Man this melee combat.

[JustSomeGuy]

Anyone have any tips for this combat.

So im really enjoying the game love the setting and the power armor and just overall everything....besides the dam melee combat man.

I come from skyrim elder scrolls and going to fo4 is just so much pain. The enemies CONSTANTLY stagger your melee attacks even if your mid swing with a 16lb sledge hammer. In skyrim there was bashing but it was not THIS bad as it is in fo4 every attack if you dont time it perfectly is guranted to get you to stagger and the fact you cant hold your weapon up to block as well is just annoying. This one might be my own fault but i find the range for some melee weapons make sense. for example the sledge hammer seems to have way to short of a melee swing range where sometimes it seems like im close enough to hit and it just whiffs. This could be my fault and i just need to get used to it a bit more.

[White Rabbit Alice]

sadly, most melee weapons wernt not meant to be viable counters to gunplay. i used a sword for a while, you expect me to believe you can pull up a fat man with ease but swing a sword slower then a snail? a few exceptions exsist, but i dont care to use them.

[The Inept European]

You can block with melee weapon.

You can use some exploits, cancel the animations, to speed up the timing of strikes - basically that becomes OP.

You don't want to be using a sledgehammer in a duel as it's a very slow weapon and apparent can be blocked by a little switchblade, even if the sledgehammer is rocket-powered. So if someone is blocking you switch to a faster weapon.

Otherwise yes melee vs melee can be very boring. The game is not really designed for it.

[Sauro]

Originally posted by The Ex-ept European:

You can block with melee weapon.

I believe OP meant keeping the weapon up, instead of doing a momentary "parry" kind of thing, which isn't very helpful for holding your ground when someone's bashing you.

Eithe way, if you want to use melee against someone, be sure to either flank them and give them a good spinal tap with your sledgehammer while they're not facing you (easier to do when they're busy with your companions and/or being held by Dogmeat, naturally), or use VATS if they're facing you, as the player character seemingly ignores stagger and flinching while VATS is going (as well as the damage reduction). No other way around Fallout 4's, uh, not-too-graceful melee combat.

[Alucard †]

Vs staggers you can use melee counters / tackles. They are amazing for disabling/stunlocking enemies up close

Sadly they only work in 3rd person and NOT in power armor.
So if you play in 1st or you are in PA you won't be able to use them.

How they work is you tap the power attack button few times (alt by default) while in 3rd person close to your enemy. Your char will grab them and kick them down to the ground or tackle them and throw them on the ground. Then you can melee them several times before they get up.

Works on both gun and melee wielding human enemies.
Don't try it with ferals tho ..

[jeffy]

vats melle attacks cant be blocked

[Alucard †]

Originally posted by jeffy:

vats melle attacks cant be blocked

Or yea spam VATS. This is Fallout 4's answer to almost any combat related situation. Granted you have enough AP.

[steventirey]

Using a faster melee weapon helps. Sledges and bats are Slow, and you get staggered easily. If in power armor, however, switching to third person view makes them one-handed weapons with a medium swing speed, and you aren't quite as easy to stagger. (There are no 2 handed melee animations for power armor. You still swing with 2 hands in first person view however.)

There are upgrades for your armor that reduce stagger as well, at least for normal armor.

[The Inept European]

yeah if you optimise for VATS melee it will soon become a yawnfest as you carve your way through the worst the Commonwealth has to offer.

I got bored after killing the Concord deathclaw in survival mode, legit unarmed (no 'unarmed' puncturing power fist). With good melee weapons, it is just a joke.

[Ozzey_Lee]

Switching between first and third person removes staggers, you also can't be staggered in first person the same way you are in third person so using a combination of first and third person allows you to just swing over and over.

If you get hit mid swing just switch to 1st person, back to 3rd person and swing again. If someone keeps blocking tap alt and stagger them.

Camera tricks basically.

[MadBone12]

I'm playing a melee game on VH right now, and it was really tough at first. OP, in my experience, VATS is really your best friend here. Strength and agility are important skills to build up, and get Blitz ASAP, and Big Leagues and Rooted help. Enemies will block your attacks a lot, sometimes bringing up their arms ridiculously fast. I have found VATS to be the best way to deal with that.

[The Inept European]

While Blitz is very powerful I actually recommend getting it relatively late for a melee character, after your tank buffs and damage buffs. The reason is that Blitz can often teleport you into the middle of some very dangerous situations.

[MadBone12]

Originally posted by The Ex-ept European:

While Blitz is very powerful I actually recommend getting it relatively late for a melee character, after your tank buffs and damage buffs. The reason is that Blitz can often teleport you into the middle of some very dangerous situations.

This has not been my experience, particularly since you can't even get the top tier of Blitz until over level 40, by which time any melee player should have already have invested perk points into the early stages of Big Leagues, Rooted and endurance perks.

[The Inept European]

Originally posted by MadBone12:

This has not been my experience, particularly since you can't even get the top tier of Blitz until over level 40, by which time any melee player should have already have invested perk points into the early stages of Big Leagues, Rooted and endurance perks.

Well who said top tier?

The lowest tier of Blitz can kill you if you're unprepared to tank. You can Blitz what you think is an isolated enemy and end up in the middle of 3-4 bad guys at gun range all with a clear shot on you.

[The Inept European]

Anyway you are making my point. I'm saying a melee player needs to have the tank and DMG perks in place first. You're saying that "should" usually happen anyway. I'm saying don't leave it to "should".

[therussmeister]

Yep, melee in FO is not like Skyrim. I use VATS pretty much all the time, with high Agility and the Rockville Slugger i never run out of AP, even if I Blitz into a crowd.