So let’s be real here, the Eviscerator special sucks… I like the idea of revving the blade and doing insane single target damage, but it just isn’t worth the payoff of being caught in an animation for 2-3 seconds. Even in just regular Damnation (Or even heresy and I daresay Malice) that is basically a guaranteed death sentence. Hell I like the idea of revving the eviscerator and slicing through a horde with extra special damage. However, again, getting hung up on any enemy in a crowd is a death sentence.
Eviscerator’s special needs a rework because anything higher than Malice it is absolutely trash on. Luckily, I have some ideas for some solutions! These are all separate ideas. These aren’t meant to be taken all together but each as a different option.
Speed up the sawwing animation by 50%. This shaves down the time to about 0.5 - 1 second. This makes the special so much better and allows the player to potentially defend themselves from oncoming attacks. This lets the player wait for the perfect opening before sawwing an opponent without getting needlessly punished. So many times I saw an enemy thinking, if only this was a tad bit faster, I wouldn’t get hit by this onrushing scrub.
Block/Dodge Cancel. Let us just cancel the sawwing animation by blocking or dodging, finish it early and don’t do the bonus damage, but at least let us defend ourselves in case of an unexpected enemy appearance. Locking us in the animation is just… like I said… a death sentence.
Automatically block/consume stamina to take hits when sawwing an opponent and maybe consider the player as Dodging while sawwing. Basically force the player into guarding (Much like players are when reviving a teammate) while using the special on an enemy. This makes it where we wouldn’t be totally defenseless while being locked into an animation that is barely better than just swinging chained heavies.
Rework the ability to just be a slashing damage boost, so instead of getting caught in a target it just boosts your damage either for 1 swing or for a few seconds/swings. Basically this means our weapon won’t be catching on an animation that will kill us.
Force Sword had a similar issue and I prefer one of its other Mk variants, the one that powers a slash. Maybe make a Mk of the Eviscerator that has a special slash instead of getting hung up on a target like the brain blast force sword.
(The Worst solution, hardly one at all) Make the special be a 1 shot kill on anything except monstrosities. Each saw should do 25% of a monstrosity’s health regardless of difficulty. If you’re going to lock me into an animation, make it worth it. Too many things survive with too much health. Let all be sawwed before the emperor’s wrath!
More seriously Evis Special could use a bump in damage, and inconsistency with FtoF is something that should have been fixed like a year ago. Otherwise, even with special being super situational, it feels actually great to use.
I’m also not against making it into a “kill this thing” ability with uncapped damage and a cancel button. Would be kinda cool, but since the current “attach” works even if the enemy moves away, it might be a bit of trouble to implement (and would break mutie one-shot).
On the other hand you instantly chop your credibility off at the knees by saying this. I was using Evisc regularly in Damnation 6mo back when it was solidly B-Tier and it got BUFFED, it works just fine in Damnation and Auric now. I use the special pretty regularly, albeit you need to be careful on when you use it like all the chain weaps.
As far as the weapon goes, the special is underwhelming, the moveset is annoyingly complex, the mobility is low, but it’s a pretty solid take-all-comers weapon regardless. Wouldn’t mind a buff, I suggested speeding up the rip 6-8 months ago (and the activation speed, I think that got tweaked), but using the special is most definitely not a guaranteed death sentence.
I would welcome an additional mechanic in all power- and chain weapons.
Let us power up the said weapon during the swing. To make it more about high-risk / high-reward playstyle and more skill-based, create a time frame for the power-up during the swing. If you miss it, usual animation will play, interrupting the flow of the combat.
BTW there is quite an actual discussion about the weapon in question, here is the link:
Eviscerator is in an amazing spot right now and I don’t want it to receive radical changes because people won’t put in the effort to learn it. I guess some QoL would be nice but you need to learn how to use it.
Definition of skill issue. Risk/rewards mechanics are good you just need to spend some time to learn them before thinking you have a worthwhile opinion on them. This ain’t Crucis T Hammer. It cleaves most things between you and your target it’s pretty damn easy to use pretty safely.
I must be playing a different Damnation then you guys, or the game director just really doesn’t like me because there is almost no situation barring a single target miles away from any allies that Evis special works without consequence.
I regularly clear Damnation+, its not a skill issue, and most Zealots I see are either knife zealots or use 1hd Chainsword instead.
I mean its just a bad special. I’d be happy just getting a variant slash version much like the Force Sword got. It had a similar deal with the brain burst initial variant and then got a charged slash variant. 100% would trade for a slash only special variant of the Eviscerator.