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The damage buff to the powerfist has helped it out, but as much as I want to love it and use it I still have to say that it's still objectively the worst melee weapon in the game. The fact that some of the glaring bugs from launch have still not been fixed is only a part of this as well. Ground shake's radius is not ten meters. It's about a melee swing away. The damage is also a joke. It isn't enough to put gaunts into execute with what should be an equivalent to aftershock.
Then there's the power wave damage for heavies in general. The base is not four meters. Maybe four feet. It extends your range to roughly what every other melee weapon gets baseline for light attacks. This is also easily verifiable by just using it in game and paying attention as majoris dodge out of range or minoris wave at you behind their buddies. Sometimes literally.
That brings up one of the design problems for the powerfist. Reach. It's listed as a far reaching weapon. Outside of cannon punch it isn't. There's no power wave with light attacks, the combat knife gets more forward movement with its light attacks even though they're both effectively single target weapons, and the power first is the only melee weapon that has no real forward movement with heavy attacks in addition to the already abysmal reach.
The icing on the cake is the competition with the thunder hammer for being the slowest melee weapon in the game to get off a heavy attack. I haven't timed this out, but I'm pretty sure the thunder hammer wins out on speed here in spite of the power fist having the second highest speed stat in the game at 6+. Considering you can't dodge out of attacks and the fact that a lictor can pop a red icon on you, jump out and grab you all in the span of those animations this is really bad.
In short: ground shake's range needs to be fixed to actually be ten meters. The damage needs to be fixed to not be a joke. Power wave range for heavy attacks needs to be fixed. Light attacks should either have a power wave or a larger step to them like the combat knife so they actually have some reach. You need to be able to dodge out of melee attacks. At the bare minimum you should be able to dodge out of parry.
I don't know if this would be enough to make the powerfist a genuinely competitive choice with the other weapons, but it would at least put it on the board as something other than a gimmicky toy.
Great post. I really want to love the Power Fist and used it on my Bulwark until I reached Substantial/Ruthless, but I always felt like it was a struggle, and upon swapping weapons realized how much it underperforms. As you state, its main issue is its reach, both with regular attacks and its aoe.
It should be one of the hardest hitting single target weapons in the game, but aside from fully charged heavies and perked out Cannan Punch it's still a Tickle Glove. The ground pound perk in relic tier is still useless, could be replaced at this point. It's more manageble on Bulwark because perfect parry with Intimdating Aura kills everything around you anyway, but sucks on Assault who doesn't have that.
I would love to see it buffed as having learned the art of backdodge and only using power combos and constant parrying this weapon can be really good. So please buff it and make it better! This weapon really shines as a counter puncher. With Elite level enemies I expect to do a number of counter punches but having gotten used to it I love it. Large groups of minoris have no chance whatsoever.
I would love to see it buffed as having learned the art of backdodge and only using power combos and constant parrying this weapon can be really good. So please buff it and make it better! This weapon really shines as a counter puncher. With Elite level enemies I expect to do a number of counter punches but having gotten used to it I love it. Large groups of minoris have no chance whatsoever.
Just about the only way to make it work is through abusing cannon punch. Which takes exponentially more time and effort than just wailing away with a thunder hammer or chainsword and parrying as needed. Trying to compare it to a power sword with its flexibility is just laughable.
It simply doesn't do anything well besides cannon punch unless you're lucky enough to be able to string heavies into a terminus' back. However the game is too dynamic for that and with no fishing or if attacks it always ends up falling short even against the one thing it might be good at.
I thought it was just me not using the damn thing right... On both my Bulwark and even FAR worse my Assault, it's just AWFUL.
After the update I can handle swarms a "little" better on my Bulwark, but haven't even tried on my Assault. Before the update on my Assault was just a death sentence.
I don't know if there was a tier 3 fencing version that I hadn't gotten to yet.. maybe that would have been better.
I did the rather painful grind to unlock relic tier thinking the speed 6+ fencing variant would be a game changer. It wasn't really. It's still substantially slower than the chainsword. I tried doing the hive tyrant on minimal to get comparisons of health chunks from heavy attacks between chainsword, thunder hammer and power fist. I couldn't get a single heavy to land with the power fist because of range with the hive tyrant moving or being knocked down. On minimal.
The only way I can think to test it is to ruin it again with some friends who will clear the adds and who know how to face tank it too, but won't actually attack while I get some hits in. Which is beyond tedious for everyone involved.
It should be one of the hardest hitting single target weapons in the game, but aside from fully charged heavies and perked out Cannan Punch it's still a Tickle Glove. The ground pound perk in relic tier is still useless, could be replaced at this point. It's more manageble on Bulwark because perfect parry with Intimdating Aura kills everything around you anyway, but sucks on Assault who doesn't have that.
Agreed, in terms of melee weapon niche and damage it should be, IMO
Single Target: Power Fist #1 > 'Speed-Style' Power Sword #2 > Combat Knife #3
Crowd: Thunder Hammer #1 > 'Power-Style' Power Sword #2
It should be one of the hardest hitting single target weapons in the game, but aside from fully charged heavies and perked out Cannan Punch it's still a Tickle Glove. The ground pound perk in relic tier is still useless, could be replaced at this point. It's more manageble on Bulwark because perfect parry with Intimdating Aura kills everything around you anyway, but sucks on Assault who doesn't have that.
Agreed, in terms of melee weapon niche and damage it should be, IMO
Single Target: Power Fist #1 > 'Speed-Style' Power Sword #2 > Combat Knife #3
Crowd: Thunder Hammer #1 > 'Power-Style' Power Sword #2
Chainsword should be a solid all-rounder.
The saddest part about this is that the knife actually has better aoe for hoard clear with abusing shoulder rush and is far better with being able to stagger majoris with light attacks.
It should be one of the hardest hitting single target weapons in the game, but aside from fully charged heavies and perked out Cannan Punch it's still a Tickle Glove. The ground pound perk in relic tier is still useless, could be replaced at this point. It's more manageble on Bulwark because perfect parry with Intimdating Aura kills everything around you anyway, but sucks on Assault who doesn't have that.
Agreed, in terms of melee weapon niche and damage it should be, IMO
Single Target: Power Fist #1 > 'Speed-Style' Power Sword #2 > Combat Knife #3
Crowd: Thunder Hammer #1 > 'Power-Style' Power Sword #2
Chainsword should be a solid all-rounder.
The saddest part about this is that the knife actually has better aoe for hoard clear with abusing shoulder rush and is far better with being able to stagger majoris with light attacks.
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