what is the status on Nikanas, and melee weapons to a degree?

[Cement]

I made a post on reddit about how I took a break before the melee rework(before Duvuri paradox was a thing to help give an idea), where when I played, I was able to run Maiming Strike and Atterax and spin2win my way through(don't judge me, I didn't know better since everyone told me how good it is)

I only recently got back into the game due to the cross save feature, and been mainly sticking to using the glaive prime, but wanted to try the other melee weapons

I tried using the nikana weapons(I have the nikana prime), and, I don't know if it's just me, but they didn't feel exactly great to use?

like they're still cool and all, but the quick attack feels like you're basically stuck no matter what stance i used(i have all 3 iirc), and the combos just felt, awkward and/or slow to use? like one combo would be stabbing, another would be flailing about but having too much movement, the quick melee basically sticks you in place so you can't use it while moving, etc.

I don't know if it's just me or not, so hence why i'm here asking. would also like to get opinions on other melee weapon types, in regards to which ones are basically worth using at this point.

[tv]

you can't go wrong with any of the duviri weapons

[The Big Brzezinski]

Nikanas were left behind to a degree by tennokai, owing to their charging heavy attacks. The Syam is a very happy exception.

[Lay Z]

Hate incarnon , reaper prime , use the reaping spiral stance.
Praedos , Kronen prime, use the Sovereign outcast stance.
Gram prime , use the tempo royale stance.
Venka prime, use the Vermillion storm stance.
Stampotes ,use crushing ruins stance (jump and smash setup , super wild with the new vortex melee arcane)
Azothane, wise razor stance, heavy attack built with tennokai mod (discipline merit)


Now with new tennokai mods and the new melee arcanes , a lot of other weapons are very viable and fun to play with . You no longer need condition overload setup to make it work on steel path.

[Midas]

I get plenty of work done with my nikana, but it's specifically with ash and the daikyu mod, and a bunch of stuff to focus on combo. I wouldn't just slap the weapon on anyone, but it's good where it's good.

Also, it has an automatic slash proc on its heavy attack, so it's a good candidate for heavy attack builds if you can get a feel for the distance of the heavy attack.

[Nyxtus]

Damn near every melee is good with arcanes + Tennokai. Obviously don't use super old ♥♥♥♥, or things with a prime/variant, but for the most part you genuinely can use anything.

[Firefrye]

I've been using and abusing my crit-heavy attack Zaw Nikana for years at this point. It still crushes virtually all content in the game with minimal effort (unless they're directly immune to slash status). Now with tennokai, I get the heavy attacks for free at no actual cost to my combo meter so that's even better!

[Sceles]

Nikanas are pretty good but not great. And melee has always been great but now it's insane with automelee, tennokai and the new melee arcanes.

[Knavenformed]

Well, yeah, a more vanilla weapon won't really compare to any meta from any time really

The game has powercreeped melee to a point where you're basically looking at end-game Terraria weaponry

[AnvilHouse]

With the melee arcanes addition, you can turn a lot of melee weapons decently viable.

Just use a shield heavy warframe like Harrow and you can get 420% overall additional dmg buff with the arcane Melee Retaliation

Cobra and Crane Prime or high status chance and you can tackle the new Necra content rather nicely with 7k+ base dmg before any status additions or conditional overload buffs.