Kruber’s weapon is a little disappointing. I mean it’s still decent and I know everyone at FS is working hard on a lot of things but… It would’ve been nice to have a new weapon that didn’t feel like an existing weapon. Based off the other new weapons added (grenade launcher, magic flame bow with infinite ammo, brace of shotgun pistols, and a flame geyser staff that also shotguns flaming rocks) a spear and shield that reuses many existing animations from the elf and only adds the ability to attack while blocking (which is good for plague monks, berserkers, and maybe picking an enemy out of a horde- too situational imho) doesn’t feel on par with the usefulness, or at least the ‘newness’ of the other weapons. I’m not sure if I’m using it wrong, but it seems like it doesn’t do much damage and is a little slow and clunky. It just feels a little lacking in comparison to the new options, especially when Kruber already has more melee options to choose from than anyone else but only has 3/4 ranged weapons.
Update: did a little testing, and the 2nd heavy on the elf spear/shield does more damage than the same attack on kruber’s. If the point of kruber’s spear is to be a little slower and a little heavier hitting, then why lower the damage on the same attack?
It’s a spear that has almost an equal amount of stabs as sword & shield. What’s the point of making a spear & shield if it has several sweeps and an overhead??? attack.
I’m very disappointed. I’m not talking about the its “strength” (I have yet to evaluate it), but about the “news”. The other weapons are really fresh, they give new life to careers… that of Krub nope, I feel like I was back in the very first DLC when the new weapons were simply the old ones used in pairs. Tastes of old.
And the moveset is also weird… the absence of bash then… I don’t know, I don’t know.
Surely I would have preferred a ranged weapons… considering that Krub only has four and at least two of these don’t synergize too well with his ranged career (which is headshot oriented).
Make the Brace of Pistols available to Kruber and Bardin. You can decide on whether or not to restrict it from certain classed, but that should be logically available to BOTH of them. Repeating Pistol can be Saltz-specific, like Repeating Rifle is for Krubs.
Haven’t bought the Relic DLC yet, but I will say the spear looked really disappointing for what it was. Why is the spear so focused on swiping? Making it like every other Shield weapon and having the first Power Attack be a Bash would solve all the Crowd Control needs, and then change its animations to actual damaging Armor-Penetrating Stabs.
And the stamina cost for blocking while stabbing is not a good idea. Saltzpyre gets the pistol with no stamina cost while blocking with the rapier. Perhaps lowers its Blocking Efficiency while Block-stabbing instead?
I don’t get why they gave it the same heavy attack pattern order as Kerillian’s Spear and Shield. If it was to save time on making new animations, why not change the order of the heavies so it’s at least slightly different.
Pretty disappointed when it comes to spear&shield really. Don’t think I’ll ever use the block+poke special attack, since it uses stamina and just feels so slow… With other shield weapons, you simply bash everything on the ground and go to town. No need to block after that.
It also feels really sluggish and a bit inconsistent when it comes to pushing, don’t know if that’s me, but that never happens to me with the sword&shield.
Damage seems decent. But it feels like it’s trying to be too much of an in between weapon: not a true dps weapon, not a true CC weapon. Making it just “meh” in both scenarios for me.
What bums me the most is that kruber’s ranged arsenal is already tame. Sure it covers all the niches like sniping, horde clear etc, but none of his ranged weapons feel really satisfying. All the other characters get awesome new ranged weapons, and kruber gets another shield weapon that doesn’t stand out in any way and for me. Why gimp your dps, if it doesn’t grant you proper crowd control?
Like I said in another post, if sword&shield received the finesse buff like 1h sword did in the last BBB, spear&shield would be obsolete
I have to add to this, it might seem like I’m bashing the DLC and free update in a couple posts. It’s just, I absolutely love this game, and I love the new ranged weapons. They are SO much fun to use!
But my main man Kruber, footknight being the class I love the most, just gets the short end of the stick it seems, which bums me out a bit
I mean, isnt the shieldbash in an attack combo pretty dang useless anyway? Does no damage and it only saves 1 stamina compard to a block-push.
But other than that i do agree that the moveset is stale and too similar to keri´s.
It´s basically the same as the Handmaiden in terms of heavies one but has a bit better lights and in Kruber´s (more melee boosting perks) hands i think is the thing.
Its definitely not different enough compared to his other shields and honesty I find it really simple and boring to play.
I would have taken a new ranged weapon or practically anything else over it. It has its uses and potential strengths but at the end of the day its 4th shield weapon for kruber when he already has only 4 ranged weapons (let that sink in for a moment).
Sword and Shield does feel like an overall upgrade.
The light spear sweeps can be substituted with light > heavy repeat.
A heavy bash provides more CC, especially against elites.
Push attack > Heavy stab is a decent anti armour combo, especially with Huntsman’s One in the eye.
Really comes down to preference and willingness to trade a heavy bash for a shielded poke.
Messed around with Trollhammer Torpedo on Huntsman and it actually has decent ammunition mitigation/sustain and surprisingly manageable headshots.
Kinda put my hopes up for an empire grenade launcher or a different ranged weapon more akin to Taal longshanks. I believe there was leaks for it back in V1? Could be fake.
Instead of giving Kruber the old socks of other heroes, something new would be nice to have. Atleast if we continue to get weapon releases as sparingly as in the last years.
Krubers Spear and Shield is a carbon copy of Elgis, with slower overall attacks. The only difference I see is the light attacks, which are now horizontal, have decent cleave values, while being alot slower than elgi light stabs.
My disappointment with it might be cushioned a bit once I try it out in the normal game mode, with proper traits and properties.
I’ve done a true solo with it as Merc and a close attempt as FK. I have some fleshed out thoughts on it.
Good lights with nice headshot and crit damage vs armour. Block cancelling them feels difficult sometimes. Note light 2 is better at headshotting single targets than light 1.
Heavy sweep is niche. As FK I didn’t need it for horde control with 17.5% power (Enhanced Power & Comrades). I advise changing its heavy order to heavy stab > heavy overhead > heavy sweep. This lets it chain heavy stab > light 2 > light 3 (stab) and light 1 > light 2 > heavy sweep, making it staby.
