Holdfast: Nations At War – How to Melee

A basic tutorial on how to melee in Holdfast.

Guide to Melee in Holdfast

Settings

Really the only setting you really need is to have melee sensitivity maxed out. This is so that blocking is more responsive and you can move your mouse around better. Another recommended setting is to have melee cam distance maxed so you can see any potential enemies around you. Make sure that you have the highest fps and lowering your resolution can help. A 144 hz monitor really helps, as you have more time to react than if you are using a 60hz monitor.

Melee Basics

Basically in Holdfast there are two attack directions for bayonets and four for swords. For bayonets it is up attacks and down attacks. Swords are the same as bayonets but they also have side attacks. As for blocking, If you see your character doing a sort of T-Pose they are blocking Up, if you see them placing the bayonet below them they are doing a down attack and putting the bayonet to the side is a side block which is only useful for swords. Also the axe has one attack direction (Up) and it cannot block. The spade has only a down attack and also cannot block. The captain and surgeon’s knives cannot block but offensively are near identical to swords.

A video which showcases the blocking:

Tip: When Meleeing, do not hold left click when meleeing, this slows down your movement and any experienced player is just going to block your attack and likely kill you. Instead tap left click when you are near an opponent, you would give your opponent less time to react to the stab.

Advanced Tech

In holdfast there are also advanced techniques such as feints and spins. To do a feint, simply block in the middle of an attacking animation, which shortens it and do another attack. Doing this is much faster than waiting for the attack animation to end and doing another one. To spin, you rotate your mouse around the opponent which creates a spinning motion.

Opportunities to Improve

Some opportunities to improve on melee is to go onto either the 51st melee server (EU) or onto Wraiths melee server (NA). Additionally there are the official melee arenas, NA7 and EU7. If you like to melee multiple people there are pickup groupfights which are held at 4:30 Eastern for XMG groupfights (EU) and at 9:30 eastern for Holdfast melee server groupfights.