I would imagine that the goal is to eventually make ALL the melee weapons in the game usable, fun, and effective to use on all difficulties. Each should have its own niche role so as to make the game more interesting. Anyhow, the following are my suggestions for these three underpowered weapons.
War Pick (Bardin) - This weapon is similar to the Exec Sword but I feel that it differs because 1) it is not as good against hordes and 2) its heavy charged attack is even slower but does not do enough dmg to be worth the slower response time and charge speed. My suggestion to make this weapon viable is to increase the dmg of the heavy attack to make it more competitive and worth while. I see almost no one using it in the meta (except for the occasional new player who does not know better).
Two-Handed Sword (Kruber/Saltzpyre) - This weapon is sort of a meme almost right now. It only has cleave type attacks and very little armor piercing so it is worthless against elites. It has only one saving grace, which is its anti-horde crowd control capabilities. However, I think you could strengthen these capabilities to solidify its niche role in the meta and make it worth the trade-off of not being able to fight elites with it. Perhaps increase cleave, stagger, and maybe even increase the armor piercing ratio a little for the heavy attack. It should be much better against hordes than the Exec sword so as to make it worth using over the latter.
Two-Handed Axe (Bardin) - This weapon certainly has its place in the meta but most would call it mediocre. It is strong vs. Elites but not as strong as other 1H weapons that can more reliably score headshots. It has better crowd control capabilities than these 1H weapons but is not as good at cleaving through hordes as compared to other 2H weapons (e.g., 2H hammer). Anyhow, I think one complaint that people have is that it this weapon has a very slow reaction time when it comes to quick blocks. So if one is attacking and turns around to quickly block an attacking foe, they will not be able to cancel their own attack in time and block. It makes it difficult to block with it and therefore, other weapons are more attractive. I think improving that block time reaction would make this weapon more usable in the meta (Legend).
Yes there are other weapons as well that need improvements. I do think the mace/shield has a place in the meta, albeit not the best one. But the other three weapons you mentioned need improvements.
Elf two-handed sword is pretty decent. It is outshined by spear and glaive, true, but it is not objectively bad. It has good CC with killing power, and its charged attacks are easy to headshot with - easier than spear. It does comparable damage to Spear’s charged attacks as well, with slightly lesser range but a better pattern (I think the thrust being first is better than slash then thrust for dealing with armored enemies since it helps you focus).
Shields . . . well, besides axe, they’re pretty butts. They had a good idea giving the sword a thrusting attack, but it needs more armor piercing - all of the non-axe weapons paired with shields need more ability to deal with armor on their charged attacks. It’s just not optional in this game. They don’t have to be great, they just have to be able to DO it.
I agree. The 2H sword for Kerillian isn’t terrible. I just find it strange that when you deal charged attacks you cannot see the sword. It throws me off. But that’s just an animation critique.
The shield combinations (non-axe) should probably have a bit more charged attack armor penetration. However, having some weapons that don’t have much penetration is fine too, as long as they have another niche role. Something that they do really really well. Not every weapon needs to “do it all.” This is a team-based game after all. It is nice to have various weapons that complement each other well. For example, having a Bardin with a great axe for elites/armor plus a Kruber wielding a shield/mace for amazing crowd control (although I think mace/shield might benefit from a little more non-AP dmg on heavy).
The key to using 2h axe is not having to block at all. I think slayer is in the best position of using it effectively. When you’re out of space to dodge you can just do a small leap and start soloing hordes. Creating more space.
I still prefer it over 2h hammer because it has a higher dps against hordes.
Bardins 2h axe is in a rather good spot, I’d give it little more cleave, but otherwise, you can really wreck stuff with it. The problem with many weapons, including the 2h axe, is that they are alot more carreer and trait dependend than stuff like 2h hammer, which is good out of the box (literally ^^) and can be tweaked to fill alot of different roles. 2h axe doesn’t really have that luxury, you are pretty much limited to certain abilities to make it work. 2h axe pretty much needs all the attack speed you can get since, while having higher attack speed than hammer technically, its attack windup is rather quirky on heavy attacks that since you don’t stagger mobs and don’t cleave as much, that’s your best bet. Swift slaying and attack speed are pretty much no brainers, and I am having alot of fun with my +crit, +attack speed swift slaying axe. You just can’t play it like the 2h hammer and you are definitely more vulnerable in hordes. If anything, besides a little more cleave, the armour killing should be a little more pronounced on it, since it does perform better against armour than 2h hammer, but not by as much as you’d think.
How high should the damage be? Because it already can:
One-shot stormvermin
One-shot berserkers/plague-monks
One-shot Leeches, Stormsorcerers, Ratlings, Warpfire throwers, hookrats, Globadiers, assassins
It will also massively tags maulers, leaving them with a sliver of health left.
I really don’t see how you can say that is the problem with it.
Edit: For clarification, all with bodyshots, no headshots required.
Two-Handed Sword (Kruber/Saltzpyre) - Perhaps increase cleave, stagger, and maybe even increase the armor piercing ratio a little for the heavy attack. It should be much better against hordes than the Exec sword so as to make it worth using over the latter.
It already has excellent cleave and is better against hordes than the exec.
What i would like to see is more AP on heavies and/or more range generally.
The former, mostly because of the AP role of empirial greatswords. The latter, as not only is it jarring for this gigantic 2h sword to have the same range as the 1h ones, it’s also really the only thing it’s lacking vs hordes.
It absolutely needs more range. It feels very counterintuitive when using it, and it doesn’t jive with the size of the sword OR the attack animation.
Also a bit more range would make it a bit safer to use. And of course like all weapons, to be legend viable it needs AP.
Technically it is, but its AP is garbo. XD So your point stands. I think it does like . . . 1.5 damage to armored dummies. Been awhile since I tested, though. Its overheads are monstrous, though.
I wonder if they could just re-use the 2H Elf Sword stab animation, and give the 2H Kruber Sword (not the Executioner Sword) a stab attack instead of the pointless charged sweep?
Give the new stab attack the same AP damage as the Elf 2H Sword.
