Melee Questions from a Newbie

[Shwob]

First off, I'd like to say that I'm very new to this game but have been loving it so far and no-lifing it pretty hard. What I have enjoyed the most are the long survival missions and defense missions that just get increasingly harder as you go on. My personal playstyle is getting up into the fray with a big melee weapon and cutting stuff down. I really don't want to be using a gun if I can avoid it.

So heres where my questions come in:

What might be the best Frame/Weapon combo for surviving long defense or survival missions while still dishing out major melee only damage?

I started with excalibur but he seems pretty squishy once I get further along and his passive doesnt seem to work with the larger swords, from what I've seen and read.

Ive also tried valkyr but everything with her seems centered around her ult and not your equipped melee weapon.

Also any general modding tips for either frame or weapon would be helpful.

Thanks!

[Syvarin]

There's a way of playing Valkyr that suits your playstyle nicely without using her 4th ability constantly. Get the augment mod "Eternal War" (since you're new, you'll need to trade with another player to get it) which boosts the duration of her Warcry for every kill you get. Then build to use Warcry and keep it going. (That is, high power and duration, poor efficiency and range.) Her high armor and boost to melee speed is very fun. If she gets low on health, a few seconds of Hysteria should be enough lifesteal to get back to full.

[(XBOX)TheVengefulBard]

Rhino is a good way to go, you get him from "The Jackal" boss on Venus. Rhino is a character who focuses on tank and damage. He has Iron skin which is an ability that gives him more health and it increases with power strength. It allows him to go invulnerable for a few seconds, allowing him to absorb damage and add it as a portion of his iron skin. He then has the ability Roar which is a damage buff to you, your sentinels, and teammates. For the melee weapon, it all depends on preference. I like using great-swords such as Galitine and Gram. Once in a while I would pullout Scindo, a battle axe that swings a bit slow but does EXTREME damage if build correctly. But as said before, Rhino is a good option if you need damage and tank, which makes his useful for larger weapons cause they don't attack as fast

[seniledark]

Get eternal war for valkyr, http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Eternal_War . When you do, build around warcry and armor, then in game while slashing your foes, if you take a good amount of damage use her 4th to  replenish your health, then go back to warcry and slashing with your melee. 

[(XBOX)DeluxeKnight831]

That would be valkyr plus basically any decent melee. excalibur is also actually really good on long runs . this video might help you out . Dont worry about axcalibur prime being used in this. he isnt any different from regular excalibur 

 

If you need a valkyr build too here you go 

 

Edited March 31, 2017 by (XB1)DeluxeKnight831

[Dwolfknight]

Frames that are good with melee are usually tanky, my best guess would be Inaros, his passive grants him health on finisher attacks with melee, his first blinds and stun enemies much like Excalibur but in a cone instead of a radius, he has a VERY large health pool and his ult grants him extra armor as well as having an active healing factor.

Tips for modding? More Health, More Armour, Rage, Range and that's all you need there rest is up to you.

OH also dying is not much of an issue since he has the undying passive that allows him to resurrect himself.

Edited March 31, 2017 by Dwolfknight

[Syvarin]

As for how to mod your big melee weapons, I'd suggest -

Blood Rush* - Higher critical chance as your combo counter increases
Body Count* or Drifting Contact - Longer combo duration
Berserker - Faster attacks after a critical hit
Organ Shatter - More critical damage
Pressure Point - More damage

*mods you'd need to trade for unless you want to wait for Acolytes to show up again

[Shwob]

Thanks for the replys guys! Ill try out this Valkyr build and pick up rhino. Also how do i get Inaros? Its saying that I can't pick up his blueprint in the market.

[Dwolfknight]

Just now, Shwob said:

Thanks for the replys guys! Ill try out this Valkyr build and pick up rhino. Also how do i get Inaros? Its saying that I can't pick up his blueprint in the market.

it's from a quest called sand of inaros

[Shwob]

Just now, Dwolfknight said:

it's from a quest called sand of inaros

I just looked that up and it says I have to get it from Baro Ki'Teer. Is that the only way to get it or do i just have to wait another week for that guy to show up again?

[Dwolfknight]

4 minutes ago, Shwob said:

I just looked that up and it says I have to get it from Baro Ki'Teer. Is that the only way to get it or do i just have to wait another week for that guy to show up again?

 

you have to wait, thankfully he always has that quest available, also you require MR 5 to buy the quest

Edited March 31, 2017 by Dwolfknight

[Leahzar]

17 minutes ago, Shwob said:

Thanks for the replys guys! Ill try out this Valkyr build and pick up rhino. Also how do i get Inaros? Its saying that I can't pick up his blueprint in the market.

 

17 minutes ago, Dwolfknight said:

it's from a quest called sand of inaros

Just to clarify a bit - you can get the Sands of Inaros quest from Baro Ki'Teer; a rare merchant that shows up every second weekend on one of the relays. Since you're so new to the game, I suggest waiting a bit before going for Inaros. He's going to cost resources you probably do not have yet. 
There's still plenty of options for your melee-murdering needs though :) 

Edited March 31, 2017 by Leahzar
Ninja'd

[AetosPrime]

Wukong is one of the very best melee only Warframes at the moment. He is quite easy to mod and makes you invincible. As melee weapon I'd recommend any Hight Crit/Status slash weapon such as Galatine, Lesion or Atterax. Mods like Maiming Strike, Bloodrush + Combo Duration will make you an unkillable berserker. Later on when you've finished the Second Dream Quest, you'll be able to choose a Focus school. Here I'd recommend to take Naramon. When you leveled it up a bit you are able to be invisible and get a higher crit chance for your melee weapons. It might take some time to get all that stuff, but its definetly worth the effort.

[Shwob]

What do you guys think about Saryn? Her spores seem cool and to work well with her number 3 ability that buffs up melee things.

[Arcainyx]

49 minutes ago, Dwolfknight said:

- snip -

Tips for modding Inaros

Some people also advocate mods such as Provoked and Undying Will.  While these mods will normally take second place (at least) to other mods on your frame they have increased value because of Inaros' passive.

48 minutes ago, Syvarin said:

- snip -

Mod list for melee

Life Strike is another mod that you may want to consider.  As long as you aren't suffering from energy issues it can help with toxin damage or the occasional melee hit that sneaks past your defenses.

Finally, another option you could try would be the stealth approach.  Loki or Ash are considered to be good by many in the community for pairing with a variety of melee weapons for damage (less of a variety with Ash if you want to take advantage of his passive).

[(XBOX)DeluxeKnight831]

1 minute ago, Shwob said:

What do you guys think about Saryn? Her spores seem cool and to work well with her number 3 ability that buffs up melee things.

she is a more complicated frame who requires some serious min maxing to get the most out of her . solid dps though 

[pokeyoface]

Honestly a warframe with a large health and/or shield pool and a tank/restoration ability sounds like it'd be your cup of tea, it might also be worth noting that with excalibur you can use your slash dash if you get into danger as he becomes immune to health damage for a portion of the dash, allowing you a bit of a way to quickly get out of dodge or continue slaughtering things until you're safe for a bit, you might've known that already so I'll go ahead and list off some warframes that might fit your playstyle.

Rhino is one that comes to mind, he has decent health, shields and armor, has an ability that gives him a buffer of temporary health(which also scales based off of his armor stat), Rhino also has an ability that can increase all the damage you(and any allies in range) deal for a bit. (he can be farmed from fossa on venus, again you might already know this)

Loki is another frame that can do well with a melee focused playstyle, however you'd mainly be relying on his invisiblity ability to stay alive, while staying close and stabbing things, as he's quite squishy, but if you want big damage numbers, his invis is a good way to buff melee damage, since melee does more if you're not detected by enemies. (farmed on psamathe neptune iirc so he's kinda hard for a newer player to get)

Trinity and Oberon might fit your melee oriented style, Trinity drops from Ceres, can heal herself with two abilities, restore her own energy, and has the ability to redirect a large portion of incoming damage back to nearby enemies. Oberon drops from eximus units, which can be a bit of a pain since it means he's not exactly something you can actively farm for, but he has an ability where he lays down a damaging field of energy that damages enemies while they're on it and also makes you immune to status effects while you stand on it, and he has an ability that is an instant heal(once you get done with the animation for it) and heals over time, he also features decent base armor at 150.

Saryn is another decent melee warframe, however she's not as durable as some of the others are by default, as she really shines as a melee frame with the ability augment for molt, which gives her a nice bit of health regen for a duration after using molt, which is a decoy that explodes into poison, she also has an ability called toxic lash which buffs her melee weapons with toxin damage as well as letting melee strikes pop spores just by smacking someone(her first ability places toxic spores on targets which reduces the max health of targets when they get popped and they also spread when popped) Toxic Lash also increases the effectiveness of blocking for the duration, and her ultimate is a pretty close-range ability which deals moderate damage which is increased based on whether or not enemies are suffering from toxin procs(her Toxic lash ability inflicts them) viral procs(spores proc them when they pop) and how much health a molt has left when the ult is cast in range of one (as in it pops the molt decoy, and based on how much of it's health it had left, the ult's damage increases) She can be acquired from the boss on sedna, which is the last planet you unlock, unfortunately.

Volt is another warframe that can fit with a melee oriented style, he has an ability that makes him run and swing melee weapons faster (this ability also increases the reload speed for ranged weapons, but well, that's not quite what you're looking for) he's a bit different as far as acquisition goes however, as he doesn't drop from any boss or any mission, you have to be in a clan or build a clan in order to get him(or you could play the crap out of conclave and buy him as a whole from teshin, apparently), since his blueprints must all be researched at the Tenno lab in the clan dojo.

Zephyr isn't exactly a warframe with abilities that scream "Melee everything." However, she fits the role quite well in my opinion(granted she is my favorite, so I'm quite biased)
her abilities are 1. a midair dash, or a really high jump(if you're on the ground it'll be a jump) good for getting you in or out of the fray quickly (though she doesn't have health-immune bits to her dash or jump.) 2. you just fall, really fast..... and gently hurt enemies and knock them down. 3.This is the most important ability, if you just wanna get close and stab things, this ability creates a wind shield centered on you that eats any rapid-fired projectile, and deflects any slower projectiles(as in rockets, sapping osprey orbs and such) and throws off beam weapons (so they kinda just start magically missing by going right next to you, instead of hitting you) with the augment for it, it also buffs your move speed. She is also a clan tech warframe (same as volt)

Wukong, this guy is very much a tank, when played(read as fed plenty of energy) well he won't die at all...ever. his abilities are 1. *pokes with magic expand-o staff*(the ability does a lot of impact damage and ragdolls enemies hit) 2. "I DON'T WANNA GO TO BED MOM!" (this ability makes it so long as the ability is active Wukong will have his health restored, and become literally invincible for a duration after suffering would-be fatal damage, though it only works a limited number of times per cast, and must be re-applied in order to start fully healing you again) 3. "sorry, had my head in the clouds.... literally" (Wukong becomes a(n invincible) cloud..... and also stuns enemies when he becomes a cloud, and whenever he goes back to monkeying around) 4. Hysteria, monkey style(AKA not literally invincible style). Wukong pulls out his magic expand-o staff again and just starts smacking people, repeatedly, oh and his staff gets bigger the more he smacks people. He is also a clan-tech frame.

Chroma, Inaros and Atlas.
These three are acquired from quests, or rather, Atlas is unlocked, whereas Inaros and Chroma are acquired.
Atlas is a melee frame if only for his first ability Landslide, in which you just slide on over to an enemy and give em a little love tap..... or maybe just punch them to death, I can never tell.... he also has a nice little stone wall he can summon for a bit of shelter from gunfire, oh and he can turn it into a boulder, and play bowling with the grineer(or infested)(or corpus)(well, unless a nullifier decides to walk in the way) Atlas can also stare at enemies menacingly until they become paralyzed with fear(encased with stone technically, but what's the difference?!) and also summon rock golems, to punch people for him.(hey, punching people is hard work, sometimes you need a little break.)

Then there's Chroma, a melee frame, mainly by not caring about a large portion of the damage coming his way.
1. RAWR I'M A DRAGON (he breathes fire, ice, lightning, or it just stinks really, really badly depending on energy color)

2. depending on his element(which is determined by the energy color) this ability bestows various buffs, fire buffs health and inflicts heat damage in a radius near him(which has a chance to proc and cause enemies to panic), ice buffs base armor and reflects incoming fire back dealing 300% damage on return and has a chance to proc cold on them, lightning buffs shields and causes damage received to be turned into a discharge of electricity for 1000% of the damage received, apparently, not quite sure how he works tbh, I rarely play him, rarer still as lightning chroma and then we have the toxin effect which is a reload and holster speed buff, as well as having a chance to deal 5% of an enemy's health when in range, and proc toxin on them apparently.

3. Vex Armor, which buffs his armor when his shields take damage and when his health takes damage it buffs his weapon damage, the buffs start on the first hit to each pool, and increase based on how much damage the pools take, as soon as the duration wears off the buffs reset.

4.JK I'm not actually a dragon. Chroma takes his pelt off, which then proceeds to roar(long-range stun), roar extra hard(knocks back enemies in close-range to it) and of course breathe at things aggressively (which deals significant damage) oh, and you get to run faster, so you can get within stabbing range faster.

and finally Inaros who has no shields to speak of, but has an immense health pool, and impressive armor
1. Pocket Sand, you stun deal DoT's to targets hit(25% of the DoT damage is returned to you as health) and open enemies up to melee finishers(which heal you)

2. Devour, you can tap it to stick an enemy in a pit of quicksand for a duration(you can also eat them for health if you walk up and hold x) or hold it to drag them in where you can continue holding to eventually create a sand shadow(clone of said enemy that fights for you), or just, stab.(CANNOT BE USED ON THINGS THAT ALWAYS FLY, AKA NO INAROS, YOU CANNOT EAT THE OSPREY, I DON'T CARE HOW MANY TIMES A STRAY SAPPING ORB HURT YOU, YOU CAN'T.)

3. Sandstorm. *insert Darude here* This ability let's you just become a tornado of sand, that pulls in, deals DoT and lifts enemies up, before tossing them away again(for some odd reason) it also pulls in item drops(apparently) and makes you resist up to 50% of the damage coming at you, to make up for the reduced speed (half of base), oh and it turn anyone stuck in a devour pit into a sand clone dude, if they die to the sandstorm.

4. Scarab armor. hold 4 to sacrifice health for armor you can also throw 25%(for 25 energy) of the armor as a swarm at enemies and it'll nom on them for a bit the swarm also converts some of the damage they do into health for any allies in range(yourself included, naturally) and it will spread to other enemies that get close

I think that about does it, sorry for the massive post, hope it helps though.
aaaaaaaand it appears i'm a bit late to the party here, whoops.

Edited March 31, 2017 by pokeyoface

[Shwob]

12 minutes ago, pokeyoface said:

I think that about does it, sorry for the massive post, hope it helps though.

No don't be sorry, it was a good read!

You say Saryn isnt as durable by default, is it just the augment for molt that makes her more durable or are there other things that are needed?

Are there any super helpful mods that you might suggest for Rhino, Saryn, or Inaros?

[(XBOX)TheVengefulBard]

For rhino you want to focus on steel fiber and any mod with power strength, those are what benefit his iron skin and I believe roar(could be wrong). There are frame spicific mods which augment the ability or add an effect. Ironclad charge and Iron shrapnel are quite good(get through trading or rank 5 faction). Ironclad charge multiplies the armor rating through an amount of enimies you charge through, allowing you to get to 115,000+ with iron skin if built correctly. Iron shrapnel allows you to dispel the previous skin and get a fresh skin, and turning the previous one into shrapnel that causes damage. 

[(PSN)CoolD2108]

Go for Ash.

His kit into midgame includes

*armod dbuffs with his shuriken (Seeking shuriken augument - no brainer ability that doesn't require aiming and doesn't interrupt. Full dbuff with 145 strength, that's a intensify and a power drift)

*Invisibility (kinda short living but does it's job = 8 times multiplier on your innitial strike and you can't become targeted while it's active)

*Finishers (Fatal Teleport augument auto finishes enemys with a stealth finisher on doubled damage. Strongest damage dealing concept in the game. Normal teleport opens enemys to finishers and is nice movement.)

*aoe finisher damage with his ult (kinda slow but great to maintain combo indefinitly. Rising storm buffs the combo counter a bit too...it's not as effective as melee mods are -body count and drifting contact- but it does it's job untill you're able to get them.)

His default invisbility isn't the greatest protection but you wanna aim for duration on him in your early days anyways and it's plenty for that and rather efficient too beeing his second ability.

Late mid game then unlocks you focus schools which add shadow step with choosing naramon, what's a rather nice addiction to his melee playstyle as it gives invisibility on meles crits. Late game makes you access Arcane trickery, what gives you invisibility on finishers too. Ash is definitly among the better picks for invisibility melee as he, similar to rhino and the such, doesn't need to rely on incomming damage.

Gets only more flexible the longer you play...a good build makes you perform both, gun AND melee at once to it's absolute peak. Also speaks for him as i guarantee you that you're gonna grow tired of melee one day...

His nonprime is a bit of a pain in the arse to get ... the prime is close to beein vaulted tho so it's cheap as can be. Should you consider getting a Prime frame, get Ash Prime asap. He doesn't require a specific mastery rank so that's definitly a option.

Edited April 28, 2017 by (PS4)CoolD2108

[Xzorn]

Rhino is a great brawler frame for new players. He's also more group friendly than most other brawlers and can function in melee or gun play.

Most tank / brawler frames are very niche. They can only buff melee damage, have little to no CC or they have to stay invisible.

Rhino is Tanky, Has a group damage buff and a very good AoE CC.

He's good for starting and good for late game. he's just good and worth having around.

[mosaickle]

I know people have said this already but honestly, your (OP) playstyle and mine is basically 100% the same.

My current melee frames that I almost exclusively use (except Titania since her Razorwing is amazing) are Wukong and Inaros, both of which might take you some time to get, but they're well worth it since ya know, our playstyles are basicaly 100% same.

Inaros: Inaros is the kinda guy whose HP bar often goes up and down, but never really close to death at all due to the fact that he has only health, but a ton of armor to hold his health high as well as (in my opinion) too many ways to heal himself up anyway. His 1 provides great CC when maxed for duration/range and opens up to finishers (which heal you), the damage it deals heals you as well. His 2 is his main panic button ability as once you trap someone and start to heal off them, as long as you're devouring the target, you're invulnerable. So let's say you're really low, you can devour an ancient disruptor who you deal less damage to but heal for the same amount. This way you can heal for much longer and always up to full HP before they die (which is a good thing, you wanna heal to max, not kill them early). His 3 is a fun ability which tosses people around. In all honesty there's nothing much else to it. His ultimate boosts his armor even further but does cost flat health, which isn't really a problem since you have so many ways to heal yourself up. Besides, if you get caught in a sticky situation, you can use his ultimate again and at the cost of 25% of your bonus armor, makes enemies around you take damage which...hah, heals you again. Often times with a standard build you'll have around 4500HP or so, and channeling your ult to max armor will have you at around 1600HP or so. It's not uncommon for you to heal back up just by popping your ult in a busy room since the heal is really good. I've been able to heal to max only pressing 4.

Wukong: Wukong's kind of a quirky fighter tank but he's hella fun and if modded correctly, technically unkillable. Yes, his HP can still drop to zero but then you instantly heal and go invulnerable for a few seconds. He isn't as innately tanky as Inaros but his survivability comes in another form. His passive is perfect for both of us as it extends (greatly) the duration of melee combo timers. His 1 is kinda funny to use and for some reason, the ragdoll is a lot faster than normal ragdolling in the game so that can be great visually. The CC it provides is also reasonable. His 2 is his god mode ability. It drains energy but if it's toggled and you 'die', you get healed for a % of your max HP and gets you invulnerable for a few seconds which is really nice. Wukong isn't the tankiest frame outright, but this makes ultimately makes his survivability nearly unparalleled. His 3 is apparently really lackluster but actually is more useful than you think. First of all you can travel in any direction and with good mod setup drains very little energy for distance traveled and you're stealthed. When you exit 3, your landing stuns enemies around you which is a nice bonus. I won't say in detail how the utility of travelling unseen in any direction is useful, all I can say is, be creative :) . His 4 is basically a Excal-like Valkyr-like ability where he draws his own weapon out to smack everyone on the head. In all honesty, it doesn't deal as much damage as I would want it to, it's still worth the visuals. 

 

So by comparing these two, on paper Inaros seems to have the edge over Wukong but they're both phenomenal. Personally I'd say Inaros is a bit better and more beneficial along with other team members whereas Wukong's more of a solo frame. Even so, Inaros is still amazing solo. Inaros for me is a tad more useful on paper than Wukong but in-game Wukong for me is a tad more fun to play than Inaros.

Both are great choices, hard to go wrong with either so, go with whoever you personally prefer :D

[mosaickle]

On 3/31/2017 at 1:51 PM, Shwob said:

No don't be sorry, it was a good read!

You say Saryn isnt as durable by default, is it just the augment for molt that makes her more durable or are there other things that are needed?

Are there any super helpful mods that you might suggest for Rhino, Saryn, or Inaros?

Rage.

Inaros without Rage is fine.

but

Inaros with Rage is god.

[(PSN)Radehx]

Quote

What might be the best Frame/Weapon combo for surviving long defense or survival missions while still dishing out major melee only damage?

I suck at gunplay on PS4, so mostly focus on melee. My favourite melee frames are Ivara (dagger & CL), Saryn (halving enemies' health greatly speeds up melee kills), Nidus (dude can't die), Volt (with dual swords he's an insanely fast killer) and lately a lot of Equinox (calm & frenzy rest build...it's ridiculously strong).