Melee Interceptor

Built to hit hard without relying on ultimate or combo, the meleeceptor can smash it’s way through hordes of enemies without batting an eye. Guns are an afterthought on this build, stacking melee damage on components should be your only concern and the higher you can get the number the better. The below build is just one example of how it can be done.

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Weapons

Unlike on my ranger build, the weapons are rarely used here. I might use either of the below to pop the shields on a valkyrie if getting it out of the air is necessary, but I have gone full strongholds without firing a single bullet. Guns on this build should be stat-sticks for the most part, so go with your preference of guns, or something that has high armor rolls.

Ralner’s Blaze

• Adding a benefit of a fire prime, and with good armor rolls, this gun is a staple of my build. With a +145 armor roll, it keeps me in the game.

Grave Digger

• Honestly, this is my favourite gun in the game, and I carry it because I like how quickly I can get shields off with it. I rarely use it, unless I come up against a particularly stubborn valkyrie that my team haven’t already knocked the shields off of.

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Melee Weapon

Deathstalker Blades

• You’ll want a high damage roll with these blades, or alternatively a middling-damage roll with some armor. Deathstalkers are a priming weapon, so you’ll leave a trail of acid primes in your wake, meaning that anything you don’t take down can be combo’d by you, or your team mates.

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Gear

Sudden Death

• Although most of your damage on this build comes from standard melee, if you’re using Emergency Power you still want to be able to build ultimate, and the detonation feature of this gear helps towards that. Blast into a group of enemies, prime them, and then strike out with this gear to combo the ones that aren’t already dead. Look for gear charges where possible, you want to be able to use this pretty regularly.

Serpent’s Veil

• Works in conjunction with a melee build due to it’s MW perk of boosting acid damage by 200% on melee hit, which applies to Deathstalker Blades. Chuck this into a group of enemies, prime them with the acid and then launch yourself in to combo with sudden death or just melee them to death. Effective either way. Look for charges for more acid-drenching ability.

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Support System

Slayer's Furor

• Locks onto groups of enemies and debuffs their defences, transferring to another enemy when the original one dies. Handy for wiping mobs. This one has gear charges, which is really the only thing that it needs.

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Components

You’ll be using all universal components here, as they’re the only ones that Melee damage can roll on.

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Feedback Loop

Extended Sniper Magazine

Extended Special Arms Magazine

Rapid Hollow Points

• The four above are used because of their melee damage rolls and no other reason. Switch these around however you want, replace them with something else, as long as it has a high melee damage roll you’ll be golden. Ideally you’ll be aiming for a +70% roll or higher on each component to really pump the numbers up. One of these could also be replaced with Softened Blows with Melee Damage rolls to get some extra protection from damage while not losing damage potential.

Bloodlust

• This is where things get a little more precise. Bloodlust increases melee weapon damage by 30% and boosts it to 75% for 10 seconds when killing an enemy with melee. You’re going to be doing that a lot, so keeping this component’s MW perk activated will be easy enough. The 75% boost is massive, and you’ll see the numbers jump to account for it. Would recommend using this even if you don’t luck out and get one with a good melee roll.

Emergency Power

• I use this one because despite having good armor rolls, I’m still a little squishier than I would like. I rarely use my ultimate on this build because it’s damage output without buffs is pitiful, and if I do it’s because I’m at risk of dropping if I don’t pop it. Emergency Power gives a little bit of help in tight moments, and means that you can keep moving and killing without having to wait to be revived. Pop your ult, get yourself back into position, cancel out of it and keep rolling through those enemies. It can roll with melee, so this is the ideal stat for it, but if you don’t feel that you need it then just substitute it for something else with melee damage. Softened Blows would make an ideal substitute if you happen to have one with a stronger melee roll.

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Overview

The Downsides

It relies quite heavily on acid primes, though ralner’s is there if absolutely necessary, and the lack of Softened Blows means that it’s occasionally a bit more fragile than I would like, but you can get around that by moving constantly and not stopping to consider if things are still alive. Just come back to them again if they’ve got a sliver of health left. Your ult, as mentioned above, is effectively useless on this build. Unless you happen to have a component that rolled Ult damage as well as melee damage, you’re gonna be seeing the most basic numbers known to man. It’s there to keep you on your feet and nothing more.

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The Upsides

Your ult is useless, but that means you don’t need to wait for it to recharge so that you can do actual damage to enemies on the field. If you’re smart about it, then you’ll be able to take down massive amounts of health from even the largest enemies without batting an eye. This build has it’s strongest moments when Last Shot is active within the seasonals. The extra boost to your damage from firing the last bullet in the clip is phenomenal. To provide an example, two melee built interceptors can take the Unfathomed down in approximately 20 seconds when this particular perk is active. Keep moving, keep priming and detonating, and you’ll be absolutely fine. It’s a fun build to play, made all the better by not needing specific components to make it great.

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Sigils

I typically run with all Epic Sigils. Armor for a boost is nice because Interceptors are squishy as hell, Acid Sigil speaks for itself as the entire build is based around acid priming , and no one is gonna say no to an extra 30% melee damage provided by the Melee Sigil. If you’re not worried about your survivability, then a secondary Melee sigil would be the better choice in place of Armor.

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