Exalted Blade Rework Suggestion.

[Epsik-kun]

Hello there. 

First off, I have to say I don't think the current EBlade is bad/OP/actually NEEDS to be reworked, etc. I'm a relative noob with just little over a hundred hours of play time, I've only seen EBlade in early T4 or slightly prolonged T3 maximum. It's good, it feels powerful (top damage while holding Ext Key, what is my life), but lacks that "press 4 for win" feeling, which is good (the lack, not the feeling).

 

However, I feel like while EBlade is awesome and stuff, there could be done some design improvements, to make it more complex, but at the same time more rewarding instrument.

 

The two main problems I have with EBlade are:

1) Its brainlessness;

2) The stance.

 

What do I mean by brainlessness. EBlade isn't OP, but it is a universal answer to pretty much anything. If you want to melee - you EBlade stuff. You want to shoot - you EBlade stuff. You want AoE - you EBlade stuff. You want single target damage - you get the idea...

Yeah, as the game goes, weapon which can outperform EBlade in some of these categories start to appear, but not in the overall versality. Basically, most of the time, the only reason you don't want to have EBlade up is to conserve energy.

 

And, actually it isn't bad. I'm perfectly fine with it. It's an ultimate which gives you a weapon. Why shouldn't it be an ultimate weapon?

 

Tha real problem is, all of the above is achieved via simply tapping melee attack button.

There's an unique stance, and that's good. But the stance pretty much does nothing. The most effective way to fight with EBlade is by simply tapping attack as fast as you can. Combos are effectively drop your damage, due to being slower, while not providing noticeable reward for using them, aside from style points. Yeah, there's a ragdoll attack in the end of a one particular combo, but how often you ever going to actually land it? You better off with just swinging EBlade and not caring for actual combos.

And it's not like you actually want to melee stuff. Why would you want to melee stuff, when energy waves do it faster?

 

So, in the end, best option is to sit in a place and spam waves. Which isn't bad, tbh, but isn't that cool and epic™.

 

So, with the walltext of my reasoning being over, what do I actually suggest:

 

Rework for EBlade:

1) Make it an actual longsword (the ones you hold with both hands - close to what heavy blades are);

2) Keep it average speed the same;

3) Increase its range to something like Orthos P range;

4) Increase (double) its damage;

5) Return 100% damage block from the front, when not swinging it, add some damage block when you do swing it;

6) Remove waves from the basic combo;

 

Then, rework for the stance itself:

1) First combo is pretty much unchanged, save for the fact Excal is not swinging energy Skana, but a considerably bigger (visually and effectively) longsword. This is the combo you'll be using when you're running around as it doesn't affect your movement;

2) Second combo should consist of wide attacks with moderate damage multiplier. It could use some dashes and spins, but not for the first hits. This is the combo you'll be using when fighting in a croud;

3) Third combo should be a single-target killer, consisting primarily of vertical slashes and thrusts with high damage multipliers. Last attack could be an aimed thrust (meaning you could aim it at enemy/boss weak spot for maximum effectiveness) with even higher damage multiplier. Optionally, opening target for a finisher, if it somehow managed to survive the final thrust (I'm looking at you, enemy scaling);

4) Second and third combo should provide innate knockback immunity;

5) Finally, fourth combo is the combo that allows you to fire waves again. Waves should be bigger and deal more damage than before (to match the EBlade damage itself) but the combo itself should progress very slowly with a big time windows between swings, going vertical slashes and ending with wide horisontal ones. This combo probably shouldn't have actual movements in itself, to allow the old trick of sitting and shooting waves, but you wouldn't be able to do it while running.

 

If it's possible, combo selection should be possible on the very first hit. I get, that everyone should just get gud, but when you're trying to react to what is happening around you, and what you need to do as a result - ability of precise selection of your options is a good design.

Let's say, 1st combo is usual E, E, E, E; 2nd is E, pause, E....; 3rd is hold E, E... and 4th is RMB + E, E... - something like that.

 

Also, one of a very nice part of current EBlade is sliding Radial Blind. It's a great thing, that makes you sometimes stop spamming waves. How about expanding this idea further?

1) Sliding attack stays Radial Blind as it is. Arguable, could use some animation changes. For example, the sword itself just flashing in mid-swing, without additional following animation;

2) Jump attack becomes toned down version of Slash Dash - no multi-targeting, shorter distance, slightly different animation, but still providing a little homing effect (just a little) and movement capabilities;

3) Slam attack procs Radial Javeling at the end, for the radius just slightly wider than the slam itself. Damage or/and number of targets are toned down;

4) Wall attack gives you a second EBlade which does 7 times the damage, because no one uses wall attacks.

 

As the atmospheric part (aka "mah Skana on Excal"), the new EBlade could be a transformed Skana itself. I mean, when Excal uses his ultimate, he draws his usual Skana first, and then with a visible effort transforms it into a big longsword.

 

Slash Dash, Radial Blind and Radial Javelin all use the same Skana animation, unless EBlade is activated. If that's the case, Skana in animations is changed for the longsword, while the abilities themself receive some bonus of a sort.

 

Sooo... There are my little thoughts on Excalibur's Eblade. Thank you for reading, if you somehow was able to made it (I'm sure I wouldn't).

 

PS Tbh, I've copy-pasted it from the "feedback" category. I think it fits here though.

[(XBOX)TheLegend 64312]

Your rework seems like a buff. You won't be able to kill everything you see anymore, but you'll kill anything close. The way I build mine, the waves do around 3k damage (I don't let things get close enough to actually melee them) but the melee damage is much higher just because of the mechanics. Doubling the damage and increasing the range means that I switch focus energy to primed reach on my melee weapon and enjoy killing everything close instead of everything far. I personally don't think EBlade needs anything changed because of how many rare mods and forma it takes to get it to it's max potential, but if it does get reworked, I just don't think this is the way to do it.

[Epsik-kun]

Well, "double" is a relative example, given if waves are simply removed, pure melee EBlade will suffer a severe damage loss. I'm aware, that actually doubling damage will push damage way over current one. It also could be achieved via working with multipliers on combos, without boosting actual damage too much.

The whole point of this suggestion is to make player do more than E, E, E, E when EBlading, not to actually buff or nerf it.

[Draymarc]

I love the idea of this. I love the blade waves for sure, but what i never really liked about it was how much range they have. All other toggle melees are well, just melee, no waves, and a lot of the time i found myself standing back with Exalted blade just shooting energy at people. Excalibur is a swordsman, and i didnt get a swordsman feel doing that, just a mindless turret kinda thing. It would be cool imo to have a charge attack with one big, horizontal wave for some range and waveclear, but i think removing the blade waves would be a good idea.