What System Shock 2 melee weapon do you prefer?

[673f238b33993JDoran]

Some years ago, I remember reading (maybe on Gamefaqs.com, maybe this site, or the System Shock 2 Wiki site) that there isn't an objectively best melee weapon, instead each one is best in a given situation. But even so, which one is your favourite, or do you like to carry and use two or more?

I've played through SS2 a few times, and I always favour the laser rapier, though of course I use the wrench until then. I tend to use just standard weapons, energy weapons, and the grenade launcher (which is a heavy weapon), so I've never used the Psi melee weapon. I have used the shard, but that's the only exotic weapon I think I've used.

I've never made a serious attempt to play through the game as a Psi user, though it is on my "One day I will try it" mental list.

[673f238b33cc0sarge945]

In vanilla/SCP the wrench scales with standard, but the laser rapier has incendiary damage.

Wrench is probably the best because it has the lowest requirement and scales with the most accessible (and in my opinion objectively the best) weapon class.

With RSD the wrench is superceded by both the rapier and the shard, but I still think the rapier is better overall, since your energy investment will also get you some very good weapons available quite early, like the laser pistol.

[673f238b3454cRoSoDude]

The crystal shard is objectively the best melee weapon in the vanilla game since with the smasher O/S it deals +125% bonus damage due to an oversight, on top of already having double the base damage of the wrench. Yeah, you need exotic skill 1 and research skill 3 (+ LabAssistant implant) to use it, but it's worth the trouble. If you have the adrenaline overproduction discipline with a few points in PSI, you can one-shot pretty much anything (except for the final boss since it can't be hurt by the WeaponBash stim).

The wrench is fine if you don't want to go full melee (particularly since it benefits maximally from standard skill damage bonuses, up to +75% bonus), and the laser rapier is a slight upgrade to the wrench if you're already investing in energy weapons, though note that it is worse against spiders than the wrench at almost any level of investment in either skill. The psi sword discipline is pretty powerful but generally not worth the hassle of recasting it every few minutes, particularly when the adrenaline overproduction discipline lasts just as long and doesn't stop you from using other abilities or weapons.

It's worth noting that the Laser Rapier, Crystal Shard, and psi sword all use a different swing animation than the wrench which has a bit more reach (and might slash a bit higher?). I think the timings are all the same, though. Also note that you get the full Smasher damage bonus even if you don't charge long enough for the vertical strike -- if you charge the strike up until the point the elbow starts to rotate, even horizontal strikes will have bonus damage.

[673f238b3481aJoin2]

Laser Rapier.

Cool aesthetics. Cool sounds. Better base damage than wrench and bonus damage against assassins + midwifes (both of which are enemies fit for melee engagements, dictated by their behaviors) and any other cybernetic or mechanical enemy. Mostly though, it's just a freebie for me that I use only occasionally that comes alongside laser pistol and EMP rifle investment, which are also awesome. Mostly I am shooting things, people over-melee in this game to save ammo that doesn't need saving. Fuck fighting spiders they excel in melee just blast 'em at range like a sensible person.

Wrench is objectively the worst in performance but is free, so therefore in some ways the best.
Laser rapier is the coolest, functionally the middle ground and nice to have only if going energy of course.
Shard is objectively the best but requires investment into multiple undesirable paths, making it useless to me. It's also ugly. Never got the tacticool treatment sadly.

Which you choose should be heavily dependent on what kind of build you're going for, and since exotic and research both suck hybrid dick (vanilla), and melee-centric builds are boring, that rules out crystal shard for me entirely. I will go Standard + Energy OR Standard + Heavy, which dictates I either have the wrench or the rapier.

Rapier > Wrench > Shard is my perspective. Psi sword I have not done a full psi build ever, because poor execution of controls there.

Star Wars meh. System Shock made laser rapiers officially cool by inserting them into something cool.
Also the wrench with TACTICOOL mod is better aesthetically than Bioshock's shitty wrench.

[673f238b3499dBriareos H]

Every time I've thought to myself "this time I'll try a different build" I ended up not doing that and systematically getting Exotic just for the shard, so that's my answer. I hate how the rapier looks and I refuse to use it more than necessary.

[673f238b34adaZylonBane]

The pool cue.

[673f238b34c5bvoodoo47]

spoooon.

[673f238b34d40Join2]

Joke mods are lame.

[673f238b34e1fvoodoo47]

a spoon of that magnitude is no joke.

[673f238b3525cJDoran]

Every time I've thought to myself "this time I'll try a different build" I ended up not doing that and systematically getting Exotic just for the shard, so that's my answer.

It seems to be common with gamers to play a game with variable game-play mechanics and decide "The next time I play through this game I will choose different weapons/powers/abilities/story options/etc" but then to instead play the game choosing more or less the same things over and over again in later playthroughs instead. I do this myself, for example in System Shock 2, I always intend to one day play as a Psi character, and (so I tell myself) I will one day play with the exotic weapons (the time-freeze gadget sounds great to use!), yet instead I always stick to Standard and Energy weapons.

The pool cue.

Can you use the pool cues as a weapon? It never occurred to me to try that. If LGS were going for realism, then surely the cue (which I assume is made of wood) would break irreparably, after a few strikes.

[673f238b35624Join2]

I do this myself, for example in System Shock 2, I always intend to one day play as a Psi character, and (so I tell myself) I will one day play with the exotic weapons (the time-freeze gadget sounds great to use!), yet instead I always stick to Standard and Energy weapons.

Nah bro you're just playing smart.

Psi build is not well-executed. Function keys for everything? Can't rebind? Can't assign favorites/shortcuts? Half the powers suck? It all uses the same ammo pool (psi) so balance is a huge issue. You cannot specialize or customize powers in any way like you can with guns (e.g multiple sub-weapon skills + modify), it's all or nothing. And so forth. I still grab a few powers here and there for hybridization fun though.

Exotic is lame and gay, the weapons appear too late in the game, the worm ammo is a chore, they deal no damage to mechanical enemies while organics just point & click to delete no tension, they were aesthetically left behind by tacticool, they require investment in research and exotic, they are ugly and unfun. Just no.

Give heavy a try though. You get grenade launcher, fusion cannon and the time-freeze gadget - that's heavy not exotic. The grenade launcher is pretty fun and carries the skill. Spamming fusion cannon at range is cool too.

[673f238b35a48RoSoDude]

Psi build is not well-executed. Function keys for everything? Can't rebind? Can't assign favorites/shortcuts?

You can assign shortcuts. If you open up the psi discipline MFD (also accessed by right clicking the psi amp in the inventory), you can mouse over the psi discipline icon you want and assign it to F1-12 by pressing Shift+[FX]. By default F1-5 are set to the tier 1-5 icons which cycle through the disciplines you currently have in each tier. I usually leave these and set F6-10 on my most commonly used powers. You could even change the keybindings for the function keys themselves, though this requires some config editing and also isn't very intuitive with the UI display.

The other criticisms of psi/exotic balance are very true of the vanilla game though.