Melee Weapon Types Balancing Discussion

[Thereddic]

There's no real denying the fact that melee weapons are not well balanced as of yet. Even if we don't consider the fact that charge attacks reign supreme over fast attack weapons, certain weapon types are flat out superior to others. Why use a single sword, for example, when you get flat out superior results with a dual weapon? I'm hardly an expert on Warframe, I've only been playing since around the beginning of April, but I've been thinking about how to make other weapon types more viable options in comparison to heavy weapons and their charge attacks.

 

My approach to this has been to sort the weapons into respective categories with specific strengths and weaknesses. Note that these ideas have no basis on the specific weapons already released. Adjustments would likely need to be made based on their specific traits (mire's poison damage, for example). Also note that for the purposes of these changes, Charge attacks NO LONGER ignore armor and unless otherwise mentioned ALL WEAPONS can now hit multiple targets, based on the size/reach of the weapon, obviously.

 

1H WEAPONS

1H weapons, as fitting for the weapon type the player starts with, is the Jack of all trades, master of none style of weapon. decent attack speed, reach, and charge damage, but surpassed in these regards by more specialized weapons.

 

DUAL WEAPONS

Dual weapons are based around attacking fast. They might sacrifice either range and/or base damage per swing in regards to 1 handers, but make up for it in attack speed and, and likely have larger attack AoEs. Charge damage is also lowest.

 

HEAVY WEAPONS

Heavy weapons are based around that one glorious hit, you may not have many attacks, but each one hits like a freight train. Charge damage is highest/second highest (explained further in fists), that slowed step on the swing is made up for the long reach already inherent in the weapons.

 

FISTS

Fists are designed to be built around taking down a single target as fast as possible. To do this, they have high attack speed/charge attack damage (based on type, Furax for charge damage, ankyros for speed, for example) resulting in the highest DPS. The cost for this power is they cannot attack multiple targets on swing, as well as having short reach.

 

POLEARMS

Polearms are designed for trading the raw power of other melee weapons in exchange for utility. Polearms have the biggest reach and attack AoE of all weapons, but have very low speed/damage. In exchange for the lack of damage, they have the highest stun/knockback rates, allowing the user to clear out a large amount of enemies in order to gun them down.

 

Daggers

Daggers are designed as a mobile weapon, used for assassination and fast movement. Daggers are single target weapons, no multitargeting, and have low damage per hit but they maintain the ability to ignore armor to compensate. Daggers have a fast attack speed as well, rivaling Dual weapons and fists. The mobility of the dagger comes from its charge attacks. Inspired by the unique effects of the glaive, a Dagger's charge attack has a unique effect. Depending on which way the player is moving when the charge attack goes off, the player will jump in that direction to give the attack extra reach. For example, a player could run forward charging an attack to quickly close the gap between enemies, or  charge attack backwards to hit an enemy while putting distance between the player and the enemy. I'm concerned about whether or not this is too powerful/gimmicky.

 

 

Well, these are my thoughts on the subject. Anybody care to offer their opinion? Again, I have not taken unique effects on weapons into account with this, so things like Fragor's armor ignore don't fit into the equation at the moment. Thoughts? Further ideas? Barely coherent rage at my lack of competence?

[holdenagincourt]

I would like to see daggers retain the ability to use the stealth sync attack at all times. As long as you're in a 180 degree cone of the target's back, you get the option to do the sync. They should of course ignore armor in all attack animations and probably just need a global damage buff as well. They're generally terrible at the moment.

 

Some weapons seem to have bugged stats. E.g. Jaw Sword, which supposedly "delivers strong quick attacks," has a slower attack speed than the Gram.

 

Things like Dual Heat Swords, Dual Ethers, Gram etc. which simply outclass other weapons in most ways should be reevaluated. Given how dominant Reflex Coil + Killing Blow is as a combination and how Reflex Coil essentially removes the disadvantage of using charged melee, either new melee mods that compete with them should be added or the disparity between normal and charged damage should be reworked universally. Daggers and longswords are pretty much just sources of mastery points in the current game environment.

[Argoms]

I think a lot of the charge attacks beating everything else is to do with pressure point being less than half as effective as it needs to be in order to even slightly compete with killing blow. However, the fact that longswords only hitting one target has really got to change, or at least the animations should be a precise stabbing motion instead of wide swings to reflect the single-target nature of the weapon.

 

I would like to see daggers retain the ability to use the stealth sync attack at all times. As long as you're in a 180 degree cone of the target's back, you get the option to do the sync. 

Quick, call the tf2 spy mains. Trickstabs, trickstabs everywhere! Although since you're not facing enemies who will complain about lag, it could be quite an interesting mechanic for daggers as it actually requires planning/skill.

[Davoodoo]

How about giving daggers ability to do finishers. You approach someone do few hits to stun. Move to side/back and perform a finisher. No need to buff dmg, they will still be terrible against crowds, rewards being mobile and will be great against single targets. Insta kill against weakies while only high dmg against stronger ones.