Who makes a good melee merc early game and late game?

[Muton]

Looking to build a melee merc.. From hiring in the beginning to late game.. Blood is out because I can't guarantee I'll fight frequent enough and he can leave at any time..Same with Fidel. I assume Agility is the most important and pick the melee perks?

[sandman25dcsss]

IMP and Ivan are the best.

[Muton]

ok.. I'll try that on my 2nd playthrough once I finish up my 1st

[AlliedMastercomputer]

Agility, Strength, and Dexterity are important.

Agility is absolutely required because you need tons of mobility. Without it, your melee merc would be almost useless. At least 70 is critical, and I think you can naturally train more as you play.
Strength affects melee damage, and allows getting damage boosting perks.
Dexterity affects chance to hit, although I don't think you need any perks from it.

Oh, and it would be great to have at least 70 health for grit perk.

[Noobiecanoobie]

Check out Hexxat's guide here:

Best melee build in Jagged Alliance 3 | Full Build Guide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NZLZI_Oixk

[Trolleur_Durden]

Melee isn't really viable out of the box, you need a few perks to really make it work, at least the one giving you free movement after a melee attack, so you can at least reach some cover.

As others have said, Ivan has the biggest melee potential late game thanks to his unique perk, but he will also need a few Agi/Str perks and levels to be able to reliably oneshot enemies with an unaimed machete strike and basically get close to unlimited AP. Which means that he's a little bit "win-more" overall, in other words subpar in melee early and overkill late. But if you aren't against using ranged weapons with him, there is really no issues.

For me, the most consistent melee merc is Blood. His unique perk gives him some very needed mobility right from the start in order to close the distance to his targets and he can use his knives in melee early game. Dr Q is also decent in melee.

[Trolleur_Durden]

I'll also add that Hexxat's melee build is subpar imo, the idea of taking Grit in order to trade blows is suicidal on higher difficulties against shooting enemies.

[Noobiecanoobie]

Originally posted by Trolleur_Durden:

I'll also add that Hexxat's melee build is subpar imo, the idea of taking Grit in order to trade blows is suicidal on higher difficulties against shooting enemies.

With that build, he demonstrates clearing a boss level solo on mission impossible difficulty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ror94Rxkt3Q

[AlliedMastercomputer]

It seems that high-level and well-trained melee merc can kill one guy per hit (guaranteed crit + bonus damage for changing target + head target). With sharpened combat knife and Ivan's unique talent, you can kill any number of enemies in single turn, unless there is large distance between some of them.

[Trolleur_Durden]

Originally posted by Noobiecanoobie:

Originally posted by Trolleur_Durden:

I'll also add that Hexxat's melee build is subpar imo, the idea of taking Grit in order to trade blows is suicidal on higher difficulties against shooting enemies.

With that build, he demonstrates clearing a boss level solo on mission impossible difficulty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ror94Rxkt3Q

I said subpar, not bad. Also, he's clearing Corazon's bunker, a level with lots of covers and enemies with an unusual passive behavior, who wait for you instead of trying to overrun you. And still, he gets wounded. I'd like to see him try to take down the Major and save the President with that build.

[Trolleur_Durden]

Originally posted by AlliedMastercomputer:

It seems that high-level and well-trained melee merc can kill one guy per hit (guaranteed crit + bonus damage for changing target + head target). With sharpened combat knife and Ivan's unique talent, you can kill any number of enemies in single turn, unless there is large distance between some of them.

It's only true with unaimed neck attacks, which costs 3 AP. But those don't have 100% hit chance, which means that sometimes, Ivan will miss and waste 3 AP, meaning you can't really kill indefinitely. But it's still very impressive nonetheless.

A more "grounded" melee build can reliably reach and kill 5 targets in a row, no matter how resilient they are, then go back into cover, which is still incredibly strong.

[Stargoat]

I like Mouse as a melee specialist, as her absolutely insane AP and immunity against enemy overwatch areas lets her move half way across the map when getting stabby.

Her low strength means she's more or less limited to using knives rather than machetes, and the obvious unavailability of the strength-based melee perks. Strength can be trained in, but I haven't found it necessary so far. On my current run, Mouse has racked up the most kills by a good margin.

[Redmcdevil]

Igor is cool and cheap. His special works well early but around level 5-6 become useless. So not that max like uncle. But still you spec him how you want. Work well if you want Kalyna in your squad.

[Muton]

Kalyna? She's useless

[Ragnar Caesar]

Originally posted by Muton:

Kalyna? She's useless

No, she is a good and cheap mechanic. Actual in my party. Good sniper too (comes with a rifle), but not for melee. Best early melee fighter is Blood, even in endgame.

Since JA2 my starting party are Fox, Blood and Hitman.

[Farewell]

Nails is VERY strong for melee builds.