The Longsword Class Could Use Some Differentiation.

[(PSN)Zeylon]

First, stats on longswords:

 

Cronus: 35 dmg (19.2 slash) .917 speed

Skana: 35 dmg (24.5 slash) .833 speed

Prisma Skana: 35.1 (24.5 slash)1.0 speed

Ether Sword: 37 dmg (25.9 slash) 1.0 speed (radiation AoE slam)

Pangolin Sword: 37 dmg (29.6 slash) .917 speed (slash slam?)

Mire: 35 dmg (24.5 slash) 1.08 speed (10% toxin damage on attacks (3.5 dmg), toxin slam)

Heat Sword: 44 dmg (35.2 slash) .917 speed (heat AoE slam)

Jaw Sword: 44 dmg (33 slash) .917 speed

 

Dark Sword: 37 radiation dmg .833 speed (toxin slam?)

Plasma Sword: 35 electric dmg .667 speed (electric slam)

 

Dakra Prime: 60 dmg (48 slash) 1.0 speed

 

There are more longswords than any other melee weapon type (11, or 12 if you count Skana Prime).  For some reason though, there are only two longsword stances (Iron Phoenix and Crimson Dervish), while Claws have three (there are two claw weapons) Fists have three (there are five fist weapons), heavy blades have three (there are four heavy blade weapons), and Nikanas have three (there are two nikanas).

 

Some of the shortcomings must've been obvious, because three Syndicate mods were made for longswords (Skana, Jaw, and Mire), though I personally think the existence of an augment doesn't excuse a subpar base state.  Two of the augments aren't terribly interesting either, they're just a straight up 100% damage increase (Jaw, Skana), the Mire gets a 100% toxin boost which is a bit different.

 

Aside from the obvious issue of a overstuffed weapon class without a corresponding wealth of stances, the weapons do little to distinguish themselves.  I separate them into three parts because most of the top set is interchangeable for the most part.  There is a difference between a Cronus, a Skana, and a Pangolin, to be sure, but these tend to be very small differences.  The Cronus has a slightly different damage breakdown (for the same overall damage) and is slightly faster.  A Pangolin has 2 more damage, but is the same speed as the Cronus.

 

The Dark Sword and Plasma Sword don't have large damage differences from most of the other swords, but the fact they do all elemental damage does set them apart in qualities, even if the stances are the same.  This tends to make for different situational usefulness in a larger way than "sometimes, the slam attacks are different" like the others.

 

Meanwhile, there's the Dakra, which is the one non-founders Prime weapon out of the 12 weapons.  It sticks out the most from the other swords not by being qualitatively different, but by being much stronger.  Of course, the Dakra is no longer available in the void, which means newer players are mostly limited to 10 mostly very similar weapons.

 

I personally like the idea of side-grades as opposed to the sort of severe power creep that sometimes arises with tiers.  Unfortunately, it feels like the current crop of swords doesn't really do either.  The Dakra was the closest thing to a separate tier weapon (the difference in the others sans-augment isn't huge, 9 damage between Skana and Jaw, or about 25%).  Meanwhile, aside from the two elemental swords, the rest of them do little to distinguish themselves in traits - there's some occasional differences slam attacks, stat peaks with 20% on the Heat Sword, the Prisma Skana has the best crit with 20%, and that's pretty much it.

 

Some of these issues are inherent to melee to begin with (e.g. - crit builds suffer from the sole 60% boost option and peak of 25% chance on the highest weapons, or the awkwardness of many channeling options).  However, I think the weapon class could be cleaned up.

 

For starters, a weapon class with that many options should probably have proportionally more stances than classes with far fewer weapons.  If nothing else, it should match the other ones with the most stances (3), but four stances would be better.

 

Secondly, it would be nice to mix up the damage types more and give the blades more individual character.  Many of the swords have interesting descriptions/depictions (Ether Sword or the Heat blade's reference to fire damage), but you just don't see it reflected in the utility or stats of the weapon.

 

Apparently the Jaw Sword used to have a lot of puncture damage (because it's serrated, I guess?), but this was changed to make it mostly slash.... just like every other sword.

 

It would be nice to see some logical extensions of the weapons extended into their stats.  The heat sword should probably be doing a percentage of fire damage, for example.  It wouldn't hurt the Jaw Sword to be majority puncture damage, and so on.  If the Ether Sword had a percentage of armor bypass or the like (without altering damage), then that would also be interesting.

 

It's fine if the weapons aren't on clearly defined tiers, but they should have *at least* enough differentiation to make give them worth as side grades or value in situational use vs. specific factions.

 

 

[(PSN)Cerata_]

SAY IT LOUDER!

But yes, we really need a third stance, and reason to use anything other than the Dakra Prime.

[ROSING]

They mentioned a long sword stance was on the way in the same devstream they announced the rapier...I want an update on that :T

[(PSN)Zeylon]

They mentioned a long sword stance was on the way in the same devstream they announced the rapier...I want an update on that :T

 

That's good news, I wonder what the workflow is like in terms of developing new stances?

 

Part of the reason I'd like a stat adjustment is that I think, compared to new assets/animations, it would presumably take less developer time.