Hello. I would like to start by saying I’m loving this update - there are some great buffs all-round and the maps are cool. Really looking forward to buying his dlc!
So I have been an avid Mercenary 2h sword user pretty much since the game came out, even when it was really not worth using. I felt like it was in a decent spot in the last major patch when it got the movement speed buff. It did feel lacking on the other careers though (except Zealot). The new push attackis exactly what it needed to make it both more interesting to use, as well as making it more appealing to the other 4 careers.
However, the other changes seemed unnecessary. Simply put, the 2h sword is one of the most overpowered weapons in the game right now, due to the other buffs. The real kicker is the cleave through armored enemies. The push-attack already helps out with big guy + group combinations, and makes it more of a tactical but effective process. With the cleave, it’s too easy to mindlessly swing the sword until everything is dead. And the attack range doesn’t help either. I’ve been hitting things that aren’t even remotely close to me. It looks dumb and unrealistic, and it’s just another way to encourage mindless swinging.
These two changes (cleave through armored, attack range increase) make the 2h sword too powerful, to the point where using it is just boring.
My suggestion is to remove those changes, but keep the new puah-attack. That new attack is exactly what the 2h sword was missing. The other changes are just unnecessary.
I think it’s in a good spot. still feel the 2h sword is STILL overshadowed by the OP halberd. i mainly used the 2h sword on the zealot. the range felt fine, and i didnt feel like i was making mince meat out of chaos warriors. it needed like 4-5 hits with the push attack plus a few more to bring them down .felt about just right.
I disagree with the “too powerful” part. The cleave-through-armor- effect allows you to clear up trash from a mixed horde, and actually gives a purpose to the charged attacks. Without that, they would be even more useless than they were. When there are enough to fill ranks immediately, pushing alone won’t keep them at bay, and the push-attack overhead isn’t that strong, it still takes several swings to decapitate a Stormvermin. The extra reach brought in just the extra bit of safety that I felt I don’t have to rely on sheer attack speed and extremely careful dodging to stay healthy anymore.
I’ve yet to test it on anyone else but Merc, but I feel the changes gave it a far more general utility compared to the niche weapon it (mostly useful on specific careers) was. Of course, Merc with his added cleave and Zealot with his added attack speed still benefit the most from using it.
There are two downsides that keep the 2h sword balanced. Longer wind-up on attacks, similar to pickaxe, and diagonal strikes on the normal attacks, making multiple headshots difficult when cleaving into a horde, unless they are stacked inside of each other. And the reach is nowhere near as long as halberd, for example.
On a sidenote, please post feedback to the 1.2 beta in the 1.2 beta feedback section. Makes alot of sense.
The difference between the light and heavy attack was almost negligible before, so just spamming light attacks was the way to go. Giving the heavy attack AP means that I now have a choice between getting my light attack stopped by an armoured target or take the additional wind-up time and cleave through them. This is the type of finesse that I was missing from this weapon. I’m also happy that it finally has a form of overhead attack, although I will miss the push-cleave, since it was very useful in horde situations.
Played a few maps with it on Zealot last night. Did not find it to be OP at all.
Still takes a decent amount of hits to take down a CW.
Seems just about right to me.
Try using the 2H sword on something other than Mercenary, for he is already a melee powerhouse - of course a weapon buffed with him is going to seem wicked.
My feedback. The overhead doesn’t do that much damage on legend even with the right breakpoints. I feel like they need to tweak the damage a bit. My reasoning is because you use stamina shields for this depending on what your build type is, you could just have 3 stamina shields unless you play knight or choose talents, passives and traits that add more. If they just tweak the overhead with a bit more damage I can see it being on the same level as halberd.
It’s 2 headshots or 3 bodyshots for stormvermin with the right breakpoint of 30% which is a little bit high. 20% would be balanced enough but at least that’s one of whc strengths now.
The changes felt reasonable to me. Played some on Zealot last night.
I’m not too worried about wild swinging. In horde packs this is standard. Against all other targets, you are encouraged to aim – especially with changes to headshot damage. For example, it’s pretty easy to one-shot/headshot marauders with charged now. You also need to consistently headshot stormvermin to reduce the number of strikes.
My only complaint is that the push-stab feels extremely slow (on zealot at least) relative to its damage. I found more success charge attacking instead – especially with the added protection of the improved cleave. This still puts it well behind halberd in my eyes.
I agree that it is really powerful now - and a bit bland.
Still, the overhead is underwhelming. I, too, just use it when I have leisure to do so - against single SV with a little bit of chaff around them. Otherwise I use charged attacks, more damage, more flexibility, no stamina cost.
While I can see the point that the buff was too much, it was honestly completely pointless before - maybe better than no weapon but clearly bottom tier.
Now it’s on a level with the exe sword, though luckily still worse than the halberd (We don’t need more weapons of that power level).
I like the cleave through armour for one specific reason: It allows you to get your paced strikes as Merc in almost any situation even if there are armoured enemies in the way.