Melee

[Good Idea]

Will melee be improved? Right now it's a hopeless cause, melee strikes are extremely precise for some reason and not in a arc/ wider swing. Zombies have superb melee abilties which makes melee all but useless because of the lack of a feature to push or easier aiming.

[wordwaster]

melee isn't any harder than before. just...weird and different. the only problem i had with it was when i got into a death spiral on day 2 and didn't have the stamina for the power swing.

 

so tutorial time: use the power swing. the left mouse button is pointless. they should just move the power swing to the left mouse button and get rid of that garbage attack.

 

next: aim. you have time. the animation give you plenty of time to line up the shot.

 

do not hold down the right mouse button. just give it a single tap or you will end up with an extra swing that will drain your stamina.

 

a couple head hits with a wood club will knock a standard zombie down, run up and give them one more before they fully get to their feet = dead zed.

[Good Idea]

The thing is there is no arc, it's pointless to melee considering there's no way to push or to stop a zombie that attacks you and no skill to unlock the spiriting backpedaling again

[Skavies]

The timing might be a little different than we are used to, but it is possible to do a melee dance with the zombies backing up and darting forward between zombie strikes to land blows. I am not able to do this with cop or barfing zombies, but the other melee only zombies (not dogs) are easy enough even I can get them with my nerve damaged fingers.

 

Aim for the torso, not the head. This is a much easier target to hit, and will help you with getting used to the new dodge patterns. Later on when you get bonus head shot damage and are used to the patterns, go for head hits.

 

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The thing is there is no arc, it's pointless to melee considering there's no way to push or to stop a zombie that attacks you and no skill to unlock the spiriting backpedaling again

 

It is not necessary to sprint backwards, but being overloaded will hurt badly for melee.

[wordwaster]

The thing is there is no arc, it's pointless to melee considering there's no way to push or to stop a zombie that attacks you and no skill to unlock the spiriting backpedaling again

 

 

yeah. that would be nice. and it makes sense. not arguing against that at all.

 

but melee isn't hopeless. it can actually work better than a wooden bow atm.

[Melen]

so tutorial time: use the power swing. the left mouse button is pointless. they should just move the power swing to the left mouse button and get rid of that garbage attack.

 

I really don't get some of the declarations players make on this forum. Since the power attack is new, I forget about it all the time. I melee with an iron club, left mouse button attack, and have no trouble killing zombies. Not in 1 hit, sometimes maybe even 4-6 hits, but "pointless", I just don't get that unless you expect it to kill in one hit.

 

Power attack is great, except if one is coming up behind you and now you're totally out of stamina.

 

Run in, aim for the head, hit, back up. Rinse, repeat. Not difficult at all.

[rhud1979]

I guess it is all relative... Myself, I find melee to be easier in the early stages of the game, because that crappy bow just takes too many shots (especially for a terrible shot like myself:smile-new:)

 

Of course, there's always that chance that the stamina issues will strike at just the right moment.... But just like before, it's all about timing. Just different timing now.

[Good Idea]

Thanks for the tips, I still wish there was a push like in nmrih for example. You would be able to push zombies that begin to attack you away and interrupt their attack animation for a stamina cost

[wordwaster]

I really don't get some of the declarations players make on this forum. Since the power attack is new, I forget about it all the time. I melee with an iron club, left mouse button attack, and have no trouble killing zombies. Not in 1 hit, sometimes maybe even 4-6 hits, but "pointless", I just don't get that unless you expect it to kill in one hit.

 

Power attack is great, except if one is coming up behind you and now you're totally out of stamina.

 

Run in, aim for the head, hit, back up. Rinse, repeat. Not difficult at all.

 

because it takes longer to kill a zombie with it. i never said that it did no damage. but when compared to the power attack, it is vastly inferior. its the far better option that makes it worthless.

[Melen]

because it takes longer to kill a zombie with it. i never said that it did no damage. but when compared to the power attack, it is vastly inferior. its the far better option that makes it worthless.

 

Of course it is. You're not using as much stamina. If you're trying to melee multiple zombies and you use only power attacks, you're going to probably be dead. Using the lesser attack will at least let you get out of a situation with enough stamina to put a little distance between you and the zombies.

 

The good news is, I'm willing to bet someone will come up with a mod to reset much of this back to a16 levels and then everyone can be happy.

 

The bugs, tho... The bugs are frustrating. I like crafting things (fiber shirt, for example) and having them completely disappear.

[Aldranon]

If you travel light (only carry what you NEED), drink water before a battle, you will easily destroy everything once you have the range down.

 

Just focus on keeping the crosshair on the zombies head. With my sledgehammer, all tier-1 zombies die in 1 or 2 hits. I go out of my way to kill all zombies as the experience is too important. Ranged weapons are a bit weak right now.

[Krougal]

Although I can find many things to gripe about in A17, early combat isn't one of them. The changes to melee have taken a little getting used to the new timing, and having to be more mindful of stamina and how much room you have to move. It has made it a little harder fighting inside but taking a wandering horde outside is still pretty easy. The bow is even better now since arrows seem to go where you aim them (although having to release the aim, redraw and then aim again sucks...but you find your rythym eventually) and being able to retrieve arrows is a nice plus. Guns are a bit disappointing.

[wordwaster]

Of course it is. You're not using as much stamina. If you're trying to melee multiple zombies and you use only power attacks, you're going to probably be dead. Using the lesser attack will at least let you get out of a situation with enough stamina to put a little distance between you and the zombies.

 

The good news is, I'm willing to bet someone will come up with a mod to reset much of this back to a16 levels and then everyone can be happy.

 

The bugs, tho... The bugs are frustrating. I like crafting things (fiber shirt, for example) and having them completely disappear.

 

still uses stamina. 15 per swing for me atm. but takes twice as many hits to kill a zed. the power attack gets the job done faster for 24 stamina per swing. (your mileage may very with your perks and whatnot)

[OzHawkeye]

I'm having no issues with the new melee style at all, and meleeing almost everything.

 

It is very dependent on timing to be sure, and that could well be a problem on a server without a low latency connection (I'm playing SP only), so perhaps between now and stable there may be some adjustments/improvements to make it less "twitchy".

[JCrook1028]

Yea it's horrible. Took me a whole 15-20 zombie kills to adjust to the new timing! Sprint is not needed in combat at all, back away and in works just fine. Slow down, aim the power hit, watch your stamina......win. Taking out a wandering horde melee is no harder than in A16, it just takes a bit longer and I know that will go away as I unlock more perks.

[Roland]

still uses stamina. 15 per swing for me atm. but takes twice as many hits to kill a zed. the power attack gets the job done faster for 24 stamina per swing. (your mileage may very with your perks and whatnot)

 

Using the power attack reduces your max stamina faster than using the regular attack. If you use the power attack all the time then you'll have to eat more often. It isn't a very big difference but if you haven't yet secured a steady source of food then it is helpful to conserve max stamina when possible.

[wordwaster]

Ooooooh. That’s info. Well now I know a reason why I need to eat more a day than is physically possible.

 

But is the difference enough to save energy over 2x the weak attacks?

 

I had just assumed it was tied to stamina usage which would still make power attacks more efficient.

[giltirn]

I like the new melee, I only wish the hit didn't completely miss if the cursor is not over the zombie. It looks and feels very strange and makes it very very hard to fight on uneven terrain.

 

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Using the power attack reduces your max stamina faster than using the regular attack. If you use the power attack all the time then you'll have to eat more often. It isn't a very big difference but if you haven't yet secured a steady source of food then it is helpful to conserve max stamina when possible.

 

Huh, that's new. I thought the max stamina was going down at a constant rate, but you're telling me it's tied to stamina use? I guess that means I should start walking everywhere and avoiding the power attacks. Ugh, one more bother.

[PerroDeHierro]

Thanks for the tips, I still wish there was a push like in nmrih for example. You would be able to push zombies that begin to attack you away and interrupt their attack animation for a stamina cost

 

Good idea!!

[sadpickle]

The zombies are so slow now in the day it's really easy to just walk backwards and swing for the head.

[chaosterone]

For one or two zeds, wound them with bow shots, then melee. You'll live a bit longer and use far less stamina killing them.

[Auger]

Yea it's horrible. Took me a whole 15-20 zombie kills to adjust to the new timing! Sprint is not needed in combat at all, back away and in works just fine. Slow down, aim the power hit, watch your stamina......win. Taking out a wandering horde melee is no harder than in A16, it just takes a bit longer and I know that will go away as I unlock more perks.

 

Pretty much my experience. It takes a few minutes to get the timing down but after that you'll never get hit by the daytime normal zombies. It actually feels more natural to me, more like boxing. Do a jab or two and back up a couple steps repeat. Have extra stamina throw in a power attack.

 

I managed to kill a wandering horde at 33 stamina plus encumbered. Took a while of kiting but they all eventually died.

I'm not even bothering with arrows atm having fun just beating them all down with my wooden club.

 

First time I played I beat a dog up with a torch. Speaking of torches I haven't set any zed on fire yet from torch did they remove that?. Was always fun to light up zeds and watch them burn.

[Draz]

I like the new melee, I only wish the hit didn't completely miss if the cursor is not over the zombie. It looks and feels very strange and makes it very very hard to fight on uneven terrain.

 

That, and the weird queueing of attacks (if you press attack again before the earlier attack animation finishes, it'll later do another one) are the only issues I have with it. Both I think you can get used to, but it's not exactly ideal.

 

I do like the heavy-hitting, slow two-handers but I have to wonder about their viability in endgame (vs. later gamestage 7 day hordes, for instance) because unlike the ranged builds, with melee you're not only more vulnerable because of having to get to melee range, you will always only be able to attack one target at once - compared to someone with an AK/rifle who can do series of headshots in rapid succession. Some kind of sweep attack might be in order.

 

Edit: From the new build notes:

Fixes

-Melee attacks spamming when clicking while animation is playing

 

Yay!

[Mezameru]

Use right click it solves most problems in A17 related to clicking.

[Drunkwolf]

Melee is so much better now than it was. once i got the sledge hammer it was like i beat the game.