Melee weapons - useful or not?

[topeira]

i dont know about you but me and my rommate never use our swords.
he has his trusted M60 which he keeps picking up after death but none of use use the swords.

am i missing something? i know i can charge my sword but even then they dont do THAT much damage.

do you guys think the swords are balanced and useful?
if yes than share - how do u use them? what's your technique?

Personally I prefer weapons/staves for the abilities they give. The M60 is great because of it's ability mow down targets at a range, but other useful ones would include the 'Knife of Counter-Striking' for its constant haste effect, 'Gram' for its ability to one-shot Fafnir, 'Sword of the Masters' has another ranged attack and strong melee, and a few others knockback enemies.

For general use though, one of my favorite strats would be using elemental shields as a weapon enchant. Example: ERAAA Shift+Left click allows you to create a line of frost lightning, which is great for slowing down big enemies such as trolls while you wind up a thunderbolt or something.

[TehJumpingJawa]

Melee for the most part is useless.
There are spells that are useful when cast onto your sword, and there are melee weapons with useful abilities, but actually hitting people with your sword? nah, that's a recipe for death.

Tbh this is a game about Magicians, not Barbarians
Magicians aren't meant to be the tanks, they're the pansies that stand far away lobbing in spells.

[TehJumpingJawa]

Originally Posted by Kappus

For general use though, one of my favorite strats would be using elemental shields as a weapon enchant. Example: ERAAA Shift+Left click allows you to create a line of frost lightning, which is great for slowing down big enemies such as trolls while you wind up a thunderbolt or something.

Do you not mean QREAAA?

[deadlybydesign]

I've found the fiery sword useful when mobbed, but only because it's a quicker command than an area effect burst of magicka. Magic is always superior, but melee is usually of damage for speed. Aside from the m60 and full health with the Master Sword, the best weapons are the effect ones. (Knife of Counter-Striking, etc, as has been said)

Originally Posted by TehJumpingJawa

Do you not mean QREAAA?

No, I use ERAAA, if I remember QREAAA would create a wall of physical ice the enemy would walk around, if it's a wall of frost-enchanted lightning, then they walk through it, very slowly, soaking up all that delicious electrical damage.

[Wertilq]

Another useful sword not yet in the thread is the one that freezes (not make them slow) on hit. It's a life saver. I don't remember the name. Was one of the two ice swords, one just makes a small AoE chill, but is slow, the other freezes, which is awesome.

M60 is awesome, but quite boring and a bit too good IMO.
I usually put a strong spell on my weapon though, that's useful. Steam, Arcane, Lightning does tons of damage, and is good when you get picked up or need to kill some pesky low life monsters infront of you.

Originally Posted by Wertilq

Another useful sword not yet in the thread is the one that freezes (not make them slow) on hit. It's a life saver. I don't remember the name. Was one of the two ice swords, one just makes a small AoE chill, but is slow, the other freezes, which is awesome.

The Frost Cleaver, which the goblin captains drop. A very useful weapon.

Most of the melee weapons in this game arn't that great. There are a few standouts that have been pointed out already. Here's a few more: Arcane Saber, it's a shame that it comes in Fafner's level. Also good is the Exotic Blade from killing Mcleod, since I think this is the only non-arcane/elemental weapon that can still hit for damage through armor, also being non-arcane it doesn't heal undead. In the undead level it's nice to have something to use to hack the zombies off you when they get too close. Other than the few times where there's not enough room to kite anything you're better off using your spell of choice to just gib all the monsters.

[real4xor]

I like using melee. It works fine. It`s not as powerful as magick, but hey, it`s not like you`re walking around with a warrior.

If it needs that little extra, you can weapon enchant.

Oh, and don`t forget about block... it actually helps to block attacks xD.

[toastandjam]

I use melee quite a bit to deal with the smaller foes that end up distracting me from larger, real threats.

When you need to be on-the-go, it's just far more convenient to hack through those lil goblins\spiders\etc. I'm a big fan of that fire sword from off the windmill in ch3, or anything which is fast speed+armor piercing (ie crowbar-- half life reference?).

[Jellye]

Enchanting your weapon with Ice+Arcane+Shield makes your sword hits so beautifully fatal.

[donut32]

steam fire arcane lightning shield on ur wep. auto death.

[LightOfDarkness]

QFASSS shift-left clik
Large range+kills small fry in a single hit

[jorgamun]

Originally Posted by LightOfDarkness

QFASSS shift-left clik
Large range+kills small fry in a single hit

There is no reason to put more than one of each mote you want on a weapon enchantment. I've tested it and it doesn't change the damage (which is about 2200 on steam elec arc weapon hits). This is also true with beam spells but not true with the others.