Let Me Fix That For You: Melee Weapons

[IcarusNine]

Long Swords
Cronus, Dark Sword, Ether Sword, Heat Sword, Jaw Sword, Machete, Mire, Pangolin Sword, Plasma Sword, Skana, Skana Prime
- All should have max targets 2. They would do 100% damage to one target in their range and 67% damage to a second.

By comparison, dual weapons are generally capable of hitting 3 targets (Orthos hits 5) doing 75% and 56% to their second and third targets, respectively. This would still leave long swords as inferior, just not AS inferior.  Actually, that would almost solve it. Even though the better longswords compensate for their lower charge/slide damage relative to dual weapons with faster speed and charging, they have sorely lacked the ability to deal with crowds.

 

Daggers
Ceramic Dagger, Dark Dagger, Heat Dagger
- x3 stealth damage instead of x2.
Dagger animations don't really lend well to hitting multiple targets, and they need to be differentiated from long swords. Luckily, daggers are a perfect conceptual fit for stealth attacks. Adding stealth and possibly crit damage would make them useful alternatives for an Ash or Loki, who might prioritize single target stealth damage over more general attacks.

Staff Weapons
Amphis, Bo
- Guaranteed stagger on hit.
- Max targets 5, consistent with Orthos.
Ideally these would be crowd control weapons, meant more for disabling large numbers of enemies than for strictly dealing damage. That would distinguish them from the Orthos, which is all damage (and widely regarded as the best overall melee weapon). I'd love to see them with a knockdown on the charged attack, but it would have to be a weapon feature, as there's no armor-ignoring damage type.

The rest of the weapon classes might not necessarily need broad buffs. Individually, many weapons, including long swords and daggers, need some adjustment on a case-by-case basis, but that's beyond the scope of this post.

Edited July 26, 2013 by IcarusNine

[Vaskadar]

Daggers should have exceptional crit multipliers, methinks (3x minimum). Bo staff and Amphis are in desperate need of buffs as far as stagger goes. The bo used to stagger every hit, now it doesn't even do that or ignore armor like it used to in early beta.

Also: Parrying should be a thing. They really need to explore blocking quite a bit more as an overall mechanic, and parrying would be an excellent complement, with a guaranteed crit on parry. It would make the melee combat far more interesting. Deflect a melee blow and during their stun period, get in a critical attack.

I like your ideas.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Vaskadar

[Dasmir]

All dagger should do x2 critical damage and has a 20% critical rate..

[JBS_1]

I don't know why they don't just use actual hit detection for melee weapons.  A longsword can already break multiple containers in one swing, so why not use it for enemies as well?  Capping it at a set number has always seemed silly to me, just have different weapons use different attack arcs.

[Archistopheles]

Longswords can cause headshots. Give them a 1.5x multiplier for headshots and they will be the prefered weapon for those who can aim.

[Ariarch]

All dagger should do x2 critical damage and has a 20% critical rate..

35% crit rate.

[Zhoyzu]

Daggers should have exceptional crit multipliers, methinks (3x minimum). Bo staff and Amphis are in desperate need of buffs as far as stagger goes. The bo used to stagger every hit, now it doesn't even do that or ignore armor like it used to in early beta.

Also: Parrying should be a thing. They really need to explore blocking quite a bit more as an overall mechanic, and parrying would be an excellent complement, with a guaranteed crit on parry. It would make the melee combat far more interesting. Deflect a melee blow and during their stun period, get in a critical attack.

I like your ideas.

yes

[Dasmir]

Longswords can cause headshots. Give them a 1.5x multiplier for headshots and they will be the prefered weapon for those who can aim.

 

any melee with vertical animation can headshot and how the fuk you aim a headshot with melee...