Melee combo mods...worth it?

[MotherVicar]

Hey all, so im not someone who enjoys just running melee on enemies during a mathc, I like switching between my weapons and powers.

So are combo mods at all interesting for me? it always feels like someone you have to pay attention to, build up the combo meter, keep it up, find enemies so it does not decay.

Is it at all worth it? blood rush plus initial combo or additonal combo stuff etc? or does that really force you in a melee only style of playing?

[Papa Smurf]

Good for survival, especially against infested, since you have time to build up your meter, otherwise I believe frontloading on crit is the way to go.

[Mooman]

For heavy attack weapons the initial combo mods can be useful, like the dagger you get from the Zariman.

That way you always have a slight boost without having to build combo.

[leqesai]

Initial combo mods or mods that increase the rate of combo acquisition are mostly superfluous when using builds that rely on the combo counter being maxed. Going from 0 to max combo doesn't typically take long so you end up losing a bit of potential damage when spending mod slots on those mods.

However, like Mooman said, initial combo is a valuable stat on heavy attack weapons. In my experience it is better to build for initial combo than it is to try and build for efficiency with heavy attack weapons.

If you're not big on meleeing a lot I recommend heavy attack weapons. They require less upkeep if you're built around initial combo and have much higher damage output than conventional melee builds. Using my heavy attack dagger zaw I can shred an acolyte in about 2 heavy attacks. You also have weapons like gunblades and glaives that have very powerful heavy attack options that typically set them far beyond most other classes of weapons. Especially if you prefer attacking at range.

[Midas]

Depends on how you want to build the weapon. If you want to make use of Blood Rush or the Gladiator set, absolutely. Blood Rush is easy enough to fit into anything, but I have an Ash loadout with a nikana prime that uses full gladiator, and it stacks up some pretty beastly melee killing power really quickly.

It also helps that this build uses primary and secondary dexterity arcanes, so +15 sec of combo meter without needing to mod for combo duration.

[:3]

I'd actually recommend using relentless combination. on a slash tick, your combo count will increase. this refreshes the combo duration as well.

since you like swtitching weapons, you should use the innodem, the funny reality bending dagger of mass Londoning. it gives you 40% DR after 4 finishers, and is probably the best hybrid melee in the game, as it can keep up combo even while heavy attacking due to its innate heavy attack efficiency after a finisher.

the innodem pairs extremely well with relentless combination because heavy attacks force proc slash, and relentless combination increases combo on slash ticks, so basically infinite heavy attacking with 12x combo. light attacks with it are good as well, not to mention the massive range that it has to help spread slash procs for relentless combination.