Need to do smth with Rapier.
Probably multiply charged strike range by 1,3-1,5 and do smth with special attack.
Otherwise Falchion is just better in most terms.
Special attack useful range melee only. Dmg reduction at range is so high like you shooting through water. I cant tell its useful. Ye you probably can save mate from assassin rat, explode barrel, thats all.
same range for normal and charged strikes
armor penetration vs headshot dmg. well how much of us rely on headshot dmg of melee weapons playing champion and legend? even if there are some doing so, weapon pretty much equal at headshot dmg for armored target. for 400 power WH its 9,25+9,25+12,5 = 31 for one full pattern, 10,33 per hit. I believe with almost same attack speed with charged rapier strikes its 11.25 per hit. And its not easiest thing to perform constant charged attack speed even on dummy, not talking about real fight. Reward is 0,92 dmg per hit. GG. compare non-headshot attacks it will be 5,58 per attack for falchion, and 4,25 for rapier. Reward is -1,33 per hit.
falchion have twice higher damage on the normal attacks on normal dummy.
I am lasy enough not to look at dmg spreadsheet, pretty sure its all ok there.
And its not really about damage… reason its viable compared to the Falchion?
Witch Hunter Captain
Witch Hunter Captain’s passive ability is to instantly kill any target regardless of Health (assumes man sized) with a critical headshot hit.
Witch Hunter Captain also has the skill tree skill… Deathknell for +20% damage on headshots.
So yeah… WHC can actually one shot a Chaos Mauler (Masked Battleaxe Elite) with a single Rapier Head shot. And doesn’t have to worry about too little damage with unlike other carreers if he’s got Deathknell selected.
Its why a WHC can literally walk through a horde swinging with this weapon. In his hands it will always do enough damage on headshots to kill any horde mob.
He can also one shot Stormvermin on light attacks as well so long as its a crit headshot. All he has to do is keep the thing swinging and eventually it will crit.
This is where the Rapier becomes just as powerful as the Falchion.
Other carreers? Well not so much, they don’t have what is in essence “Killing Blow” from V1.
But yeah the Alt Fire on it is currently garbage.
EDIT: Perhaps they should… when he equips the Brace of Pistols add another 10 shots to the brace of pistols and allow the ammo also be utilized by the Alt-fire on the Rapier at the same range, damage, and armor penetration of the Brace of Pistols… it would upgrade both.
i think all that needs to be done to Rapier is to give the pistol just a little bit more range , or start the drop off a little further away . make its cooldown visible and stop it clashing with the rapier i mean you could use both at once and independently.
Its pretty good on the bounty hunter with the right build, necessary strikes (which i dont think actually works in game or the buff icon isn’t appearing anyway) gives a whopping 25% boosted damage, 7 second cool down on the passive which affects the off hand pistol.
it lets you keep some ranged ability , ult to delete CW’s offhand pistol to interrupt specials
and turns you into a melee monster.
Well that’s well and good, but Necessary Means only works when the Bounty Hunter is out of ammo. That’s when it kicks in, which never generally happens unless you intentionally do it. So you’d literally have to run around as a bounty hunter without ammo, defeating the purpose of playing a bounty hunter.
And its actually just a 10% power increase until you get ammo again.
i use brace of pistols they run out of ammo pretty fast and do a lot of work doing so , it basically means you go ham and if/when you run out of ammo you swap roles, but retain some ranged ability for those times when you just have to hit something (to dislodge a gutter runner etc)
defeating your purpose maybe, the purpose? frankly i suspect this range only meta will get balanced out of existence let alone being the sole and only point.
It’s true, the Rapier requires considerably more skill, but it can produce better results. The main attack chain is exceptional against hordes if you dodge-dance, and, yes, aim for the head. There is much less downtime between strikes and you are simply much less likely to get hit. It has more effective dodges, bigger dodge distance and more stamina.
The charged attack has at least two damage stages and pierces multiple targets. Very good against elites and bereserkers, especially given it’s perfect accuracy and easy aiming.
The pistol is a joke and needs to be reworked, but other than that, the rapier is a weapon you want to learn: I would much rather use that on Legend (Champion is a different story, you can pretty much use anything there and be fine).
All these thoughts refer to BH experience. On WHC and Z, it’s even more powerful.