Advanced Melee Tips

[Baron]

Played through countless times, my favourite by far is fast paced melee, without pistol upgrades or bend time because that makes the game too easy.

To initiate a fencing contest - Do a slide attack against someone aiming a pistol.

Works pretty reliably with a little timing practice. This is useful because enemies won't melee attack you while your blades are locked, so you can get an idea of your surroundings. It also will also stagger the target, which if done right will actually save you time. Especially on Overseers, who are knocked down.

Slide attacks are also useful against the leap attack of guardsmen (blade only) - you will duck their swing and slide through them, using the momentum to kill them in a smooth motion without missing a beat. Launch yours just as they do theirs.

They are also effective because its much less likely you'll be shot while in a slide. Can take advantage of a lot of cover this way.

Footwork&Positioning. Always sprint in combat and move in a circle around your target as you attack. Eventually your swings will land behind them and you'll overcome their guard. With the whirlwind bone charm this happens almost immediately. It will also delay pistol shots because with a little practice, you'll be able to use the circling to put enemies between you and aiming gunmen, either preventing their shot or making them kill their teammate. Circling is also important because the majority of attacks by unit types, they arent moving during it. So it only hits you if you stay still. Don't let yourself get surrounded, you always want to keep yourself with melee targets between you and ranged units.

PS: Circling with Whirlwind II makes you pretty much immune to weepers because your swing range is longer than their plague range. Attack continuously while strafing away to make a wall of sword attacks that they cant walk through. Its that easy.

Agility: At rank 1, you can initiate a falling kill just by jumping, completely bypassing parry. You can also use it to jump over the hound's leap attack. This is powerful with Falling star and Raven because the minimal mana you use with melee heavy builds, and the minor damage you take from fast paced combat, are recovered as you fight. Combine agility with blink to instakill a Tallboy easily. At rank 2, you can use sprint to dodge leaping attacks easily and increase the range on slide attacks, and your circling will overcome their guard faster.

Adrenaline: At 1 its only really useful because when you have adrenaline full you do instakills more often, even without using the ability. But rank 2 is easily a kill of 4-5 enemies because you can shoot while doing your attack, and your move that tops off your adrenaline is also an instakill. So your sword swings twice and can be aimed to kill two if you are moving during it, and you fire at other enemies behind them during the sword attacks. And it makes killing tallboys very easy.

[Baron]

Crossbow: You can time a crossbow shot at close range just as you swing your sword to make it an unblockable instakill, and if you have any experience with first person shooters, have a good chance of being able to zoom and shoot an aiming pistol user while meleeing someone else, before their shot goes off. To do this, position the melee target between you and the pistol target. This will delay their shot. Then slide into the melee target to stagger them, and, using the staggered melee target as a shield, zoom in and shoot the pistol user. It doesn't have to be a headshot because you will be able to kill the staggered melee target before they recover if you're fast enough.

Blink: When fighting hounds and bottlestreet gang, keep blink up as the secondary. The second they start a leap or fire attack, blind behind them. Can dodge it 100% of the time, and then attack from behind. This can also be used to dodge a pistol user.

Grenade overseers: They are actually really low priority for targeting, because if you keep a little distance from them they throw a grenade at you, and everyone you're fighting backs up. This is perfect because you just pick up the grenade and chuck it at whoever has a pistol to interrupt their shot and kill everyone near them, without using ammo.

And last but not least: Parry- Keep parry up only when you have a lot of enemies close by behind you, and turn as they get close. Otherwise parry just before the enemy attacks. Even if you dont have time to kill them, the stun is helpful.

[JolyJew СлаваУкраине]

post it in the guies section. its pretty cool, but i think the enemies are far too simple for this guide it's easy to kill enemie simply by block and counter attack most of the time

[Jimboboiii]

If you have a group of enemies that you want to use Adrenaline Rush on, block their attacks, blocking gives you adrenaline, maybe block a few attacks and drop assassinate one if you can then kill the rest with adrenaline.