While the update itself is certainly a great highlight in on itself (for all the different reasons), there is something very interesting that has been added within it.
During the Chaos Wastes run, your weapons can get new unique traits, instead of the usual ones.
Regrowth - Critical hits heal 5 (temporary) health. (All Melee weapons)
Shard Strike - Killing an armoured enemy sends metal shards to damage other nearby enemies. (Lasts 16 sec. All Melee weapons)
Bloodthirst - Increase Attack Speed by 2% for every 5 kills (Up to 5 times). Resets if you do not kill anything for 30 sec. (All Melee weapons)
Deadeye - Each headshot increases the damage of the next attack by 10%. (up to 20 times). If you hit an enemy anywhere otherthan the head, 1 stack gets removed. (All Melee and Ranged weapons except Moonfire bow)
Divine Shield - Damage taken is reduced to 20 damage or half of its original value, which ever is highest. (Shield Melee weapons) Edit. This trait is a carbon copy of Slayer and Zealot old talents.
Shockwave - Critical hits stagger nearby enemeis. (Heavy Melee weapons, all Ranged weapons)
[Heavy melee weapons]
Markus Kruber : Bretonnian Longsword, Executioner Sword, Great Hammer, Greatsword, Halberd, Tuskgor Spear
Bardin Goreksson : Great Axe, Great Hammer, War Pick, Cog Hammer
Kerillian : Elven Spear, Glaive, Greatsword
Victor Saltzpyre : Greatsword, Bill Hook
(Information taken from a Steam Guide by Royale w/ Cheese: Steam Community :: Guide :: Chaos Waste Mechanic Handbook)
Although some of these traits would surely be completely busted in certain builds and circumstances (for example regrowth/shockwave on Pyro/WHC), I think some of them could be easily added into the base game and be VERY competitive with the current “Swift Slaying” meta.
I am looking at Shockwave and Divine Shield in particular.
At one hand, I agree, that a Footknight/Ironbreraker with Divine Shield would be just stupidly unkillable, but at the other, having Divine Shield on characters like RV/Huntsman/Grailknight would be a godsent and make their presence a bit more justifyable if the rest of the team consists of glass cannons.
In addition, existence of regrowth would make picking up a healshare talent a much more valid strategy on characters without THP on ult.
And Bloodthirst would be rather handy on weapons that have good damage, but lack the crit/attack speed for constant Swift Slaying uptime.
But I am aware, that there will inevitably come up some seriously broken combos if these traits get just straight up transfered into the game without any tweaks.
What do you guys think?
Personally, I’d say:
- Regrowth needs to be toned down and have a limited list of weapons that can use it (so we don’t have Pyro/WHC/Shade facetanking a horde Zealot style).
- Shockwave would probably be alright on Shield+Mace/Shield+Hammer/Sienna’s Mace (since it could use some love to be more popular in the masses), but the stagger has to be limited, so players can’t just bum-rush a boss with Billhook/Spear/Coghammer (maybe make light attack crits be unable to stagger bosses, so players have to at least charge their attacks if the want to humiliate the boss).
- Divine Shield could (maybe?) be alright as it is, but it (probably?) should override the innate damage ressistances to avoid unkillability on IB/FK (though the wording seems to suggest that any damage below 20 is unchanged, so a death by a thousand cuts is not an issue + you have to hold the shield in hands for it to work, so being hit while holding a gun would still be painful).
I am definetely not sure about Shard Strike and Deadeye.
The former looks a bit too “magical” to have freely available outside of Weaves/ChaosWastes, while the latter seems like a recipie for disaster on weapons like ExSword, which have nice horizontal swipes and hit heads easily. Just immagine stacking this buff to 200% bonus and then doing a Hassan Chop on a boss. Now immagine if it crits. Then immagine playing Grail Knight with crit-instakill talent.
What do you say?
Disclamer: Author does not consider himself a balance expert. Reader discretion is advised.