A fun build suited for Veteran but that can still be decent in Nightmare.
The point of this deck is not to be the most optimized melee build or whatever, but take on a different path when it comes down to playing melee/support.
We have two modes : -melee mode to sustain on riddens and crowd control for the team
-shotgun mode to apply our debuff on the mutations (aka Shredder and Marked For Death)
Pick a bat or a machete as your melee weapon, and pick any shotgun but AA12 works best in this build.
1-4 : This is our core melee build. Pretty classic but this will allow you to regen a bunch while killing commons.
5 : Run Like Hell is pretty uncommon for melee builds, but we are not going to be tanky. You should avoid blighted or charred riddens as they will do more dmg to you than you sustain on them, and just dont try to fight any mutations up close.
6 : Shredder is super good with shotguns and especially the AA12. This will debuff by 15% the mutations so your whole team will do more damage.
7 : Mugger is the reason we play Hoffman, you will spawn a bunch of ammo packs when you take down commons thanks to Hoffman's passive and Mugger. You are basically an ammo distributor for your whole team.
8 : Cocky is very useful cause we are not always focusing on melee. Melee weapons dont have access to accessories that could help with the swap speed so we kinda have to build this card. Also We want to proc shredder on mutations and switch quickly to our AA12.
9-10 : Cards to make you more mobile and rely less on your melee skills to survive.
11-12 : Marked For Death and Sunder, its the same idea as Shredder, its a buff to the dmg of the whole team. When you know you are going to face a boss, buy 2 stun grenades. This will help you deal with it. As you stun a Destroyer or a Hag, you can safely apply the Sunder effect, then ping it and switch to your shotgun to apply Shredder. Your whole team is going to do 45% more damage to the boss for about 4-5 seconds, and with a basic Stun Grenade it will add up to 65% more damage. Your team is going to melt any boss. You shouldnt try to melee an Ogre but you can still stun him and apply marked for death and shredder to it.
13-15: You can change those.
Options : Vanguard is a very nice card and fits with the "support" idea. You could replace Face Your Fears with it but it sounds risky.
Tanky options like Motorcycle Helmet or Numb are also really good but we are not focusing that much on tanking the hits and rather on surviving/taking out riddens on the fly.
Buckshot Bruiser is very tempting because it actually gives a lot of temp health when shooting at tall boys and bosses. And it means you are going to sustain in both melee and shotgun mode.
Team effects