PC Some melee weapons need serious buffs

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Hollowprime

New member
It appears that a lot of weapons including the clubs ,the knuckles and the knives would require some serious buffing. Particularly the clubs do not seem to hit their targets and generally there is no reason to pick clubs over sledge hammers. Knives seem to be amazing for harvesting meat/crops but are horrible for any serious damage. Knuckles seem to be slow unlike sonic and perhaps could get a buff or two.

 
To me it really seems like most of the time when the zombies are mid-animation (either swinging, falling, or standing up) you wont get a hit even if you line it up perfect. This can really throw off your combat, especially since there are perks that increase damage to stunned enemies when power attacking.

This means you often waste a power attack, are then low on stamina and the recovering zombie is more likely to rage at that point. It can be very frustrating.

I dont think one handed melee should be on par with 2 handed weapons tho. All weapons are not created equal but they should have their own unique applications.

 
keep sledges as is, buff clubs by 2 points per Q level, buff knives by 1 per Q and fix bleed stacking, knuckles 2 per Q (or 1 per Q and increase knockdown, a fist to the skull knocks down normal humans, unsteady zombies should topple too), Stun baton by 2 per Q and charge 1 faster per rank than it does currently

EXAMPLE: by adding X per Q i mean add that amount to the minimum and maximum damage values that can be achieved (bone knife min is like 4 I think and 7 or 8 max...so it'd be a change of 4-7 to 5-8 (not a huge jump but if bleed was fixed, it would probably be a boon)

EDIT: I play usually at Nomad with standard night time/bloodmoons

 
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i find knuckles incredibly fast....the power attack is only useful for solo enemies or early on. later game, with 4 separate procs (stagger, kd, ragdoll, dismember) and a generous splash damage area, you want to be throwing normal attack punches, which are faster than anything except the knife. Their cc is amazing...unless you fight groups with them like you're using a sledge or other melee weapon. For fist fighting, you actually want to sprint into touch range...actually colliding with the zombie. that lets you hit both that zombie and at least 2 clustered behind it.

When i built a fort build, i'd let the first zombie get to a doorway, then charge forward swinging regular attack and it was like a slapstick comedy skit, with all the zombies grabbing their faces and flopping on the floor over and over. I'd take maybe 1 hit per 3-4 zombies in a group, as long as i could keep them all in front of me.

This is on default difficulty btw.

As usual, the calls to buff or nerf melee, yet again, fail to mention what difficulty they're playing on. It won't be possible to have melee weapons performing evenly at lowest and highest difficulty, always walk and always nightmare, and different people play on different settings.

 
I'm finding the knuckles to be one of the best melee weapons in the game currently. I'm currently playing on Nomad difficulty and I'm probably going to increase the difficulty because the zombies are just too easy with knuckles. With the four different status effects you can put on the zombie with the knuckles they don't stand a chance. I've added a weighted head mod to my knuckles and it just amplifies the destruction I can cause with them. Besides horde night I never feel the need to use anything else besides the knuckles.

 
i find knuckles incredibly fast....the power attack is only useful for solo enemies or early on. later game, with 4 separate procs (stagger, kd, ragdoll, dismember) and a generous splash damage area, you want to be throwing normal attack punches, which are faster than anything except the knife. Their cc is amazing...unless you fight groups with them like you're using a sledge or other melee weapon. For fist fighting, you actually want to sprint into touch range...actually colliding with the zombie. that lets you hit both that zombie and at least 2 clustered behind it.
When i built a fort build, i'd let the first zombie get to a doorway, then charge forward swinging regular attack and it was like a slapstick comedy skit, with all the zombies grabbing their faces and flopping on the floor over and over. I'd take maybe 1 hit per 3-4 zombies in a group, as long as i could keep them all in front of me.

This is on default difficulty btw.

As usual, the calls to buff or nerf melee, yet again, fail to mention what difficulty they're playing on. It won't be possible to have melee weapons performing evenly at lowest and highest difficulty, always walk and always nightmare, and different people play on different settings.
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Novice with 24 zombies on bloodmoon every day , 300% experience , 2 skill points per level (so that I can test all the offensive builds) Satisfied?

 
Does every melee weapon need to perform just as well in every situation as the others? Raw DPS isn't everything.

Knifes clearly aren't meant for crowds--but that's the whole point of the AGI build, to stealth around and eviscerate single targets.

Knuckles have low damage, yes--but you're forgetting to factor in Fortitude perks and traits. Heavy armor and reducing incoming damage by 25% means that you have a walking tank constantly downing and CC'ing enemies. Knuckles, when perked, are surprisingly good with groups.

Sledgehammer is the ultimate in dealing with high numbers on your tail as well as devastating damage, but you're probably going to be out of stamina a lot of the time. This is fine! Strength guy gets stamina usage reduction and a backup melee weapon--clubs. By the way, clubs are just fine, they're meant to be an all around weapon, good in most situations.

Javelins don't do too much either but have exceptional range as well as being able to be thrown. They can also ignore iron bars too. Makes sense, perception guy likes being at a distance.

Stun batons are really the only melee weapon that could be argued needs a buff. The int class doesn't have much to fall back on (except the junk turret of course), the electric shock should probably arc to other enemies at high perk.

 
I use knives exclusively and they are fine. The bleed lets me hit things and run away, letting them die passively. Not every weapon is all about the dps numbers ;P

 
Personally I wish sledges had slightly better range and/or just better hit detection. So many times I'll aim at a zombie and say hit the wall behind him but somehow did nothing to the zombie despite it being between me and the wall.

 
Clubs are really powerful if you put points in and get yourself a decent one. Power-attack is almost always a knockdown, and i'm two-hitting most zombies.

I hear sledge is even better tho.

 
I havent use knuckles yet, but in my last "infinite 10 min day horde night" run at the end of my last save I was messing around and meleed a horde on insane difficulty, and got 3 kills in vs rads in a horde swarm with bare fists with no perks in it (I was full fort with heavy armor) while on a beer perk, I'm sure they're fine. Idk, you do get the barbed wire / spikes on clubs vs the sledge.

THe one I say really needs a little love is the stun baton. It's great early, but if it doesn't proc the stun late game it's really just swinging paper around. The perk should increase the stun percentage chance.

 
I use knives exclusively and they are fine. The bleed lets me hit things and run away, letting them die passively. Not every weapon is all about the dps numbers ;P
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I think if the bleed was animated somehow it would make a world of difference. power attack with machete on any zed kills it after a few seconds. the power attack is cheap too, so just cut a few arteries and walk away like a badass listening to the enemies moans of death.

I think a really cool option for it though would be somehow allowing players to equip a knife and pistol at the same time like solid snake. left click to shoot, right click to slash, ultimate in tactical espionage action! maybe just allow daggers to work as a mod for pistols? not sure how to make it work, but it would be sick.

 
Missing a zed due to to an animation error is my biggest gripe right now. It just takes all the steam out of a fight and makes you want to give up on melee and stick to guns. And then we would start to juts rage about lack of ammo after horde nights. Lining up the the perfect shot and having it go right through them is as close to a game breaking bug as I am dealing with right now and has caused a lot of near rage quit moments as anything else. Balance is a joke when you are dealing with a system where a lot of swings simply can not connect even when done right.

 
Missing a zed due to to an animation error is my biggest gripe right now. It just takes all the steam out of a fight and makes you want to give up on melee and stick to guns. And then we would start to juts rage about lack of ammo after horde nights. Lining up the the perfect shot and having it go right through them is as close to a game breaking bug as I am dealing with right now and has caused a lot of near rage quit moments as anything else. Balance is a joke when you are dealing with a system where a lot of swings simply can not connect even when done right.
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The hitting feels pretty broken

 
Missing a zed due to to an animation error is my biggest gripe right now. It just takes all the steam out of a fight and makes you want to give up on melee and stick to guns. And then we would start to juts rage about lack of ammo after horde nights. Lining up the the perfect shot and having it go right through them is as close to a game breaking bug as I am dealing with right now and has caused a lot of near rage quit moments as anything else. Balance is a joke when you are dealing with a system where a lot of swings simply can not connect even when done right.
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I know how you feel, it almost feels like zombies get some iframes (invunerability frames) now during their attack animations, its gotten to the point in melee that I won't even try to hit a zombie when its mid swing because even aiming for the body it'll most likely miss due to like I said seemingly them getting iframes or something. Never seen this till a18.

 
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