Melee 2.1: Differentiate The Monotony

[DrBorris]

This concept is a bit old, I posted something very similar to it August of last year but a suggestion in the Forums inspired me to flesh it out a bit more and repost it.

 

Melee weapons, as they are now, are a huge monotonous pool with only a few that can separate themselves from the pack. However, DE has a whole host of stats that melee weapons have that they have chosen to just make universal rather than specific to each melee weapon. These include…

• Channeling Damage
• Channeling energy drain
• Blocking efficiency
• Reflection efficiency
• Slide attack distance
• Charge attack damage
• General “bonus” channeling effects
• Finisher damage

Think about it, without even changing the damage and attack speed stats of melee weapons you could make pretty much a niche for every melee by giving it a specific role with those stats. One general buff to all melee weapons however would be to increase the “norm” channeling damage to 200% (versus the current 150% because that is BS). Also, as a rule of thumb, the faster attack speed weapons would have a lower channeling cost than the heavy weapons (because the energy requirement prevents most from even channeling with them).  Probably making it cost 2 energy for the average dagger and 5 energy for the average heavy weapon would make sense. One final general change would be a universal buff to blocking. The “average” melee weapon should have 70%-100% blocking. And this stat should NOT be tied to its class, but to logic (Jet kitty would never block better than Cronus). Finisher damage would probably have a tendency within a class (Daggers should do the most, Staves should probably do the least) but of course there should be exceptions (I could see Hate having an extra high finisher).

 

Now for some examples...

Plasma Sword: remember when this weapon had “Increased charge attack damage”. Why not give it a higher than average charge attack damage? It is an energy based weapon, so give it a 300% channeling attack damage (so it will hit like a truck when channeling). Also, due to its electrical nature, why not a 100% electric proc chance while channeling. And while I would give it the standard blocking efficiency for long swords of 75%, I would give it an innate reduction to how much damage it can reflect.

 

Jat Kittag: What do you think would happen if you channeled energy into a rocket engine? It would go faster, right? So, with that, I would give Jat Kittag a reduced channeling damage of 150% but then have channeling provide +30% attack speed. And someone tell me how that thin little stick would be capable of blocking pretty much anything. I would be tempted to give Jet Kitty a lower than average blocking efficiency of 50%.

 

Fragor: This thing looks like it was made for channeling, so that huge 300% channeling damage would apply well here too. However, as a drawback, I would give it an 8 energy requirement for channeling.

 

Redeemer: This thing needs a massive buff to channeling efficiency to make it viable, and I would go as far as 1 energy (per projectile) with the standard 200% damage. I would also give it a bit higher than average blocking efficiency of 90%.

 

Silva and Aegis: 100% blocking efficiency. There is no way around this. However, I do not see a shield reflecting much damage back, so that reflecting efficiency should be near none. In addition, due to its energy-ish characteristics, I would give it a slightly higher than average channeling of 250% and a 100% fire proc chance while channeling. And if you want to get creative maybe give the reflected bullets a fire proc chance of maybe 25%ish to compensate for the lack of damage.

 

Cronus: Cronus will never be able to compete with the big dogs with damage, so why not give it a boost in the blocking arena? Maybe a whopping 95% efficiency and make it naturally reflect triple the damage back.

 

War: (as inspired by (PS4)ATreidezz) Keep the Impact damage when not channeling, but make it be slash damage when channeling. Due to the ludicrous size of War the block DR would probably be a bit lower than average, but maybe give channel block an extra buff, maybe have all reflected bullets cause an Impact proc (CC for days)?

 

Suggestions are welcome, the more we brainstorm the more likely DE will think we are serious about something like this.

 

 

You can kind of see where I am going with all of this, some of the less popular melee weapons could be given new life with supplemental stats and it would also help with the relatively monotonous pool we already have. Also, this is obviously not the only thing melee would need for a “2.5” or “3.0” (we really don’t need a 3.0, but a 2.5 would be nice), this is just one part of a rework that, to my knowledge, would require very little coding and no new animations. Depending on how Melee 2.0 was coded it may be just changing some numbers.

 

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Edits:

[2/3]Added finisher damage as another stat as per AgentSkye's suggestion. Also added a quick blurb about it.

Edited February 4, 2016 by DrBorris

[AgentSkye]

There's also finisher damage, which is currently set per weapon category similar to blocking DR, with most having 16x damage, but hammers of all things having 24x instead, and a few having only 12x, such as... daggers. Whut?

[DrBorris]

There's also finisher damage, which is currently set per weapon category similar to blocking DR, with most having 16x damage, but hammers of all things having 24x instead, and a few having only 12x, such as... daggers. Whut?

Very true, I'll add that to the OP.

 

Hammer's doing extra high finisher makes sense... but Dagger's should have the highest damage finishers WITHOUT a mod.

[Phyrak]

Hopefully give plasma swors a 2.0 both graphically and some tweaks to damage to make it a pure channeling weapon

That'd be rad

[41_ma3]

Silva and Aegis: 100% blocking efficiency. There is no way around this. However, I do not see a shield reflecting much damage back, so that reflecting efficiency should be near none. In addition, due to its energy-ish characteristics, I would give it a slightly higher than average channeling of 250% and a 100% fire proc chance while channeling. And if you want to get creative maybe give the reflected bullets a fire proc chance of maybe 25%ish to compensate for the lack of damage.

C'mon, is that all?

 

Fire Sword + Channel more energy into it = More Flames

 

Silva will have increased range when channeling! It will discharge flame waves mid-swing! Aegis will gain 360 degrees firewall!

[YasaiTsume]

I have been waiting for Channeling Weapons for a long time.

I want something sharp and deadly and looks good when Channeled.

[StonedMakak]

Like you say OP, won't fix all the problems with melee, but it's a helluva start. 

 

Apart from bumping the thread, I'd also like to suggest including thrown weapon stats in there like flight speed and charge time. An unique quality of such weapons could perhaps be homing while channeling, couple with continuous bouncing from enemy to enemy (basically the weapon would return when player stops channeling).  

[DrBorris]

Because this was mentioned in Devstream 71 and DE Scott seemed positive about it, I have no guilt in necro'ing.

[letir]

Amphis:

+ Charged attacks are stronger then average, deal additional electric damage and eletcric proc.

+ Channeling damage improved.

+ Electric proc with channeled strikes.

 

- Charged attacks are slower.

- Channeling cost is bigger then average.