Personally, however, I strongly believe that the melee system as-is needs to go in the trash can and stay there, because it is a guessing game, not a contest of skill like it fucking should be. Here are my ideas, and @Oveur please take note of this because it might be a lot more fun and rewarding than the current system: Instead of the slow and clunky D-Bash, add a normal, much more responsive blocking mechanic that you can hold to block light melee attacks (staggering the enemy long enough to perform a light attack with any weapon OTHER than the powerfist) and reduce the damage of heavy attacks by 50% (no stagger). Blocking an attack without a shield will reduce your weapon durability by a percentage equal to the attacking weapon's impact minus 100. So for light attacks, a standard knife will reduce it by 10%, a standard chainsword by 13%, a power axe by 16% and so on. Heavy attacks have much more impact, will break your weapon much faster, and you will still take half damage to block them unless you parry it. The clang system should still apply to light attacks performed at the same time in much the same way it does now, but both weapons should lose durability based on each other's impact. Add a kick/bash that is performed as quickly as a light attack with the knife, but costs a stamina point to use and will do one of two things depending on the situation: If the opponent is blocking, be it with a weapon or with a shield, it will break their guard and stagger them as if they lost a clang, allowing you hit them with a light attack or shoot them. If the opponent is staggering, you will stun them for 2.5 seconds, wherein you can hit them with a heavy attack with any weapon, but if they take damage from anything other than poison or fire the stun will be cancelled immediately. Note: You can kick someone twice in a row to stun them if they leave themselves open to it, but keep in mind you just used two stamina points to do it. This is great for asymmetric balance, since this will be more effective with some loadouts and less effective for others as well as being a risk and reward strategy. For the JPA/Stormboy, the animation should be a jet-assisted shoulder bash so that it makes sense for it to use fuel. Rather than spamming light attacks to stop heavy attacks, make it so that you have to time your block in order to parry, providing both a visual and audible cue (make sure they are synced) that demonstrates when you should begin blocking. If you time it correctly, you will stagger your attacker, and you will not lose durability or take damage from the attack. Only kicks and light attacks can be performed when you are not in melee mode. You switch to melee mode by drawing your secondary weapon (if you are not a melee class already). Left mouse button will block UNLESS you aim down sights first, in which case you will shoot your pistol or cast your spell. Shield users will not be able to aim down sights and will of course always block with left click (unless you swap your controls). Swooping Hawks and heavy classes should be avoiding melee in the first place, so not being able to heavy attack is a fair trade, I'd say. Remove lock-on so that dodging around your opponent actually MEANS something if they are not expecting it. No more pistol cheese. No more free aimbot. More or less, the point is to make the melee a bit more like that in Warhammer 40k: Space Marine, where the Assault Class is both fun and rewarding to play because there is a variety of reliable attack combos and strategies in melee, and fun to play against because every class has the means to outplay the assault, and while you are at a disadvantage, you aren't completely defenseless.
