Has anyone experienced any inconsistency with melee damage? Sometimes I will deal what appears to be double damage (normal hit 161, randomly 322), for seemingly no reason. I tested it to see if it was level related, skill related or targeting reticule related, and nothing made a difference. It will seemingly at random decide to do double the damage. Any ideas?

Is it a crit?

Like Seth said. It could be a crit. Also, you are aware of the cooldown abilities for melee, right?

@doctordonkey: both the hunter(blade dancer) and titan (striker) have a souped up melee attack that you unlock and it's on a cool down, so when you use it you'll deal a whole lot more damage then a regular melee attack, and if you use it again while it's still on the cool down you'll do just a normal melee attack, I'm guessing that's not it?

Like I said, I tested to see if it was skill related, it's not. My melee skill was both inactive and on cooldown, this happens on a voidwalker, sunsinger and defender. As far as I know, there are no crits in this game. You either hit the weak spot, or you don't. I have no idea what causes this.

@doctordonkey: When you tested it, were you making sure not to hit an enemy's weak point? I haven't had any issues with inconsistent damage, but I have had some difficulty making precision hits with melee, even when I intended to.

I only notice this in PvP. Some times my punches don't do any damage at all. But that is probably more to a lag out than anything else.

I've only noticed this during PvP. Sometimes my melee will kill someone outright, and sometimes it will not even take them down halfway. And yes, I know that the special melee does more damage. That's what I'm talking about.

Also, blink strike for the hunter: bladedancer needs to have a lot more distance. It gives you maybe an extra foot. I shouldn't be able to teleport across the map, but there were a lot of instances that I was sure I would be in range just to end up swinging at the air and getting killed.

Test this on someone like the Vandal. Hit him anywhere but the head once, then hit another Vandal right in the head and see what damage difference it makes.

I saw people doing that and a duder told me what they were up to. My reaction is that it seems boring. But if you are at a place where there is a means to an end... more power to you. I don't fault anyone for grinding in any game if they have the stomach for it.

I'd rather cruise around doing patrol missions or seeing what ledges I can boost up to while shooting stuff. Or just straight up doing crucible or strike missions.

the warlock has a cooldown melee icon beside the gernade. When it's maxed up it's an instant kill on PVP. When it's not maxed out it does something I'd imagine just slap fighting.

Actually this is going to sound silly but I noticed it as well and after experimenting think I know why the damage differs, as it isn't ability related or "precise" damage. I think when you are sprinting and hit an enemy with a melee attack it gets bonus damage from the "force" of your sprint. Testing on level 2-3 vandals I just noticed if I sprint and hit them with melee they go down in one hit, but when I do not sprint they survive with a sliver of health.

@karkarov: I also tried this, but the results were inconsistent as well. I've put up a ward of dawn and just beat on enemies for a full 45 seconds and came out with completely random results. It didn't matter if I was sprinting, aiming for the head, using my abilities or not even aiming at them at all and just letting the auto-aim home in on them. I've tried every known possiblity to figure out what causes this, and come up with nothing. My only guess is that there is a hidden critical strike chance on melee hits.