Speaking only from Zealot gameplay here.
Idk how others see it but to me the melee combat doesnt feel nearly as satisfying when fighting hordes for example than in V2. I tried out a bunch of weapons and cant find a good weapon for me as in comparison to V2 where Victor was my most played character.
Rapier, 1h Axe, Axe and Falchion, Double Hammers, Great Hammer were all really good weapons with good attack patterns and you could clear hordes and fight specials with all of them. Same goes for the other heroes were I had multiple weapons I liked and used. Ofc they varied in effectives but non of them felt bad to use in either case.
I also feel like there is a lot less cleave in the game. For example the MKV Axe(which is a exact copy of the Axe from Victor) has more or less 3 light horizontal to diagonal attacks and 2 charged overhead attacks.
The 3 light attacks have almost 0 cleave. I tried around in the meatgrinder and in missions, if there are 3 enemies really close together you hit 1, stagger 1 and do nothing to the last 1. Its like you get stuck in the first enemy hit.
The Axe wasnt the best horde cleaner in V2 for sure but man, in Darktide its just terrible. It feels unsatisfying while fighting.
Same goes for other weapons too I tested.
This was just one example which feels really bad to me, but my experience with the other weapons wasnt better.
I guess in short you can say “bad attack patterns” and “missing cleave on a a bunch of weapons”.
I hope I could get my point across somewhat(long texts in english are not my strength, german speaker here) and I am interested if someone esle feels the same way about the melee combat.
4 Likes
It’s not just you, the melee is straight up worse in DT. Enemies have more tracking, more delayed attacks, stamina doesn’t regenerate when you’re dodging, you get stunned for longer after your guard is broken, there’s a longer lockout between dodges, etc. It’s a baffling change considering a lack of difficulty wasn’t a problem in VT2 for the majority of players and DT is, on paper, alot harder than VT2 (stronger elites, ranged enemies, etc), plus it just makes it feel clunky and unresponsive.
2 Likes
I didnt comment on the dodge and other stuff regarding combat because I saw many other threads on those issue(which I agree on) but nothing yet on the weapons and attacks/cleave which I feel isnt really talked about, even though weapons behavior and stats also make a huge part of how combat feels or plays out.
Regarding difficulty I wont judge yet, because I like it when its challenging and a lot of stuff like crafting and changing attributes and stuff just released or isnt out yet and for sure will make a difference, but yeah Issues like my topic or the dodge/stamina ones dont need to artificaly make the game harder. There are are ways to make a game nice and challenging.
nothing yet on the weapons and attacks/cleave which I feel isnt really talked about
Weapon balance is simple to address, convincing Fatshark that they’re ruining their game’s fundamental mechanics is not. The axes have poor cleave just like the ones in VT2, but now your defensive options are gutted so the lack of cleave is a huge problem. Address the mechanics first, and then address the weapons that are still bad afterwards.
Like I said I totally agree on the mechanics issue but you can still see how weapons play out. You are right, the axe had poor cleave in V2 but its way worse in Dark Tide.
While improving on the dodge/stamina issue would make feel combat play out better in general I dont think it will automaticly make weapons better which feel bad because of their attack patterns or lack of cleave(not damage). Both issues are combat related but handling the stamina/dodge one doesnt effect the issues I see.
While you are right that adressing weapons is probably the easier one, I wouldnt put it in line behind the other and FatShark should adress both at the same time if possible.