Melee improvement idea

[IM.Pax]

Had these thoughts for a while and just decided to share them. Thinking of how to improve melee system I've came up with a mechanic with technical name "Melee Ultimate". How does it work:
1. Firstly player needs to stack ~30 melee hits - after that Ultimate becomes possible. This counter exists independently of combo counter - it can't be sped up with Praedos slam, can't be stacked instantaneous with Corrupt Charge etc. - but at the same moment progress drops when combo time expire. When player uses Ultimate, they will need to stack it up all over again in order to use it again.
2. To perform Ultimate, player will need to perform full stance specific combo, but replace the last strike in the combo with heavy attack. For example, instead of pressing E+E+E+E, player has to press E+E+E+MMB. In this case Ultimate strike is performed instead of regular one. For convenience, player could see some kind of indicator that shows when is the right moment to perform final heavy attack.
3. Ultimate strike is performed with unique animation. It deals huge amounts of damage with increased crits to a group of enemies, and also applies special effects on them. It also doesn't consume melee combo counter, so player doesn't need to be afraid to use it.
4. Every melee type has its own ultimate strike. Examples I've came up with: rapiers send a row of rays (single ray would be lame) that travel forward for big distance and damage every enemy in their way; hammers perform simple slam attack damaging enemies in range around player; dagger is thrown forward as explosive missile.
5. Special effects applied to survived enemies are based on stance equipped. For example, hammer with Crushing Ruin stance would ragdoll enemies and pull them into strike point; hammer with Shattering Storm stance would slow enemies down for a period of time. Such system would really make stances differ from each other, instead of basically just suiting the stance slot polarity. It is also possible for these effects to differ basing on combo performed.

I personally think such mechanic would be really fun to play with. Ultimate strike is not something you would perform every second in average gameplay, but as reward it can be kinda op, and so player would really feel the effect.

Edited October 30, 2023 by IM.Pax

[SDGDen]

reminds me a bit of the power strike system from duviri tbh, maybe just port that mechanic? since it'd be consistent. 

[Tiltskillet]

Neat idea.

FWIW, DE did recently hint about a melee elaboration of some sort coming.  I think the phrase used was "Perfect Heavy Attacks", and no more info than that.  For me "perfect" brings to mind a timing condition like Perfect Shot on Nataruk, but that's the merest speculation.  It could be something as simple as 12x combo, or more likely combo plus timing, or something else I haven't dreamt of.