Not many people use this weapon but I somehow like how it feels, kinda similar to Ogryn’s cleaver. Completely focus on horde clear, bad against armor, a lot of diagonal cleaves, and special attack for stagger.
The problem is the damage is too low for higher difficulties, cleaver with good stats has 180 damage for it’s light attack, but the heavy sword only has 70, you need a lot of hits to kill a basic scab.
It does not need to be as strong as the cleaver, since that’s one of the better weapons for Ogryn. But I think it can at least have half of the cleaver’s damage, like 90 would be nice.
I’ve come to quite enjoy the MK IV heavy sword, the heavy 1 overhead does respectable single target damage, combos nicely when the special attack, and the light chain is pretty ideal for horde clear. I’ve used it on Heresy reasonably successfully (not experienced with damnation generally yet).
The balance is kinda weird because it rolls a bizarrely high value headtaker blessing. I think it goes as high as +12.5% power for 3.5 seconds on hit, stacks 5 times. That brings its damage output a good bit higher than the devil’s claw swords, but I have no idea if this is intentional or a weird bug, or even just a UI bug (haven’t tested it properly in meat grinder).
I agree a bit more base damage would be nice, but I’m more concerned with not knowing what exactly this weapon wants to be. What exactly is supposed to be the trade-off between the devil’s claw swords and the heavy swords? They feel pretty similar to each other currently, I’d prefer they were differentiated further.
I agree with you about it gets good damage when you have the headtaker blessing. I just think the weapon itself needs to be more effective without blessings.
One thing that makes me really question the weapon is in damnation, the damage is about ok with that unusually good headtaker, since it bumps up like 60% damage. But if you need to give a 60% damage buff to the weapon to make it work, then that’s the problem. Without this certain blessing, the damage just feels off to me.
I think that argument applies to a lot of weapons in Darktide. With the right blessing just about anything can become a beast, but is that the intended design philosophy, to rely on blessings?
I agree, though my bigger problem is still how poorly differentiated the heavy swords are vs devil’s claw.
The difference in stats suggests devil’s claw is supposed to be the faster swinging, more mobile, more headshot/crit rewarding (it gets the finesse and mobility stats, which heavy sword does not).
Meanwhile the heavy swords get the first target and defence stats, suggesting they are meant to be slower, higher single target damage, less head shot and crit dependent, and more defensive.
That’s kinda true? Though not entirely, and I just don’t really feel the difference very much when using both sword variants.
Accordingly this is what I’d do with the heavy swords. Buff their damage (this one more so than the other 2), cleave, and stagger across the board. Bring head taker in line with the values it gets on other weapons, then slow down the light attacks by a decent bit, maybe the heavies by a small amount too.
The idea here being to turn it into a quasi greatsword, with meaty, deliberate swings, so it has its own feeling to using it, rather than just being another sword.
Hey guys, have you noticed headtaker scales insanely on heavy swords versus other weapons? You’re welcome. My heavy sword is an absolute beast on my preacher in damnation. Hordes are just a treat for me, and I can hit mutants for near 2k on a headshot. The weapon seems to just absolutely decimate maniac armor type.
I’ve got a t3 headtaker and a t2 rampage on my heavy sword with + damage to flak and + damage to elites and I will use it over a heavy evisc, thunderhammer, or any other melee weapon available to preachers.
You wanna talk bad weapons? The chain axe. I got a 380 chain axe with good blessings and perks and it’s still garbage. It’s “defenses” stat on it just reduces sprint cost and push cost. Oh boy, heavy sword is a dream compared to that garbage.
Yeah, there is a number of weapons which you struggle to find a niche for, nevermind compete against the best choices. On heavy sword I barely ever use the light attacks, the heavy attacks are quick enough.