What I wish Broadsword looked like (stuck in Katana's shadow)

[Shin Magmus]

A foreword from the author...

 

     Hi there, I'm the Mr. Shin who likes it when bad and underperforming sets get buffed.  We've seen some incredible reworks of underperforming sets so far on HC: with the most recent one applicable to this topic being Battle Axe.  On top of bringing the numbers up in a generic way, this rework added some utility to the set via Axe Cyclone, and gave it an identity to differentiate it from other sets via the new Targeted AoE vector on some of the attacks.  I see these changes and I agree that sets need something unique to give them an identity and make them feel different from other sets.

 

     Now it's time for a bit of history... Did you know that at one point: Katana was literally just an identical clone of Broadsword?  It's true, and the live devs added entirely new animations to differentiate the sets.  They went with a faster/lighter theme for the set but accidentally made it have UNIVERSALLY BETTER DPA ON EVERY POWER EXCEPT THE T1, and simultaneously gave most of the Katana powers lower CDs than the Broadsword ones.  This resulted in near-universal advantages to playing Katana over Broadsword.  Examine this color-coded table (Brute dmg was used for reference):

 

     At this point Broadsword was bad, but still barely tolerable because Broadsword hit for uniquely huge numbers on Scrappers... but history has long since changed that.  Scrappers now have access to Stone Melee, Energy Melee, War Mace, Battle Axe, and Titan Weapons: quite the pick of sets with a super-hard-hitting attack to really Clobber an enemy.  At the same time, non-Scrappers have gained access to Broadsword through powerset proliferation.  Broadsword is currently mockinglingly referred to as "Badsword" by many players😔.  Read on below to see how I would fix Broadsword.

 

 

Fixed Broadsword

By: Shin_Rekkoha (Shin Magmus)

 

New Mechanics: Laceration & Sever

     The logic behind this design change is really very simple: give Broadsword another BIG NUMBER to chonk with, enabling players to enjoy seeing a massive spike of damage in one hit.  Unlike something purely random, it is possible to manipulate the chance of this bonus damage or even guarantee it, if the user so-chooses.  It fulfills a twin purpose by adding incentive to use the Broadsword T2 attack and other faster-but-weaker attacks.  Parry also benefits from these changes.

 

"Laceration": Every damaging Broadsword attack (even Parry) applies 1 stack of Laceration to the target hit, instantly.  AoE Broadsword attacks apply 1 stack to every target hit.  Assassin's Slash for Stalkers uniquely applies 2 stacks of Laceration.  This debuff is automatic, instant, and deals no damage on its own.  Think of this as a largely invisible mechanic that operates on the same rules as "Assassin's Focus".  Laceration caps at 4 stacks, and attacks that can proc Sever will instead proc a Laceration stack if they fail their Sever roll.

 

"Sever": Disembowel and Head Splitter now have a %chance to inflict a large spike of bonus damage.  Whenever these attacks Sever, the bonus damage appears accompanied by floating text above the enemy.  This effect consumes all Lacerations on the target and resets the stack to 0.  This damage is affected by enhancements and damage buffs, and functions like a damage proc, increasing the damage dealt by 66%.  On Scrappers and Stalkers, Sever damage will also Critical Hit if the attack rolled a Critical Hit, for a potential total multiplier of x3.32 over the original base damage: Now That's a Lotta Damage!

 

Sever Chance scales linearly:

0 Lacerations: 0% chance of Sever

1 Lacerations: 25% chance of Sever

2 Lacerations: 50% chance of Sever

3 Lacerations: 75% chance of Sever

4 Lacerations: 100% chance of Sever

 

T1 - Hack

No stat changes.

*applies Laceration x1*

 

T2 - Slash

Animation time reduced from 1.584s -> 1.32s, resulting in DPA increase of 20%.

*applies Laceration x1*

 

T3 - Slice

Animation time reduced from 2.244s -> 1.98s, resulting in a DPA increase of 13%.

*applies Laceration x1*

 

T4 - Build Up

Standard Power.

*No Changes*

 

T5 - Parry

No stat changes: This power is numerically identical to Katana's Divine Avalanche, and would be unfair to change without adjusting both powers.

*applies Laceration x1*

 

T6 - Confront

Standard Power.

*No Changes*

 

T7 - Whirling Sword

Initial damage increased by 25%, Bleed DoT unchanged, resulting in a net damage & DPA increase of 19%.

*applies Laceration x1*

 

T8 - Disembowel

Damage and DPA increased by 8%.

*Attempts to inflict Sever for bonus damage.  If Sever fails, applies Laceration x1*

 

T9 - Head splitter

Animation time reduced from 2.508s -> 2.244s, resulting in a DPA increase of 12%.

*Attempts to inflict Sever for bonus damage.  If Sever fails, applies Laceration x1*

 

STALKER ONLY - T4 - Assassin's Slash

No stat changes.

*applies Laceration x2*

 

 

Feel free to let me know what you think of these changes.  I know everyone wants the bonus damage to be called "FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM!" but the devs have rights to that term for other uses.

 

[Videra]

An amazing synopsis of Broadsword's current state and what it could be by the monarch of Logical Game Design.

Do this! Actually!

[ThatGuyCDude]

I like the idea that Sever is a second, controllable critical hit.  I was wary about the stacks being on the targets, because there's a lot of damage potential that vanishes if it isn't triggered on a felled opponent.  However, in this instance that's actually a great balancing factor: the extra damage potential is countered by drop-outs in the ability to utilize that damage potential.

 

I hope the devs take a good long look at this idea and give it their consideration.

[Shin Magmus]

I also thought that the massive damage potential would be better if it was mostly only relevant on high HP Targets: the type of enemy where being a "weak" set becomes most apparent.  By contrast, Broadsword probably won't have the ability to attack anything below Boss rank enough times to get to a forced 100% Sever chance, but I felt that was fine.  Yeah it will "lose" the stacks, but with DPA adjustments throughout the set it isn't reliant on them.  This also makes it feel different from Tidal Power / Combo Points.

[Enamel_32]

I like both the attention to numbers and mechanics as well as the overall flavor, but have to wonder about how it interacts with... itself:

 

I'm not aware of too many mechanics in the game right now that rely on stacking and consuming debuffs/tokens on enemies. This seems to be done mostly on the player side of the equation. I think the reason for that is when you have multiple Broadsworders in the mix, sever is going to end up benefiting one of those players, and the others don't get the big orange damage number. I think that could be solved in a couple ways, both of which I'm not sure are currently possible in the game: A. only remove 1 stack of laceration when sever is procced, or B. only remove stacks of laceration created by the player.

 

Edit: I didn't mean to resurrect this thread. My apologies!

Edited June 5 by Enamel_32

[Videra]

I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite thread necromancy on the suggestion forums.

[lemming]

For a necro, it's got stuff that isn't outdated and wasn't a thread that churned a lot.   I missed it last year and not sad that it came back up.

[Psyonico]

I don’t know why, but for some reason the word “Sever” isn’t doing it for me… but I can’t think of another word that I like better, either.

 

I have to give it points for originality, numbers might need to be tweaked, but that’s for the powers dev to figure out.

 

also:

9 hours ago, Enamel_32 said:

both of which I'm not sure are currently possible in the game: A. only remove 1 stack of laceration when sever is procced, or B. only remove stacks of laceration created by the player.

removing only 1 stack would totally be possible code-wise, but it might lead to it being overpowered, since a solo BSer could use disembowel and head splitter back to back and get double Severs.

 

as for B? That one I’m not as sure of, but I suspect it could still be possible.

[venetiasilver]

On 6/5/2025 at 11:17 PM, Psyonico said:

I don’t know why, but for some reason the word “Sever” isn’t doing it for me… but I can’t think of another word that I like better, either.

 

I have to give it points for originality, numbers might need to be tweaked, but that’s for the powers dev to figure out.

 

also:

removing only 1 stack would totally be possible code-wise, but it might lead to it being overpowered, since a solo BSer could use disembowel and head splitter back to back and get double Severs.

 

as for B? That one I’m not as sure of, but I suspect it could still be possible.

To be cheeky we could call it Flesh Wound

[golstat2003]

2 hours ago, venetiasilver said:

To be cheeky we could call it Flesh Wound

 

OMG!!! Please devs do this! HAHA 😁

[Shin Magmus]

Flesh Wound is genius but probably too funny for our dev team to seriously consider.

[ZeeHero]

7 minutes ago, Shin Magmus said:

Flesh Wound is genius but probably too funny for our dev team to seriously consider.

But if tis but a flesh wound how could it be effective?

[venetiasilver]

Just now, ZeeHero said:

But if tis but a flesh wound how could it be effective?

It wounds the flesh, that's pretty serious.

[Psyonico]

9 minutes ago, venetiasilver said:

It wounds the flesh, that's pretty serious.

apparently uploads are still broken so you need to use your imagination here...

 

Tis but a scratch!

[ThatGuyCDude]

On 6/5/2025 at 12:58 PM, Enamel_32 said:

I'm not aware of too many mechanics in the game right now that rely on stacking and consuming debuffs/tokens on enemies. This seems to be done mostly on the player side of the equation. I think the reason for that is when you have multiple Broadsworders in the mix, sever is going to end up benefiting one of those players, and the others don't get the big orange damage number. I think that could be solved in a couple ways, both of which I'm not sure are currently possible in the game: A. only remove 1 stack of laceration when sever is procced, or B. only remove stacks of laceration created by the player.

Debuffs don't track who they're from (Seers will stack their progressive Mez on you if there's two of them attacking at once), which means stacking Broadsword players would accelerate their Sever rate but only the last one to hit would get the benefit.  I'm not entirely sure that's a problem (it's still the same number of triggers total), though it could be frustrating if one player has a better damage enhancement rate than the other.

What other mechanics could be considered as a means to handle this problem, I wonder?
Sentinels don't share stacks of Vulnerability but they do share the benefit.  A second Sentinel is prohibited from applying their inherent bonus to the same target.  This seems like it's a similar situation with Broad Sword, but it doesn't really work out.  Moving on.
MasterMinds have abilities that affect their own pets.  That's more promising.  ...Eureka.

You make Broadsword spawn an invisible, fast, flying pseudopet that follows the target.  IT gets stacks of real Laceration (the target gets 'fake' stacks for player monitoring).  When a Sever is proc'd, it feeds through the pseudopet which then detonates on the target as bonus damage (removing an equivalent count of 'fake' laceration stacks to convey to the player that the effect has triggered).

[GM_GooglyMoogly]

There's off-topic and then there's waaaaaaaaay off-topic.  No need to discuss the pros and cons of Ayn Rand in this thread.

 

BETEO.