MELEE | Weapons and powers. Your take on Melee Combat.

I used different melee weapons for diff playthroughs.  Krogan hammer's the most powerful but its slow.  I cant get use to the asari sword warping movement.  Tried the Remnent Cryo gauntlet, nice freezing move but damage is way too low so if you are swamped it doesnt do much.  So I am back to basics with my omniblade.  lacks power but its fast and accurate. Good for vanguards, after a charge and nova, a fast, accurate melee weapon could mop up the left overs.  Have not tried the biotic amp though, has the same damage as the omniblade so I didnt bother.  Is it any good?

To be brutally honest, I really didn't like ANY of the melee weapons.  Wasn't really happy with the majority of weapons in general, even with different skill/profile combinations.  However, I loved the aerial melee attack.  I have used that on several occasions and it works well with a variety of builds regardless of what melee weapon you've chosen (at least from my playthroughs).

To be fair though, I'll be trying more melee on my current NG+ run (once they fix the special items carry over bug so I can actually play NG+).  Maybe I'll have a different opinion then.

For me melee is efficient, after a biotic charge and nova, the enemy's hit points should be pretty low, so 1 poke or 2 with a melee weapon should do it, no ammo spent and you dont have to aim.

That makes sense.  Charge is not something I've used in my builds yet.  I REALLY like the, I think it's Explorer?, profile that lets you warp through solid objects.  I'd like to try that with Charge or Nova, then I might have a better opinion of melee.

Excellent points.

LOL this is my 4th playthrough, I played an infiltrator during my first 3, so this time round I am playing vanguard and forcing myself not to select from the tech tree...  Still carry a sniper rifle for those architect fights though...  I have to say Adepts are hard to use, good for low level crowd control(love throwing a singularity onto one of those guys jumping down from a shuttle... but it's gonna be tough to take down one of those huge nasty ones...

i love vanguards, did that first this time (as i usually do). see a tight group of kett, charge, then nova right after, then run them through with my blade. usually i can kill the lot of em before they even finish getting up. if not, every melee hit restores shields.

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@VitesseLumiere wrote:

To be brutally honest, I really didn't like ANY of the melee weapons.  Wasn't really happy with the majority of weapons in general, even with different skill/profile combinations.  However, I loved the aerial melee attack.  I have used that on several occasions and it works well with a variety of builds regardless of what melee weapon you've chosen (at least from my playthroughs).

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That's understandable. You said you didn't play the trilogy, so your melee expectations differed a lot. We mostly based ourselves from the last experience, but if you don't take into consideration you loved the game, melee in ME was always lousy, blunt and pretty much no fun. It was strong, but not really something that screamed: dynamic, fluid, control.

I think ME1 you simply elbowed your foe. Elbow strikes. ME2 it was like this omnistrike, with elbow strikes on fallen foes, or too close. ME 3 had that plus Strong Melee, when you held down the button.

MEA brought a really big improvement in comparison, however, I think it's still too rusty. 

Some suggestions on how some existing melee weapons could work and one additional, imho:

OMNITOOL

• Max Combo Hits: 3 (0,5 sec; 0,5 sec; 0,5 sec or 1,5 sec strong finisher)
• Strong Hit: Yes (unavoidable)
• Strong Finisher: Yes (unavoidable)
• Base Properties: High accuracy
• Weakness: Can be interrupted by average damage. Mild effectiveness against shields and armor
• Damage (1->5): 3
• Perk: identifies and prioritizes weak points after first hit

ASARI KATANA

• Max Combo Hits: 4 (0,5 sec; 1 sec; 1 sec; 0,5 or 1,5 sec strong finisher)
• Strong Hit: Yes (warps, dodges and strike)
• Strong Finisher: Yes (warps out of range, cutting the enemy through)
• Base Properties: Warps, dodges and close in distances. Can be used with dodge to hit multiple targets in line
• Weakness: Lower accuracy. Warping may make attack miss or pass through target. Mild effectiveness against shields and armor
• Damage: 4
• Perk: can cause critical strikes

VORCHA SCYTHE

• Max Combo Hits: 6 (all 0,3 s and 1 sec strong finisher)
• Strong Hit: No
• Strong Finisher: Yes (climb on enemy and strikes weak point. Enemy is immobilized for the duration)
• Base Properties: Quick strikes that don't lock up animations
• Weakness: Low damage. Mild effectiveness against shields. Low effectiveness against armor.
• Damage: 2
• Perk: Share consumable effects used on current weapons

A melee-oriented power:

BOLT BRAWLING (melee-oriented powers can work with or without melee weapons)

• LV 1: Improves by 2 the number of combo hits. Improves melee damage by 20% for the next 25 s. Nearby enemies can get chained with electrical discharges, being stunned for 1 s.
• MAXED OUT: Links combos up to additional 12 hits. Attacks are performed 30% faster. Improves melee damage by 75% for the next 35 s. Primes for detonations. Strong melees explode detonations and push enemies away. Nearby enemies can get chained with electrical discharges, being stunned for up to 3 s.