Need Melee Tips On Specialization

[Samseng Yik]

I just start to play the game last few days.
I enjoy this a lot and think can last till Diablo 4 launch.
I see a lot different opinions on each melee specializations.
I think this is really good because it has diversity and different people play differently.
I am playing on Dread difficulty. Want tips about how to utilize each melee specialization to fullest.
I also want to know what worthy to use, what now
I also interest to know opinions from player who play harder than standard difficulty.

Endurance
How good is slam attack? What situation use best?
Endurance seems like a good "jack of all trade specialization" ?
The HP bonus and injury reduction seem this is good defensive perk ?
In what situation you will pick this specialization to combo over other?
Is this a good specialization when a large horde almost surrounded me?

Close Combat
This look like pure focus on taking down small group of zed, and useless against large group?
How good is shove attack? What situation use best?
In what situation you will pick this specialization to combo over other?

Striking
How good is grand slam? What situation use best?
In what situation you will pick this specialization to combo over other?
I don't use blunt weapon often, is it the play style is
"Knockdown enemy, then execute them 1 by 1 ?" or "keep flinch all zed around you and hope the small lethality kick in?"
In what situation you will pick this specialization to combo over other?

Sword Play
Seems like purely design for 1 on 1 killing, with higher chance of instant kill?
Leg sweep best use in what situation?
In what situation you will pick this specialization to combo over other?

Powerhouse
I don't often use heavy weapon, want guidance on how to play well with heavy
What is the use of grapple and throw? In any situation I should grapple instead of swinging weapon?
When best to use Power Attack and drop kick?
Heavy weapon is best to use when I almost surrounded by zed?

[DYNIA]

endurance - heavy, Injury Severity is rly good on lethal when every hit from zombie cut your max hp
swordplay - bladed
strike - blunt
close combat - only knife
powerhouse is crap, from cardio only backpacking is good

in term on best option max lvled swordplay is best
in term on leveling heavy is best
blunt is weaknest from them all, is garbage

the only good build for fight is backpacking, discipline, swordplay for blade
backpacking, disipline, endurance for heavy

special attacks are crap, use too much stamina

for guns Gunslinging is king
Sharpshooting for shotguns

for Dread there is no even need to level anyone cause is way too easy

[Mooman]

Powerhouse can work well with close combat. Use your grapple.

Grab one Zed and throw it into a horde to knock them down. Use execute and you'll do a standing execution instead of the slower throwing them to the ground first.

Followers will target held Zeds as a priority and can one shot head shot. Grappling is an underrated melee style.

[Samseng Yik]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Mooman:

Powerhouse can work well with close combat. Use your grapple.

Grab one Zed and throw it into a horde to knock them down. Use execute and you'll do a standing execution instead of the slower throwing them to the ground first.

Followers will target held Zeds as a priority and can one shot head shot. Grappling is an underrated melee style.

I just recalled I never use grapple
What you suggest look like a good method to hold off a choke point during heart kill

[Settlersgod]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Mooman:

Powerhouse can work well with close combat. Use your grapple.

Grab one Zed and throw it into a horde to knock them down. Use execute and you'll do a standing execution instead of the slower throwing them to the ground first.

Followers will target held Zeds as a priority and can one shot head shot. Grappling is an underrated melee style.

https://youtu.be/JI7fI8AZguI you don't need powerhouse but with it, it allows you to grapple from the front.

[Settlersgod]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Samseng Yik:

I just start to play the game last few days.
I enjoy this a lot and think can last till Diablo 4 launch.
I see a lot different opinions on each melee specializations.
I think this is really good because it has diversity and different people play differently.
I am playing on Dread difficulty. Want tips about how to utilize each melee specialization to fullest.
I also want to know what worthy to use, what now
I also interest to know opinions from player who play harder than standard difficulty.

Endurance
How good is slam attack? What situation use best?
Endurance seems like a good "jack of all trade specialization" ?
The HP bonus and injury reduction seem this is good defensive perk ?
In what situation you will pick this specialization to combo over other?
Is this a good specialization when a large horde almost surrounded me?

Close Combat
This look like pure focus on taking down small group of zed, and useless against large group?
How good is shove attack? What situation use best?
In what situation you will pick this specialization to combo over other?

Striking
How good is grand slam? What situation use best?
In what situation you will pick this specialization to combo over other?
I don't use blunt weapon often, is it the play style is
"Knockdown enemy, then execute them 1 by 1 ?" or "keep flinch all zed around you and hope the small lethality kick in?"
In what situation you will pick this specialization to combo over other?

Sword Play
Seems like purely design for 1 on 1 killing, with higher chance of instant kill?
Leg sweep best use in what situation?
In what situation you will pick this specialization to combo over other?

Powerhouse
I don't often use heavy weapon, want guidance on how to play well with heavy
What is the use of grapple and throw? In any situation I should grapple instead of swinging weapon?
When best to use Power Attack and drop kick?
Heavy weapon is best to use when I almost surrounded by zed?

Endurance is good with blunt and heavies,

Striking for blunt and blunt is very good in smacking hordes and ferals.
You hit multiple enemies at the same time either knocking them down or killing them.
Hitting ferals with blunt eventually puts the feral in an executable stage.
Sucks at dealing with jugs.
And on singles you must knock them down and execute.

Swordplay for bladed and bladed is good vs singles and juggernauts, but is awful vs ferals and you have to constantly dodge in big hordes.
However it is very satisfying to 1 shot 5 zombies in a row.

The ability is solely used vs armored zombies as they're immune to lethality until their helmet is gone.

Close combat is execution based far more than blunt and heavies will ever be, you either kite them over walls and fences and execute them there or grapple zombies and throw them through the horde and execute the ones which have fallen down.

Close combat is not terrible against juggernauts either and can stunlock ferals.

Powerhouse is a good perk for any weapon, as it is the combat cardio perk. It is NOT purely for heavies.

Powerhouse allows you to dropkick which is used to eliminate ferals as it puts the feral in an executable stage.
And reduces stamina cost for all weapons.

Powerhouse using heavy weapons - allows you to charge your attack which deals a lot more damage.
8 charged attacks is enough to kill a plague heart on lethal.
(You can't dropkick while using the heavy)

Powerhouse bladed allows you to attack more often as it costs less stamina and fills up it's weakness against ferals.

Powerhouse blunt allows you to attack more often, dropkick is less needed but can still be nice.

Powerhouse close combat allows you to execute more easily as you can grapple zombies from their front and toss him further knocking more zombies down in the process.

Heavies are a blunt weapon with more reach basically, but feel different and can be a awkward to use.
If used correctly you can't get hit while you keep attacking.

Heavies are the best against ferals as every swing stuns the feral(s) in a wide area which you can repeat until you can execute him/them.
Sucks dealing with jugs.

I mainly use heavies for cheap and quick plague heart kills.

Ai buddies are bad with bladed weapons and close combat so I'd recommend using blunt or heavies for survivors you aren't using much which keeps them alive for longer

[Protectron]

Endurance - since the specialization gives no bonuses to any of the weapons (unlike the others), even the weapons in the game with the most Lethality will be highly ineffective. However, a good portion of Lethality with Heavy Melee weapons is still good since you're stunlocking every zombie in front of you for as long as you have Stamina. The three Blunt weapons with the highest Knockdown are RTX Crusher, Persian Meel and Danforth Slugger. While the Endurance character will knock down the zombies easily enough with these (and some of the biggest Heavy Melee weapons), you don't have the good Executions that Striking does, so it is still worse than Striking. That's why combining Endurance with Powerhouse and Discipline to use Heavy Melee is your best bet. The two executes are both good; one is very quick and the other knocks down zombies around you. The special attack flips the zombie on its back and always results in the quick execute if you press E, so it's pretty useful. The Groundbreaker Shovel and Enigmatic Axe are the best Heavy Melee weapons in the base game.

Close Combat - when maxed out this is actually quite good. The zeds have a high chance of being knocked down with each strike, and you get the front execute when maxed out. Just quickly mashing the attack button will also have your character switch quite well between 2-3 zombies at a time, keeping them stunned or knocked down. There is also the dodge behind the zombie for an execute. The execution of downed zombies is the best in the game, tied with Striking's golf swing. The special attack iis a shove that sadly does not really have a very high chance of knocking down a zombie.

Striking - what this specialization is best at is knocking zombies down. Even if the weapon's Knockdown bar is just half-full, a maxed-out Striking specialist will knock the zombies down with 1 strike most of the time because of the bonus to Knockdown. As long as there are zombies aggroing nearby, the Executes are going to be the golf swing. The other execute, the head crush, is slow and one of the poorest in the game - but it is thankfully only happening when there are no zombies within grabbing range (unlike Endurance with Blunt weapons). The special attack, Grand Slam, is pretty effective. It is guaranteed to knock down multiple zombies at once if they're standing close enough together. The best Blunt weapons in the game are the Sweet-Spot Bat (Bounty Broker), Apocalypse Bat (Ultimate edition radio call), High-end Escrima Stick, L6 Steel Mace, Barbed Wire Bat (BB), Bilge Rat Shovel (BB) and Cricket Bat (BB).

Swordplay - what this specialization is best at is insta-killing regular zombies, through the Lethality stat. Unlike Striking's Knockdown, most bladed weapons will not be very effective at doing this, though. The only weapon in the base game that will make a maxed-out Swordplay specialist instakill his/her way through a horde of zombies reliably is the Bastard of Belleau Wood, which Lethality stat is almost maxed out (around 90% full bar). So there's 1 tier 1 weapon among blades. There are a bunch of tier 2, blades, though, and they can still slice through a horde - it's just more likely that you will have to strike twice or thrice a few times. Those weapons are Echo-2 Mamba, Parang, Bowie Machete, Katana Machete, Ancestral Talwar (BB) and Ceremonial Bayonet, The special attack is a leg swipe, and it is pretty good at dealing with armored zeds, which is otherwise a weakness for blades. The frontal execute is unlocked at skill level 7, and it is great. Swordplay's weakness is that the weapons have low impact, which makes them poor against Ferals, Juggernauts and Plague Hearts.

[Samseng Yik]

I laugh out so hard seeing the "golf swing" word

[Samseng Yik]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Protectron:

Endurance - since the specialization gives no bonuses to any of the weapons (unlike the others), even the weapons in the game with the most Lethality will be highly ineffective. However, a good portion of Lethality with Heavy Melee weapons is still good since you're stunlocking every zombie in front of you for as long as you have Stamina. The three Blunt weapons with the highest Knockdown are RTX Crusher, Persian Meel and Danforth Slugger. While the Endurance character will knock down the zombies easily enough with these (and some of the biggest Heavy Melee weapons), you don't have the good Executions that Striking does, so it is still worse than Striking. That's why combining Endurance with Powerhouse and Discipline to use Heavy Melee is your best bet. The two executes are both good; one is very quick and the other knocks down zombies around you. The special attack flips the zombie on its back and always results in the quick execute if you press E, so it's pretty useful. The Groundbreaker Shovel and Enigmatic Axe are the best Heavy Melee weapons in the base game.

Close Combat - when maxed out this is actually quite good. The zeds have a high chance of being knocked down with each strike, and you get the front execute when maxed out. Just quickly mashing the attack button will also have your character switch quite well between 2-3 zombies at a time, keeping them stunned or knocked down. There is also the dodge behind the zombie for an execute. The execution of downed zombies is the best in the game, tied with Striking's golf swing. The special attack iis a shove that sadly does not really have a very high chance of knocking down a zombie.

Striking - what this specialization is best at is knocking zombies down. Even if the weapon's Knockdown bar is just half-full, a maxed-out Striking specialist will knock the zombies down with 1 strike most of the time because of the bonus to Knockdown. As long as there are zombies aggroing nearby, the Executes are going to be the golf swing. The other execute, the head crush, is slow and one of the poorest in the game - but it is thankfully only happening when there are no zombies within grabbing range (unlike Endurance with Blunt weapons). The special attack, Grand Slam, is pretty effective. It is guaranteed to knock down multiple zombies at once if they're standing close enough together. The best Blunt weapons in the game are the Sweet-Spot Bat (Bounty Broker), Apocalypse Bat (Ultimate edition radio call), High-end Escrima Stick, L6 Steel Mace, Barbed Wire Bat (BB), Bilge Rat Shovel (BB) and Cricket Bat (BB).

Swordplay - what this specialization is best at is insta-killing regular zombies, through the Lethality stat. Unlike Striking's Knockdown, most bladed weapons will not be very effective at doing this, though. The only weapon in the base game that will make a maxed-out Swordplay specialist instakill his/her way through a horde of zombies reliably is the Bastard of Belleau Wood, which Lethality stat is almost maxed out (around 90% full bar). So there's 1 tier 1 weapon among blades. There are a bunch of tier 2, blades, though, and they can still slice through a horde - it's just more likely that you will have to strike twice or thrice a few times. Those weapons are Echo-2 Mamba, Parang, Bowie Machete, Katana Machete, Ancestral Talwar (BB) and Ceremonial Bayonet, The special attack is a leg swipe, and it is pretty good at dealing with armored zeds, which is otherwise a weakness for blades. The frontal execute is unlocked at skill level 7, and it is great. Swordplay's weakness is that the weapons have low impact, which makes them poor against Ferals, Juggernauts and Plague Hearts.

Appreciate the elaboration and detail explanation.
You make me want start focus on Heavy and Blunt in the next playthrough.
I also surprise Plague Heart can down by 8 charged heavy hit in Lethal.
Currently I playing Dread and found 2 M16 mag and some fuel bomb also cannot down a plague heart.
My biggest concern is usually no time to reload weapon due to swamp coming into the building after plague heart wake up

[Protectron]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Samseng Yik:

Appreciate the elaboration and detail explanation.
You make me want start focus on Heavy and Blunt in the next playthrough.
I also surprise Plague Heart can down by 8 charged heavy hit in Lethal.
Currently I playing Dread and found 2 M16 mag and some fuel bomb also cannot down a plague heart.
My biggest concern is usually no time to reload weapon due to swamp coming into the building after plague heart wake up

Yeah the key is to kill the Heart before the spawns come to get you, or to stand on the roof of your car and lob bombs or incendiaries through the window from safety. That is, any method that lets you avoid engaging with the spawned zombies is a good method.

60 5.56 bullets + 2 fuel bombs didn't kill the Heart on Dread? That's weird. Did you put on a Professional or Advanced Brake?

50 9mm rounds with Pro brake + 50 .45 rounds with pro brake killed a Heart before the reinforcements came on Lethal just last week for me (G18 Custom auto and Spec Ops Vector SMG). There were even a few rounds left in the Vector.

11 Fuel bombs does the trick on Lethal. Or 3 C4. 7 Thermite Grenades iirc.

On Dread, I'm not sure. If you have ScentBlock and a Groundbreaker Shovel, it takes 20 strikes to kill a Heart on Lethal. 18 with the Beetle Mallet. IIrc, the Sledge Hammer required 22 or 23. Should be half that on Dread. That shovel is the baseline for me to find out how much damage it takes to kill one (8 to trigger the first wave, then 6 for 2nd and another 6 to kill it).

On Lethal, a Drone Strike + 3 Soda Can Bombs or 2 Pipe Bombs kills the Heart. On Nightmare and below difficulty, the drone strike kills it outright.

I haven't done this testing on Dread, only Nightmare and later Lethal, so I don't really know.

[Settlersgod]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Samseng Yik:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Protectron:

Endurance - since the specialization gives no bonuses to any of the weapons (unlike the others), even the weapons in the game with the most Lethality will be highly ineffective. However, a good portion of Lethality with Heavy Melee weapons is still good since you're stunlocking every zombie in front of you for as long as you have Stamina. The three Blunt weapons with the highest Knockdown are RTX Crusher, Persian Meel and Danforth Slugger. While the Endurance character will knock down the zombies easily enough with these (and some of the biggest Heavy Melee weapons), you don't have the good Executions that Striking does, so it is still worse than Striking. That's why combining Endurance with Powerhouse and Discipline to use Heavy Melee is your best bet. The two executes are both good; one is very quick and the other knocks down zombies around you. The special attack flips the zombie on its back and always results in the quick execute if you press E, so it's pretty useful. The Groundbreaker Shovel and Enigmatic Axe are the best Heavy Melee weapons in the base game.

Close Combat - when maxed out this is actually quite good. The zeds have a high chance of being knocked down with each strike, and you get the front execute when maxed out. Just quickly mashing the attack button will also have your character switch quite well between 2-3 zombies at a time, keeping them stunned or knocked down. There is also the dodge behind the zombie for an execute. The execution of downed zombies is the best in the game, tied with Striking's golf swing. The special attack iis a shove that sadly does not really have a very high chance of knocking down a zombie.

Striking - what this specialization is best at is knocking zombies down. Even if the weapon's Knockdown bar is just half-full, a maxed-out Striking specialist will knock the zombies down with 1 strike most of the time because of the bonus to Knockdown. As long as there are zombies aggroing nearby, the Executes are going to be the golf swing. The other execute, the head crush, is slow and one of the poorest in the game - but it is thankfully only happening when there are no zombies within grabbing range (unlike Endurance with Blunt weapons). The special attack, Grand Slam, is pretty effective. It is guaranteed to knock down multiple zombies at once if they're standing close enough together. The best Blunt weapons in the game are the Sweet-Spot Bat (Bounty Broker), Apocalypse Bat (Ultimate edition radio call), High-end Escrima Stick, L6 Steel Mace, Barbed Wire Bat (BB), Bilge Rat Shovel (BB) and Cricket Bat (BB).

Swordplay - what this specialization is best at is insta-killing regular zombies, through the Lethality stat. Unlike Striking's Knockdown, most bladed weapons will not be very effective at doing this, though. The only weapon in the base game that will make a maxed-out Swordplay specialist instakill his/her way through a horde of zombies reliably is the Bastard of Belleau Wood, which Lethality stat is almost maxed out (around 90% full bar). So there's 1 tier 1 weapon among blades. There are a bunch of tier 2, blades, though, and they can still slice through a horde - it's just more likely that you will have to strike twice or thrice a few times. Those weapons are Echo-2 Mamba, Parang, Bowie Machete, Katana Machete, Ancestral Talwar (BB) and Ceremonial Bayonet, The special attack is a leg swipe, and it is pretty good at dealing with armored zeds, which is otherwise a weakness for blades. The frontal execute is unlocked at skill level 7, and it is great. Swordplay's weakness is that the weapons have low impact, which makes them poor against Ferals, Juggernauts and Plague Hearts.

Appreciate the elaboration and detail explanation.
You make me want start focus on Heavy and Blunt in the next playthrough.
I also surprise Plague Heart can down by 8 charged heavy hit in Lethal.
Currently I playing Dread and found 2 M16 mag and some fuel bomb also cannot down a plague heart.
My biggest concern is usually no time to reload weapon due to swamp coming into the building after plague heart wake up

The plague heart takes 8 charged hits of a heavy, but you usually don't have time for it.

I usually attack with charged attacks until I see zombies getting close to striking distance and swap to regular attacks to stun the horde and attack the heart at the same time.

When the toxic mist appears I usually leave the place and climb over whatever fence I can find.
And unequip my heavy.

This isolates the feral from the rest of the zombies. Which I dropkick and execute. (Can't dropkick with a heavy equiped).

(If no feral spawned for whatever reason you still run away to lure the zombies away so you can charge your attacks again.)

If you're using stimulants or energy drinks and can't time your dodge just keep spamming the dodge until you can climb over some fences, nothing except for bloater gas and juggernauts can hit you that way.

Then I re-equip my heavy and start bashing the heart again.

Average clear time 1,5 minutes.
(Not the fastest, but one of the cheapest way)

[Settlersgod]

Protectron, bladed weapons are very effective against juggernauts and I'd suggest you to try it. Fastest clear time of all the melee types.
You can usually hit 3-4x between the jug attacks and another 5 when you hit the next damage threshold (minor jug stun/stumble), it only takes between 24-40 hits focused on the jug to bring him down.

The low durability of the sword also is not much of a problem on the jug, just don't go kill a couple hordes afterwards.

[MadDjinn]

If you want to go Heavy weapons, I found the combination of three skills worked best:

Powerhouse (Cardio), Discipline (Wits) and Endurance (Fighting).

Powerhouse, for obvious reasons.

Discipline for the boosted stamina, +30 light weight capacity (swinging the Beetle mallet is a breeze) and stamina on kills.

Endurance for the health and injury prevention, but mostly because all of the other ones require non-heavy weapons.

It's similar with specializing survivors for tasks. A combo of 2-3 skills works best.

[Settlersgod]

Oprindeligt skrevet af MadDjinn:

If you want to go Heavy weapons, I found the combination of three skills worked best:

Powerhouse (Cardio), Discipline (Wits) and Endurance (Fighting).

Powerhouse, for obvious reasons.

Discipline for the boosted stamina, +30 light weight capacity (swinging the Beetle mallet is a breeze) and stamina on kills.

Endurance for the health and injury prevention, but mostly because all of the other ones require non-heavy weapons.

It's similar with specializing survivors for tasks. A combo of 2-3 skills works best.

Any melee focused build is best with powerhouse and dicipline regardless of which weapon you use.

Powerhouse is focused on melee combat allowing you to change up your attack patterns and reducing stamina costs for all weapons.
Some may never use the grapple claiming it's bad but it has their uses and it's rather strong for how simple of a mechanic it is. close combat drastically improves using this.
The dropkick (not wielding a heavy) is an effective panic button against ferals.
The charged attack (wielding heavies) is for clearing plague hearts

Backpacking is better if you don't want to depend on melee.
As it has a bigger stamina pool allowing you to use your aim snap of gunslinger more often.

Marathon is a niche and can be useful, but limits your choice of weapons

Acrobatic dodge is fun to play with, but default dodge is better and the other stats are garbage. Flying attack is just as effective as a regular attack, but leaves you wide open for attacks.

As for wits, resourcefulness allows you to carry more consumables which allows you to carry more healing and stamina items allowing you to keep going on.
Also gives your bolts back more often.

Dicipline is focused on melee kills, increasing durability and gaining stamina on kills.
With a nice raw stamina increase as well.

Scouting is best used for ranged based builds with increased durability and zombies appearing on your minimap.

Stealth is just a way of life, you either hate it or you love it.

[DYNIA]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Settlersgod:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Samseng Yik:

I just start to play the game last few days.
I enjoy this a lot and think can last till Diablo 4 launch.
I see a lot different opinions on each melee specializations.
I think this is really good because it has diversity and different people play differently.
I am playing on Dread difficulty. Want tips about how to utilize each melee specialization to fullest.
I also want to know what worthy to use, what now
I also interest to know opinions from player who play harder than standard difficulty.

Endurance
How good is slam attack? What situation use best?
Endurance seems like a good "jack of all trade specialization" ?
The HP bonus and injury reduction seem this is good defensive perk ?
In what situation you will pick this specialization to combo over other?
Is this a good specialization when a large horde almost surrounded me?

Close Combat
This look like pure focus on taking down small group of zed, and useless against large group?
How good is shove attack? What situation use best?
In what situation you will pick this specialization to combo over other?

Striking
How good is grand slam? What situation use best?
In what situation you will pick this specialization to combo over other?
I don't use blunt weapon often, is it the play style is
"Knockdown enemy, then execute them 1 by 1 ?" or "keep flinch all zed around you and hope the small lethality kick in?"
In what situation you will pick this specialization to combo over other?

Sword Play
Seems like purely design for 1 on 1 killing, with higher chance of instant kill?
Leg sweep best use in what situation?
In what situation you will pick this specialization to combo over other?

Powerhouse
I don't often use heavy weapon, want guidance on how to play well with heavy
What is the use of grapple and throw? In any situation I should grapple instead of swinging weapon?
When best to use Power Attack and drop kick?
Heavy weapon is best to use when I almost surrounded by zed?

Endurance is good with blunt and heavies,

Striking for blunt and blunt is very good in smacking hordes and ferals.
You hit multiple enemies at the same time either knocking them down or killing them.
Hitting ferals with blunt eventually puts the feral in an executable stage.
Sucks at dealing with jugs.
And on singles you must knock them down and execute.

Swordplay for bladed and bladed is good vs singles and juggernauts, but is awful vs ferals and you have to constantly dodge in big hordes.
However it is very satisfying to 1 shot 5 zombies in a row.

The ability is solely used vs armored zombies as they're immune to lethality until their helmet is gone.

Close combat is execution based far more than blunt and heavies will ever be, you either kite them over walls and fences and execute them there or grapple zombies and throw them through the horde and execute the ones which have fallen down.

Close combat is not terrible against juggernauts either and can stunlock ferals.

Powerhouse is a good perk for any weapon, as it is the combat cardio perk. It is NOT purely for heavies.

Powerhouse allows you to dropkick which is used to eliminate ferals as it puts the feral in an executable stage.
And reduces stamina cost for all weapons.

Powerhouse using heavy weapons - allows you to charge your attack which deals a lot more damage.
8 charged attacks is enough to kill a plague heart on lethal.
(You can't dropkick while using the heavy)

Powerhouse bladed allows you to attack more often as it costs less stamina and fills up it's weakness against ferals.

Powerhouse blunt allows you to attack more often, dropkick is less needed but can still be nice.

Powerhouse close combat allows you to execute more easily as you can grapple zombies from their front and toss him further knocking more zombies down in the process.

Heavies are a blunt weapon with more reach basically, but feel different and can be a awkward to use.
If used correctly you can't get hit while you keep attacking.

Heavies are the best against ferals as every swing stuns the feral(s) in a wide area which you can repeat until you can execute him/them.
Sucks dealing with jugs.

I mainly use heavies for cheap and quick plague heart kills.

Ai buddies are bad with bladed weapons and close combat so I'd recommend using blunt or heavies for survivors you aren't using much which keeps them alive for longer

backpacking > powerhouse

backpacking give more stamina and allow you to carry more crap before you will be in heavy equ lead and burn more stamina in fight

also more stamina = you can run and dodge more

I have backpaking on my heavy weapon guy and will never again back to powerhouse

[Settlersgod]

Dynia we all know how you play and it's definitely not melee focused.
Here are your posts from a previous thread.
__________________________________________________________
"lol, with swordplay you kill zombies faster cause you have +30% dmg output, you don't discovered secret of this game ^^, I said you need 4 hits max with bladed weapon without swordplay

blunt and heavy weapons are garbage, stats that metter in melee are:
1. most important lethality - like you said more % of this more chance to insta kill zombie, but with bladed weapon you never need more than 4 hits and more then 3 when you have swordplay, that why swordplay is so OP
2. Ease of use - this that mean how many stamina you use per swing
3. speed - how fast you hit

for blade build use discipline so durability will be not so pain in the ass and rest stats are complitly useless

the parang is enough on any melee char or bowie machete more than this is overkill

on my "main" game where I have anything best for red talon soldier I used gladius then find katana machete its a bit better than gladius

you are wrong that zombie don't have hp, they also have randomly hp from 1% to 100% but im not sure about impact about thier hp cause my main that is always lethality

juggers have hp like zombies I tested it, I count only headshots cause I never miss with my stormbringer, the more dmg you do the more thier head are destroyed

I won't change my opinion that stormbringer is best weapon over all in the game when you have gunslinger and never miss blood ferals

I accept only characters to my comunity when they have gunslinger cause rest skills are garbage for guns

xD, gl with blood ferals ... xD

no stamina item on lethal make you so dead =]

send me video how you win 1v3 on blood ferals without any stamina items =D =D =D

going out without gun = you died
going out without hp items = you died
going out without blood vial = you died
going out without any plage resitance = you are so dead =D


or you can spam C4 charges and kill it from 2km away ... =D

I rly enjoy aimbot and reload speed from my gunslingers vs ferals ... its make is so easy


melee weapons vs blood feral ? no ty i use guns, its faster and safer when you use aim bot from gunslinger its 5 headshots even with normal 9mm pistol


i have maxed red talon soldiers with best bladed weapons like gladius and reach 50% lethality and its slaughter to normal zeds


you cant execute without stamina i never could even with heavy weapon

I have 2-3 chars I only use with swordplay, rest who defend base have endurance and I don't even use them

all of them have stormbringer, 1 have timberwolf and 1 have heavy sniper

and its don't even needed when sieges are way too easy and new sieges even more

this game become too easy when you lost chars on lethal only on bugs"
___________________________________________
We seriously can't trust your word based on melee gameplay only.
As you even have CORE MECHANICS WRONG.

But this indeed shows that you indeed prefer to take backpacking as you can use gunslinger more :)

You may claim me as untrustworthy and a liar, cheat or modder like anyone who opposes you, but you sir are a lost cause there is no helping you.

But unlike you I'd test the mechanics claimed and even shown video proof which you'd just cast aside because you've not experienced it personally of either your incapability or plain ignorance and thus it's a mod.

But hey here is a video of the impossible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSNpBGW_bcI
heresy!
https://youtu.be/IAaXfOlhVFk?t=107

You gotta give credit to methode 8 xD