Nah I think it just needs good stat rolls and a carapace perk. If not the bonus weakspot damage from left tree should push it over the edge. You can definitely reach that breakpoint in a full ranged build.
You are also heavily, heavily underrating melee Vet. VoC + Survivalist will make your team love you more than Zealots for good reason.
Weird though, I swear sometime Ragers seem to poise my swing and proceed to hit me, get rid of energize and then combo me to oblivion.
but then again it might be just bad internet or netcode being an ass, normal mob also occasionally did the same thing too.
We have like 2 weeks when power sword is a good pick and people start losing their sh*t⌠This is also quite funny for the fact that we are probably getting a tree rework this week for the Vet that most probably will change everything, lmao.
PS is very good right now. Good horde-clear, high stagger of powered attacks allows fighting crushers/maulers. VI has a push-attack with minimal stagger but high damage that with specialization allows you to 2 shot crushers (carapace + full melee or Ult with leftside + Marksman capstone).
Drawbacks include: MK VI is very skill intensive, still the slowest weapon on the slowest melee class, and overall very bad mobility. Iâm running ~75%+ Mobility power swords and it still feels very slow to move around compared to something like a Zealot build running Evis.
That something bad is being a super low mobility weapon on Veteran which even with a melee build is slower than any Zealot I tried.
The Weakspot node is the one that pushes it over the edge on a ranged build.
I think @alsozara and @Ashrad are the only sane ones since the necro, both downplaying its strength and forgetting about the drawbacks is just dumb. Weapon is a supergood pick now and itâs something to look out for in the next patch, but thatâs that.
It being super low mobility does not justify it being insanely strong against every group of enemies in the game. Once again even comparing it to the MK 3 Powersword the level of power is absolutely insane. If the MK 6 had a harder time accessing horizontal/diagonal attacks I would be far more ok with its high single target damage.
Also just bring a high mobility secondary weapon if itâs too much of a problem like a Las Pistol.
Again I want to reemphasize I donât want to dumpster this weapon. Itâs just a little bit nutty atm.
TBF without BM Mk VI horizontal lights or diagonal heavies do way worse work on hordes than the horizontal heavies on the Mk III. There is SOME balance there, then thereâs also the Mk III having no movement slowdown on activation. The Mk VI definitely wins out overall but I donât think the Mk VI is without drawbacks. If you want a no brain power used, generally effective playstyle you might still be better to run III and spam heavy attacks till you see a crusher then tap light for them instead.
The only thing that genuinely bothers me a bit is the stagger power of empowered attacks. It really is just wild how different meleeing a group of Ragers feels with a T Hammer, Chord, or even Evicerator compared to Power Sword in terms of effort and safety. Mind you part of that is Evic/T Hammer having Rager breakpoints either ruined or require very very well rolled weapons post elite health changes. Power sword might still be just a bit too safe for its damage output but again, Iâm honestly fine with it as is for now and we can re-evaluate after the Vet tree changes.
I just donât think this is quite so much of a drawback and i donât really think its the right draw back. If i were to redesign the weapon it would be just as mobile as a chainsword, but a touch weaker against crushers (3 tap?) and more in the 30s range on 50 poxwalkers. Still just as good against ragers and other human scale elites. Maybe even better. Would need to test.
Alternatively nerf it against heavy elites and speed up its mobility. Pick one or the other IMO.
The best mk6 loadout is both stamina nodes though, no melee tree. With that you have the mobility of a psyker, since you gain a bit of stamina every slide. Running something that either takes benefit of deadshot or ignores it you can even get ammo and still use upgraded shout + confirmed kill.
Not really feeling the actual use for my gun most of the time, just swinging power sword away is goated. Still have ammo regen too.
Giving up the attack speed, crit chance and finesse bonus would be an extremely goofy choice just to get stamina back while sprint slide spamming. Assuming youâre primarily doing melee which you just said you are. Also stamina stats do not determine everything about mobility. You can have all the stamina regen in the world but power sword will still have bad sprint speed and pretty bad dodges.
I honestly think there is no point in talking about it before the update. The Melee side will increase its mobility and the +damage nodes for elites/Ogryns will be thrown around the place.
Currently, even if itâs strong it isnât something that affects other players enjoyment and doesnât enable a toxic playstyle (something like Shroudknife Zealot) so I see no issue.
The Mk VI Power Sword has the same mobility as the Chainaxe. Just kidding⌠the Chainaxe has a higher stamina cost for sprinting. And for all those drawbacks, the Power Sword gets that and the Chainaxe gets⌠well, you know.
Pretty much all melee weapons have the same sprint speed by the way, ~0.25 at max and ~0.1 at 60%. So itâs not like the Power Sword is slower.
I run slaughterer (locked in) and Powered Activation on it absolutely annihilators hordes by light attack spamming. I assume rampage would do the same thing. It is not worse on hordes it is better, or at the very least at the same level because of the rate you put out your damage, especially if you get activation-block canceling down.
You have to be good to get the most out of the MK VI, but not good enough to justify the power level it has atm. Again I just think it should do less against elites ESPECIALLY if you are running a ranged build. If it can hit the 2 shot bps on melee vet, than ig thats fine although I would still object. Being able to have like a sub 3 second Crusher kill time on a ranged weapon focused build is insane and I donât see how it wouldnât be.
The sword I have does the push attack gimmick on all elites from just the 30% weakpoint node, I donât think youâre giving the sword enough credit if you think desperado and the like are somehow enabling this build.
And sliding everywhere is peak mobility, dunno if weâre back in 2022 or not but this is common knowledge.
Iâm not saying you need it to get by but if youâre not taking desperado and especially trench fighter drill youâre giving up a lot of responsiveness and mixed horde DPS for what? More ammo for a ranged weapon thatâs probably getting by fine on survivalist anyway?
Iâm not 100% on this but it feels like attack speed bonuses speed up the activation animation too which helps you push out of bad spots. Trench fighter is just really hard to pass up if you plan to do most of your damage with melee IMO.
Yes but I seem to cover ground at a noticeably slower pace than a lot of other weapons doing this with power sword. Also are you really saying effective dodges is not relevant to mobility? You deal with every threat by turning 90 degrees and sprint sliding?
Yeah your right but I normally use the jab /parry because they are way to close so I feel like when the are there I am almost forced to because dodging back or sideways is not gonna work.
So having to activate power and slash them doesnât feel as good as just wacking them
Probably, i only did a quick test to see if i could actually two shot a crusher and on initial glance it looked like it required to much of an investment, at least for my own personal taste in builds.
I am not saying its bad, but the point is that if i am on my vet, i am on my vet to be a shooter.
Although, while i say that, i have been playing quick swap with the revolver lately, so i do tend to be in melee a decent amount of the time unless its auric or maelstrom where the amount of disablers and elite spawns tend to keep me occupied.
Might have to look into a melee build just to test it out at least, might end up liking it.
Iâve been running power sword with mostly right and middle end branches, VoC with duty and honour, survivalist naturally, shredders, and a Kant Shotty and it has been an absolute blast.
It actually feels great to play. Current Zealot feels too fast for me to properly enjoy so this scratches a certain itch I felt since the patch13 update. To be honest, it feels good even with Catachan, but with PS you can more-or-less match Zealot in offensive power (trading a lot of Mobility for some support and Vet kit spice).
Maybe we should just let the PS have its moment in the limelight⌠then nerf it into oblivion, from which it can never recover. That seems like an entirely reasonable thing to do!
Iâm kinda surprised that the necromancy has kept this thread alive for this long 
Where is the notion that the power sword is slow coming from? It gets the same sprint bonuses as his shovel or the combat axe, aka the best in the game besides the light melees. What kills veteran is sprinting with no stamina, thanks to the dismal 2.5 m/s fatigued sprint that lets poxwalkers run you down.
Things with high combat persistence have less need of powerful dodges, making it almost non issue that it has 4 dodges instead of 5 (since only fatigued dodges in this case are worth pointing out). But thatâs also what the advantage of things like the shovel are supposed to be. I usually just sit in choke points staggering enemies back while killing them. You donât get that with the rest of the veteran melee kit, so I can cope with -12% dodge distance and 1 less dodge. The sheer volume of extra footsies youâll do fighting a mixed horde with the shovel vs the power sword necessarily means you have to have less zippy combat dodges. You take literally 1/5th the time to clear the same mass of enemies.
And yes, this is without any of the melee buffs except the weakpoint hit and slaughterer. The thing is like stupidly powerful, but if we want to pretend that you need that then sure. Something like a tactical axe needs that tree to feel decent even after the buffs it got. Power sword overkills so much its basically just attack speed benefit alone.