@normanbestboi9117 Exactly what happened to me in NG+. Didn't even get to finish his initial monologue, and I already managed to stagger him and shove that thing where the sun doesn't shine
The pilebunker is amazing. ...that is, when the tiny amount of lunge in the charged attack doesn't push you slightly too far under the enemy you're trying to hit and making you completely fucking whiff.
So, for anyone who doesn't know, the Plasma Thrower actually ignores the movement penalty/pause you do if you use Quad Legs or Tank Treads. It's already good but it absolutely fucks if you don't use Biped legs.
My favourite build uses it as their melee, and I have literally whizzed around enemies ripping them apart thanks to it. Definitely underrated by the general community.
It doesn't miss insides its range, it's stronger than zim blasts but it only takes one arm slot. Also since you would be using Basho arms for melee attack boost why not pack the other hand with bad cook because 1. Basho has garbage tracking but Bad Cook simply doesnt give a shit about tracking 2. Do you not like even easier ACS break and insanely high DPS
Something you're not mentioning about coral oscillator and redshift moonlight is that coral damage completely ignores armor, so even though the charged attack has higher number on the regular moonlight, the redshift is just all around the better option. It's a direct upgrade. Plus in pvp the charged attack is less important anyways.
Wait whaaaaaaat? Coral ignores armor? Does it say that anywhere in the game at all? That would make the coral weapons way more valuable in a fair few situations than I'd previously thought.
@@TeHPHoBoS999 They have their own damage icon in the stat screen but no frame parts have any defenses that affect coral damage. It's only Kinetic, energy, and explosive defenses. Coral is it's own thing, doesn't count as energy from what I've been told.
@@TeHPHoBoS999 You can test it yourself. The easiest way to see this mechanic in action is to go into the testing lab with a regular nebula and the redshift nebula. The regular nebula has it's damage listed as 528, actual damage on the enemy is 570 (due to AoE damage not listed on the stat screen) whereas the redshift nebula has it's damage listed as 765 in the stats but deals 878 actual damage to the trainer AC. That's like a 13% damage increase on what the stat screen says the weapon deals. Same thing with regular moonlight and redshift moonlight. Actual damage is like 150 damage higher than the stat screen for redshift.
The laser slicer is meant to be used on a staggered opponent. Not reliable when not staggered. It basically kills any ac from half health when staggered. I find it quite useful in my pistol build.
Not only that, but the combo is so long that by the time you finish it, whatever weapon you just used to stagger the enemy will probably be off cooldown, allowing for even more damage.
@@Bogglemanify no, the biggest thing about it is you can follow up with assault armor into charged shot with rifles and stuff, they cannot heal or move before taking all that. That is 10-13k damage on one stagger.
You can also guarantee hits for independent-firing weapons like the orbits or laser drone while your opponent is in the blender. The damage of the long unskippable cutscene move and the damage of your shoulder weapons adds up to a lot.
Laser slicer + Laser Drone + Assault armor= 14k total damage in ACS. Funny thing is you can use a grenade launcher after using the slicer for a guaranteed hit! 🤣
I'm late, but yeah... Dude wasn't just sleeping on it; He was comatose. Using a wuerger charge after the combo (with basho arms and the max laser dmg generator) killed Walter in 10 seconds or less without assault armor
The chainsaw is actually very good in PvE especially for speedrunning, as it extends ACS break time rather than ending it like the pilebunker. Equip the basho arms, chainsaw and pilebunker with weapon bay and the chainsaw has more damage output than the pile and can oneshot most ACs and has insane speed kills for bosses
Rusty in Armord Core: "All wepons on the list are good in thier own ways" Rusty in Elden Ring: "I'd rather eat feet for the rest of the game then use this sack of shit"
Yea, but the thing is, people are actually starting to give a shit about the weapon selection with Armored Core. Elden Ring just had people call half of the weapons bad just for the same of calling them bad (not saying they don't do that here too, that's just how it was then)
Apparently you can combine both Moonlights to be able to fire four sword beams in a row, I dunno how strong that actually is but it *looks* awesome at least
Kinda missed out the best part of the stun button, that being it combines into itself and can chain staggers thanks to the charged heavy. If you hit someone with an ACA break, hit them with the full combo, and THEN hit them with the charge attack, the delayed explosion will trigger after they recover, dealing huge stagger damage
only works if you can land it in the first place... good luck on that with its terrible tracking, vertical mobility, slow charge attack with its 130m reach, and praying for the bomb properly sticking to the enemy with its absurd inconsistency because even if the target is stunned it'll be either to far or above/below you. as mentioned in the video the normal attack has terrible turning speed and doesnt make you stick to targets, aswell as sometimes making you bounce away from the target dropping the combo off completly. I use it anyways
@@strangewisdom4009 what really sold it to me was fighting the Snail Baetlelus boss and watching it chunk some 40% of his HP with the full combo + charge attack. It’s great for big bosses like that to chain stagger…if you can get it to work
@@sebastiantirado3675 damm right, despite its notable issues and the struggles of dealing with them if you can get it to work ill pull off wonders. Thats why i keep using it(hoping it gets buffed ;-;).
The Plasma Thrower is even stronger on quad legs or tank treads since you can use it while moving. It's arguably the strongest melee weapon in pvp and also incredible in pve.
I think what makes the laser slicer good is just how long the enemy gets staggered during the combo. I beat the enforcer by stagger locking him into oblivion using charged laser shotty and spread bazooka to break, then damaging with laser slicer. By the time he recovers I already got my next charged shot and spread bazooka ready for another stagger.
When fighting HCs and LCs my go-to is the Laser Lance + Laser Slicer to instantly break their ACS load and delete them with the laser slicers amazing direct hit adjustment
This 100%. Landing a Stun Needle into the Slicer, you pretty much get enough stagger for your Stun Needles to recharge. Combined with, say, a Zimmerman, you can pretty much 0-death any AC and shave 40-50% off any boss on a stagger.
it also does the 2nd most possible damage in the entire game from a single weapon (2 hit combo while staggered), only being beaten by the charged chainsaw on a staggered enemy
@@sir_saltsalot This is exactly my build when I want to destroy anything in this game. I really don't get the Laser Slicer placement in the list, the weapon is really good. No idea about PVP but on PVE you can land the entire combo for so much damage that sometimes feels like cheating.
@@elusivejumperin PVP you could actually just end up shaving off a signifigant portion of AP from your enemy on stun, even meaner if you combine it with Zimmerman before AND after and Boost Kick them after the combo.
I think you put too much emphasis on the cooling and just kinda ignore every other good thing that a weapon has, especially the coral oscillator. Very good range, AoE, high ACS punishing damage, high impact and easy to land. This thing is a menace in both PvP and PvE.
It also possess a unique trait... _It could hit from above,_ Laser Blade has the range of Jupiter but only horizontal, Laser Dagger has a fixed charge attacks as well as 3 hit combo, Laser Slicer has the most blade traits (40% damage decrease on charge attacks, 2 hit combo and multi hits) and Laser Lance is hell's incarnate So the Coral Oscillator has better vertical coverages but worse horizontal one, a flame thrower that _does way too much damage and load limits_ (2500???), not to mention... all of the attack does staggers, is comparable to some of the fastest weapons and it's charge attacks could be boosted at any points which _IS ALOT OF UPSIDES_
@@cordyceps182 that’s why I said cooling isn’t that important when you’ve optimised your build to some extent. In your case, you cycle between two weapons to mitigate the down time.
I think the problem with this tier list is rusty is using the melee weapons to build *up* stagger and not as a stagger punish. Because both the laser slicer and chainsaw are easily S tier if you use them properly, both able to take bosses from full to nothing
Pile bunker is the best but I like the redshift moonblade too, it has coral damage so it's way more difficult to resist it (because it isn't energy) and it looks cool af. And then there's the good ol' reliable : pulse blade. Fun fact : if you equip the plasma whip while having tank legs, you litteraly can use it while moving. (I'm looking at you, wheelchair enjoyers)
For me the dagger truly shined. Just so quick to zip in and out getting slashes between shots and, like you said, it's always off cooldown. So fast to recover, rarely got punished for missing, and I just weave out and back in to try again.
Im glad laser dagger got the love it deserved, in currently using it on a build with 378 speed and atupid high boost, i thought a funny fast build would be good, its so good it can demolish most things which was surprising
wait, that's a bug? I always run quad legs, and I thought the oscillator was just a straight-up monster. I hope bandai doesn't kill the tracking, it's so fun.
Yeah oscillator and moonlight variants just exist for tetrapod use. They all do incredibly well in hover mode, the oscillator is not to be used with regular melee and you have to commit your build fully to it-but then you get to do 7,000+ damage
Fun thing to mention about the plasma mine launcher, having quad or tank legs allows you to move instead of striking a pose, allowing a ton of momentum while doing melee Also for those unaware, use the basho arms, 150% damage modifier for melee is crazy
the laser lance in pvp is amazing even if you don’t hit with it you basically get 2 free dashes with excellent tracking which paired with good stagger weapons allows you *really* put on the pressure
2 dashes that don't use up your energy gauge too. You can use it to close in as a secondary weapon if you have a spare shoulder slot and enough load and output to support it
You know, given all the nerfs and buffs that certain melee weapons have gotten sine this video came out, I'd love to see an updated version of this video.
Oscillator's charged attack is actually great on quads / RJs, but only due to several bugs (?) If you're on hover mode for the quad, the tracking arc becomes vertically unrestricted, meaning your sweep can track at ridiculous angles. People can still dodge it, but they have to move under you. RJs also can emulate the unlocked tracking by charging a shoulder weapon for some reason. The unlocked tracking becomes really useful combined with the Oscillator's big hitbox and high stagger, try it.
Note on two of the weapons. While I can't vouch for it's general viability, I can confirm that there is at least one extremely effective build using the coral ocilator in pvp. You use the charged coral missiles to induce panic in the opponent, before using a charged coral ocilator as the missiles close in. It massively limits the movement options from the opponent, and if they get hit by anything they get absolutely nuked by all three weapons hitting at the same time. As for the chainsaw, I find this to actually be kinda viable to land WITHOUT a stagger, provided you use the right booster (that being the BAWS booster that gives extra melee boost). Anyone who tries to dodge the charged heavy by doing a backwards qb will get hit, and a charged heavy from the chainsaw on the baws arms will be staggered IMMEDIATELY. It's like the pilebunker in that regard, except with a more flexible charged attack. That charged attack is also the single strongest stagger punish in the game, and when combined with techs like melee cancels it can be extremely strong in both PvE and PvP. Though I suppose the fact that it requires building around to become so obscenely strong is an issue when discussing viability.
@@TheFearsomeRat eh, I typically go a bit more violent with my ACS buildup. Zimmerman in right hand, and either dual songbirds for PvP or single bird+missiles for PvE. Any grenade launcher into Zimmerman is an instant stagger, a second is nice for PvP for extra attempts at the combo (though I may try to alter it more), and missiles are nice for PvE adds and making sure ACS doesn't reset for free if the target gets away somehow. A bit on the slow side, but that's what melee cancels are for.
You're criminally underrating the chainsaw, that thing has the highest direct hit adjustment in the game, and is competitive with the pile bunker on stance broken enemies, all while being significantly more consistent to land in my experience. On the other hand, totally agree with the laser slicer, I have no idea how other people rate it so highly when half the time unless you pre maneuver yourself to be smashing the face of the enemy AC, the portion of the animation where you swing the slicer behind you means the enemy is out of range and gets away from the stagger leaving you open to reprisal.
The coral oscillator is S tier in PvP. It’s tracking is insane with a great melee cancel and the charge attack is super consistent against anything other than reverse joints. Also bonus is that it does coral damage which isn’t resisted by any armor piece so it does more damage than you’d expect.
Stun baton lasts so long it can combo into itself, the charge attack lets you prep for the next combo,and it has the same recovery time of the knife. 1v1, the amount of control you can have on someones stagger bar is wild once you know stagger chains.
The chainsaw is honestly probably the single strongest anti-AC melee weapon in the game. If you put on BASHO arms, build up strain with other weapons, then swap to it and charge it while you fish for the stagger, you can one-shot most ACs.
For PvE, the Pulse Blade has the single best quality of any melee weapon in the game : It lands. It just lands. Even on light enemy bosses that would recover out of a poise break faster than you can rush them with a melee weapon, the charged attack on the pulse blade will still catch them. It has one blind spot, directly above you, if there is enough distance. That one spot excepted, it doesn't care for elevation, it doesn't whiff, it doesn't have a surprisingly longer animation than you'd expect that will give just enough time for enemy bosses to dodge, nothing. It's just great. It gives consistency and it's such a big boon I barely ever used anything else.
honestly i just wish we had more melee weapons like the plasma dagger whos cooldown was low enough to be used as your main weapon for clearing out rabble, most of them you have to waste ammo with your gun or stand their awkwardly for a couple seconds
The Oscillator is hilarious when used properly. Slap on a bunch of slow-ass missiles, fire them at some dupe, then swipe with the charge attack. If they get hit by it, Missile city baby. If they jump to dodge, still Missile city baby!
Hell yeah lance is my favourite weapon in the game. Decent impact (pair with a shotgun for guaranteed stun), good damage and even if you miss it still serves as a gap closer.
I found the oscillator to be especially great against the final boss of NG++. It practically handed the first phase to me without issue. So, I could always focus on the later stuff without any worries.
was it nicht with the bvo slicer, was a pretty huge deal but since the viento nerf all the bvo builds disappeared, now the only melee in tournaments is hmmr on kites
The Laser Slicer is actually quite dangerous against bosses if you can connect with it. Against enemies like Balteus or AC-sized bosses the length of time you can keep enemies stunned with a full attack combo is nuts, which gives you enough time to charge up your more powerful heavy hitters for a follow up. It's actually one of the melee weapons where the normal combo is significantly more powerful than the charged attack. It's only real weakness is its lack of initial lunge range, and as you mentioned its uncancellable animation. Now the Chainsaw though, I actually put it up higher on the list since its Charge Attack actually has good lunge range. If you can practice quick-charging the weapon (as in launching the weapon as soon as it's fully charged, not a second too early) you can hit a surprising amount of enemies with the full power of the Charged Attack, and against AC's a single Charged hit will most often send them into immediate stagger. I've killed LC's, HC,s and AC's incredibly quickly with the Chainsaw, and when you land it's very satisfying.
The lunge range is dependent on the boosters you use, no? The IA-something GILLS has the shortest melee lunge, for example, while there's a booster *specifically designed* for melee lunges. Funnily enough, the Laser Slicer is one of two or three melee weapons where both the regular *and* charged attacks are affected by your booster's melee thrust.
It is considered a melee weapon. Melees are only available on the left hand, and the explosive thrower is only available there. It’s also rather short in range.
Chainsaw actually has a 0 to death combo. If you land the charge on a staggered enemy it's pretty much a 1hko due to the ridiculous bonus against them( more than 2.5x) and if you land it on an unstaggered enemy, they will 100% become staggered, starting the combo: Punching 3 times extends stagger time enough to land a 2nd charged chainsaw hit, which is fatal. Also of note, the chainsaw has some decent homing and chase, unlike pilebunker and can be dash cancelled. Chainsaw actually makes ibis an easy S rank too.
Damn we got a completely different experince with moonlight and redshift. The charged is great for clearing 3 or 4 MTs but the 2 hit combo is great for building stagger on bosses and ACs and switching to pilebinker to finish. I never noticed a problem with their cooldown because immediately swap to pile bunker after using it and by the time i was done bunking an enemy moonlight was back off cooldown.
The Oscillator is actually useful for staggering targets in dual Coral Missile builds - the charged sweep covers a wide area and does very high Impact, and then a pair of charged Coral missiles can nuke the target off the face of the planet if timed correctly.
How is the Oscillator so low? It's fucking amazing. Hits like a truck, amazing tracking, and that charge attack absolutely destroys things in both PvE and PvP. >Just jump It probably has one of the best vertical tracking of all melee weapons, are you kidding?
I used the laser slicer religiously after getting it. It's not great when the enemy isn't staggered BUT when they are staggered, using that weapon is devastating.
Laser Lance in PVP has a deceptively large hitcone and quick start up that if you're within 100 m from someone most likely they'd get hit. It's one of those you see it coming, but you can't do anything about it.
Agree. It's really easy to end up in a position where you see it, you know to evade it, but you just can't. It's also a right bastard of a weapon to just slap on a shoulder and break out. Honestly, I'd say that more than any other weapon in the game, the Laser Lance has a psychological warfare aspect to it. If you open with a Laser Lance charge that whiffs entirely, put it away, and never swap it back out, that Laser Lance is STILL putting in more work than like, a good third of shoulder weapons, just by making the opponent paranoid about it.
I used the Laser Lance on my heavyweight tank build, and when pair with a flame weapon to induce ACS anomaly it absolutely shreds through an enemies Stagger bar. I'm talking one hit stagger from a full bar levels of ludicrous. Also, it surprisingly came in handy for when my AC with the aerial mobility of a rock needed that last little push to reach a ledge before my energy ran out.
The laser slicer is S tier stagger punish (in PvE). Does insane damage. It has insane melee boost and good tracking so you can reliably get a punish off even if staggered from far away. Also the double slice animation is so long you can for example stun needle, laser slicer. And since the animation is so long you can get a second stun needle. Its also enables the coveted pilebunker->laser slicer->pilebunker combo.
I’ve honestly found the Coral Oscillator to be impressively useful against AC fights. The range of the charged beam sweep is quite a bit longer than it seems, and about 80% of the time npc ACs will get tagged with it, resulting in near instant stagger. Double down on melee and bring the coral redshift on your back for ranged stagger punishes, and you can effectively stun lock your way through most fights.
Something funny about the oscillator is that the charge attack, while predictable and easy to doge, can also be easy to land if you are patient, and wait for that golden opportunity where the opponent is moving to your left, in the air, and no boost. Yes, it's very situational, but if you can consistently pull it off, you'll have a bunch of idiots flying straight into the red beam of death.
The Plasma Mine Launcher is my favourite weapon. Having replaced the standard blade from the start, it has superior damage, has similar range but keeping me at a safe distance, and that amazing charged attack. It decimates PVP with its surprising damage, and it has been a staple of my Ng++ run. Love how it feels, love its stats, it's my number 1.
Is it weird that I'd swap the plasma thrower and dual laser blade around? Idk, I can never get the plasma thrower to work in my favour. Also it's a dinky lil whip, compared to the Buddy Approved 8 HIT COMBO special.
I gotta say, I didn’t see any one else say anything about this, but I greatly appreciate how you have the isolated weapons rotating on showcase for each chapter. Very good touch. Curious about how you did it.
Laser dagger is insanely good. I spent most of the game using the pile bunker and heavy AC builds but there's just nothing quite like flying around someone at 400km/h and slapping them 3 times before they know what happened
6:09 "Sometimes referred to by its alternative title, the Butt Blade, by me. And now by you." Nah, fam, it's the Butter Blade. See, the last part of its serial model number, BU-TT/A, very clearly spells butta. What do you do with butta, or butter? You spread it on bread. How do you get bread? Missions, fam. Gotta get that bread.
(SPOILERS AT THE END OF THE COMMENT!!!) Little trick to turn chainsaw from alright to arguably better than the pile bunker. Run the VP-46D arms (or the Basho, if you’re willing to not hit anything with your guns). Instead of putting your primary weapon in your right hand, use the weapons bay upgrade and put it on your back, with nothing in your right hand. Place the chainsaw in your left hand, and use whatever you want for your left shoulder. Switch to your primary weapon in the right hand at mission start, and either do the same for the left side or just don’t use the chainsaw if you wanted a left shoulder weapon and not a left arm weapon on the shoulder. Whenever you stagger an opponent, switch to your fist in the right hand, and start charging the chainsaw. The charge will continue while you punch, and after punching thrice (the number of times before your fist goes on cooldown), release your charged chainsaw on them. Most non-terminal armor ACs will die without even being able to heal. The raw damage of a charged chainsaw on a staggered opponent is ridiculous, and can even outpace the pilebunker at times. Of course, it’s more niche, but you can cheese fights like SPOILERS!!! Nightfall Raven, Rusty, Iguazu, Coldcall, Swinburne, Wu Huahai/Maeterlink, and even the Ibis series and Walter fights.
I'm happy to see a Rust AC6 video! Lol, the Moonlight. I'm sure I'll use it because it's so darn cool, but probably not often because of the horrific downside. I used it all the time in AC2, but man the weight and cooling in AC3 made it practically unusable.
Moonlight was the best sword in amored core 3, the options in that game were basically tiered. Starting with terrible starter sword, medicore light sword, medicore stronger sword, and light wave blade with no slash. Not only did OP-INTENSIFY unlock sword wave during boost nulling the fourth option, but moonlight massive outstrips option 1-3 in dmg. In the next game I believe a long range sword was developed and a short range high damage one as well (used by genobee in nexus) so moonlight shining moment was basicaly 1 title
In ACFA it was top tier as well. While counterblading setups exist, they have to be much more precise due to other strong blades being notably shorter. The big thing for ACFA's moonlight is being the third longest blade while also having the highest damage of any laser blade.
Post-nerf, I couldn't use the PB since most ACs recover very fast. Just test it on the Arena vs AI piloted ACs. It can be frustrating to get the stagger and have the enemy dodge away just before I could hit with the PB. I've given up and use it purely on bosses who don't recover as quickly.
Laser Slicer, Coral Oscillator Blade and the Moonlights are my favorites. Moonlight packs a punch now, especially when charged and profits off of Arquebus' Generators. And they all look amazing, both as weapons and when performing attacks. And the Slicer is fun to use in PVE.
I think the oscillator, while bad for pvp, is amazing for pve. The charged attack will stun almost any enemy instantly, and do like half of a boss healthbar
Cooling rate is Heat/s, while all weapons emergency vent at 1000 Heat. When accounting for the status effect and cooldown, the Stun Baton charged attack just narrowly edges out the Laser Knife combo for DPS, that's because it currently procs its status effect which deals a solid 1650ish damage bypassing resistance as well as a stagger every 1.5 charged hits, and occasionally even on the first easily chaining with itself. Course it's DPS may fall if they ever fix the Status Recovery stat for heads, and its relatively narrow lunge can be difficult to hit on small targets, but against a quad or tread, no problem.
I’ve learned that the laser lance and the pilebunker is an amazing combo. For the comb ,laser lance first, Zimmerman second, and pilebunker while they are staggered
i totally disagreed with the Slicer placement. its is literally THE BEST stagger punishment in the game. no amount of fire power can be compared to the damage of a single full combo it dish out, and if the enemies is stagger, not only they take extradamage, but they also will take the full combo. if you stagger an enemies, and you having this thing equiped, the enemy is as good as dead.
The one thing that the laser slicer has going well for it, is that the stagger and full combo it can do on a ACS broken target is comparable to a charged bunk, all while not needing to pray to the physics engine to not bump you and whiff. The slicer is *much* more consistent and forgiving on higher mobility and smaller targets.
I actually ran through half of ng+ and ng++ with the laser slicer. I picked it up because it looked cool, and I found out that replacing the pile bunker for it in my needle pistol stagger build les it tearing through everything. The key with it isn’t to rely on it for the stagger, it’s best to pull it out when the enemy is close and staggered so you can pull the Rusty combo on them and shred a massive chunk of even high end bosses healthbar apart.
I made a cowboy AC with dual pistols and I wanted to give it a melee weapon to swap to for when it ran out of ammo or whatever, and I chose the plasma thrower because it kind of looked like a lasso when used, and I was like "holy shit, this is actually really good". Anyway, for arena matches I just use my fat AC that has the lance and pilebunker, plus the most melee FCS and that one melee booster, and I just close the distance with the lance, shoot once with the bazooka to finish the stun if they're not stunned already, and then ram the pilebunker up their butt. Most fights last less than 30 seconds.
The chainsaw is THE stagger punish weapon, paired with Laser Lance (my beloved) it is the most devastating (and personally satisfying) combo since the lance can close the distance and confirm the stagger. The hard part is hitting to buttons to switch, charge, and land the blow. I use the saw over pilebunker simply because it does more stagger damage and can actually lunge on the charge attack.
i was consistantly getting my butt handed to me by the shinobi in his battle log variant. only about halfway through the game did i realize it was mostly his melee weapon that was destroying me and is now a mainstay of my level clearing build. its very good. still cant get the charged attack to be useful though. found that compared to the pile bunker (which id use maybe once i fight, or twice if they had a lot of health) would just be using it as often as my regular weapons for huge amounts of total damage and strain (the second of which i never use the pile bunker for)
Moonlight is actually really useful in missile builds too because they drain a lot of your opponent's stamina trying to dodge them leaving not much for the charge attack coming in to slice them in half. The rockets also give you a window to charge as well since your opponent won't be able to attack while dodging too much in fear of them.
The laser slicer is actually my preferred weapon over the pile bunker when it comes to fighting enemies with a short recovery timer, as it has a very high direct hit adjustment and a really good synergy with melee attack thruster boost, comboed with anything that can reliably slam the stun meter (like the laser lance, which conveniently puts you nice and close and a shotgun combo) you can do comparible damage to the pile bunker and chainsaw while not having to worry about missing because the enemy dodged at the last second, as well as extending the time the enemy has spent stunned thanks to the flurry of hits staggering them while they're in their overloaded state.
The only bad thing about pile bunker is that you'll miss out on most dialogue because you'll destroy any boss in a few seconds.
So many people missed out on the Swineburne choice because they just demolished him with the Pilebunker before he even had the chance to beg lmao.
true
@@hollow8136Actually you have to stop shooting him once he starts begging. People who missed it just aren’t paying attention and keep shooting
@@kingbooseph9538he doesnt beg til hes out of heals. So yes, you can kill him before the choice.
@normanbestboi9117 Exactly what happened to me in NG+. Didn't even get to finish his initial monologue, and I already managed to stagger him and shove that thing where the sun doesn't shine
Hes changed game to avoid the every weapon in elden ring list
I was just thinking this💀💀
EVERYONE WANTS EVERY MAIDEN BUT NO ONE ASKED FOR EVERY KING!
He can’t avoid the pots tierlist. Someday. Sometime. It will come. Mark my words.
Hairstyle tier list one day, boys.
He will not escape his fate
The pilebunker is amazing.
...that is, when the tiny amount of lunge in the charged attack doesn't push you slightly too far under the enemy you're trying to hit and making you completely fucking whiff.
i love when i do it just a little to far away and show off my pointy stick really close to their camera
@nemojH4 honestly I feel like that should stun them again, imagine setting off a flashback in their face
I love it when in pvp someone realizes they are about to be bunked and tries to pop pulse armor only for it to be a millisecond too late
@@CosmicSquidwardim am now gonna whisper into the mic "prepare to get bunked" everytime i pull this out after getting acs strain
I'll take the chainsaw over the pilebunker... not always but damn going leather face on someone in PvP or PvE is too damn fun.
Does anyone else wish there was a way to fight the builds you make in the garage? Like, make the tester AC use the builds you design?
that would be an awesome addition tbh
I'm like 99% certain this was a feature in some of the older games, and I'd love to have it back.
@Arunetto I'm guessing they'll patch it in at some point.
You could do that in Master of Arena and Silent Line. Would be awesome to have back.
Thought about it just yesterday. I would love it
So, for anyone who doesn't know, the Plasma Thrower actually ignores the movement penalty/pause you do if you use Quad Legs or Tank Treads. It's already good but it absolutely fucks if you don't use Biped legs.
My favourite build uses it as their melee, and I have literally whizzed around enemies ripping them apart thanks to it. Definitely underrated by the general community.
It doesn't miss insides its range, it's stronger than zim blasts but it only takes one arm slot.
Also since you would be using Basho arms for melee attack boost why not pack the other hand with bad cook because 1. Basho has garbage tracking but Bad Cook simply doesnt give a shit about tracking 2. Do you not like even easier ACS break and insanely high DPS
Great tips!!
It is insane on tetrapod builds. Zimmerman+Plasma thrower on tetra might be the only rushdown better than double zimmers.
1. Basho arms
2. Plasma thrower
3. Missle launcher build
4. Fast tank tread
Something you're not mentioning about coral oscillator and redshift moonlight is that coral damage completely ignores armor, so even though the charged attack has higher number on the regular moonlight, the redshift is just all around the better option. It's a direct upgrade. Plus in pvp the charged attack is less important anyways.
Wait whaaaaaaat? Coral ignores armor? Does it say that anywhere in the game at all?
That would make the coral weapons way more valuable in a fair few situations than I'd previously thought.
@@TeHPHoBoS999 They have their own damage icon in the stat screen but no frame parts have any defenses that affect coral damage. It's only Kinetic, energy, and explosive defenses. Coral is it's own thing, doesn't count as energy from what I've been told.
@@TeHPHoBoS999 You can test it yourself. The easiest way to see this mechanic in action is to go into the testing lab with a regular nebula and the redshift nebula. The regular nebula has it's damage listed as 528, actual damage on the enemy is 570 (due to AoE damage not listed on the stat screen) whereas the redshift nebula has it's damage listed as 765 in the stats but deals 878 actual damage to the trainer AC. That's like a 13% damage increase on what the stat screen says the weapon deals. Same thing with regular moonlight and redshift moonlight. Actual damage is like 150 damage higher than the stat screen for redshift.
i have deleted health bars in pvp singles and teams with coral oscillator and dual coral missiles. they’re good if you use them right.
I almost never use Oscillators base attack, I instead just time it for the charge attack cause laser sweep is pain
The laser slicer is meant to be used on a staggered opponent. Not reliable when not staggered. It basically kills any ac from half health when staggered. I find it quite useful in my pistol build.
Not only that, but the combo is so long that by the time you finish it, whatever weapon you just used to stagger the enemy will probably be off cooldown, allowing for even more damage.
@@Bogglemanify no, the biggest thing about it is you can follow up with assault armor into charged shot with rifles and stuff, they cannot heal or move before taking all that. That is 10-13k damage on one stagger.
You can also guarantee hits for independent-firing weapons like the orbits or laser drone while your opponent is in the blender. The damage of the long unskippable cutscene move and the damage of your shoulder weapons adds up to a lot.
Laser slicer + Laser Drone + Assault armor= 14k total damage in ACS. Funny thing is you can use a grenade launcher after using the slicer for a guaranteed hit! 🤣
I'm late, but yeah... Dude wasn't just sleeping on it; He was comatose. Using a wuerger charge after the combo (with basho arms and the max laser dmg generator) killed Walter in 10 seconds or less without assault armor
The chainsaw is actually very good in PvE especially for speedrunning, as it extends ACS break time rather than ending it like the pilebunker. Equip the basho arms, chainsaw and pilebunker with weapon bay and the chainsaw has more damage output than the pile and can oneshot most ACs and has insane speed kills for bosses
yeah.. touch of death combo if you just saw charge attack, 5~ punches, saw charge attack again 💀
Punches overload your ACS now, don’t they?
Rusty in Armord Core:
"All wepons on the list are good in thier own ways"
Rusty in Elden Ring:
"I'd rather eat feet for the rest of the game then use this sack of shit"
Yea, but the thing is, people are actually starting to give a shit about the weapon selection with Armored Core. Elden Ring just had people call half of the weapons bad just for the same of calling them bad (not saying they don't do that here too, that's just how it was then)
The laser dagger is underrated, i cannot count how many bosses i just straight up fly straight into it spamming the dagger and dies in like 3 cycles
Apparently you can combine both Moonlights to be able to fire four sword beams in a row, I dunno how strong that actually is but it *looks* awesome at least
Enough to almost single-handedly slice through the NG++ final boss. I can tell you that.
in pvp, it works, though not as deadly as pilebunker
that is some Ludwig the Holy Blade type shit im gonna try it when i get redshift moonlight
Kinda missed out the best part of the stun button, that being it combines into itself and can chain staggers thanks to the charged heavy. If you hit someone with an ACA break, hit them with the full combo, and THEN hit them with the charge attack, the delayed explosion will trigger after they recover, dealing huge stagger damage
Doesn't work in practice in PvP due to Fromsoft's netcode
only works if you can land it in the first place...
good luck on that with its terrible tracking, vertical mobility, slow charge attack with its 130m reach, and praying for the bomb properly sticking to the enemy with its absurd inconsistency because even if the target is stunned it'll be either to far or above/below you.
as mentioned in the video the normal attack has terrible turning speed and doesnt make you stick to targets, aswell as sometimes making you bounce away from the target dropping the combo off completly.
I use it anyways
@@strangewisdom4009 what really sold it to me was fighting the Snail Baetlelus boss and watching it chunk some 40% of his HP with the full combo + charge attack. It’s great for big bosses like that to chain stagger…if you can get it to work
@@sebastiantirado3675 damm right, despite its notable issues and the struggles of dealing with them if you can get it to work ill pull off wonders. Thats why i keep using it(hoping it gets buffed ;-;).
@@strangewisdom4009 Swinburne preset roleplayers ftw
The Plasma Thrower is even stronger on quad legs or tank treads since you can use it while moving. It's arguably the strongest melee weapon in pvp and also incredible in pve.
same for the explosive thrower but he didnt include it on the list
@@ThePapino134 That's not a melee weapon since it isn't effected by melee specialization.
I think what makes the laser slicer good is just how long the enemy gets staggered during the combo. I beat the enforcer by stagger locking him into oblivion using charged laser shotty and spread bazooka to break, then damaging with laser slicer. By the time he recovers I already got my next charged shot and spread bazooka ready for another stagger.
When fighting HCs and LCs my go-to is the Laser Lance + Laser Slicer to instantly break their ACS load and delete them with the laser slicers amazing direct hit adjustment
This 100%. Landing a Stun Needle into the Slicer, you pretty much get enough stagger for your Stun Needles to recharge. Combined with, say, a Zimmerman, you can pretty much 0-death any AC and shave 40-50% off any boss on a stagger.
it also does the 2nd most possible damage in the entire game from a single weapon (2 hit combo while staggered), only being beaten by the charged chainsaw on a staggered enemy
@@sir_saltsalot This is exactly my build when I want to destroy anything in this game. I really don't get the Laser Slicer placement in the list, the weapon is really good. No idea about PVP but on PVE you can land the entire combo for so much damage that sometimes feels like cheating.
@@elusivejumperin PVP you could actually just end up shaving off a signifigant portion of AP from your enemy on stun, even meaner if you combine it with Zimmerman before AND after and Boost Kick them after the combo.
I think you put too much emphasis on the cooling and just kinda ignore every other good thing that a weapon has, especially the coral oscillator. Very good range, AoE, high ACS punishing damage, high impact and easy to land. This thing is a menace in both PvP and PvE.
It also possess a unique trait... _It could hit from above,_ Laser Blade has the range of Jupiter but only horizontal, Laser Dagger has a fixed charge attacks as well as 3 hit combo, Laser Slicer has the most blade traits (40% damage decrease on charge attacks, 2 hit combo and multi hits) and Laser Lance is hell's incarnate
So the Coral Oscillator has better vertical coverages but worse horizontal one, a flame thrower that _does way too much damage and load limits_ (2500???), not to mention... all of the attack does staggers, is comparable to some of the fastest weapons and it's charge attacks could be boosted at any points which _IS ALOT OF UPSIDES_
I don't think I ever ran into an issue with the Oscillator's cooldown time, but I also run a double melee build with the Red Shift Moonlight.
@@cordyceps182 that’s why I said cooling isn’t that important when you’ve optimised your build to some extent. In your case, you cycle between two weapons to mitigate the down time.
Yeah i dont get that either. You have 3 other weapons to use while the melee one cools off so wtf???
@@niksonrex88 yeah if cooling was such a big thing, the laser dagger would be the only viable option because it basically doesn’t have a cooldown lol
i love the chainsaw, charging it then using a high impact weapon will almost always give you a free kill
It actually combos into itself when paired with fists too
I think the problem with this tier list is rusty is using the melee weapons to build *up* stagger and not as a stagger punish. Because both the laser slicer and chainsaw are easily S tier if you use them properly, both able to take bosses from full to nothing
Pile bunker is the best but I like the redshift moonblade too, it has coral damage so it's way more difficult to resist it (because it isn't energy) and it looks cool af.
And then there's the good ol' reliable : pulse blade.
Fun fact : if you equip the plasma whip while having tank legs, you litteraly can use it while moving. (I'm looking at you, wheelchair enjoyers)
Quad legs do the same for the plasma thrower.
For me the dagger truly shined. Just so quick to zip in and out getting slashes between shots and, like you said, it's always off cooldown. So fast to recover, rarely got punished for missing, and I just weave out and back in to try again.
Im glad laser dagger got the love it deserved, in currently using it on a build with 378 speed and atupid high boost, i thought a funny fast build would be good, its so good it can demolish most things which was surprising
The Coral Ocillator should be S rank. It has a bug right now if you equip it on a quad legs, the tracking of the charged attack is absurdly increased.
Shhh... We don't want Bandai or Fromsoft to know
wait, that's a bug? I always run quad legs, and I thought the oscillator was just a straight-up monster. I hope bandai doesn't kill the tracking, it's so fun.
Not to mention not aiming at the enemy, but to the right of them, and having the beam instantly appear straight into the enemy.
Yeah oscillator and moonlight variants just exist for tetrapod use. They all do incredibly well in hover mode, the oscillator is not to be used with regular melee and you have to commit your build fully to it-but then you get to do 7,000+ damage
S rank because of a bug? Do you not realize why that bumps it down?
Fun thing to mention about the plasma mine launcher, having quad or tank legs allows you to move instead of striking a pose, allowing a ton of momentum while doing melee
Also for those unaware, use the basho arms, 150% damage modifier for melee is crazy
the laser lance in pvp is amazing even if you don’t hit with it you basically get 2 free dashes with excellent tracking which paired with good stagger weapons allows you *really* put on the pressure
Until I laser lance you in the back when you miss lool
2 dashes that don't use up your energy gauge too. You can use it to close in as a secondary weapon if you have a spare shoulder slot and enough load and output to support it
You know, given all the nerfs and buffs that certain melee weapons have gotten sine this video came out, I'd love to see an updated version of this video.
Oscillator's charged attack is actually great on quads / RJs, but only due to several bugs (?)
If you're on hover mode for the quad, the tracking arc becomes vertically unrestricted, meaning your sweep can track at ridiculous angles. People can still dodge it, but they have to move under you.
RJs also can emulate the unlocked tracking by charging a shoulder weapon for some reason.
The unlocked tracking becomes really useful combined with the Oscillator's big hitbox and high stagger, try it.
Note on two of the weapons.
While I can't vouch for it's general viability, I can confirm that there is at least one extremely effective build using the coral ocilator in pvp. You use the charged coral missiles to induce panic in the opponent, before using a charged coral ocilator as the missiles close in. It massively limits the movement options from the opponent, and if they get hit by anything they get absolutely nuked by all three weapons hitting at the same time.
As for the chainsaw, I find this to actually be kinda viable to land WITHOUT a stagger, provided you use the right booster (that being the BAWS booster that gives extra melee boost). Anyone who tries to dodge the charged heavy by doing a backwards qb will get hit, and a charged heavy from the chainsaw on the baws arms will be staggered IMMEDIATELY. It's like the pilebunker in that regard, except with a more flexible charged attack. That charged attack is also the single strongest stagger punish in the game, and when combined with techs like melee cancels it can be extremely strong in both PvE and PvP. Though I suppose the fact that it requires building around to become so obscenely strong is an issue when discussing viability.
BAWs arms and Booster with maybe a dual MG Orbits and a SMG for stagger build up, use the Oculus FCS as well and maybe the Aorta for your generator.
@@TheFearsomeRat eh, I typically go a bit more violent with my ACS buildup. Zimmerman in right hand, and either dual songbirds for PvP or single bird+missiles for PvE. Any grenade launcher into Zimmerman is an instant stagger, a second is nice for PvP for extra attempts at the combo (though I may try to alter it more), and missiles are nice for PvE adds and making sure ACS doesn't reset for free if the target gets away somehow. A bit on the slow side, but that's what melee cancels are for.
Someone defo had you on the balance adjustments for the pilebunker, because there were no balance adjustments in 1.03
You're criminally underrating the chainsaw, that thing has the highest direct hit adjustment in the game, and is competitive with the pile bunker on stance broken enemies, all while being significantly more consistent to land in my experience.
On the other hand, totally agree with the laser slicer, I have no idea how other people rate it so highly when half the time unless you pre maneuver yourself to be smashing the face of the enemy AC, the portion of the animation where you swing the slicer behind you means the enemy is out of range and gets away from the stagger leaving you open to reprisal.
The coral oscillator is S tier in PvP. It’s tracking is insane with a great melee cancel and the charge attack is super consistent against anything other than reverse joints. Also bonus is that it does coral damage which isn’t resisted by any armor piece so it does more damage than you’d expect.
Holy moly, this video's editing is CRISP. Very well made video!
Stun baton lasts so long it can combo into itself, the charge attack lets you prep for the next combo,and it has the same recovery time of the knife. 1v1, the amount of control you can have on someones stagger bar is wild once you know stagger chains.
The chainsaw is honestly probably the single strongest anti-AC melee weapon in the game. If you put on BASHO arms, build up strain with other weapons, then swap to it and charge it while you fish for the stagger, you can one-shot most ACs.
Pile bunker has get me through a lot of missions, i slapped it on my arms once i got it and never removed it since
Can't decide if the omission of the bomb launcher is an oversight or a sick diss from Rusty.
is the bomb launcher a melee weapon?
@@fancymustache3793it's stuck to the same restrictions but consumes ammo
@@fancymustache3793It’s basically an explosive version of the plasma thrower, except it has a quicker attack and reloads/cools down much faster.
As soon as I saw your video about the stake driver in bloodborne, I knew you were going to pilebunker all the piles, until there were no bunkers left.
For PvE, the Pulse Blade has the single best quality of any melee weapon in the game : It lands. It just lands. Even on light enemy bosses that would recover out of a poise break faster than you can rush them with a melee weapon, the charged attack on the pulse blade will still catch them. It has one blind spot, directly above you, if there is enough distance. That one spot excepted, it doesn't care for elevation, it doesn't whiff, it doesn't have a surprisingly longer animation than you'd expect that will give just enough time for enemy bosses to dodge, nothing. It's just great. It gives consistency and it's such a big boon I barely ever used anything else.
honestly i just wish we had more melee weapons like the plasma dagger whos cooldown was low enough to be used as your main weapon for clearing out rabble, most of them you have to waste ammo with your gun or stand their awkwardly for a couple seconds
The Oscillator is hilarious when used properly. Slap on a bunch of slow-ass missiles, fire them at some dupe, then swipe with the charge attack. If they get hit by it, Missile city baby. If they jump to dodge, still Missile city baby!
Hell yeah lance is my favourite weapon in the game.
Decent impact (pair with a shotgun for guaranteed stun), good damage and even if you miss it still serves as a gap closer.
As most speed addicts and frog legs users would say, Laser Dagger goes swish-swish-stab
I found the oscillator to be especially great against the final boss of NG++. It practically handed the first phase to me without issue. So, I could always focus on the later stuff without any worries.
1:37 you fucking nailed that prediction. Someone won a massive tournament with that weapon.
was it nicht with the bvo slicer, was a pretty huge deal but since the viento nerf all the bvo builds disappeared, now the only melee in tournaments is hmmr on kites
idk bout u guys but i love how many different builds he used in the background 🙌
The Laser Slicer is actually quite dangerous against bosses if you can connect with it. Against enemies like Balteus or AC-sized bosses the length of time you can keep enemies stunned with a full attack combo is nuts, which gives you enough time to charge up your more powerful heavy hitters for a follow up. It's actually one of the melee weapons where the normal combo is significantly more powerful than the charged attack. It's only real weakness is its lack of initial lunge range, and as you mentioned its uncancellable animation.
Now the Chainsaw though, I actually put it up higher on the list since its Charge Attack actually has good lunge range. If you can practice quick-charging the weapon (as in launching the weapon as soon as it's fully charged, not a second too early) you can hit a surprising amount of enemies with the full power of the Charged Attack, and against AC's a single Charged hit will most often send them into immediate stagger. I've killed LC's, HC,s and AC's incredibly quickly with the Chainsaw, and when you land it's very satisfying.
The lunge range is dependent on the boosters you use, no? The IA-something GILLS has the shortest melee lunge, for example, while there's a booster *specifically designed* for melee lunges.
Funnily enough, the Laser Slicer is one of two or three melee weapons where both the regular *and* charged attacks are affected by your booster's melee thrust.
I've deleted all the final bosses with the chainsaw, needs to be higher
U forgot about the explosive thrower :(
It’s not technically a melee weapon. Also I don’t think it was in game yet if it was then whoops.
It is considered a melee weapon. Melees are only available on the left hand, and the explosive thrower is only available there. It’s also rather short in range.
I love the Laser Dagger because absolutely no-one expects the raw damage it puts out. It shreds AP when you use it after an ACS break.
Chainsaw actually has a 0 to death combo.
If you land the charge on a staggered enemy it's pretty much a 1hko due to the ridiculous bonus against them( more than 2.5x) and if you land it on an unstaggered enemy, they will 100% become staggered, starting the combo:
Punching 3 times extends stagger time enough to land a 2nd charged chainsaw hit, which is fatal.
Also of note, the chainsaw has some decent homing and chase, unlike pilebunker and can be dash cancelled.
Chainsaw actually makes ibis an easy S rank too.
Damn we got a completely different experince with moonlight and redshift. The charged is great for clearing 3 or 4 MTs but the 2 hit combo is great for building stagger on bosses and ACs and switching to pilebinker to finish. I never noticed a problem with their cooldown because immediately swap to pile bunker after using it and by the time i was done bunking an enemy moonlight was back off cooldown.
Shoutout to the explosive thrower, for being my favourite non-melee melee weapon.
I love that the Lazer slicer and chainsaw are near the bottom since those are the weapons I beat the game with😂
I'm glad I rewatched this video 3-4 times, because this honestly helped me multiple times, and reminded me weapons like the pulse blade exists.
If I made a stun baton build, I'm calling it "Police Brutality"
bro you actually scared me into thinking they'd nerfed the 'bunker
The Oscillator is actually useful for staggering targets in dual Coral Missile builds - the charged sweep covers a wide area and does very high Impact, and then a pair of charged Coral missiles can nuke the target off the face of the planet if timed correctly.
I like the Laser Lance over the Pile Bunker because I can basically reenact the Giga Drill Breaker from Gurren Lagann.
How is the Oscillator so low? It's fucking amazing. Hits like a truck, amazing tracking, and that charge attack absolutely destroys things in both PvE and PvP.
>Just jump
It probably has one of the best vertical tracking of all melee weapons, are you kidding?
The BUTT/A Pulse Blade is S+ tier in PVP because you can charge-cancel feint people and just totally fuck them up.
I used the laser slicer religiously after getting it. It's not great when the enemy isn't staggered BUT when they are staggered, using that weapon is devastating.
Laser Lance in PVP has a deceptively large hitcone and quick start up that if you're within 100 m from someone most likely they'd get hit. It's one of those you see it coming, but you can't do anything about it.
Agree.
It's really easy to end up in a position where you see it, you know to evade it, but you just can't.
It's also a right bastard of a weapon to just slap on a shoulder and break out.
Honestly, I'd say that more than any other weapon in the game, the Laser Lance has a psychological warfare aspect to it.
If you open with a Laser Lance charge that whiffs entirely, put it away, and never swap it back out, that Laser Lance is STILL putting in more work than like, a good third of shoulder weapons, just by making the opponent paranoid about it.
I used the Laser Lance on my heavyweight tank build, and when pair with a flame weapon to induce ACS anomaly it absolutely shreds through an enemies Stagger bar. I'm talking one hit stagger from a full bar levels of ludicrous.
Also, it surprisingly came in handy for when my AC with the aerial mobility of a rock needed that last little push to reach a ledge before my energy ran out.
ohhhhhhh boy i cant wait to see you do a review of lies of p weapons
The laser slicer is S tier stagger punish (in PvE). Does insane damage. It has insane melee boost and good tracking so you can reliably get a punish off even if staggered from far away. Also the double slice animation is so long you can for example stun needle, laser slicer. And since the animation is so long you can get a second stun needle. Its also enables the coveted pilebunker->laser slicer->pilebunker combo.
I’ve honestly found the Coral Oscillator to be impressively useful against AC fights. The range of the charged beam sweep is quite a bit longer than it seems, and about 80% of the time npc ACs will get tagged with it, resulting in near instant stagger. Double down on melee and bring the coral redshift on your back for ranged stagger punishes, and you can effectively stun lock your way through most fights.
It has a range of over 200 meters. Unless your position is REALLY bad, it's almost impossible to miss with it.
Something funny about the oscillator is that the charge attack, while predictable and easy to doge, can also be easy to land if you are patient, and wait for that golden opportunity where the opponent is moving to your left, in the air, and no boost. Yes, it's very situational, but if you can consistently pull it off, you'll have a bunch of idiots flying straight into the red beam of death.
The Plasma Mine Launcher is my favourite weapon. Having replaced the standard blade from the start, it has superior damage, has similar range but keeping me at a safe distance, and that amazing charged attack. It decimates PVP with its surprising damage, and it has been a staple of my Ng++ run. Love how it feels, love its stats, it's my number 1.
Is it weird that I'd swap the plasma thrower and dual laser blade around? Idk, I can never get the plasma thrower to work in my favour. Also it's a dinky lil whip, compared to the Buddy Approved 8 HIT COMBO special.
I gotta say, I didn’t see any one else say anything about this, but I greatly appreciate how you have the isolated weapons rotating on showcase for each chapter. Very good touch. Curious about how you did it.
Laser dagger is insanely good. I spent most of the game using the pile bunker and heavy AC builds but there's just nothing quite like flying around someone at 400km/h and slapping them 3 times before they know what happened
the balam explosive launcher is also categorized as a melee weapon in game.
6:09 "Sometimes referred to by its alternative title, the Butt Blade, by me. And now by you."
Nah, fam, it's the Butter Blade. See, the last part of its serial model number, BU-TT/A, very clearly spells butta. What do you do with butta, or butter? You spread it on bread.
How do you get bread? Missions, fam. Gotta get that bread.
(SPOILERS AT THE END OF THE COMMENT!!!) Little trick to turn chainsaw from alright to arguably better than the pile bunker. Run the VP-46D arms (or the Basho, if you’re willing to not hit anything with your guns). Instead of putting your primary weapon in your right hand, use the weapons bay upgrade and put it on your back, with nothing in your right hand. Place the chainsaw in your left hand, and use whatever you want for your left shoulder. Switch to your primary weapon in the right hand at mission start, and either do the same for the left side or just don’t use the chainsaw if you wanted a left shoulder weapon and not a left arm weapon on the shoulder. Whenever you stagger an opponent, switch to your fist in the right hand, and start charging the chainsaw. The charge will continue while you punch, and after punching thrice (the number of times before your fist goes on cooldown), release your charged chainsaw on them. Most non-terminal armor ACs will die without even being able to heal. The raw damage of a charged chainsaw on a staggered opponent is ridiculous, and can even outpace the pilebunker at times. Of course, it’s more niche, but you can cheese fights like
SPOILERS!!!
Nightfall Raven, Rusty, Iguazu, Coldcall, Swinburne, Wu Huahai/Maeterlink, and even the Ibis series and Walter fights.
Another Rusty banger, also would love to know if you'll doing a video about Lies of p, a ranking ofc.
I'm happy to see a Rust AC6 video!
Lol, the Moonlight. I'm sure I'll use it because it's so darn cool, but probably not often because of the horrific downside. I used it all the time in AC2, but man the weight and cooling in AC3 made it practically unusable.
"The butt blade by me, now you" That's a lie, I too called it the Butt blade when I saw its name.
Moonlight was the best sword in amored core 3, the options in that game were basically tiered. Starting with terrible starter sword, medicore light sword, medicore stronger sword, and light wave blade with no slash. Not only did OP-INTENSIFY unlock sword wave during boost nulling the fourth option, but moonlight massive outstrips option 1-3 in dmg. In the next game I believe a long range sword was developed and a short range high damage one as well (used by genobee in nexus) so moonlight shining moment was basicaly 1 title
In ACFA it was top tier as well. While counterblading setups exist, they have to be much more precise due to other strong blades being notably shorter. The big thing for ACFA's moonlight is being the third longest blade while also having the highest damage of any laser blade.
Your commentary is great. Never stop being you.
Post-nerf, I couldn't use the PB since most ACs recover very fast. Just test it on the Arena vs AI piloted ACs. It can be frustrating to get the stagger and have the enemy dodge away just before I could hit with the PB. I've given up and use it purely on bosses who don't recover as quickly.
Laser Slicer, Coral Oscillator Blade and the Moonlights are my favorites. Moonlight packs a punch now, especially when charged and profits off of Arquebus' Generators. And they all look amazing, both as weapons and when performing attacks. And the Slicer is fun to use in PVE.
I hesitated when I was going to buy armoured core, but then I heard about melee.
Do it. Gamefly (yes still exists) has it for 35 BUCKS
Oh, i genuinly love these lists. More and more, Rusty!
1:18 I am eating heated-up leftovers
I'd love to see one of these tier lists for EDF weapons.
I think the oscillator, while bad for pvp, is amazing for pve. The charged attack will stun almost any enemy instantly, and do like half of a boss healthbar
Cooling rate is Heat/s, while all weapons emergency vent at 1000 Heat.
When accounting for the status effect and cooldown, the Stun Baton charged attack just narrowly edges out the Laser Knife combo for DPS, that's because it currently procs its status effect which deals a solid 1650ish damage bypassing resistance as well as a stagger every 1.5 charged hits, and occasionally even on the first easily chaining with itself. Course it's DPS may fall if they ever fix the Status Recovery stat for heads, and its relatively narrow lunge can be difficult to hit on small targets, but against a quad or tread, no problem.
I’ve learned that the laser lance and the pilebunker is an amazing combo. For the comb ,laser lance first, Zimmerman second, and pilebunker while they are staggered
i totally disagreed with the Slicer placement. its is literally THE BEST stagger punishment in the game. no amount of fire power can be compared to the damage of a single full combo it dish out, and if the enemies is stagger, not only they take extradamage, but they also will take the full combo. if you stagger an enemies, and you having this thing equiped, the enemy is as good as dead.
I knew laser lance and pile bunker where going to be top 2 and 1, hitting pile bunker after the lance's gap close is just
*chef's kiss* nice
The one thing that the laser slicer has going well for it, is that the stagger and full combo it can do on a ACS broken target is comparable to a charged bunk, all while not needing to pray to the physics engine to not bump you and whiff. The slicer is *much* more consistent and forgiving on higher mobility and smaller targets.
"I don't see the laser lance fairing that well in pvp."
So...Who's gunna tell him?
I actually ran through half of ng+ and ng++ with the laser slicer. I picked it up because it looked cool, and I found out that replacing the pile bunker for it in my needle pistol stagger build les it tearing through everything. The key with it isn’t to rely on it for the stagger, it’s best to pull it out when the enemy is close and staggered so you can pull the Rusty combo on them and shred a massive chunk of even high end bosses healthbar apart.
I made a cowboy AC with dual pistols and I wanted to give it a melee weapon to swap to for when it ran out of ammo or whatever, and I chose the plasma thrower because it kind of looked like a lasso when used, and I was like "holy shit, this is actually really good". Anyway, for arena matches I just use my fat AC that has the lance and pilebunker, plus the most melee FCS and that one melee booster, and I just close the distance with the lance, shoot once with the bazooka to finish the stun if they're not stunned already, and then ram the pilebunker up their butt. Most fights last less than 30 seconds.
This is his excuse to keep putting off the Every Weapon in Elden Ring video.
The chainsaw is THE stagger punish weapon, paired with Laser Lance (my beloved) it is the most devastating (and personally satisfying) combo since the lance can close the distance and confirm the stagger. The hard part is hitting to buttons to switch, charge, and land the blow. I use the saw over pilebunker simply because it does more stagger damage and can actually lunge on the charge attack.
i was consistantly getting my butt handed to me by the shinobi in his battle log variant. only about halfway through the game did i realize it was mostly his melee weapon that was destroying me and is now a mainstay of my level clearing build.
its very good. still cant get the charged attack to be useful though.
found that compared to the pile bunker (which id use maybe once i fight, or twice if they had a lot of health) would just be using it as often as my regular weapons for huge amounts of total damage and strain (the second of which i never use the pile bunker for)
7:54 as one of those few people who do use that thing, I can say that it is amazing
Basho arms plus pile bunker was my fav thing to use the whole game
Moonlight is actually really useful in missile builds too because they drain a lot of your opponent's stamina trying to dodge them leaving not much for the charge attack coming in to slice them in half. The rockets also give you a window to charge as well since your opponent won't be able to attack while dodging too much in fear of them.
Honestly i've been meaning to try out the daggers. They seem fun
The laser slicer is actually my preferred weapon over the pile bunker when it comes to fighting enemies with a short recovery timer, as it has a very high direct hit adjustment and a really good synergy with melee attack thruster boost, comboed with anything that can reliably slam the stun meter (like the laser lance, which conveniently puts you nice and close and a shotgun combo) you can do comparible damage to the pile bunker and chainsaw while not having to worry about missing because the enemy dodged at the last second, as well as extending the time the enemy has spent stunned thanks to the flurry of hits staggering them while they're in their overloaded state.