I can't change the title, It should be Melee Combat Issues, more than build

I'm about 18 levels into my Melee Only character and I'm not thrilled with the Melee Combat System so far.

1 - I'm note sure why I can't target specific body parts. When a ghoul is right on top of me I can still target any body part I want with my ranged weapons. Is there any specific reason for the lack of targeting in Melee?

2 - I run into this Critical Issue very often. I have the critical ready, I load up the hits in VATS, I hit "e" then "Space" and for some reason the critical doesn't activate.

3 - I seem to get kicked out of VATS in the middle of an attack. I'll have 8 hits loaded up on a big target like a DeathClaw and for some unexplained reason VATS ends after just a few hits

- I assume I am getting staggered or disarmed, but there is no notice or indication I can find.

- Then the enemy seems to get a couple free hits while F4 figures out WTF my character is supposed to be doing.

4 - When attacking in VATS the enemy sometimes seem to hit me almost as much as I hit them. With ranged weapons I can load up 10 hits and the guy is dead before he can even get a single shot off.

- Is there something different about the timing of the attacks in Melee

5 - Can I turn off the kill animations in the game? Even using the TAB it seems to mess up the timing allowing enemies to shoot me several times while I'm exiting that screen (another thing that seem to be different from a ranged kill)

My main is a melee only and I have experienced some similar issues. You can't target body parts with melee no matter what, that's not a glitch, but what you're experiencing with being kick out of vats is an issue I have gone through and as far as I know it's just a thing that happens. As far as canceling kill animations I don't think that's possible either (granted I play on Xbox) Melee only builds are really fun and interesting to play, don't give up

1 - You can't target Specific bodyparts while using melee in VATS. If there is any reason? Not sure.

2 - Yeah sometimes the crits won't fire, it can be that the enemy attacks you and changes posisition and VATS can't track it properly, cancelling the crit, it svcks, happened to me many times.

3 - Same issues here really. Sometimes it does not line up correctly and you can get kicked out of VATS. It happens most often on big Animals like the Deathclaw or Yao Guai

4 - Well it is swing time calculated, so if you have a slow weapon and the enemies hits faster then you i would assume they can hit you just as much as you hit them even with slowed down time.

5 - No you can't turn off the kill animations, or atleast not that i know off. No option in the menu screen etc.

Are you using the Blitz perk from Agility?

I have the first level of Blitz, so that has helped close the distance without taking multiple shots first. I'm feeling much better about the point I put into Ninja too, now that I can actually catch guys before they spot me.

Melee with the big guys is tough enough without the weird glitches.

I was fighting a DeathClaw and somehow (I don't have the Big Leagues Perk Yet) he just flew way up into the air. I think the fall killed him

Yeah the Deathclaws sometimes go airborne, and then die from the fall. Great way to kill them though, to bad its super random. Blitz is really needed and i would also go for a more sneaky approach, but you will get discovered eventually and have to close that gap quickly. I will agree that there are some glitches that needs to be fixed. Sometimes Blitz with glitch out aswell if you can't travel to that place or you just attacfk from where you started the blitz etc. Still i find melee very rewarding when you get it working.

1 I assume is because its a huge pain to make decent looking animation that takes melee aiming into account, much more then doing ranged aiming.