My take on a melee brawler for recruit rounds (probably non nightmare viable, veteran with teamplay).
Get a purple fire axe and have fun. I suggest having a shotgun of any kind or a M1A sniper rifle (no ADS cuz of cards, but sniper rifle ammo is more common compared to SMG and normal rifle ammo) to shoot Exploder/Reeker/Retch.
(- Replaced Mean Drunk with Scar Tissue to keep the sprinting ability
- Numb replaced with Heavy Hitter to stagger Mutations more easy
- might replace Scar Tissue with Sunder)