So apparently it’s got good enough Heavy attack cleave for trash horde clear to drop Wrath and Cleave Target Stat, going instead for Shred/Rampage or Skullcrusher/Shred, with a Mobility Stat for ninja vibes. Granted, it’s Damnation breakpoints so take what I say with a grain of salt I guess.
Hammerblow because pushes stagger human Elites and are needed anyway for the very satisfying LLLH attack pattern following the push. 3.5s is enough time to finish the chain.
I use Devil’s Claw even in havoc, and it’s still kinda bad even when you perform well tbh. As soon as you meet any amount of armored enemies, especially multiple maulers or even hordes of 21st it falls off greatly with how much damage it deals. I recently took it into Havoc and got a scab only seed, I suffered so damn much even though we still completed the mission I felt like I have one less weapon the entire time. To parry Crushers you need to hit that perfect timing where the hammer is at the mid point of the swing or right as it hits you, otherwise you just lose all stamina. Parrying bulwarks is so annoying when they refuse to attack and just bash you with shield instead or just stand there with shield up not doing anything. I like using it against bosses and Twins killing themselves by hitting parry all the time but to be honest it’s all “looks”, the actual damage is on the lower (lowest) side.
I don’t remember which mark I’m using, the one where you poke with special attack and then you can chain heavy into light into heavy for good horde clear. Mk7 i think.
I would never put Hammerblow on it, you either put two damage blessings or Wrath + Skullcrusher, Rampage + Skullcrusher and maybe Shred with something else.
Like, if you want crowd control just take crowd control weapon like Shock Maul.
I think on Psyker Devil’s Claw might seem good because of the autobrainburst. You hit rager or mutant and it poofs away because of that brainburst proccing, Devil’s Claw even in Damnation doesn’t always kill Ragers in one parry with Vet or Zealot.
For this weapons to be truly good we’d need to have mission type with no armored enemies at all, like Dregs Only, or “more hordes and specials, almost no armored enemies”.
I personally see it as “horde clear only” weapon or “a tool to reposition”. It’s safe against ragers and you can spam parry waiting for your dodges to reset (which is good). But in terms of pure DPS it’s very lackluster.
Devil’s Claw is in a weird spot cuz it’s an incredibly safe weapon (pretty sure I ended up getting the ‘don’t ever take HP damage from melee achievement while using it on Veteran) that also completely invalidates melee attacks from all but the largest horde of ragers/maulers…but it takes a while to kill anything important and stops functioning without parry spam against armor.
It seems Fatshark wants it to be a crowd control weapon hence the bizarre placement of multiple impact blessings on a SWORD.
Does the push stagger not count as stagger for the purposes of Skullcrusher? I read Kuli’s info on Skullcrusher and I’m led to believe it would but maybe it has to be stagger level 3 or something not just push stagger.
Yeah I’m in agreement on that, I just don’t understand why there’s so many impact blessings when it’s clear there’s far better options for CC. When I pick DClaw, I want it to be great at Specs, light armored human Elites and horde clear. I don’t pick it expecting to throw Maulers and Crushers around.
Slaughterer? Perfect Strike? Or why not another damage Blessing for single targets?
Tbf the Disrupt Destiny weakspot/crit buffs and Scrier’s Precog subnode synergize very well with DClaw. Will have to do more Auric with it to properly guage it better I guess.
The devil’s claw is a fantastic weapon and definitely underrated. In the current enemy mixture it is not able to be a primary weapon if one does not slot any anti Armor skill/ability/blitz. It does however bring supreme horde clear and the safest boss disposal. You can even solo demon hosts with nothing but parry spam. All those havoc plebs dying on rinda? Guess what helps!
It is the perfect supplementary melee weapon for ranged focused setups with strong anti Armor capabilities. Electro kinetic staff, Voidblast staff, stub pistol, bolters, plasma, needle pistol.
Have I mentioned parry counts as heavy attack? It triggers charged strike which is a very fun interaction.
It does, pushes also put skullcrusher on the target. The RoF on dclaw is enough to stack hammerblow quickly so I’ve not paid close attention to other sources.
It definitely makes the weapon safer but not particularly killy. Not totally sure why. Maybe shred/rampage just has better synergy with talents. Maybe it was already effective on horde and staggering elites doesn’t solve the flak/carapace weakness while simultaneously locking you out of parry opportunities
It’s just dogshit bad weapon like heavy sword, with a few hipsters trying to sound original by claiming it’s good and they like it. It’s not even fun-bad weapon like dbarrel, or bad but still useful (if you can manage suffering through its crap ergonomics) like Helbore lasgun. It’s just outright bad and unusable.
This tells me a lot. You should work on your marksmanship and situational awareness. Start with Mk V. Don’t feel you must use the one with the bad bayonet.
