The devs themself have said that they dont want tech, which is already concerning since it should be a part of every game and they should reward the players for discovering and mastering it, Games like tf2 are surviving because of a mix of a silly player base and probably the most tech out of any game, the game hasnt recived an update in years and yet it's still there, meanwhile here in the finals we get the devs fighting with teeths and nails to eradicate and purge any tech, they nuked goo planes for no reason and they have with this update absolutedly evaporated any chance for any melee tech and combo to be created and used, they have nerfed to the ground the quick melee and torched every stat on the spear, the dagger, the hammer, the shield and the sword to remove any chance of securing a kill with the quick melee, the only one that got 1 tech and i'm afraid to mention it because if an embark dev notice it they could remove that too, it's the double blades cross attack plus the quick melee to 2 tap a light.(the only tech that it had to go were the nukes)

The lunge addition is not a good thing even if it allows the player to close the gap, half the time it doesnt work and when it does (with any weapon that isnt the hammer) sends u behind the guy without hitting him, the lunge has turned melee into a brawling no brain machine where u need to just press m1 or m2 randomly to kill people, i havent had a duel with a fellow melee user since the season started becaused it,s impossible and unsatisfing to have one, if u both lunge at eachother u both miss the respective target and if u dont congrats now u can enjoy the most boring duel ever.

The melee in season 1 was almost fucking perfect, the winner of the fights between the melee users was 90% of the time the most skilled or the most creative out of the 2, meanwhile if u where a gun user you could still escape it or fight back and u feared it because u knew that if the guy was good it would have closed the gap and killed u, unlike now where the hammer is the only dangerous weapon not because if it's in the right hands it becomes dangerous but because u can just lunge yourway to the target with barely any skill. Melee weapons in season 1 had a medium skill floor and an higher skill cealing than most guns, it had depth and personality unlike now where to use the hammer and the sword are brainless m1 and sometimes if saturn crosses the same path as jupiter and in that moment steel ball run episode 2 goes out but only then u are supposed to use m2.

Melee weapons should have the upper hand against any gun that isnt a shotgun or something weird like the throwing knifes, it should be like this because i as the melee user need to struggle to close the gap against a guy that can just attack me from outside my range and when i manage to reach the guy i should get rewarded by killing him instead of being like now where a guy with an fcar can out dps a shield like it's nothing.

But the most frustating thing is the glancing sistem, i know it's supposed to prevent spamming m1, but there is a problem with that, it doesnt prevent spamming but incourages it because if i dont spam i get deleted by the gun wielder plus the sistem is insanely inconsistent and unfair, with the shield now u need to have the same precision as with a sniper, with the double blades m1 u need to hit both shots to deal some decent damage but it's impossible because of how fast the swings are and the fact that they are in 2 parts, meanwhile with the hammer m2 u cant miss u actually need to try to miss the m2 top swing, but most importantly it doesnt reward the player when he hits his swings in the perfect spot because the damage we deal with those can be contested by any guns by simply doing bodyshots, it only punishes the player but never rewards it.

The melee rework is just another step into the war on tech that embark is pushing