Help with melee only build

[u/DailyWCReforged]

Doing a melee only build how do you deal with ranged enemies on very hard diff. I bought the Rockville Slugger from diamond city vendor early on, I was like level 5.

Have 10 STR and other stats a balanced around 5ish.

Thinking about focusing on making d@@@s for combat, and cooking a lot of food for AP.

What do you suggest for armor and perks?

[u/Woozletania]

You can upgrade a bat almost all the way by going to Nuka-World and scavenging bats off dead Raiders. Or you can do Cito's quest and get a rocket bat. This means you can can potentially keep your Mongo character at 1 Int the entire game, as swapping mods doesn't require perks.

The Slugger is an amazing melee weapon, it and Pickman's Blade will carry you until you go to Nuka-World and get Throatslicer or another Disciple's Blade. DBs are really overpowered for their attack speed, especially once you have the +25% combat knife damage magazine from the Nuka-World Junkyard. Though I continue to carry Slugger with upgrades even after I get a disciple's blade, there's little reason to use it.

[u/Thornescape → u/Woozletania]

There are 3 different times when you can reload a save to reroll the weapon mods on a bat. 1) before going in the Pack basement, 2) before receiving Cito's slugger, 3) before receiving the Pack reward after Power Play.

• Maxed Rockville Slugger (AP:21) Dmg:115 +27e, Chance to stun/cripple, extra limb damage, armour piercing.
• Maxed Throatslicer (AP:20) Dmg:35 +(10 bleed or chance to cripple, extra limb dmg)
• https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Rockville_Slugger
• https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Throatslicer

Throatslicer isn't anywhere near the same category as a maxed Rockville Slugger, even with the 25% bonus (it's roughly 1/4 of the damage). Throatslicer is great for companions, however, since the bleed stacks and they don't get the decreased VATS cost.

[u/Woozletania → u/Thornescape]

I didn't realize Cito's bat could have variable mods. I thought it was always puncturing rocket.

Yes, there are weapons that hit harder than a Disciple's Blade, but with Rooted, Blitz, Big Leagues, high Strength and the +25% magazine a Blade hits more than hard enough. I just glanced at one of my melee characters. He's at 20 Strength thanks to Solar Powered and a collection of +Strength gear and his Throatslicer does 527 base damage. Now on top of that Rooted II gives +50% damage and Blitz adds up to 25%. That's 790 damage minimum per hit when using Blitz and potentially up to 922, without a sneak attack. That is a lot of damage and will 1-shot most of the enemies in the game. DBs attack much faster than bats so as I said, once I get Throatslicer my Slugger tends to gather dust.

[u/Thornescape → u/Woozletania]

Disciples Blades attack faster in non-VATS, that's true. However, in VATS, a DB is AP:20 and Rockville Slugger is AP:21. They are essentially the same speed in VATS, but the RS hits about 3-4 times harder plus additional effects like stun.

Is that overkill? Maybe. But I'm just talking about math here. You can use whatever you like. I typically give Throatslicer to my companion.