough. I haven't used it, so I can't say. If your weapon also has nice status, put two 60% dual stat mods on it, of course appropriate to whatever faction you are fighting, corrosive if you're too lazy to change. You can also try Spoiled Strike for some extra damage, and I personally like 90% elementals, though the 120% physical mods can help swing your status procs in those directions if you are so minded. Buzz Kill is the best example, because Slash procs are highly desirable.

In order to maximize your awesomeness via Status, you essentially want as much status chance as possible, but going over 100% is wasteful. I personally prefer crit, so I don't use "adventurous" builds for status, because I'm not too sure of my knowledge there.

For Status builds, I'm on much shakier footing, so take these recommendations with a bit of salt. You want Primed/Pressure Point, at least 3 60% elemental mods, Primed/Fury, Weeping Wounds, Condition Overload, and Drifting Contact (not body count, you want the extra status chance). That's 8 mods.This setup assumes you want to deal decent damage as well as spread status, but if not, get rid of Condition Overload for a 4th 60% elemental. Attack speed is crucial to spreading status (more hits = more status procs), so Primed/Fury is absolutely necessary. Primed Reach is another option if you don't want/have condition overload/some 60% elemental, and is an excellent choice. I suppose if you really wanted to go for the "no damage, just status," you could dispense with Primed/Pressure Point, but that's rather pointless. Unless you're doing it for some really niche purpose I'm unaware of, don't do it. There's not too much room to maneuver with my generic build, and most weapons have something you might want to consider changing the build for.

Important-it does matter in what order you put your status mods on-damage types are read right to left, then up to down. Heat+Cold+Electric=Blast+Electric, while Heat+Electric+Cold=Radiation+Cold. Be aware of this when fiddling with your setup.

In order to maximize your awesomeness via Exalted Weapon, use whatever melee weapon you have that can achieve the highest mod capacity. Stance nor weapon type nor damage types matter. Your exalted weapons have stats of their own, and your melee is a stat stick-slap something on, and it, only the mod, not the weapon, affects the exalted weapon, at least for Hysteria, Exalted Blade, and Primal Fury.

Get Primed/Pressure Point, Berserker, True Steel, Organ Shatter, and 4 90% elementals for exalted blade. Or, sub out one elemental for Primed Reach for Hysteria. Or, sub out two elementals for Primed Reach and Primed Heavy Trauma for Primal Fury. LIFE STRIKE IS DEFINITELY WORTH GETTING RID OF AN ELEMENTAL FOR, except for Hysteria, because of its inherent lifesteal.

Again, the above (partial) builds are for maximizing some particular aspect of play. To get the most out of a weapon, you might want to use a hybrid build, or a new one of your own devising. THERE IS NO BEST BUILD. Several of the weapons you listed have great crit viability, but you are seriously mistaken if you think that my generic Crit build is the only way to play them, or is even the best way to play them in every scenario. Crit will pump out the damage, but sometimes, you want crit to take a back seat to status, for instance. Customizing your weapons is the beauty of this game, and you will be bored out of your skull following generic crit/status/hybrid builds for every weapon.

Good luck, Tenno.

Thank you, a post like this is exactly what i'm looking for (b^-^)b!

I know different situations require different builds, i'm looking for proper builds for said situations, in which the rest of your post helps a lot

That being said, about crit builds, what about true steel? In other topics I read it helps with scaling blood rush, but no clear conclusions on whether it is worth using or not.

And about the combo mods (body count & blood rush), are these completely useless if not actively swapping to your melee weapon, as there is no combo buildup then? (eg. when doing a quick slide attack because you need to reload your gun.)

Edited March 20, 2017 by Aethelwyna

[(PSN)CoolD2108]

Galatine, nikana or any slash weapon with a mixed base at all.

Prisma dual cleavers are probably your best pick, if you fancy that weapon type that is.

Edited March 20, 2017 by (PS4)CoolD2108

[Endless_Destruction]

10 hours ago, Aethelwyna said:

Thank you, a post like this is exactly what i'm looking for (b^-^)b!

I know different situations require different builds, i'm looking for proper builds for said situations, in which the rest of your post helps a lot

That being said, about crit builds, what about true steel? In other topics I read it helps with scaling blood rush, but no clear conclusions on whether it is worth using or not.

And about the combo mods (body count & blood rush), are these completely useless if not actively swapping to your melee weapon, as there is no combo buildup then? (eg. when doing a quick slide attack because you need to reload your gun.)

True steel is not really necessary, given that Blood Rush will increase your crit chance a lot already, given that it scales with your combo-counter. It will definitely give you a boost, just not one that's THAT necessary. Look up the blood rush/crit equation on the wiki.

As to your question about combo mods: Definitely not useless! You do get combo buildup while outside melee mode. Having a combo mod(s) is worth having even as a ranged player.

You can test this by equipping maiming strike on a melee weapon, still being in primary/secondary fire mode, and rapidly slide attack with blood rush/combo counter mod on. You'll see that your numbers and crit chance do get higher with your combo multiplier.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Endless_Destruction

[Endless_Destruction]

7 hours ago, (PS4)CoolD2108 said:

Galatine, nikana or any slash weapon with a mixed base at all.

Prisma dual cleavers are probably your best pick, if you fancy that weapon type that is.

Sure you need True Steel? You might want Buzz Kill or Spoiled Strike on. Life Strike, if your frame needs it.

[(PSN)CoolD2108]

5 hours ago, Endless_Destruction said:

Sure you need True Steel? You might want Buzz Kill or Spoiled Strike on. Life Strike, if your frame needs it.

Centers around max crit/slash proccs since slash status, on paper, profits from crit/basedamage exclusive (there is this savage stealth bugg but that's about it). You sure do as it affects the extend of possible layers of red crits, where buzz kill, in all irony, does not affect slash at all. Spoiled does affect slash as well but i consider the speed penalty rather fatal ... Maiming or berserker ARE optional tho if you want spoiled or life strike but a sentinel with a healing mod is more then enough to keep you healthy if you plan around evasion and efficiency, rather then tanking.

 

^the one i posted is what i consider ideal.

Condition Overload may also be worth taking a look at, depending on how "weapon damage" is defined. May be base damage or totall weapon damage. The first option definitly beats maiming in terms of red multipliers.

Edited March 20, 2017 by (PS4)CoolD2108

[(XBOX)ThermalStone]

Best melee build: (Prime) Pressure Point, Beserker, Blood Rush, Drifting Contact or Body Count, (Primed) Fury, Organ Shatter, x2 element.  

You derive most of your damage from repeated strikes to raise your attack speed and crit chance rather than increasing base damage.  You can overcome a low base crit chance of 10 or 15 percent by swinging faster and having more chances to score a critcal hit to set off Beserker/Blood Rush.  Works for 80 or 90 percent of the game's weapons.

[Endless_Destruction]

6 hours ago, (PS4)CoolD2108 said:

Centers around max crit/slash proccs since slash status, on paper, profits from crit/basedamage exclusive (there is this savage stealth bugg but that's about it). You sure do as it affects the extend of possible layers of red crits, where buzz kill, in all irony, does not affect slash at all. Spoiled does affect slash as well but i consider the speed penalty rather fatal ... Maiming or berserker ARE optional tho if you want spoiled or life strike but a sentinel with a healing mod is more then enough to keep you healthy if you plan around evasion and efficiency, rather then tanking.

 

^the one i posted is what i consider ideal.

Condition Overload may also be worth taking a look at, depending on how "weapon damage" is defined. May be base damage or totall weapon damage. The first option definitly beats maiming in terms of red multipliers.

Fair enough, though I'd consider Maiming Strike the optional one, not Berserker. That attack speed boost is just too useful.

I don't like relying on Sentinels for health, because of how often some AoE enemy decides to (glitch) kill you and your sentinel, so I find Life Strike invaluable.

 

By the way: There is a best melee build in terms of raw power: Just one mod is needed. Covert Lethality. /s

[(PSN)CoolD2108]

1 hour ago, Endless_Destruction said:

Fair enough, though I'd consider Maiming Strike the optional one, not Berserker. That attack speed boost is just too useful.

I don't like relying on Sentinels for health, because of how often some AoE enemy decides to (glitch) kill you and your sentinel, so I find Life Strike invaluable.

 

By the way: There is a best melee build in terms of raw power: Just one mod is needed. Covert Lethality. /s

Yes on galatine, not essencially on nikana w blind justice.

 

Agree to covert but that one limmits you quite a bit. I prefer my frosty w galatine :> Best damage/Cc/support ratio <3

Edited March 20, 2017 by (PS4)CoolD2108

[(XBOX)EternalDrk Mako]

just   from my experience

crit is strong and deals well across most enemies

status is strong but is only made apparent in more later game imo

merg both and they come out well

[DarthKadra]

On 3/20/2017 at 3:37 AM, Endless_Destruction said:

Primed/Reach is recommended if the weapon is short,

On the contrary. If the weapon is short (like the Venka) the benefit from Primed Reach will be negligible. But it will shine on weapons with long reach like Atterax or Orthos.

As concerns the builds. Let me show you my Venka builds:

Core: Primed Pressure Point, Blood Rush, True Steel, Organ Shatter, Buzz Kill, Berserker, Drifting Contact    Last mod:

1. Body Count (for long combo counter, to keep it inbetween waves or when enemies are scattered) 2. Weeping Wounds - for high level enemies like Kela De Thaym lvl100 - to inflict more bleeds. 3. Life Strike - if you need the healing, obviously.  

Why no elemental mods? Because this build with a little bit of combo wind up will destroy anything up to quite high levels, where the lack of elementals will benefit you because almost all procs will do bleed damage.

Edited March 21, 2017 by frohdoe

[Endless_Destruction]

On 3/21/2017 at 9:25 AM, frohdoe said:

On the contrary. If the weapon is short (like the Venka) the benefit from Primed Reach will be negligible. But it will shine on weapons with long reach like Atterax or Orthos.

Understandable, but sometimes the extra reach can really help out. For example- Primed Reach on a Broken-War (which I've personally found to be a little short) has helped me get the finisher at the end of the right-click Crimson Dervish Combo much more often than without. I'm not sure how range works in the game, so I don't know whether it is a flat boost or adds some percentage of the default range of the weapon. I'm guessing the latter, but the wiki hasn't helped, confirmation would be great.

On 3/20/2017 at 4:35 PM, (PS4)CoolD2108 said:

 I prefer my frosty w galatine :> Best damage/Cc/support ratio <3

I prefer Loki/Naramon/Broken-War: Stealth until Naramon, and then Death Unseen.

[DarthKadra]

7 minutes ago, Endless_Destruction said:

I'm not sure how range works in the game, so I don't know whether it is a flat boost or adds some percentage of the default range of the weapon.

It's based off of the default range. So on weapons with a really short range it'll do little to nothing.

[Endless_Destruction]

2 minutes ago, frohdoe said:

It's based off of the default range. So on weapons with a really short range it'll do little to nothing.

Thanks for the clarification.