My turn on weapon finetuning. All weapons are legend viable, some just need a little love. Most are fine. Numbers are subject to balance, ofc.
I judge weapons based on how much of their movesets can actively be used in combat, and by experience. Categorisation of (melee) weapons is bascially:
Unarmoured specialisation: light and heavy attacks good vs. nonarmoured, worse against armoured (swordtypes)
Armoured specialisation: light and heavy attacks good vs. armoured, worse against nonarmoured (áxe-types)
Mixed specialisation: clear purpose of attacks, mixed anti armoured and anti unarmoured (mace and dagger types)
Traits:
Heatsink: Can only trigger once per 0.25 seconds.
Resourceful Comb./Sharpsh.: Make them actually do what the tooltip says, so they get useful for the longer cooldowns, not the shorter ones.
Scrounger: Internal cooldown
alternative 1: Cannot trigger more than three times in one second, so weapons like the repeater crossbows from Kerillian and Saltzpyre are included. Maximum ammo gain: 1 Shot -> 3x 2 shots = 6 - 1 one used shot = 5 shots.
alternative 2: Cannot trigger more that once every 0.25 seconds. Buff Repeatercrossbow ammo on both weapons slightly. Could be problematic for repeater guns.
Off balance: Make it actually do what the tooltip says: 50% for the 3s. Powerful, but has tough competitors and is very situational.
Inspirational Shot: Let it grant one full stamina shield to each team member. Still hard to justify imho.
Opportunist: Really hard to test, justify or measure. Rework idea: Your pushattacks interrupt all ongoing attacks in your effective pushattack radius. 10 seconds cooldown. Buff icon appears if ready.
Stats:
Increase in effective push and block angle also increases your pushrange (usually 2.5) by 5%-10%. So both stats get rolled on the single stat “slot”. Both are rolled in equal range -> Midrange blockpushangle = midrange pushrange.
Rework respawn speed to respawn speed and distance, so you respawn faster and closer. Or remove it completely.
Characters:
Markus “I like orders” Kruber:
Executioner Sword: Fine
Halberd: Semmingly really popular, yet most attacks of this weapon dont appear to be used. I think its identity was intedend as a mix of a twohanded sword + twohanded axe + spear. If to be buffed: Requires major changes/moveset rework imho. If to be nerfed: Remove a stamina shield. Maybe leave as is.
Hammer/Mace: Grant damagemodel of light attack no. 4 to light attack no. 3. Strengthen purpose of light attack chain: anti inf -> anti inf -> anti armor -> anti armor.
Hammer/Shield: Change Shield bash heavy attack to weapon alternative fire, add second heavy attack thats the same as the other, just the backswing.
Sword: Fine.
Sword and Shield: Change Shield bash heavy attack to weapon alternative fire. Let lightattack-lightattack follow up into the new second heavy attack (former 3rd heavy sweep).
Twohanded Hammer: Fine.
Twohanded Sword: Fine.
Blunderbuss: Fine if scrounger gets internal cooldown.
Handgun: Fine.
Emp. Longbow: Fine, if bugfixed.
Repeater Handgun: Grant 8 more shots.
Kerillian:
Repeater Crossbow: Fine.
Dual Daggers: Reduce mass cleave/stagger/damage values for the light attacks to 1, so only one target can be hit at all times.
Twohanded Sword: Bugfix the pushattack delay already, please. Otherwiese fine with the most recent changes to attackcycles and headshotdamage.
Dual Swords: Grant pushattack the damagemodel of Kruber Sword and Shield pushattack stab (17 armoured headshot dmg). Let light 1 into heavy 2 be a repeatable combo.
Spear: Fine.
Elven Sword: Grant lightattack 3 the damagemodel of Kruber Sword and Shield pushattack stab (17 armoured headshot dmg).
Sword and Dagger: Grant pushattack and lightattack 4 the damagemodel of Kruber Sword and Shield pushattack stab (17 armoured headshot dmg.). Let lightattack 1 - lightattack 2- lightattack 3 combo into heavy 2.
Glaive: Fine.
Hagbane: Fine.
Longbow: Fine.
Swiftbow: Slightly increase chargedattack headshot damage on armored targets (11.50 would be nice).
Bardin “Yoo hoo” Goreksson:
Axe: Slightly increase heavy attack speed to match with 1h Hammer/Mace. Could use a tiny power increase for the light attacks to hit fanatic bps with full commitment (3x 10% power).
Axe and Shield: Change shield bash heavy to weapon alternative fire.
Dual Axes: Fine.
Great Axe: Fine.
Hammer/Mace: Grant damagemodel of light attack no. 4 to light attack no. 3. Strengthen purpose of light attack chain: anti inf -> anti inf -> anti armour -> anti armour.
Hammer and Shield: Change Shield bash heavy attack to weapon alternative fire, add second heavy attack thats the same as the other, just the backswing.
Pick: Speed up the charged attacks very slightly.
Twohanded Hammer: Fine.
Grudgeraker: Fine if scrounger gets internal cooldown.
Drakefire Pistols: Fine.
Drakegun: Fine.
Crossbow: Fine.
Handgun: Fine.
Victor “REPENT” Saltzpyre:
Axe: Slightly increase heavy attack speed to match 1h hammer.
Falcion: Fine.
Flail: Fine.
Rapier: Fine.
Twohanded Sword: Fine.
Brace of Pistols: Fine.
Repeater Pistol: Grant 16 more shots. Victors Swiftbow!
Repeater Crossbow: Fine.
Crossbow: Fine.
Sienna “Negotiate? Immolate!” Fuegonassus
Ceremonial Dagger: Fine.
Flaming Sword: Rework pushattack to be a stab, and grant it and lightattack 3 the damagemodel of Kruber Sword and Shield pushattack stab (17 armoured headshot dmg).
Mace: Fine.
Sword: Fine.
Beam Staff: Fine.
Bolt Staff: Fine.
Conflagration Staff: Fine.
Flamestorm Staff: Fine.
Fireball Staff: Fine.
My opinions about the weapon balance. Sure, you can always go into the really fine damage models and breakspoints, but I’m painting with a big brush here.
Feel free to add your thoughts and thanks for reading!
- Edit: 1h Axe.