Updated on 7/21/2020:
Salutations my friends!
As much as I wanted to cover every aspect of making a melee commander this week, I just simply ran out of time in the video. In part 1, I have covered my general tips, and the tips relating the racial faction in the game, but did not get to the Secret techs, or some of the more fun/cheesy combinations. Thanks to everyone who helped me research this massive topic!
Part 2 can be found below!!
Please feel free to let me know if I missed anything about building melee heroes.
Recommended Commander Backgrounds:
1. Taking Close Quarter Equipment is strong, but a bit risky. A lot of players like to wait a bit before investing heavily into the melee strategy. One exception is Xenoplague commanders, as you can get a really nice melee weapon that can allow you to build up infections, leading to more pustules and eventually more destroyers and plague lords. Another good option for Dvar commanders is to take the hammer, which you get so long as you do not pair Dvar with Celestian, Xenoplage or Voidtech. Hammer pairs well with Martial tradition. (kill, teleport, attack or ability in one turn)
2. Keltomacinc > decadent. Both are good for a melee commander. Klepotmanic can generate very powerful mods, where as decadent gives +10 to your commander while significantly lowers the rate in which you generate population.
3. Stubborn good for stagger resistance
4. Martial Tradition -> Ruthless killer, which can reset a high dps commander (although it can be risky investing too much dps too early on, at the expense of survivability on your commander)
General Tips for Weapons and Mods (from things like kelptomanic + loot + NPC factions):
1.The way you get into melee range determines what kind of melee weapon you should be using. If you have access to a Vanguard Jetpack, it does not use action points to activate, meaning you can use a repeating melee weapon. Kir'ko using Shrouded Step leaves only 1 action point so it makes more sense to have a melee weapon that only uses 1 action point.
2. Din-din is an amazing weapon, because it allows you to heal units that are very likely to be targeted and damaged by enemy units.
3. Leg Exoskeleton Systems, a tier 3 hero mod can be obtained as a kleptomaniac draw, or from battle loot. It gives a point of armour, stagger resistance, and fast movement all in one mod.
4. Lightning Blade bounces damage to up to 2 units within two hexes, and is repeating. Attacks like this on can be paired wit the assembly to do an insane amount of healing. With an assimilate, each arc hit can heal the hero, resulting in up to 27 HP (3 hits x 3 enemies x 3 HP/hit), regained per turn.
5. Carbon Glaive hits three units in front of it, and is repeating.
6. Swelter Blade hits three units in front of it, and is repeating. (check the other weapons, maybe some mods)
7. Edge is a t4 repeating psionic melee weapon that heals when it deals damage, regardless of the target.
8. Antaran Armor reflects incoming damage and is acquired through an anomaly site. (not in imperial archives)
9. Displacement Systems give evasion, which helps you get closer to a ranged target, without taking as much damage as you would without it. Also acquired through an anomaly site. (not in imperial archives)
10. Hollow Essence Ark gives resurgence and is a reward for an early game anomaly where you have to defeat 6 siphoners.
11. Chemical Scythe applies Neral toxin. Reward for clearing reaper sites?
12. An Amazon psynumbra hero and a Vanguard Psynumbra hero come with Ethereal Spear, a repeating psionic melee weapon, which is a bit better than psitec fists. (14 repeating > 12 repeating)
13. It is important to recognize that you can cross-research important mods. So even if you are not playing Vanguard, if you have a Vanguard colony you can still get Jetpacks.
14. Owning a syndicate colony unlock, psitec fists. (conquering counts) Some would argue that it’s better to just get enforcers for psionic melee, as they get a special defensive mode + and secondary single action attack that cripple (which does reduces movement and accuracy by 30%)
NPC Faction Mods
15. If there are Therians on planet; they have Enhanced Leg Augments that gives fast movement, stagger res, and +1 armor. Hunters camouflage gives flanking attacks the cripple debuff, and +2 armor. And of course the Therian prime mod which turns hero into the best melee unit of the game. Pheromones are awesome, and the Might of the Therians mod lets you trigger them when you want (giving you melee units skitter and health regeneration when it is the most helpful).
16. Growth can use Worker Bees to heal melee units so good synergy there. Putting the Regeneration Glands on a few bees, who can follow your melee heroes around giving them health regeneration. If you can put Sprouting Infestation on a melee hero with biological damage, the extra vine sprouts will allow you to get a lot melee attacks on your enemies, maybe even turning them so your main dps can get easy flanking shots.
17. Autonoms - Autonom Network Connector allows melee heroes to get networked, so that they can get the defensive bonuses that the monitor and Network Controller can apply to autonom units. If you put your melee heroes in a mechanical vehicle, like the Phoenix Walker, they can use the Self-repair Systems to get health regeneration.
18. Psifish - mantra of illusion both allow you to put obscures on friendly units, and to apply hallucinating to enemy units. Very strong on enforcers. Mind barrier adds a lot of defensive capability to non-mindless units, especially for factions that are weak to psionic attacks, like the assembly, the dvar, and the vanguard.
19. Spacers - Hallucinating Regulators makes all attacks on the target count as flanking, allowing your melee units to take out their targets faster. If you can put mantra of the branded on a melee hero then you will get a free melee overwatch on some of their targets (i think it causes them to run away for one turn
20. Forgotten - Forgotten energy siphon gives melee heroes an attack that can hit air units. Corrupted Incarnation gives health back when the units kills another, which most melee heroes should be able to do most of the time.
21. Paragon - reactive shielding gives lots of shielding, greeting increases the tankiness of the unit. (pair well with health regeneration) Combat protocol Implants gives extra crit chance, and a bit of evasion.
Other Generic Tips
1. The two things you need are defensive capabilities and mobility, and there's also a difference if you want to make your commander the melee hero, or a hero. You want Damage mitigation (thru things like Shields, Armor, Evasion, Regeneration, Status Resistance/Immunity), and mobility, (thru things like Jetpack, Phase Shift, Shrouded Step).You may want to consider taking 1 mod that boost damage, but not before boosting survivability.
2. Reviving expendable/high dps melee heroes with the Hero Resurrection Protocol operation, is a valid strategy. (80 energy and 16 operational points)
3. All-round Awareness and Counter Attack skill are fantastic melee hero skills available to all heroes. Some would argue that because there are other ways to get immunity from flanking that you shouldn’t spend 4 skill points on it.
4. Try to avoid putting support skills like buffing/healing other units on this hero - you won't have the time to spare or be in position to do these things. Once in melee your only jobs should be tanking and killing stuff that gets close.5. When you build your hero, you generally want all the passive abilities, and few or no active abilities. Melee heroes should be attacking every turn after the first one, not using their abilities. The same goes for mods, you don't have time to spend your turn using an item, so your mods should be passive or cost no action points.
5. You need to think about your anti-air capability. If your stack doesn't have this well-covered, you may need a tac-op, or your hero will need a secondary weapon, mod, or skill that gives you an anti-air attack.
6. I would consider bringing a support unit that can heal damaged melee hero’s, so that you don’t need to put health regeneration on the unit. Altho bringing both does drastically increase the units survivability, it will lower the hero’s overall dps.
Racial Factions-
General:
1. Assembly heroes make for great tanks, as they can get health back for each hit they make. The assembly have a lot of armor which helps in melee combat, as melee attack bypass shields. Can reset hero's action points with the Linear Acceleration Operation. Has lots of melee units in the roster, which can support a melee hero well. Only having one melee unit in a stack tends to lead to them being the first to die in tough combats.
2. Kir'ko heroes are good at melee, because their leaders can get linked to transcendents, reducing their incoming damage. Lacking (just early game?) stagger res, unless you go celestian. Has lots of melee units in the roster, which can support a melee hero well. Only having one melee unit in a stack tends to lead to them being the first to die in tough combats.
3. The vanguard have some great mods for melee units, but do not have any melee units in their racial tech tree, unless you count valkyries, which cannot be modded.
4. Amazon lancers are really good at melee, and putting an amazon hero into a lancer vehicle is quite potent. (mostly due to mobility, and tankiness). Arboreal Sentinels can grant 3 shields.
5. Syndicate heroes can buy psionic melee weapons on turn 1, which bypass enemy armor and shields.Syndicate also has some very good evasion mods which I like to stack on melee as they tend to die too soon otherways. Also the escape module is important for keeping the hero alive. Syndicate also lacks stagger resist. Enforcers can shield other melee units give them psionic buffs in the process. Mirages can also support melee units by adding to their defense, while also burning some anti-air capacity.
6. Sharkarn heroes get access to a lot of mods that make them extraordinarily tanky, like the Holodisplacement fields, which grants skitter to the unit, and Orbital Recall Systems, which teleports the unit, boost shields for a turn, only requires one action point to use, and leaves you with an action point so that you can attack, and/or set up a couple melee overwatches. Lack healing and early game stagger res.
7. Dvar heroes get access to some fun mods, like Super Powered Pistons, which can apply concussion when your unit attacks with a kinetic melee attack. (pairs really well with voidtech). The Dvar have a lot of armor which helps in melee combat, as melee attack bypass shields. The General Alert Protocol operation allows melee heroes to sprint to the edge of the movement and then enter defensive mode. You can also use that operation to allow your melee units to enter defensive mode after attacking.
Hero Skills:
1. Assembly - heroes can get stagger resistance without mods. Assimilate is op. Reassemble work on other hero units.
2. Kir’ko - Shrouded step (teleport/mobility). Frenzied assault= passive boost to damage. Fury of the swarm = passive boost to damage.
3. Vanguard - Dig in makes the unit a bit tankier when in cover
4. Amazon - Biological Expert, and Animal discipline add a bit of tankiess. +
5. Syndicate - Escape module, keeps units in the fight a bit longer. Backstab can be ok for melee heroes. Shield Battery gives extra +1 shield.
6. Sharkarn - quaking shields, Domok skill branch, and pick up Call Insider to have additional units.
7. Dvar - heroes can get stagger immunity without mods (more room for other mods) and ability to run through obstacles. Siege Master a rather easy to activate damage resistance (in cover means that one of the 6 adjacent squares grants cover, no matter the direction) armorer gives +1 armor.
Weapons and Mods:
1. Dvar - the rocket hammer is great for killing weak units with one hit. Stagger res mod. Super power pistons can concuss.
2. Shakarn- skitter mod is fantasic. Omni claw has two attacks: one melee, and one ranged. Chroma Engine mod. For free retaliation dmg either before or after repositioning. Jumping arc damage hits Air units! (needs to take arc damage for that). Late game loadout: Sono-fins alt (secondary “weapon”), Assault exoskeleton, Xeno Defense Module, Orbital recall Systems, Chroma Engine mod. Trigger-phase systems grants resurgence, but cause the unit to attack random enemy targets.
3. Assembly - Reviving expendable/high dps melee heroes with the Reassembly Module, is a valid strategy. Arc Retaliation Defense hurts nearby enemies when the unit with it takes damage. Wrecker vehicle.
4. Vanguard - get an early stagger resist mod, Interlocking Armor. jetpack for heroes is pretty strong, you can hit 3 flanking attacks in one turn. nanite injectors are great for healing, and temporarily increasing defensive stats. Improved Combat Sensor will make it easier to close the distance by boosting evasion. Sequential Kill Systems gives back an action point after killing a unit once per turn. Reactive Armor Plating reflects damage back at attackers.
5. Amazon - get an early stagger resist mod, Grounding Harness, and they have a lot other mods that are good for melee. Regenerative Bioregulator give health regen. Blood Fury Inducers increases dps, and gives health regeneration when some units die in battle 1. (requires the unit to be heavy, so only really work on melee heroes using a Tyrannodon vehicle). Earth link mask for infantry units. Spirit Link Module for animal vehicles. The Tyrannodon vehicle has a nice melee attack, Tail Swipe, which hits three hexs.
6. Kir’ko - Regenerative Bioregulator gives health regen. Resuscitation Glands gives resurgence. Mantra of life allows you to heal units when a transcended links with them. Tunneling claws gives mobility, +20% melee damage, and 10 hp. Adrenal Response Gland can give up to +50% melee damage. Accelerated Metabolism give skitter, and can reset all of a unit's action points when it kills an enemy unit. Ravenous Vehicle is strong.
7. Syndicate - Mantra of life allows you to heal units when using one of the many psionic support skills that they get. (overseer, mirages, and ) Adaptive Camouflage Projector give 15 evasion, and a defensive mode which give even more evasion, allowing melee heroes to potentially get in melee overwatch and then enter into their defensive mode. If the enemy tries to shoot the melee hero, they may miss and hit their own units. Psitec fist are amazing all through the game.
Part 2:
The video version of part 2 can be found here:
Extra advice from the community (based on comments left on multiple threads):
Gear:
Black egg: spawn in a penguin. Having extra units that you can summon into a battle is always super useful as you will be able to get a numerical advantage quite easily, but having an extra t2 melee unit is even better on melee heroes
Herald of Oblivion: With this Tier 4 dagger, the weakened Herald it summons can itself summon stuff if your hero has summoning mods equipped. For example, if you have the Ethereal Penguin summoning egg, the Herald will be able to summon one as well. (This might be considered a bug).
Other:
Dvar Excavator: gives the hero access to a Ram ability that scales with distance moved, and it gives access to Defensive Flamers which put the hero in Defense mode after use. It's an extremely mobile, high impact platform.
Blood fury: is only applicable to heavy bio units. The Tyrannodon technically counts - since it has a decent single shot attack - but I dont think thats what people have in mind when they think of melee-focused heroes.
Secret Techs:
General:
1. Heritor: Siphoners can reset the action points of high dps melee hero units, after they do a repeating attack, or after the sprint to the edge of the movement range (can go all the way into the red). The Energy drain mechanic buffs your units and debuffing enemies with the drain mechanic, both increasing your units survivability and dps.
2. Celestian: can give any hero unit resurgence with the Resurgence operation. Ascended Teacher’s give resurgence to all enlightened units in the same stack.
3. Void tech - Phase Manipulator can teleport and heal melee units that overextend and/or took a lot of damage last turn. Echo walkers can support other melee units really well.
4. Psynumbra - can apply broken mind, which increases the chances an enemy will fumble it’s attacks, which in turn increases the survivability of all of your units in the fight. This ST also has high dps, allowing it to kill off units that get into melee range quite quickly.
5. Xenoplague - can drop aoe that deal damage to enemies, while healing your own units (plague pods)
6. Promethean - plasmoids provide excellent melee support. Purifiers can drop aoe that deal damage to enemies and leaves a hazard, which can healing your own units like the Phoenix Walker (thermal shielding panels). Pheonix walker comes with panels, while other units need the mod to heal in fire.
7. Synthesis - integrated units get access to powerful defensive (healing +evasion+resurrection) operations + synergies, which allows melee heroes to stay alive longer.
Hero Skills:
1. Xenoplauge - has a lot of melee-friendly hero skills. For example a xenoplague heroes can get Rapid Movements early so additional evasion mods work much better and can get regeneration via Regenerative Spore Cloud. Spore feeding healing nearby friendly units every time an enemy while standing near the commander. Parasitic spray can stun units, has a range of 5, and only uses a single action.
2. Promethean - Plasma Surge allows you to close the distance passing through obstacles, and landing with an aoe that staggers. Fallout Protocols gives +1 armor.
3. Heritor - Deny the Void resurrect the hero with more hp the more essence charges it has, allowing you to be more aggressive with the hero. Essence Seeker gives energy drain on all attacks + Essence Shields gives +1 shields per essence charge.
4. Psynumbra - Sinister Chorus debuff adjacent enemy units meaning you want to place heroes with this skill next to multiple enemy units. .
5. Void tech - Phase Shift allows you to reposition the hero for 1 Action point. Dimensional Feedback reflects damage back to the attacker, and Shield Modulator give +1 shield.
6. Celestian - Cleansing Light provides a lot of healing.
7. Synthesis - Assisted Breach allows melee heroes to bypass 1 armor and 1 shields (melee attack bypass all shields, but you may want a ranged option on them, and with this skill those attack bypass 1 armor).
Weapons and Mods:
1. Celestian - provides early game stagger res through Tenets of Tranquility. Later on focuses on more healing, debuffing and disabling enemies which is good for survivability.
2. Promethean - Pyrx Absorption Panels allow you to heal melee units while also hitting adjacent enemy units with things like “Launch Plasma Bombs”. Promethean Commanders can go Close Quarter Equipment with the idea of piloting their t3 secret tech melee vehicle later but on the other hand staying flexible by pumping hit points instead of melee mastery better. Backlash Projectors hurts nearby enemies when the unit with it takes damage. Purification fields gives early game healing.
3. Psynumbra - Pain Mirror (deals damage to nearby attackers). Consuming Gaze is a nice ranged option that can heal a damage melee commander, while also dealing a decent amount of damage. Damaged units typically want to stay a bit away from the combat.
4. Void tech - has phase walk mod and grenades. Quantum Avatar + phase drive on heavy vehicles= loads of mobility and defenses.
5. Synthesis - Guardian Daemon Shell gives 20% evasion. Total Network Integration gives stagger immunity as well as revival of the unit if you win the combat.
6. Xenoplague - Xenografted muscles greatly increases melee dps in the early game. Plague Pods provide healing and crowd control with the ability to stagger foes. Bio spore purification provides healing. Parasitic Symbiosis provides passive healing. Bio spore proliferation allows you to resurrect allied units.
7. Heritor - esteq protector incarnations gives a lot of shield to units adjacent to the unit with this mod, drastically increases the durability of adjacent units. Esteq gauntlet allows melee heroes to deal a lot more damage per attack. Link shard provides some shielding. esteq lord incarnations provides healing when gaining charges.
Noteworthy Combinations (ST+ RF):
1. Voidtech Kir'ko - Take Phase Shift and Shrouded Step, which lets you teleport twice in the same turn with a single attack melee weapon like Heavy Hitter. You can cover huge distances with this combo. You won't have stagger immunity, but you only need 1 action point so it should be ok. You want to be an unattractive target, one good way to do that is for a Transcendent to protect you before you teleport in. Your hero should have defensive mods since the single attack melee weapons already hit quite hard.
2. Heritor Kir’ko - swarm shielding pairs really well with esteq protector incarnations, as both require clustering your own units.
3. Promethean Kir’ko - swarm shielding pairs really well with panels., as both benefit from clustering your own units.
4. Heritor Sharkarn = Ultra-high mobility, ultra-high durability. In this build, you can get two essence stacks usually per turn, meaning +2 shields. Plus when I get attacked I get shields, plus the opponent gets nerfed, which is really handy for being on the offensive. Plus the quaking shields, all-around awareness (critical), and pheremones (2 damage reduction all channels). This is a REALLY tough unit. Plus the heals, plus the fins allow for retreat. If not balanced properly, can be a bit weak against psionic attacks.
5. Voidtech Sharkan - can equip two grenades on melee units: the Impairing Grenades , and Gravity Pulse Grenades.
6. Promethean Assembly - panel + assimilation means a lot of healing on melee heroes.
7. Promethean Sharkarn - has melee purifiers.
8. Syndicate Synthesis combo - can stack evasion mods which counter ranged units (as melee attacks bypass evasion)
9. Celestian Syndicate - can give enforcer early stagger res mods.
10. Psynumbra Kir’ko - kir’ko initiate’s have a very strong melee attack. Kir’ko provided survivability, while psynumbra provides high dps. psi infected claws can apply a variety of powerful debuffs.
Original Post:
This week I am going to make a video highlighting all the tips that I can think of, and that are suggested through threads like this one, for how to make an effective melee hero.
Right now I only have a few tips, and will get more when I go back through my hero skills video later in the week. Ideally it would be great to point out what equipment works well in melee (weapons and mods), and maybe even how you can get in it game, as well as useful hero skills (which you can select when you level up)
Here are my initial tips:
1. Assembly heroes make for great tanks, as they can get health back for each hit they make.
2. Kir'ko heroes are good at melee, because their leaders can get linked to transcendents, reducing their incoming damage.
3. The vanguard have a great mod for reducing damage and healing, called nanite injectors.
4. Amazon lancers are really good at melee, and putting a amazon hero into a lancer vehicle is quite potent.
5. Syndicate heroes can buy psionic melee weapons on turn 1, which bypass enemy armor and shields.
6. Sharkarn heroes get access to a lot of mods that make them extraordinarily tanky, like the Holodisplacement fields, which grants skitter to the unit, and Orbital Recall Systems, which teleports the unit, boost shields for a turn, only requires one action point to use, and leaves you with an action point so that you can attack, and/or set up a couple melee overwatches.
7. Dvar heroes get access to some fun mods, like Super Powered Pistons, which can apply concussion when your unit attack with a kinetic melee attack. (pairs really well with voidtech). The General Alert Protocol operation allows melee heroes to sprint to the edge of the movement and then enter defensive mode. You can also use that operation to allow your melee units to enter defensive mode after attacking.
8. Din-din is an amazing weapon, because it allow you to heal units that are very likely to be targeted and damaged by enemy units.
Looking forward to seeing what strategies people recommend
Salutations my friends!
As much as I wanted to cover every aspect of making a melee commander this week, I just simply ran out of time in the video. In part 1, I have covered my general tips, and the tips relating the racial faction in the game, but did not get to the Secret techs, or some of the more fun/cheesy combinations. Thanks to everyone who helped me research this massive topic!
Part 2 can be found below!!
Please feel free to let me know if I missed anything about building melee heroes.
Recommended Commander Backgrounds:
1. Taking Close Quarter Equipment is strong, but a bit risky. A lot of players like to wait a bit before investing heavily into the melee strategy. One exception is Xenoplague commanders, as you can get a really nice melee weapon that can allow you to build up infections, leading to more pustules and eventually more destroyers and plague lords. Another good option for Dvar commanders is to take the hammer, which you get so long as you do not pair Dvar with Celestian, Xenoplage or Voidtech. Hammer pairs well with Martial tradition. (kill, teleport, attack or ability in one turn)
2. Keltomacinc > decadent. Both are good for a melee commander. Klepotmanic can generate very powerful mods, where as decadent gives +10 to your commander while significantly lowers the rate in which you generate population.
3. Stubborn good for stagger resistance
4. Martial Tradition -> Ruthless killer, which can reset a high dps commander (although it can be risky investing too much dps too early on, at the expense of survivability on your commander)
General Tips for Weapons and Mods (from things like kelptomanic + loot + NPC factions):
1.The way you get into melee range determines what kind of melee weapon you should be using. If you have access to a Vanguard Jetpack, it does not use action points to activate, meaning you can use a repeating melee weapon. Kir'ko using Shrouded Step leaves only 1 action point so it makes more sense to have a melee weapon that only uses 1 action point.
2. Din-din is an amazing weapon, because it allows you to heal units that are very likely to be targeted and damaged by enemy units.
3. Leg Exoskeleton Systems, a tier 3 hero mod can be obtained as a kleptomaniac draw, or from battle loot. It gives a point of armour, stagger resistance, and fast movement all in one mod.
4. Lightning Blade bounces damage to up to 2 units within two hexes, and is repeating. Attacks like this on can be paired wit the assembly to do an insane amount of healing. With an assimilate, each arc hit can heal the hero, resulting in up to 27 HP (3 hits x 3 enemies x 3 HP/hit), regained per turn.
5. Carbon Glaive hits three units in front of it, and is repeating.
6. Swelter Blade hits three units in front of it, and is repeating. (check the other weapons, maybe some mods)
7. Edge is a t4 repeating psionic melee weapon that heals when it deals damage, regardless of the target.
8. Antaran Armor reflects incoming damage and is acquired through an anomaly site. (not in imperial archives)
9. Displacement Systems give evasion, which helps you get closer to a ranged target, without taking as much damage as you would without it. Also acquired through an anomaly site. (not in imperial archives)
10. Hollow Essence Ark gives resurgence and is a reward for an early game anomaly where you have to defeat 6 siphoners.
11. Chemical Scythe applies Neral toxin. Reward for clearing reaper sites?
12. An Amazon psynumbra hero and a Vanguard Psynumbra hero come with Ethereal Spear, a repeating psionic melee weapon, which is a bit better than psitec fists. (14 repeating > 12 repeating)
13. It is important to recognize that you can cross-research important mods. So even if you are not playing Vanguard, if you have a Vanguard colony you can still get Jetpacks.
14. Owning a syndicate colony unlock, psitec fists. (conquering counts) Some would argue that it’s better to just get enforcers for psionic melee, as they get a special defensive mode + and secondary single action attack that cripple (which does reduces movement and accuracy by 30%)
NPC Faction Mods
15. If there are Therians on planet; they have Enhanced Leg Augments that gives fast movement, stagger res, and +1 armor. Hunters camouflage gives flanking attacks the cripple debuff, and +2 armor. And of course the Therian prime mod which turns hero into the best melee unit of the game. Pheromones are awesome, and the Might of the Therians mod lets you trigger them when you want (giving you melee units skitter and health regeneration when it is the most helpful).
16. Growth can use Worker Bees to heal melee units so good synergy there. Putting the Regeneration Glands on a few bees, who can follow your melee heroes around giving them health regeneration. If you can put Sprouting Infestation on a melee hero with biological damage, the extra vine sprouts will allow you to get a lot melee attacks on your enemies, maybe even turning them so your main dps can get easy flanking shots.
17. Autonoms - Autonom Network Connector allows melee heroes to get networked, so that they can get the defensive bonuses that the monitor and Network Controller can apply to autonom units. If you put your melee heroes in a mechanical vehicle, like the Phoenix Walker, they can use the Self-repair Systems to get health regeneration.
18. Psifish - mantra of illusion both allow you to put obscures on friendly units, and to apply hallucinating to enemy units. Very strong on enforcers. Mind barrier adds a lot of defensive capability to non-mindless units, especially for factions that are weak to psionic attacks, like the assembly, the dvar, and the vanguard.
19. Spacers - Hallucinating Regulators makes all attacks on the target count as flanking, allowing your melee units to take out their targets faster. If you can put mantra of the branded on a melee hero then you will get a free melee overwatch on some of their targets (i think it causes them to run away for one turn
20. Forgotten - Forgotten energy siphon gives melee heroes an attack that can hit air units. Corrupted Incarnation gives health back when the units kills another, which most melee heroes should be able to do most of the time.
21. Paragon - reactive shielding gives lots of shielding, greeting increases the tankiness of the unit. (pair well with health regeneration) Combat protocol Implants gives extra crit chance, and a bit of evasion.
Other Generic Tips
1. The two things you need are defensive capabilities and mobility, and there's also a difference if you want to make your commander the melee hero, or a hero. You want Damage mitigation (thru things like Shields, Armor, Evasion, Regeneration, Status Resistance/Immunity), and mobility, (thru things like Jetpack, Phase Shift, Shrouded Step).You may want to consider taking 1 mod that boost damage, but not before boosting survivability.
2. Reviving expendable/high dps melee heroes with the Hero Resurrection Protocol operation, is a valid strategy. (80 energy and 16 operational points)
3. All-round Awareness and Counter Attack skill are fantastic melee hero skills available to all heroes. Some would argue that because there are other ways to get immunity from flanking that you shouldn’t spend 4 skill points on it.
4. Try to avoid putting support skills like buffing/healing other units on this hero - you won't have the time to spare or be in position to do these things. Once in melee your only jobs should be tanking and killing stuff that gets close.5. When you build your hero, you generally want all the passive abilities, and few or no active abilities. Melee heroes should be attacking every turn after the first one, not using their abilities. The same goes for mods, you don't have time to spend your turn using an item, so your mods should be passive or cost no action points.
5. You need to think about your anti-air capability. If your stack doesn't have this well-covered, you may need a tac-op, or your hero will need a secondary weapon, mod, or skill that gives you an anti-air attack.
6. I would consider bringing a support unit that can heal damaged melee hero’s, so that you don’t need to put health regeneration on the unit. Altho bringing both does drastically increase the units survivability, it will lower the hero’s overall dps.
Racial Factions-
General:
1. Assembly heroes make for great tanks, as they can get health back for each hit they make. The assembly have a lot of armor which helps in melee combat, as melee attack bypass shields. Can reset hero's action points with the Linear Acceleration Operation. Has lots of melee units in the roster, which can support a melee hero well. Only having one melee unit in a stack tends to lead to them being the first to die in tough combats.
2. Kir'ko heroes are good at melee, because their leaders can get linked to transcendents, reducing their incoming damage. Lacking (just early game?) stagger res, unless you go celestian. Has lots of melee units in the roster, which can support a melee hero well. Only having one melee unit in a stack tends to lead to them being the first to die in tough combats.
3. The vanguard have some great mods for melee units, but do not have any melee units in their racial tech tree, unless you count valkyries, which cannot be modded.
4. Amazon lancers are really good at melee, and putting an amazon hero into a lancer vehicle is quite potent. (mostly due to mobility, and tankiness). Arboreal Sentinels can grant 3 shields.
5. Syndicate heroes can buy psionic melee weapons on turn 1, which bypass enemy armor and shields.Syndicate also has some very good evasion mods which I like to stack on melee as they tend to die too soon otherways. Also the escape module is important for keeping the hero alive. Syndicate also lacks stagger resist. Enforcers can shield other melee units give them psionic buffs in the process. Mirages can also support melee units by adding to their defense, while also burning some anti-air capacity.
6. Sharkarn heroes get access to a lot of mods that make them extraordinarily tanky, like the Holodisplacement fields, which grants skitter to the unit, and Orbital Recall Systems, which teleports the unit, boost shields for a turn, only requires one action point to use, and leaves you with an action point so that you can attack, and/or set up a couple melee overwatches. Lack healing and early game stagger res.
7. Dvar heroes get access to some fun mods, like Super Powered Pistons, which can apply concussion when your unit attacks with a kinetic melee attack. (pairs really well with voidtech). The Dvar have a lot of armor which helps in melee combat, as melee attack bypass shields. The General Alert Protocol operation allows melee heroes to sprint to the edge of the movement and then enter defensive mode. You can also use that operation to allow your melee units to enter defensive mode after attacking.
Hero Skills:
1. Assembly - heroes can get stagger resistance without mods. Assimilate is op. Reassemble work on other hero units.
2. Kir’ko - Shrouded step (teleport/mobility). Frenzied assault= passive boost to damage. Fury of the swarm = passive boost to damage.
3. Vanguard - Dig in makes the unit a bit tankier when in cover
4. Amazon - Biological Expert, and Animal discipline add a bit of tankiess. +
5. Syndicate - Escape module, keeps units in the fight a bit longer. Backstab can be ok for melee heroes. Shield Battery gives extra +1 shield.
6. Sharkarn - quaking shields, Domok skill branch, and pick up Call Insider to have additional units.
7. Dvar - heroes can get stagger immunity without mods (more room for other mods) and ability to run through obstacles. Siege Master a rather easy to activate damage resistance (in cover means that one of the 6 adjacent squares grants cover, no matter the direction) armorer gives +1 armor.
Weapons and Mods:
1. Dvar - the rocket hammer is great for killing weak units with one hit. Stagger res mod. Super power pistons can concuss.
2. Shakarn- skitter mod is fantasic. Omni claw has two attacks: one melee, and one ranged. Chroma Engine mod. For free retaliation dmg either before or after repositioning. Jumping arc damage hits Air units! (needs to take arc damage for that). Late game loadout: Sono-fins alt (secondary “weapon”), Assault exoskeleton, Xeno Defense Module, Orbital recall Systems, Chroma Engine mod. Trigger-phase systems grants resurgence, but cause the unit to attack random enemy targets.
3. Assembly - Reviving expendable/high dps melee heroes with the Reassembly Module, is a valid strategy. Arc Retaliation Defense hurts nearby enemies when the unit with it takes damage. Wrecker vehicle.
4. Vanguard - get an early stagger resist mod, Interlocking Armor. jetpack for heroes is pretty strong, you can hit 3 flanking attacks in one turn. nanite injectors are great for healing, and temporarily increasing defensive stats. Improved Combat Sensor will make it easier to close the distance by boosting evasion. Sequential Kill Systems gives back an action point after killing a unit once per turn. Reactive Armor Plating reflects damage back at attackers.
5. Amazon - get an early stagger resist mod, Grounding Harness, and they have a lot other mods that are good for melee. Regenerative Bioregulator give health regen. Blood Fury Inducers increases dps, and gives health regeneration when some units die in battle 1. (requires the unit to be heavy, so only really work on melee heroes using a Tyrannodon vehicle). Earth link mask for infantry units. Spirit Link Module for animal vehicles. The Tyrannodon vehicle has a nice melee attack, Tail Swipe, which hits three hexs.
6. Kir’ko - Regenerative Bioregulator gives health regen. Resuscitation Glands gives resurgence. Mantra of life allows you to heal units when a transcended links with them. Tunneling claws gives mobility, +20% melee damage, and 10 hp. Adrenal Response Gland can give up to +50% melee damage. Accelerated Metabolism give skitter, and can reset all of a unit's action points when it kills an enemy unit. Ravenous Vehicle is strong.
7. Syndicate - Mantra of life allows you to heal units when using one of the many psionic support skills that they get. (overseer, mirages, and ) Adaptive Camouflage Projector give 15 evasion, and a defensive mode which give even more evasion, allowing melee heroes to potentially get in melee overwatch and then enter into their defensive mode. If the enemy tries to shoot the melee hero, they may miss and hit their own units. Psitec fist are amazing all through the game.
Part 2:
The video version of part 2 can be found here:
Extra advice from the community (based on comments left on multiple threads):
Gear:
Black egg: spawn in a penguin. Having extra units that you can summon into a battle is always super useful as you will be able to get a numerical advantage quite easily, but having an extra t2 melee unit is even better on melee heroes
Herald of Oblivion: With this Tier 4 dagger, the weakened Herald it summons can itself summon stuff if your hero has summoning mods equipped. For example, if you have the Ethereal Penguin summoning egg, the Herald will be able to summon one as well. (This might be considered a bug).
Other:
Dvar Excavator: gives the hero access to a Ram ability that scales with distance moved, and it gives access to Defensive Flamers which put the hero in Defense mode after use. It's an extremely mobile, high impact platform.
Blood fury: is only applicable to heavy bio units. The Tyrannodon technically counts - since it has a decent single shot attack - but I dont think thats what people have in mind when they think of melee-focused heroes.
Secret Techs:
General:
1. Heritor: Siphoners can reset the action points of high dps melee hero units, after they do a repeating attack, or after the sprint to the edge of the movement range (can go all the way into the red). The Energy drain mechanic buffs your units and debuffing enemies with the drain mechanic, both increasing your units survivability and dps.
2. Celestian: can give any hero unit resurgence with the Resurgence operation. Ascended Teacher’s give resurgence to all enlightened units in the same stack.
3. Void tech - Phase Manipulator can teleport and heal melee units that overextend and/or took a lot of damage last turn. Echo walkers can support other melee units really well.
4. Psynumbra - can apply broken mind, which increases the chances an enemy will fumble it’s attacks, which in turn increases the survivability of all of your units in the fight. This ST also has high dps, allowing it to kill off units that get into melee range quite quickly.
5. Xenoplague - can drop aoe that deal damage to enemies, while healing your own units (plague pods)
6. Promethean - plasmoids provide excellent melee support. Purifiers can drop aoe that deal damage to enemies and leaves a hazard, which can healing your own units like the Phoenix Walker (thermal shielding panels). Pheonix walker comes with panels, while other units need the mod to heal in fire.
7. Synthesis - integrated units get access to powerful defensive (healing +evasion+resurrection) operations + synergies, which allows melee heroes to stay alive longer.
Hero Skills:
1. Xenoplauge - has a lot of melee-friendly hero skills. For example a xenoplague heroes can get Rapid Movements early so additional evasion mods work much better and can get regeneration via Regenerative Spore Cloud. Spore feeding healing nearby friendly units every time an enemy while standing near the commander. Parasitic spray can stun units, has a range of 5, and only uses a single action.
2. Promethean - Plasma Surge allows you to close the distance passing through obstacles, and landing with an aoe that staggers. Fallout Protocols gives +1 armor.
3. Heritor - Deny the Void resurrect the hero with more hp the more essence charges it has, allowing you to be more aggressive with the hero. Essence Seeker gives energy drain on all attacks + Essence Shields gives +1 shields per essence charge.
4. Psynumbra - Sinister Chorus debuff adjacent enemy units meaning you want to place heroes with this skill next to multiple enemy units. .
5. Void tech - Phase Shift allows you to reposition the hero for 1 Action point. Dimensional Feedback reflects damage back to the attacker, and Shield Modulator give +1 shield.
6. Celestian - Cleansing Light provides a lot of healing.
7. Synthesis - Assisted Breach allows melee heroes to bypass 1 armor and 1 shields (melee attack bypass all shields, but you may want a ranged option on them, and with this skill those attack bypass 1 armor).
Weapons and Mods:
1. Celestian - provides early game stagger res through Tenets of Tranquility. Later on focuses on more healing, debuffing and disabling enemies which is good for survivability.
2. Promethean - Pyrx Absorption Panels allow you to heal melee units while also hitting adjacent enemy units with things like “Launch Plasma Bombs”. Promethean Commanders can go Close Quarter Equipment with the idea of piloting their t3 secret tech melee vehicle later but on the other hand staying flexible by pumping hit points instead of melee mastery better. Backlash Projectors hurts nearby enemies when the unit with it takes damage. Purification fields gives early game healing.
3. Psynumbra - Pain Mirror (deals damage to nearby attackers). Consuming Gaze is a nice ranged option that can heal a damage melee commander, while also dealing a decent amount of damage. Damaged units typically want to stay a bit away from the combat.
4. Void tech - has phase walk mod and grenades. Quantum Avatar + phase drive on heavy vehicles= loads of mobility and defenses.
5. Synthesis - Guardian Daemon Shell gives 20% evasion. Total Network Integration gives stagger immunity as well as revival of the unit if you win the combat.
6. Xenoplague - Xenografted muscles greatly increases melee dps in the early game. Plague Pods provide healing and crowd control with the ability to stagger foes. Bio spore purification provides healing. Parasitic Symbiosis provides passive healing. Bio spore proliferation allows you to resurrect allied units.
7. Heritor - esteq protector incarnations gives a lot of shield to units adjacent to the unit with this mod, drastically increases the durability of adjacent units. Esteq gauntlet allows melee heroes to deal a lot more damage per attack. Link shard provides some shielding. esteq lord incarnations provides healing when gaining charges.
Noteworthy Combinations (ST+ RF):
1. Voidtech Kir'ko - Take Phase Shift and Shrouded Step, which lets you teleport twice in the same turn with a single attack melee weapon like Heavy Hitter. You can cover huge distances with this combo. You won't have stagger immunity, but you only need 1 action point so it should be ok. You want to be an unattractive target, one good way to do that is for a Transcendent to protect you before you teleport in. Your hero should have defensive mods since the single attack melee weapons already hit quite hard.
2. Heritor Kir’ko - swarm shielding pairs really well with esteq protector incarnations, as both require clustering your own units.
3. Promethean Kir’ko - swarm shielding pairs really well with panels., as both benefit from clustering your own units.
4. Heritor Sharkarn = Ultra-high mobility, ultra-high durability. In this build, you can get two essence stacks usually per turn, meaning +2 shields. Plus when I get attacked I get shields, plus the opponent gets nerfed, which is really handy for being on the offensive. Plus the quaking shields, all-around awareness (critical), and pheremones (2 damage reduction all channels). This is a REALLY tough unit. Plus the heals, plus the fins allow for retreat. If not balanced properly, can be a bit weak against psionic attacks.
5. Voidtech Sharkan - can equip two grenades on melee units: the Impairing Grenades , and Gravity Pulse Grenades.
6. Promethean Assembly - panel + assimilation means a lot of healing on melee heroes.
7. Promethean Sharkarn - has melee purifiers.
8. Syndicate Synthesis combo - can stack evasion mods which counter ranged units (as melee attacks bypass evasion)
9. Celestian Syndicate - can give enforcer early stagger res mods.
10. Psynumbra Kir’ko - kir’ko initiate’s have a very strong melee attack. Kir’ko provided survivability, while psynumbra provides high dps. psi infected claws can apply a variety of powerful debuffs.
Original Post:
This week I am going to make a video highlighting all the tips that I can think of, and that are suggested through threads like this one, for how to make an effective melee hero.
Right now I only have a few tips, and will get more when I go back through my hero skills video later in the week. Ideally it would be great to point out what equipment works well in melee (weapons and mods), and maybe even how you can get in it game, as well as useful hero skills (which you can select when you level up)
Here are my initial tips:
1. Assembly heroes make for great tanks, as they can get health back for each hit they make.
2. Kir'ko heroes are good at melee, because their leaders can get linked to transcendents, reducing their incoming damage.
3. The vanguard have a great mod for reducing damage and healing, called nanite injectors.
4. Amazon lancers are really good at melee, and putting a amazon hero into a lancer vehicle is quite potent.
5. Syndicate heroes can buy psionic melee weapons on turn 1, which bypass enemy armor and shields.
6. Sharkarn heroes get access to a lot of mods that make them extraordinarily tanky, like the Holodisplacement fields, which grants skitter to the unit, and Orbital Recall Systems, which teleports the unit, boost shields for a turn, only requires one action point to use, and leaves you with an action point so that you can attack, and/or set up a couple melee overwatches.
7. Dvar heroes get access to some fun mods, like Super Powered Pistons, which can apply concussion when your unit attack with a kinetic melee attack. (pairs really well with voidtech). The General Alert Protocol operation allows melee heroes to sprint to the edge of the movement and then enter defensive mode. You can also use that operation to allow your melee units to enter defensive mode after attacking.
8. Din-din is an amazing weapon, because it allow you to heal units that are very likely to be targeted and damaged by enemy units.
Looking forward to seeing what strategies people recommend
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