On thing that would make shield worth it, if it could block plasma/alike aoe attacks (from Plasma Cannon or alike).

It is RPS failure. I'm like 90% sure of it. I mean space marines love to melee anyway, but it doesn't help that it's a free win as soon as they get into close quarters. You've got as much chance at winning a melee fight as a devastator, you just have more chance to actually escape as a tactical.

Assault phase was never an auto-win for melee units in the tabletop. They just had a higher chance to break the other unit, but dice could still be against them. Tactical marines are perfectly capable of winning melee combats.

There's no reason any space marine should be any weaker than another by default. I'm happy with assault marines being as durable as tacticals. I'd just like to stand something of a disadvantaged chance in melee combat with a knife, like it was in Alpha.

JPA has mostly always been OP. To me this is nothing new. There was a time, for about 2 weeks when he was garbage, but its quite easy to kill with him. I prefer being a ground assault but I survive much more with a JPA. I don't play him much, only when I get pissed at the game.

Remember when @ShoulderMount played JPA exclusively last year and d.bash didn't work on JPAs at all? Pepperidge Farm remembers. Please don't kill me anymore, shoulder.

I think it's been pointed out enough that the melee is currently failing to do its job. Whether it's an unsolvable issue for the dev team or it's simply lower on their list of priorities remains to be seen. All I know is that I've been here for 11 months saying the same things about melee, and I truly feel that even if the system worked in its entirety (100%), the bash--a third of the system--would still be flawed.

Well, for a start how about: Dbash stun is applied the moment they hit the DBash with their light attack and holds long enough for a sword light attack to hit them. Alternative, Dbash applies some damage (equal to light attack?) but no stun, everything back to 0 and the RPS goes into the next round. Heavy Attack against Dbash gets reduced to light attack damage, otherwise it stays full heavy (for the back attacks and unprepared targets). Every RPS instance becomes equal to the other and you have a proper trinity. Weapon grades now dictate how often you have to win over the other to decide a fight so dedicated melees retain their advantages.

Just! no! more! rolling! out! of! it! You live by the RPS rules, you die by the RPS rules. That should apply to all classes, not just JPA btw.

But I know this will never happen

I hate the I frames evades on all the classes. They are unnatural and imo don't fit with combat system. There is no reason that an evade move should give you I frames- evade by definition should be a skilled move that you perform that causes your opponent to miss not a automatic no damage taken button press.

It was and is a cheap mechanic to make the system work. I don't know how many times I have caught Jump/Ground/Tactical in a corner or against the a wall and swung or shot repeatedly as they just "evaded" in place and ignored the damage. If you are to the point in combat of going toe to toe then every hit that connects should be doing damage be it big or small make all evade moves an actual evade that requires skill and positioning to pull off.

The actual melee moves should keep the I frames associated with the animations to make RPS work but the movement Evades should be dropped. Its current iteration is a crutch.