Knife is best melee weapon change my mind

[AshaMarie]

Many heads go flying with knives, not so much with other melee weapons.

[Duneman]

If the decapitation chance doesn't take weapon swing speed into account, then that is indeed a big boost for knives.

[God Bless The Dead]

Machete

[Brevan]

It's been a while since I've played with fisticuffs, but their bonus head-popping with maxed perk, fast attack speed, and book series (+HP each hit, etc) was considered pretty epic. Their reach isn't great though, so many when you're standing on a couple blocks it would be hard to crouch and hit the Z's heads, just like with Hunting Knife.

In my last Knife playthrough, Machete did fine for reach and consistent hitting. Last I checked, faster attack (the quick-attack perks) didn't mean more attacks per second, just a faster swing. In the end-game, I was getting frustrated with how many attacks it was taking to put down some stuff like an irradiated wight (maybe there was server lag and I wasn't scoring head shots, but it took 14 swings). I had the chance to make a test-game where I quickly maxed the knife perk, just to see how much damage the bleeding was doing, and it was only about 5-10 per second (hard to tell if the damage applies twice a second or not), which I guess is at least enough to counter the health regen of irradiated stuff. If you can get sneak damage, knives do swell.

[DarkFaceGlow]

Steel club

[DocBockNstein]

The knife saves you so much ammo starting out it's crazy. Every round you save with melee in a poi or quest is a round of ammo you can spend on horde night.

[Dreaming Prince]

i play permadeath so i usually go spear cos i like the reach and extra safety. got no spear books in my run yesterday, had t2 stone at day 4.. but i did get a hunting knife in loot so i ran with that a bit, man it kills the basic z's real fast that for sure but at night or against tougher ones it feels very unsafe. i often fight the blood moons (warrior) out in the open with spears, i dont think i would try that with a knife. spears have the reach and u can hit multiple opponents at once and never run out of stam once u have the books.

[Astasia]

Knives are decent for popping heads, single target, but are extremely unsafe, put you into range of enemy attacks, and you need to stay close to them to take advantage of that higher APM.

Spears really seem like the no brainer choice for "best melee" with their tremendous range advantage, better base DPS, and better ability to handle groups. You are basically untouchable with a spear and can apply full DPS to targets without worry about bobbing into and out of their range.

I'm doing an agility build and I still keep a spear as my fallback melee weapon since it's just such a safe and strong option even without any points in it.

[AshaMarie]

I might have little different opinion if I wasn't playing on default difficulty. I too find the DoT stuff to be lacking.

[Dr. Rockso]

Best melee = Fists
Best armor = bday suit

Don't change my mind.

[a4twenty]

I agree ish

haven't done a knife build in 1.0 but loved it previously until late game. always preferred its speed of attack but it couldn't keep up with damage. never liked machete, too slow / awkward.

[Pain Weasel]

The fact that there is no perk book specifically for knives (or sledgehammers) means they are less effective than most other melee weapons.

Spear Hunter: +10% dmg, 20% slower degrade, +25% chance to cause bleed, +50% damage to downed enemies, +10% attack speed, penetrate multiple enemies, +10% damage per hit up to +30%, refill stamina on kill.

bar Brawler: +10% damage, knock down on sprint attack, +5% damage per kill up to +15%, extra damage to stunned/knocked down enemies, recover health, speed boost after getting hit, beer doesn't blur vision, 300% damage on 7th consecutive hit.

Batter Up: +10% damage, 20% less stamina loss while sprinting, power attacks to legs slow, power attacks have increased knockdown, degrade 20% slower, ragdoll enemies, chain mods (meh), power attack kills refill stamina

knives: +200% stealth damage at night. That's it.


There really should be a knife perk book in my opinion, but until there is I will take a spear over a knife any day.

[Alucard †]

I'm more of a Repulsor Stun Baton guy myself.

Bzzzap! Zombies go flying.

[optOut]

As you get further into mid-late game, you run into more zeds that do not decap on first hit.

Steel club however will always have a good chance (with perks and books) to ragdoll anything. It's built-in crowd control. Although, I keep hearing about stun baton being the best melee weapon - I've never used it - maybe next new game.

[wrighty565]

The weapon forged by the Gods the Stun Baton is by far the best melee weapon.

[Pain Weasel]

Originally posted by Alucard †:

I'm more of a Repulsor Stun Baton guy myself.

Bzzzap! Zombies go flying.

The 10% chance to insta kill anything it hits is a nice addition as well. It takes a few extra skill points into medic (or whatever it is called) but combined with the ability to permanently stun lock any enemy in the game until the insta kill hits it is a bit OP.