Remember, this is Alpha. The devs already came right out and said that melee was getting nerfed but not permanently. They will be doing this a lot and it's our job to ride the waves of change.
Lame-ass assault marine spam and Traitor assault, the new meta. Just like in Space Marine with the exact same problems as Space Marine (I'm talking THQ game). Assault Marine/Raptor dashes around, can't shoot him until he lands, but then its too late because you get stunned and 1-2 shot. GG #gamebalance. Nobody likes being stun locked or insta-gibbed but that is the current state of the game.
"Gimmicky" would be the word I would use. Overall animations across the board need smoothing out. Especially on mid-lower end computers. We'll see how that goes as they progress through to Launch but I don't have my hopes up. Another thing they need is actual jetpack sound and MUCH louder footsteps. Currently the game doesn't have a sound system set-sup for things at a distance. Gun/explosion effects feel like they are happening right next to you or not at all. Planetside 2 had this problem forever where for some reason a guy with a rocket strapped to his back made 0 sound.... #logic. Its not supposed to be a stealth class, its an ASSAULT class. You rush forward to pressure and engage targets in melee, likely killing other non melee in the process. Currently that isn't a thing because melee are so terrible at frontal assault (this is where any melee buffs need to go). But again, that's going to be an armour/TTK issue that the devs will eventually have to address. They are dreading it now but mark my words, for this game to go anywhere, TTK will have to increase. Right now Assault Marines and Ground Assaults just try their best to come at you from behind or the side because if they come from the front they're done.... But that is exactly what they need to be good at is charging forward. Assault Marines would have a much more interesting time if they felt a lot "chunkier" in terms of their jet movements, health, melee, etc. They would be louder too (ideally chain sword would make small motor noise but we can live without that). Though their jetpacks need to not be stealth units and players need to hear them when they are flying in the air and coming down at you. Half the time I have a really good position held down and my team is behind me but then out of nowhere some random assault sneaks past everyone. Not because he was sneaky, but because everyone's field of view is so small and assaults can fly so high in this game for some reason. And then of course he makes no noise during this whole thing so nobody thought to look around because lo and behold, no noise was made. Its a tricky thing to balance but after getting 2-shot insta gibbed chain sword from behind I just don't even want to play this game. The entire feeling of this game is "its out of player control" most of the time. Spawns are randomized with no set spawn locations and there's just so many ways to get around one another so you never get this "front line" feeling which is supposed to be there. It honestly feels like CoD with space marine re-skin over everything. TLDR: Melee classes need changes/tweaks so they can charge in better and survive. They need dmg nerfed at same time slightly so people can react to the situation and Assault Marines need jet packs that make sound so players can react to them. But all dis requires rebalance of entire state of game and change to rock-paper-scissors melee system. :<
I've always felt melee to be broken post patch: Jetpack spamming, THAT GOD DAMMED SHIELD, and my personal favorite the melee stun. I am enjoying the new tweaks, mostly because the Melta gun absolutely destroys melee classes (and everything else mind you). Though the combat stun still means certain death no matter what scenario which blows, but you gotta give the Melee classes some cheese.
Alot of this sneaky assault getting behind you issue can be solved by paying attention to the mini map. Of course the assault Jetpacks should be incredibly loud as its a concentrated fusion burst. Power armor is for more than protection, enhanced senses and HUD display in the helmet allows the machine spirit to provide updates from the SM and CSM ships orbiting the planet including the position of enemy soldiers. If you want to be able to survive landed attacks from SM or CSM weapons which is designed to put down warp beast and Powerful Xenos (tyranids) then hope they allow us to acquire MK8 Errant power armor which cover the black joints with plates including the shell trap in the neck join which is known to catch rounds that reflect off the chest plate leading to a head shot. People should remember that Power armor was designed to further enhance the abilities of a Genetically enhanced super soldier. It was never intended to make them a walking tank against another Genetically enhanced super soldier in the same suit. What I would personally like to see is the bolter to be redesigned to match cannon. The gun should be 20-25-30 round sickle clip semi auto and (up to) 4 round burst per trigger pull based on time held. This is assuming we are all using Godwyn Pattern Bolters which would be the current standard. I would also love if they took the time to implement locational damage to the armor as it would take 2 or 3 bolts to effectively pierce a plate of the armor hitting the same area. It would not be to hard overall but I doubt it is in there budget or plans. As it is right now everyone seems to be using toned down storm bolters with Banestrike or Kraken rounds and equipped with a low power Rosarious. Godwyn pattern The model currently used by most Space Marines is designated the Astartes MK Vb Godwyn pattern. The Godwyn-pattern bolter has a built-in ammo counter and uses a Sinister/Dexter locking mechanism with a sickle-shaped magazine carrying 30 rounds.[7b] It fires the standard Astartes .75 calibre bolt, composed of a diamantine tip, depleted deuterium core and mass-reactive detonator, typically in bursts of four rounds.[7a] Other features include a palm-print sensor for genetic identification,[15] as well as an integral targeter that links with the autosenses in the Marine's helmet for superior accuracy.[22] It can also be upgraded with weapon accessories such as the M40 Targeting System.
jump assault = jump land stun kill one or two guys jump throw grenade land stun kill another few guys. Hmm. Meanwhile you cant even see where he is until he is on his way down again. and your to busy trying to just evade the stun if you do he just jumps and repeats.
So, Heavy Bolter Devastator weighing in on a melee thread. Let's see how this goes... First off, let me start with saying I think the melee system is not so much broken as unoptimized. The fixes and changes the devs are putting in are just to try and make it as playable as possible for their data collection and the balance and optimization that will come later. Second off, concur that skill doesn't really play into the melee now. I see way too much fast attack spam, and people too busy exploiting the flaws in the system to even look where they are attacking. However, I will say that us "skilled" ranged melee folks are at a bigger disadvantage. As a HB, my way to survive melee is to stagger the caveman swinging his club, jump back, and then gun him down. I am too slow to really do much else. That system is currently broke because I don't have good cues to tell me the other person is stunned, and the time to get my weapon up and firing takes longer than the stun to wear off. I've gone toe-to-toe with MoN and Raptors for 5-10 seconds, but I eventually get brought down because I can't disengage from melee, and don't have the tools to kill via melee. Third, I do NOT concur with your statement that a ranged (or at least a HB Devastator) shouldn't have much chance against an assaulting melee. If you are +/- 30 degrees off my nose, you deserve to go down. Maybe stagger you first to give you a chance to recover and maneuver, but the current system where you can just power through multiple high caliber rounds to smack me in the face (it hurts!) is, in my opinion, not valid. I've had several instances of folks dying at my feet after charging across a room or hallway at me, with me blasting away (with hits registering).
I think the biggest problem right now is that the HB seems to have some hit registering issues so they can be bold enough to run straight at us through our fire, I assume this gets patched soon enough. I just hope the pistols arive soon, so we have something to capitalize on the Dbash stun, the HB just isn't fast enough, neither shooting nor swinging.
