Would Amara be broken if melee could crit? Is that why we can’t? I personally find it pretty frustrating that I can’t crit on her with neither my fists nor facepuncher(which as fun, necessary and useful as it is, still kinda takes away from the “melee” feel of the melee build). Just kinda feels like being melee is intentionally bad compared to the gun builds. Am I alone in this, or are there INSANE melee builds that I’m missing that rival the dope damage the other two trees can pump out? Don’t get me wrong, I’m having TONS of fun and even on M4 I’m having a blast but then I run into the other gun builds and I feel like I hit like a wet noodle in comparison lol
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well if you don t mind using facepuncher there are crit build based on white elephant ( sticky bomb on melee that crits) with insane damage, but I agree this is only melee in maths formula. Personally I try to build a pure melee, looking into debuff right now( golden rule with laid bare), but I dont think that will ever come close to gun builds
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I don’t MIND using the facepuncher, I’m especially grateful it’s in the game so I can get some decent ranged damage in but I feel like it overrides the rest of the build especially once white elephant comes in and you just stop punching and shoot forever. That might as well be a gun build imo lol. If they add crit damage to melee(or change a few of the “gun/action skill” only increase to ALSO increase melee damage) I think it’ll always feel that way 
PUNCHY MAINS RISE UP, we gotta make a big stink about this until they fix us lol
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well for starter why on earth buttplug can t be anointed? I d like a 100% melee damage ase on this
I’d love an anointed buttplug, that and for them to fix the “back” hitboxes on a lot of mobs(and/or make phasegrasped enemies count as getting hit in the back all the time). Also not sure if it stacks with blitz but if it doesn’t it neeeeeddddssss toooooooo.
Sad but true, Amara’s melee becomes super gimmicky by M4 with very few options for true melee that actually stack up to any of the gun damage builds. I get that it’s a game about guns in the first place but such an emphasis was put on Amara being a martial artist punchy gal that it’s odd how limited she is without using the Facepuncher.
I dunno, I was hoping they’d release another melee mod or Something because Dragon (probably considered her worst mod) and Breaker (decent defensive but doesn’t add anything to the melee playstyle other than Find Your Center) are not really doing it. I do wonder what went into deciding that melee can’t crit too…
actually golden rule is not bad for melee, I use this one to punch my way through the dlc m4
now another qol will be to be able to switch action skill element without having to go through menu
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It’s not baddd but I’ve been rocking a breaker with +1 to Find Your Center and another two that mean less than the extra 100% melee damage. Also I’m sure it’s a bug, but I’ve found anoints with “after action skill ends, add +X% to weapon damage” applies to melee strikes on the buttplug for some reason. I haven’t found any other guns it does that for, and those anoints do add to facepuncher shots so I’m double sure it’s a bug(a buttbug if you will)
elemental anoint applies to all melee from bladed guns not only buttplug, whether it is intended or not is anyone guess.
I used to play breaker with find your center but compared to the golden rule I showed you normal melee is only slightly better as this melee % has diminishing return. On the other hand, my spike damage after phaseslam is way better with golden rule I can sometime one punch badass m4 enemy if I do it right with the laid bare and I can phaseslam way more often with the unique property of golden rule.
I want to play melee amara so bad on m4 without facepuncher. Her melee override on the botton of green tree looks so cool:(
But instead i play with spiritual driver with full red and green tree, 3 possible one point melee buffs. With that i can run n gun and punch people sometimes, dealing a little damage to some of the weakest enemies. Still kinda cool.
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She could do with some melee buffs at this stage, but it’s possible. I haven’t tweaked my 57 build yet but I had a 53 one which was getting me through the Cistern of Slaughter.
It was a bit of a breakthrough for me when I tried combining melee with Ties That Bind. You can put that with Allure, if you want to damage faster, or Soul Sap, if you wish to opt for survival. Here’s the skill loadout:
For gear, take:
Brawler Ward (50% elemental ASE). The health regen mixed with Clarity combined with how often you’ll be using your action skill does mean you’ll have good health regen consistently.
Unleash the Dragon relic (stats in melee and incendiary damage)
Breaker mod (look for Find My Centre, Personal Space, melee damage and action skill cooldown)
Grenade doesn’t matter so much as the anointment on it. Go for 50% element ASE and make sure it’s a different one to your shield. Quasar and It’s Piss are good options.
Meanwhile, for guns:
A melee weapon, whether that’s the Butt Plug/Psycho Stabber or a bladed weapon with 100% melee ASE. I currently have a Faisor with a natural +60% melee so the anointed boost means it marginally beats the earlier alternatives.
Weapons for dealing with heavy shields and armour. Unless you’re in an area where the enemies are not health-based in which case you can switch your action skill element.
I think that’s basically it. It’s able to handle M4 as a proper melee build (i.e. not falling back on the Facepuncher/White Elephant combo) but despite squeezing just as about as much potential as I think I could out of this build, it’s not as powerful as some of the others I have created. Any points for improvement would definitely be appreciated.
EDIT: The images aren’t exact. I’d normally have one less point in One With Nature so I can take Dread.
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mine looks like that
my goal is to use melee attack all the time and never fire guns (I play m4 campaign only exceptions I made so far is hard to hit airborne mobs: Katagawa jr, ball and Graveward using facepuncher to kill them)
I have a brawler ward 200% melee damage on phaseslam
buttplug
knifedrain commander planetoid
grenade its piss with element ase
and the golden rule com with +3 laid bare
I use phaseslam to debuff enemies and boost my melee, with the right element selected blitz hits very hard. I am currently clearing dlc2 campaign, I killed the boss people complains about using melee (I fired gun only to destroy the stones because there was a risk to fall from the platform)
https://bl3skills.com/siren#0055350105001150400510300005005100000000
When I started I used breaker com but I switched recently because this does better spike damage on tough enemies
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Interesting. I’ve considered the Golden Rule before. You don’t miss the second point in Find Your Centre?
No. There is a sligh loss of damage with normal melee ( I mean melee not following phaseslam), but it is better to deal with tough enemy as laid bare percentage applies to final damage and you can phaseslam more often. The % of melee and % of damage of laidbare are not equivalent: melee percent is probably part of some formula with diminishing return , % of laid bare give you directly your increase of damage.
Interesting. I’ll have to try this. I’d love to have phaseslam work well in builds.
New capstone/skill tree required. Maybe like Many Must Fall on Zero’s tree in BL3
I ve come across this weapon today,
unfortunately not the max crit roll.
A nice way to boost damage with white elephant crit while keeping the fists talking
I would say you’re missing 50% more melee damage if not more depending on what you have on your breaker mod
Also I believe the blue skill is laid bare which I believe increase your damage to enemies that your action skill hit so maybe that that’s why it seems like you’re not missing that much damage if any and you have it at 6 points nice
I believe a breaker mod with find your center and bonun stats they give melee damage will out perform it by a small but noticeable amount now If that breaker mod also has weapon damage that also will build-up the face puncher and then it will out perform it by a lot if you’re running a white elephant build and that mod also happens to have splash damage then there’s no contests
More math would be needed to calculate how fast can you get the extra 500% damage if you’re running a 300% weapon damage facepuncher and a 200% melee damage shield
With that golden rule mod you will get an extra 50% added to the 500% plus whatever damage laid bare add if that’s the skill (I can’t remember what it looks like)
With the breaker mod it would be an extra 150% plus whatever the highest weapon damage and splash damage you can get on a class mod
You definitely would get your action skill faster with the golden rule this we need a lot of testing to see which one actually does the most damage sadly I don’t have a golden rule mod that matches yours or a breaker mod that matches the one im bases this hypothesis
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On the point of being able to crit, if they just added an element like moze’s pull the holy pin it would be perfect. just give every melee strike a 1 in 4 chance to crit, with maybe a 2 second “cooldown”.
They would have to change melee itself so we don’t have to use skill points on it.
Putting it on a skill or mod would be the worst thing they could do.
Cause it should be a standard mechanic for every VH.