Glaive And Glaive Mods And Stuff

[konfetarius]

Feedback based off using the Glaive Prime here. First things first, the bug:

 

1. Power Throw - seems to be bugged in that an unranked Power Throw is giving the same puncture capabilities as the maxed Power Throw. My unranked Power Throw seems to regularly go through 3+ enemies; while being unable to pierce through things like any Moa model; but my maxed Power Throw seems to behave exactly the same.

 

I *suspect* the only difference between the mods is how often the Glaive bugs and bounces off the corpse it just made, but I cannot be sure.

 

Now, basic gameplay.

 

2. Bounces, Rebound, and Quick Return - I am of the opinion that no bounces should be the default Glaive behavior. It is the most basic form, it is the most easily controlled form, the quickest (highest damage output), it is essentially the most practical form of the Glaive. Throw, it hits something, and flies right back. I like it.

 

I suggest Quick Return is removed/changed into something else, and Rebound is rescaled to be a 7 rank mod, with 0-7 energy cost, and 1 - 8 bounces.

 

3. Whirlwind - If DE felt that this kind of absurd usability boost was neccessary on a mod, why isn't this behavior default on the Glaive? It nearly triples the range of the glaive and makes it dramatically easier to hit with. It is an uber version of Fury and Reach mods rolled into one. I don't see any reason why someone wouldn't use this mod.

 

I suggest raising the base Glaive speed/range by about 100-120%, and rescaling this mod to be a basic Fury/Reach equavilent of the regular mods - so it still feels like a decent usability improvement, but doesn't feel neccessary to make the Glaive into something more than a gimmick.

 

Alternatively, just give transfer the boost this mod gives to the Glaive by default, and alter this to do something else.

 

4. Balance - the Glaive at the moment performs admirably as a stealth weapon. Combining Power Throw and Whirlwind; and aiming for the head makes for devastating easy stealth kills. It's a bit on the silly side how you can clear a full room with it and drop enemies standing right next to each other as they watch each other die; but that's a general stealth mechanics complaint.

 

I would argue that the Glaive suffers compared to other melee weapons in terms of how quickly it kills due to attack speed considerations (per hit, it competes with the best charge attack melee weapons if you land a double headshot, but once you account for the travel time and very inflexible AoE pattern, it falls massively behind compared to just walking up to something or a crowd and hacking away). Plainly, it needs a buff, esp. if melee 2.0 is going to dramatically improve melee weapons as a whole.

 

Suggestion A: Dramatically buff its damage  so it can compensate for its weaker attack rate and AoE capabilities. Range is not good enough of an advantage - the frames that can actually utilize melee for DPS solve the range issue in the first place, stripping away most of the Glaive's advantage.

 

Suggestion B: Moar Glaive specific mods that accomplish the buff via specializaiton....

 

 

 

Now to consider better Glaive mods.

 

 

 

 

Alternative Glaive Mod Set Up

 

Whirlwind, Quick Return are removed. Glaive has zero innate bounce and default max Whirlwind stats, Rebound rescaled as described above. Keep Power Throw. Add two new mods:

 

Tracking

Adds 2 bounces total. Removes headshot damage bonus. The Glaive, upon hitting an enemy or wall, will attempt to bounce into an enemy within X meters, which scales with rank. Effectively gives this weapon reliable AoE at expense of potential weak spot damage.

 

Headhunter

A biiig damage bonus for hitting the face/etc. weakspot with the throw.

 

 

Net result - three Glaive playstyles emerge.

 

1. One focused around aiming the bouncing feature for the purists (regular Rebound with or without Power Throw).

 

2. One focused on based on ignoring the bounce feature for sake of focusing on Glaive's new default behavior of "throw - hit - return." Optimized for low to no AoE, but superior damage output on fewer targets (if you can aim for the weak point).

 

3. One focused on turning the Glaive into a better tuned (simpler than option 1) AoE damage weapon. Throw into a crowd, it will auto-target the bounces and return. Lower damage potential due to no headshots, but effectively creates an alternative to the weapons like Orthos that can thin out a crowd of light enemies without effort. In comparison to a regular AoE melee weapon, this will be safer, but will not kill as fast due to needing to wait for the projectile to return.

Edited January 4, 2014 by konfetarius

[angrykenji]

power throw needs wayyy more punch through than the 0.6 right now at full rank.

[konfetarius]

Speaking of, did the pre-nerf Power Through go through Corpus robotics or has it always been bugged that way?