As has been mentioned by others, this new Eviscerator variant is… A bit lacking in several regards.
Firstly, it’s slow’n’clunky to swing. It needs better chaining for said swings. Secondly, it’s SLOW. Like, REALLY slow. Even with as many swing speed buffs as is possible on the Zealot, it still swings slower than even the hammers; both in terms of the delay pre-swing, the swing itself and the recovery frames after swings. Finally, damage and armor penetration… Just aren’t nearly high enough.
I’d be fine with the swing speed -but for real, make the light attack chain easier to work, it’s tricky AF to chain light swings properly RN- if the damage and armor penetration values were such that it was justified. But… It just ain’t. Generally, weapon balancing for fast and slow melee weapons is relatively simple:
Fast weapons are less efficient for DPS in theory, but more consistent due to their ability to strike, disengage/block, reengage and repeat.
Slower swinging weapons have substantially higher DPS potential, but are limited in practice due to their reactivity, the DPS drop when missing swings, the time needed to recover when missing and hitting targets, etc… But as-is, the new Eviscerator variant just doesn’t kill fodder and lightly armored targets with nearly enough consistency per swing -even with perks for damage on such targets- to make it a viable crowd-clearing tool. Nor does it have high enough damage per swing and armor penetration to effectively take down mid- or heavy-armored targets in a meaningful timeframe. Frankly… It’s just a less efficient/effective hammer right now.
Less armor penetration, less damage per swing, less impact -impact is a blunt weapon’s specialty, but I feel it should still be said due to the balancing of these weapons- and for all this… The new Eviscerator is somehow less fluid in its chained hits and SLOWER than the hammers.
…Not to mention the AWFUL cleave of the Eviscerators.
It may be wise to give it a bit more stamina or perhaps some kind of hidden block efficiency modifier too, because as slow as it is, it’s difficult to shift from defense to offense without taking several blows to the dome mid-swing… Before your own attack can even connect with the enemy.
So. In summary, the Eviscerator should receive the following buffs:
Higher damage per swing, bringing its DPS higher than the older Eviscerator variant in theory (about 45% higher?) to give those heavy swings the power they deserve.
Double the base cleave value; it’s a HEAVY Eviscerator. It ought to act like it.
Slightly higher armor penetration against Flak, mid increase to Unarmored and Infested armor penetration. Substantial increase in Carapace armor penetration.
Fix the light attack combo chain to be easier to… Well, chain. Keep the swing speed, just make the attack input queue up unless interrupted by a block, dodge, weapon-swap or somesuch.
Block efficiency increase or +1 stamina to wielding the weapon (bringing it from +3 to +4 total).
Unrelated-ish: The Indignatus Crusher STILL has the old pre-patch slowdown when empowering it.
How that evaded being fixed during its last damage overhaul I do not know, but it really should be corrected when next the devs get the chance to look at it. It’s currently the ONLY power weapon which slows its wielder when empowering it… Due to the weapon being dropped into the game just after the patch which removed said slowdowns from all other power weapons.
Idk, feels like an evis to me. Sure, new attack patterns need some getting used to, and because of that weapon may seem clunky, but no.
Excuse me, what. It onetaps anything other than crusher and mauler with a heavy rev to the head which is very easy to land. What more does it need? Crucis levels of damage?
Because it’s not designed for that. Simple as.
Again, idk how you tested it. A white 340-ish evis onetapped everything other than crushers and maulers to the head.
Dont get hung up on the name that much. It’s a heavy chainsword at best, not an eviscirator.
A Fatshark CM already acknowledged a bug report about the light attack chain.
It’s not the speed per se, but check for yourself how often you have to click the LMB just to keep the light attack chain connected - you have to click twice as fast as the light attacks actually go. It looks like the pattern is not synced correctly.
Ok, maybe. it is. I didn’t notice it, but if it’s a thing then sure.
But come on, the damage?
I just picked up some rando 350 evis and tested it again. Everything as i was saying.
Now, it has a 78 damage and 77 penetration roll, but shredder (which is really important) is only ok. If it would be a bit better i think this evis can oneshot a mauler to the chest (hitting the head does less damage in this case) and 2-tap the crusher which is absolutely bonkers. And it is a white evis without any blessings affecting it. So no, the damage does not need a buff.
To be fair, it’s doing twice the damage of the equivalent Mk II Eviscerator’s heavy special. It’s nowhere near 1 shot territory, which is fine, but the criticism of its revved damage from the OP seems… a bit strange, in that sense.
If anything, the revved damage seems like it could be bugged - shouldn’t that damage obey armor modifiers?
The final tick should be doing 285 damage (990 * 28.88%), right? Even if the display combines the final saw and rip damage, that would only be 333 damage. On a body shot to a Crusher, it’s reporting closer to 500 damage.
The saw ticks are doing roughly 80 damage (which would be closer to 50% of the 163 stated on the stat card). The full damage progression was 213 → 296 → 379 → 462 → 545 → 628 → 1124
The Mk II Eviscerator I’m using has 80 Shredder (165 heavy saw, 825 heavy rip) and 64 Penetration (55.62% heavy vs carapace), which is doing 83 saw damage and 496 rip damage. If you calculate the expected damage, the saw damage is low (expected 91) and the rip damage is high (expected 456).
The new Eviscerator has 5 saw ticks instead of just 2, which accounts for some of the difference… but not all. The Mk II damage ticks (they’re slower so I can read them individually) were 97, 83, 83, 496 (total 759).
New Eviscerator has insane horde clear with the right blessings and ona martydom build. Like incredibly, stupidly strong. Once they fix the attack chains it might need a damage nerf to compensate.
The fix will probably not change the MK XV attack speed but the clunky reaction to LMB clicks. With higher attack speed (by buffs like martyrdom) the effect of the current input issue feels much less painful I guess.
It took me like 3 games to start and rack up 1,2k kills and 900k dmg+ on new heavy eviscerator with martyrdom build.
You can literally brute force your way through almost all hordes as long as there are no crushers or ragers (although ragers sometimes get staggered with just lights and im not sure what causes it) maulers get staggered with lights all the time so I can literally zoom through everything as I will lol.
The only buff I wish to see on new heavy eviscerator is mobility or slight attack speed boost on lights.
If only the weapon didn’t have such boring attack patterns, I might actually like it.
Many people have called for a slower, heftier Evis, and many have called for weapons with easy patterns, but both at the same time just leaves half of each hanging.
Edit: I tried a very good roll one I found.
It just feels disappointing. I had no problem whatsoever with the attack timings, and the speed feels good, but… the activated lights get stuck in anything, the activated heavies are worse than on a chaxe and not better than on the mk2, and there’s significantly less finesse potential, as well. There doesn’t quite seem to be a mechanical reason to use one, and the feel is not heavy enough to make it appealing on fluff reasons.
With any luck, the bug around input buffering (or lack thereof) will be addressed in an upcoming hotfix, which should make it feel less sluggish. I don’t think it’s going to be a fast weapon by any measure, but input getting swallowed is a real drag.
