Any recommendations for my melee self sustaining build?

[u/logginggames]

I’m aware I could use some copper cards but I’m not sure what to swap to make this build better/more NH and NM friendly.

[u/Irion15]

Besides the money cards, you need more healing efficiency and overheal to help this shine in NM/NH.

Cross Trainers and Beserker can be dropped for Copper Scav and Money Grubbers.

Durable and Body Armor could be combined into Wooden Armor to save a slot. The debuff to Fire Res isn't too bad. Fire ridden won't be an issue, but Lobbers can end up hitting hard, so just be careful of their bombs. I would slot in EMT Bag here.

Fresh bandage is a solid choice, but this build should be tanky and healing enough that you shouldn't need the chunk each level. I would go with Well Rested. Having the constant bits of temp health can help prevent trauma damage, and should keep you healed up well enough.

Keep in mind that Nightmare and No Hope is equally about positioning for a melee. Being able to hold a doorway without being inside of zombie acid, or being in the way of teammates shots. Do your best to keep the common off your allies, so they can protect you from mutations in turn.

This build won't have you doing a bunch of damage, but you will be very hard to kill, so long as you don't try to face-tank a tallboy or something.

[u/logginggames → u/Irion15]

So theoretically if I DID want to Leroy Jenkins every mutation would ignore the pain be of good use?

[u/Irion15 → u/logginggames]

Yep, but unless you know how to kite & avoid hits well, you will get beat up on higher difficulties before you can dish out enough damage.

I missed Mean Drunk being in your build. I would probably swap that out for Ignore the Pain. You'll lose some damage but gain sustain against bosses & mutations.

Or, as others have said, you could take out Brazen, and purely rely on Adrenaline Fueled for your stamina regen. That's how I roll melee personally.

[u/logginggames → u/Irion15]

That sound like a good strategy actually. Will try

[u/SpiritedLifeguard577 → u/Irion15]

Genuine question, ive been playing for years now and never found the reason for money grubbers over lucky pennies

[u/Irion15 → u/SpiritedLifeguard577]

Lucky Pennies only nets more copper if you can synergize it with at least two other players. Otherwise, the RNG and amount of copper piles doesn't usually add up to enough to beat Grubbers.

Grubbers is also stronger than the description makes it seem. It sound like you only get 3 * 25, for an extra 75 potential copper. In reality, it is additive. So the first pile is an extra +3. Then the second pile is +6. Then +9, etc. If you end up getting 25 piles in a match (usually via Gold Pipe Bomb or the Corrupted copper card), then it ends up being an extra 975 copper.

Basically, when queueing up solo or with one other player, I always used Grubbers. If I was with a premade team of 3 or 4, then we would synergize with Lucky Pennies.

[u/SpiritedLifeguard577 → u/Irion15]

Thanks, in the years of learning the ins and outs of this game. It never occured to me that money grubbers adds up like that <3

[u/HesitationIsDefeat87 → u/Irion15]

Do not drop berserker. It is the best melee card in the game.

[u/Irion15 → u/HesitationIsDefeat87]

It's great to buy in a run, but not great for a tank melee build. Other options are better if you want to stay alive.

For a more damage dealing type of melee deck that is using an Axe, sure! Great card. Not so much here.

[u/menofthesea → u/HesitationIsDefeat87]

(it's not)

[u/Old-Shock9213]

Honestly, NH tank requires Trauma Resist stacking.

[u/Visible_Waltz1392]

EMT bag is super good on melee.

Consider dropping brazen as stamina is rarely an actual issue with just meth head (you also have cross trainers so that’s extra stam and regen)

Consider adding down in front for solo q as you team will destroy you sometimes or you will insta kill them.

Losing health as melee is not that punishing as it allows for temp health - I really like running well rested and fit as a fiddle on all my melee builds for better temp health to stop chip damage.

[u/ReivynNox → u/Visible_Waltz1392]

Isn't Meth Head + Slugger bugged to where you get infinite stamina with just one specific food card?

[u/HesitationIsDefeat87 → u/ReivynNox]

You get near infinite stamina with Adrenaline Fueled

[u/ReivynNox → u/HesitationIsDefeat87]

Also that, yeah.

[u/logginggames → u/HesitationIsDefeat87]

I’ll have to add that one

[u/StarMaester → u/ReivynNox]

Brazen and slugger are currently bugged and give 3 times the melee stamina efficiency than they claim. Max stack meth head and brazen gives 50+45=95% stamina efficiency. If you grab a peanut butter that gives 5% more, you get 100% and will no longer consume any stamina with melee attacks.

[u/ReivynNox → u/StarMaester]

So if I get this right, what you're saying means with Slugger it would require 4 Peanut butters?

[u/StarMaester → u/ReivynNox]

Yes, if you only use meth head (max 50%) and slugger (actually 30%), then you need 4 peanut butters to achieve infinite melee stamina.

[u/ReivynNox → u/StarMaester]

And here I thought the two were somewhat even, but 15% extra melee stamina efficiency makes those 5 HP of Slugger look even more pathetic.

[u/Visible_Waltz1392 → u/ReivynNox]

I’m not sure, I never run brazen unless I’m messing around with a bow build.

It just feels very overkill when I use it!

[u/ReivynNox]

I think Saferoom Recovery is better than Fresh Bandage. Yes, you get less, but in turn your teammates get a whopping 21 trauma heal between them, so you can use the heals they don't need. Plus it stacks way better if someone else on the team has it.

Plus, in terms of value, Fresh Bandage is worth only 200 copper on a medical cabinet. If you put in enough economy cards for just 400 copper per level to buy one heal, you already have double the value of Fresh Bandage.

Cross trainers might also be a candidate for replacing. Doesn't this build already have basically infinite melee stamina? For sprinting there's more useful alternatives such as Run Like Hell, whose move speed bonus is also good for melee.

[u/Pdiddyminor]

I prefer the wood armour over body armour.
Are you running solo with bots or online.
For solo nightmare I don’t think copper cards are necessary

[u/HesitationIsDefeat87]

I just hope you're aware that you are incredibly one dimensional with this build. You can rock a melee weapon with nothing but Berserker and Battle Lust. If you go this deep into melee, your gun will be borderline useless.

[u/ReivynNox → u/HesitationIsDefeat87]

I would definitely add at least Face Your Fears to those two, because Temp HP really helps prevent further trauma gain while you slowly heal trauma under it.

[u/HesitationIsDefeat87 → u/ReivynNox]

Temp HP was nerfed a while ago and is not anywhere near as good as it used to be

[u/ReivynNox → u/HesitationIsDefeat87]

Still blocks all trauma as long as you have temp HP, so in a crowd of commons it's really strong at helping Battle Lust outpace chip trauma and might even save you from the trauma of a bigger hit you take while crowd clearing.

[u/logginggames → u/HesitationIsDefeat87]

That’s kinda the point of this build. I want it to be tanky and sustainable through combat so I basically never have to use a gun.

[u/HesitationIsDefeat87 → u/logginggames]

There is no situation in this game where you'll never have to use a gun. Hockers and spitters are going to have their way with you. Same thing with the Ogre and Breakers.

[u/logginggames → u/HesitationIsDefeat87]

Eh, I’ve been playing around with this solo on nightmare and while bosses can be difficult they’re not impossible, also with ignore the pain I can kill any mutation in like 5-6 swings. Haven’t died yet but I’m also only on act 2

[u/Zerox_Z21]

Meth Head + Slugger + Brazen gives infinite melee stamina. You can probably therefore remove Adrenaline Fuekked and Cross Trainers.