Including power attacks.....

This includes raiders 40 levels below me. It's extremely annoying when they spam black and basically become immortal, having to wait for them to attack so I can block and counter attack. VATS or a Gun would have just killed 20 raiders in that time. Is the system supposed to be so dreadfully bad?

It also makes legendary assaultron dominators very rough vs. unarmed character. I just switch to a gun I have 0 perks for and do 10x better....

Only 10x zero damage?

That is pretty bad damage with a gun.

It seems to go down to no damage when you block melee attacks as well. It is a weird choice for blocking to block 100%.

You can block back, you gotta time it so you block and then hit while they recoil instead of just flailing away

I do. And most of the time he is recovered from he stagger and back to blocking before I can attack again, resulting in me being staggered and almost 1 shot from his arm blade. Mind you he also a lazer and jump that 1 shots.

It's bad enough that a lvl1 raider can become immortal stagger locker with his fists, but fortunately only he hits for 1 damage.

It's a pretty badly done system which sticks out like sore thumb vs. hard enemies.

Yea, but remember he is an assault droid. He was designed for hand to hand combat and ripping people apart. You need something to even the odds, knuckle dusters or power armor. Not sure if you can blow through blocks with power strikes like before but maybe with a heavier weapon you can? Not sure. Going hand to hand with a robot isn't usually a good idea

Power Fist power attack does no damage to it while they block, if an enemy ever lets you get it off. A scratch resets the animation.

VATS is what makes melee good/tolerable in this game, but the robot is invisible and unVATsable the whole time lol

I hadn't tested but what about power attacks (the alt key on PC)

No damage. And is practically a death sentence on Assaultrons.

I am sorry but if you are going against a machine designed specifically to fight hand to hand you should lose 99% of the time. Get out a gun and just shoot it.