Coolest, flashiest melee?

Let's say:
- I don't care about farming, ST damage, survivability (I do, but let's say it is secondary)
- I care about looking looking/sounding really freaking cool

What melee combination (primary/secondary/archetype) has the best of the following?
- Animations
- Sound fx
- Graphical effects

I want to look awesomely, heroically, badass while getting in my therapeutic beatings. Sell me on a combination that does it!

My favorite melee set from a 'style' standpoint has always been Martial Arts.

I like Street Justice better as a powerset, but MA is quite a bit 'flashier' and my favorite to watch in action.

purely graphic effects i would prolly suggest kin melee

it has a lot of flashy graphics and lots of sound effects, it also just happens to be decent with actual gameplay too


broadsword while it isnt too flashy is great for concept characters who use swords


secondaries there are not a whole lot of really flashy secondaries, although elec and fire armor have prolly the most standout graphics, and stone armor is also good too if you like looking like a DE monster with the tier 9 lol


as for epic powers, thats up to you, honestly they are all about the same IMO

My two choices for melee sets would be titan weapons and stone melee.

Titan weapons is usually lauded for being very strong, having good aoe, etc, etc, but it's also a very viscerally satisfying set. The weapon models are pretty good (in my opinion), and the sheer size gives it a very nice sense of presence. The animations are also top-notch - both the slow and fast animations really convey a sense of power, in my opinion. And the abundant knockdown, aside from being very useful mechanically, also adds greatly to the sense of power. The sound effects are only average, but you can't have everything.

Stone melee, on the other hand, is on this list basically *because* of the sound effects. It is, in my opinion, the most viscerally satisfying set in the game, because of how every single hit results in this echoing, crackling BOOM sound that makes you feel like you just hit them with an entire freakin planet. Once you've got stone fists, both hammers, and seismic smash, there is nothing more satisfying than walking up to a boss and unloading a giant can of BOOM WHAM SLAM BAM WHRAKOOM whoopass on him, complete with screen shake, knockdown, knockup, massive damage, and a boss-grade hold. And fault and tremor (even if tremor is only an average AoE, mechanically) both have the same satisfying smashiness paired with gobs of AoE knockdown (IMO an extremely powerful-feeling effect). It's not as strong overall as titan weapons, but it's no slouch either, and it's personally my favorite melee set.

Honorable mention goes to martial arts (non-stalker version). It doesn't have flashy effects and the sounds are again only average, but it does have some very pretty animations in my opinion. YMMV on a few of them (for example I despise both versions of crippling axe kick, and some people apparently don't like eagle's claw even though it is PURE AWESOME ), but the set overall has a very nice flowing and acrobatic feel to it. Street justice is also in much the same position of minimal FX and only average sound but nice animations, though in that case the feel is more brutal and crunchy than flowing and acrobatic.

If you're looking for a badass feeling armor set, my personal choice would usually be fire armor. This is much more of a personal preference thing, though, because my enjoyment of the set mostly has to do with it having rise of the phoenix (which is among my top half-dozen favorite powers in the entire game), so YMMV if self-rezzes are something you like or not. Most armor sets don't really do anything too fancy, imo, and when they do it's often in a negative way (witness people complaining about dark or ice armor hiding your costume). Fire still does that to some extend, but IMO it's not so bad, and rise of the phoenix's EPIC AWESOMENESS more than makes up for any minor shortcomings in that area. Regardless, rise of the phoenix is amazingly cool. I laugh manically every time I use it - "Oh, you think you've won? Take THIS!" (Blasts up from the ground in a blinding explosion of fire, sending the scorched and stunned bodies of my foes flying everywhere.) It just feels epic. On my fire/stone tank I have it 6 slotted for hefty amounts of damage, healing, and recharge.

If you make a character you can check out the animations and any alternate animations during creation. What one person thinks is really cool may not be the case for someone else. For instance, I like the animations for Street Justice the best. Coupled with the snapping, crunching sounds it's extremely visceral and - I think - relatively showy. I'm a huge fan of Spinning Strike for showiness. There's even some footwork animated into the set. But I've heard other people comment that they find it pedestrian. *shrug*

I'd look at Earth Melee myself, given how much I love Earth Assault...but it doesn't have Stone Spears. Boo.

So I'd check out the power customization screen during creation and maybe just watch people on your teams with the sets you're considering to see what looks fun.

Looks-sounds-etc wise, the ATs won't really be much different, except Stalkers will all be sorta hidden-ish.

If you like elemental effects, Lightning and fire armour both look very cool, IMHO, and don't completely obscure your basic costume/look. Fire does obscure more than Elec, but not as bad as others (stone/ice, I'm looking at you mostly). Most of the non-elemental powers don't have much look at all, except for shield, then you just carry a shield around. So, if you like shields, will then, obviously, take shield. If not.. If elemental and shields are out, the most interesting of what's left, in my opinion, is Energy Aura. It has a cool, subtle little distortion effect going on that doesn't obscure you much at all when it's active. It does have a stealth power, that makes ya ghostly in appearance like all stealths do, though. But, of remaining options, I find Energy aura the most aesthetically interesting.

But, Bio Armour is coming soon...



For offensive sets... Jeez, too many choices..


Dual Blades: Is flashy and fun.

Staff Melee: Ditto

Martial Arts: Is flashy, or not, depending on your desires, as it has multiple animation choices for almost every single power, more than any other offensive set I can think of. I recommend it highly since you can fine tune it more than any other melee set for aesthetics that appeal to you.

Street Justice: Looks like a poorer cousin to Martial Arts, visually, but isn't bad looking, just not customizable, and less flashy. Not knocking the set mechanically, just aesthetically. And not really knocking it on aesthetics, just giving it lower marks for aesthetics than MA. And if MA were less customizable, or SJ at all customizable, I'd prolly rank SJ above MA. Still, it's a solid option, better than most, IMHO.

Kinetic Melee: Awesome, flashy, fancy. And I love the sound effects, but I've heard many people say that the sound effects grate on them. To each their own, but I'd make this a top candidate.

All the elemental attacks have distinctive looks that appeal to some, and not so much to others. Dark melee seems the least interesting, to me of this category.

Most all the remaining weapon sets are pretty lame, and boring, sadly, with the exceptions of Katana/Ninja Blade/Titan Weapons.
Katana/Ninja Blade are different than the BS/WM/Ax trio, and thus a bit more interesting, but no great shakes, but not bad.
Titan Weapons is a lot different than most every other weapon set visually/auditorially. I personally think it looks goofy/bad, but it is unique, and lots of folks love it, so it's definitely worth your consideration.

I'm sure I've left some out, but that should give ya plenty of options to look into for now.

In my opinion, Spinning Strike alone makes Street Justice a cooler-looking set than Martial Arts.

Elec

I just wanted to add that the new proc in Kinetic Melee:Repulsing Torrent makes that power amazing

Also, what other people said, the SFX and more the visuals of KM are great (I LOVE my Dark Armor/Kinetic Melee Tanker). Stone has amazing smash feel and SFX with pretty good visuals (pair it with fire and have too much fun and do stupid amounts of damage).

Martial arts is hella awesome.

Street justice- How to play: First make a character you really dig, a character you see as "I'm gonna go find me some punks, and they are gonna get beat." My iteration of this was a Huge model, but slimmed down a bit but still nice broad shoulders, classic style costume, spandex with some very light pads, belt etc, and the Valkyrie mask. Then I made him Old looking, medium white beard, bald head, trustworthy looking eyes. he ws a retired crime fighter, and came across some punk hellions mugging some poor lady on his way home from the grocery. So he got mad, and beat those punks, beat those punks so they wished they never stepped foot in his neighborhood. So when i play this guy and this set, in that kind of mindset, it is very satisfying to throw that big haymaker at some punk gang banger. Shoulda stayed home, punk.

Elec/shield scrapper is also flashy, powerful, and has a huge array of concepts you could go for. Costume creator for both character and powers is very handy on this one.

Stone smas...I mean stone melee. I concur with the above. Make it with a set that gives you some endo tools, or some rech, or both. Elec armor is a prime pairing for it, but I hear a lot of good things about stone/fire brutes too. Stone melee is the definition of smash, even one of the powers in the set is named smash. man, now I am pumped to go overhead two handed screenshake smash some stupid freakshows!

I agree with much of what has already been said, but MA was always kinda 'meh' for me. I am kinda surprised how little attention Dual Blades has gotten. That is a beautiful set - some dislike Thousand Cuts but it's about personal taste.

Energy Melee...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FopyRHHlt3M

='(

This like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Sell yourself the one "you" feel is best for you. Otherwise you will just get a bunch of "personal" responses that don't help you decide what is good for "you".

Having said that, I suspect your brain has been turned off like many in the newer generations and you just want to be told what to think is the best, so Katana. Anything other than that is supbar and you should not roll them ok?

Nothing gives me enough satisfaction like how my character makes a half jump than drop downs his sword with both hands on an enemy and knock it down. Though admitedly it is just one move and there are some more flashier moves in melee sets than katana/NB/s golden dragonfly

I'm a big fan of Dual Blades, myself, and part of the reson for that is the animations. They're pretty stylish.

As others have mentioned, KinMelee is another good one for that. The "racecar" sound effects are a little annoying, but the animations are ace. Color the effects the right way and it looks an awful lot like you're playing an air bender.

Street Justice is also pretty impressive, but in a less flashy way. Like someone said up-thread, it just looks and sounds BRUTAL. There's no other way to describe it... and the real charm of the animations for me is in the small details. The little half-steps and balace corrections the character makes, for instance. Other sets just don't have that.

Ice Melee is the coolest, Electric is the flashiest.

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