This is the most powerful melee build in the game IMO - Melta + Blocking Combat knife. The knife is just so fast and hits so hard, the power fantasy is real
That's what I'm using to level my vanguard and it seems to be pretty good. I'm only level 8 though so I haven't made it into the harder difficulties yet.
Pro tip for looking sick while using Vanguard: You can hold down Triangle or whatever your Equipment button is and your character will pull out the grapnel launcher and point it up in the air, extra points because you automatically slow walk when you do this. 😂
Weave melta shots in right after a block whenever you dont immediately need to block again. This (as long as you dont get hit) returns some contested health and staggers enemies most of the time which resets their animations. Really is helpful w/ blocking weapons on vanguard. Though I prefer the sword to the knife, because of stomp.
This. He looses hella contested health. You can gain it back faster with the melta right after being hit. I like to use the melta while getting blocks so I can do a huge wave attack!
Finally! Such a underrated weapon. It pulls you out of the gun strike.loop so you can be more aggressive with the knife. Definitely teaches you how to properly time your windows and figure out how to work without the usual combat loop.
You gotta do more heavy attacks with the knife when ur surrounded. Light , heavy, heavy, then do light attack again is the best way to crowd control with the knife. You can get ur contested health back fast if you do heavy attacks.
You still need to keep up your armor with block weapons. Chip damage adds up if you let yourself go long periods without armor. Specific advice: Against minoris, light into heavy will aoe kill many and usually open up gunstrike for armor. Into Majors, if 1v1 or you're full armor, just fight like you have been. If more than 1 major and you're low on armor, get to 3 stacks so you refill armor, then fight aggressively until you get low on armor again. This mentality keeps you healthier throughout the mission.
I think a cool Prestige perk for vanguard would be if you were able to grapple teammates and get pulled towards them. Like if there was a down teammate you could run away. Lead the pack away from you. Turn around grapple to your down teammate and then get the rez off.
I wish bolt weapons did more damage so vanguard wasn't forced to bring only melta gun when you actually want to see something happen at a harder difficulty, I know it's a good class but unfortunately the only class I just don't like playing at all currently
The Melta is by far NOT the best weapon when playing chaos on ruthless or higher. I prefer the oculus but the instigator is fantastic too. You can absolutely delete rubric marines and terminators with it. Give it a shot bro! They don’t start getting good until you get artificer and up though which is the only downside
@@SageOfLimitlessHands Yup, the melta isn’t even half as good as oculus or instigator on chaos. Being able to 3-burst a chaos marine into execution status is insane
@GehrmansWheelchair when I saw the damage numbers get broke down I was shocked too because you wouldn't think just by looking at it that it would have that effect. It really made me approach fighting chaos differently in general knowing that certain weapons are just better than others
@@SageOfLimitlessHands Yeah man same here. I think they should honestly include the headshot modifier in the stats screen as well, it would get us a lot more info on the weapons
It is different and demands to get used to. But in the end it does 15-20% more damage than fencing one with intimidating aura and maws through waves very quickly because of 7 cleaving potential.
I cant find a reason not to use an ez-mode fencing power sword. I also main bulwark and the insane upsides of parry having a month-long perfect window and gun strikes hitting like Las Fusil headshots is unbeatable.
I saw on another video when you would block attacks 3 times the weapon would charge up and you could do a big aoe attack, does anyone know what this is? Is it an ability you get when unlocking the relic version?
To me it seems like parry doenst work anymore, sometimes you just block or does nothing. I never had this issue before, but since the latesed patch even with 50% parry perk it seems impossible to parry anything.
Personally I think that every blocking weapon except fist is S-tier (and even fist is A). Since rework came out I almost haven't played with fencing weapons because I don't need parries if everyone around me is dead.
@@DaOideRassl I play on lethal only. And for the most part I don't take melee damage. Besides, bulwark and vanguard don't even care about damage, they can heal themselves. Assault can nuke waves with no-cooldown groundpound. Sniper can just spam invis non-stop with +100% damage perk. And tactical can twoshot a major after a perfect block even with one stack.
@@Sargatas nice. Probably better than me then and I have almost 300 hours and everything maxed. One more thing: Most block weapons have better cleaving potential for less damage and attack speed. Is it really better?
@ if I remember correctly only fist and power sword have less damage. But only 1 point or so and it doesn't mean shit. Fist lacks solo target damage, so it's A-tier (even though I think that it has identity crisis because hammer on assault and power sword on bulwark do same thing but much better). But power sword is a literal lawn mawer in power mode. It outdamages fencing sword even with intimidating aura. Hammer, chainsword and knife deal significantly more damage than fencing. For example my max melee damage on assault with block hammer was 38k. It's literally heavy plasma level.
@@Sargatas the thing about the power sword is that the speed helps with dodging and then it still has the AOE swing, jump ground stab attack. Hammer is better as a weapon but the gun strike perk on the Assault is just mint so I use fencing. Chain sword is the only thing that is straight up better IMO.
U need to try fencing knife on sniper class w all the camo perks and 5% camo recharge every headshot is insane. U pretty much have infinite camo and when u have the 100% extra damage on first hit while camo is crazy. And w fencing u can block literallt everything
you have become too reliant on the month long perfect window given by fencing weapons. The timings for block and balanced are roughly the same, though, so If you switch to a balanced weapon and learn to land most of your parries, then you can switch to blocking w/o too much trouble. Also with blocking you *really* want to have a way to stagger clusters of Majoris (3+). Plasma pistol or Melta works well for this. I generally use a melta so I can also have a NeoVolk for flying enemies/bosses. Focus on keeping enemies in your front 90 so you can *see* their animations. This will help a LOT more than it would seem because we do so much automatic pattern recognition.
@nathancawley8759 does block give gun strikes? I run Vanguard so my main focus in battle is removing those damn Venom cannons from the equation as fast as I can. Fencing and dodging any time I'm in a crowd, too.
@ block does not give gun strikes, hence the weaving of melta shots after blocks to reset animations. If you roll/sprint+melee towards a minor it will usually open a gun strike. This is how you maintain armor. Your grapnel launcher will stop those cannons from shooting as well as interrupting reinforcement calls. Id recommend that you play a few matches solo (so you arent competing with ppl for kills) on a lower difficulty with the green block sword and just practice building 3 stacks and releasing the explosion. Once you have a more tactile understanding of when to block, every thing will start to click and youll think things like "Wow this sword really fucks"
This is the most powerful melee build in the game IMO - Melta + Blocking Combat knife. The knife is just so fast and hits so hard, the power fantasy is real
That's what I'm using to level my vanguard and it seems to be pretty good. I'm only level 8 though so I haven't made it into the harder difficulties yet.
Pro tip for looking sick while using Vanguard: You can hold down Triangle or whatever your Equipment button is and your character will pull out the grapnel launcher and point it up in the air, extra points because you automatically slow walk when you do this. 😂
doing this while your pistol is equipped will give you the closest thing to dual wielding in the game, It is indeed quite "swag."
Weave melta shots in right after a block whenever you dont immediately need to block again. This (as long as you dont get hit) returns some contested health and staggers enemies most of the time which resets their animations. Really is helpful w/ blocking weapons on vanguard. Though I prefer the sword to the knife, because of stomp.
This. He looses hella contested health. You can gain it back faster with the melta right after being hit. I like to use the melta while getting blocks so I can do a huge wave attack!
Finally! Such a underrated weapon. It pulls you out of the gun strike.loop so you can be more aggressive with the knife. Definitely teaches you how to properly time your windows and figure out how to work without the usual combat loop.
You gotta do more heavy attacks with the knife when ur surrounded. Light , heavy, heavy, then do light attack again is the best way to crowd control with the knife. You can get ur contested health back fast if you do heavy attacks.
When the gaunts hack at the generator things just blast the melta. Don't waste time kniving them. The ammo cache is right nearby.
A cool boss fight for the Thousand Sons would be the Mutalith Vortex Beast,
Try it with the bum rush skill. It’s tempting to take the backstab. But the bum rush gets around the cleaving of 1
knife is goateed for dueling. Chainsword good for swarms but both is so good with block
You still need to keep up your armor with block weapons. Chip damage adds up if you let yourself go long periods without armor. Specific advice: Against minoris, light into heavy will aoe kill many and usually open up gunstrike for armor. Into Majors, if 1v1 or you're full armor, just fight like you have been. If more than 1 major and you're low on armor, get to 3 stacks so you refill armor, then fight aggressively until you get low on armor again. This mentality keeps you healthier throughout the mission.
DO - NOT - SLEEP on the CHARGED Combat Knife 🔪 attack. Especially when you can use it on a stunned enemy. It's beautiful damage.
Stalker tactical deletes thropes like they're made of paper
I think a cool Prestige perk for vanguard would be if you were able to grapple teammates and get pulled towards them. Like if there was a down teammate you could run away. Lead the pack away from you. Turn around grapple to your down teammate and then get the rez off.
The only block I use is the chain sword on the Vanguard. The knife has no AOE and only a little bit more damage per second.
I wish bolt weapons did more damage so vanguard wasn't forced to bring only melta gun when you actually want to see something happen at a harder difficulty, I know it's a good class but unfortunately the only class I just don't like playing at all currently
The Melta is by far NOT the best weapon when playing chaos on ruthless or higher. I prefer the oculus but the instigator is fantastic too. You can absolutely delete rubric marines and terminators with it. Give it a shot bro! They don’t start getting good until you get artificer and up though which is the only downside
Sorry but the instigator is cracked when it is relic tier. The melta isn't even great against chaos.
@@SageOfLimitlessHands Yup, the melta isn’t even half as good as oculus or instigator on chaos. Being able to 3-burst a chaos marine into execution status is insane
@GehrmansWheelchair when I saw the damage numbers get broke down I was shocked too because you wouldn't think just by looking at it that it would have that effect. It really made me approach fighting chaos differently in general knowing that certain weapons are just better than others
@@SageOfLimitlessHands Yeah man same here. I think they should honestly include the headshot modifier in the stats screen as well, it would get us a lot more info on the weapons
Sooo is the power sword any good? its the weapon that i main bulwark with
I like it but Bulwark plays weird with blocking.
It is different and demands to get used to. But in the end it does 15-20% more damage than fencing one with intimidating aura and maws through waves very quickly because of 7 cleaving potential.
I cant find a reason not to use an ez-mode fencing power sword. I also main bulwark and the insane upsides of parry having a month-long perfect window and gun strikes hitting like Las Fusil headshots is unbeatable.
Block power sword is bad in my experience
Not to mention intimidating aura does not actually work with it
@ shock field does. And block doesn't push enemies from this field like parry does.
Blocking isnt efficient when the enemey isnt constantly giving you melee attacks to block. You will do more damage with gunstrikes
I saw on another video when you would block attacks 3 times the weapon would charge up and you could do a big aoe attack, does anyone know what this is? Is it an ability you get when unlocking the relic version?
Why not the 10 percent health restoration perk for killing majoris?
I still need the levels for it lol! It is a level 25 perk I believe.
@@Yeertski ...geez my brain death, sorry :)
To me it seems like parry doenst work anymore, sometimes you just block or does nothing. I never had this issue before, but since the latesed patch even with 50% parry perk it seems impossible to parry anything.
Block weapons can't parry
lol say good bye to parry with block weapons
Personally I think that every blocking weapon except fist is S-tier (and even fist is A). Since rework came out I almost haven't played with fencing weapons because I don't need parries if everyone around me is dead.
What difficulty and how often do you take little to no health damage?
@@DaOideRassl I play on lethal only. And for the most part I don't take melee damage. Besides, bulwark and vanguard don't even care about damage, they can heal themselves. Assault can nuke waves with no-cooldown groundpound. Sniper can just spam invis non-stop with +100% damage perk. And tactical can twoshot a major after a perfect block even with one stack.
@@Sargatas nice. Probably better than me then and I have almost 300 hours and everything maxed. One more thing: Most block weapons have better cleaving potential for less damage and attack speed. Is it really better?
@ if I remember correctly only fist and power sword have less damage. But only 1 point or so and it doesn't mean shit. Fist lacks solo target damage, so it's A-tier (even though I think that it has identity crisis because hammer on assault and power sword on bulwark do same thing but much better). But power sword is a literal lawn mawer in power mode. It outdamages fencing sword even with intimidating aura.
Hammer, chainsword and knife deal significantly more damage than fencing. For example my max melee damage on assault with block hammer was 38k. It's literally heavy plasma level.
@@Sargatas the thing about the power sword is that the speed helps with dodging and then it still has the AOE swing, jump ground stab attack. Hammer is better as a weapon but the gun strike perk on the Assault is just mint so I use fencing. Chain sword is the only thing that is straight up better IMO.
apaid actor
Fire melta to instantly get contested health back, this is pretty bad showcase of this weapon
First
U need to try fencing knife on sniper class w all the camo perks and 5% camo recharge every headshot is insane. U pretty much have infinite camo and when u have the 100% extra damage on first hit while camo is crazy. And w fencing u can block literallt everything
Lol. I STILL can't block. I can fence my out of sword warriors, but i can't get a decent block. What am I doing wrong?
you have become too reliant on the month long perfect window given by fencing weapons. The timings for block and balanced are roughly the same, though, so If you switch to a balanced weapon and learn to land most of your parries, then you can switch to blocking w/o too much trouble. Also with blocking you *really* want to have a way to stagger clusters of Majoris (3+). Plasma pistol or Melta works well for this. I generally use a melta so I can also have a NeoVolk for flying enemies/bosses. Focus on keeping enemies in your front 90 so you can *see* their animations. This will help a LOT more than it would seem because we do so much automatic pattern recognition.
@nathancawley8759 does block give gun strikes? I run Vanguard so my main focus in battle is removing those damn Venom cannons from the equation as fast as I can. Fencing and dodging any time I'm in a crowd, too.
@ block does not give gun strikes, hence the weaving of melta shots after blocks to reset animations. If you roll/sprint+melee towards a minor it will usually open a gun strike. This is how you maintain armor. Your grapnel launcher will stop those cannons from shooting as well as interrupting reinforcement calls. Id recommend that you play a few matches solo (so you arent competing with ppl for kills) on a lower difficulty with the green block sword and just practice building 3 stacks and releasing the explosion. Once you have a more tactile understanding of when to block, every thing will start to click and youll think things like "Wow this sword really fucks"