I have yet to find a good usage for my melee characters. They have large hammers or swords so I put them next to a enemy and click the “hit with held object” botton. But they seem to do very little damage, indeed in most cases they do zero damage. I did think getting up close and personal would have done extensive damage.
Does anyone have any advice on how best to use melee characters?
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i agree , i am wondering the same thing, they dont have better abilities or armor to compensate for it. ALSO, i was hoping for riot shields or something for our troops too, since they have it and the cover is often really useless
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the only way i can see use them would be to use the neuralizer and turtling in the vechivles, i imagine you can do the same with 1ap cost melees, or two costs if youre really inclined, but i tried hiding melee behind a corner and doing hit and run in a base def and … it was the first to die as three crabs turned the corner and kept beating him up
Ähm, I guess you use the wrong icon for the melee attack. There are 2 icons…use the most right handed and you do a whole lot of damage !! The other item is to bach enemies with the bck of your weapon…why it´s selectable with melee character´s - bad game design.
Had the same feeling fist, doing nearly no damage, but using the right icon - you will wonder… 
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So firstly it’s a case of the buttons being totally confusing towards the action they take. Bashing with held item should be the flipping big hammer you are holding and the normal bash you would assume to be the use of ones fist.
I bet they haven’t been back to check how wrong this is. So off to try using the straight forward bash button (right button).
I too used the wrong button at first, the icons probably need a change.
Yet the usage of melee character is still on the table.
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High AP cost of movement and attack : you are lucky if you can hit someone once in a turn
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Moderate damage output : A hit does some damage, but not that much compared to other weapons, plus you can’t aim a body part.
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Extremely high risk of exposure : In this game, you are better far away from the enemy and quite close to your squadmates. Going melee exposes your soldier to enemy fire, mind control, and powerful melee attacks. The poison spit is a killer in my game, not to mention the plethora of mind controlling sirens.
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No overwath or return fire : Once you’re in melee, you have no way to “control” the enemy, finishing a turn is a ticket to hell.
I don’t see any good reason to go melee in the current state of the game.
Some improvements could ease their use :
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1 AP cost to hit
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Some kind of overwatch, hiting the enemies in close range, or lunging to intercept enemies in a given range (2 or 3 tiles away maybe ?)
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An ability to dash in/out of combat (specific to melee class, rather than the assault’s one)
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Better protection through specific gear or skills.
What are your thoughts, other than that?
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Yes, melee should have a overwatch feature I noticed it missing from my options on first use. Another item to go on Snapshots ‘things to do’ list.
I would add a ‘hide’ option for melee character which would reduced your visibility to some degree on end of turn,
Reading this suggestion the Bladestorm Perk from XCom comes to mind, everything that comes in Melee range or tries to attack while in melee range gets a whack with the Hammer. Would make Berserkers extremely lethal. For most of he lesser enemies you would hit them during your turn and your Berserker would finish the job the moment they try to retaliate or move away.
The beserker ulti makes it 1AP per hit, although waiting to get the ulti to make a character useful is BS. A Charge function for this class I think would work to both allow for getting your hit in, and leaving some AP left over to either take a second shot or get out of there.
In general shotgun is just better.
It seems that melee weapons were nerfed into the ground at some point (I didn’t play pre-release). I see no other explanation for so called advanced ones being all worse than Marduk’s hammer.
Funny thing is that Melee weapons don’t even synergyze with Berserker class all that well (while Heavy, Sniper rifles and Shotguns obtained from second class/extra skills do).
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Once multi classed in heavies the berserker is powerfull. Before that point i must recognize that it’s not really a powerhouse… Heavy bring +50% damage in close combat, a big gun for level 7 ability, warcry, powerfull grenades…
When ennemies are nearby go full speed behind a wall out of LOS and warcry. Next turn you should be able to record a kill and proabbly go back in cover.
It work best on map with lots of walls like jericho heavens or nests.
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I’d like to see a charge ability where you could move half your maximum distance AND attack for 2AP and perhaps 2WP. That would make them a lot more attractive.
I’m also confused as to why the “advanced” melee weapons are worse than the hammer. The armour piercing axe is 50 pierce plus 80 damage, which is still lower than the hammers 140, even against an enemy with 50+ armour. The sword is 100 damage +30 bleeding, which means the enemy has to last at least two more turns before the damage output surpasses the hammer. You don’t want your enemies to live past your current round if it can be avoided…
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Yeah I have not had much luck with a melee character. I had assumed the damage of the weapons would be greater and they are just not worth it. A shotgun at the same range is far more effective.
Either the damage needs to be upped more or the AP cost lowered(or maybe a move and attack action)
How to make melee characters insanely OP:
- Get lvl 2 and learn armor break (breaks 50 armor on the next shot)
- Get a melee character that has either heavy weapons proficiency, or multi class them into a heavy at lvl 4
- Build a grenade launcher
- Equip grenade launcher
- Fire grenade launcher after using armor break. Because it’s splash damage, that -50 armor applies to every body part. Bug? Dunno. But the enemies get some seriously silly mechanics, so we might as well have a few…
- Watch the armor on every single body part, melt away.
- Now you easily melt any enemy, even the worst ones, with your simple assault rifle
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What is your melee 2nd class path?
Currently I have a nice Infiltrator with CQC, Thief and Reckless perks.
Going with Berzerker I get the Armor Break skill.
Going with Heavy, I get the 50% Melee boost and the ultimate skill Rage Burst.
Your opinion?
Yesterday i leveld my Berserker up to lvl7 and there´s a really nice perk to get: immunity to panic and mind control ! That comes in hany, when you need to kill those bs sirens…i like my front soldiere, even if his damage output may be not the best of all classes, he can be a very dangerous threat !
While certainly fun, dualling a zerker into a heavy and giving him a grenade launcher is hardly a melee option is it?
You are definitely doing something wrong. My berserkers literally 1 shot everything except chirons. They 1 shot sirens and are immune to mind control. Pretty good counter to them actually when played correctly.
Maybe you should see this? It can even kill all monsters except giant monsters in one round
I agree that in it’s current form melee toons are useless. The combination of vulnerability that comes from being so close combined with the lack of effective damage (no way to one shot, no way to chose a target) means that your character is a sitting duck.
I did have one Melee character that was modestly effective, because he had the close combat and extra damage traits, so one thump from his hammer was enough to take out fellow humans on haven raids, albeit not nearly enough to take out a levelled up arthon.