Neat idea. This is probably the issue with 2H sword at the moment. Mixed hordes are thing. (I would also remove the “not invincible” windup of his “normal ult”, as right now, it’s a real drawnback that he doesn’t need)
… but greatsword specifically specializes in clearing mixed hordes?
Don’t really know, each time I use it, it stop with the first armored in it.
You use heavy attacks right? Mercenary with his huge power and cleave increases straight up cleaves like 4-5 chaos warriors.
1 Like
Mercenary have extra cleave that GK have not (but in Cata+, enemies have more mass, so I probably need more tries, not really my mains there).
Grail Knight needs invulnerability when using ultimate skill, because, now he can get killed whn using ult
he needs something similar to Footknight
and unfortunately preforms worse than both long-sword and exe at that function
Out of curiosity, how so? They can get similar power, but merc gains a speed benefit to the charge attack speed using Exe sword (both careers best anti elite option), GKs, power is more on demand if he is taking the 25% on heavy over the 30, otherwise its pretty comparable (both careers getting 30), but GK is losing out on that 10% AS and a potential 5% crit. In addition, its likely your melee focused BPs, will also greatly increase your ranged output on Merc as well, letting either you BB, or Handgun, reliably take out elites or specials, when needed.
1 Like
Merc does not lack elite dmg by any means, it is just that Gk specializes in elite killing and will usually perform better than him imo.
Looking at the stats, Gk gets 20% from smiter, 25% from his passive and 30% from his talent (= +75% dmg on first target total) as opposed to Merc getting 20% from smiter, 25% from the more the merrier and 15% from reikland reaper (= +60% dmg on first target).
Gk’s power talent also has more uptime compared to Merc’s (again, not that big of a difference but still easier to keep up.
Gk can also get another 10% power, another 5% attack speed or 10% cooldown regen to increase his elite dmg output even more.
Most notably, Gk gets his 40sec cd elite removal ult.
Lastly, I was strictly referring to melee, bringing a shotgun or any ranged weapon kinda invalidates that comparison as that disatvantage of Gk falls under “worse ranged” options (aka none at all).
Comparing ranged to melee opens another can of worms, having to take into account aspects like ammo being limited vs. a second melee weapon always being available to use, ranged uptime (having breathing room to shoot vs being swamped and forced into melee), no tmp hp for ranged, etc. Measuring that feels a bit tricky/arbitrary so I went with pure melee dmg output. Sorry if that was not clear enough.
2 Likes
If they replaced the 20% power on timed parry by 20% crit chance or even next attack is a guaranteed crit on timed parry, it would make the crit build viable, while still requiring some skill to pull off.
1 Like
Holding block and switching weapon repeatably refreshes the parry window, proccing that talent becomes a lot easier. Of course GK and Slayer can do that because of 2 melee weapons.
It would be better off replaced with crit chance. Someone had the idea of replacing movement speed on ult with attack speed, also a good idea - Might have been incan.
GK is fine. I thought his lack of attack speed talents would be a problem but they aren’t - I run 2H hammer +10% attack speed and it is phenomenal.
If you run Concoction and the Strength pot talent he becomes amazing at patrol and boss killing and gets a burst of speed if really necessary.
The only thing I do agree with is that he should be able to use halberd and maybe spear, but no ranged - let him keep his flavour.
Honestly I don’t agree and I tried (briefly, since I don’t want to do too much off topic) to explain the reasons… but, sure, just personal opinions.
More Riposte? I approve of this.
My 2 cents regarding actual buffs to Gk.
4 Likes
Good post. We should also consider the fact that it’s burst damage, compared to the wittling down of other Elite killers, which can be more unreliable in high density situations.
This is why he works so well as a Kruber Career, since he doesn’t have many burst Weapons other than Exe.
Shade has the same burst strength, but double kills are harder to pull off, and I can’t even remember if she can land triples. He can make space and land a triple on every Ult.
1 Like
Can confirm that I have pulled it off with dual swords some time ago, but it happens once in a bloo moon. Even doubles are defenitely not as reliable als GK.
1 Like
True that. A good Bounty Hunter will outkill a Grail Knight in terms of elites, especially noticeable on Vanguard deeds. Not only is BH a better special killer, he is also a better elite killer.
Balancing and changes should be based with non-paywall difficulties in mind (e.g., Legend), and only tweaking for Cataclysm afterwards, since Cataclysm is a paywall-locked difficulty. If Legend isn’t very good, then that should be addressed (and not ignored in favor of a paywall-locked difficulty).
6 Likes
Both difficulties need to be considered imo
obviously legend takes priority though
2 Likes
I think cata is important too, paywall or not it is a major mode in the game, but yeah legend is clearly the reasonable thing to balance around. Most of the things that make a weapon decent on cata wouldn’t make it nuts on legend either tbh, like a breakpoint on a ranged weapon in cata won’t impact legend at all, because it already has that particular one.
I personally find legend too easy, but cata borders on too easy too when I’m playing decent, and there’s people who true solo it and find onslaught cata too easy, just not really an argument worth having. There’s always going to be someone who wants it to be balanced around the hardest possible, but legend is a decent spot to look at first.
3 Likes