Greetings to all, I shall keep this brief. I first raised this issue in another users thread, but feel it is important enough to warrant its own. Regardless of everyones individual thoughts on the issue, almost all weapons in Conan Exiles have now recieved a rework on some level, some of which more recently than others. However, there is still but one weapon which has not yet recieved a rework, and which ironically I believe needs it the most. This weapon is of course…
Maces!
In their current state, Maces are quite possibly the least useful and competitive weapons in the game. In fact I think most of us tend to forget that they actually are in it. Exactly what they need to become a viable, competitive combat selection, I cannot say exactly. However, I am throwing the doors open for an open ended discussion and free exchange of ideas on this issue. Or if you do actually happen to use them, then I would love for you to share some tactics or experiences.
Does anyone else agree that Maces are in need of some attention…?
Wait they do…!? I honestly hadnt noticed. But then I seldom ever use Maces in their current state. But this could even be a reason why. But Im glad you like the idea SirDaveWolf.
Every 1h melee weapon should have a fast gap closer on the first heavy attack and every 2H weapon should have a fast gap closer on the first light attack (because they naturally have more damage). Heavy attacks should be slower than light attacks obviously. The first quick gap closer is important on every weapon so you can hit running targets and it forces them to actually dodge your attacks.
Then after fixing the animations they should focus on the roles of the weapons: anti armor (hammers and maces), AoE (swords), quick and dirty (daggers and Short swords) and range/single target (spears + bow). I don’t know yet which role axes should take.
I avoided maces in general cause they used trubchuen style, short swing often miss… frustrating.
I still think katanas need glance over, On ps4 anyway several of swing have bad delays. Or just feels unresponsive, were game kinda ignores you press roll button, or attacking again.
I’m new to the game, but I didn’t like maces… which makes me sad as I enjoy them IRL (as well as hammers).
They feel waaaay too slow. Real maces are relative short weapons, and top heavy. They require more strength than say your average one handed sword, but honestly not by that much. They are not the big uber-heavy unresponsive weapons most people think of.
Consider a baseball bat. That’s basically an optimized club. Do those feel slow to you? Not to me. The flanges and pyramid shapes, etc on maces are good at breaking armor. The ones with spikes or sharper blades are usually actually clubs and meant for hitting lower armor things and making them bleed. The sheer concussive force helps get through armor too, but doesn’t break it like the others. And then you have spiked hammers… which are like… best of all worlds.
But yeah, when I was using maces in game I felt like every other hit missed either because it was too slow or the arc of the attacks was just bad. I also felt the swings left me unusually vulnerable for too long.
Big two handed maces/mauls are the slow weapons. But they should utterly rock when connecting. I have not actually tried those yet, so maybe they do
Its hard to pinpoint exactly what is wrong with Maces, or what it is that they need, but Im going to give them a bit of a critical analysis here. As SirDaveWolf said they are no very fast, and lack a quick opener. In fact they are fairly slow period, even moreso than one handed Swords and Axes, but are also weaker than them. A boost to their speed would help. There is also a distinctive ‘lack of reach’ to their strikes. Also regarding the heavy attacks. While I dont mind the spinning sweep attack at the end of the sequence, I am just not a big fan of its opening ‘hop’ attack. The animation is very easy to see coming, and has a large window for a counter attack when dodged. That and it just isnt how I would intuitively choose to swing a Mace if I were holding one.
I completely agree again here. It really need a faster, and deeper opening attack.
Unfortunately I think most of us tend to avoid them Sera67 for that reason. They are very slow and easy to one miss, and two anticipate.
Yeah it seems that their speed is becoming a recurring gripe here. I also agree with you that their arc feels kind of ‘clumsy’ or just not ‘tight’ or fluid enough.
While the maces certainly feel slow - I think the main problem with attack speed popping up lately is not so much with the weapon animations them self but more to how it seems NPCs recover far too quickly compared to the player (I say ‘seem’ because I have no real way of verifying it other than sight).
There’s plenty of times where I’ve blocked with a shield and the NPC recovered faster from their recoil than I did from the actual block itself. Something isn’t quite right but I don’t know exactly where they’d begin to look to make sure everything is working-as-intended.
As with most games in general, NPC’s are set to “recover” faster because the AI is limited in defensive tactics compared to another player. Thus they never dodge roll on CE. The only dodge used consistently is the back flip, but that is really tied to the kick command, which NPC’s like to do. Cannot ever recalling a NPC dodging or dodge rolling. So the speed of recovery is boosted to help with the challenge of fighting them, which is easier to code than a full set of “when to dodge” code.
Yeah, but what I’m talking about means they will just always be faster so any slight hitches in the movesets - like the speed for the greatsword now, the warhammer style delay between longsword light attacks, the mace are always going to feel even slower because of this. Especially if you’re using a weapon that recently had hitstun or hyper armor removed from it.
Maces are slow, that’s a fact. I’m just saying that the feeling of it is possibly being compounded upon due to NPCs having faster recovery animations than the player (which is stupid for shields because the whole point of blocking aside from the damage mitigation is to give you a chance to actually get an attack in without getting interrupted constantly).
I would actually like to see T4 and perhaps also T3 NPCs dodge roll here and there. Even if it isnt in direct response to a players attack. Anything which makes the enemy harder to read and engage, and makes the combat less predictable is worth it in my books.
Also cheers for commenting on this one WhatMightHaveBeen. Weapon animations feedback is one domain which I feel can always benefit from a PvP perspective. I would also like to invite @zerog, @Barnes and @jesstheripper to weigh in on this one.
I can definitely say that the maces are in fire need of restructuring. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to simplify the light combo to your standard “1,2,1,3” deal the way greatswords where reworked. Heavy attacks could focus on range, simply taking longer slower steps like short swords and long swords do. Then redo the kick into the leap attack that is already in the heavy combo.
As for thralls, they could definitely be more responsive hahaha. It would be cool to see the t4 weaving through combat like a pc! But I know that has to be tough to do! Lol
About to finish my first playthrough here so while I’m fairly new I can say I got to mess around with a decent chunk of weapons ( not all of them just yet but… ) and their movesets .
It does feel like maces are in need of a rework , yes .
Their hitbox is weird and requires you to be basically hugging your opponent and they feel rather slow which guarantees you will get hit quite a bit unless you are also using a shield ( especially talking about the truncheon ) but then again…shields seem to make you become more vulnerable to staggers when against multiple opponents thus being only useful in 1 v 1 scenarios .
Other weapons I’d like to bring up are the katanas ( their charge attack / gap closer animation is absurdly slow…taking about 2-2.5 seconds since you press rmb to the point you get the visual & audio tell for the slash , their lmb combo also feeling pretty slow ) .
I love using my mace, The heated argument. I find that using heavy attacks isn’t always the best though, the jump animation is predictable. Basically when using the mace in order to conserve the hitbox dynamics, you have to level your view lower. If done right, you get a few knockbacks, and then a knockdown AOE. So when fighting multiple enemies, it works great. The reach is tricky, but a forward roll works fine. I wouldn’t recommend a mace for PVP, unless you are pretty skilled in dodge/rolling though.
Maces are definitely one weapon I always shy away from because the hitboxes have always been rather wonky. I wish they’d give the shortsword some love, as well.
