I would like to see some career-exclusive/restricted weapons on Sienna. I enjoy decisions that have a trade-off and feel like it would provide more distinct variety between her careers.
I’m mostly focused on a distinct gameplay-changing reason to play Unchained. This is also based on the premise that Unchained is the intended “melee Sienna” from http://www.vermintide.com/
As the Unchained, Sienna’s focus now lays in magically enhanced melee combat.
Some potential changes that I would be excited to see:
Unchained:
Exclusive melee weapon
Exclusive melee-ish weapon that takes the staff slot that builds heat
Possible restriction on staves if one of the above happen
Option to vent as melee
In practice, I do not like her passive of damage taken → heat while heat = bonus melee damage, which feels small… does this even improve cleave/stagger? I feel I am going out of my way to (unsuccessfully) search for blocks to dump heat and cannot take advantage of the bonus melee damage without major risk of accidental explosion. I would rather see damage taken remove heat which would make her squishy at no heat… but balancing that would likely be a pain. Though I think the idea still coincides with the concept of:
She can channel the winds of Aqshy to provide … an amour of flame that protects her.
and
… embracing every possible scrap of power from the Winds of Magic to strengthen her.
It would be nice to see some talent options that additionally buffed or directly affected her melee.
An aside: Pyro and Battle Wizard
I would love a distinct reason to play BW vs Pyro, but do not have any awesome ideas for this. The faster charge rate is kind of cool on the BW, but feels a bit lacking during actual play. It would be interesting to restrict pyro from using beam staff (lol).
Due to passives form BW and Pyro increasing range damage, Unchained end up doing way less range dps the the other 2 classes.
It could work if they gave her a straight melee damage boost to compensate, but I personally prefer to wait and see where she’ll end up once they fix her already existing passive that increase melee damage with overheat (Unstable Strength).
Remember that Unstable Strength is bugged atm and stop progressing past charge 3(?). Not to mention that the damage boost is way too small imo…
I would honestly prefer if they made her already existing talent worth a dam (40% and more extra melee power at max level would even make the cut imo, since it’s balanced by forcing you to get yourself in a one hit scenario and that Sienna’s melee aren’t amazing to begin with… she doesn’t have an halberd after all )
I actually LOVE Blood Magic (the 50% damage goes to overcharge). This is bar none my favourite concept in the entire game by miles. It’s so unique and refreshing. You essentially end up with 2 health bar that interact with one another while also being link to your range weapon.
What I could also see though is increasing the amount you vent by blocking attacks from smaller enemies… it takes ages to vent in hordes atm… which is kinda weird.
As for an Unchained specific melee weapon, I could see her use Dual Fire Sword and perhaps a Fire Spear… AND YES I only said Fire Spear because one of the Bolt Staff illusion looks like a Fire Spear already
I wouldn’t mind a new melee weapon for her. But she shouldn’t be considered a melee class, though she’s still an hybrid, as a pure melee classe she’s tanky but brings underwhelming damage. From my tests on the mannekins unstable strenghth is quite underwhelming, it’s true.
Still I think the class kit is quite awesome with a lot of tradeoffs offered for a dynamic playstyle, between bloodmagic, the de heating on block which is awesome etc. I feel the overheat should translate not only to raw strengh but cleave and staggering power too. (maybe it does but it’s difficult to assess).
That said, currently each time a boss rears his head, she’s a bit of liability compared to the powerful pyromancer, alas.
I actually like that idea. Like a fire whip or just dual claws(like the offhand flamesword) , that would build up heat and deal high damage in melee, and also scale from her unstable str. A melee-ish weapon that would have some special attack instead of block would be sick.
