07-08-2018, 05:59 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-13-2018, 01:20 PM by DarthVicious.)
I originally had a long, detailed, disorganized, and hilarious description for this build. Sadly, copy/paste only works for one thing at a time. Go figure. I'll try to reconstruct the good bits. I didn't include anything space oriented because this is a melee thread, but I can add that stuff to the build if anyone is curious.
Build
Most of the time when people see a melee sci they either ragequit, or they tell me to put the sword away. Sometimes relentlessly in chat I'll see messages to put the sword away, look at the stupid sci trying to melee, etc etc. Then I tank Mirror Leeta on Elite. Then they shut up.
Specializations: I use Miracle Worker and Command. Commando is acceptable as a secondary also, but the primary really needs to be Miracle Worker. You want Punch It. You love Punch It like the fat kid loves cake. Also make sure to actually hit your Run button to get this bonus if you're using a sword, as the charging animation swords have doesn't trigger it. Not sure if bugged, but whatever. Command gives some nice exploit bonuses, while also being useful in space, unlike Commando.
Ground Skills: Not a lot of options here. Crits and damage. Beyond that, take your pick between defenses and abilities. Moving on.
Traits: The two missing that I couldn't find in the planner are Brawler and Expedient Care. Brawler is mandatory for any melee, as is Lucky and Pack Leader for the expose chance bonuses. Expedient Care I combine with the 4sec cooldown on Medical Tricorder to keep Dylovene on 100% uptime. Tricorder Analysis is also a nice activatable CrtD bonus that tacks onto Tricorder Scan, which you should be using anyways as a Sci as it nerfs damage resists. The rest is mostly kit related, as there's not many relevant or useful damage bonuses here. Rep traits are just static damage bonuses, not much else that's useful. I tend to favor static bonuses or triggers that can maintain uptime, versus things that have internal cooldowns. The only one I'm not running that may be worth it is the Temporal rep one that buffs CrtD from control effects, but in my experience the duration wasn't worth it. The Romulan trait that gives knockdown on crit is VERY useful however, as is the Cryo Immobilizer, I just don't use them anymore. Once you get enough damage bonuses, Death is the ultimate crowd control.
Equipment: Aah, the interesting stuff. There are only two acceptable kits to use in my opinion, either a Delta kit for crit bonuses, or the Xindi kit that buffs expose chance. Take your pick for crit buffs, but the exploit damage/duration buffs aren't worth it in my experience. The expose chance buff is so huge it becomes worth it, combined with traits it adds up to something like 60%. I use the Undine rep armor, the roll buff is nice and it comes with serious resists to everything non-melee, which we're making up for elsewhere. Resists are important as your shields will be depleted most of the time. Terran rep shield and rifle give me the irresistible 2pc damage bonus, Interference Algorithm. If you have any doubts about how often this triggers, equip the Blissful Agony trait, it has an obvious visual cue. Once you see how often that glow comes up, your doubts will fade. Interference Algorithm can also maintain 100% uptime (15sec cooldown with 15sec duration), while Blissful Agony has an internal 30sec cooldown and 10sec duration. Devices I use are Gambling Device, Dosi Rotgut, and Rokassa Juice from Risa, they all stack together for 10% CrtH, 30% CrtD, and 10% damage. A Remodulator is only necessary if you have abilities that deal non-physical/kinetic damage, because your weapon can't be adapted to. And the SWORD... the epic mod couldn't be changed in the planner, but my mods are [CrtH]x4 [CrtD] [CrtH/CrtD]. Not sure if melee weapons are special and get five non-epic mods or if my sword is bugged, but I like it. I never use the rifle.
Duty Officers: Three Purple Melee Crit Security Officers. While I don't want to say they're mandatory as they're expensive these days and hard to find... they pretty much are mandatory. This crit buff is too huge to be neglected. It equates to 24% CrtH and 75% CrtD. Blue ones are acceptable as they give 18% and 60%, while being significantly cheaper. Worth mentioning this guy in addition to the original Reinforcements versions. The three doctors were a test to see how large the heal was. I saw one trigger for ~200 and haven't looked back since. This trigger can also critical heal.
Kit Modules: As a Sci, I can't use Lunge or Sweeping Strikes. Or Biotech Siphon, which is the only Tac module I'm jealous of. Instead, I use Electro-Gravitic Field and Seismic Agitation Field Sonic Disruption for some crowd control that sets off my Field Researcher damage bonus while also making enemies easier to chase down. Both of these abilities have durations longer than cooldown, by the way, and SAF SD deals Kinetic damage which the Borg can't adapt to, just like melee weapons. I use Modified Ketracel to make up for the 'lack' of melee resists while also getting control resist. Control resists are important, noone likes a rooted melee. Combined with Punch It, crowd control doesn't last long on me, and Punch It combined with Interference Algorithm allows me to punish them for daring to try and stun me. Dylovene is such a huge damage bonus, and the health bonus combined with Command secondary puts me around 1.5k health. Expedient Care also allows me to maintain 100% uptime on this, with Medical Tricorder's 4sec cooldown. Medical Tricorder really is the best healing ability, you can't beat an 800 point heal on a 4sec cooldown, not even with AoE. I used to use Metaphasic Rejuvenation with Triage to keep my allies up, and as handy as that was in Arena of Sompek, I gave it up for more versatile things. I'm an immortal melee, not a healer. Also worth noting that Triage, no matter how many allies you hit, only triggers Expedient Care once.
Other Notes: Understanding combos and the expose/exploit mechanic are CRITICAL for successful melee. This is where the difference between barely denting armor and huge damage numbers come in, and it will make or break you in Elites. I'm fairly certain the combos are the same for both the Tegolar and the Tsunkatse, but the Lirpa, Bat'leth, and unarmed are dramatically different animals. I've never used a Mek'leth or anything else, and thus can't speak about their effectiveness. Swords generally have three-hit combos, with exposes early and exploits last, with not much for crowd control, and the charge attack that's not part of any combo but does help nonetheless. Bat'leths I haven't used much, but they are similar to Lirpas. They feel awkward to me, as a lot of melee combat is chasing enemies down and they're not good at it. I'll make fun of you relentlessly if I catch you using a Lirpa. Fists have gotten better recently, with the Tsunkatse Gloves from weekend event vouchers. Fists have the fastest attacks and more crowd control options, with exposes and exploits, and even have some good AoE, but you lose out on damage compared to actual weapons (This may or may not be true for the Tsunkatse Gloves, likely not). Worth noting is the one combo that is guaranteed to critical (the attack itself has 100% crit chance). That looks fun, considering it's also an exploit. Once I get my gloves upgraded I'll try this with a Xindi kit to see haymakers for myself.
I can't stress enough how important combos, abusing expose/exploit, and building crit is to melee. This is the difference between successful melee and noob melee. Noob melees build tanky and don't use exploits, let alone combos. Noob melees only understand how to Lunge in and hit Sweeping Strikes, and believe only Tacs should melee because of these abilities. Noob melees worship the Iconian Death-Stick and spam it endlessly. Noob melees never see 5k crit exploit attacks. Don't be a noob melee, educate yourself.
And practice. Lots of practice.
Build
Most of the time when people see a melee sci they either ragequit, or they tell me to put the sword away. Sometimes relentlessly in chat I'll see messages to put the sword away, look at the stupid sci trying to melee, etc etc. Then I tank Mirror Leeta on Elite. Then they shut up.
Specializations: I use Miracle Worker and Command. Commando is acceptable as a secondary also, but the primary really needs to be Miracle Worker. You want Punch It. You love Punch It like the fat kid loves cake. Also make sure to actually hit your Run button to get this bonus if you're using a sword, as the charging animation swords have doesn't trigger it. Not sure if bugged, but whatever. Command gives some nice exploit bonuses, while also being useful in space, unlike Commando.
Ground Skills: Not a lot of options here. Crits and damage. Beyond that, take your pick between defenses and abilities. Moving on.
Traits: The two missing that I couldn't find in the planner are Brawler and Expedient Care. Brawler is mandatory for any melee, as is Lucky and Pack Leader for the expose chance bonuses. Expedient Care I combine with the 4sec cooldown on Medical Tricorder to keep Dylovene on 100% uptime. Tricorder Analysis is also a nice activatable CrtD bonus that tacks onto Tricorder Scan, which you should be using anyways as a Sci as it nerfs damage resists. The rest is mostly kit related, as there's not many relevant or useful damage bonuses here. Rep traits are just static damage bonuses, not much else that's useful. I tend to favor static bonuses or triggers that can maintain uptime, versus things that have internal cooldowns. The only one I'm not running that may be worth it is the Temporal rep one that buffs CrtD from control effects, but in my experience the duration wasn't worth it. The Romulan trait that gives knockdown on crit is VERY useful however, as is the Cryo Immobilizer, I just don't use them anymore. Once you get enough damage bonuses, Death is the ultimate crowd control.
Equipment: Aah, the interesting stuff. There are only two acceptable kits to use in my opinion, either a Delta kit for crit bonuses, or the Xindi kit that buffs expose chance. Take your pick for crit buffs, but the exploit damage/duration buffs aren't worth it in my experience. The expose chance buff is so huge it becomes worth it, combined with traits it adds up to something like 60%. I use the Undine rep armor, the roll buff is nice and it comes with serious resists to everything non-melee, which we're making up for elsewhere. Resists are important as your shields will be depleted most of the time. Terran rep shield and rifle give me the irresistible 2pc damage bonus, Interference Algorithm. If you have any doubts about how often this triggers, equip the Blissful Agony trait, it has an obvious visual cue. Once you see how often that glow comes up, your doubts will fade. Interference Algorithm can also maintain 100% uptime (15sec cooldown with 15sec duration), while Blissful Agony has an internal 30sec cooldown and 10sec duration. Devices I use are Gambling Device, Dosi Rotgut, and Rokassa Juice from Risa, they all stack together for 10% CrtH, 30% CrtD, and 10% damage. A Remodulator is only necessary if you have abilities that deal non-physical/kinetic damage, because your weapon can't be adapted to. And the SWORD... the epic mod couldn't be changed in the planner, but my mods are [CrtH]x4 [CrtD] [CrtH/CrtD]. Not sure if melee weapons are special and get five non-epic mods or if my sword is bugged, but I like it. I never use the rifle.
Duty Officers: Three Purple Melee Crit Security Officers. While I don't want to say they're mandatory as they're expensive these days and hard to find... they pretty much are mandatory. This crit buff is too huge to be neglected. It equates to 24% CrtH and 75% CrtD. Blue ones are acceptable as they give 18% and 60%, while being significantly cheaper. Worth mentioning this guy in addition to the original Reinforcements versions. The three doctors were a test to see how large the heal was. I saw one trigger for ~200 and haven't looked back since. This trigger can also critical heal.
Kit Modules: As a Sci, I can't use Lunge or Sweeping Strikes. Or Biotech Siphon, which is the only Tac module I'm jealous of. Instead, I use Electro-Gravitic Field and Seismic Agitation Field Sonic Disruption for some crowd control that sets off my Field Researcher damage bonus while also making enemies easier to chase down. Both of these abilities have durations longer than cooldown, by the way, and SAF SD deals Kinetic damage which the Borg can't adapt to, just like melee weapons. I use Modified Ketracel to make up for the 'lack' of melee resists while also getting control resist. Control resists are important, noone likes a rooted melee. Combined with Punch It, crowd control doesn't last long on me, and Punch It combined with Interference Algorithm allows me to punish them for daring to try and stun me. Dylovene is such a huge damage bonus, and the health bonus combined with Command secondary puts me around 1.5k health. Expedient Care also allows me to maintain 100% uptime on this, with Medical Tricorder's 4sec cooldown. Medical Tricorder really is the best healing ability, you can't beat an 800 point heal on a 4sec cooldown, not even with AoE. I used to use Metaphasic Rejuvenation with Triage to keep my allies up, and as handy as that was in Arena of Sompek, I gave it up for more versatile things. I'm an immortal melee, not a healer. Also worth noting that Triage, no matter how many allies you hit, only triggers Expedient Care once.
Other Notes: Understanding combos and the expose/exploit mechanic are CRITICAL for successful melee. This is where the difference between barely denting armor and huge damage numbers come in, and it will make or break you in Elites. I'm fairly certain the combos are the same for both the Tegolar and the Tsunkatse, but the Lirpa, Bat'leth, and unarmed are dramatically different animals. I've never used a Mek'leth or anything else, and thus can't speak about their effectiveness. Swords generally have three-hit combos, with exposes early and exploits last, with not much for crowd control, and the charge attack that's not part of any combo but does help nonetheless. Bat'leths I haven't used much, but they are similar to Lirpas. They feel awkward to me, as a lot of melee combat is chasing enemies down and they're not good at it. I'll make fun of you relentlessly if I catch you using a Lirpa. Fists have gotten better recently, with the Tsunkatse Gloves from weekend event vouchers. Fists have the fastest attacks and more crowd control options, with exposes and exploits, and even have some good AoE, but you lose out on damage compared to actual weapons (This may or may not be true for the Tsunkatse Gloves, likely not). Worth noting is the one combo that is guaranteed to critical (the attack itself has 100% crit chance). That looks fun, considering it's also an exploit. Once I get my gloves upgraded I'll try this with a Xindi kit to see haymakers for myself.
I can't stress enough how important combos, abusing expose/exploit, and building crit is to melee. This is the difference between successful melee and noob melee. Noob melees build tanky and don't use exploits, let alone combos. Noob melees only understand how to Lunge in and hit Sweeping Strikes, and believe only Tacs should melee because of these abilities. Noob melees worship the Iconian Death-Stick and spam it endlessly. Noob melees never see 5k crit exploit attacks. Don't be a noob melee, educate yourself.
And practice. Lots of practice.
