(NOTE: Also some general rebalancing of stats at the end to compensate for new mechanics)


So, Block weapons have their unique an interactive/tactical Adrenalin charge system wherein you gain 60% ranged damage DR for 2 seconds on perfect block and can stack three instances of +30% melee damage (2.5 seconds) released on melee attack and 1 armor restored on 2 or 3 charge attack connecting with an enemy. Neat, great most that actually take the time to learn Block weapon timings and flow really like them and mostly use them over other options. 


But what about the other two? Fencing has always been a "safe" bet but I don't see a reason to not include SOMETHING to make it less mindless. Balanced is the redheaded step child of melee weapon types and nobody uses them except for the meme Power Fist build on Bulwark.


The aim of this Idea is not to make the other two types overpowered but rather bring them in-line with Block weapons which objectively hit the hardest when used to their peak efficiency.


Block: No real changes, more like tweaks to how it works. First, make the Bulwark's shield always count as perfect block when wielding a Block weapon. Second, make the armor gained by expending 2 or 3 charges gained on expending the change NOT on hitting an enemy it really sucks when you are forced to pull your swing to block or dodge only to not get the armor back and also have the charges consumed. Third and last, FFS fix the explosion radius as it is clearly bugged right now.



Fencing: Used to be the defacto weapon type everyone used because it is safe, I am not going to suggest changing anything about the actual perfect parry but rather give you something for getting perfect parries. What should they get? Well obviously we go with a charge system on perfect parry or combo finisher (after 2 light attacks or on the second hit of a heavy combo). These charges can be called something like "Momentum" and can stack to 4 with each charge providing +15% stagger/impact (or whatever it is called under the hood) unlike Adrenalin which is released on hit the stack starts decaying on hit at a rate of 3 seconds per stack with perfect parries resetting the decay. At 4 stacks you gain 20% attack speed and 20% decreased charge attack prep time. This turns Fencing weapons into rapid-attack mostly single-target CC weapons than can potentially keep your primary target locked-down in a stagger loop as long as you can occasionally parry the horde around you. this is obviously less effective vs chaos due to increased ranged units but that is a problem for a different idea.


Nothing super fancy but then some will doubtless claim fencing does 't need this and to them I say, "Sure, so reduce the buffs by 50% and call it a fair compromise." 



(This one will be quite a bit more wordy, sorry in advance)

Balanced: The boring weapon type you have almost no reason to use ever. let's change that by, you guessed it, giving it a charge system, we'll call it Focus. This charge system will be a bit unique in that it WILL NOT make your melee better, no, this weapon type is balanced and than means performing melee and ranged and what better way to represent this than making perfect parries and heavy attacks with block weapons provide 1 charge (per attack not per hit) of +5% ranged damage and 10% spread reduction per stack for 5 seconds stacking up to 5 times for up to +25% ranged damage and 50% spread reduction for 5 seconds. At max stacks also gain stagger and knockback immunity from "heavy hits" for 10 seconds (meaning if you only activate the buff when at max stacks you can have very high uptime on the stagger/knockback immunity buff)


To prevent this from being very overpowered due to infinite uptime it will have a 4 second cooldown +1 second per stack window after the buff runs out where you will not be able to gain stacks (so 9 seconds of downtime for the damage and spread and 4 seconds for the stagger/knockback immune) and of course you can't build stacks while the buff is up (though perhaps parrying while it is running should reset the timer). 


Focus stacks will be consumed to activate the buff by shooting or reloading your weapon (primary or secondary) and will not effect gunstrike damage nor cause the buff to activate on gunstrike. This means performing heavy attacks and perfect parries with a Balanced weapon enables your ranged weapon to perform much better causing the flow of a balanced weapon to be occasionally attacking enemies to gain a buff rinse, repeat. Due to Heavy having a balanced parry, enable his attacks and parries to generate these charges that way his stomp becomes "stomp a few times to keep the swarm off you then unload with buffed damage. A Sniper could likewise make better use of their SBR and las fusil ammo by waiting to stack to 5 before letting of a few shots to devastating effect. The goal here is to make balanced have a place, even if that place is to enable higher ranged damage.




Stat adjustments (optional adjustments to go along with the above additions)

To balance out things stat-wise, Fencing should be fast attacking with low cleave and moderate damage. Block should be slower than Fencing but no slower than Balanced with high cleave and mid-to-high damage (have to remember it will often have an at least +30%). Balanced should be in between the other two in terms of speed and cleave with damage roughly equal to Block (though obviously it can't boost its melee damage from the Adrenalin charges) Most of this will just be adding or removing 1+ to the relevant stats but FFS can we please make the Balanced relic chainsword not have a swing speed as slower than the slowest Thunder Hammer? K thanks.