I'll start by saying in this post I am not trying to brag, I've simply noticed a lot of players are TERRIBLE at the melee online. I played a few games of annihilation tonight and in every match had atleast 1/3rd of my teams kills as an assault marine/raptor.

First off, its really....simple. I still use a chainsword and bolt pistol despite having unlocked the thunder hammer, I've got enough kills with both to unlock the extended pistol mags and vamp for chainsword. Before this I used furious charge, the best alternative when unlocked is the revenge pack (although many players are starting to wise up to your leaving gift, it works about 10% of the time). Combat stim should be a no brainer, this is equipment made for the class, you can pop it in the air and should, before rushing down and landing on someones head in bloody combat.

The second and I think most important point is using your bolt pistol...thats right...the tiny little 'handgun' you're carrying? Its a magnum that can 1 shot unarmoured opponents, if you hit them in the face anyway. I have beaten tacticals using bolters, stalker bolters...even plasma rifles with this baby and it is so underused its almost a crime. Yes its accuracy when out of aiming mode is pretty meh, yes without a perk its ammo is terrible, but its damage is always solid. If you're running headlong into combat with a full clip against someone who is simply gunning you down, you should seriously be asking yourself why you're not atleast chipping at the guys armour before you either die or get that jump off that'll throw the advantage to you. Once again, use your bolt pistol, the plasma pistol is nice, but too easily avoided.

The third and final thing, yes, you can jump, yes, its sweet and awesome, no, its not for travel. Your jump is limited and precious, save it. At the start of a match its fine to blaze ahead to capture a point or scout out your first target, but after that use it with caution. If you get caught by a tactical without a jump, you're boned, if you get targeted by a devestator....you've got next to no chance. Also bare in mind that as well as an initiation, its a breaker, players will generally find it awkward to track you after a jump so you'll have a second or two of respite, this is where you need to make the snap judgement. Do you dive back in to stun them and get maybe 2 hits off before they lay into you again? Or do you duck over the wall and hope that you dont get spotted or naded? Most of the time, a mid-fight dive will push the fight heavily in your favour, especially with chainsword lifesteal, and net you an easy kill.

The only other thing I can think of is...ignore interrupt attacks, the animation takes too long and does too little to justify itself, I'm sure on other classes they work but for someone carrying a big melee weapon, a shoulder/stomp isn't going to effect them as much as 3 or 4 slashes as you dance around them.

I hope this helps anyone who finds the melee in the game lacking, the truth is, melee by itself IS lacking, its weak, taking around 4 solid hits on a target to down them unless you're using a perked thunder hammer in which case its only 1, but harder to hit. The melee classes carry a sidearm for a reason, they also rely a lot more heavily on messing with your opponent in terms of environment and engagement.

As for me, I've yet to get any 'decent' games under my wing as tactical or devestator, so feel free to do something similar to this for other classes, or tell me why I'm wrong about melee. All I know is the scoreboard doesn't lie, since pimping my pistol, stuff has gotten crazy.

I think the most important thing is how you approach fights. Flanking and getting around enemies or knowing exactly where they'll come from can do a lot for you.

No offence, but most of that seems like a given. Though when I use Assault I exclusively use Power Axe/Bolter because one handing a Boltgun is badass.

I think it's less that the melee is lacking in MP and more that it wasn't really designed for use against other players...it can be pretty hilarious to see two people fighting and their attacks go right by each other, every swing missing. It's happened to me more often than not, so I find myself going towards the Tactical and Devastator side of things more often.

For Tactical though, I would say keep an eye on what all of your perks do, and mix and match a couple of builds to be most effective. Seeing enemy health and armour can save your life when you want to pick off enemies from a distance sniping, or are looking for the largest threat to one of your control points. It can also mean an easy Knife kill if you find a low health Assault/Raptor not paying attention to you. Also: Having your teammates spawn on you is fantastic, you should at least have one build with this perk. It can really help for flanking and surprising your enemy. Using two weapons at once? I say only do this if you want short and long range weapons at the same time. Rocking a Plasma Gun and a Boltgun might seem awesome, but really you're just limiting yourself to that same range and could be using another perk to help you, or your team out.

I don't have too much tips for the Devastators yet, but I'm learning their guns as I go.

Also, bringing out your Bolt Pistol on any class makes you run faster.

I'm finding I do my best work with the Stalker boltgun (burst fire, tac readout) or the heavy bolter (iron halo, H.B. Expertise), though if I'm in the right mood chainsword + plasma pistol assault has gotten me a LOT of kills in seize ground, the PPs extra armour damage is great for setting up melee kill. I'm most comfortable in situations where I can get to a spot and just rain bullets down onto a control point, picking off opportunistic raptors and such. I play Crimson Fists in the tabletop game, setting up a firebase with bolt weapons is sort of what they do best, so if you see a dude in dark blue armour with red hands bullet hosing a point it's likely me.

Quick tip about enemy assault marines, if they don't know what they're doing, or you catch them unawares, they'll likely boost up for a ground pound right in front of you. Drop a grenade at the right time and roll back so when they land the 'nade'll go off and strip their armour, then go nuts on their face with whatever firearm you do so choose. The trick is not to do it too early so they see the bomb and alter their landing. Also, interrupt attacks are pretty useful if a chainsword or an axe guy tries to get you, but I usually find that if a hammer guy gets the drop on you it's pretty much curtains.

Totally looking forward to a sequel to this with more fleshed out multiplayer, by which I mean, totally looking forward to a sequel where you can equip a power fist.

The game is far too lacking in the amount of maps for me to stick to one or two builds, so I pretty much hop around all the time in terms of what I'm using. (i don't recall names of all perks, so I'll frequently refer to them by effect)

Raptor/Assault:

People neglect their side arm too much and try to rely only on melee. Both the pistol and plasma have their uses, just reversed. The bolt pistol is a finisher weapon after you took of your oponents armor. Plasma pistol is a lead in weapon that you use to take down an oponents shield before laying in the melee hurt. Myself I prefer the plasma gun, since I like to soften up my target while still in the air or to fuck up dudes who think they are safe out of melee range.

Also prefer to use the sword due to the fact that it's faster then other wepons. Hammer is a good alternative if you can land solid landings on your oponents (har har) but in some situations it's just too slow against people who know what they are doing. A good tactical marine wil just rape you if you are sporting a hammer.

For the equipement I prefer flash grenades, to prepare the field for my coming so to speak. It's both a practical effect of masking your approach and a phsycological effect on your oponent. Combat stim is too limited in usefulness for this class imo. It only lasts 5 seconds (1-2 of those are wasted on descent/landing) and you only get 1 , forcing you to scavange. It's a usefull tool, but I just prefer flashbangs.

I've had many builds over time, but currently have settled on: Sword + flash + plasma + armor + zeal. Armor and Zeal help you survive for that little bit extra, frequently enough to finish your oponent or to get away to regen.

Tacticals:

There are many viable builds for Tacticals, they are the most flexible class after all, so I'll just post what I find works well for me.

Melta + frags + fast reinsertion + melta recharge. This is my go to class on Bridge to guard the middle point. You are basically in action almost 100% of the time. Corners and close range allow for melta to do it's work. If I'm using this on bridge, it will pretty much guarantee me toping the board. (you can also go be a dick close to your enemy's spawn and ambush them in their own bas with melta)

Melta + bolter + Kraken rounds + versatility + frags. A much more flexible build then the above. Solid at mid/long range due to kraken bolter and with defence against assault/raptors with melta.

Storm bolter + extra equipment + mastercrafted gear + frags. It's a dirty dirty whore of a class. 4 super grenades do terrible terrible dammage and can easily clear out capture points to either hold them or deny to the enemy. I only use it when I feel like being a DICK. People who use this build are dicks. But it is oh so potent and can net you many multi kills, and post death kills. If my team sucks, this is what I susually use to create as much pain for the enemy solo as possible. Storm bolter is mid/close range cleanup.

Devastators/Havoc:

I use combat stims for my devastators, no it's not crazy, it's a purely defensive tactic that helped save my ass many a time. Use it when going hard into enemy territory just before popping around a corner, or after a heavy beating by grenades to help provide a buffer. Devastators, don't need either frag or flash grenades really. With the damage you put out striping target armor is a non issue, and it's faster to just kill your target then blind them first.

Heavy bolter + iron halo + bolter mastery + stim. This is the build to hold any particular shooting line hostage. Anything in front of you dies. Iron halo is a must for almost all Dev builds. bolter mastery is great for when you want to move around as the time it saves on deployment of the heavy bolter is the difference between life and death. Even assaults that try to melee you from the front will die before they kill you. So choose a nice big thoroughfare and lay down the pain. The bridge middle point is an ideal plave for this weapon. Your 2 big weaknesses are your back, and devs with Plasma cannons. (killing flyers in mid air is also fun with this build)

Plasma cannon + stims + iron halo +1. Plasma cannons are beasts in the right hands and in the right place. Multikills are frequent. You can use it to flush out camping enemies even if they are heavy bolter devastator. Charge up before rounding a corner and let one go. If you are in a lul, keep cyclying your weapon. Unless you are on the move from one important postition to the next, always keep charging that plasma cannon for a big shot and if no enemys show up simply vent it, repeat. it keps you prepared more often then not. The +1 to the iron halo is any other perk of your choice. Faster armor recharge / better frag and melee protection / plasma charge are all good second perks to use as prefered.

Plasma cannon + stims + boot speed + boot damage. This is basically when you want to use the plasma cannon but theer are too many assault/raprors on the map. This is less usefull overall then the above but it will fuck up any dues that try to melee you. Simply boot, equip pistol and shot them, boot shoot, done, dead assault/raptor.

Easy, melta gun.

You win :)

But seriously that gun is OP, one guy can solo three guys if you are good at dodging :o

@amir90 said:

Easy, melta gun.

You win :)

But seriously that gun is OP, one guy can solo three guys if you are good at dodging :o

Don't be in melee range of the dude with the melta gun.

You win :)

imo you still need some smarts and tactics to use melta effectively, it's basically like any shotgun in an fps/tps. Powerfull when applied corectly no doubt.

I snagged this over the weekend. Booted up the multiplayer this morning. So far, most of my success has been rolling as a devastator, setting up on the fringe of battle and just laying down a blanket of lead. Question, though: when I "brace" or whatever, to improve my rate of fire but also can't move: is it possible to be knocked over by assault marines? I had a bunch land nearly on top of me, but I just mowed 'em down. There really wasn't any interrupt or stun animation that I saw. Did they just miss? Or am I resistant to that stuff when I've dug in?

Is there any point to playing without the paid DLC at this point? I want to go back but I have not got any yet.

I've been diving in as assault - ground pound, a few slashes with the chain axe, and then jumping away with the blowback perk to deal a little extra damage. It seems to be working for where I'm at (level 13 so far), but we'll see as I progreBLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD

SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE