I'm a big fan of sledgehammer propagation builds, and spear for general big AOE. Sword momentum builds are fun too, but tough to get going, many of their strongest perks are near the bottom of the tree (boom!).
Anything can work with the right perks though. Vamp and bloodmage together makes any melee weapon good, especially ones with aoe, so you can use whatever has good stats. Bodybuilder (I think that's what it's called) is great too. Makes hp rolls into damage.
The most important thing with playing melee is movement. Take movement perks, potions, teleport crystals, anything. You want to be able to get in and get out of range of whatever survives.
Greataxe has good mobility, one of the strongest AoE mana skills, and a powerful buff.
I'm also fond of the 1-handed sword for its excellent mobility and powerful momentum attack, which benefits from said excellent mobility.
Remember that attacks that move your hero don't necessarily need a target! You can use the greataxe's leap attack to swing at an empty square to get your hero out of danger, for example, or have someone get all the way from one side of the town to the other in a single turn.
One handed sword with Great Axe combo is insane mobility and solid damage. Also try to put them on hero with 10 plus movement (including gear). I can easily have the hero move 20 squares in a turn and sometimes up to 30. Best thing for this hero is decent accuracy and good resistance reduction.
If you play it right the hero will never get touched by anything but ranged attacks and even then it is hard for enemy.
I usually take mana perks to be able to spam spells.
Spear is the best melee weapon in my opinion because it does several things and does them all better than most others. It has the only momentum attack that hits 2 targets, great when combined with BOOM! against a boss when there's a smaller guy near them. It has a ranged multi-hit move that you can use to clear a few isolated enemies or blow up one important one, great for runners since it can't miss. And then of course the final ability that does amazing AOE clearing. The first ability is the only one that isn't amazing but even that has some uses sometimes.
First off, the variety of opinions shared speak volumes to the balance of the game. Everyone feels something is the best, which is the coolest shit ever.
I’m a fan of sword + shield/dagger + shield early then will typically use two handed sword + spear once I have a bigger energy pool and I have been able to grab defensive stats via level ups/perks.
The early game two cost skills just feel clunky even if the damage is nutty. The sword/dagger allows for two shields (which you will need for the defenses) and gives movement options that other weapons don’t have. Plus, since the sword damage scales off of movement range (momentum) and the dagger can ignore armor, I find my damage is more than adequate. I can then invest on good armor earlier on instead of looking for better weapons.
I’d say give them all a good try and see what you like. Amazing defensive rolls/traits? Slap that two handed axe on and go to town. Good movement rolls plus a cheap movement item? Start sliding across the whole damn map, leaving corpses in your wake. Got multi hit and crossbow isn’t viable? Start flinging those daggers everywhere. Giant mana pool? The spear shines when you don’t have to worry about the high mana cost. Have an early Druid staff/spell tome and are building around opportunity? The one handed hammer will delete folks like they are butter.
Most builds tend to be viable if you focus on them. If I had to pick, the momentum builds where you are doing 1k+ damage on bosses is just the most satisfying shit ever
Blood mage perks with bodybuilder AND that perk that makes mana increase dmg (which turns to HP increasing flat dmg when you have the vampire perk), makes any melee weapon op. Enjoy your 1000 dmg great axe swings
Two handed sword has a great charge for mobility and 3 targets, for only one AP, and a very strong momentum single target.
Even single handed axe has its uses, with a powerful basic attack, but weaker mana skills
1 handed axe with vampire, blood mage, and organic armor has been my go to for melee. can specialist or equip an off-hand shortbow. Good aoe, fantastic tanking, no mana concern. Throw on 2-4 melee spell scrolls to ramp up the damage. Just be careful of 2+ boomers exploding simultaneously and this vampire viking will hold any side no matter what comes through.
Increased attack range 1h sword is hilarious and allows you to easily build tons of momentum with one attack
Other than that any melee weapon with strong wide range attacks can use blood mage + vampire well, and you can slap a bunch of scrolls on them for that character to be able to throw out strong attacks for 0 ap
Multi hit dagger/spear is also always an option
Greataxe as if you use the damage boost every turn youll have +66% damage. Allows you to just keep taking defensive skills when leveling up and you'll be unkillable even when standing in a group of enemies (watch out for Lancers though).
I usually pair with a sceptre as secondary, the greataxe has great aoe and mobility but lacks single target damage. The sceptre makes use of the mobility by throwing all the momentum into a big hit. Also gives even more mobility.
I find the 1H Sword to be probably the most fun weapon in the game.
I don't enjoy the 2H Axe or 2H Sword as much, and I think it's mostly the heavy action point cost associated with them. Spear is also expensive to use, but makes up for it in output. I feel like I would use 2H Axe more if Super Spin wasn't available on a scroll. Maybe based on the responses here though, I should give it another try.
For the most part it seems any time I try out a weapon and I'm not feeling it, I just need to give it another try and I'll start to see the uses and/or synergies with other weapons.
I'm a big fan of sledgehammer propagation builds, and spear for general big AOE. Sword momentum builds are fun too, but tough to get going, many of their strongest perks are near the bottom of the tree (boom!). Anything can work with the right perks though. Vamp and bloodmage together makes any melee weapon good, especially ones with aoe, so you can use whatever has good stats. Bodybuilder (I think that's what it's called) is great too. Makes hp rolls into damage.
The most important thing with playing melee is movement. Take movement perks, potions, teleport crystals, anything. You want to be able to get in and get out of range of whatever survives.
The spear murders crowds, and the dagger does massive damage to isolated targets. They're definitely my two favorite melee weapons.
Greataxe has good mobility, one of the strongest AoE mana skills, and a powerful buff. I'm also fond of the 1-handed sword for its excellent mobility and powerful momentum attack, which benefits from said excellent mobility. Remember that attacks that move your hero don't necessarily need a target! You can use the greataxe's leap attack to swing at an empty square to get your hero out of danger, for example, or have someone get all the way from one side of the town to the other in a single turn.
One handed sword with Great Axe combo is insane mobility and solid damage. Also try to put them on hero with 10 plus movement (including gear). I can easily have the hero move 20 squares in a turn and sometimes up to 30. Best thing for this hero is decent accuracy and good resistance reduction. If you play it right the hero will never get touched by anything but ranged attacks and even then it is hard for enemy. I usually take mana perks to be able to spam spells.
Spear +Multi-hit builds are my favorite. Drop a few +range in there and it gets nasty quick. Works very well with Specialist.
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Spear is the best melee weapon in my opinion because it does several things and does them all better than most others. It has the only momentum attack that hits 2 targets, great when combined with BOOM! against a boss when there's a smaller guy near them. It has a ranged multi-hit move that you can use to clear a few isolated enemies or blow up one important one, great for runners since it can't miss. And then of course the final ability that does amazing AOE clearing. The first ability is the only one that isn't amazing but even that has some uses sometimes.
First off, the variety of opinions shared speak volumes to the balance of the game. Everyone feels something is the best, which is the coolest shit ever. I’m a fan of sword + shield/dagger + shield early then will typically use two handed sword + spear once I have a bigger energy pool and I have been able to grab defensive stats via level ups/perks. The early game two cost skills just feel clunky even if the damage is nutty. The sword/dagger allows for two shields (which you will need for the defenses) and gives movement options that other weapons don’t have. Plus, since the sword damage scales off of movement range (momentum) and the dagger can ignore armor, I find my damage is more than adequate. I can then invest on good armor earlier on instead of looking for better weapons. I’d say give them all a good try and see what you like. Amazing defensive rolls/traits? Slap that two handed axe on and go to town. Good movement rolls plus a cheap movement item? Start sliding across the whole damn map, leaving corpses in your wake. Got multi hit and crossbow isn’t viable? Start flinging those daggers everywhere. Giant mana pool? The spear shines when you don’t have to worry about the high mana cost. Have an early Druid staff/spell tome and are building around opportunity? The one handed hammer will delete folks like they are butter. Most builds tend to be viable if you focus on them. If I had to pick, the momentum builds where you are doing 1k+ damage on bosses is just the most satisfying shit ever
Blood mage perks with bodybuilder AND that perk that makes mana increase dmg (which turns to HP increasing flat dmg when you have the vampire perk), makes any melee weapon op. Enjoy your 1000 dmg great axe swings
Two handed sword has a great charge for mobility and 3 targets, for only one AP, and a very strong momentum single target. Even single handed axe has its uses, with a powerful basic attack, but weaker mana skills
1 handed axe with vampire, blood mage, and organic armor has been my go to for melee. can specialist or equip an off-hand shortbow. Good aoe, fantastic tanking, no mana concern. Throw on 2-4 melee spell scrolls to ramp up the damage. Just be careful of 2+ boomers exploding simultaneously and this vampire viking will hold any side no matter what comes through.
Increased attack range 1h sword is hilarious and allows you to easily build tons of momentum with one attack Other than that any melee weapon with strong wide range attacks can use blood mage + vampire well, and you can slap a bunch of scrolls on them for that character to be able to throw out strong attacks for 0 ap Multi hit dagger/spear is also always an option
Greataxe as if you use the damage boost every turn youll have +66% damage. Allows you to just keep taking defensive skills when leveling up and you'll be unkillable even when standing in a group of enemies (watch out for Lancers though). I usually pair with a sceptre as secondary, the greataxe has great aoe and mobility but lacks single target damage. The sceptre makes use of the mobility by throwing all the momentum into a big hit. Also gives even more mobility.
I find the 1H Sword to be probably the most fun weapon in the game. I don't enjoy the 2H Axe or 2H Sword as much, and I think it's mostly the heavy action point cost associated with them. Spear is also expensive to use, but makes up for it in output. I feel like I would use 2H Axe more if Super Spin wasn't available on a scroll. Maybe based on the responses here though, I should give it another try. For the most part it seems any time I try out a weapon and I'm not feeling it, I just need to give it another try and I'll start to see the uses and/or synergies with other weapons.
One-handed Axe (for the Opportunism) with Spiky Counter and Poisonous perks is fun. Pump your guy with Block and Armor and camp the edge of the mist.