TLDR: The higher the difficulty the higher the risk of a CQC playstyle.

THANK GOD. People are finally starting to realize that combo blow is only really good on paper or solo! I hope the timer is just removed COMPLETELY, all it does is lock you into a playstyle that punishes you for using your weapons and forces you to be up front at all times. Someone stole your kill? You’re dead now and have no recourse whatsoever LOL!

Combination Blow doesn't really work on its own so it needs more raw power to account for that. I'd say they should give benefits at different stack sizes, at x2 it should jolt targets hit by it and x3 it should cause a blinding explosion(though the other melee does that already so maybe just a generic explosion that does good damage and the explosion counts as melee damage.). That or jolt kills grant stacks of combination blow allowing you to stack it at a distance and for survivability when amplified you get more health per kill and hits restore a small portion of your health.

[quote]Destiny 2: Why Hunter's ‘Combination Blow’ Is Underused in High-Difficulty Environments Introduction (my mother language is not English, so please forgive me and tell me if there is some translation mistakes ) In the multiplayer cooperative PvE shooter game Destiny 2, skill design usually revolves around balancing resource consumption, damage return, operational costs, and team synergy. Among these, " Combination Blow," one of Hunter’s melee skills, has theoretically high burst potential and zero-cost cycling potential. However, this seemingly "risk-free" skill has long remained an unpopular choice among players. This article aims to analyze the mismatch between its skill design and actual combat environments, revealing a frequently overlooked variable in game design: the cost of time and environment. Table of Contents: What is ‘Combo Strike’ and What Was the Design Behind It? The Overlooked Core Resource: Time and Environment’ How to Retain the Concept While Adapting It to Modern Gameplay Main Content 1. What is ‘Combo Strike’ and What Was the Design Behind It? " Combination Blow " is a melee skill for Hunter in Destiny 2, which requires zero distance and has almost no cooldown. Its mechanics are unique: when players use it to successfully kill an enemy, they gain a stackable "Combo Strike" buff (up to three layers) that significantly boosts both base melee damage and the skill's damage itself. This buff is not consumed unless the player achieves a kill. The designers' intention is clear: players should first use it to kill weak enemies, building up damage in a snowball effect to eventually achieve a chain of melee kills. More cleverly, the skill can be recharged through the Gambler’s Dodge skill (a dodge ability triggered by kills), allowing for a theoretical infinite cycle. However, despite the design seeming like an "easy win," this Combination Blow has nearly vanished in high-difficulty PvE environments, becoming a skill setup only seen in beginner areas. The primary design flaw lies in underestimating the skill's startup threshold and the "environmental cost" and "time cost" required to sustain it. 2. The Overlooked Core Resource: Time and Environment 2.1 Environmental Cost: Imbalance Between Risk and Reward Combination Blow relies on close contact between the player and enemies, but in high-difficulty PvE environments, enemies usually have stronger counterattacks or abilities. This significantly increases the risk of melee combat. Despite Combination Blow not consuming extra resources, its design fails to account for the survival pressure in these "high-risk" environments, making it difficult to adapt to these changing conditions. Examples: When attempting to approach enemies in high-difficulty areas, players might receive fatal or disabling damage (from a Cabal Heavy Machine Gun or a Knight's Heavy Cannon), and the skill's damage is insufficient to effectively kill the enemy. Players, after accumulating enough buffs, may encounter enemies that explode upon death, making it difficult to safely execute effective kills. When facing multiple Champion enemies, even after stunning them, the prolonged kill window may allow other Champion enemies to recover and launch a lethal melee attack. Furthermore, other enemies in the scene may suppress the player with firepower. 2.2 Time Cost: High Expectations of Damage Cannot Cover DPS Shortcomings The efficiency issue with Combination Blow is its comparison to instant burst damage. Even in perfectly safe environments, players are unlikely to choose it as their main output skill. This is because Combination Blow requires time and environmental setup to accumulate buffs, and this process is far less efficient than other burst damage skills, like the "Prism Titan's" and the "Prism Warlock's" high damage AOE abilities (e.g., Holy Sacrifice, Ball Lightning). While the design theoretically allows for massive total damage, in practice, its actual output is often limited by the need to kill lower-priority enemies, making it unable to meet the need to quickly kill high-threat enemies in high-intensity environments. Examples: In scenarios where there are no sufficiently weak enemies, the skill becomes ineffective. Even with sufficient buffs, the output speed of Combination Blow still falls behind that of other instant burst skills (like Rocket Launchers, Holy Sacrifice, Nova Bomb) when dealing with grouped enemies. Defensive challenges and high-threat enemies (such as slow grenades, one-hit kill melee attacks, Cabal Heavy Machine Guns) prevent the player from continuously attacking the target within the buff’s duration. 2.3 Team Synergy: Combination Blow Builds Aren't Favored by the Team The design of Combination Blow relies on killing relatively weak enemies to stack buffs, which conflicts with other more efficient skill mechanics. In high-intensity PvE environments, players often need to clear large groups of enemies quickly, particularly in dense enemy clusters. Other skills (like AOE abilities from "Prism Titan" or "Prism Warlock" such as Holy Sacrifice or Ball Lightning) can efficiently eliminate enemies, providing higher output rewards. In contrast, Combination Blow relies on consecutive kills of fragile targets to accumulate buffs. However, after AOE skills clear the enemy clusters, Combination Blow becomes nearly inactive. Examples: When enemies cluster together, teammates’ AOE skills (like Rocket Launchers, Holy Sacrifice) clear the enemies more efficiently, leaving the Hunter using Combination Blow unable to contribute meaningfully. In scenarios where enemies are spread out, teammates' long-range point damage skills (like Golden Gun, Linear Fusion Rifles, Sniper Rifles) provide better burst potential, while Hunter, reliant on close-range combat, fails to make a significant contribution. Even when multiple players use Combo Strike, the limited number of fragile targets means players will compete to stack buffs, ultimately preventing them from accumulating sufficient buffs.[/quote] Boy,wish this much thought went into about 100 other things by developers of this game

While I understand your plight here, ultimately I'm going to disagree for an unlisted, moderately non-sequitur reason. [b]Class Identity.[/b] [i]Hunters[/i] shouldn't have potent Melee Builds for Endgame. It dilutes Class Identity. [i]Titans[/i] shouldn't have potent Grenade Builds for whatever that consolation is worth. [b]Class Identity[/b] is at an all time low in the current sandbox, and it's a problem.

spirit of synthocepts & caliban with bastion, that could help the damage issue in the end game. but I find glaives are a much safer option in end game.

A lot of words to detail what basically everyone already knows. It's why Assassin's Cowl (or Stylish on Prismatic) is always stacked with it -- you need the extra survivability to make the playstyle function, and even if you can get it to work, teammates will always get in the way regardless. Not everything needs to work on every difficulty type, though, and trying to make it so is a fool's errand. Some things are just going to work better at lower ends of the difficulty spectrum where "meta builds" are insane overkill.