The whole elemental damage, and not elemental damage is...hard to explain. I'd rather have elemental damage added, because some of the off attacks that get used, are elemental. Uh, it basically helps keep your total damage up there. I'd personally take 2 off of Steely Resolve, and remove Smoke Grenade. Put full points into Defensive Measures, and some into Counter-attack. As a past 32 BH Powertech (mirror class) I tried the whole "melee" thing with it, and found it to not be so great, but instead close range in general to be better. Basically, I initially invested a lot into Stockstrike, and Gut only to find myself not using them enough to get their whole worth, and was more moving around just outside of melee range; thereby making abilities around the 10m range preferred. I never understood people's obsession with Static Surge, and Static Shield, or Smoke Grenade. I feel, putting points into defenses, holds, and good burst skills (90% armor pen for High Impact Shot) to work better/fit the class more. I still use Stockstrike, don't get me wrong, but I don't focus on it, like a lot of Vanguard/Powertechs do. (It's good to get in the proc from Ion Cell for example, so I can then use High Impact Shot.) This can be a falling as you miss the rest of the classes abilities. This is an example build I've been reworking, but it has done me good a lot so far. I tend to not die, and still deal out damage, and give good protection. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#801hRRrbRMoZbsbZbIbb.1 Lastly, if you want to focus more on melee, then you would probably be better off dropping Neural/Ion Overload, and instead grabbing Battlefield Training, and Cell Generator. Then moving Ion Shield onto Defensive Measures.