Post by Kitsunenotsume on Jul 18, 2017 19:27:18 GMT -5
I've noticed for a while that a few mods seemed rather lackluster, allowing a player to trade out all their attacks or parry attempts in a turn for a single attack with up to 10 extra damage. While this extra damage *can* be useful in overcoming armor, it is a fair observation that a player is more likely to deal more damage with two to four times as many attacks in the same round instead of the single damage bonus on cooldown. A battle-axe with retracting pick is usually going to do more damage with three attacks than a single at +5 damage (assuming 50 skill), and the auto-attacks will benefit from flanking that the activation does not thereby allowing higher reliability without consuming stamina or on cooldown. Additionally, extra damage doesn't really add much that isn't available through other means - materials, abilities, and simply higher ranks can all add the same thing and will do so on every attack rather than once every 30 seconds.
Valuing my action economy, I tended to opt for other augmentations to my weapons, practicing about as I found new mods and thought up new combos. The attack-replacer mods that only provided damage were always inferior to other options or auto-attacking, but I struggled to identify how they could be improved until I used a Jackhammer mod.
The Jackhammer ability, as most attack-replacers* do, consumed a chunk of stamina to replace all your attacks that round with a single attack at +1 damage per X item ranks. Unlike the others, Jackhammer also grants a knockdown-attempt if the target is hit.
I noted an immediate difference, both in the effect of trading my 5-attacks (Dual-wield-50) with 1, but noticeable benefit of increased tactical breadth: Dual-wield gets no innate form of KD, and the ability to do so to provide my allies with bonuses made trading those extra 4 auto-attacks out a respectable option. The bonus damage was nice, partially compensating for the potential outgoing damage otherwise lost, but the primary reason for the mod was to gain that tactical advantage.
It is my opinion that the other attack-replacers should be capable of similar advantages: trading out all but one attacks for a combat-maneuver with bonus damage. Examples could be:
Retracting Pick: Apply a temporary Dodge or Armor penalty as you catch the opponent and pry them off-balance.
Pommel-Spike: Apply a brief stun on crit as you concuss their head or kidneys.
*: I will note that there are attack-replacers that offer Armor-Ignore. As far as my experiments are concerned, Armor-Ignore is a perfectly useful property which easily validates sacrificing all other attacks that round if they would likely be absorbed by heavy-plate anyway.
Valuing my action economy, I tended to opt for other augmentations to my weapons, practicing about as I found new mods and thought up new combos. The attack-replacer mods that only provided damage were always inferior to other options or auto-attacking, but I struggled to identify how they could be improved until I used a Jackhammer mod.
The Jackhammer ability, as most attack-replacers* do, consumed a chunk of stamina to replace all your attacks that round with a single attack at +1 damage per X item ranks. Unlike the others, Jackhammer also grants a knockdown-attempt if the target is hit.
I noted an immediate difference, both in the effect of trading my 5-attacks (Dual-wield-50) with 1, but noticeable benefit of increased tactical breadth: Dual-wield gets no innate form of KD, and the ability to do so to provide my allies with bonuses made trading those extra 4 auto-attacks out a respectable option. The bonus damage was nice, partially compensating for the potential outgoing damage otherwise lost, but the primary reason for the mod was to gain that tactical advantage.
It is my opinion that the other attack-replacers should be capable of similar advantages: trading out all but one attacks for a combat-maneuver with bonus damage. Examples could be:
Retracting Pick: Apply a temporary Dodge or Armor penalty as you catch the opponent and pry them off-balance.
Pommel-Spike: Apply a brief stun on crit as you concuss their head or kidneys.
*: I will note that there are attack-replacers that offer Armor-Ignore. As far as my experiments are concerned, Armor-Ignore is a perfectly useful property which easily validates sacrificing all other attacks that round if they would likely be absorbed by heavy-plate anyway.