Weapon Balance Darktide

Does FS know which weapons are used and how often? And which weapons are being used at high level play?

In CSGO, Valve put a lot of effort into making sure each weapon had its time and place. They knew which weapons were being used most frequently, and would buff / nerf them (Please don’t nerf anything) to make all weapons equally viable.

At the moment for the Zealot it feels as though the only viable weapons are the Relic Blade, Dueling Sword (whether or not it’s OP) and Warhammer.

The Dagger has a delayed heavy attack, making it feel sluggish, and the attack pattern isn’t always ideal for weakspot hits. It isn’t as satisfying as the Dueling sword, which is far more effective for the weakpoint / crit playstyle.

The heavy sword has a slightly too short attack range, and fails 1 hit breakpoints for weak units, even when maxed out. Same story for the Catachan sword.

There are other weapons I’d like to use more often, but small issues such as attack range, delay on the heavy attack or attack pattern make them unsatisfying compared to other available weapons.

I think that a weapon rebalance could help here. Not so much a balance in damage, but a balance in making these weapons feel fluid and satisfying.

Are we at the point where people want knife buffs dawg

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I’m talking about the attack patterns for the knife, not buffs. The daggers in Vermintide were a lot better.

These are absolutely buffs. The knife is fine, you just need to get used to the pros and cons of it.

This is very much not the case. The Relic Blade is amazing, the Crushers great, the Eviscerator is great, one of the chain axes is really great, the shock mauls are great. I dont like the Heavy Sword but I see people big it up, same with the Catchan Swords and one of the Axe types.

What you maybe mean is, the only weapons you like or are good at are the Hammer and Dueling Sword.

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This

While I can absolutely say certain marks of the various weapons aren’t usable, the literally only thing on Zealot I’ve found to have no used cases is the tactical axe (it just actively does nothing to me that a DS doesn’t do better). Every other weapon is a monster in certain scenarios, or at least usable in the case of the heavy sword (where it’s more ‘for fun’ but can still do the job it needs to with Headtaker/Savage Sweep).

They just aren’t brainless, you have to know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, and build around being able to do that particular thing. Combat Blades can have 100% crit on zealot for instance, the Evis literally does everything for you and all you have to do is just be cognizant of when you should finish a rev hit for a kill or dodge away to mitigate incoming damage. The Combat Axe can actually feel really good under the right circumstances/can stack up decimator really well and gets huge benefits from it. The Relic Blade has a super high skill floor (as in, 'the base level of understanding to be able to use the weapon effectively), but once your reach it they feel immaculate to use. And the chain axe is just free and basically an ‘eviserator light’ that I use on various builds that don’t take that much attack speed, or on like, the other two classes a lot more.

I think it’s mostly down to the fact that everything that isn’t the duelling sword you have to actually play the game, and you feel if it isn’t 1 shotting the thing in front of you it isn’t worth using. But every weapon has it’s purpose and used case, one just has to actually be receptive in learning it.

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Honestly, while the Dueling Sword is strong, too strong, in the right hands, I still see people sucking badly regardless. Its not a cheat weapon unless you understand the game very well.

For me its the infinite dodges that are just insane. But I find I have to tap too much to use it comfortably. Maybe if I had a macro or mod that spams light attacks for me it would be better but I use a controller with native support on the PC, so no macros for me and I dont use mods except true solo to git gud.

I think people see the hype around the DS and expect it to turn them in to a good player. This is often the last thing they see:
overheadcrusher

Maybe on Auric or Hi-Havoc, but down here on earth they often eat the dirt regardless of gear :skull_and_crossbones:

Actually is usually the ones with a shovel and helbore or some other less than ideal build that surprise me on Heresy/Damnation :wink:

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I really don’t understand why Fatshark made a game with such good melee combat, then lets the Dueling Sword be the way it is so 90% of the playerbase doesn’t ever experience how good the melee combat is because it just poops on the game

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The Daggers, Sword and dagger, and Sword for Kerrillian in Vermintide 2 were super satisfying, they were responsive and had their own niche. The Dagger in Darktide isn’t as rewarding. This is subjective sure, but I’m suggesting mild improvements to improve the feel and playability of these weapons.
If you compare the difference, the daggers in Vermintide 2 are more responsive than the dagger in Darktide. In my opinion, I believe this is due to the charge time on the heavy attack, as well as the attack pattern.

I mentioned the dagger because it’s almost on par with the Dueling sword, but just not quite. It would only need to mild changes to bring it up to the same level.
I’ve noticed that this community is skeptical of people suggesting changes, which is fine because a lot of those suggested changes are not good ideas - but I’m not the only person to mention that the melee in Darktide is so close but not quite up to the melee in Vermintide 2.

I’d take it a bit further here, I’d say that the majority of the Zealots weapons don’t qualify for high-level play, unless you do it for the meme factor.
And I’ll tell you that I’ve put a lot of time into experimenting with every perk / talent / combo on all of the Zealot’s weapons.
The only time I’d ever use the power maul is if I’m bored of the Thunder Hammer.
I’d never use the power maul as a serious thing.
I really want to use the dagger more, but with the amount of time I’ve put into playing Kerrillian, it feels sluggish and a just bit frustrating. I really want to like it though, but it doesn’t ‘feel good’.

In my opinion, you should be able to 1 shot any low level mob if it’s a weak point hit, even if it involves building up some buffs first. If the weapon doesn’t 1 shot a weak enemy even with buffs, there’s something wrong with the weapon. That’s a large reason for why some weapons ‘feel good’ and some weapons don’t.

The Dueling Sword is a weapon they’ve done right. Now FatShark should try and get every other weapon to feel just as rewarding as the Dueling Sword.

thank god you dont work there

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Do you have anything more constructive to add?

You can disagree with some of my opinions sure, but the fact that 80% of the weapons are never used in high level play speaks for itself. So clearly there’s an issue here.

I think that’ll come down to the dueling sword being OP as hell

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The Dueling Sword is good. It feels good to use. They should buff the other weapons to match it.
I don’t understand the logic of nerfing one of the few decent weapons.

So we should 5x every elite’s hp pool

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why

So enemies do not get 1 shot

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Also I don’t agree it’s OP, any decent psyker can get 600K average damage just using Assail or Smite, which isn’t exactly difficult to do.
For me to get the same damage output with a Dueling Sword requires a lot of skill compared to when I play Psyker. I tend to max out at around 600K - 700K damage on Maelstrom. I’ve seen Veterans doing over 1 million in total damage.
It’s just that the Dueling Sword feels OP, but actually isn’t.

What difficulty do you play on?