Melee

[Angelyotov]

Mele is fine for me having no problem killing a day time horde one by one

[Zourin]

A wooden/Iron reinforced club can smash down a zombie in 3-4 power swings without perks. Mind your six, backpedal, and take pot-shots between their swings. Even without melee perks, an iron axe can drop a normal in two swings, usually sending the bugger flying six feet on the first hit.

 

Melee is substantially better, even unupgraded, than ranged by a massive margin. Ranged combat is a tedious and horrible resource sink unless you heavily invest into ranged perks. If you liked getting one-shot and stealth kills in A16, you just as well retire now, because you need both Perception and Agility for the headshot and sneak attack multipliers, because bows/crossbows get NOTHING else.

 

Take your time, mind your six, and mind the time of day. If you're cutting below 40 stamina, turn around, run away a short distance, and recover stamina before continuing. Wandering hordes are massive XP pinatas now because of the disproportion of xp towards combat. Clean up EVERY zombie you see unless you're tripping for a trader or iron ore. A dead zombie is now worth more than all the empty trashcans in the game, so get cozy with that kite range.

[gcomerfo]

Melee feels like I am playing Octo-Dad.... remember that game?

 

In fact so does using the stone axe - the click-swing is literally not letting you swing a second blow right away.

[ubai]

I find the new combat easier. Power attack makes killing regular zeds pretty reasonable, and I can even kill the occasional dog or two in melee if I don't get swarmed.