favorite type of melee weapon?

[BeerTent]

Nothing says good times, like hammertimes.

Sadly, I cannot find a picture that accurately represents my love for shouting "STOP! HAMMERTIME!" and very large sledgehammers. But I will give you this exciting little piece of police trivia.

Police have an item called, "The key to the city." It is a small sledgehammer, designed to open doors by bashing in the door-handle. If you hit the handle just right, the door-handle on the other side will shoot out from the door, and police can just open the door safely.

Spoiler: Awww, Yeah! It's a difficult choice. Small and precise? Or big and fun?

 

[default]

Swords.

In gaming if they're a main mechanic in a PvP setting they can afford for so much depth and subtlety, such as Jedi Academy or Dark Souls to a lesser extent. I also just really like them aesthetically. I'll take a nice, plain and simple sword with no adornment whenever possible. A weapon should just be a simple, unassuming tool, it should be what you do with them that should be impressive or intimidating.

Not the most practical weapon in a real combat situation though (without a lifetime of training, and even then it's not always the best choice), but I've swung my Ebay katana around more than an axe or hammer so I'd be most comfortable fumbling my way through a fight with a sword.

I've recently been reading 'The Swordsmans Handbook'. It talks about some prominent samurai and students of swordsmanship in medieval Japan and the philosophies, techniques and mentalities they developed, applied and taught over their lifetimes. Very interesting read. It talks about students of swordsmanship studying from childhood and travelling the countryside at as young as twelve, duelling and killing other students and advancing in the art and different schools. The depth to which they impress the importance and subtlety of mentality in a swordsmans duel is staggering. It's hard to comprehend the discipline and training a person would need to apply these things when there's a dude in front of you with a sharp piece of metal trying to take your hand off.

 

[MrRaggaedeman]

Rapiers and halberds are my favorite weapons. Sadly not exactly many games come with them. Although a mace is cool, too.

 

[Johnny Thunder]

Spear! Highly underused in games and films because it's not as flashy as a sword, but on the actual battlefield it's probably been the most used weapon by a long shot.

 

[ninja666]

I have two favourites:

1. Maces & one handed hammers - nothing beats the sadistic pleasure of bashing one's skull in, or crushing their face. It's even more of a satisfaction when they have spikes.
2. Spears - it's such an underrated weapon in many RPGs and you don't really see it often. Probably because swiss-cheesing your enemy from behind a shield (or at least from a slight distance, if you don't have one) doesn't look nearly as cool as heavy-arched swings with a greatsword.

 

[giles]

I always have to go with the "Noble Swordsman" role.
Western swords have always intrigued me. Especially the classic medieval Longsword.
This is mostly because I've watched and seen a lot of medieval fiction involved with these swords.

To me they just seem gentle, elegant, noble, and can easily cut you a new one when they want.
... also they look cool when you pose with it.

I thought that was just that, though - fiction. A longsword is a versatile weapon so it serves as a sidearm, but nobody would actually charge into battle with it. It's just not very effective against an armored opponent, especially because they will sport weapons with longer range & armor piercing potential such as halberts, spears or greatswords. In this regard the longsword is only effective at slaughtering unarmored (or barely armored) targets. Hardly "noble". When both parties are unarmored, the rapier is the superior alternative to the longsword due to speed and weight.
Idk maybe I'm just misinformed, but it doesn't seem like a useful weapon at all.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Love the versatility of swords (all kinds), but can't go past the simple brutality of axes, especially the half-moon types. None of those sissy quasi wood axes, I wanna be able to take a big-arse chunk outta somebody, and thrust instead of hack if I need to.

 

[lacktheknack]

Skullcracking blunt weapons fiend here. The heavier and more ludicrously two-handed the weapon, the better. It's partly because I'm a huge and lumbering dude.

Weighted quarterstaves are wonderful things. Not enough games use them. ;____;

 

[Recusant]

Like the wrench in the first Bioshock. Best. Melee weapon. Ever.

No, that would be the machete from the Postal 2 expansion. Arguably not really a melee weapon, but the first video game death-dealer that challenged my love for the Dark Forces concussion rifle.

In broader terms, I say halberd. Big enough to have range on a swordsman, small enough to have maneuverability on a polearm user, plus it's an axe AND a spear with a hook on the end to drag people off horses, pierce armor, and pop open unusually large bottles of beer. It's essentially a Swiss Army pseudo-polearm- which is probably why it was the go-to weapon for the actual Swiss Army for so long.

 

[GabeZhul]

Spear! Highly underused in games and films because it's not as flashy as a sword, but on the actual battlefield it's probably been the most used weapon by a long shot.

Probably because, unlike swords, maces and any other such weapons, spears were not only easy to make and outfit soldiers with (get a straight piece of wood, sharpen its tip, bam, you have a rudimentary spear), but simple to train new recruits with and incredibly versatile.

They are great at halting light cavalry, they can be thrown if the need demands so, they can be wielded with shields to provide a defensive wall that can stab you if you get too close, they can be used in place of more specialized lances by cavalry and when wielded by someone who knew what they were doing, they could outreach two-handers, pierce heavy armor and could be used to crack heads with the shaft just as well as stabbing with the point.

A spear-wielder generally only had three weaknesses: A well trained swordsman with a shield (since the spear is harder to control, it left the wielder wide open if parried with a shield), archers (thought archers were generally the bane of everyone not dressed in steel head to toe) and someone more experienced with the spear.

Also, spears have the dubious honor of being incredibly dangerous in the open (superior reach and the ability to break bones by swinging it) but becoming less and less effective the more spear-wielders there are in a group because they get in each other way, and if you discipline them to do the classic phalanx or turtle formations, their mobility becomes laughable. So yeah, a single spearman can be incredibly impressive, but in most fiction and games you only see them in huge groups where all they can do is stop charges from the front and die when attacked from the back.

 

[lechat]

massive double handed hammers.
It's not enough that a weapon cracks skulls it's gotta break every bone in your opponent's body then make the ground shake!

 

[Something Amyss]

Go lightsaber or go home.

...what? It's a melee weapon!

 

[Fijiman]

The axe is my favorite. It may not have the same speed of use or range of other weapon, but it makes up for it in power and versatility. A good and well designed axe is not only a weapon but a tool you can use for other things that don't involve killing people.(though it's what you'll be using it for most of the time)

 

[Barbas]

I'd like to try my hand at wielding a gladius made from modern metals. Long enough to have good reach but short enough to ram right into a sternum. I mean, I wouldn't actually do any of that, but for those reasons it seems to make more sense as a weapon than something unwieldy like a claymore.

Skullcracking blunt weapons fiend here. The heavier and more ludicrously two-handed the weapon, the better. It's partly because I'm a huge and lumbering dude.

Weighted quarterstaves are wonderful things. Not enough games use them. ;____;

I can only imagine how much fun it would be to smash up the bathroom section of a furniture store with a giant, two-handed hammer.

 

[Fijiman]

Go lightsaber or go home.

...what? It's a melee weapon!

Yes, but it's still cheating unless the other guy has a lightsaber too.

 

[ninja666]

massive double handed hammers.
It's not enough that a weapon cracks skulls it's gotta break every bone in your opponent's body then make the ground shake!

Unless you're talking about oversized power fantasy warhammers, you're not really gonna be able do any of this stuff. A real warhammer is basically a mace with a ridiculously long handle.

 

[Something Amyss]

Yes, but it's still cheating unless the other guy has a lightsaber too.

I oppose fair play on the grounds that it might give my opponent a fighting chance.

 

[kommando367]

I have the most experience with Assegai spears. I'm only accurate at throwing them up to 30 feet though.

 

[Fijiman]

Yes, but it's still cheating unless the other guy has a lightsaber too.

I oppose fair play on the grounds that it might give my opponent a fighting chance.

Remind me to never challenge you to a fair fight then.