The Problem
The basic premise of picking a 2h weapon over sword and board is:
I will take more damage, but I will deal more damage.
The Claymore does not live up to this promise.
A claymore as it stands per hit does pretty much twice the damage of a 1h. So on paper this should work out.
However in practice after swapping back and forth between a 1h and the Claymore for the last few hours at least for me it did not live up to that fantasy at all. Even using a 1h without a shield seems superior to using the Claymore in practice.
It’s fine for trash mobs, especially these you can charge up an attack against. But against bosses/larger enemies the Claymore just ends up feeling lackluster.
Why is the Claymore so much worse against hard enemies in particular?
It really comes down to attack speed/window of opportunity and stamina.
When playing with some confidence for maybe every three short windows that permit me to get a hit with a 1h sword in, there is maybe one where I can safely attack with the claymore. If I play more cautious that maybe goes down to 1:2 but it’s still a stark difference.
And while sometimes I can sequeeze a two attack combo in with the claymore, which just beats the three-hit combo of the 1h sword hands down, it’s not nearly often enough to make up for the lack of attack opportunites.
Beyond that I also had some issues with stamina. In terms of stamina-per-damage the claymore is much better. Yet in fights I often found myself having to watch out for stamine far more when using the claymore. Eventually I realized it’s because of attack/animation speed. At times I could simply attack and then sidestep with the 1h, while the 2h required a roll after the attack because of the longer attack animation.
What could be done about this.
Lean into it’s strengths
Raise the damage. I honestly think nothing would break if the Claymore had 5-10% more damage and it would feel far more like the heavy hitter it should be. Against enemies where it matters you still get the chance to attack less often, and you have to invest into more stamina to be able to use it efficiently. I think it would be fine.
Lean into the fantasy of it striking hard if the stars align and buff it’s combos. In think if the second attack of it’s combo would be better it would help a lot. Shortening the animation lock on those slightly would go a long way. A stamina cost buff for the second attack could also help.
Raise it’s focus generation? If I could use more focus attacks with it, then the basic attacks being kinda bad wouldn’t feel half as bad.
Attack speed?
Buffing it’s attack/animation speed would help of course. But also water down it’s identity. Not sure it’s a good idea.