Anyway to make melee not bad or am I just bad?

[Thricycle]

I think the melee is super fun but wow it feels super hard compared to just using a random tier 1 pistol for every fight.

I have my character setup with perks and cyberware to benefit being a melee monster and it just feels like I have to sit behind objects every fight and ricochet their bullets back at them the whole time because as soon as I jump in to attack I instantly die.

Its especially annoying when I pick up some random tier 1 pistol off the ground and am immediately more effective and deal more damage with this terrible pistol that I have no cyberware/perks for. Not sure If i'm just missing something in terms of build to make this viable but right now the only strategy is to just sit behind something and ricochet bullets because otherwise I just die in 2-4 bullets. Last time I played ~6 months ago I played on VH and found the game super easy with guns, but right now honestly on just hard it feels a bit too difficult. I don't really see what else I can do in terms of what I'm doing in game.

Are there any cyberware/perks that are a must have to make these builds strong? Maybe i'm missing something

[Millz]

If you’re running a full fledged melee build, I’d recommend body and reflexes- reflexes for movement & blade upgrades and body for health, as well as finding a suitable sander stain for your build. If you’re playing on very hard, my advice is to NOT play on very hard

[Thricycle]

Originally posted by Skywalker |:

If you’re running a full fledged melee build, I’d recommend body and reflexes- reflexes for movement & blade upgrades and body for health, as well as finding a suitable sander stain for your build. If you’re playing on very hard, my advice is to NOT play on very hard

Only playing on hard at the moment, Might try going into body a bit for the HP, as tbh I think this could work if i was super tanky

[Nooneyouknow]

Blunt and blades are ridiculously strong once you have finishers unlocked. As for cyberware, dense marrow and microrotos do add quite a bit of power, but it's mostly down to perks.

You're always going to die fast early on on very hard. If you want to commit to melee from the start, you'll need to make use of reboot optics quick hack, and flashbang grenades as well as weaving in and out of cover.

[Zylo the Wolfbane]

I had a bunch of fun running around beating people into a pulp with a heavy Body/Tech focused build that ran the Adrenaline and Blunt damage trees from Body, spent some points upgrading my health items in Tech, and then getting heavy into Cyberware. Once you're deep enough you basically feel immortal, and can bludgeon your way through entire mobs.

Also the Blunt tree's Finisher skill also lets you lift dudes up over your head and HURL them around, giving you a 'ranged' option on your melee character, and making for some hilarious moments.

[Holden Madickey]

Invest bigtime into armor and mitigation wherever you can. Grab every health regen perk you can and keep the health items flowing. The first tier of Reflexes upgrades lets you lower your chance of getting hit while you're sprinting and dodging.

Berserk and Sandevistan can both help you out hugely - Berserk gives you a huge buffer of damage soaking and gives you health back for everyone you neutralize while you're 'zerking out, and slowing down time will never not be good.

Grenades are great for softening enemies up or disabling their cyberware. Dodge every chance you get.

Also, at the highest difficulty with the new armor system, you're gonna get flatlined way more often in the early game. So don't feel bad if you've gotta rely way more on guns at first, then dip back into melee once you've got enough cash and cyberware capacity to really kit yourself out.

[Droolguy]

Originally posted by Zylo the Wolfbane:

I had a bunch of fun running around beating people into a pulp with a heavy Body/Tech focused build that ran the Adrenaline and Blunt damage trees from Body, spent some points upgrading my health items in Tech, and then getting heavy into Cyberware. Once you're deep enough you basically feel immortal, and can bludgeon your way through entire mobs.

Also the Blunt tree's Finisher skill also lets you lift dudes up over your head and HURL them around, giving you a 'ranged' option on your melee character, and making for some hilarious moments.

This is how I built my Very Hard melee character.

Don't listen to people telling you it's Body and Reflexes.

It's one or the other, never both, depending on the kind of melee you want to do, and then dumping into survival cyber.

Body is easier because it comes with free health and regen which Reflexes does not.

Body also has a lot easier access to hard CC's like knockdown and stagger to keep things from shooting you.

[Meowser has not]

blades are broken once you spec for them

[KitKat]

In my experience, the situation is exactly the opposite.

Guns - no matter which - are extremely underwhelming. Especially ARs/SMGs - those are just the worst, while pistols/precision/snipers at least usually have some damage output.

Yet melee(katana/mantis blades) and - to an extent - throwing knives are borderline OP and make me feel like an absolute god, especially with sandevistan(or whatever it's spelled). Like... Why dump 1.5 to 2 full mags in the guy's face in hopes he dies... If i can just slash him to bits in a blink of an eye before he can even pull out that gun of his in the first place? Or one-shot him and his friends while juggling thee knives one after another.

[Seizure Storm]

Gorilla arms build gets boosted especially if you combine with INT (for either the spread disable strat or just as a second health source with overclock abuse)

[Deklend]

Originally posted by KitKat:

In my experience, the situation is exactly the opposite.

Guns - no matter which - are extremely underwhelming. Especially ARs/SMGs - those are just the worst, while pistols/precision/snipers at least usually have some damage output.

Yet melee(katana/mantis blades) and - to an extent - throwing knives are borderline OP and make me feel like an absolute god, especially with sandevistan(or whatever it's spelled). Like... Why dump 1.5 to 2 full mags in the guy's face in hopes he dies... If i can just slash him to bits in a blink of an eye before he can even pull out that gun of his in the first place? Or one-shot him and his friends while juggling thee knives one after another.

Been my experience as well on very hard. Seriously, been testing different builds on my current character at level 16, and regular mobs take 2 head shots(one of which is a sneak attack) with a tier 3+ power sniper rifle while skull level mobs are taking 4 to 5 head shots. It's about the same amount of hits with a katana...but the katana doesn't take time to chamber the next round so you aren't a sitting duck while waiting for the next shot.

I get things are supposed to be more difficult at very hard, but bullet sponges ain't on, CDPR. I only have 13 perk points to mess around with currently due to how the reworked perks translated over, but even on very hard and unspecced a sniper rifle should take out normies in 1 shot, while skull levels should be 2, 3 max if they're aware of you and you can't get the initial sneak shot.

[★REM★]

Body and reflexes Katana (dump remaining points in cool) is absolutely OP

[tadleszcz]

What difficulty are ye on? I'm playing on hard with 20 reflexes with the blades and dash tree fully upgraded and 20 technical ability with most of the cyberware perks (for nearly 700 armour) and I'm pretty much unkillable with a katana due to the finishers and passive health regen, while my legendary guns do absolutely NOTHING to enemies and pretty much the second I attempt ranged combat I die.

[Luisteraar]

Hey, I also tried out melee in 2.0 and I must say I'm having an absolute blast chopping peoples limbs with a katana. I'm playing on Hard difficulty and the key to not dying is basically just know how to use your health items wisely, and to stack as many armor and melee damage cyberware as much as possible. Stamina is also very important as it can affect your attack speed and your opportunity to dodge/dash out from enemy's line of fire. ALWAYS have a gun in your weapon slot just in case you can't reach high ground enemies. A couple of perks that can make the game easy mode with melee is to take the finisher perk with the upgrade range perk, dash and air dash perks, and the perk that gains you health when you perform a finisher.

[It´sAllAimAssist]

Finished the entire game on very hard.
first of all if melee you probably want to rush for the finishers and movement abilities in reflex tree.
secondly, I found the game the most fun and most balanced when I was not afraid to use any tools I had on conjunction with my chosen play style.
in my build that was quickhacks, throwing blades and melee. throwing blades are op and also much fun esp with the finisher. my next run will be nethacks and throwing blades and nothing else even equipped.

but in ANY build, you have grenades regardless, use them , the explosive ones knock enemies down ,both giving you time to run up and whack and also takes some damage of you for awhile.
And also healing abilities like finishers etc. adrenaline from body.
there are encounters where I doubt any build could just stand and tank while chopping away.
I think harder diffs are designed around bursts.
you have the implant that makes you immortal for X sec,where you could run in and chop away, or sandevistan giving you x time in slomo.
Or nethack where you dump all your ram to take out the bigger threats and do some crowd control THEN you rush in an take out people in melee etc.

but IDK I never tried just stacking armour so maybe it´s possible to stack it so hard you can just stand there and swing if that´s what you want. with about 500 armor I went down instantly if i ran out into the open on very hard though.

after 2.0 some regular enemies can tank a magazine from a shotty but they die from a throwing knife to the face.

[UwUxXxRaWrXxXxD4206969XxXxUwUxXx]

tldr the rest of the posts.

gotta build into melee and speed imo (pretty sure the reflex skill does both). dlc or 2.0 update (idr which) adds some neat stuff to melee like deflecting bullets during sandevistan just gotta main it or its meh.

if you REALLY want to hit hard with melee and dont mind swinging slow theres a hammer you get during a main story mission that does like 164 dmg per swing but its kinda slow.