Battle Axe 1.1 (numbers)

[DrRocket]

I agree with the OPs identification of the problem

 

I think it would be simple just to shift up the amount of damage of the attack, instead of making all sorts of changes. That is if the attack does moderate damage, the corrected version does superior or high damage. This way it artificially compensates for the long graphic timelines.

 

Just trying to keep it simple.

 

V/R

[Yomo Kimyata]

One simple thing that would help battle axe, not that I’m advocating a change mind you, is add defense debuff to slotting choices like broadsword.  I even feel like that was in place at the origin of the set?  But I wouldn’t bet any inf on my memory in this case.

[Galaxy Brain]

BA does have a ton of knockdown which let's you go crazy with the mad king special (slotting 5 Firce Feedback procs) at least

[Yomo Kimyata]

59 minutes ago, Galaxy Brain said:

BA does have a ton of knockdown which let's you go crazy with the mad king special (slotting 5 Firce Feedback procs) at least

yup.  that's one of the reasons I love it, although you need to manage endurance use.  There's a KB +dam proc too, but hardly anyone seems to use it.

[DrRocket]

I believe a great QoL besides increasing damage, is to re-define all Axe attacks that has knockback to be instead knockdown, its crazy to have to be chaing the mob you knocked away so by the time you get to them they are back on thier feet and your knockback did nothing but harm you, since the tanker is getting beat up by other mobs and you are wasting time chasing a mob.

 

Another thought I had, was back in medieval days, Knights used axes because they could pierce through armor much better than a sword could, would be interesting if axe attacks would have a smash and lethal resistance debuff.

 

Just some thoughts

[Galaxy Brain]

The only axe attack with non KD is swoop which knocks up. Vs very low lvl enemies, or "light" enemies like clockwork they can get knocked back tho.

[Galaxy Brain]

Just want to necro this thread since I found it when looking up something else 😉 

 

Looking back, I think the 1st page suggestions are great but it definitely needs some extra oomph to set it apart from other sets besides knocking enemies down constantly. Additional cone hits, "mighty" hit pseudo-criticals, etc could all be fun.

[Cutter]

So I'm about to start talking outta my butt...

 

Per here:

• The battle axe struck with force could apply significant injury to a knight in armor
• The weapon was primarily used as a cutting weapon and capable of cutting off the limbs of an enemy in one stroke
• Type or group of weapons - Bludgeoning and Cutting Weapon
• It could be hurled as a missile

With the caveat that I am not a scholar of medieval weapons or battle axe, I'm gonna suggest a couple things to speak to those points:

1. Add a smashing damage component or flag a portion of BA's damage as ignoring lethal damage resistance (similar to @DrRocket's suggestion above) or the boring "special vs robots".

2. Add a bleed to a couple powers somewhere, either replacing or in addition to their knock effect.

3. Replace an attack (I couldn't even begin to say which) with a short ranged thrown weapon attack. The most complicated obviously due to needing a truckload of thrown weapon fx.

 

Too crazy?

[Sakura Tenshi]

Biggest issue with changing so many ST attacks into cones is that it's going to change IOset builds because while the damage calculations of narrow cones are treated as single targets, they are still recognized as AoE damage in terms of sets. I know this game isn't balanced around IOs, but IOs seem to be the core of what the live devs really meant with the Cottage Rule (do not take away the IO sets you can slot into something). Otherwise I don't disagree with buffing battle axe, just that it's not going to be possible making many single targets into small AoEs.

 

[tricon]

On 3/9/2020 at 6:48 PM, Sakura Tenshi said:

Biggest issue with changing so many ST attacks into cones is that it's going to change IOset builds because while the damage calculations of narrow cones are treated as single targets, they are still recognized as AoE damage in terms of sets. I know this game isn't balanced around IOs, but IOs seem to be the core of what the live devs really meant with the Cottage Rule (do not take away the IO sets you can slot into something). Otherwise I don't disagree with buffing battle axe, just that it's not going to be possible making many single targets into small AoEs.

 

I would rather not lose access to the melee IO sets and if the would follow the same rules as the other powers this would happen.

 

From playing a BA/Bio Scrapper. A full redesign is always a option but IMO even smaller changes could help. In the lower lvls the knockback (knockdown/knockup) of the powers is quite unreliable, so increasing the % chance of the knockdown would certainly help a bit. In the same way adding a -def or -res to the lvl 1 power options.

 

For a flat dmg increase I would suggest just add on all the powers a Foe minor|moderate DoT it would fit the Axe theme that if you hit them that the start bleeding. However I would change the DoT from lethal to toxic so that it has an other dmg type option. The weapon could be coated in poison or could cause an deadly infection, so that it stays within reason.........

 

 

 

Edited May 5, 2020 by tricon

[SeraphimKensai]

I agree that battle axe needs love.

 

Although, narrow cones isn't the way to do it, as someone who uses an actual axe to chop trees in my back yard, it's impossible to have a narrow cone. Instead you have heavy hard hitting arcs of destruction ready to split whatever gets in it's path.

[Marbing]

I know this is an old thread, but I think BA definitely still needs a look. Shouldn’t take much. Make most attacks lower target resistance by some small stacking amount and make Pendulum hit more than 5 targets. Both of these changes would make sense thematically.

[TheZag]

Smack Dat Axe !