Melee Effect: Clearing Gold with your fists?

Imagine for a second you live in the future. You’ve got a Mattel-brand hoverboard*, you eat space food, and you’re fighting against the Reapers for the very survival of organic life.

What weapon do you bring to such a conflict (the Reaper battle, not your space food-based digestive struggles)?

Some would say bullets. Others, rockets. But real warriors fight in close quarters with violent, brutal weapons. Swords, maces, lightsabres, or even a blood-soaked fist.

Or, you know, a fucking holographic blade.

I’m not going to pretend to know how an omnitool is supposed to kill anything. It’s the future-equivalent of trying to hurt an enemy by waving your iPhone in its general direction while running a Realistic Sword Soundboard app. So it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine that twirling around a immaterial blade isn’t particularly effective in Bioware’s sci-fi universe either. After all, you have plenty of powers and weapons at your disposal that are significantly more menacing.

But it turns out reason and logic have no place in Mass Effect,** and melee attacks are not only viable, they’re deadly as hell. Sure, I’ve talked about their 1v1 merits in my Krogan Sentinel guide, but it turns out there’s much more to futuristic fist pumping than even I thought.

Putting the bat in Batarian

First, Zenning of GameFAQs discovered that the Falcon Punch-inspired Batarian heavy melee grants the player damage reduction during its animation…. approximately 25%. Coupled with the inherent damage reduction of Blade Armor and the defensive boost of an ally Justicar’s biotic bubble, heavy melee makes Batarians literally invincible.

Not only that, but their shields are capable of regenerating during the heavy melee animation, meaning you can actually gain effective life in the right circumstances. As if Falcon Punches weren’t legendary enough! But don’t just take it from me, see for yourself how effective this is:

Geth going for the gold

Not to be outdone by a puny organic, JumpinProductions and his friends took their newly-unlocked Geth characters for a melee-only spin on Firebase Glacier against gold-level Cerberus troops.

Run into an Atlas? Heavy melee. Six Guardians cornering your squad? Heavy melee? Banshees cloaking and flanking you with their own heavy melee?

Hunter mode to find those cowards, then heavy goddamn melee.

Now, to be fair, the Geth’s extended attack is more of a static burst (à la Asari) than a punch, but it’s still ballsy to clear gold matches without the use of modern weaponry. Once again, I defer to the experts for their skill and coordination:

When in doubt, bludgeon?

Got any melee stories from your own Mass Effect 3 multiplayer matches? Share them below. I’m sure everyone reading would like to know how to beat down a Banshee with a well-timed headbutt.

Just try not to hurt anybody here, okay?

* Disclaimer: does not work on water, unless you’ve got power.
** Evidenced by, I don’t know, the whole damn ending