Could maiming strike be unnerfed to where it was pre update 26?

[Ka-Jin]

It's been almost 5 years now since the "spin to win" melee has stopped being meta, and in that time a lot has changed. Melee combos were changed, heavy attacks were added, tennokai was added, and melee weapons now have arcanes. With all of these changes, I believe Maiming Strike could be unnerfed to where it was pre update 26, where it added a flat 90% cc on slide melee added after other crit mods. A flat addition would allow for creative building with other melee weapons which get overlooked in favor of other weapons with better stats, and would offer diminishing returns compared to melee weapons with higher base crit chance. Guandao prime, a popular melee weapon with 32% crit chance, and a polearm, one of the dominant weapon types of the spin to win era, has a crit chance of 32%. With just sacrificial steel, the base crit gets over 100% on a standard attack, and over 170% on a heavy attack. With bloodrush, another popular crit mod, the weapon can reach over 170% cc just with max stacks.

An unnerfed maiming strike would only put the Guandao Prime at 122% cc on a slide attack, which is still a decent amount, but not quite what bloodrush or sacrificial steel can reach on their own, let alone together on the same build, being able to reach over 300%, but getting crit chances this high has diminishing returns, as the crit multiplier starts to taper off, and you have to utilize more of your mod slots which could be used for other mods which would make a bigger impact. I don't believe unnerfing Maiming Strike would disrupt the meta much more than giving players another option for how to use melee. Glaive prime, a dominant melee weapon, can easily clear entire rooms with minimal effort, yet players still use melee weapons in other forms as well.

Lets take a look at a weapon which an unnerfed Maiming Strike would play a decent role, Lesion, another polearm, has only 15% crit chance and a fun gimmick, where if you get a kill with it, the weapon grows faster and gains increased toxin damage. The base 15% crit chance only reaches 48% crit chance with Sacrificial Steel on a normal attack, and only goes up to 81% on a heavy attack. Unnerfed Maiming Strike would allow for this weapon to reach 105% crit chance, which would be enough for a reliable crit, and allow for a hybrid build and make the weapon usable into steel path.

In conclusion, I believe Maiming Strike could, and should come back to it's pre update 26 glory. Melee has changed enough that it won't be as dominant as it once was and will allow for more creative weapon modding, allowing for lesser used melee weapons to be given another glance, rather than used for mastery fodder and forgotten.

[Grimm]

imo make it a base crit chance booster again. but no where near 90% like it used to be.