I leveled up my preacher, and looking at this talent, I wonder what it’s supposed to promote. On paper, it’s a tool to prevent interruptions of weapon attacks that need a long windup or a continuous attack sequence, for example, thunder hammer, flamer, and to a lesser extent, the eviscerator. In other words, it allows you to hit trade more effectively with unwieldier weapons.
However, this seems to go in direct contrast with the general design philosophy of this game. Currently, ranged damage strikes at toughness first, and health only gets depleted after toughness is broken. Melee damage also chips away at your health while toughness is being damaged. This isn’t an issue on higher health, but when you approach low health, hit trading becomes less effective. The current mechanics seem to provide a cushion for stray shots hitting you at range, but disincentivizes you from taking hits in melee, due to said chip damage.
Currently, this means that this skill does nothing for you if you just activated Until Death, because the next hit will bring you down anyway. It seems to only be a crutch for bad plays, and is far less useful as a survival/crutch tool than holy revenant.
I guess my question is, why does preacher have this talent that is either a bandaid for long windups (heavy attack thunder hammer) or bad plays (poor timing and/or positioning for said long windups)?