With Plasma nerfs on the horizon I’ve been tinkering with the Lasbore and thinking about why it feels bad (to me). The main issue is that it takes too long to pull out and get a shot off. Because you’re almost constantly in melee combat it’s almost impossible to keep it in your hands for more than a few seconds at a time. I know that well coordinated groups with taunt/smite/whatever can circumvent this, but that’s a small minority. So why not let the lasbore block melee attacks? (and potentially some other two handed ranged weapons like staffs although that would require some balance changes, especially to purgatus ) We already have melee weapons (and one ranged) that allow you to block melee and ranged both. It’s not crazy to imagine blocking a small axe or sword with a rifle. It would let you push back some trash enemies while focusing on taking out shooters/gunners/etc.
This feels like a cool idea to me but I’m curious if others think it might work. I’d love to be able to play a gun centric vet but it just feels like throwing when compared to shout/weapons specialist. Executioners stance really needs you to be able to chain some kills and increase its duration, but all it takes is a handful of poxwalkers from behind to force you to swap. Even if you can bayonet them to death, you’re at risk of taking a swipe and losing a chunk of toughness. I’m not sure how the controls would work, but I think the idea has some merit regardless.
With Helbore, either it should get faster draw time or it should be able to block attacks - not necessarily effectively against a group of Ragers for example, but against the few odd poxwalkers that sneak in a backstab attack. That would be determined by how much stamina it consumes for a block.
Not sure about giving block to other ranged weapons, but Helbore doesn’t have a lot of collateral damage, RoF is relatively low compared to other weapons, and it already encourages melee use via the slow draw time with bayonet stabs. It could be a unique weapon feature that makes it more competitive against other ranged options.
It’s entirely possible to play aurics with exec stance helbore shooting almost the entire time already. I think after the most recent set of buffs that the weapon is in a very strong place. Adding block to it would just be busted.
There’s a skill floor, but if you’ve got the patience to learn how to use it I would agree that the helbore is a great all-rounder. Best ammo, secretly a top melee, competent vs armour the list goes on and on.
I use the 4, imo it is the best in Havoc due to its better damage and bps, and imo it has the best of the 3 sights. However it still has the horrible melee swipe instead of stab, so it isn’t a top melee unfortunately, but it becomes more than competent at armor killing.
I really wanted a stomp on an ogryn weapon. Seems like it’d fit in well with the stubber. Like if holding the special did a stomp, similarly to how shot pistol special transforms into an attack when charged.
Hellbore is ridiculously cool but needs its aim point adjusted. Unlike most weapons that have the bullet origin tipping on the post the Hellbore shoots slightly below that point. It is less bad now with the wider raycast but still pretty unacceptable to me. Consistency is key when designing stuff.
If you fix the draw time and need to stand still for 7.5 seconds to get your damage boost, you fix that issue without having to rework every single long gun in the game.
