Excalibur, Exalted Blades "waves" speed increase

[daSweep]

Now I know, I know.. there are much bigger fish to fry and more important things that need fixing, but hear an old veteran out. 

I don't think there is anything wrong with Excalibur at the moment, from a pure balance and ability viewpoint, but I do have a problem with one thing; the speed of the waves from his Exalted Blade. While the ability is super fun to use, making you feel like some Ichigo wannabe shooting blade waves all over the place, I do think they move way too slow. Like I said before, this is not because of balance issues or anything, I don't want them to be faster to get kills faster, but it looks stupid. When you can shoot a wave and then actually catch up with it, that's a problem I think.

I've played Excalibur a lot, but I haven't really built him around Exalted Blade until the Chromatic Blade augment came out (which I adore by the way), and it was then I noticed just how slow the waves move, and how dumb it really looks.

During all my time playing this game, and browsing this forum, I have never seen a game change based on one single Tennos opinion, but I just wanted my voice heard.

[daSweep]

Another fix I could see working would be an augment for Exalted Blade that removes the waves all together, granting some bonus attack speed and damage or something. Right now it just doesn't give great feedback using the waves. They're not fast, they just move in a straight line with almost no animation. They look boring, that's all.

[L4Blue]

increasing the speed of the waves makes it a Arca Plasmor

i'd rather have some changes to his 3

Edited September 16, 2017 by Mineeden

[Koldraxon-732]

@daSweep, I have a proposition that would link with how Exalted Blade has damage falloff based on distance.

Spoiler

 

Firstly, the removal of Exalted Blade's damage falloff (PVE only) at the cost of the wave shrinking, but the benefit here is, using the 'size matters' mentality, when Exalted Blade's wave shrinks, it goes faster until it hits something.

Heavy blades and hammers should cause Exalted Blade's waves to be bigger, and 'heavier' (based on melee range), and not just that; hits that miss targets and hit surfaces (due to having an arrow-like dropoff) will cause explosions.

Blocking and then meleeing will cause Excalibur to draw a tower shield, taking a small chunk of energy to spawn the shield; the shield only lasts as long as Exalted Blade, and reflects projectiles to whoever sent them - allies cannot ricochet explosives from these.

New Augment: Melee Exaltation.

Spoiler

A new augment should be introduced that allows Excalibur to Exalt any weapon, but removing all of the previously mentioned benefits (causes Exalted Blade, when not attacking with it, to cost no energy to sustain, but the blade's wave damage is the melee's damage, and this damage stacks on itself via the combo counter).

 

Secondly, relating to @Mineeden wanting Radial Javelin changes, perhaps the melee's finisher damage should be applied to it?

And thirdly - in my opinion -, Excalibur's Slash-Dash should have a stacking buff based on successful hits; the more enemies you hit, the longer the buff lasts (power damage + range + efficiency, stacks generate every 5 hits and decay based on the amount of hits).

This would give him elements to master beyond just pressing 2 or 4 and spamming E.

[Xyhon]

Or, you can just use his Slash Dash now to gain ground/make combo counter work (even greater with augment). Since this actually improves your damage, being in melee range, not waving around from a distance.

[daSweep]

27 minutes ago, Xyhon said:

Or, you can just use his Slash Dash now to gain ground/make combo counter work (even greater with augment). Since this actually improves your damage, being in melee range, not waving around from a distance.

This isn't about getting into close combat, that isn't hard. I want to wave around from a distance, I like the ability and I want to use it. This is about improving the visual feedback on the waves themselves, but if they won't change it I would rather they remove them all together (or with an augment as I suggested above) and then focusing on getting in close.

 

@Koldraxon-732: I do like some of your suggestions, but I would rather make the maximum range of the waves reduces, and granting them faster travel time for the whole trip. Starting slow and gaining speed could work, but I think it might still have the same problem. Mineeden says it would become an Arca Plasmor, and yes, that is exactly what I want. That speed is great, and it feels really good to use.