A discussion on Melee combat

[hazzor]

I'm interested in the use of melee combat in stead of the standard UA race that everyone's familiar with, are any combat vets willing to share some secrets about the lost art of melee combat fighting

Or just general tips or thoughts on the matter

[TeckXKnight]

i hear sting is quite good

User was warned for this post.

[hazzor]

i hear sting is quite good

... thanks

[Facekillz058]

My advice, use both.
You need UA if you want any defense with any manuvers other than Sheild.
Its also much faster to tear down defense with punches, rather than fists.
But fists cant hit for over 500 Base Damage, which is why i always carry a sword.
Use punches to tear down defense, then stab, unless they have shit tons of good armor, then, your stings will probably bounce off.

[hazzor]

My advice, use both.
You need UA if you want any defense with any manuvers other than Sheild.
Its also much faster to tear down defense with punches, rather than fists.
But fists cant hit for over 500 Base Damage, which is why i always carry a sword.
Use punches to tear down defense, then stab, unless they have shit tons of good armor, then, your stings will probably bounce off.

i understand that method but the one you're talking about is the UA build that everyone builds, it's boring as hell, flexflexflexflexflex punch, and slide when you need to, sure you can shuffle things around a bit with maneuvers, dancing between DoG, oak, bloodlust to keep your bars up and get some IP on the side for the odd opp knocks, when i was using a ua character i would be a dick in spars throwing sand all over the place and throwing in an evil eye once in a while but builds with almost entirely MC do work, i know that much for a fact, and they sound a hell of a lot more fun than the UA styles that everyone fights

[dagrimreefah]

What I gather, you will need less MC to defend yourself since the weight of shield is 1.25 or 1.5 (something like that, more than 1 for sure), where the weight of dodge is just 1. That's a plus.

[hazzor]

What I gather, you will need less MC to defend yourself since the weight of shield is 1.25 or 1.5 (something like that, more than 1 for sure), where the weight of dodge is just 1. That's a plus.

that's one of the reasons i'm going for this, with people floating around 1k ua, kinda need that advantage

[bitza]

it's been a long time since i played but i might be able to add a couple of relevant thoughts here, feel free to correct/add info if any of this is no longer relevant:

1. a pure melee build is literally defenseless without sword AND shield. no going out without them. this means no traveler sacks, no ranged weapons, etc in hand at any time. if you're on your farm with a scythe, or in a cave with a pickaxe, you are defenseless.
2. melee fighters are more affected by the opponent's armor quality. this means that going up against someone from a more industrious/resource rich village can become a problem.
3. remember always that every attack costs at least 2 initiative. managing inits is even more important that in a fistfight because you don't want to lose your base 6.
4. gaining inits will be tougher too because death or glory with 1 UA is not worth doing. i would always alternate between charge and dash to hit the sweet spot between cooldown times and defense bar loss.
5. remember that you can no longer rely on death or glory, oak stance, or bloodlust. there's not much point to coming off of the shield manuever although it's possible that combat meditation could be useful. with valorious strike you can reset the advantage scale any time, if you can afford an extra 6 inits.
6. shield weight is 1.25 meaning you have a "longer" defense bar vs. dodge for the same amount of invested LP
7. i still think the UA/melee hybrid build is superior, even if you go heavy on melee for shield, your opponent is using those UA manuevers and getting more init/def/atk action in the same amount of time.

[HarryDresden]

Parity is the way to go. An even 500 UA and Melee can be used in deadly combination if you do it right, especially with a shield.

[Patchouli_Knowledge]

with valorious strike you can reset the advantage scale any time, if you can afford an extra 6 inits.

I honestly wouldn't recommend using valorous strike as an advantage resetter since it has an atrocious cooldown that your opponent start attacking you and bring down your defense and you cannot slide to restore it because you have no attack.