Teach me how to melee

(MisterBadmin) #21

I do a lot of stupid stuff in DB, to the point where I have 2 melee weapons on the first page of my highest kill weapons. Safe to say, I know a bit about how to give someone the business with a blade.

Let me reiterate that going for melee kills is silly, probably going to get you longspawned if you tunnel vision on your prey and will likely lose you some objectives, if not games. Do not do this in ranked, you might eat some friendly lead or explosives and leave your team a man down.

Don’t just melee, that’s silly. And liable to get you shot. Take the Shinywindow approach and empty a few rounds into your target before moving in for the finish. Try to drop them within light attack range, but if they insist on invading your personal space, remove them. Forcefully. With a heavy, decisive blow.

Know who is vulnerable to your strikes. Aura and Sparks can be hard to hit, but will be downed in one heavy strike from anything. Anything 90 HP will survive unless you have Chopper or the Katana. Try to keep tabs on anyone else in the area, especially if the enemy team is running Phoenix. His burst heal can push low enemies past the point of being downed. (As a Phoenix player, I love saving my allies from melee nerds by sneezing then applying lead. It’s satisfying.)

Diving into enemies in general is dangerous, but especially into an Aura nest. Melee has high burst damage, but if you miss a strike on someone you can’t one shot, they will heal a bunch back, and quite possibly end you. Know when to skedaddle and try to have an exit plan. This is doubly so when dropping Nader. Martyrdom hurts, but you can longjump out of range if you’re fast enough. Bonus points for killing while midair and not looking at the explosion.

Having a distraction is always helpful, such as a ticking C4 charge that 4 people are surrounding. It sure makes for an interesting killfeed when you get in there and hold right click.

(azz_abdr) #22

If you want melee, faster merc is better (for katana, Kira is better than Phantom).
Always use stab (right click) for first move, then follow up with a slash (left click) for most mercs.
Fragger need 2 stabs but I don’t recommend to melee him, Thunder too but don’t use a bat or beckhill, for Rhino is a no.
Not many player know about this: stab (and slash too) can hurt more than one enemy in one move as long your weapon is still in stab animation, you can hurt a group of enemy if you are moving, and if you move your mouse left and right real quick, if you lucky it will hit twice, or at least will hit them if they are moving, so quick slash is a disadvantage for this trick.

(ThunderZsolt) #23

@azz_abdr said:
Not many player know about this: stab (and slash too) can hurt more than one enemy in one move as long your weapon is still in stab animation, you can hurt a group of enemy if you are moving, and if you move your mouse left and right real quick, if you lucky it will hit twice, or at least will hit them if they are moving, so quick slash is a disadvantage for this trick.

I miss beyblade Phantom :’(
Melee swings effect everyone in the area, I often get a double kill with the katana in one slash.

Charging in with your melee drawn doesn’t work. If the enemies have a brain, they will simply keep the distance and shoot you down.
When trying to melee, flank as much as possible. If you approach the enemies from the front (or you get noticed) switch to your primary and fight back.
When you are forced into a gunfight relatively close, you can still try to move in for a melee kill, following this steps:

  1. While shooting, your main goal is to get close, so choose your strafe pattern that leads to your enemy.
  2. Juke as hard as you can, you are only shooting to make the enemies strafe as well. If you have your melee out, they realize that they don’t have to strafe, making them more accurate.
  3. 2nd goal is to lower their HP into the 1hit range. semi auto/burst rifles make calculating easier.
  4. When you are close enough, longjump and kill.

Other method to combine shooting and slashing is to soften up enemies:

  1. get hit, and then retreat to cover.
  2. Wait behind a corner with your melee drawn, and predict when they willshow up.
  3. Start a heavy strike before they get there, so they won’t have a chance hit you.
    This works exactly like luring enemies into cooked frag nades, if you are familiar with that tactic.

Some other tips:
When switching between shooting and stabbing, quickdraw is the best augment you can have. For example take the B84 tornado rifleman card for Kira. The 30% reduction in weapon switch time means you can shoot a burst, slash, and shoot agait 60% faster. Helps a lot while still practicing, and you miss your stab. Also, a headshot burst + a heavy attack with the katana kills Thunder, or 2 bodyshot bursts and a strike.

Sparks is very good at melee. She can use the cricket bat and the bechkill as well, she is quick (especially with the 181 tornado agent card) and can heal herself.