I feel like they’re kinda pointless. I really enjoy using one-handed sword and even though it’ll be hypocritical for me to say it’s probably my best melee weapon, I think it’s good in the wrong way. It’s all about that 3rd light attack that makes it so good but I find myself more often spamming light than trying to do a heavy + heavy + light combo on armored. It takes a little more attention to do and what I really want to do is get to my 3rd attack faster and overall I think my attention is better spent trying to spam out light attack headshots than the wind up the charge attacks since I also feel that charge attacks waste a lot of attack speed (why don’t charge attacks just initiate at minimum charge for most weapons anyway???) .
What I was thinking is maybe give one handed a charge attack flurry of blows that drains stamina per second but allows for more powerful and faster attacks to be made while you hold down the button. I really wanna consider more traits than swift slaying across the board for all non-shield weapons but I can’t justify it. If anyone has a different experience, I play twitch mode legend regularly which I consider a fun comfortable place to play (which gives the highest possible rewards). I don’t have a ton of cata experience but I’ve beaten all the helmgard missions on cata and regular legend is a walk in the park, just so you know where my perspective lies.
I think that 1h weapons in general are pretty diverse across the board and in a good spot right now. In the adventure mode maybe it’s not so apparent since you can run +60% BCR all the time, but you really get to appreciate the added mobility in expeditions, where early on stamina is hard to come by. Most 1h-handers are very good versus infantry and decent/good against a reasonable amount of armor.
Yeah I agree with @Throne_of_Rats. 1h weapons are mostly fine. 1h sword is a possible exception, but it’s tricky to balance since it’s available to 2 different characters. It slaps pretty hard on Pyro but is only ok on Merc and HS (both have unambiguously better options, but it works fine enough for the most part).
Oh then there’s 1h axe, both iterations. That could be its own thread, so I’ll just say they’re definitely not great and leave it at that.
Yeah it definitely is a bit awkward that the best sword-arm in the group is a middle-aged pyromaniac woman, especially when it’s obvious who that elf person should be. That aside, 1h swords are pretty good on Kruber as well throughout his careers. Definitely not the best but right now I wouldn’t say you feel miserable for taking them.
I haven’t tried 1h axes in a very long time except the elven one, and that only really works due to how out of control the powermaiden is with the crit chance and attack speed stacking. But yeah, I guess they would feel out of place in this game at this point. They can’t really deal with hordes (not without struggling for not that much gain) and they can’t really deal with armor either if it stacks up.
Here’s the problems with a few 1h weapons as far as I can tell:
The 1h Sword’s movement speed doing light attacks is lower than the Greatsword’s during heavies. Bad heavies. Sluggish first 2 lights and below average mobility for a 1h weapon.
1h Axes have low movement speed during lights, mediocre single target dps, no cleave and overlapping attacks (all lights and the push attack are practically the same, heavies are useless vs anything other than Chaos Warriors and Wargor bodyshots).
The 1h Mace/Hammer are technically fine but their heavies lack reach and are risky because of it.
Velsix about summed up characteristics of 1h weapons, but while I agree with other ones, I really think 1h mace/hammer are good weapons. High dodge distance, high stamina, fine stagger and cleave makes them very stable weapons. 1h hammer works especially well on RV and Engineer, and although I use Tuskgor Spear these days, I used to equip 1h mace on Huntsman and would be still using it if I didn’t get fond of the spear’s extra move speed.
1h Axe is my favourite Slayer weapon. Its very good vs armour units, even when theres multiple of them. High crit chance, high AP damage, high dodge. Good stagger on heavy attack and great monster damage. What else is there to ask for ? Fantastic combo when pared with Dual Hammers which are great vs horde. Falchion is another great 1h weapon, flame sword, 1h hammer. I think there are only few bad 1h weapons - elf’s sword, sienna sword, dunno if elfs axe is 1h but if it is then its bad.
1-handed weapons especially the swords are my go to weapons for all the heroes. they’re great and they have unmatched mobility. you can dodge and kill all day long *insert Steve Rogers “I can do this all day!” I mostly use swords but flaming variant for Sienna and axe for Bardin which does great against armor. I dont have a problem against hordes thanks to minigan going *BRRRRR and with troll torpedo patrols are like my favorite things to come across now honestly this is the first time I run towards patrols instead of away from them. I use handguns and longbows mostly for others so I can snipe specials.
If 1h Hammer is okay, why is noone ever using it? The simple answer to that is Dual Hammers. 1 Stamina, thats 0,5 Shields, less and 5% less dodge range. You trade that for more damage and attackspeed.
Krubers 1h Mace doesnt have weaker competitors, even if there isnt a clear enhanced version of the weapon. e.g. The Longsword delivers more damage, cleave, the same dodge range and count, and more range on attacks for the price of 1.5 Stamina Shields. What kind of trade is that supposed to be?
Little Armor damage with weak damage vs meat and no range does not make a good weapon if you slap some stamina and dodge on it. That you need to move nose to nose with targets to heavy attack them is also not helping the case.
Increasing the damage of heavy attacks to the head by 20% wouldnt do much for Legend, but would make careers able to two hit cata SVs without killing valuable range breakpoints. That would make it worth running, while the range of it might still hurt.
The 1h sword is just obsolete on Kruber. Its stuck between Longsword and Greatsword. It does its job, its just not born for cata with so many armor targets in between meat and it doesnt have wiggle room to move anymore because of the named weapons.
honestly this is the first time I run towards patrols instead of away from them. I use handguns and longbows mostly for others so I can snipe specials.