Hey, how dare you?! That’s my favorite career in the game!
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That’s totally fair, I just wish people would just say that instead of pretending she’s something she’s not. Bad enough with people trying to play her the way they watch solo speedrunners play her and I’ve seen my share of HM actually just standing there and shoving. Just feel like it dilutes the conversation and instead of thinking about how to make her dish out more pain, which is where she’s lacking, everyone’s like, “oh but she turtles sooooo well.”
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And I’ve seen sword&shield mercenary, facestab shade, melee BH, melee WS, only ranged IB…
Big difference between turtling and still killing things. Also, of the things you listed, Sword & Board merc is really the only one that’s like, “whyyyyyy” as long as the other people listed are doing their job still, assuming the melee BH still deletes specials, same as the shade. Nothing at all wrong with WS melee though (it depends entirely on the situation) and IB can get away with having pistols out most of the time (he’ll actually kill way more anyways).
Still pushing around Handmaiden, aren’ you?
Melee BHs are the best! If someone’s going melee on BH, you can be 100% sure that they know what they’re doing, and they’re probably gonna destroy everything with that nifty 5% AS buff and crit talents. Unlike normal BHs, which are just going to die as soon as the wave gets to them.
Uhm guys… after reach lv15… I don’t like HM. I will make her lv30, no doubt, but she seems so lackluster.
Enough versatile, I agree, but I don’t know 
HM is one of those characters, that are very weak until level 25. Invisibility makes all the difference.
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Is turtling ever good? Not FK or IB using active skill, but general gameplay. Turtling does nothing, it’s has nothing to do with the career.
If there’s nothing wrong with WS melee then HM is at least good.
That’s what I’m getting at in regards to HM though. The bulk of what differentiates her from Shade/WS is turtle kit. That’s fine, but WS/Shade are spec’d as ranged & melee assassins, respectively, and can both still survive as well as HM. HM’s ability to remain completely untouched forever is excessive. HM is basically Dodgey McDashFace vs WS’ Shooty McStabby and Shade’s Slicey McDicey.
HM melee is just as good as WS/shade melee, yeah, but at the cost of not being able to delete multiple specials at full range w/o LoS with the press of a single button or instagib (a lot of) Rot Helms and bosses. Also sacrifices ranged sustainability. I’m not saying HM isn’t fun I’m just saying you sacrifice more than you gain on HM.
You forgot to add what she gains to from a full picture.
HM melee is significantly better because:
- Superior mobility
- Short CD active
- +15% power
If she chooses to run glaive (since she negates dodge malus) she still packs enough damage to quickly kill CW. Imo when talking about melee burst damage i’d put the HM just under the Slayer (block+stab repetition), but slightly stronger than halberd FK.
Overall, imo HM is the most versatile career, but this may feel underwhelming to many as she obviously can’t kill strong targets as fast as Shade’s nuking hits or clear hordes as fast as WS arrow spam.
Again, I can’t offer much input into turtling because I don’t do turtling, but I think it would be vastly inferior to HM vs FK/IB due to lack of unbreakable blocks. Also a blocking build for HM will likely use spear, which is a good weapon but doesn’t stagger armored enemies unlike shields.
I’d say her kit is as suited to tanking as is the WHC’s. It may sound good, but I don’t think it plays well.
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Shade has 15 power and at that she gets 10% more attack speed ?
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WS doesn’t. Her buff is like, 5% crit.
Damage stats, Shade is mostly on par with HM.
Shade will need a grim to receive 15% while HM will lose 5% AS permanently.
Personally I’d rather have the second.
Ws also have 5% As if you want.
Sure if thats your preference, go ahead but when do you ever run without grims bar deeds without pickups ?
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Rarely, but on several maps most threat comes before 1st grim.
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But WS already has enough mobility that it’s not an issue whatsoever. Adding more mobility doesn’t make her wreck face any better, just have speedrun/evade evasion. That’s fine, just not a factor for improved DPS relative to WS/Shade.
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WS and Shade both have short CD. WS’ ult downs multiple specials and a lot of trash and Shade’s ult instagibs anything, including rot helms.
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This is the one area where she’s got an advantage in that it’s easier to hit breakpoints. That said, WS will either just shoot everything in the face forever or delete it with Trueflight.
She has no mobility modifier. You may consider +dodge and +ms useless, but I’ll disagree.
And HM’s ability knocks an entire horde down while making her untargetable.
This is becoming one of the eternal ranged is OP topics.
I don’t consider dodge or ms useless but if you’re already successfully dodging everything and have as much mobility as you need to always hit everything you want to and never get hit, what’s the value in having more in a team comp? I get it for solo speedrun, but in a team where the limfac is the slowest and least maneuverable member (either a tank or Sienna) it just doesn’t add much.
Her becoming untargettable can be problematic to the team because they’ll suddenly have all of her agro. It makes it so you can’t just spam it indiscriminately.
Edit: To pre-empt the argument that Shade runs the same risk, Shade won’t typically be using higher mobility to have an abnormal number of mobs on them in a position where them losing aggro could screw teammates. Also, they have xbow so their normal attacks do to hordes more than HM’s ult does. WS can do the similar thanks to ammo sustainability and her ranged ult.
Enough? Enough how? She has as much mobility, idk, as a BH. As much mobility as Sienna or Ironbreaker. What was that line about anyways?
Adding more mobility doesn’t make her wreck face? Wut? Thanks to +30% moar dodge I can just dance around an enemy group, going in and out, taking no hits and wrecking anything around.
And HM ult can clear an entire subwave. And she can ult TWICE per wave. Twice, Carl. Clearing 2/3 of a wave by herself. Of course that’s only true for tight spaces, but even then your can clear enemy lines pretty decently.
Her ult is also very good for taking some aggro from the team, since you can lure away some enemies and then dash back, or for saving teammates, that are out of position.
HM has a +40% ammo talent. So you can also SHOOT EVERYTHING IN THE FACE with her. Actually, that is exactly what I do!
HM is a great career right now. Yes, she might have a little less melee potential, than Shade, also not as good vs elites; she might have little less ammo than WS, also not as good at high distance. But she is decent AT BOTH! And mobile. And clears waves! And fun to play. And even have talent options!
And she has 3 seconds of REAL invisibility.
So please leave Handmaiden alone. She’s fine as she is, and is gonna kick your ass, if you dare touching her!
Imagine, FS removing the -5% AS. Or give her ha HM only weapon. A slight damage reduction.
I’m not sure what the best option is, but i feel that the case in balance at this point is just focusing on things that is’nt considered ‘‘meta’’ or along the lines ‘’ why are people not using x weapon, y talent or z stat ? ‘’