Melee damage guide

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This guide will go over general damage output lessons, ability prioritisation, a learning path, and style-specific solutions for common PvM concerns.

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⬥ Knowledge of in-game ability/item descriptions is assumed, this guide aims to tie the tools together rather than list what they do.

⬥ Melee rotations are highly situational and often change based on boss timings, phase length, weapon setup, and how much switching is practical.

⬥ For general PvM terminology, damage tips, and revolution bars, check out their respective sections in DPM Advice Faq

⬥ For recommended upgrade order, see Melee

⬥ For invention perks, see Perks

⬥ If you need tailored advice for a specific boss or gear setup, ask in PvM help (external Discord)

⬥ To compare abilities, use RS Analysis' Melee Page, and add your gear

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Abilities, Attacks and Weapons

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Prioritising Basic Abilities

You should prioritise the following Basic abilities:

⬥ Punish if the target is <50% life points

⬥ Backhand with Flanking if the boss is not facing you

⬥ Greater Fury

⬥ Rend with Gloves of Passage

⬥ Adaptive Strike

⬥ Fury (if is not yet unlocked)

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Do not use these Basic abilities to build:

⬥ Chaos Roar should be used before a heavy-hitting attack and its cooldown is too long

⬥ Greater Barge should be used before a strong channelled ability

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Prioritising Stronger Abilities

When spending adrenaline, there are two primary considerations:

⬥ total damage over time (e.g., the start of a phase) vs. instant damage (burst damage, e.g., boss damage check window)

⬥ adren cost vs. total damage

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In general, prioritise the following abilities and special attacks:

⬥ Berserk whenever possible

⬥ Ek-ZekKil during for fights lasting over 1 minute

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• First cast 280 AD​

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Further casts (Flamebound Rival ) 1045 AD​

⬥ Greater Flurry in 520 AD​

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• For its Berserk extension

⬥ Assault when 4+ 720 AD​

⬥ Greater Flurry with 4+ and target below ~71% life points

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• <71% LP 671 AD​

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• <50% LP 780 AD​

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• <35% LP 858 AD​

⬥ Overpower with Igneous cape 620 AD​

⬥ Assault with <4 560 AD​

⬥ Massacre with + not inside + your target can take damage for another 24s 1120 AD​

⬥ Slaughter with + not inside + your target can take damage for another 18s 810 AD​

⬥ Dismember with + Strength cape + Lunging perk + not inside + your target can take damage for another 18s 549 AD​

⬥ Overpower without cape 545 AD​

⬥ Varanus's Mercy 491.25 AD​

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Unless perked with Equilibrium

⬥ Leng Set special attack with 2+ Primordial Ice

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• 4 stacks 475 AD​

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• 3 stacks 435 AD​

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• 2 stacks 395 AD​

⬥ Greater Flurry when <4 or the target is >71% LP 520 AD​

⬥ Hurricane 320 AD​

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Situational special attacks:

⬥ Granite Maul ignores cooldowns and can be spammed during a single GCD 125 AD​

⬥ Dragon Claws are seen as a direct downgrade from 400 AD​

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Utility Abilities and Special Attacks

These setup tools are especially useful because they let you enter the fight with buffs already active:

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⬥ Dragon Battleaxe for a 60s damage boost ( at War's Retreat → 100% adren → enter instance)

⬥ Annihilation to give a niche 30s damage-output buff

⬥ Zaros Godsword for a mini-zerk

⬥ Pulverise for its damage reduction effect

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Building Adrenaline

Maximising your adrenaline is one of the key ways to output more damage, as you will be able to use stronger attacks.

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There are many ways to build adrenaline, many of which you will see built into the rotations below:

⬥ Meteor Strike for 225% adrenaline gain over 30s

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Typically stalled at and used at the start of a fight, and again before each

⬥ Adrenaline Potions

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Typically used mid-rotation, with some giving instant adren and others giving adren-over-time

⬥ Jaws of the Abyss alongside bleeds

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Gives +2% adren per active bleed ( and from )

⬥ Natural Instinct

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• 2x adrenaline gained for 20.4s

⬥ Vestments of Havoc

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• 2-piece refunds 15-20% adrenaline after using a Melee ultimate ( )

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• 4-piece raises max adrenaline to 120% with melee weapons

⬥ Divert

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Protects you from the next damaging attack and converts it to adrenaline

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You may wish to follow a standard "adrenaline re-build rotation":

⬥ finishes → basics → → basics → → basics →

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Maximising Berserk

You can empower Berserk in four ways:

⬥ 4-piece of Vestments of Havoc

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• extend by +6 seconds (giving more time to deal increased damage)

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• increase max adrenaline by +20% (allowing for stronger abilities directly after )

⬥ Conservation of Energy relic and Ring of Vigour passive from Extinction quest

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• both regain +10% adrenaline after using

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• these are additive to +20%

⬥ Greater Flurry extends

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• You can fit 2x "for free" in the buff window

⬥ Overpower can be used more frequently

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• cooldown is reduced from 30s to 9s

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When the above are combined together :

⬥ consumes 100% → 80% adrenaline

⬥ lasts 19.8s → 35.4s

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Maximising Chaos Roar

Chaos Roar should be saved for when a high-damage ability can be used directly after

⬥ It is strongest with large single-hit or multi-hit abilities where the full cast benefits

⬥ It is weaker with channelled abilities like Assault or Greater Flurry , as only the first hit is boosted

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Strong follow-ups include:

⬥ Second (and subsequent) Ek-ZekKil spec

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Note: do not waste on your first

⬥ Igneous Overpower

⬥ Varanus's Mercy

⬥ Leng Set spec

⬥ Hurricane

⬥ Bleeds outside Berserk

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Managing Bloodlust stacks

Bloodlust stacks are a important component of Melee DPM. Up to 4 (8 inside ) can be stored, which are generated from:

⬥ +1 any Basic ability (+2 inside )

⬥ +2 from Rend

⬥ +4 from Berserk

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When spending you should prioritise:

⬥ Assault as your default

⬥ Greater Flurry if the target is below ~70% life points

⬥ Hurricane for AoE situations

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Camping & Switching Weapons

Melee has multiple strong weapons, and the best option depends heavily on the situation:

⬥ Some rotations camp one weapon setup for simplicity

⬥ Some rotations switch between weapons to use specific abilities for extra damage

⬥ Some fights are too short or too awkward to make switches worthwhile

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The most common "default" or "camped" weapons include:

⬥ Ek-ZekKil

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Camp Ek-ZekKil when the fight lasts over 1 minute

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Its value comes from Flamebound Rival while equipped (+12% damage and damage reduction)

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Not reliant on RNG stacks, with higher single-GCD burst and stronger damage from the second minute onwards

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• More expensive, weaker in the first minute, and needs a dual-wield switch to stall / cast

⬥ Leng swords

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Camp Lengs for fights sub-1 minute, especially for higher first damage

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• They are cheaper, do not need an , and passively build Primordial Ice stacks

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Icy Tempest costs 0 adrenaline at 3+ (still requires +30% to use)

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Stacks are RNG-based, making rotations more flexible, and damage falls behind from the second minute onwards

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Needs a 2h switch to stall / cast

⬥ Masterwork Spear of Annihilation

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Used mostly as a switch to apply , then return to your main weapon

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Ideally perked with Lunging 3/4 to maximise on bleed synergies

⬥ Consecrated keris + Dark sliver of leng

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Camp keris when your target is any follower of Amascut, including all Sanctum of Rebirth bosses and Amascut herself

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Increases your damage by ~37%

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Building a Rotation

Take this section with a pinch of salt... every boss is different and in reality we build "situational" rotations based on:

⬥ Phases and immunity windows

⬥ Berserk buff uptime/downtime

⬥ Adrenaline levels

⬥ Available weapons

⬥ Pre-fight setup and utility abilities

⬥ Bloodlust stacks

⬥ Weapon special attacks

⬥ EoF usage

⬥ Vulnerability bombs

⬥ And more...!

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The examples below are not fixed boss rotations. They show how to start with a simple Berserk window, then gradually add extra layers such as Greater Barge , weapon specs, bleeds, and pre-fight setup.

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Step 1: Basic Rotation

At its core, a basic Melee damage cycle looks like...

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⬥ Build adrenaline → → → high-damage abilities → finishes → repeat

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Notes:

⬥ During , spend adrenaline on your strongest available abilities

⬥ Outside , continue using strong abilities, but begin saving adrenaline and cooldowns for when is nearly available again

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Step 2: Greater Barge & Potions

It's time to put those pretty potions to good use...

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⬥ + → (tc) boss → + → bleed → high-damage abilities

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Notes:

⬥ Situationally, / may be switched ( → → )

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Step 3: Adding pre-fight boosts

Who doesn't want free damage?!

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⬥ At War's use → rebuild to 100% adrenaline at crystal

⬥ You can also stall and release an ability to gain a "free" ultimate at the start of the fight:

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Option A) s → enter instance → r on a dummy

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Option B) s → enter instance → r + on boss

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Step 4: Camped weapon specs

Weave in your primary weapon special attack during

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Where camping Lengs

⬥ → s → → → → → → → → → → → → → → (5t) → → →

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• stacks are naturally rng, so expect small changes from kill to kill

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Example video

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Where camping EZK

⬥ → s → → → → → → → → → → → / → → → → / → s → r →

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• For subsequent repeats, swap and

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎• Example video

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Step 5: Putting it all together

This is it, the moment you've been waiting for, the BiS rotation...

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⬥ At War's : → s

⬥ 1st (3rd, 5th...) Berserk: (tc) + r + + → s → → → → → → → → s → + r → → → → →

⬥ During Berserk cooldown: ( / ) until Berserk has 14.4s cooldown left → → ( / ) → → ( / )

⬥ 2nd (4th, 6th...) Berserk: → → → → → → → s → r + → 7t → → → → 8t → → s → r +

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