So, the Arbites Shock Maul has a really neat special. It does the light combo, but “charged”. If the enemy has been Shocked, this causes them to become frozen and take a very strong DoT effect. This is so strong that you can H1 a Rager in his head, then use the Special Light follow-up, and he will become frozen and die from the DoT after a few moments. You can even do this to MAULERS.
But
Why bother? The attacks on the weapon are already so strong that you can just bash away, never touch the special, and kill the enemy in 3 total hits. So what’s the point?
This weapon is one of the most egregiously overpowered the game has ever seen. It is stronger than even the Bully Club on Ogryn. That weapon can stagger and control and kill anything with lights, but this weapon controls/staggers and kills even quicker.
I don’t want to see it nerfed to the ground, but its base damage against certain armor types certainly needs to be toned down so that its own unique qualities can actually be relevant.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. My name is Ted, I will be talking all week.
It is exceptionally strong. I’ve been trying out all the other ‘non-arbites-exclusive’ weapons, and this thing is a tier or two above all the others. All you need to turn it into a monster is this (and not doing so almost systematically would be clearly sub-optimal):
With this, anything not Carapace-armoured dies to its crazy-good horde-clearing combo: Push-attack, Heavy, Heavy, repeat. Anything else just dies to Heavy1, Light, repeat…
It really is the perfect example of a lot of issues with this game. At base it has great adms and an amazing moveset. Then you add damage perks, then you add damage blessings, then you add all the damage from your skill tree and suddenly you can dunk on anyone who comes at you. This thing can solo a Havoc 40 melee twin in like 30 seconds, which is the same speed a Duelling Sword 4 Zealot can do it.
I find the best anti-horde combo is L1 (just to get into it), then you can Heavy and Light in wide swings forever. And against armor you can just H1-L1 loop infinitely.
But yeah, this thing is just stupid how busted it is. I like it, thematically and in its pattern, but damn. I feel dirty using it.
Almost as much as the sniper shotgun. XD That thing NEEDS to have some damage falloff.
Nonsense, the special is cracked and should be thrown out at all times. The special is a juiced up light attack that will combo out of whatever you did except another special attack faster. There is no reason not to spam them in between attacks because its faster, unless you like doing less damage. The whole electrocution thing doesn’t seem to be the draw here but the heavy stagger state. Hitting a stunned elite with a special usually sends them to the floor.
It is extremely strong but special = useless is a bunga take backed up by not actually using it. Even if it didn’t have strong properties in electrocution and stagger it comes out faster in frame data, and that is always king.
you know, when arbites was announced i asked if he’ll have access to the dueling sword, because everything else will be worse in comparison.
well, he doesn’t, but imo this police stick does similar damage while even topping the DS in ease of use.
i played some maps back to back as fury zealot with DS4 and castigator arbi with stick.
you have to keep poking heads with the DS to get that 3x finesse, and in comparison it requires more footwork and precision when you’re poking at a blob of crushers clipping into each other.
arbites on the other hand: switch castigator on, so not much happens even if you eat an overhead, and keep swinging at head level. whatever doesn’t die right away gets too staggered to even fight back.
so whoever thought that charge + poke is braindead hasn’t been hit by a stick in god mode.
I agree it’s strong. But just killing the enemy is better than disabling them. The base attacks are so cracked that it’s just capable of killing everything in 3 hits or less.
Yeah but there’s never a reason to follow up with regular moves because they’re slower. The special doesn’t reset the combo and is strictly a better version of the light attack you were just about to do. The ‘peak performance’ of this weapon would be weaving special after every attack. It does about 7% more damage overall from testing because this action is allowed faster in the combo than the next move. It is not just superior in properties but in flying out of an attack sequence faster in any instance. Its straight up ‘the same move but better’
In combination with the tight spread Shotgun too, it’s absolutely disgusting.
I wonder if they have the nerfs preloaded. lmao
→ We add OP DLC
→ 10 more people get convinced to buy it because it’s OP (99.9% of people bought it because it’s actual content)
→ People complain because it’s OP
→ EDIT: We go on holiday
→ We press the button
After playing the Arbitrator a bit, Castigators Stance is insane with any weapon. If you add Lone Wolf and take a Bolter it is unhinged; the massive rend and weak spot buffs on a weapon with a solid collateral potential makes you functionally unstoppable… and then you add that insane club. It’s too much
Maelstrom is even easier now. Players running most OP builds of the 3 melee classes and speed run, bypassing and poke/bonking all the way through. To the point better to play Auric and give up all ammo, medstim, medstation for newer players and play one health game as more self-challenge. Even then still more or less same.
Havoc I avoid now because of party finder, interview process etc
Ogryn over tuned because of all those threads about him too weak
Arbites over tuned for better sales $. Then once honeymoon period over to tone it down, maybe that was plan.
Zealot - Class that has a lot of damage reduction nodes already. Now imagine if they over tuned toughness with that combined. As they plan to look over his balance too.
Whilst DS/Plasma nerfs required - Without changes to above classes, it will still be Arbites/Ogryn bonk OP lobbies anyway.
Any player can simply join Auric. Do zero contribution, focus on survival only and mission is still success as 1 player can brute force through anything. The fearsome armour patrols requiring combined team work gone. Maelstrom - Very random, often times it is easier than Auric because the even more OP melee builds presence and general without saying agreement to speed run to outpace spawns as bypass.
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