Newb: Why is sometimes my secondary weapon out?

[virtualperson]

I'm playing excalibur, just in my first few days of playing. Sometimes when the action gets intense I find that suddenly my sword is out instead of my main weapon. Usually I figure this out when I go to shoot at a distant enemy and instead just stand there like a jackhole.... Holding down the F key in this case tends to bring out my weak sauce secondary weapon, and I ended up binding a random key to switching weapons, but a bit of a process to pull my machine gun back out... I'm assuming there's some key I'm pressing in my semi-panic which is causing this, but not sure what A few questions:

What is the point of holding your sword out as you can easily just hit E to slash while still maintaining the ability to easily fire?

Why is my secondary weapon suddenly replacing my primary, it seems like there should be a 1-2-3 mapping to let you just pick which one you want out. How are you mapping the swap between your different weapons?

[SniperWolfMGS]

Perhaps your primary weapon is running out of ammo. This will force you to switch to the secondary.

Also as for the Melee, drawing it will allow you to block bullets as well as channel for extra damage per swing and grant the use of any weapon form you have equipped on it (IE combo attacks)

[xuton]

it kinda sounds like your melee weapon pops up instead of your secondary.
either way, few things that could cause this:
1) youre clicking a button that changes weapons absent-mindedly (check your keybinds)
2) an enemy has pulled away your weapon(some enemies, like the grineer guy who summons dogs, can pull you gun away and force you to have to find it and take it back)
3) you ran out of ammo. running out of ammo and attempting to fire your gun will force you to switch between your weapons

for me i find the default F to switch set up alright, you tap it quickly to change primary/secondary, hold to draw melee out.

as for the perks of having melee out, sniper touched on those. also for some melee weapons the weapon behaves very differently when on main hand or just using quick melee

[Mystra4]

The button for switching weapons has two modes.

TAP the button (F on the keyboard) to change between Primary and Secondary guns.
HOLD the button to switch to wielded melee.

Melee: wielding melee lets you attack using your STANCE, which can alter the properties of your swing.
Example: Ad the Crimson Dervish stance to your 1H swords, and you can 'pull your swing close', sacrificing a lot of your melee range, but tripling your damage output on the enemies you do hit.

[Sithis]

You're likely holding down your 'change weapon' button instead of just tapping it, as people above me have mentioned.

As for why you'd want to do that - well, melee weapons have a whole set of special mechanics that are only available this way.

• Stance - a special set of animations that alters not only the animation of your attack, but also some of its properties. Say, some of them have increased Status Chance (e.g., Rapiers stance Vulpine Mask, if I recall, gives you one attack that guarantees a Slash status proc on an enemy), others would increase your attack speed or make every second-third attack hit harder than if you would just use quick melee with [E];
  
• Heavy attack - when you're wielding your melee, holding down your attack button will charge up a heavy strike. Some weapons only deal a bit more damage, while others have unusual effects (such as Sarpa that shoots a burst of shotgun shells, or Sancti Magistar, that unleashes a powerful Area of Effect attack that can heal you);
  
• Channeling (will be removed semi-soon) - you can also hold down a special button (can't remember the default binding) to Channel your warframe's energy into your weapon, spending a few Energy (about 3 or so by default) points with each successful hit on an enemy to noticeably boost your weapon's stats. There are even mods that either make this Channeling cheaper, or that increase its benefits;
  
• Combo attacks - each Stance has its own set of Combos that are unlocked as you upgrade the stance mod. Typically, it includes using Regular Attacks and Heavy Attacks in a certain order and with a set of pauses to use special moves that might have unusual effects. These range from simple things like Tempo Royale's long-winded multiple spins attack, to the Sword & Shield class' shield throw, or Niknas lunge attack;
  
• Combo counter - as you land consecutive strikes on enemies without pausing, you increase your Combo Modifier. By default, it's very hard to maintain, and offers no significant boosts, but with a couple mods (Blood Rush, Bodycount, and some others), you can make these combo multipliers last for a long time, and multiply your damage or crit damage quite significantly. This multiplier does work even with Quick Melee attacks, but having your melee weapon in your hands is the only way to actually see the stat multiplier, as well as the amount of consecutive hits you've landed so far.

These are all the main reasons to use these that I can think of right now.

[blackbird71958]

I may be misinterpreting this, but it seems like OP is asking about why you equip your secondary instead of your primary when switching back from melee. And I don't have an answer to that myself, it annoys the hell outta me.