Rarely see people running the new Relic Blade, even more rare to see people using it properly. I can see why it’s hard to give the weapon a chance when you have access to something like the Dueling Sword.
I am here to say… f*ck the Dueling Sword, Relic blade FOR LIFE. I haven’t ever felt as powerful as I do when I am in the zone with this thing absolutely decimating anything that gets in my path. Mk2 is the best version IMO - once you learn to manage the strikedowns/cleaves it is a true monster. Giant horde in front of me? 6 crushers? 10 maulers? 8 gunners? Doesn’t matter - CHARGE AND DESTROY.
This weapon actually brought me back out of the break I was taking from this game. Originally I just became bored but after using this weapon and really giving it a chance, it renewed my love for this game.
10/10 would think it sucks again only to find out its actually amazing
If you want an idea of what the weapon is capable of, feel free to watch. I am by no means perfect but I think this will help give an idea of what the weapon can really do with some effort/practice.
I love the relic sword… but I like also the achlys combat axe.
Basically, I really like the horizontal swings that you can use with these two weapons, at least with the mark X of relic swords.
I really tried the other mark, but I could not like it.
The mark X is great to chain heavy horizontal swings. And for this I really like it.
I love both, but the Relic Blade was an instant fave of mine. Its not op, but it is an amazing weapon.
The DS is lovely especially if you enjoyed Saltys Rapier but it is a bit op imo.
Also… inb4 Force Greatsword threads talking about how op it is and that it ruins the game. You can shoot thru the level and with the brainburst on hit, you regularly pop heads in the next room etc.
I always forget so often to “uncharge” it. Made me feel I was losing some awareness if I had to track the heat bar.
DS just feels horde lacking in that it will do the job but the deflection, dodging, kiting, alot of work when heavy sword is straight in and wide swing. Heavy sword sits in damage between charged and uncharged Relic, but consistent. You don’t have to dodge as much, wide swing and knock everything down because it will follow through the horde. Pretty fun.
But alas heavy sword, relic, devils claw - Really feels you’re chipping away at crushers when you can 2-3 head pokey stick them instead.
Tactical axe sits nicely in between horde and single target damage.
Bladed Momentum was a huge letdown for the heavy sword, you’d think giving up a pivotal blessing (because it has several good ones) for access to armor damage would be fine, but they made Bladed Momentum near impossible to proc when fighting armor.
But yeah Relic Blade is extremely solid, carried to the top by Zealot interactions…which break DS even more being all finesse based.
While the Zarona is probably better, to me, it feels pretty boring to use; I prefer the Agripinaa because I consider it more fun (it also kills bosses really fast if built right).
I can see that being true, that one definitely looks a lot more fun to use. I might have to try it out myself. I also still haven’t got used to the throwing knives at all lol. I played about 1000 hours on my zealot with the stun grenades so it’s been weird trying to transition the knives into my rotation but I’ll get there
I find my only issue with the Relic Blade being how it basically requires FotF. This isn’t entirely a bad thing, but the fact you have to work so hard for something the Heavy Evis can do regardless of CA and without a heat meter AND with a vastly simpler attack string, makes it feel more ‘novel’ to me than anything.
I do think it’s fun though, I did come around to that after using it for a bit. I just often also find myself not clicking on it/the build I have for it nearly as much as it’s ‘a lot of effort for the same/slightly less reward’, and with how restrictive it is in build crafting I tend to gravitate elsewhere, and that combined with the ‘hard to use’ points above is likely why you hardly see it after it’s release.
Since most just wanna ‘spam attack to win’ which most other weapons allow for, Relic Blade requires your brain to be folded, and I only sometimes want my brain to be folded, while others never want their brain to be folded.
Weapon balance at the moment there are only a few finite weapons utmost effective at anti-armor in shortest time burst. Usually the pokey weapons.
Evis, heavy sword, relic, chains - Best at horde but so much longer than pokey for carapace and less mobility leaving you more vulnerable when used.
Can’t help but feel pokey weapons against carapace decrease but increase anti-carapace for above weapons. So they meet somewhere in the middle more.
Horde is less threat to the point the game favours single target damage/anti carapace more.
Combat axe mk4 is my general all rounder. Brutal momentum and headtaker. It has this weird ability for light diagonal spam which seems to auto track heads. Like if you aim below or above a horde’s heads, or even off centre diagonal then still considered head hits. Can’t explain it.
I am, obviously, the minority here. On zealot I like to move fast to engage in melee. I did not like relic blade for it’s clunkiness. I obviously have a trend though, for weapons I DO like on zealot: combat blade, devil claw, heavy sword, duelling sword, and combat axe. Everything else just felt… Too slow.
I don’t run Relic blade for 2 reasons. It’s boring and people seem to not want others to be the main damage dealers. Chorus is too meta to not use, I’d basically be trolling and pissing everyone off.
I see it quite often in higher Havoc it’s amazing horde/elite clear. I love to use it on Auric but personally on high Havoc I rather knife for the crits or Dueling sword for the Carapace. It’s amazing with FoTF tho the funnest horde clear,
The singular reason I’ve hardly used the relic blade is because the moonlight force great sword came out at the same time. From the very little I experimented with it though, seems dope.
Truly don’t think they will make another Psyker melee I enjoy more.
