Hi there. I’ve been playing the game throughout the whole weekend and managed to squeeze 30 something hours from it. I am in love with this game and from now on will be preaching Wicked to everyone around me as the coming of the new gaming Jesus.
Love everything about the game: from the atmosphere and the graphics, to the weighty combat, fun grind and build variety. But there are some things that could be improved, the main thing I was actually pretty frustrated about is how the greatswords play.
So I tried the Claymore, the first curved greatsword, and another one I think the zweihander lookalike and it was really fun. I tend to gravitate towards playing fiery explosion mage or big bonk mega sword in these kind of games and the mage I have is really cool I love how the spells look and feel and everytime an enemy is ripped in parts and thrown to the sky in a big explosion is just the best time ever. But playing with a greatsword is a completely different thing.
I realize it is intended to be a more considerate and tactical experience with many tradeoffs for equip load/armor and stamina management and that is okay I like making these decisions but there is one thing I believe that would completely fix all the problems people have with greatswords, so hear me out on this one:
Increased poise for greatsword attacks. And you don’t even have to change anything in the animations or damage to make it work.
As it is now even if you wind up a charged attack an enemy with daggers and leather or cloth armor can easily break your attack. Like c’mon this is just unfair and unfun. I am swinging a big chunk of iron that has the capacity to obliterate anything it comes in contact with and that’s how it should feel like to swing this thing. Making the poise for GS attacks higher could open up for a whole new playstyle that is high risk high reward instead of high risk and no reward as it stands now: mowing down enemies left and right, breaking their stances and interrupting their attacks - at the same time taking damage from others so the risk is there as well as a gratifying experience.
What do you think of that, is this a good idea, or am I being silly?
I’m new to the game as well, 10 hours in and only played the Great Sword. I got very lucky on my Realm and got the Legendary GS from the First Boss that unlocks the town.
Maybe there are better late game options for the Great Sword build. I saw someone mention that they stopped trying to use the charge playstyle and now use a Focus playstyle of Dodge, Focus, get out, heal items for Focus, Focus spam…
Personally I can see it working, but that would be later on in the game where I can get actual Focus Foods. I’ve only just gotten to the second main quest(?), sewer area.
I think you’re absolutely right. 2-h weapons that are slow should have more baseline poise. The smallest attack can stop your charge attacks. Most of the time, I’m dodging the last hit in a combo, charge attack, and the enemy recovers at least and we trade hits.
Maybe We should be focusing on parry. That could be another thing. I practiced for a bit with parrying enemies and it definitely opens up charge damage windows. However, that seems to goes out the window when dealing with multiple enemies, especially magic or ranged enemies.
I think a poise buff would be useful. But again, maybe we’re just missing all the late game enchants that make the weapon more viable.
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The dancing aspect of the GS (dodge, attack, dodge, charged, dodge, Focus, etc) is really cool but as it is now it works only for bosses. Group clearing is pretty bad compared to basically any weapon that’s available in the game and that is just counterintuitive.
But maybe you’re right and the greatsword opens up later in the game, or maybe even after 1.0 comes out and new items and runes are available.
Still buffing attack poise on GS would be a really nice touch to make using it a lot more fun.
You mentioned a hypothetical scenario with a leather/cloth wearing NPC wielding daggers vs you with your greatsword, but what about your character’s poise stat?
You can wear heavier armor, have poise-increasing enchants on your gear, drink a defensive potion, and cast a poise-increasing buff on yourself. They won’t be able to stop you if you prepare and turn yourself unstoppable.
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That is also what I’m trying to figure out here: is the road to viable Big Bonk just harder then any other builds on purpose or is that a balance overlook? Because if it’s intended progression for greatsword builds then yah I am all in for it. I would even be happier if that was the case - I really like the leveling aspect in aprg’s. But if I have to play cult worshipper, poison guzzler and cheerleader everytime I want to reach the DPS levels of every other unbuffed weapon then I strongly believe there is work to be done on the balancing field.
Not to be a party pooper - I have nothing against worshipping cosmic gods and drinking swirly concoctions to maximize damage output. What I wish for my proposed inherent weapon poise buff is to make the grearsword playstyle a bit more fun and exciting on top of what is already there.
Not sure what you mean by the flashy wording, but I have been playing that exact role last night and my character was obliterating stuff.
I picked a Freiheit greatsword with a ‘reliable’ facet, and bonking went very, very smooth. I’ve been playing on standard difficulty setting though. I’ve heard that the harder difficulty level has some buffs to enemy poise level. Are you playing on the hard setting?
No I’m playing on normal setting. Well I guess I’ll just power trough it some more, let’s see where that goes.
By the way how can I add facets to weapons and armor? Is this even possible?
No, you can’t craft them. The whole thing of facets is you pray to find the one you like, and then build upon that base.
Thanks :3 I’ll go back back to bonking then
i never had issues with poise but i’ve been running as heavy as possible on normal, right now i’m mostly mesh plate at lvl 12. not sure about endgame since i’m waiting on friends on this build but it seemed fine all the way through
not sure if attacks also apply a poise modifier ala souls hyperarmor, whenever i’m worried about a trade i’ll try using one of my skills like barbaric slash and i almost always push it through