Rufous

I have just completed my first play through of the game and I remember similar feelings of frustration about  the combat when I started playing. To be honest it wasn't really until towards the end of the game that it all began to come together for me. Without giving too much away here are some "I wish I knew when  started playing" tips. 1. This is first and foremost a stealth game. Stealth allows you to avoid dangerous enemies, to one shot weaker enemies and to cause substantial damage to stronger ones. If you can use stealth in an encounter then abuse the shi*t out of it. There are some boss fights where you cannot use stealth but most of the game has handily placed hiding spots. 2. Melee combat becomes a lot more useful if you watch the machines and learn their attacks. Most machines telegraph their attacks really well so if you keep your eye on them you can dodge at the right moment and get in a damaging counter attack. A single heavy attack will knock many lighter machines down allowing you to finish them off with a free critical.3. If a machine is stunned / knocked down / tied down  try to get in close for a quick critical melee hit. This will do massive damage. Remember to use the light melee button for an automatic critical rather than the heavy melee attack. If you are feeling lucky you may be able to get in a heavy attack after the critical but roll away  quickly afterwards.  4. Learn about the different types of damage and use them appropriately. Direct Damage is the most important stat because that is the one that actually lowers enemy hit points and eventually kills them.  Damage is mitigated by armour but all machines have weak spots so if you can aim for a weak spot do. If in doubt aim for the eyes because they always seem to be a weak spot. Tear does no immediate damage but rips detachable items off a machine such as weapons, armour and subsystems. This has a double benefit of  weakening the machines capability and also does a good chunk of damage when the bit comes off. Fire does no immediate damage but builds up a burning status on the machine. Once the status icon is filled then the machine catches fire and experiences a good chunk of damage over time.Shock does no immediate damage but builds up a stunned status. Once the status meter fills up the machine is stunned and knocked down. Rush in for a quick critical.Freeze does no immediate damage but builds up a frozen status. Once the status meter fills up the machine is frozen which slows them down and increases all incoming damage. Switch to a direct damage weapon and do as much damage as possible until the status wears off. Corruption does no immediate damage but builds up corruption status (does not work on already corrupted machines). Once the status meter is full the machine goes berzerk and will attack other machines. Ropes are not a type of damage but they are a reliable way of disabling any machine If you fire enough ropes at a machine  they will be tied down for quite a long time. You can either use that time to finish off other enemies or you can sneak in for a free critical hit. Hitting the enemy will reduce the time they are tied down. 5. Your bow is not a sniper weapon against machines. You can kill most humans with a single head shot but good luck trying that against most machines bigger than a watcher. It will take multiple arrows to take down a machine. I recommend having one bow modded up for tear and another modded up for damage. Use the tear bow first to tear as many bits off the machine as you can. Then switch to the damage bow  and aim for weak spots if possible. Aim for the eyes if you cannot find a weakspot. Tearblast arrows on the sharpshooter bow are great for removing parts because they have an area of effect tear explosion. The hunter bow is probably better for direct damage because you can fire arrows surprisingly quickly from it.