page 3 [FOCUSED FEEDBACK] Broadsword Adjustments

[The Curator]

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Broad Sword

• Slash
  • Cast time lowered from 1.33s to 1.1s
• Slice
  • This power now applies a -15% res debuff on targets for 15 seconds
  • After 15s from last use, this power can inflict a Rending Slice on the main target hitting for an additional 0.7254 lethal damage
  • -Defense debuff lowered from -7.5% to -3.75%,
  • Cast time lowered from 2.00s to 1.83s
  • Mutually exclusive option to Boomerang Slice
  • Damage from 1.23 to 1.2346
  • Stalker Only
    • Target cap increased from 5 to 10 targets
• Boomerang Slice
  • A new mutually exclusive option to slice. It has a narrower area but longer reach than Slice. 
  • This power now applies a -15% res debuff on targets for 15 seconds
  • After 15s from last use, this power can inflict a Rending Slice on all targets hitting for an additional 3 ticks of scale 0.2 dot lethal damage [does not apply to Stalkers]
  • This power has similar stats with area, range and animation being the major differences. 
  • 1.83 cast time, 8s recharge, 30ft range, 30 degree arc with scale 0.877 damage.
• Whirling Sword
  • Recharge increased from 14s to 20s
  • Radius increased from 8ft to 10ft on Scrappers, 12ft to 15ft on Tankers
  • Endurance cost increased from 13.52 to 18.512
  • Damage scale increased from 1.18 to 1.4218
• Head Splitter:
  • This power now can hit up to 2 additional foes in a 90 degree arc for 33% damage.
  • Target cap adjusted to 3 on all ATs

[bAss_ackwards]

Slash:

• Power icon should be swapped with Hack. Slash is the smaller hitting attack, but has the "more damaging" attack icon between the two.
• Attack flow feels better with cast time reduction.

Slice:

• The -Res has been nice to play with. For fighting a single target, it is a bit strange to have this AoE as an opener and debuff maintain. If there's any appetite to have a single target version of this -15% res debuff, I would suggest putting it on Disembowel and non-stacking with Slice/Boomerang Slice.
• Rending slice is a nice bonus, but at current iteration not something I'd be looking to maintain on cooldown.

 

Boomerang Slice:

• Nice animation.
• Slice appears to be a prerequisite to being able to choose this power, rather than an exclusionary choice.
• Scrapper version only allows Brute ATO.
• At Scrapper level 50 with 2 level 50 Damage IOs slotted in both Slice and Boomerange Slice, there's about a 30 damage difference. That seems like a lot of damage reduction to have the utility of a short ranged attack. At the current iteration I would not entertain this attack in any of my Broadsword builds.

Whirling Sword:

• Radius increase feels great on my Scrapper. Don't have to bunch up enemies as much.
• Damage increase also feels much more natural. Always felt off that all my other Broadsword attacks would hit like a truck, while Whirling Sword was a tickle.

 

Headsplitter:

• Missed attacks appear to still play hit vfx and sfx. It also appears to apply Incarnate Interface debuff. Seems like the miss should not apply to any any of these.
• GLANCE for the popup text on the extra targets hit by Headsplitter doesn't really fit. Feels like you were close to missing when seeing that text. It's something I would expect to popup from a defensive armor set mechanic. Would suggest something like CLEAVE! to pop up instead.
• Animation seems to have an issue playing while flying. Character just floats as effects and damage appear in front of them. To replicate, keep moving while the attack fires off.

[Pazta]

Feedback for Stalkers:

Head Splitter: Still treated as an AoE for critical considerations even though it's no longer a true AoE, and instead is closer to Thunder Strike. "Glancing" hits don't seem to crit or proc at all, but procs will land before damage does on the main target. It still doesn't get a bonus to critical chance despite being in the description.

Other Stalker sets up the damage of their T9s to make them more effective in ST, and I feel that improving Head Splitter to a 16s/2.92 scale would benefit here considerably. Also it should get 100% Crit Chance out of 'Hidden'.

 

Slice: Trying to fill too many roles. It doesn't make much sense to tweak Slice's ST contributions while actual ST attacks went untouched, like Disembowel and Parry, especially since both Slash and Parry are doubling up on being "T1 attacks".

I'd suggest having two sources of the -Res which don't stack with each other: One for Slice, then one for the ST attack rotation. Probably Disembowel just to make it more of a rotation mainstay than it is now, and to break up the complication of needing to mix in Slice to a ST rotation.

Disembowel: Compared against other sets, it's not competitive with some Lvl 2 attacks. Some sets get three attacks that will outperform Disembowel before Level 22. It's not competitive with Hack from its own set, really. Putting Disembowel at 12s cd & 2.28 scale damage would help raise its damage without any sort of animation tweaks. The aforementioned -Res would also help, and would be consistent with similar attacks from other sets, such as Rend Armor.

Slash: Making Slash faster is fine, but on a set that's on the slower side for animation times, it typically won't translate to more chances to use Slash, because something better will have recharged by the time you're done animating Disembowel and Head Splitter( further exacerbated by AS and the Slice mix-in). It's also competing with Parry as a fill-in. Slash switching places with Parry as T1 and becoming a more impactful power in some way would probably go a long way towards giving it an identity in a set where it's getting so overshadowed.

Edited Saturday at 04:03 PM by Pazta

[Eirei07]

Head Splitter
Seems like Glance is autohit, whether or not the attack hits or misses the main target. Not sure if this is intentional.

Additionally, proc rolls seems to go off despite the main attack missing. Shown in the snapshot is Head Splitter missing Warhulk (main target) but Critical Strikes proc, FotG proc and Incarnate Interface proc still going off, with Interface proc hitting the Warhulk. This seems like a bug.

Edited Sunday at 12:39 PM by Eirei07

[4th.survivor]

Focused feedback regarding the changes:

Slash has been fixed, but has gone from dog**** to dog water, as it is still beset by the whims of low DPA for this set, and is emblematic of the sets problems as a whole. However, as a T1 attack, it doesn't need to be amazing, and the tweak offered here is probably what the set needs throughout. More on this below.

Slice: I admit that I like the additional -res being added and the ST tweaks. More than anything, the cast time improvement is what we crave, but it's in a pretty weird place for a power.

For scrappers at least, but I suspect across all ATs, Boomerang slice and Slice are not mutually exclusive. Rather, the game will not let me select boomerang slice unless I have slice, and once I have slice, I can take both. I would rather have an exclusive choice between slash or parry, since they're doing the same job, or more likely to be implemented: between parry and boomerang slice, since boomerang slice is a niche role with a nice animation, but a DPS brake similar to parry, and parry is a mule pick or useless for most defense sets once they've gotten their defenses online. Those defense sets could benefit from respeccing into boomerang instead, so they can still mule a set while having a nifty little ranged gimmick, and then broadsword isn't inundated with 3 of 9 possible picks being at minor damage scale.

futher, the -res on slice does not really aid my single target rotation, if we're being honest, even with the ST additions. The dilemma this gives me now is: I can use a dps brake to make my other attacks hit harder, or I can just use my harder hitting attacks. I see that the set is being setup to succeed better in pylon tests or possibly reichsman/tougher AV's, but little else. I agree that the -res would be felt more meaningfully on disembowel, and I would love if that power were sped up to be useable.

Whirling Sword: I appreciate whirling sword doing a better job, considering lotus drops was just better, faster damage. In my opinion, controlling more territory is a reasonable trade-off for attack speed animation time on a pbaoe, so whirling sword being a slightly slower, slightly bigger aoe than lotus drops is fine with me.

Headsplitter: I am now hitting targets behind me with headsplitter? That stretches credibility for a glance quite a bit, but I guess I'll take it. The glance mechanic is enjoyable, overall, when the cone isn't being weird. This power was always the (chipped) diamond in the rough of the set though, so giving it this function is welcome. Agree that glance is maybe not the term to use, and Cleave! would be clearer at a ...glance. While we're discussing that, Rending Slice! Might be better described simply by Rend! and then perhaps the feature could be considered more carefully for use across different powers.

Disembowel is just pure dog water, as others have pointed out. Whatever changes being considered for this set ought to be considered here first before anything else. Slice's improvements would have found a welcome home here.

Overall: I know it's not a sexy suggestion, but I would be fine if this set were a carbon copy clone of katana, albeit one-handed. Katana offers quick, swordsman-like attacks and decent DPA, albeit on a commonly resisted damage type. With that being off the table, any additional and new mechanics must be weighed against that at least hopeful position. So while some of the above is great, the atrocious dpa of attacks through the set is really what is holding it back, and stacking -res will never be a melee role priority (though is appreciated for compensating the prevalance of lethal resist in the game). Having a good single target with a bit of AoE in headsplitter is nice, and having a cone with a bit of single target in Slice is nice, and I appreciate that the set is getting something.

What this set needs, more than anything, is to be brought towards parity with DPA numbers to comparable sets. Having high damage attacks with slow animation times is fine for mace and axe, these are chunky, forward heavy weapons. It makes sense for titan weapons. At the time the animations were made, one handed weapon animations were all the same. Broadsword could reasonably have its animation times sped up (as was done with hail of bullets, slash, et al) to better reflect the set as its users likely envision without having to touch its damage numbers. Absent that, it needs more damage to compensate these long animation times, because as it is, much of that damage will be thrown into the void with overkill even before you compare it power by power to other sets to see they just have higher dps with better damage types besides.

I would prefer the set feel like I am swinging a sword and not a weighted piece of rebar in a room with an active MRI machine, and I don't think the set suffers for letting people have that fantasy just because katana or dual blades exist. IF the set is to be the chunky big brother to either of those two, it is still too chunky and not big enough. It need not be so.

Edited Sunday at 07:11 PM by 4th.survivor
whirling sword, cleaning up thoughts

[4th.survivor]

On 12/6/2025 at 9:24 AM, bAss_ackwards said:

Animation seems to have an issue playing while flying. Character just floats as effects and damage appear in front of them. To replicate, keep moving while the attack fires off.

has also been a thing for ages with ninja run. Not sure why the animation is shy to come out. Sometimes happens with Hack, as well, and I suspect others since I just notice it on my openers.

Edited Sunday at 04:25 PM by 4th.survivor

[Uun]

I feel like the change to Head Splitter is a nerf not a buff. While the existing cone on live is narrow (20 degrees) and long (10 ft), it has a target cap of 5, all of which receive full damage. I can accept reduced damage for the secondary targets in a wider cone, but the target cap should remain at 5, not be reduced to 3.

 

The changes to Slice and Whirling Sword are fine.

 

The in-game displays for Slice and Head Splitter are incorrect (didn't check Whirling Sword).

• Average Damage figures in the upper section and pop-up screen are wrong. Detailed damage info in the lower section and in combat is correct.
• Effect Area for Slice has wrong target cap. Was unable to confirm in game whether I was actually hitting more than 5 targets. Effect Area for Head Splitter doesn't show cone info or target cap at all. Can confirm that I was getting correct damage on secondary targets in game.