Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2

31 ratings
Advantages & Disadvantages to Melee Weapons
By swift
Hello, Ghost here with another guide for the "Advantages & Disadvantages" series! This series tackles while a certain thing in Left 4 Dead may be good, but there are downsides to it. Let's get started, shall we?
   
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Advantages
1: Instant kills
We all know once you pick up that melee weapon, see an infected and whack it or slice it with your weapon, it instantly dies. This can save a few bullets and clear a room quickly.

2: (Depending on what you're using) It has a wide range
Remember how I said you can save a few bullets just by instantly killing ONE infected in ONE swing? Guess what? You can kill 2 or maybe even 3 if you're lucky in one go, and it all depends on it's range. If you have a katana or a guitar, don't go for those single commons. Use the wide range to your advantage! Get as many infected as you can in few swings as possible to make the clearing process easier!

3: Does a lot of damage to the tank
In just a few swings and depending on the difficulty, you can knock down HALF of the tank's health just by hitting it. This can be useful for saving your team's time and bullets aganist a tank.

4: Instant kills on special infected
This isn't always the case, but if you're lucky enough to hit a special infected RIGHT in the head, doesn't matter who it is, it'll die in ONE hit. This is called a melee headshot, or with chargers as they're charging a level.
Disadvantages
There's always a disadvantage to EVERYTHING. Let's see the disadvantages with the "OP" melee weapons.

1: You have to get up close and personal with the common infected
On expert, if you don't know what you're doing with a melee, this can be deadly. If you get hit by a common infected before you can even swing is pretty upsetting. So unless you know what you're doing, stick with pistols/magnum.

2: Meleeing increases your chance of being hit by your teammates
Friendly fire is a bad thing. It decreases your health and it hurts your teammate's stats. Remember when I said you have to get up close and personal with the common infected? Yeah. All it really does is get ya shot, unless you know what you're doing like I said a ton of times.

3: Fire rate with the melee is slow
Even with a katana, it cannot match the speed with an M16 or an AK47. With a second between your swings with a melee, a special infected can hit you if you either missed or they have a lot of hp, like the charger.

4: Hitting a tank with a melee gets his attention on you
In the advantages section, I explained that hitting the tank with a melee does a HUGE amount of damage, but the only downside is that the tank stops whatever he's doing and he goes straight for you. So unless you know how to kite, don't hit him with the melee.

If you don't know what kite means, you probably shouldn't be hitting the tank with your melee anyway, but I'll give the definition.

Kiting - Also known as juking. Dodging and avoiding the enemy's attacks by moving around and timing your movements right.
Conclusion
I hope you guys enjoyed this guide! I'm pretty exhausted because I just released a new guide, which you can find below of the guide. I will make a new guide TOMORROW so expect that. Please don't forget to rate, comment, and share this guide with your friends and players.

Have a great day everyone, take care.
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12 Comments
mudkip 7 Jul, 2020 @ 4:53am 
what if you run out of bullets? grab more ammo for your crowbar ez
Leonard Wolf 13 Dec, 2019 @ 2:26am 
disclamer:It takes 20 melee hits to kill a tank without anybody previously shooting it,or setting him on fire.
Alternate Smoke-Saibot 21 Aug, 2016 @ 8:38am 
Why didn't you mention the chainsaw? Yeah, maybe it isn't common to find, but it's (imo) the best melee. There is a limit to it, but if you use it at the right times, such as in a big horde of zombies, it's gonna kill quickly and effectively. The only con is that it has a limit.
the pringle god 11 Aug, 2016 @ 6:03am 
N3R, the katana is good in sittuations where you need long range, somthing the machete and nightstick dont have, so there is not a best meelee weapon, it all depends on the sittuations.
N3R 7 Aug, 2016 @ 2:32pm 
KATANA ISNT FUCKING BEST FFS MACHETE OR NIGHTSTICK FASTER
Fruittymcnutty 6 Aug, 2016 @ 5:57pm 
@JAiZ Try hitting the tank 1 or 2 times, and backing away from your friend some. The Tank likes to slam attack incaps if you're next to them when he's after you. Assuming it's a bot Tank, of course...
Taylor556 5 Jul, 2016 @ 6:11pm 
Make a lag guide. Save the world.
HK-47 3 Jul, 2016 @ 10:35am 
I understand that you listed pros and cons and that you are trying to give an unbiased view, but I have to agree with Sophia here -- people reading this guide might get the wrong impression that they should never use melee (like the dude below who based on his own miserable experience and skill said it is useless on advanced and expert which can't be further from the truth).

On realism I almost always play with melee, same on expert. I can't even count how many times I was the only one left standing while other team members went down during a horde regardless of their weapon choices.

My favorites are Fire Axe because of the largest hitbox (good for leveling Chargers because it's easier to hit the head) and the CS knife because of speed. However, playing melee requires decent ping and a good skill so it is not for everyone.
JAiZ 2 Jul, 2016 @ 2:56am 
I've had situations where my friend gets cornered by a tank and incapped, so i go in to melee the tank but it keeps attacking my buddy on the ground to the point where I melee it to death :v it completely ignores me
bob 12 Dec, 2015 @ 2:54am 
@Rambo 3700 hrs in expert realism, I can say melee is the way to go

@Ghost you have a lot of misinformation. Melee's speed and arc varies hugely between the melee weapons. You say "even with a katana" but the katana is not one of the fastest melee weapons, the nightstick and machete are. Saying they're slower than an Ak47 or M16 is just meaningless- it's melee, not a gun.

Melee weapons do 250 damage to special infected, which is more reliable of a kill than anything but the tier 2 shotguns. They are much preferable to any weapon except those shotguns at close range, you can instant kill everything except chargers.

Speaking of which, you don't mention leveling chargers. Or shove locking witches, or killing witches with 4 hits. Or.... being able to defend yourself in a horde, at all? The machete and nightstick (and knife) are fast enough to corner spam without ever shoving.