What happened to melee mode and how do I manually block?

[Bombad Jedi]

The last time I played Warframe was in 2018 and after watching Tennocon; it got me back into Warframe... Alot of things have changed and I can't figure out how to use melee mode anymore or how to manually block in keybinds. When I quick melee now it leaves my melee equipped but all I can do is quick melee and it randomly blocks by itself.

[Monarch]

Quick melee now automatically switch you to full melee.
Right click, will switch you back to range. It's seamless.

Also no more manual block, it's automatic block / parry. But you need to face the appropriate direction.

[Kawalorn]

The weapon now has it's full moveset available without needing to equip it in hand first (if you have stance mod installed).

Just by having your melee weapon out it will automatically block all attacks coming from front. You can't block manually unless you unequip all guns.

[Bombad Jedi]

Originally posted by Kawalorn:

The weapon now has it's full moveset available without needing to equip it in hand first (if you have stance mod installed).

Just by having your melee weapon out it will automatically block all attacks coming from front. You can't block manually unless you unequip all guns.

Ahh I dont know how I feel about this yet... I guess Im just going to have to give it a chance

[Hikari]

With the death of manual block, Guardian Derision is no more.

[Pakaku]

Manual blocking is only dead for the moment, but the melee rework is not finished, so we might see some fixes or revertions sooner or later

If you don't like spamming quick-melee, there's a setting (Melee with Fire Weapon Input) that allows you to keep attacking with your primary fire key, but you still have to quick-melee at least once to switch to it

[Emerald Kithkin]

You can still manual block, but you have to run into a mission with melee only to accomplish it. It's troublesome if you jump around a lot though, because if you're shot at while in the air the auto-block will pull you into aim-glide, which can cause you to miss where you were headed. Melee 3.0 isn't fully implemented yet, so hopefully the rest of it will help with some of these quirks.

[MasterManiac]

This junk is why I quit the game. Ugh.

I truly do marvel at the incredible stupidity that lead to the development of this braindead melee mechanic. They've somehow managed to make the gameplay even *more* sedate.

[MasterManiac]

Remember how people complained that Memeing Strike made the game look silly because all people ever did was slide-spin-slice their way through entire missions? Now everyone does jump-groundpounds over and over again like a bunch of rubber balls. At least the constant spin-attacks *looked* cool.

Melee used to be a big focus. If you were like me, you would ignore the spin-attack nonsense and do silly, non-optimal stuff like parries, combos, and such. Now you're just a ground-pounding damage-pulsing DPS machine with basic hit strings you'll probably never use, because endless ground-pounding is just so much more effective. No thought at all.

I keep coming back here in the hopes that they've unborked this stupid melee system, but no. Guess not.

[Zorlond]

Originally posted by MasterManiac:

Now everyone does jump-groundpounds over and over again like a bunch of rubber balls.

I am very much in favor of constant meteor strikes, particularly with Fist weapons. Heck, it's so tight now that I can jump-melee almost simultaneously, resulting in simply punching the ground I'm standing on. A quick Finisher on a high-value target, then get back to shooting.

[MasterManiac]

Originally posted by Zorlond:

Originally posted by MasterManiac:

Now everyone does jump-groundpounds over and over again like a bunch of rubber balls.

I am very much in favor of constant meteor strikes, particularly with Fist weapons. Heck, it's so tight now that I can jump-melee almost simultaneously, resulting in simply punching the ground I'm standing on. A quick Finisher on a high-value target, then get back to shooting.

Yup, that's pretty much what melee as a whole has been reduced to. If people are okay with that, more power to 'em. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels the shooting is subpar, and therefore without the focused melee, there's very little for Warframe to offer gameplay-wise.

I enjoyed my time with the game, but so long as it trends towards reimagining itself as a MOBA, I'm just not interested.

[Lunacy]

Think you miiiight be able to manual block if you don't have a primary or secondary equipped.

I didn't like melee mode and would just use the quick attacks anyways. Only reason to pull out melee was to try doing some melee combos or if you actually ran out of ammo.
The only downside is now my darksplit sword is forced to combo and can't kill as fast as it used to, as its non-combo quick attacks were its most superior attacks.

[DLOZanma]

MasterManiac, stop implying that anyone ever used block and parries outside 10 or so people. No one uses groundslams either and spin to win is still the #1 melee attack method in the game. And the past quick melee spam didn't require any though either. Now you have to actually learn the combos to do damage optimally.

[MasterManiac]

Originally posted by DLOZanma:

Now you have to actually learn the combos to do damage optimally.

...Or you could just, y'know, ground-pound constantly. Yeah. You could do that, too.

That "quick melee spam" you refer to actually made the game much more interesting. Many melee weapons felt quite different when wielded in "quick melee" mode, which allowed for greater variety *and* utility. Take the fire whip for example. Yeah, I forgot the exact name, because I haven't played for months. When in quick melee, it functioned as a fast, short-range slashing weapon. With a stance equipped, in melee mode you got broad, flowing whip-lashes, entirely changing the dynamics of the weapon. It was fun, and engaging, switching dynamically between the two at will.

Simply put, you had a much more interesting variety of options available at your disposal. The synergy between quick melee and equipped-melee made certain weapons very interesting to use, and fun to build styles around.

Now it's canned hit strings and ground-pounds. And that's an "improvement?" Nah.

"Only like 10 people used 'blank' ... "

So what? Who cares? When is it ever optimal to take options away from the player? As it is, Warframe is easily playable from a near-comatose state. Hold down W, alternate Ctrl and Space, mash LMB and occasionally press 1, 2, 3, or 4 when needed. I'm sorry, that was actually how most people played the game *prior* to this "Melee 3.0" (or whatever) disaster. Now, it's more like "Space, look down, melee attack."

Meh, I don't even know why I'm allowing myself to engage in this discussion, anyway. It's honestly not that important to me. I guess I liked the premise of the game, but I'll admit, that was literally years ago. "Ninjas in space" might have been the original deal, but Warframe's moved so far away from that ideal that it seems almost silly to complain about it.

It doesn't really matter if I like the game's new direction or not, but I will point out that MOBA fatigue is definitely a thing, and their attempts to ape the MOBA style probably won't do much for player retention. I remember DE tried to do a hero shooter, too, and genre fatigue killed that in six months. Games that play to their strengths tend to have a more dedicated and longer-lasting fanbase. Look at the Halo franchise for crying out loud. Halo trucked on for years until the new guard wanted to do Star Wars: Call of Duty Edition.

As a quasi-Diablo melee-focused acrobatics-shooter, Warframe got a pretty huge following. They move away from that at their own peril. And I'll just leave it at that.

[Occasional Reiver]

Wow.
someone seems to be milking attention from having an opinion others disagree with.

[Hikari]

Originally posted by MasterManiac:

This junk is why I quit the game. Ugh.

I truly do marvel at the incredible stupidity that lead to the development of this braindead melee mechanic. They've somehow managed to make the gameplay even *more* sedate.

It isn't even completely released yet. Remember that the game is in a perpetual state of open beta and things are subject to change with OR without warning. If you were not aware of that, you only made a fool of yourself. Not an excuse for the grindy gameplay tho

Originally posted by <:):

Manually block? hahahaah what do you think this is, a well designed game!?

Boy, oh boy!!