Because a) people wanted to exit fights with a better chance at being unharmed as opposed to alive but maimed for life

and

b) because the physical conditioning is real to swing a sword for more than 10 minutes without being exhausted.

Damn I forgot the /sarcasm flag again.
Even though, a), with all the weapons we have now, the "better chance at being unharmed as opposed to alive but maimed for life" is really relative.

I'm not ok with a PF not being able to destroy a weapon in clang battle but in the case of light against D-Bash, well you lose the RPS fight, even if the RPS is bugged with the fist (intended by the devs like the spread on laser cannon to avoid over usage of a AV weapon for AP duty).

The problem with melee imo is, how to represent slow and heavy weapons (PF, maces), medium weapons (axes), and fast light weapons (swords). Just dmg stat? People will go for the biggest number. Swing Speed? People will go for the quick spamming sword, some exception for the axes.

Another problem will come with 2 handed melee weapons, they have more range, some deal humongous amount of damage (2 handed power maul). I like melee but I'm afraid that it will not go better with the time.

Amusing, Not sure if your agree'ing with me on this one, but ill take it however.

https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.ne...est/scale-to-width-down/600?cb=20091011115912

In my opinion it would feel better if it wasn't so easy to die in the game from even our basic weapons. The TTK is just pretty damn low and doesn't really necessitate any slower more damaging weapons until you start attacking a vehicle. This pretty much means it doesn't matter what weapon you're hit by, you'll die in roughly the same amount of time (so long as the hits land of course)

For ranged classes, the difference is usually .5-1 seconds of more accurately landed shots.
For melee classes, the difference is usually 2-3 FAs or 1-2 SAs that land. (D-Bashing damage remains low regardless of weapon)

However melee damage can be stalled/negated completely with proper usage of the RPS system so you end up taking universally longer time to down someone with a melee weapon than any ranged weapon AT ANY RANGE. (Bar few exceptions) The only exception is Rear SAs with a heavier melee weapon (Axes/Mauls sometimes, Fists always if it lands).

Normally when you take a more powerful weapon the benefit you get from that is usually you hit harder but attack slower. However as said before, the damage difference is so little that it ends up being poor trade.

The issue is that the trade offs of speed and damage is no longer working after all their changes and tweaks making swing speed overpower damage bonuses of any sort.

During CC, the TTK when going melee is based on your melee weapon and how many times you win in the RPS system. A heavier weapon means that you deal more damage per round of victory, and that you will eventually break your opponent's weapon if you keep getting ties and clangs. So if your opponent is stuck with a faster but less powerful weapon they have no choice but to win most of their RPS rounds to achieve victory in CC, else wise they'll die. Depending on the tier of melee weapon, the amount of tries you have to defend yourself before you die from sheer damage or have your weapon broken becomes longer or shorter.

With the current meta, speed outdoes damage due to the animations being fast enough that it nearly breaks the entire RPS system. Knives and Swords can FAs twice or land a single SA during a D-bash stun, outdoing all other weapons in damage but a lucky SA from a fist. All others can only land one FA (and sometimes not even thanks to rolling out of stun)

So the only thing you got with a heavier weapon is that you have better impact. Except the problem is said impact is only barely noticeable (usually in 1v1 melee) since being tied up for 2-5 seconds ends up to you usually being shot to death before breakage. Add in dodge rolls and iframes and even a Heavy class can delay a melee class for 3-5 seconds...

Then add in the ranged classes, namely Tacticals who currently can instantaneously switch back to their main gun and fire at you instead of using a knife anytime during a CC RPS round. The only way to stop gunfire is to hit them because other than hit-stuns you just take damage from the shots regardless of what you pick in the RPS mode (D-bashing does not negate shots, only melee damage).

Effectively they get a Gun >>> (Rock<Paper<Scissors<Rock) Not made better because you're toting around a slower melee weapon. If you can get shot between swings/rounds with a sword, you get shot even more with anything else slower.

It's really not worth to going with a heavy melee weapon at all unless you want to blow up a vehicle or an gun emplacement.
You're not winning in speed (obviously) because you traded that off for more damage.
You're not winning in DPS against the lower tier weapons or guns anyways.
You're not breaking weapons a decent rate to kill whoever you cornered even with the most powerful melee weapon with the highest impact. (A tactical will more likely shoot you to death before you break his knife with a power fist...)
And you spend more LP on said weapon so usually less tankier/have less gear to use such as grenades or medipacks

Have you ever played the table top from where all this stems?

Yeah and whats that got to do with a lobbyshooter? @Gazrick
I mean i understand its in the lore. Not really my point though.
If we just import TT logic here,...going always be messed up. There's certain aspects that can't carry-over.

And i think alot of people's problem is pre-meta change. Melee was racking up 30-50 kills. Which i bet was super fun. But the problem is that 50kills in a match is game breaking. Means that on a ticket map your responsible for a complete wipe on a point. Other times,. with a standard of 4second respawns, 6.6mins worth of people on a spawn screen. That's pretty bad in a game where objective taking should out-rule the kill-o-meter. Melee suffers, but the game gets back in balance.

I do agree that "In" melee a Dedicated class to AP should win 9/10. Theres always luck. but when your Saying a AV weapon should be just as good in AP,..that's not really a good argument. Just sounds like you wanna be OP with the highest damaging weapon. Sadly not how this system works.

I'm not saying the game should follow the TT word for word but if you base a game on the 40k franchise I expect (no, demand) that melee combat be a significant part of the experience. The reason people "got the idea that 40k is about swords and powerfists" is because assault/melee is a MASSIVE part of the Table Top game on which this is based.

If I wanted to play a pure lobby shooter, I would stick with Call of Battlefield or whatever.

Melee combat has it's place in this title and it should by virtue of being a 40k game.

Well don't compare it to TT right now because it's aeronef ranged fiesta. Even Demon player swap their Khorne Demon for Tzeentch one. Tyranid who were supposed to be a melee focused race are using termagant+spawner with flying (aeronef now) Prince with dual J-infestor. They completely ditched genestealer since "the 120hp beast" is dead and even more since they lost their Ymgarl genestealer (they lasted one codex, guess why). Tau... well they play Tau.
Melee is not useless but it's far from being the best. Few unit survive and only due to them being ranged immune while in melee (Tyranid don't care and bioplasma the shit out of it since the termagant will respawn).

The words now are mobility and one turn wipe, and few melee unit have both.

I added more to my other point if you like to read it. Sorry..im slow.

Melee when its used correctly is very impacting,.

Using a Melee to rush a point first,..normaly not a good idea unless your a shield user.
Protecting a Point during capture, as your first strike will always be free.
Running the outside lines, and working into a position where your behind your targets while they're focus elsewhere.
Sneaking up on heavy weapons from their non-sight vantage point.
Dueling other melee is stupid, gets you killed..time wasted that your not taking advantage of your class.
And sometimes, the door is just closed and your not going to break the line, unless your ranged pals make one.

I dont main a Melee class, but i've spent hours training myself to not be as predictable, and dueling people better at melee then me. If i play my GA, i get way more kills then my ranged class's if im using him in the fashions above. Most people claim its broke, because they are super unlucky in a system that has to be practiced.

Is it perfect, No...can it be worse...TOTALLY
Just saying, be careful of what you wish for.

To a point I agree with that I think you're trying to say.

And so do GW apparently, which is likely why in the next edition we're going to have more of an assault focus - rumours of the assaulting unit having attack priority etc

Regardless you're talking about one edition, I've played multiple and assault has been stronger in some, weaker in others, though it is always there any always relevant.

This isn't just a pre-meta change. There has been one patch I can think of where melee was genuinely out performing range and had the kill counts you're talking about. One patch and it was very, very early on. I haven't seen 30-50 melee kills in a very long time and even then decent ranged players were pulling in just as many.

No-one said that an AV weapon should be as good in AP. What they said is that the Fist/Klaw should be better. You pay a shit ton of loadout points to take it, it simply isn't worth the points. Not in AV or in AP capabilities. In AV you have to walk up to the vehicle and fucking hit it. Y'know what immediately counters that? Ranged, of any type. Y'know what else totally fucks it? Ease of Eldar roadkill. The video here shows how poor it can be at AP, I don't think I need to go into this any more. It is useful as a surprise kill tool and that's about it, in all other aspects it's outclassed by another weapon.

I don't think it could be much worse, personally. Of course if you have a good player they will do well in melee, I always manage it because I've spent a shit ton of time using the system.

The point is pretty simple though, if the same, good player who managed to flank or get behind their targets had a gun, they would do infinitely better than the same player using a melee weapon. This is wrong and it is broken. It means there is no incentive or reason to play as a melee class.

The melee situation can only get better. I'm literally topping the melee kills with less than 10 in some games. That's how few people use a dedicated melee class now. I don't think it can get worse and I think you need to play more melee to truly understand how bad the situation is.