Hammer skills are "good" but..

[Shao.7236]

They need adjustments in compensation of past changes, notably Quickness access over the years, from IO to PT then Herald to Vindicator, it's never going to compare the way Shiro had it.

* Hammer Bolt is ideally one of the best projectile in the game with all of it's benefits however because Quickness is again no longer accessible the way it used to be, a generous bump in speed is necessary.

* CoR is at first on paper great, in practice could have been better, then with the changes it is technically better but the realization and conception is utterly failing for the application. The rework doesn't work properly, the hitbox is dislocated forward and wanting to rely on ground for this to work in the first place is objectively terrible and needs to be something else. Something else such as a wave like Bladesworn Dragon Slash Reach is much more ideal not only hitbox wise but reliable to avoid the skill randomly changing direction since terrain is not as influencial, I've seen that skill do complete 180s sometimes, it's not good at all.

(From a PvE pov, CoR CD needs to be as low as Mist Unleashed to be competitive, it has no added benefits or function which is unfair.)

* Phase Smash is amazing, full of clever ways to be used. It's only needed change is to work properly as a movement skill, currently it doesn't count as one thus Aggressive Agility doesn't work.

* Field of the Mist is powerful and functional as it is, nothing is needed.

* Drop The Hammer like the AA could use a bump in speed, otherwise is fine as is.

On that note, Inspiring Reinforcement needs to be looked at for Projectile Finishing because the hitbox is too low and only possible to benefit from a specific angle/even ground which kills the good synergy with Hammer AA.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Shao.7236

[LucianTheAngelic.7054]

They should revert CoR entirely, honestly. The Line AoE is obnoxious and doesn’t feel more flexible or better than the old “fire-at-target” system. The damage being greater the farther you were away from an enemy was also quite novel and didn’t need to change for the sake of balance 

Edited August 23, 2023 by LucianTheAngelic.7054

[Shao.7236]

14 hours ago, LucianTheAngelic.7054 said:

They should revert CoR entirely, honestly. The Line AoE is obnoxious and doesn’t feel more flexible or better than the old “fire-at-target” system. The damage being greater the farther you were away from an enemy was also quite novel and didn’t need to change for the sake of balance 

It can go either way personally for targeting but I do believe that not having auto targetting allows for players to anticipate movement so that it's not an automatic miss for anything that moves.

I do think not for the sake of balance but rather limitations (Say PvP for me doesn't always allow 1200 range) having to be reliant even more on the map geometry to not only mess the skill over but the distance itself also define damage is extremely janky, in the current iteriation at least. If the skill became more reliable and functional, I could see something like that make a return although maybe not for damage but perhaps different conditions/effects to apply because to be optimal with damage like that require so many niche positions.

[LucianTheAngelic.7054]

5 hours ago, Shao.7236 said:

It can go either way personally for targeting but I do believe that not having auto targetting allows for players to anticipate movement so that it's not an automatic miss for anything that moves.

I do think not for the sake of balance but rather limitations (Say PvP for me doesn't always allow 1200 range) having to be reliant even more on the map geometry to not only mess the skill over but the distance itself also define damage is extremely janky, in the current iteriation at least. If the skill became more reliable and functional, I could see something like that make a return although maybe not for damage but perhaps different conditions/effects to apply because to be optimal with damage like that require so many niche positions.

See I find this to be the reverse; I found that the old “fire at target” system hit most of the time provided the opponent wasn’t moving forward erratically or dodging. With the new system I find that, since the line is skinny, you end up in a lot more “oh they didn’t move where I anticipated them to move, so I missed” situations. The benefit of the “fire at target” system was not having to predict where the target was going to go, and also the COR line wouldn’t choose its trajectory until the cast time had finished (making it reliable, even on most moving enemies). The current system makes you select the trajectory before the .75s cast time, making it janky and hard to hit unless you predict correctly or lock them down with CC. The old system didn’t really have these issue. 
 

I personally never had an issue with the damage being different at different distances (Hammer has always been an anti-range, keep your enemies at range type weapon) and I thought it added extra complexity and reward to the weapon. The only thing I think it was bad for was PVE, but hammer has also always sucked there, so it’s kind of moot 

Edited August 23, 2023 by LucianTheAngelic.7054

[Jobber.6348]

If I am allowed to change one thing about Hammer with 0 reworks or revamps but just changing how the skill functions, it's to make DTH finish casting on its own, and let the player continue with their independent actions. 

If Scrapper can just drop their AoE stun, which still does damage in competitive modes by the way, I don't see why DTH can't finish its own cast for a nice CC check.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Yasai.3549

[Shao.7236]

15 hours ago, Yasai.3549 said:

If I am allowed to change one thing about Hammer with 0 reworks or revamps but just changing how the skill functions, it's to make DTH finish casting on its own, and let the player continue with their independent actions. 

If Scrapper can just drop their AoE stun, which still does damage in competitive modes by the way, I don't see why DTH can't finish its own cast for a nice CC check.

Have the character point and such, yep. So long you can still fake the skill too that'd be good for a change. In that regard if they become independant I don't think it needs to be faster then.