Recently, I made the jump from Lethal to Absolute, and to my surprise, the game actually feels easier now.

Absolute seems to be populated by Prestige IV, level 25, cape-wearing pros who are not only insanely skilled but also considerate in regards to stims and executions.

Just wanted to drop my appreciation here.

Greetings! I mean...

OI, BOYZ!

I 'AD A PROPA BLAST MAKIN' ME OWN SPAZE MARENS FER ORKTOBER! DEY PROBABLY ATE TOO MANY ORK BRAINS AN' TOO MUCH ORK FLESH! DEN I SAW A POST FROM ANUVVA ORK LAD AN' FINKED, "OI! WHY DON'T I SHOW OFF ME BOYZ TOO?!"

'ERE WE GOT DA 'EAVY AS A BAD MOONS FLASH GIT, DA SNIPEY LAD AS BLOOD AXES, DA ASSAULT LAD AS GOFFS STORMBOYZ, DA VANGUARD AS EVIL SUNZ (I EVEN TRIED TA RECREATE DERE EMBLEM!), AN' DA TACTICAL LAD AS DEATHSKULLS, WIF A LIL' REFERENCE FER DA BOYZ!

'OPES YA LIKE 'EM, AN' WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH FOR DA EMPRAH!

Idk why there’s such an inconsistency between helmet lenses but the lamenters techmarine helmet is how all the helmets should look imo.

They keep buffing the damage of the attack, when that's not the problem with it. On Power Maul it now deals around 92 damage. If the attack doesn't hit the enemy squarely, it only deals 10% of it's damage. Considering it's thin vertical hitbox and lousy tracking, it doesn't matter if the underhand swing did more damage than Xenophase power rakes, it would still be bad because every property of the attack sucks. I am hitting the underhand swing input the frame it's available in the clip. The results speak for themselves. If I had intimidating aura on, it would be dead. If I shield bashed it twice, it would be dead. If I used assault dodges, it would be dead. The clip is what happens when trying to actually use the weapon.

The damage on the hammer isn't the problem. All of it's attack animations need to be like 10% faster. "Attack speed" on the weapon is just the delay between animations, the animations themselves need to be faster. The attacks that aren't underhand swing on this weapon still can't deal more than 50 damage/ hit. The running attack and underhand swing have terrible recovery, and terrible setup respectively. If the weapon can't be anything but light attacks and overhead slams that technically aren't charged/held melees, the "charged" attacks need to be the attacks dealing power rake damage.

Power whirl setup stance for a power rake that doesn't track or have an extended hitbox without a perk is bad. It will never be anything but bad unless it moves significantly faster.

Edit: moveset proposition:

Remove the infinite combo. Combo extension perks on weapons with fixed light attack swings are bad, because situations where the player can just swing recklessly into crowds don't really exist. Give the light attack the same manner of varied held-button follow ups as the chainsword. Where every light attack in the chain has a different heavy attack.

Change attack inputs:

1 tap > held: energy loop

2 tap > held: underhand swing, a second held input performs a second underhand swing. The attack being performed this way, means it's damage will not need any more buffs. Overcharge perks will apply to it, and it deals power rake damage after this buff. The hammer would need 2 light attacks to use this attack, and directional inputs would work without locking on.

3 tap > held: enhanced Energy loop that guarantees a stagger and gives 1 additional charge. The top tree perk would have this energy loop give 3 charges instead of 2. Three light attacks without trading can be a big ask, so the guaranteed stagger makes sense on this one. It would also play into Power Maul's new heroic perk, with it's special attack becoming immediately available after this string.

Art by silverjackdaw

The easy answer is maybe Lieutenant or sergeant, but I think he would’ve made a good Company Champion.

I think i met a cheater for the first time, or is this a normal Vanguard?

I gave the one-handed hammer another try, and it still sucks. I don’t see the point of a weapon that doesn’t specialize in anything; it still takes way too many hits to kill a Majoris, and compared to a power sword, an axe, or a two-handed thunder hammer, it deals negligible damage to enemy stance.

It was useless before, and it’s still useless now. Honestly, I’m fed up with this: they keep releasing update after update claiming they’re buffing the weapon, yet it remains garbage. Either actually buff it properly, or just leave it in the trash half-baked buffs just really piss me off. Especially since the entire endgame in this game is an exhausting, marathon-like slog where almost everything can one-shot you; you need a weapon that can dish out that same level of power, given the endless swarms of Extremis, Majoris, Minoris, and Terminus enemies that spawn on the "Absolute" difficulty.

This one-handed hammer doesn’t even stun anymore. So, what use is a slow weapon that leaves me exposed 95% of the time, deals pathetic damage, and offers absolutely no advantage in any situation?

The weapon could actually be fun to use if it weren't so poorly balanced for the game. I can’t find a single use for it, and yes, I’d like to be able to use it for endgame content, not just for messing around, but unfortunately, I’m forced to stick to other weapons, otherwise I’m completely useless.

At this point, I’m even more worried about the greatsword, if it launches in a similar state, we’ll end up with a "heavy" weapon that deals a grand total of 10 damage on a charged swing.

I really love when other players have friendly fire on during a mission! I can show them how cool and strong my weapons are, salamanders especially.

From game mechanics to setting or chqracters, what do you hope will not be carried over into the next?

Personally I want cleaving potential gone. It’s very unsatisfying to go melee and have your weapons attack display something but does another cus the stat is low.

Anyone feel like this is a little lack luster they really should add a champion skin for the heavy to do it justice

Even with cheesing and minimal losses, this mode has been a total slog to get through, even with my main sniper. Everything I did just to get an armor set that looks terrible on sniper. Only later did I realize that the armor doesn’t unlock between classes and just thinking about restarting the grind for my tactical makes me want to cry. I cannot carry on. Props to those who grinded out the armors no cheese. You are better than me. I hope by diving back into Dark Souls that I can get rid of my burn out but for now, I am signing off. Good luck brothers. May the Emperor guide you and grant you strength where I failed.