So the brawler build is basically superman.

[Mr Windblade]

I maxed Fortitude out, took the brawler perks, the pain tolerance perks, and the natural healing and Iron gut perks.

I took some strength points and got my Sexual T-rex perks and my heavy armor perks.

With just 5/7 Bar Brawler books, whenever I drink my beer, I never spend stamina.

I am now immortal.

It's pretty funny.

[Shurenai]

Brawler build is my favorite build. So much fun. :3

[Xilo The Odd]

yeah steel knuckles and punching in heads is stupid easy to win everything. get a rad remover in some level 6 knuckles with fortifying grip, tempered blade, and a mod of your choice pending on your target and you'll wreck things you ought not be touching normally. my online buds are all like sledges are King! but by the time they down 1 per person, i've downed 3 heads of the same toughness. combine with heavy armor maxed out for fittings, carry weight, and armor bonus to reduce its penalty and its basically fallout power armor. only thing thats gonna stop you is another player using AP ammo. or blindly running through a minefield with no perks to increase their delay

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by Xilo The Odd:

yeah steel knuckles and punching in heads is stupid easy to win everything. get a rad remover in some level 6 knuckles with fortifying grip, tempered blade, and a mod of your choice pending on your target and you'll wreck things you ought not be touching normally. my online buds are all like sledges are King! but by the time they down 1 per person, i've downed 3 heads of the same toughness. combine with heavy armor maxed out for fittings, carry weight, and armor bonus to reduce its penalty and its basically fallout power armor. only thing thats gonna stop you is another player using AP ammo. or blindly running through a minefield with no perks to increase their delay

Yeah.. Sledge does a lot of single hit damage, but, it does enough damage that it essentially overkills even the toughest zed by 3-5 times it's HP on a headshot. So it loses out to the much faster attacking fist or club weapons that can get to oneshotting as well but attack much faster than the sledge.

[JimmyIowa]

Yeah, it was a good melee build since A17. And then a magazines series for it made it even better. And then sledge being gutted to near irrelevance in A19 for some nutty reason made fists pretty much the goto option for people who like melee builds.

[blazha]

Originally posted by JimmyIowa:

Yeah, it was a good melee build since A17. And then a magazines series for it made it even better. And then sledge being gutted to near irrelevance in A19 for some nutty reason made fists pretty much the goto option for people who like melee builds.

Not for me, I ignore their existence. They are immersion breaking imo.

[JimmyIowa]

Originally posted by blazha:

Not for me, I ignore their existence. They are immersion breaking imo.

Unfortunately, I agree to an extent. I say unfortunate because I prefer the aesthetic and immersion of the sledgehammer. Which is why I've used it instead of fists, or easier guns, or even easier turrets, up until now. Sledge feels like a weapon, it feels improvised and brutal and terminal. It feels reasonable that a solid sledge swing could take a zombie head clean off.

Admittedly, fists feels silly at first. Exploding heads with punches? But I finally switched to fists in A19 after the huge nerfing of sledge stamina. And fists it's hella fun on horde night, if you can get past the goofiness of decapping zombies with a punch. I now ignore the goofiness, and it's like being wolverine., complete with healing powers. It's a blast. At least for now. I may give in and mod sledge back to being barely viable again just for the aesthetic of it though. Still scratching my head over what in heck they were thinking nerfing it so extremely.

No matter what though, at least fists is still more immersive and less goofy than magic powered turrets that do everything for you.

[Astralite]

Originally posted by JimmyIowa:

Admittedly, fists feels silly at first. Exploding heads with punches?

Exploding decrepid, decayed, possibly hollowed, weak heads*

Dead, brittle skulls. Some missing skin. Dehydrated.

It's like a rotten apple versus a fresh one. At some point, you can crush an apple in your hand.

[RasaNova]

Originally posted by JimmyIowa:

No matter what though, at least fists is still more immersive and less goofy than magic powered turrets that do everything for you.

Hey, don't go trashing my beloved junk turrets! They're the best thing to happen to the apocalypse sice sticking nails in a baseball bat!

You're absolutely right though. Automated fully portable turrets with pinpoint accuracy and an IFF transponder, made from some scraps of steel and a lot of duct tape, that shoot simple iron fragments.. I guess could maybe be considered magic...

[blazha]

Originally posted by JimmyIowa:

Originally posted by blazha:

Not for me, I ignore their existence. They are immersion breaking imo.

Unfortunately, I agree to an extent. I say unfortunate because I prefer the aesthetic and immersion of the sledgehammer. Which is why I've used it instead of fists, or easier guns, or even easier turrets, up until now. Sledge feels like a weapon, it feels improvised and brutal and terminal. It feels reasonable that a solid sledge swing could take a zombie head clean off.

Admittedly, fists feels silly at first. Exploding heads with punches? But I finally switched to fists in A19 after the huge nerfing of sledge stamina. And fists it's hella fun on horde night, if you can get past the goofiness of decapping zombies with a punch. I now ignore the goofiness, and it's like being wolverine., complete with healing powers. It's a blast. At least for now. I may give in and mod sledge back to being barely viable again just for the aesthetic of it though. Still scratching my head over what in heck they were thinking nerfing it so extremely.

No matter what though, at least fists is still more immersive and less goofy than magic powered turrets that do everything for you.

I havent read much on that, what exactly is nerfed? I saw lower chance for AOE knock down but other than that nothing much. Stamina is a global issue in A19.

[blazha]

Originally posted by Astralite:

Originally posted by JimmyIowa:

Admittedly, fists feels silly at first. Exploding heads with punches?

Exploding decrepid, decayed, possibly hollowed, weak heads*

Dead, brittle skulls. Some missing skin. Dehydrated.

It's like a rotten apple versus a fresh one. At some point, you can crush an apple in your hand.

So you say that it's same to crush a skull with hand and with club or hammer? Flesh and brain can rot, but bone remains sturdy long after death. At least lighter weapons should have lower chance of splashing heads, but since it's all connected to attribute and not perk all weapons have same chance.

Edit: And I forgot, to crush a skull with your hand you need to be pretty strong, and brawler isn't even in STR tree.

[RasaNova]

Originally posted by blazha:

Originally posted by Astralite:

Exploding decrepid, decayed, possibly hollowed, weak heads*

Dead, brittle skulls. Some missing skin. Dehydrated.

It's like a rotten apple versus a fresh one. At some point, you can crush an apple in your hand.

So you say that it's same to crush a skull with hand and with club or hammer? Flesh and brain can rot, but bone remains sturdy long after death. At least lighter weapons should have lower chance of splashing heads, but since it's all connected to attribute and not perk all weapons have same chance.

It makes perfect sense. Basic science. What do zombies eat? Brains, of course. But how is a zombie with a human jaw going to get st that brain? It's simple. The necro virus also inflicts a degenerative bone disease, which weakens bone structure making it easier for the virus-animated corpses to feed

Next question!

[blazha]

Originally posted by RasaNova:

It makes perfect sense. Basic science. What do zombies eat? Brains, of course. But how is a zombie with a human jaw going to get st that brain? It's simple.

With hands that can tear through concrete and steel you are asking how are zombies getting to brains? It is really simple if you think about it.

[RasaNova]

Originally posted by blazha:

Originally posted by RasaNova:

It makes perfect sense. Basic science. What do zombies eat? Brains, of course. But how is a zombie with a human jaw going to get st that brain? It's simple.

With hands that can tear through concrete and steel you are asking how are zombies getting to brains? It is really simple if you think about it.

Ah but you see..
Sure a zombie could just smash open a skull no problem, as you say they can tear through concrete. But they need the body somewhat intact. After all, they spread by infecting others in order to keep multiplying!

[Khaos]

Wait, hold up, people in here talking about wearing heavy armor in melee. It slows you down so much it's absurd, and the extra stamina drain from just sprinting a bit is actually absurd.

I'm a brawler, but I always have on light armor.Dash in, bash heads, dash out.

[blazha]

Originally posted by Khaos:

Wait, hold up, people in here talking about wearing heavy armor in melee. It slows you down so much it's absurd, and the extra stamina drain from just sprinting a bit is actually absurd.

I'm a brawler, but I always have on light armor.Dash in, bash heads, dash out.

There is a book from urban combat that negates slow effect from armor while in combat, so you have 0 penalty as long as you fight (buff lasts 10 sec after you hit and resets every time you hit) and there is T-Rex perk that gives you 30 stamina for each kill. You can wear whatever armor you like. I prefer light armor myself mainly because I have less penalty when not in combat.