The Core Idea
How would charged attacks doubling the thp return sound? Like this:
- “Melee critical strikes and headshots restore 2 temporary health. Critical headshots restore twice as much. Charged attacks double this effect.”
Reasoning
This makes crit/headshot thp more of a bridge between thp on cleave and thp on kill. Currently crit/headshot plays very much like a worse version of thp on cleave even if it is fun. Increasing the amount of thp return on charged attacks makes it significantly more flexible, turning it into an adaptable thp talent that can give decent thp returns in more situations than other thp talents at the cost of requiring headshots and crits. This buffs a thp talent that most consider weak while also making it less about spamming light attacks and more about being adaptable, not punishing the player for using charged attacks. Additionally it’s a buff that doesn’t just make it better with Dual Daggers and the Rapier, as it also makes it more competitive on weapons slower than these two like AnF, 1h Axe, Falchion etc.
For contrast:
- Thp on cleave requires enemies you can cleave (sometimes your cleave is blocked by an elite or monster).
- Thp on stagger requires dense blobs of enemies for good thp return (sometimes enemies will be too spread out or be ones you can’t stagger).
- Thp on kill requires high health enemies and for you to land the killing blow (hard to make thp off of a boss while fighting it so thp decay happens, sometimes someone else is landing the last blow more consistently, sometimes you’re fighting low health enemies like Skaven or the weaker chaff enemies from Chaos like Ungors and Fanatics).
- Thp on crit/headshot would differ in that it would work in more situations than any of these.
Potential Issues
The main issue would be the potential thp return of 16 per charged attack with dual wield weapons on critical strikes where both weapons headshot. This would be relevant for the Axe and Falchion, Dual Daggers, Dual Swords and Sword and Dagger. A simple cap of 8 (or whatever is most appropriate) can be added, like so:
- “Melee critical strikes and headshots restore 2 temporary health. Critical headshots restore twice as much. Charged attacks double this effect. Max 8 temporary health.”
Alternatively for dual wield weapons, it could be made so that only the first weapon that hits is counted for temporary health. Dual wield weapons are generally considered to be some of the strongest weapons in the game, so this extra thp advantage with all thp talents is not needed.
If possible, making first level charged attacks only increase the amount of thp return by 50% instead of doubling it would be prudent. This would only affect the Rapier, but may be necessary as its first level charged attack (the partial) is extremely fast.
Additional Idea
There is also the idea of weakening the thp talent’s link to crits, reducing the base thp return on crit to 1 and increasing the base thp return on headshot to 3, like so:
- “Melee critical strikes restore 1 temporary health. Melee headshots restore 3 temporary health. Critical headshots restore 4 temporary health. Charged attacks double this effect. Max 8 temporary health.”
This would make the thp talent more consistent, skill based and less reliant on high crit rates.
Any thoughts?