Vet can 2 shot damnation crusher(mk6 crutchsword pushattack+light) on a shooting build(the good +damage nodes, such as BringItDown + SuperiorityComplex, tend to also work with melee) as well as cleave through crusher/bulwark(Sunder blessing). Kill time is less than 1s so dps count is same as crusher’s hp value. A crit(which vet can get plenty of if needed, which vet absolutely do not) is almost enough to one-shot a crusher with the push-stab.
What does Relic Blade get? I’m getting around 3 shot to crusher at around 1900dps(sprint stab → light → heavy 3), breakpoint is just barely hit with 25% carapace and 10% elite. In addition, every swing, even if it hits dead bodies, still builds up heat. Plus the bad mobility(in comparison, Eviscerator actually has same sprint speed as normal sword at +.27).
When activated, horizontal heavy from mkX 2h sword I tested cleaves 2 cultist ragers, hits the 3rd, that’s how mid(actually that’s bad, because of how slow it is) the cleave is. When not activated it cleaves through 1 and hits the 2nd. That’s mk7 chainaxe level of cleave rofl. A dueling sword light attack can cleave through 1 rager and hit the 2nd as well, and in that case that’s on par with your little 2h sword heavy attack.
You can’t even activate Rampage when sword is unpowered without some kind of bonus cleave(also explains why it has no savage sweep). LOL
It cleaves worse than Heavy Sword, and roughly compares to regular sword(devil’s claw mk4, horizontal swing also hits 3 ragers).
What is the point of Relic Blade other than to enable fs to sell more skins?
Vet doesn’t deserve a new weapon, and Zealot needs buff on Relic Blade. (at least allow it to cleave through crusher/bulwark by default, feels bad when a gigachad zealot 2h sword can’t cleave as well as a 1h crutchsword in wimpy little vet arms)
I want to like Relic Blade personally, but I feel like its attack patterns have been over-engineered. Comparing it to the melee weapon would be unfair, but I feel like it does play in line with most other solid choices such as Heavy Sword, Combat Axe, Chainsword or Crusher. Well, that’s at least when it comes to raw power and when taking the activation into account.
But the attack patterns don’t feel good nor smooth to use for me. I especially dislike the slide-attack as it always felt like a poor man’s substitute for a charge, but now that we do have an actually dedicated charge attack (the one from sprint) it feels somewhat gimmicky instead.
I’d like it to feel solid even without activation, and it’s almost there. Really, I think if they simplified the attack patterns a bit it’d be much better of a weapon.
While I can see why the additional complexity is there and how it has the potential of making the weapon in question more interesting, it also has the potential of ruining it through sheer quirkiness. So it’s fine to experiment, but there should always be at least one mark that has simple attack pattern - such as with Eviscerators (XV), Pickaxes (Karsolas) and even Thunder Hammers after the latest rework (Crucis).
I don’t think that is the case for Relic Blades, both of them feel way too overengineered for my liking. I do appreciate how some edges were smoothed with the introduction of charge and non-interrupting activation, though. It’s pretty cool in that regard.
I fear they might have toned down the damage precisely because they overengineered the moveset - they want you to use all of it and just barely kill a crusher.
Karsolas is a great example of a simple base moveset but not without the more nuanced attacks like the overhead after pull combo(still 3 shots a crusher). I wish these swords are at least as good as karsolas pick.
Might be more interesting to give 2h swords more cleave(also allow cleave through crusher/bulwark) but less stagger when powered on, and just don’t make it overheat at all. Then unpowered mode gets the current powered mode cleave amount + more stagger.
The performance is already mediocre when powered right now, the overheat on top makes it tedious to use(the only redeeming quality being it staggers attacking rager while powered on).
Same feeling. I’d even go as far as saying all the Ogryn pickaxes fall into this category, as well as at least one of the Psyker’s Force Greatswords. Still have some gripes with them but overall they are just a major positive.
Not the case here. I’m not exactly sure how to fix them, but I think simplifying the moveset on at least one of them would be a good start. Then we can ask the question “do we want it to be a mixed horde decimator or something else”, and adjust accordingly.
I use it to kill hordes unpowered, and I power it when needed. This is pretty powerful as weapon.
Tbh, I would have preferred that it would have been a little more slow and with a little more damages. But I like it.
For now I just tried the MK X with Cranial Grounding and Heatsink
I am not sure about perfect block blessings… cause i don’t know what is exactly the perfect block, and I am not sure I could trigger it more than 1 or 2 time per mission.
Syphon seems good with rampage, but more horde control orientated.
Devastating strike could be interesting with heatsink.
To increase the cleave, you can use wrath.
At the end, when I tested it is the training room, I had the feeling it was weak. In mission, it seems pretty decent. Far from too powerful. But with it, I have made good melee damage performances it I compare to others weapons.
Totally true. None. Even Brutal momentum does not.
In fact now you cannot cleave through a crusher. Even a plasma gun doesn’t.
Or did I miss a weapon that can?
But vet crutchsword has Sunder, so that can cleave through and hit iirc ~6 crushers.
Having effectively infinite cleave is great because you’re no longer vulnerable to enemies behind bulwark/crusher. Which is why it’s so weird that zealot 2h sword doesn’t have it but vet’s crutch does.
Performance wise it’s really good imo but I am totally not seeing the fun in the overly complicated attack patterns myself, either. The attack patterns should enable play where you have to use the right attack for the right situation, sure, but if I wanted to memorize rotations I’d play an MMO.
People can’t stop sh-tting on easy to use weapons (even if they do have depth), so I think that’s kinda FS’s answer to that. Content creators also like more complicated weapons so that might be also a factor.
I think Relic blade went a bit too far (sweet spot is like PS VI or Crusher for me), but I also think it’s a bit overblown. Mark 10 has easy enough rotations without much effort, it’s just that power management thing is something people need to get used to.
I also feel like this weapon should pair well with Martyrdom and/or Relic, although I haven’t tried it with that and went with the “basic” crit-FotF. There is bunch of breakpoints that need either damage stacks or weakspot perk so having it always available through Martyrdom should be nice.
Another quirk is that dump damage stat might be worth it (I played with 60% damage) since you can still one-hit push attack every special (apart from mutie) and it doesn’t contribute to activated damage anyway.
I totally agree on this.
Performance of the PS is far above what they have given to the zealot.
And if they think that the PS is at a balanced state, then they should up this weapon. The cleave seems not the best.
However… this is just my first feeling. Maybe after several hours I will say… no that’s really bad, or that’s great! For now, I find it acceptable and fun. It means that I use it cause it is new. But a lot of things seems better. And the vet PS is above this weapon.