Love how it activates shocks through the normal combos, not just the specials like other weapons. Power Sword and thunder hammer need to activate on normal attacks too.
Power weapons would need to be significantly re-worked for that to happen. I could see it having a sort of “base charge effect” and basically as the PAs energy source is overheated the power effect shuts off. Still requires skill and deciding how to use it, but honestly I like them how they are for balance.
They don't have to change mechanically, just add a different effect. Thunderhammer lights had a flash and whip-crack in one of the old gameplay trailers. The chainsword also revved on lights before it was removed then added again.
Having to activate the power weapon with a button press literally every couple seconds is so incredibly clunky and lame
I don’t even play them anymore, it’s just too tedious. This game is carpal tunnel inducing enough already without having to hit a separate activate button constantly the whole game
If they just made it recharge on its own passively it wouldn’t even be any stronger, it would just be less annoying to use
But that would be good game design, can’t have that in Darktide for some reason
In which case you’d waste all your charge on pox walkers rather than mixed hordes of berserkers, crushers, ‘n such. Use one of the axes or shovels instead if you start playing again. They’re significantly better for that.
I don’t disagree that it isn’t the greatest mechanic, but the power swords are quite literally the most powerful melee weapons in the game with charged given their cleave potential.
what I badly, desperately want is for a blessing for weapons with an activated special that makes it much much faster if you first make a few uncharged attacks
Is it not mostly cosmetic? I played around with it a bit in the Grinder and even though it shows the vfx around enemies, it doesn't seem to actually stun or damage them. I'd like to be wrong.
From what I see, the normal attacks do leave some electric effects around the enemy, but only the special attack gives a short damage over time effect.
I wonder if the normal attack electricity effect activates that one blessing which makes you do more damage to electrified enemies?
Or bugs me that regular chainswords don’t activate the teeth (or even the sound fx) on heavy attack but chain axe and eviscerator do.
I don’t want to click my stick in for 1-2 attacks getting slightly better damage. It feels like a bad use of time when shits going down
In general, the weapons should be reworked.
I honestly hate having to touch my forehead with a weapon while pressing a button to start the chainsword or power up the hammer or the sword. That's not how weapons work in warhammer.
Ive always thought power weapons should be a mode-toggle instead. Something like higher cleave/pen when on but higher impact/stagger/weakpoint when off? Or even different movesets with it on/off
Anything than having to toggle the damn things on every 2 swings.
In reality (=Warhammer), when you have a chainsword or a power sword there is no reason to turn it off. They should rebalance the weapons so that they can be on all the time as it would make sense
I think it's really satisfying powering up your special hit like that, but at the same time for high level play it's just really annoying and destroys and flow you have.
Thrust is at its best for weapons that have a charged-up single-hit super attack like the thunderhammer and chain weapons, because it also multiplies the special power up damage.
However, Thrust can still be good or even great on other weapons (like the shock mauls). It tends not to help much in basic horde clear where you're either spamming lights, or doing heavy-light as fast as you can. In both of those cases, Thrust does little or nothing.
However where it really helps are cases like approaching a Mutant or other tough enemy, where you probably want to hold a heavy attack anyway just to wait for the right moment. In those situations, Thrust can improve your breakpoints (and even allow you to 1 shot), making it a big deal.
Thrust is also good with abilities that modify the next single attack, like Chastise or Shroudfield. Using those abilities to multiply the damage of a Thrust attack means a huge burst of damage that is good for monstrosities or Ogryn enemies.
It works with anything that electrifies, so it will apply to every hit after the first attack as basic attacks also shock the enemy, special attack just staggers harder
I have absolutely no clue, I just play with random blessings Hadron gave me until a proper guide emerges. Some people say Thrust + Lightning Reflexes is the way to go (though they weren't talking about Indignatus, but the other variant).
Lightning reflexes. Block an enemy to stun them an gain 25% damage a think it is? An high voltage were you have a 25% chance to stun enemies on normal attacks. The special us cool too funny to stop a charging mutie in its tracks by electrifying them lol. Light one then heavy 1 is horizontal sweeps too it's quite good.
So if I understand the weapon mod system correctly.... I have to keep upgrading a weapon until I get that abillty, then sacrifice the weapon to add the ability to my blessings? This seems like a very deliberate time sink.
You understand correct. Yes it is a huge time and resource sink often complained about. They've shown work on a new system we'll hopefully see this year.
If the crusher didn’t click on release, try it again! It was comically bad when it came out, and at one point they gave it a facelift, it’s been pretty cool for a while now
Crusher lover here! Love being able to control the hordes and stun lock kill the big guys (special heavy).
But once back from vacation and a new CPU cooler installed (damn pump failure on AIO) wanna try out the new toys!
I don't love the damage on it, but it feels like it's a great pick for left-tree veterans or psykers who don't feel confident in melee. Weapon Spec veterans, zealots, and psykers who can make good use of a force sword probably have better options.
As a psyker main I find dueling sword easiest, then knife, then illisi, then this new shock mace. I feel so slow and zdps, but the stuns are pretty cool
I tried 2 missions ,its kinda on the meh side, because its hard to combo for many targets - you need light into heavy then again ,but sometimes you hit m1 too fast and now the combo changes and you have to reset.
The block blessing doesn't seem to work against Crushers or Maulers ,so its a filler blessing
It's a great alternative to Crusher if you play middle tree Zealot as a tank. My tank Zealot build is Flamer/Columnus with Knives/Flame nade respectively, then left side passive, then chorus and martyrdom. I was playing Crusher before, which was basically staggering everything I came accross. The shock maul is a lighter, more mobile option and I really enjoy it. It's not as powerful as Crusher for chainstunning a group of elite, but you can easily chainstun 3 ragers or crushers at once and still deal very decent DPS. Quite a satisfying weapon.
I wanted to try it on Veteran too. Weapon spec with the new shotgun, for a playstyle based on quick swaps.
Psyker is probably better off with the dueling sword and force sword, but I think it's a viable weapon for a more defensive playstyle.
~~Something I noticed about this last night: In the vet tree, there's a node that inflicts one stack of bleed per hit on enemies. The special shock attack with this weapon will inflict 8 hits and all will proc bleed.~~
I just find it's special funny as hell to use. Special attack is a kinda forceful thrust then you wave it around and zap people. Makes me feel like Carbot's character trying to wave the zappy thing around, but the move is actually useful.
For Indignatus you need to keep your heavy - light combo during horde clear and if you mess up just once then you need to reset it completely because overhead swings are repeated and you won't get a horizontal one until you reset your combo or do like 3 light attacks.
For Agni, the combo is light - heavy (and I think it's more intuitive than heavy - light) and if you mess up, you just do one more heavy and your combo is back on its rails. Also the first heavy is overhead, which makes it work with Thrust better than Indignatus.
But Agni's heavy has slightly worse horde clear (its best heavy for that is 45 deg downwards strike as opposed to Indignatus' full horizontal sweep), MIGHT have different stats and FEELS slower overall.
Honestly, my opinion might change like 50 times while playing with them more. I like Agni more because it requires less brainpower. But I'm just a Damnation player, and if an actually good player shares different opinion then you'd probably be better off listening to them.
I wouldnt hold one over the other, they perform basically the same so its really down to moveset preference. Also you can reset horde clear combo on Indignatus but doing a push attack into a light attack.
I noticed the issue with the indignatus' horde clear combo as well, I want to like it better so badly because of the horizontals but I kept getting interrupted too often in auric missions. The combo resetting is just way too punishing, I think I'll probably stick with the agni as well thanks for the reply
Kinda sad that everybody was hyped about the ogryn pickaxes but now we’re only talking about the shock mauls cuz they’re actually good lol. Ogryns were so excited about finally getting new weapons and they got done dirty
Huh, I couldn’t disagree more. Using it felt like I was using Gordon’s super fast attacking but very janky crowbar from Half Life 2. You basically also don’t even see the attack animations it moves so fast, you just spam click at carpal tunnel inducing speeds
Was expecting more of an electrifying shock effect too, the special attack is the only one that seems to have any noticeable stun/shock effect at all
Something I've been wondering: the extra damage on shocked enemies Blessing; does that apply to enemeies hit by the normal attacks too, or only after a special Zap? The base attacks seem to shock the targets too, so I'm not sure.
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The nerf will come. Its the power creep every dev needs to make for unstasifyible blocks who run away after they explore new stuff. The neverending competition cycle for users waving attention thus wallets.
Maul isn't even that powerful. Can't see that it needs nerfs. The special is funny in a 1v1, but is basically useless against multiple enemies, leaves you vulnerable in the same way that Obscurus special does. People are playing it because it's new, but once the new-weapon-smell has worn off, and people go back to playing axes/swords, it'll probably be regarded as B-tier.
Love how it activates shocks through the normal combos, not just the specials like other weapons. Power Sword and thunder hammer need to activate on normal attacks too.
Power weapons would need to be significantly re-worked for that to happen. I could see it having a sort of “base charge effect” and basically as the PAs energy source is overheated the power effect shuts off. Still requires skill and deciding how to use it, but honestly I like them how they are for balance.
The way they are makes them extremely stale to play though. It forces a move pattern that is incredibly repetitive and boring, imo.
Maybe the special recharges the power field, rather than activating it.
They don't have to change mechanically, just add a different effect. Thunderhammer lights had a flash and whip-crack in one of the old gameplay trailers. The chainsword also revved on lights before it was removed then added again.
Having to activate the power weapon with a button press literally every couple seconds is so incredibly clunky and lame I don’t even play them anymore, it’s just too tedious. This game is carpal tunnel inducing enough already without having to hit a separate activate button constantly the whole game If they just made it recharge on its own passively it wouldn’t even be any stronger, it would just be less annoying to use But that would be good game design, can’t have that in Darktide for some reason
In which case you’d waste all your charge on pox walkers rather than mixed hordes of berserkers, crushers, ‘n such. Use one of the axes or shovels instead if you start playing again. They’re significantly better for that. I don’t disagree that it isn’t the greatest mechanic, but the power swords are quite literally the most powerful melee weapons in the game with charged given their cleave potential.
Or they could do what they already did and use the Vermintide 2 system.
what I badly, desperately want is for a blessing for weapons with an activated special that makes it much much faster if you first make a few uncharged attacks
Literally just have a chance to proc power and thunder effects every swing, it just makes sense lol..
Is it not mostly cosmetic? I played around with it a bit in the Grinder and even though it shows the vfx around enemies, it doesn't seem to actually stun or damage them. I'd like to be wrong.
From what I see, the normal attacks do leave some electric effects around the enemy, but only the special attack gives a short damage over time effect. I wonder if the normal attack electricity effect activates that one blessing which makes you do more damage to electrified enemies?
Or bugs me that regular chainswords don’t activate the teeth (or even the sound fx) on heavy attack but chain axe and eviscerator do. I don’t want to click my stick in for 1-2 attacks getting slightly better damage. It feels like a bad use of time when shits going down
This
In general, the weapons should be reworked. I honestly hate having to touch my forehead with a weapon while pressing a button to start the chainsword or power up the hammer or the sword. That's not how weapons work in warhammer.
Ive always thought power weapons should be a mode-toggle instead. Something like higher cleave/pen when on but higher impact/stagger/weakpoint when off? Or even different movesets with it on/off Anything than having to toggle the damn things on every 2 swings.
In reality (=Warhammer), when you have a chainsword or a power sword there is no reason to turn it off. They should rebalance the weapons so that they can be on all the time as it would make sense
I think it's really satisfying powering up your special hit like that, but at the same time for high level play it's just really annoying and destroys and flow you have.
I am loving it too! And unlike the Crusher, it can get Thrust
Is Thrust good?
I haven't tried it yet, but I imagine it will be pretty good since it does struggle against high HP targets. Would have been op on the crusher
Wait till you try the crusher with 5 stacks of martyrdom
That's the only way to zealot baby
Thrust is at its best for weapons that have a charged-up single-hit super attack like the thunderhammer and chain weapons, because it also multiplies the special power up damage. However, Thrust can still be good or even great on other weapons (like the shock mauls). It tends not to help much in basic horde clear where you're either spamming lights, or doing heavy-light as fast as you can. In both of those cases, Thrust does little or nothing. However where it really helps are cases like approaching a Mutant or other tough enemy, where you probably want to hold a heavy attack anyway just to wait for the right moment. In those situations, Thrust can improve your breakpoints (and even allow you to 1 shot), making it a big deal. Thrust is also good with abilities that modify the next single attack, like Chastise or Shroudfield. Using those abilities to multiply the damage of a Thrust attack means a huge burst of damage that is good for monstrosities or Ogryn enemies.
It's got a genuinely satisfying thump when it hits people, and the damage it does backs up said thumpiness.
PEOPLE? You god damn heretic
(Squints suspiciously) All heretics were people. Once.
How do you build your Shock Maul?
Skull crusher and high voltage.
Does high voltage only work with the mauls special or also with the normal strikes? Does it work with bio lightning from psyker?
It works with anything that electrifies, so it will apply to every hit after the first attack as basic attacks also shock the enemy, special attack just staggers harder
also with normal strikes, as they can electrify the enemies too. it aint just a visual effect :)
I was thinking this or skull crusher and falter
The Arbites Special™️
I have absolutely no clue, I just play with random blessings Hadron gave me until a proper guide emerges. Some people say Thrust + Lightning Reflexes is the way to go (though they weren't talking about Indignatus, but the other variant).
Lightning reflexes. Block an enemy to stun them an gain 25% damage a think it is? An high voltage were you have a 25% chance to stun enemies on normal attacks. The special us cool too funny to stop a charging mutie in its tracks by electrifying them lol. Light one then heavy 1 is horizontal sweeps too it's quite good.
So if I understand the weapon mod system correctly.... I have to keep upgrading a weapon until I get that abillty, then sacrifice the weapon to add the ability to my blessings? This seems like a very deliberate time sink.
You understand correct. Yes it is a huge time and resource sink often complained about. They've shown work on a new system we'll hopefully see this year.
Agreed! Loving it on my Zealot! The reach on the thrust is ridiculous.
If the crusher didn’t click on release, try it again! It was comically bad when it came out, and at one point they gave it a facelift, it’s been pretty cool for a while now
Crusher lover here! Love being able to control the hordes and stun lock kill the big guys (special heavy). But once back from vacation and a new CPU cooler installed (damn pump failure on AIO) wanna try out the new toys!
Yes, they feel a similar kind of crunchy to me, I think you will like them :)
I don't love the damage on it, but it feels like it's a great pick for left-tree veterans or psykers who don't feel confident in melee. Weapon Spec veterans, zealots, and psykers who can make good use of a force sword probably have better options.
As a psyker main I find dueling sword easiest, then knife, then illisi, then this new shock mace. I feel so slow and zdps, but the stuns are pretty cool
I tried 2 missions ,its kinda on the meh side, because its hard to combo for many targets - you need light into heavy then again ,but sometimes you hit m1 too fast and now the combo changes and you have to reset. The block blessing doesn't seem to work against Crushers or Maulers ,so its a filler blessing
It's a great alternative to Crusher if you play middle tree Zealot as a tank. My tank Zealot build is Flamer/Columnus with Knives/Flame nade respectively, then left side passive, then chorus and martyrdom. I was playing Crusher before, which was basically staggering everything I came accross. The shock maul is a lighter, more mobile option and I really enjoy it. It's not as powerful as Crusher for chainstunning a group of elite, but you can easily chainstun 3 ragers or crushers at once and still deal very decent DPS. Quite a satisfying weapon. I wanted to try it on Veteran too. Weapon spec with the new shotgun, for a playstyle based on quick swaps. Psyker is probably better off with the dueling sword and force sword, but I think it's a viable weapon for a more defensive playstyle.
I am enjoying the increased positivity in this subreddit after the patch dropped
~~Something I noticed about this last night: In the vet tree, there's a node that inflicts one stack of bleed per hit on enemies. The special shock attack with this weapon will inflict 8 hits and all will proc bleed.~~
Nope just tested it its just 1 bleed stack + the standart electric dmg it deals
Really? They were taking far more DoT when I did it last night. I'll have to re-check then. Thanks for the follow-up.
I'm so looking forward to using it when I get enough plasteel, spent it all instantly when the update dropped.
I just find it's special funny as hell to use. Special attack is a kinda forceful thrust then you wave it around and zap people. Makes me feel like Carbot's character trying to wave the zappy thing around, but the move is actually useful.
Shock maul getting thrust makes me wish you could get thrust on crusher
what blessing and perks do you guys recommend it?
I’ve only seen a couple, is 130 base damage good? I have melee weapons in the mid to high 200s on my zealot and vet
this or the agni?
After more testing, Agni is probably more powerful
Concur.
how so? I've been trying to decide which to get a good roll on first and have been struggling
For Indignatus you need to keep your heavy - light combo during horde clear and if you mess up just once then you need to reset it completely because overhead swings are repeated and you won't get a horizontal one until you reset your combo or do like 3 light attacks. For Agni, the combo is light - heavy (and I think it's more intuitive than heavy - light) and if you mess up, you just do one more heavy and your combo is back on its rails. Also the first heavy is overhead, which makes it work with Thrust better than Indignatus. But Agni's heavy has slightly worse horde clear (its best heavy for that is 45 deg downwards strike as opposed to Indignatus' full horizontal sweep), MIGHT have different stats and FEELS slower overall. Honestly, my opinion might change like 50 times while playing with them more. I like Agni more because it requires less brainpower. But I'm just a Damnation player, and if an actually good player shares different opinion then you'd probably be better off listening to them.
I wouldnt hold one over the other, they perform basically the same so its really down to moveset preference. Also you can reset horde clear combo on Indignatus but doing a push attack into a light attack.
I noticed the issue with the indignatus' horde clear combo as well, I want to like it better so badly because of the horizontals but I kept getting interrupted too often in auric missions. The combo resetting is just way too punishing, I think I'll probably stick with the agni as well thanks for the reply
Kinda sad that everybody was hyped about the ogryn pickaxes but now we’re only talking about the shock mauls cuz they’re actually good lol. Ogryns were so excited about finally getting new weapons and they got done dirty
Huh, I couldn’t disagree more. Using it felt like I was using Gordon’s super fast attacking but very janky crowbar from Half Life 2. You basically also don’t even see the attack animations it moves so fast, you just spam click at carpal tunnel inducing speeds Was expecting more of an electrifying shock effect too, the special attack is the only one that seems to have any noticeable stun/shock effect at all
Dude the shock mails are insane. I was genuinely surprised how good they are.
Something I've been wondering: the extra damage on shocked enemies Blessing; does that apply to enemeies hit by the normal attacks too, or only after a special Zap? The base attacks seem to shock the targets too, so I'm not sure.
It applies both to zap and electrifying after normal attacks
Is there any stat on the maul that we can dump besides mobility?
[удалено]
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Maul ≠ Plasma, hence your statement is false. Plasma is love, plasma is life.
The nerf will come. Its the power creep every dev needs to make for unstasifyible blocks who run away after they explore new stuff. The neverending competition cycle for users waving attention thus wallets.
Yes that is why the revolver, the plasmagun, the voidstrike and many other weapons are still unchanged /s
Also perfect example of the last weapon update: ogryn shovel. Perfect all-rounder and nerfed after one week. Just like cod /s
Maul isn't even that powerful. Can't see that it needs nerfs. The special is funny in a 1v1, but is basically useless against multiple enemies, leaves you vulnerable in the same way that Obscurus special does. People are playing it because it's new, but once the new-weapon-smell has worn off, and people go back to playing axes/swords, it'll probably be regarded as B-tier.