Combat knife and melee speed in general

[NoSignal-K]

Anyone else struggle with the combat knife on the vanguard class? Every now and then I get kind of surrounded while focusing on a majoris. So what ends up happening is that I face the majoris and a bunch of minors just chip away at my armor/health from behind. The chainsword is just more useful in my opinion, as you can stomp every now and then or just turn around for a quick swipe and refocus the majoris.
How do you make the combat knife work on the vanguard? Better positioning? Any tips? Any quick combos that do decent AOE dmg?

And, whats up with the speed change for the weapon types? Why does balanced chansword drop from 4 speed to 1 speed all of the sudden? The 1 speed is unplayable, feels way to clunky.

[Harukage]

First of all use perk that gives you better parry timing and combine it with balance knife. You will have more dps by far while having comfortable parry window.
Next one is you need to parry small gaunts when surrounded to knock them away. Easy thing to do.
The best tip is to use perk that makes enemy to take more ranged damage after you grapple at them. Jump on majoris, make few quick headshot bursts with Instigator and finish with your knife. That way you can kill Tyranid warriors and thin tyranid swarms very fast.

[NoSignal-K]

Originally posted by Harukage:

First of all use perk that gives you better parry timing and combine it with balance knife. You will have more dps by far while having comfortable parry window.
Next one is you need to parry small gaunts when surrounded to knock them away. Easy thing to do.
The best tip is to use perk that makes enemy to take more ranged damage after you grapple at them. Jump on majoris, make few quick headshot bursts with Instigator and finish with your knife. That way you can kill Tyranid warriors and thin tyranid swarms very fast.

I'm only at the purple tier but parrying isn't a problem for me, I have the parry window perk and the purple fencing version at the moment. Really want to get into relic before deciding if the combat knife is worth it. But it's a pain leveling it...
Like I said, my problem is with the small enemies attacking me in the back while I focus on a majoris or something big. Not like 1 or 2 behind me but like a bunch of them. So parrying something from behind without indication is not an option.
I guess my problem is positioning or just jumping into large groups.

Do you usually use the heavy combos or the normal combos when you want to down a majoris quickly and move on?

[Medicles]

What do you mean with parrying something from behind without indication is not an option? I did it everytime. Now i am not sure if that is still possible, i red that parrying got changed and we cant just parry stuff from behind anymore, but it was super easy to do before. It was even easier by simply adjusting the camera to the side, so you can see when Gaunts were attacking, but you could have done it just by randomly parrying when several Gaunts attack, you would have gotten one parry at the very least and thats enough for aoe.

[Harukage]

They reduced the knockback raduis on fencing parry. There was also a bug with fencing weapons having like 0 frames perfect parry window, but it was just fixed afaik.
And now this brings us to balance/fencing choice on knife. Top tier fencing knife has slightly higher damage per strike, but abysmal atack speed. Meaning top tier balance knife has way better dps. Now with fencing knockback aoe reduced there is even less reason to use it on Vanguard.
And yes, very mich like Medicles had said above it is very easy to parry gaunts atacks from behind. It just takes a bit of practice with camera positioning.
Heavy atacks... it is usualy best tpo use on trash to get that qucik gun strike to restore armor. But there is not much sense in using them on single majoris target

[NoSignal-K]

Originally posted by Medicles:

What do you mean with parrying something from behind without indication is not an option? I did it everytime. Now i am not sure if that is still possible, i red that parrying got changed and we cant just parry stuff from behind anymore, but it was super easy to do before. It was even easier by simply adjusting the camera to the side, so you can see when Gaunts were attacking, but you could have done it just by randomly parrying when several Gaunts attack, you would have gotten one parry at the very least and thats enough for aoe.

The first answer talked about just parrying Gaunts, but as they are attacking me in the back and small enemies don't give a parry indication, it's not an option.
To clarify, I'm strictly talking about small enemies attacking me in the back while I focus on something bigger like a majoris.

[NoSignal-K]

Originally posted by Harukage:

They reduced the knockback raduis on fencing parry. There was also a bug with fencing weapons having like 0 frames perfect parry window, but it was just fixed afaik.
And now this brings us to balance/fencing choice on knife. Top tier fencing knife has slightly higher damage per strike, but abysmal atack speed. Meaning top tier balance knife has way better dps. Now with fencing knockback aoe reduced there is even less reason to use it on Vanguard.
And yes, very mich like Medicles had said above it is very easy to parry gaunts atacks from behind. It just takes a bit of practice with camera positioning.
Heavy atacks... it is usualy best tpo use on trash to get that qucik gun strike to restore armor. But there is not much sense in using them on single majoris target

Thx, I will try adjusting the camera angle

[Harukage]

You do know that you can parry all atacks, right? Even the ones without indicator. It just shows big atacks.

[NoSignal-K]

Originally posted by Harukage:

You do know that you can parry all atacks, right? Even the ones without indicator. It just shows big atacks.

Yeah, but I can't parry what I don't see, right? I'm not talking about the small gaunt jump btw. just their normal attacks chipping away at my armor/health from behind.

[Medicles]

Originally posted by NoSignal-K:

The first answer talked about just parrying Gaunts, but as they are attacking me in the back and small enemies don't give a parry indication, it's not an option.
To clarify, I'm strictly talking about small enemies attacking me in the back while I focus on something bigger like a majoris.

I know what you are talking about, we both know what you are talking about. And we both gave you the answer to it. It is an option (at least it was if parrying stuff coming from behind isnt possible anymore).

Also, there is indeed an indication to when a gaunt attacks you, even if it doesnt have a blue glow.

And yes, you can also parry stuff you cant see. But luckily you are able to move the camera, like i said before, so you can also see when gaunts attack you with their standard attacks and not the blue glow jump.

[Voldo]

You can actually, if you perfect your craft you become a ninja. I only play Vanguard with that playstyle basically.

Blood of Vossus(balance) Combat Knife, perk tree 7 top 1 buttom,
improved perfect parry or block window class perk(Duellist) = Absolute Melee Madness.

After the overall damage buffs for melee in 5.0 you should be even stronger and with the assault the strongest melee brawler.
You can even go for "block" if you can make it work, but i still think the parry,gunstrike and swing playstyle is superior .

[NoSignal-K]

Originally posted by Medicles:

Originally posted by NoSignal-K:

The first answer talked about just parrying Gaunts, but as they are attacking me in the back and small enemies don't give a parry indication, it's not an option.
To clarify, I'm strictly talking about small enemies attacking me in the back while I focus on something bigger like a majoris.

I know what you are talking about, we both know what you are talking about. And we both gave you the answer to it. It is an option (at least it was if parrying stuff coming from behind isnt possible anymore).

Also, there is indeed an indication to when a gaunt attacks you, even if it doesnt have a blue glow.

And yes, you can also parry stuff you cant see. But luckily you are able to move the camera, like i said before, so you can also see when gaunts attack you with their standard attacks and not the blue glow jump.

And what indication would that be? Honestly I havent noticed anything. Sound cue?
Bruh, I already said I will try to adjust the camera. Get off your high horse man.

[Sloths]

Originally posted by Voldo:

You can actually, if you perfect your craft you become a ninja. I only play Vanguard with that playstyle basically.

Blood of Vossus(balance) Combat Knife, perk tree 7 top 1 buttom,
improved perfect parry or block window class perk(Duellist) = Absolute Melee Madness.

That is some good info. I haven't used combat knife so much but wanted to try it. I'm too hooked on the blocking hammer for assault right now, but when I switch to vanguard will pick it up. The balance combat knife speed stat looks really high and that makes it a tempting choice to pick.
My assault blocking hammer for hulk smash play style and vanguard for dueling quick ninja style.

[Medicles]

Originally posted by NoSignal-K:

And what indication would that be? Honestly I havent noticed anything. Sound cue?
Bruh, I already said I will try to adjust the camera. Get off your high horse man.

What high horse? Why are you getting offended by a simple comment? There is no insult, no sarcasm, simply just information.

But if you want to play this way, then figure it out yourself, noob.

[NoSignal-K]

Originally posted by Medicles:

Originally posted by NoSignal-K:

And what indication would that be? Honestly I havent noticed anything. Sound cue?
Bruh, I already said I will try to adjust the camera. Get off your high horse man.

What high horse? Why are you getting offended by a simple comment? There is no insult, no sarcasm, simply just information.

But if you want to play this way, then figure it out yourself, noob.

Because I already said I will adjust the camera and you go on and on about that which I have already accepted. Go away little mad man.

[Medicles]

Originally posted by NoSignal-K:

Because I already said I will adjust the camera and you go on and on about that which I have already accepted. Go away little mad man.

And thats why you are getting overly aggressive because i simply said "like i said"? Gratulations man, you should not play videogames but rather start working to get yourself a thicker hide.