Does melee characters stand any chanse against deathclaws?

Check out my Melee Build I have successfully won a fight against Three Deathclaws granted they do hurt but with the right build and chems/aid Deathclaws are more of a Rush that you actually get to brawl with something that might kill you if youre unlucky and not go running and screaming back to your nearest mojave express center ... http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=56645&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20

FYI thats on Hard Difficulty.

 

Deathclaws are harder with melee but not impossible. Your chances also depend on the amount of deathclaws you're fighting at a time. Large pack can be a pain in the ass. It is undeniably easier to sneak-crit them from a distance. So, for example, I used a gauss rifle to take care of the large pack near the APA stash, because there were too many of them and they all attack at once.

 

If you build your character like this
http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=56830
Deathclaws will be a walk in the park

*edit*
Just to clarify, you won't even notice 1 deathclaw, 2 might need an effort, 3 might actually require a stimpack and 4 or over requires a lot of attention. The trick is to dodge their attacks with your superior manuverability and try to keep them all on the ground with knockdowns

*Another edit*
And I'm talking only about the full grown badass ones. Blind deathclaws, the small ones etc. are like stomping radroaches.

 

Deathclaws rape me, my team, and the town down the road. Thanks modders. I will be packing some serious HEAT next time we try to take a shortcut to goodsprings.

 

@Rahis: Although, running in circles avoiding enemy melee attacks is my definition of boring. I usually try to give the enemy a more or less fair chance to strike back, as if the game were still turn-based.

 

@Ausdoerrt: Yes, I get where you're coming from. But OP was pondering if pure melee characters can take on deathclaws. They certainly can, but I'm not saying it suits everyones preferred playstyle.

 

@Rahis

Personally I think Neros "melee" build is rather boring ... this is probably due to the fact I feel my unarmed build is much more potent and perhaps perfect. More well rounded and more straight awesomeness it covers ranged combat and close quarters all with extreme efficiency. Plus you'll actually be able to Crit things ... And you don't waste skill points on getting 100 Speech (his way youd have to spend 83 skill points on speech which he also did with lock picking...) thats like 10 levels of skill points! 4 full levels on his science, medicine, and speech sooooooo thats about 22 levels unwisely spent on skills. Unarmed is also much more deadly than Melee.

 

Hmm, I am yet to try it out.

I do agree on Speech though, I'm playing with a Speech 100 chara atm, and all I can say is, it's just for lazy players who want to make things easier.

Medicine is also pretty useless, I'd say spending that on guns and/or explosives could result in a decent Ranger build.

 

Tbh, it's rather hard. I checked in GECK and Legendary deathclaw does 250 damage per hit. In Very Hard mode (x2 damage) which I play, he will instantly kill you whenever he touches you. I happen to carry YCS Gauss Rifle packed with Max Overcharge Ammo especially for creatures like this, since sneak hit critical to the head will instantly kill the Legendary deathclaw even at very hard... even though I normally use Gobi Sniper Rifle and Silenced Sniper rifle as my main weapons. He has exactly 850 health so only YCS with MC MFC has enough power to instantly kill it with sneak attack critical (Since it does over 900 damage when it hits the head on Very Hard).

Can't say it's fair to fight them in melee. But he hasn't got the "no knockdown" flag selected so you can knock him down like everything else. I think that Oh Baby!'s vats attack might be a good start... since it has a big chance of knockdown. Once he's down just pound him till he drops.

Life's pretty hard for a melee fighter when enemies can kill you with a single hit.

 

Can't you sneak crit him once and use paralyzing palm? (On a lone deathclaw that is)

 

Sneaking doesn't work well against Deathclaws. They constantly move and turn around and their perception is super high. Unless you're using stealth boy, you will get detected most of the time.

Paralyzing palm... VATS doesn't make you immortal anymore. When fighting an Legendary deathclaw, he will take a swipe at you while you're doing VATS animation. And it instantly kills you on Very Hard.

The most optimal way to deal with Death Claws is a sniper round to the head. It will kill them instantly no matter what difficulty - it does around 460 damage with Gobi and hand crafted Ammo on V. Hard - Deathclaw has 250 HP. Slightly more with regular sniper rifle.

Legendary Deathclaw has 850 HP. Gauss Rifle with max overcharged MFCs, when hitting the head, will score a sneak hit critical doing 900+ damage on very hard, thus being the only weapon that can kill it in one hit.

 

Best way to deal with a Deathclaw is sniping and Explosives I haven't found a legendary Deathclaw yet so I've not been able to try and melee him, however with the right chems I feel I can put the odds in my favor. Psycho Slasher Med X and Turbo maybe a couple others and I am sure I can be the winner. Never under estimate the power of drugs in this game ... my AP VATS using ninja can get close to 300 AP if I used the right food and drugs talk about meltdown over kill via VATS...

 

300 AP? Is Rocket cumulative?

Either way, Legendary Deathclaw does 250 damage per hit - before applying difficulty factor. If you're playing hard or - especially - very hard, he will kill you with a single hit, every time.

 

@DForge not but jet ultra jet rocket automic gum drops nuka cola nuka cola victory sugar bombs yadda yadda yadda are all stackable as they have different inventory slots!

 

My melee guy can take 250damage cut that down to 125 with slasher and med x and he can take that with ease with turbo on deathclaws might as well be renamed Deathslugs

 

Well if you chem up, it might make more sense

Still, using ALL those chems everytime you want to fight a group of deathclaws... aww. Too much fuss if you ask me

 

Could be but it is how I have played this character in every fallout game except FO:BoS never played that one. Its both a roleplay thing and the added benifits are great!

 

Rippers and chainsaws can do some serious damage when you VATs them, always worth a try when taking down deathclaws.