Scythes

[UmbraLotus]

Ever since I started playing this game, I've been in love with the scythes. It was my first objective in this game when I started playing to seek out Reaper Prime when my friend told me about it. And I did, I got it and I've had it ever since, even forma'd it and all. I'm a stalking fan of scythes. (Yes that was a really bad pun.)

 

All of that aside, there are some concerns I've had with them since I first got my hands on them, and even since Melee 2.0. First would be the design of the weapons. I absolutely love the looks of them, the dual blades on the Reaper Prime, the wicked sharpness of the Hate, the energy patterns on the Ether Reaper, but something's missing. That something would be the size of the scythes themselves, as currently they're more like pickaxes than actual scythes. I really could imagine myself climbing a mountain and mining ores with a Hate, and that's not particularly a good thing to me. Usually when you think of a scythe, you think of a rather large blade connected to a handle that may be about the size of the player. Relatively, pole-arms are a better example of the length of a typical scythe would be. I'd like to feel like I'm holding a weapon capable of reaping and decimating my enemies, not getting me precious minerals. Besides, can you imagine Stalker swinging around a pole-arm sized scythe around at a player? Charging at the player with it? It sounds terrifyingly beautiful.

 

The second thing about scythes that I've noticed since melee 2.0, the stances. There have been two since release, Reaping Spiral and Stalking Fan, the former of which has gotten a few new tricks since it's release, while the latter seems a little neglected. Generally when I play with stalking fan the only thing I really end up doing is holding the forward key and spamming the melee key, spamming the Dying Light combo over and over and over again, because it works and it gets the job done, and while the Shadow Wing combo is nice to throw in occasionally for single heavy targets, I don't end up using it often at all. Reaping Spiral on the other hand has it's ups and downs, Abyssal Automaton is absolutely amazing and it looks gorgeous, but sometimes it seems like the scythe completely misses the things it flies through altogether, and there's no point in being far away and throwing it because you don't want to risk missing with it's extremely awkward hitbox. And Eternal Nocturne is an amazing combo, really, does good damage and a 200% blast proc, however, it looks absolutely hideous pulling it off. The animation feels really off, kinda clunky. The scythe seems to hover a bit in places where it shouldn't, especially at the end of the combo. Also adding to that, the quick strike with scythes, when spammed, seems so much more awkward than nearly any other melee I've used. As for the over all damage output of scythes, they're rather mediocre right now, and I'm not entirely against that. It's understandable that all weapons can't hit like a truck, and some you just have to put more effort into to make them do sufficient damage. A buff would be nice, but it's really not the main problem with the weapons at all.

 

On another note entirely, Kamas and other dual axe type weapons (Zorens, Ichors) have been using dual sword stances for quite a while, and some of the combos just don't really look too good using dual axes rather than dual swords. Personally I'd kind of like to see dual axes and swords have a separate stance pool in the future.

 

But yeah that pretty much ends my rant, and um, it's like 6 AM and I haven't had sleep.

TL;DR: Scythes need a little love in every department. Pls make them awesomer. Thanks.

[Sziklamester]

I can agree with your statement the scythes need more care and need more weapon in this category. There is some other weapons which need also much more love but it seems the devs not often change the old contents unless that not bugged when a new update coming.

[Noble_Cactus]

Yeah, the Abyssal Automaton combo's projectile portion has a super weird hitbox that feels incredibly small. It's hard to get a feel for how wide it should hit, too, since you're only seeing the spinning scythe from a horizontal perspective.

 

Eternal Nocturne mostly looks bizarre because the scythe actually shrinks when it's executed. That, and the flipping animation just looks too unnatural.

Edited May 9, 2015 by Noble_Cactus

[(XBOX)bigsnake84]

Yes there needs to be something for scythes. I personally believe a range buff is needed, but also i have an idea that can make them a soul reaping badass.

If they can add one combo or two to the stances, or add a completely new stance, that upon the last two attacks one stuns opening a finisher and the other performs the finisher. After this combo has been inputted the last couple moves can be spammmed on repeat by mashing melee, much like battering roots for the clashing forest stance, allowing for a chain of finisher attacks on enemies.

The chained finisher animation would need to be faster than other animations and easily chained to the next enemy with the main risk of the combo being attacking only one enemy at a time, but with deadly finisher damage. Maybe the finisher animation can start slower but gain speed based on amount chained or melee multiplier.

Also yes im a stalking fan too and there needs to be an extra combo.

PS: Can you offer input of this idea in my other post? It's the other scythe post a couple of the posts down.

*ponders if replying to get attention on own post is against rules*

Edited May 9, 2015 by (XB1)bigsnake84