Fallout 76 - Melee Build: All-Day-Up-In-Yo-Face

Melee Build: All-Day-Up-In-Yo-Face

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So you think your character's S.P.E.C.I.A.L.?

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So after a month of playing this game I've decided to share my build in this guide focusing on an up in your face Fallout 76 melee build. For this build, I am using One-handed weapons (Gladiator) if Two-handed weapons are your thing, switch to (Slugger) and this will work great for you..

Things to keep in mind

• This is most likely for your second character as I don't suggest waiting for character respeccing.
• Having multiple characters can help if you vary your builds.
• I am not accounting for any weight reduction, survival perks, and not mentioning those aspects.
• This is a RAW combat build, if not in combat, feel free to swap out less needed perks to make your travels lighter and easier.
• This build works best during the day.
• This build accounts for not using Power Armor.
• This build does not account for mutations.
• Some of the perks do not unlock until around level 50.

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Currently, I'm almost level 100 and still have been tweaking my build slightly over time. In this guide, I'm breaking down the build while showing what's important and for numbers, feel free to +1 / -1 with the perks to tweak the builds to your playstyle. I'm also going to post this basic perk distribution screenshot a few times throughout the guide as a reference instead of having to keep scrolling up,

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BAREBONES

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. DISTRIBUTION

STRENGTH: 15
PERCEPTION: 1
ENDURANCE: 9
CHARISMA: 3
INTELLIGENCE: 3
AGILITY: 8
LUCK: 10
7 POINTS LEFT OVER

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PERK DISTRIBUTION

STRENGTH: 15
[Rank 3] Barbarian
[Rank 3] Gladiator
[Rank 3] Expert Gladiator
[Rank 2] Master Gladiator
[Rank 2] Martial Artist
[Rank 2] Incisor

PERCEPTION: 1
[Rank 1] Glow Sight

ENDURANCE: 9
[Rank 1] Radicool
[Rank 3] Lifegiver
[Rank 3] Solar Powered
[Rank 2] Photosynthetic
[Rank 2] Nocturnal Fortitude

CHARISMA: 3
[Rank 1] Tenderizer
[Rank 2] Suppressor

INTELLIGENCE: 3
[Rank 3] Nerd Rage!

AGILITY: 8
[Rank 3] Evasive
[Rank 2] Action-Boy
[Rank 2] Adrenaline
[Rank 1] Gun Fu

LUCK: 10
[Rank 3] Serendipity
[Rank 3] Bloody Mess
[Rank 2] Grim Reaper's Sprint
[Rank 1] Critical Savy
[Rank 1] Better Criticals

+7 Points Left Over

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Build Breakdown

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What goes into this build?

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STRENGTH: 15
[BASE: +80 Damage Resistance, + 45% One-Handed Damage, +20% Swing Speed, -50% Target Armor, with 2 points left over]

[Required]

• [Rank 3] Barbarian: Every point of strength adds (+2, +3, +4 ) Damage Resist
  (With 15 Strength, you get 80 Damage Resist, no power armor)
• [Rank 2] Gladiator: One-handed weapons do (+10%, +15%, +20% ) Damage
• [Rank 2] Expert Gladiator: One-handed weapons do (+10%, +15%, +20% ) Damage
• [Rank 2] Master Gladiator: One-handed weapons do (+10%, +15%, +20% ) Damage

If you go for 1 point into each perk card, you'll end up with (+30% Damage)(+10% Damage per card) as opposed to spending 3 points on one card, it goes, +10%, +15%, +20%) If you go for the full (9) points into all 3 perks, you end up with (+60% Damage) (20% Damage per card) This Breakdown works for the other weapon perk cards in the game except for Punching attacks, which only have one perk card.

[Flexibility with 6 points]

• [Rank 2] Martial Artist: Swing weapons (10%, 20%, 30% ) faster
• [Rank 2] Incsisor: Melee attacks ignore (25%, 50%, 75% ) target's armor

If you put in 2 points into both of those skills, you will have 2 leftover perk points can go back into Gladiator for +10% damage or split between Incisor and Martial Artist. If the guys your facing don't have armor, Incisor isn't needed as much, so you can swap that out for swinging faster or raw damage. Even one point swapped around can make a big difference, in certain cases. For 1 point though, is swinging 10% faster better or 5% raw damage? You'll have to decide, I personally say raw damage.

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PERCEPTION: 1
[Do not put anything into perception, leave it at 1]
[Base: +20% damage to Glowing Enemies]

• [Rank 1] Glow SIght: Deal (+20%, +40%, +60%) damage to Glowing Enemies

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ENDURANCE: 9
[BASE: 1-5 Strength from Rads. +45 Health,

• [Rank 1] Radicool: Greater your rads, greater your Strength (max +5)
• [Rank 3] Lifegiver: Gain (+15, +30, +45 Health)

[Flexibility with Day / Night cycle, 5 points leftover]

• [Rank 3] Solar Powered:
• [Rank 2] Photosynthetic: Health regen during 6:00 AM - 6:00 PM
• [Rank 2] Nocturnal Fortitude: (+20, +40 Health) during 6:00 PM - 6:00 AM

This build has nice bonuses during the day which may be reason enough to swap to a different server after the clock hits 6:00 PM. If you're on at night, swap one of the Day perks out for Nocturnal Fortitude.

During the day: HP regen as well as +15% melee damage and +15 HP.
During the night: +40 HP.

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CHARISMA: 3 +1
[BASE: +5% Damage for 5 seconds, -20% Target's damage output]

• [Rank 1] Tenderizer: Target receives (5%, 6%, 7% ) more damage for (5, 7, 10 ) seconds after you attack
• [Rank 2] Suppressor: Reduce target's damage output by (10%, 20%, 30%) for 2 seconds after you attack

With 3 Charisma you're able to share any 1 Point Perk Card with your team. That being said, Tenderizer is a great one to share, so the damage output is boosted by 5% for all players or a Rank 1 Suppressor works well for team DPS.

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INTELLIGENCE: 3

• [Rank 3] Nerd Rage!: While below 20% Health (+20, 30, 40) Damage Resistance (+10%, 15%, 20%) Damage and 15% AP regen

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AGILITY: 8
[BASE: +24 Damage/Energy Resistance, +30% AP Regen, +8% damage per kill up to 48%]

• [Rank 2] Evasive: Each Agility point gives (+1, 2, 3) Damage/Energy Resist
  (With 8 Agility, you get 24 Damage/Energy Resist, no power armor)
• [Rank 2] Action-Boy: AP regen (15%, 30%, 40%) faster
• [Rank 3] Adrenaline: Gain (+6%, 7%, 8%, 9%, 10%) damage per kill up to (36%, 42%, 48%, 54%, 60%) for 30 seconds, refreshes on kill.

This distribution evens out resistance, AP regen, and some additional damage output per kill. It is feasible to put 1 point into Action boy for 15% AP regen and putting one more point into Adrenaline for a little more damage per consecutive kill.

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LUCK: 10
[BASE: 45% chance to avoid damage while <30% HP, +15% damage, +25% chance to restore AP on VATS kill, Crits consume 85% of crit meter, +20% crit damage]

• [Rank 3] Serendipity: While below 30% (15%, 30%, 45%) chance to avoid damage.
• [Rank 3] Bloody Mess: (+5%, 10%, 15%) damage and exploding enemies
• [Rank 2] Grim Reaper's Sprint: Any kill in V.A.T.S (15%, 25%, 35%) chance to restore Action Points
• [Rank 1] Critical Savy: Crits consume (85%, 70%, 55%) of crit meter
• [Rank 1] Better Criticals: Crits do (+20%, +30%, +40%) damage

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[ Flexibility with 7 Perk Points left]

At this point in the build, you should have 7 points left over. The flexibility is left up to you but If you're going to put it into luck, I suggest Rank 2 of Crit Savy for the 70% use of the crit bar, so you can crit more often.
OR
1 more into Endurance which will give a natural +5hp, and go Rank 3 of Solar Powered for +5% more damage and 5 more HP during the day.
OR
1 more into Charisma

• 1 more into Suppressor will give an additional -10% damage output for 2 seconds on the target
• IF RUNNING SOLO, Rank 1 of Lone Wanderer will give -10% damage received and +10% AP regen.
• IF RUNNING IN A GROUP, Rank 1 of Bodyguards will give +6 Damage/Energy resistance for each teammate excluding you
  OR
  1 more into Agility
• By default, the 1 additional point into Agility would give you +3 more damage/energy resistance
• Either 1 more point into Action-Boy or Adrenaline is feasible, but I would suggest Action-Boy for the +15% more AP regen over the +1% damage output

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What makes this build?

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The combination of low hp, high rads, and higher damage resistance should, in theory, keep you alive a lot longer than it should and hitting harder than you would have imagined. ( Nerd Rage, Serendipity, Radicool, Barbarian to name the main perks of the build.) The below 30% HP threshold can be a beautiful place, but just be careful not to get 1-hit yourself. As mentioned before you can swap out certain Endurance perks out at night, but you get the most out of this build during the day, hence All-Day.

There's certain points where I look at the build and think..
With my 9 Agility, evasive gives, +9, +18, +28 Damage/Energy Resistance per point spent and compare that to Ironclad, I could gain +10, +20, +30 Damage/Energy Resistance per rank by allocating those Agility points into Endurance. This is true but then with that tradeoff, you have less VATS to use. There are a few ways to go about this build and I tried keeping it as flexible as possible. This "Base" build is somewhat in the middle of offense/defense, feel free to test it out and move points around as needed.

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This has been the Base Version of the build so far, this is the what my modified perk loadout typically looks like,

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With this knowledge, you're ready to take on just about anything!

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It's already been a month since the release of the game and I've been having a blast playing it. I've focused primarily on melee but am tinkering with different builds that I'm interested in testing and writing some guides for. The game has a lot of potential and when there are events that are suggestions 8+ players, it's good to consider what a team build would look like, having everyone have their own role and specific perks working together.

It would also be my hope that you could eventually favorite various builds on 1 character, switching between combat, utility and travel, night and day builds, etc. similar to how Diablo III has the ability to create different loadouts for your characters.

I'm interested in working on some Charisma builds, or "The Glue" to future team raids/dungeons. Some of the perks in the game are underrated and I can see a bunch of utility in them but at this current moment in time, I don't believe people are considering the benefits of having a healer in the group or the ability to buff/debuff. Although Bethesda said they will have respeccing, it is still important to think of what build you're making for your character as well as your role in groups.

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I hope this build helps and can help make sense of getting the most out of your character. Any questions or suggestions on the build, lemme know, I'm reachable here, on Xbox at LmG_Scruffy and on twitter @loudmouthgaming .Enjoy your melee filled Fallout 76 experiences!

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-Scruffy

#gaming #xbox #fallout76 #InBethesdaWeTrust #GodHoward

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Gamer | Designer | Architectural Draftsman | Full Time Nerd

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