As an eldar player, there's two swords that stick out and that's the scorpions lash sword, and the banshees black power sword (forgot the name, don't play banshee). Lash sword is good, poison can help out a bit. But all in all it, like a scorpion, is very situational and is best used on squishy targets that should be a scorpions main target....that are gonna go down from a strong attack to the back in a hit or two anyways. Banshees excell a bit more with the black sword, as its durability and clash is higher, but it's still just a tier two blade. Power axes, mauls and fists/klaws will still stun you from too much impact. It's even worse for the chain sword wielding scorpion. All in all, I think eldar by far have the worst melee weapons in the game right now. BY FAR..and I'm not saying that with bias, as I play all other factions and have them all (currently or before) rank 5 at least with most wargear. This also leads to eldar being the worst melee combatants in the game as well. You really need to be quick on your thinking and be able to read enemy attacks very, very well, as a tactical with a combat knife can handily beat you if they are a skilled melee player as well. On top of all this, there's almost no point in banshee at all. A warlock puts out similar damage and can buff/debuff his whole or enemies team, and still melee quite well. I don't even bother with banshee.
As an ork player, The race i hate fighting in melee is probably Eldar. Mostly because slowest faction vs the fastest one. (Though i have fun playing eldar melee.) The second would probably be joint SM's. not for any specific wargear, but the fact they can lunge after three steps. If you get someone who can chain those together your dead, because there's no way of countering it since the lunge is outside of the RPS system. I FAWT ORKS WER POZED TA BE DA WUNZ USZIN DA BRUTE FORCE APPROACH! As a CSM, there's not a particular race i feel stands out against melee with me. As LSM- I can't really comment. Since I've barely unlocked anything melee yet. And often don't run with my shieldbro in favor of JPA.
Melee is actually both useless compared to ranged, and broken when it comes to weapons with ailments, like the burnin' choppa or the necrotic sword. Problem is almost 90% of the weapons with such ailments are swords, and those are the actual melee king of all the weapons we got blessed with. Considering that those ailments pass through the counter attack if timed correctly, even when you are defending yourself you got the ailment, your enemies does not even need to actually win the engagement as a fighter to actually secure the kill. What I fear for the future of melee is more ailment. And ailments are not the answer to melee fixing. Considering that a burning choppa should not even work at setting on fire a space marine or an eldar armor, except by setting their heads decoration on fire, that's pretty stupid.
Everything fast enough to stop someone from shooting. That's Chain / Powerswords. And they get used because of that verry reason, they are able to interrupt shooting when closing in and such. That's the main problem with melee at the moment. If you can add an ailment to that (Fire, Poison) all the better. That's why you barly ever see things like Axes / Mauls & Fists any more (apart from the AV Fist or the Possessed, who got no choice sadly) as they just get gunned down point blank
Currently: Swords: general purpose weaponry Axes: break swords, good for assassinating people with HH. Maces: Clanging weapon. modded can clang with all but fist HH so breaks all weapons when kitted out with clanging mod. Supposedly has added weight property so causes unknown amounts of extra stagger on hits. Power Fists: heavy hitting FA. slow ass HH, has best AV capability. breaks any weapon on clang except vs a modded mace in a FA vs FA clang. After BE manages to patch in the reworked melee weapon durability thing maces and axes might actually see more use because they will prob break other weapons in 1 or 2 clangs. I also think it would not be bad for the game if they would speed up axes and maces HH animation a tiny bid.
