Whips need a better stance

[Probably_Asleep]

Whips could be cool in this game. Even in reality they're cool. In sci-fi/fantasy though, they can be amazing. But the current animations are about as ungraceful as a soccer-mom trying to be her team's entire cheerleading squad. Here are the main beefs I have with the current options:

• Too much forward movement when you're not wanting to move your character
• Hardly any movement when you are trying to move your character
• Slow, telegraphed, single-stroke attacks
• Very short range heavy attack
• Virtually nothing that showcases a whip's cool factor

And here's the proposal I'd like to... propose all whip stances should implement in one way or another:

• Neutral combo:
  • Stand in place
  • Rapid vertical lashes
  • High forward range
  • Additional low aft range
  • Can pivot and move, but only deliberately
  • End combo forces slash proc
• Moving combo:
  • Figure-eight pattern or some other wide-angle
  • Endless
  • No inhibiting movement speed
  • Forms a hemisphere hit-zone in front of player movement
• Heavy Attack:
  • Powerful, fully drawn-back, forward crack
  • Snap back of the wrist, ends with whip coiled in hand
  • Diagonal lash at end
• Held Attack (Charged Attack):
  • Aim-able like with a Glaive
  • Long reach
  • Horizontal lash
  • Forms a semi-circular hit zone at end, radius is half of slam radius
  • When hitting ground or object, semi-circle hit does not trigger
  • Can be snapped back and trigger semi-circle hit mid-distance with secondary fire button
• Slide Attack:
  • Horizontal windmill spin similar to Legend of Zelda's Link
  • High initial range
  • Range lowers with each sequential slide attack
• Wall Run Attack:
  • Vertical windmill spin attack
  • Spamming attack maintains wall run and spin until stopping
• Blocking Combo:
  • Spun back-hand initial pointed strike
  • Reverse-spin second pointed string
  • Forms a "fork" of two attacks  in the aimed direction

 

I think it's no secret that some weapon stances are just more fun to use than others. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but the melee weapon I decide to use is based more heavily on the animation set than the actual stats of the weapon. "Is this weapon going to make me lunge forward and have to 180 my camera?" "Is this weapon going to commit to its combo and leave me stuck in an action longer than I want?" "Does this weapon strike enough times to apply the damage and statuses I need?" Questions like those come up before I even consider damage and mods. If whips could feel better then I'd love to use them more.

Thank you.

[Turboameeba]

Stances, and combos need to be reworked as a whole anyways. "combo" is nothing but spamming same button.. Also once you have fun the best stance, in most cases people will never touch the other stances again. The whole melee system is powerful, but poorly designed currently. How about giving us a REASON to actually do different combos etc? Currently there is none.

[Probably_Asleep]

10 hours ago, Turboameeba said:

Stances, and combos need to be reworked as a whole anyways. "combo" is nothing but spamming same button.. Also once you have fun the best stance, in most cases people will never touch the other stances again. The whole melee system is powerful, but poorly designed currently. How about giving us a REASON to actually do different combos etc? Currently there is none.

I love that someone with a username starting as "Turbo" is complaining about spamming the same button. Little things like that make me wonder if we're all characters in a book or something.

But you also make a good point! I glance at stance combos, but I hardly ever care (saying "hardly ever" instead of just "never" is a generosity on my end). It's definitely not like Dynasty Warriors where you memorize combos for applications like damage vs crowd control.