I’m currently working on a video talking about Melee in Borderlands 2, and I needed your opinion about something :
How do you personally define a Melee character ? Is it just a character that can use Melee effectively ?
Feel free to give me your opinion on that !
This may sound odd but the use of a roid shield is my primary criteria for defining a melee character. I think you already know this ( and feel free to be horrified if you didn’t ) but this actually includes Krieg. I have this thing with aesthetics : I need to hear that roid thunk.
The second is that it needs to be a character that can actually abuse melee in some way. Zero and Krieg are obvious ; Athena is fairly obvious ; but my melee Maya is super badass ( using a Pun-chee with Backdraft is killer ) ; we’re waiting to see @Piemanlee’s success with melee Gaige but I’ve seen Terra taken down with With Claws ; Axton can do it I guess ( I think the Love Thumper is a thing with him, but that’s leaning heavily on his ability to boost the nova ) but that’s pretty desperate.
Merriam Webster Dictionary states:
"Melee Character : A character in any of the borderlands franchise titles who’s action skill is primarily intended for the purpose of melee combat. "
@Jefe maya can go melee? I definietly have to do some researches, thats awesome 
This game is soo unbelieveable the possibilities are endless.
So there are more melee characters than first catches the eye but the question is how effective are they compared to Zero, Krieg and Gaige?
That would be interisting for your video. How other Chars do in melee combat compared to the “meant to” melee toons
@FleshCrunch - This was my first draft :
I’ve made some small changes - and I also got a bit better at it ( this is pretty rough play ). I haven’t done a vid since.
I absolutely need to try this out. I also need to try and play Melee Axton.
So far so good on the answers, thanks to y’all for the contributions !
I guess one way to look at it would be, do they have a melee overide skill in their skill tree? Which means Axton is the only non-melee character. Not a perfect definittion though - both Krieg and Maya have non-melee melee overides (if that makes sense) - Scorn and Hellfire Halitosis.
The benign lawyer in me is screaming about the distinction between a melee build and a melee character. As my obviously fabricated previous post illustrates, a melee character must have an action skill primarily intended for melee combat. This is not to say the other characters cannot use melee effectively with a melee build, but I would argue that they are not melee characters unless they fit this anecdotal criteria.
@Jefe ok THIS is awesome
@LayDownNtrafik I think you are right. I should have said there are more charakters who could use melee
Your acknowledgement of my correctness is appropriate.
Zero and krieg are the only 2 bl2 characters who i feel were designed with a melee focus in 1 of there skill trees.
Maya, sal, and gaige can all use melee with certain set ups
Melee Axton isn’t a build, sure you can do it, but there’s no real synergy.
@Jefe i started that gaige brand new so it will be awhile before I’m max level and have the gear.
@LayDownNtrafik 
I’m not a native speaker so maybe sometimes i can’t express things like i want to
On topic: can sal get a 400% melee bonus from dual wielding the rapier? 
I think the bonuses do stack.
And a superb example of it in action :
This feels so wrong
But kinda cool for a fun run
I agree with this whole heartedly. I think the line is that a “melee character” has skill trees dedicated to, or at least aimed at, melee as the primary damage medium; while a “melee build” is any combination of gear and skill point distribution that facilitates Brick’s top secret “punch them in the face until they die” combat style regardless of character design. So any character can utilize a “melee build” whether or not they are a “melee character”.
TL;DR @LayDownNtrafik hit the nail on the head, I just wanted to put my suggestion for demarcation out there.
Melee is your bread and butter. You want to punch things in the face and your build revolves around being able to do that effectively, both in terms of damage output and survivability. Course, I think melee builds in FPS are boring so what do I know?
i have down master gee melee with all characters at 72 well except sal but he is in my to do list
Have you tried a tank Sal build and utilizing the acid pools then punching him for the finishing blow?