The power maul special activation still needs a rework, the reason behind why the weapon was so unfun to use was acknowledged but then did absolutely nothing was done to change that fact, the entire reason why the weapon was not fun at all to use was untouched and a band-aid fix by buffing the other attacks sadly wasnt enough. It doesnt matter if the uncharged strikes are a bit stronger now.
The weapon still feels a bit bland in comparison to ogryn’s other weapons when you dont use the special attacks, all while the specials activated attack were left alone keeping it just as unfun as it was by leaving it as a single use hit so you have to spam it over and over again if you want to use the charged state, with also having that painfully annoying movement slowdown on activation. Please remove the activation slowdown at the very minimum if nothing else! This has been requested time and time again!
This weapon needs a rework with how that special activation button works entirely. Some of these have been suggested by your community over the years already. Here are some things you could do that ive seen suggested before or thought of myself:
Having it being a charged up state for a duration (or number or hits) after activation, similar to how the power sword on vet gets multiple strikes, and then after you run out having it either on a cooldown, or get melee hits to power it up again
They could have it as a toggle where when you power it on, it hits harder, slightly more stagger or cleave, but swings slower, then when you power it off it swings faster, has more finesse, etc.
They could even remove the special action button all together and having it work where the heavy attacks automatically power up the weapon and the longer you charge the heavy attack the stronger the swing will be with more damage, cleave, stagger, etc. This could finally get the talent ‘Crunch’ more chances to be used because currently that talent actually terrible for high level Ogryn gameplay. (the less heavies you are doing, the less bleed you are applying, thus less damage and survivability from resistance near bleeding overall, doesnt matter if that single heavy strike is buffed to the point of it being equal in strike)
swap the special activation button to make it do a charged up swing immediately with no movement slowdown just the same as the new shock clubs that were just added for zealot
Your design team itself understands why the gameplay of charging it up over and over again feels so terrible, and the biggest culprit of all the weapons like this is the Ogryn’s power maul. Please change it!
I was thoroughly dissapointed with the Power Maul when I tried it out after the new buffs. Especially as I enjoyed all 3 Pickaxe variants I was really hoping the changes to it would make it like the Zealot Crusher. Not having an access to a strikedown heavy is also really bad.
While I agree the weapon feels bad, I don’t like your suggestions for fixing it. The Indy Crusher on Zealot has the same activation ability and is an absolutely amazing weapon.
Honestly I feel like adding a heavy 3 strikedown, with the followup light attack being the underhand light might be enough to make it a single target damage and CC weapon. Add to this that the first heavy attack after activation would be the overhead strike.
To keep the focus somewhat on lights, it would be cool if the optimal horde clear pattern was heavy-heavy-light-light, which I also believe is a unique horde clear pattern for Ogryn weapons instead of the usual heavy-light, light-heavy, or heavy-heavy.
Thats fair if you dont think the changes would be better. I do love the crusher, its one of my favorites after they buffed it perfectly, but personally I think it would be more enjoyable to have a weapon that feels different than just copying over the same feel of the crusher into this weapon as well. Even if they dont end up changing the way it works, they need to change something because right now it feels terrible, primarily from the fact that it slows you to a literal halt when turning it on. That needs to be changed if nothing else
Honestly after experiencing how the Evis gets a blessing that increases your movement speed when turning it on, that feels so enjoyable and that should be the norm for all of these other weapons that get one hit use special activations
My philosophy with my idea is more if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. I’m not sure I woild trust FS to fix it in a more unique way, and I believe that a slower attack speed and more cleave/damage that Ogryn weapons have would make it feel unique enough, alongside some fairly unique attack patterns especially on Ogryn.
Yeah it’s really bad and I’m suprised it hasn’t been changed. You can slide-activate it which keeps some of your speed but that shouldn’t be what you have to do to not lose your momentum.
Honestly I love this idea, however I don’t think it should be a base function of only the Power Maul. I would love if this was a blessing shared across a lot of the power weapons, with an additional effect of powered attacks gaining +10-25% power based on the level of the blessing.
