Any tips for fighting melee?

[Abomination72]

Constantly dodging attacks while fighting both takes ages and still hurts like crazy for every mistake you make. I really can't see myself ever getting a win with the blade.

All wins so far are when using purely ranged attacks and all melee attemps end up badly. Now that doesn't mean it's the game though. I'm generally bad at these types of games anyway.

Should I concentrate more on defensive boons over offensive? Will that have a noticable effect, considering it will take even longer to clear encounters?

[Paranoia]

My general melee advice is that good offense is the best defence: enemies can not retaliate if they are too dead to do anything.
Defensive options I mostly take if they come with high damage-output (Aphrodite), or I have health recovery in some form or another.

If you want to practice melee without committing, take Ares and do hit and runs. Not really optimal, but gets the job done.

And, yes, liberal use of dashing is pretty damn important. :b

[MADE IN IRON]

I’m bad at melee too, but I think Athena’s boons help a lot, specially the deflect that comes with the dash. If you have that blessing, you can keep swinging around smashing dash+attack, the boon will keep you safe, and at some point if you keep smashing buttons you have to hit something.
But don’t stand still and attack, keep dashing.
You can also try melee like the fists or the shield (fast attack speed) with Athena’s boon which allows you to parry when you base attack. Same thing, it keeps you safe to close the range with the enemy and hit it.
At least I found that useful, I wasn’t sure about melee either at first, but with the right boons every weapon is good.

I only pick one Athena’s boon, I don’t think you need to go that deffensive. And I don’t know how far are you unlocking the mirror, but at some point you’l find a passive that gives you more damage to enemies affected by two curses. I found that crucial, some curses are really easy to apply (Dionysius, Aphrodite, Demeter) and the extra damage helps a lot.

Anyway, most important while melee is dashing. Dash+attack is your way to go. If you find the hammer that gives you extra damage against armored enemies, don’t overlook it, because it will make things easier too.

[Quyzbuk]

Trigger control is the most important thing you'll need if you aren't massing dodge and/or deflect. Be patient when dashing that you don't attack and remove your i-frames when on top of a projectile or an enemy about to attack.

Keep forced overtime low or off while you get the hang of it.

[Abomination72]

Ok, that's some sound advice. Thanks to you all!

[Abomination72]

Ugh.. got much further with the twin fists thanks to your advice. Second phase of Hades. Just couldn't dodge his big swing attacks. Man, Melee is really hard.

Anyways.. thanks again, and back to more practice!

[Paranoia]

I recommend the Plume when using Fists. With enough aggression, one can rach 90%ish Dodge, which makes Dashing quite irrelevant, one can just outdamage Hades as long as one does not get hit by traps or stand in the laser.

[MaximumEffort]

Originally posted by Abomination72:

Ugh.. got much further with the twin fists thanks to your advice. Second phase of Hades. Just couldn't dodge his big swing attacks. Man, Melee is really hard.

Anyways.. thanks again, and back to more practice!

The swing attack is a b... The best way to avoid is run towards him as he goes for you, as that always every time means he will use a swing attack. Dodge twice and you will be out of his range.

[Abomination72]

Originally posted by MaximumEffort:

Originally posted by Abomination72:

Ugh.. got much further with the twin fists thanks to your advice. Second phase of Hades. Just couldn't dodge his big swing attacks. Man, Melee is really hard.

Anyways.. thanks again, and back to more practice!

The swing attack is a b... The best way to avoid is run towards him as he goes for you, as that always every time means he will use a swing attack. Dodge twice and you will be out of his range.

Getting the hang of it. Did another attempt with the fists and got him down.
Will definitely try that trick you mentioned next time.

[prod]

Id suggest looking into some builds for whatever aspect of the weapon your playing. Alot of the time you can make a cast build with the melees and it makes it almost impossible to lose the run once you have key boons. Although once you realize that there really isnt that much variety when making "meta builds" the game dulls so research at your own risk. If your really struggling no shame in god mode to get more consistant runs and get more practice vs hades.

[cleo !!]

It's kind of specific, but try Merciful End. With Ares on attack and Athena on special (to unlock the boon) and eventually dash (to be your ME trigger) you can get tons of damage out as well as already being in a state where you have lots of defense bc you're divine dashing through enemies. It gives you lots of control over your damage intervals and is the best way to make use of weapons that lack burst damage like unleveled fist aspects.

[Orb]

What the first dude said. For me the blade is one of the easier weapons when going full offense. I like using the 2nd sword which gives crit change after your special, then I try to get high damage special boons like Demeter or Athenes with the 2 hammers to increase special dmg or dash strike dmg. With a Dash like Athene (for defense) or Artemis (for insane dash strike dmg after using your special) and some dmg chaos boons you'll kill most of the enemies before they can even touch you.
I do mostly choose extra HP chambers with this for the boss fights since you will have to avoid damage here.