Melee

Melee (ver: 2.0) is a form of combat system that utilizes edged or blunt weapons and close quarter attacks. Every attack uses Stamina and causes the player to take a single step forward. Melee weapons can be equipped in the tertiary slot of the arsenal in Warframe.

Current melee weapons consists of a number of classes, in which each class of weapons has a unique set of attack animations, including normal, jump, slide, stealth attacks, finishers, combos, and blocking.

Basic Maneuvers
Basic melee attacks can be achieved while equipped with Primary or Secondary weapons by pressing melee attack key. To perform advanced maneuvers however, players must fully switch to a Melee weapon by holding down the weapon switch key (default or ). Equipping the melee weapon will unlock additional melee combat features such as Parrying and Channeling.

Each melee weapon has a number of attributes, such as attack speed and damage. Each attribute can be altered by a variety of Melee Mods.

Normal Attack


The simplest form of melee attack. The action is achieved by simply pressing the melee attack key repeatedly, in which the animation pattern continues to loop until the player ceases the attack.

Common Attributes:
 * Damage: Damage done by each hit. Enhanced by damage mods such as Pressure Point.
 * Attack Speed: Speed of the attack animation. Enhanced by speed mods such as Fury.
 * Max Targets: the maximum amount of targets you can hit in a single cleaving motion (excludes jump attacks and slide attacks)
 * Cleave Radius: A rough estimation of the size of the swing. May not be accurate due to individualized cleaving animations.

Slide Attack


Aerial variation

Also known as a Spin Attack, Slide Attacks propels a Warframe forward while performing a spinning slash around them, dealing greater damage and hitting multiple enemies. For sparring weapons like the Kogake and Obex, slide attacks perform a double kick that targets only a single enemy, but ragdolls them away instead of only dealing damage. Slide Attacks can be performed on the ground to hit low-lying enemies, or in the air to hit tall enemies, potentially landing headshots.

Slide attack damage can be increased by the Pressure Point mod and all other elemental damage the player may have equipped on their weapon.

Attributes:
 * Slide Damage Type: Damage type slide damage is dealt as.
 * Slide Damage: Damage dealt when doing a slide attack.

Notes:
 * When performed, Slide Attacks propel a Warframe in the desired direction quickly over a long distance, with the speed determined by melee attack speed. It is possible to chain slide attacks together using a weapon with fast attack speed (e.g. Amphis, Dual Zoren, and Scoliac) to cover long distances quickly. This maneuver is more commonly known as "Coptering" and is most effective when performed midair.

Aerial Attack


Also known as Jump Attack, press melee in mid-air to perform a targeted aerial slash, regardless if a jump has already been made or not. The Warframe will slash and be propelled towards the direction that the player is aiming at, making melee capable of targeting airborne enemies like Ospreys.

Aerial Attacks can be used to augment Maneuvering, as the Warframe can use the attack's forward momentum to traverse long distances or tall heights normally unreachable via normal jumps.

Attributes:
 * Jump Dmg Type: Impact damage type
 * Jump Damage: Impact damage (direct contact with mob)

Slam Attack


Aiming down towards the ground when performing a jump attack will perform a slam attack that forces the Warframe downward and creates a small radial damage and special effect upon impact with the ground, such as knock down or elemental damage. One can perform this move to anchor themselves to the ground, losing most if not all momentum.

There are two damages dealt by slam attacks:
 * 1) Direct contact to an enemy will deal a slightly higher damage, normally with the damage type of the weapons base attack.
 * 2) Radial damage will deal a secondary damage type and slightly less damage, but the said damage type will often have a secondary effect (knockdown, stagger, etc.).

Attributes:
 * Slam Damage Type: Radial Damage type
 * Slam Damage: Radial Damage
 * Slam Radius: Radial size.

Wall Attack


While wall running or climbing, a player may initiate a melee attack, causing the frame to launch off the wall at the angle of the direction aimed, with a special melee attack animation. The attack will change depending on what melee weapon is used; most weapons will slash the air in front of them as they launch, while heavy weapons will swing the weapon around them, and sparring weapons will launch with a forward punch. This maneuver is also useful as it may be used to leap parallel to the wall surface during a wall run; in contrast, releasing the jump key will always jump away from the wall.

Ground Finisher
Execute knocked down enemies. This attack is performed upon moving close to a downed opponent, aiming your crosshair at the target and pressing the melee attack button. This will not work on most bosses. The damage done will be 400% of that of the melee weapon before resistances. The damage dealt by this attack can be increased by the Finishing Touch mod and melee damage mods (e.g. Pressure Point). Heavier weapons tend to perform this action slower than lighter weapons. This attack often will initiate even when not looking down at an enemy, but when contacting an enemy who has been knocked down.

Stealth Attack


Walk up behind an enemy who is unaware. Wait for the "stealth attack" prompt. The attack's final damage (dealt as Finisher damage) is dependent on the type of melee weapon used: 1200% total weapon damage for Daggers, Dual Daggers, Polearms, and Staves; 2400% total weapon damage for Hammers; 1600% total weapon damage for all other weapon types. As the weapon's total damage is accounted for, equipped mods (including critical chance and critical damage mods) will also affect the stealth attack's final damage. Special enemies, such as Targets and Wardens, receive extra damage from stealth attacks; see the pages for details.

Advanced Maneuvers
Advanced maneuvers can be achieved by equipping the melee weapon by holding down the weapon switch key, default or.

Stances


Upon equipping a Stance Mod, up to three additional advanced Melee Combos will be unlocked, which are special chained attacks that enhance the melee abilities of the weapon. These combos can only be performed while wielding a melee weapon. The combination will vary depending on the melee weapon equipped and the Stance mod equipped.

Channeling


Channeling converts energies from the Warframe energy pool to enhance melee attacks, and is activated by using the Melee Channeling key with the option of either holding it down or toggling. While Melee Channel is activated, each enemy hit in melee will drain 5 Energy from the Warframe and deal +50% increased damage and any additional effects from channeling mods.

The damage dealt by Channeling can be improved by mods like Killing Blow. In addition, various mods such as Reflex Coil can improve the energy efficiency of Channeling, while mods like Second Wind will grant bonuses but reduce Channeling efficiency. The list of Channeling mods can be found here.


 * When active, parts of your Warframe tinted by Tint Color 4 will glow according to your Warframe's energy color, while parts of your melee weapon which gain elemental effects will glow according to the melee weapon's energy color.
 * Immortal Skins will change the patterns of your channeling glow, as they change the position of sections tinted by Tint Color 4.
 * Armor parts will also glow while under the effects of channeling. Despite having their own Energy Color in the Attachments tab, Armor will glow using the Warframe's energy color instead.
 * When using Frost Prime, the parts of your Warframe tinted by the Secondary color will glow instead, as Frost Prime does not normally use Tint Color 4 without an alternate helmet.
 * When using Excalibur's Immortal Skin, the parts of your Warframe tinted by the Primary color will glow instead.
 * Enemies killed by Channeled attacks will disintegrate while floating in the air and will sometimes drift away. Desecrate can be used on floating bodies as long as the body has not completely disappeared.
 * Channeling will only consume energy when successfully striking enemies. Strikes that do not connect do not drain energy, nor do strikes that connect to neutral objects like Containers.
 * Energy is drained per enemy hit, i.e. hitting two enemies in one swing will consume twice the energy.
 * Energy drain rates are affected with Channeling Efficiency mods and not Power Efficiency mods.
 * Channeling Efficiency has a maximum cap of 80%.
 * Channeling increases damage based off your total melee damage, which is the sum of your base damage plus any physical damage and elemental mods.
 * If Channeling is active while blocking, no energy is expended to block enemy shots. However, if reflection is also active, no extra damage will be applied to the reflected shots.

Parrying


Essentially a blocking action. It is achieved by holding the aim button while having melee weapons equipped. Blocking will nullify incoming damage and deflect some damage back to enemies; however, this action can only block frontal damage and not back.

Blocking drains stamina upon taking damage and reduces stamina recharge rate while not taking damage. The amount of stamina drained while blocking is dependent to the damage taken. Blocking can be done while jumping, sliding, in mid-air, and horizontal wall-running, but not vertical wall running or wall sliding. Parrying while crouching will make the player stand up to parry. Stamina can recharge while damage is not being blocked, making the Quick Rest mod quite efficient.
 * Can block Fire Blast and Rippling Shockwave. Doing so will push the Warframe back, but prevent the knockdown effect.
 * Will completely block Seismic Shockwave from Grineer Heavies.
 * Can block continuous weapons like Flux Rifle lasers and Scorch flamethrowers.
 * Parrying can block Bombard Rockets, though it will not prevent damage from the explosion itself.
 * Will also block Scorpion grappling hooks to prevent getting pulled.
 * Parrying with Rhino's Iron Skin active will not deflect any damage and instead mitigate the hitpoints to Iron Skin.

Finisher
When parrying, activating Channeling just before an enemy strikes the player with a melee attack will grant a chance to stagger them—a move known as a Counterattack. While enemies are staggered, an attack prompt similar to stealth attacks will appear, allowing for Finisher moves to be performed.

Finisher attacks have custom animations, and deal a very high percentage of the equipped melee weapon's total damage as Finisher damage. Finisher attack damage is dependent on the type of melee weapon used: 1200% total melee weapon damage for Daggers, Dual Daggers, Polearms, and Staves; 2400% total melee weapon damage for Hammers; 1600% total melee weapon damage for all other weapon types. The attack damage is also dependent on equipped mods (including critical chance and critical damage mods).
 * The Parry mod gives a chance to automatically perform a counterattack against enemies while blocking with Channeling, reducing the need to time Channeling while parrying to perform a finisher.
 * Enemies stunned by Valkyr's Paralysis or Ash's Teleport act as if hit by a parrying counterattack, giving the attack prompt necessary to perform a finisher.
 * Retribution also initiates the stealth prompt on stunned enemies, allowing enemies to be killed by finishers without needing to block or use energy.
 * Another means of initiating Finishers is by performing certain Stance-based combos, like the headbutt in the Venging Thrash ​combo of Malicious Raptor.
 * When activated, the Justice effect of certain Steel Meridian-related equipment will stagger all enemies in a 25-meter radius, leaving them vulnerable to finishers.
 * Counterattack finishers cannot be performed on non-humanoid Infested, and Robotic units like MOAs. For Infested, only Leapers and Crawlers can be executed by finishers.
 * Counterattack finishers are not affected by the Finishing Touch mod.
 * If a staggered enemy's attack prompt is activated from their backs, a different rear finisher animation will play instead. The animation is also shared with stealth attacks.
 * Examples of finisher moves can be found in the gallery page.

Combo Counter
Each successful consecutive melee hit against enemies with a Melee weapon equipped within a short period of time will start a Combo Counter that appears above the weapon UI, which tracks how many hits have been performed. Once a certain number of consecutive hits have been made, a Damage Multiplier will be given to the Melee weapon, increasing the weapon's overall damage. The Damage Multiplier increases as larger consecutive hit counts are achieved, allowing for greater damage against larger numbers of tougher enemies. The Combo Counter resets if no enemies are hit after three seconds.

The Damage Multiplier starts at 1.5X the weapon's base damage after five consecutive hits. The multiplier is increased by +.5X after achieving three times the number of hits of the previous multiplier, i.e. 15 consecutive hits yield a 2X Damage Multiplier, 45 consecutive hits yield 2.5X Damage, 135 hits yield 3X Damage, 405 hits yield 3.5x etc.
 * Currently there no known limit to the Damage Multiplier, thus it's theoretically possible to attain massive damage multiplier numbers of 5X or more. In practice, the number of possible consecutive hits is limited by the number of enemies, their durability, and the player's skill at connecting combos to other enemies.
 * Ash's Blade Storm contributes to the Combo Counter, allowing it to start and chain Combo hits.
 * Valkyr's Hysteria also utilizes the Combo Counter, allowing the damage output to increase with consecutive attacks.
 * Despite its name, the Combo Counter should not be confused with the Combos performed using Stance Mods. The Combo Counter will count all melee attacks performed while equipping Melee weapons, including stealth attacks.
 * The Combo Counter appears to count attacks performed while having Primary or Secondary weapons equipped. Immediately switching to a melee weapon within 4 seconds will show the amount of hits performed before the switch.
 * Melee hits against objects, like Mining Equipment, do not count towards the Combo Counter.
 * The Combo Counter does not increase the damage of prompted stealth attacks or prompted finisher attacks.

Tips

 * For players wanting to specialize in melee combat, remapping the equipped melee attack key to can make performing attacks and melee combos easier and more instinctive. Quick melee attacks when using Primary or Secondary weapons are considered a separate keybinding, and can be kept in its default key.

Bugs

 * Successfully blocking an attack while rolling can make a player unable to attack with their melee weapon. This is usually accompanied by a slight change in camera perspective where the camera is positioned slightly down while facing upwards. This bug can be resolved by performing a roll or dodge again.
 * The new aerial melee attacks implemented in update 15 have at least two glitches that can be used to improve mobility.
 * Tapping the melee key slightly before landing causes the player to slide across the ground with minimal friction for a brief period.
 * Double tapping the melee key after jumping will cause a second air attack to occur immediately after the first and improve distance traveled.

Nahkampf 2.0