Polesword & Poleaxe Animations Thread [Poll]

[Handsome Young Man]

Simple. The polesword and poleaxe animations are extremely bad.

Mix this with terrible speeds on them, subpar damage, and basically the gutting of these weapons from MO1 --> MO2, they have become just another useless weapon category that people will ignore unless some love is shined their way.

I know a lot of people are bitter over the fact poleswords were used so often in MO1, but I honestly think there charm was misunderstood. Poleswords, even within the weapon category, had varying uses. Short poles were good at boxing other players, long poles were good for sticky backing, and sarouters were good for pairing with light blades to maximize reach / damage. But even then, people still used different weapons.

But now, poles are ass. Poleaxes and poleswords need some love, and people returning to MO2 from MO1 will also notice it immediately.

I honestly think a temporary solution (Or mayhaps a permanent solution) is to fix the animations (As I expect the combat to also change alongside it at the core.)

Here are the spear animations with left / right swings. Stabs and overheads are excluded since they look fine and play fine (For the most part).

Compare a poles animations to a spears one.

Here are poles.

https://imgur.com/vp5TTWy

https://imgur.com/8PQA7lV

Notice how you don't even see the weapon? No weapon head, not even the SHAFT is visible - this makes weapon tracking horrible; and on other players screens it looks ridiculous.

Here are spears.

https://imgur.com/ozDv03b

https://imgur.com/0N8US39

Notice you can actually see the shafts of the weapons, and how weapon / head tracking would be much easier. The swing arcs (The direction / patterns the weapons swing in) for the spears is much more beneficial. Could you imagine the spear using the poles animations? It would be stupid, right? So why do the poles utilize their current animations.

I say SV should change the poles animations to the spears animations.

Thanks.

 

[PatWins]

None of the pole weapons feel great right now imo. However, I've found success using poleaxes in group fights. Still 0 reason to use PS though.

 

[Eldrath]

Poleswords and poleaxes are very different beasts IMO. While I did not hate poleswords like some did in MO1 I thought they were too strong compared to other weapons. Currently they are in a weird place where they don´t fullfill any specialized role I can see. Part of that might be the animations.

Poleaxes on the other hand seem fine to me. They have an insane range, hit like a truck and the swings can be manipulated easily because of the low speed. They are dog shit in duels (same as any slow weapon, unless you enjoy duels that last 10 minutes) but can be useful in other situations. Honestly I see the working very well in PvE and against mounted players.

Keep in mind that someone who invests 200 point will be able to wield:
1h and 2h Axes, 1h axes with a shield
Spears, 2h or with a shield
Poleaxes
Poleswords.

That is a fuckton of options. Maybe you DO carry a poleaxes for certain situations, but have a spear/shield combo as close quarter alternative.

All of that being said I think the animation can use some tweaking because the side swings feel comical at times. Personally I don´t see the weapon being outside your FOV as a bad thing. You can use that accels and other tricky shit. It also provides a point of balance for playerskill. You have to watch your swings unless you want to deal massive team damage. Maybe having the swings be less horizontal?

This guys channel should be a good inspiration:

 

[boba]

Simple. The polesword and poleaxe animations are extremely bad.

Mix this with terrible speeds on them, subpar damage, and basically the gutting of these weapons from MO1 --> MO2, they have become just another useless weapon category that people will ignore unless some love is shined their way.

I know a lot of people are bitter over the fact poleswords were used so often in MO1, but I honestly think there charm was misunderstood. Poleswords, even within the weapon category, had varying uses. Short poles were good at boxing other players, long poles were good for sticky backing, and sarouters were good for pairing with light blades to maximize reach / damage. But even then, people still used different weapons.

But now, poles are ass. Poleaxes and poleswords need some love, and people returning to MO2 from MO1 will also notice it immediately.

I honestly think a temporary solution (Or mayhaps a permanent solution) is to fix the animations (As I expect the combat to also change alongside it at the core.)

Here are the spear animations with left / right swings. Stabs and overheads are excluded since they look fine and play fine (For the most part).

Compare a poles animations to a spears one.

Here are poles.

https://imgur.com/vp5TTWy

https://imgur.com/8PQA7lV

Notice how you don't even see the weapon? No weapon head, not even the SHAFT is visible - this makes weapon tracking horrible; and on other players screens it looks ridiculous.

Here are spears.

https://imgur.com/ozDv03b

https://imgur.com/0N8US39

Notice you can actually see the shafts of the weapons, and how weapon / head tracking would be much easier. The swing arcs (The direction / patterns the weapons swing in) for the spears is much more beneficial. Could you imagine the spear using the poles animations? It would be stupid, right? So why do the poles utilize their current animations.

I say SV should change the poles animations to the spears animations.

Thanks.

Hey great idea, I posted on another forum about this:

nerf spears by giving it a normal right slash making animations easier to read

buff poleswords, give it the current spear animations (mo1 polesword) because they are useless currently, and probably require a great deal of skill points to use.

Everything is based off the 2h sword and I think the other weapons should be balanced to their standard. Spears also hitting for 40-45s with unreadable animations is an issue.

I do think the poleaxe is in a good spot right now, it is great in group fights. It's not good in duels and imo it shouldn't be (if you have axe skill) maybe that's where the polesword comes in being more versatile. Axes kinda suck though.

 

[Theodosius]

Issue with poleswords seems to be that the animation has them swinging it like you would a baseball bat instead of a stave..

 

[Valoran]

I'm not a fan of simply changing the pole sword to use the spear animations, as that removes a potentially unique weapon play style. If you like the spear animations, just use a spear?

I like having visually distinct animations for each weapon type.

I also don't think there is anything wrong with the current poleaxe / polesword animations, except for one thing; the thrust dips down at the start of the release animation and makes it hard to aim. That and maybe the overhead does a strange wiggle before releasing. They could be better, though I'm not sure exactly what I would do in order to make them better.

I also think it's worth defining what people mean by good or bad when it comes to animations, as some people think animations that are ambiguous or hard to read ( some spear animations case in point ) are good, whereas others think they're terrible and all directions should be properly telegraphed.

 

[Rorry]

They should switch the spear and polesword animations. Poleswords might then be usable and spears slightly less OP.

 

[FOXxAK]

Current spear animations without a shield are literally MO1 poleswords animations.
I dont get why poleswords got nerfed this hard to the point that they are just totally useless.
MO1 most unique weapon is the Polesword, might have been a bit too good. However changing its animation?! It's already bad in terms of stats and weight compared to a Sword.
Just make it like the Spear animations (aka polesword animations).

 

[Handsome Young Man]

Glad to see people coming out fully supporting this.

 

[Steinerr]

Good games are fun.

 

[Kaemik]

IMO they should do something like this.

Poleswords/Axes in general like 70-80% as strong against someone on foot as something like a greatsword. Weak enough there is a notable disadvantage. Strong enough a skilled combatant can overcome it when fighting a lesser opponent.

Then something nasty like 200-300% stam damage against mounted players, with mounted players forcefully dismounted if their mount takes additional stam damage while stammed. And then a brace ontop of that that one shots the stam bar and dismounts on the same attack for all light to medium mounts, and still severe stam drain/damage on something like a molva or campadon.

However, you don't need to do that for all polearms so you could do things as suggested here to balance them against infantry. But any polearm balanced against infantry should not have any kind of brace attack or bonus against mounts whatsoever. It should be one or the other in all cases if there are any anti-infantry polearms. Any weapon that does both would be severely unbalanced and quickly become the meta for all infantry.

 

[Handsome Young Man]

I'm more focused on just having SV fix the animations first along with a slight buff in speed / damage.

Animations are priority number 1 however. They suck.

 

[Dracu]

Interesting, lots/most of ppl complain about spear animations but apparently the majority in this poll wants exactly those animations on a polesword... wierd.

 

[Handsome Young Man]

Interesting, lots/most of ppl complain about spear animations but apparently the majority in this poll wants exactly those animations on a polesword... wierd.

Where?

 

[Dracu]

Where?

Everytime i fought somebody with a spear, when spears got introduced, when spears had their right swing animation slightly adjusted. Be ingame or on discord... tje complaints on the spear animations are alooooot.

 

[cwall]

I often see complaints about spear animations being too similar (thrust and right swing).

it's probably worth adjusting to differentiate them a bit more.

 

[Eldrath]

Everytime i fought somebody with a spear, when spears got introduced, when spears had their right swing animation slightly adjusted. Be ingame or on discord... tje complaints on the spear animations are alooooot.

The difference is that for a spear to have meaningful slash damage you have to go relatively high in weight, while a polesword would have good slashing damage from the start. This would make the same animation quiet more powerful.

I don´t really understand the reasoning though. So the the thing that is supposed to set poleswords apart is a badly telegraphed right swing with better damage than a spear?

I see polesword more like the little brother of the poleaxe. Easier to use, less damage but similar in reach. Better stamina drain after all. It certainly does not sound like a meta weapon, but not every weapon type needs to be that way IMO.

 

[Dracu]

The difference is that for a spear to have meaningful slash damage you have to go relatively high in weight, while a polesword would have good slashing damage from the start. This would make the same animation quiet more powerful.

I don´t really understand the reasoning though. So the the thing that is supposed to set poleswords apart is a badly telegraphed right swing with better damage than a spear?

I see polesword more like the little brother of the poleaxe. Easier to use, less damage but similar in reach. Better stamina drain after all. It certainly does not sound like a meta weapon, but not every weapon type needs to be that way IMO.

yeah polesword animations need a rewok... big time, they are just way to easy to read to be viable... but i dont think the spear animations would be the right thing... given current system atleast. I think it would make them to OP since they have 3 viable attack directions.

 

[Handsome Young Man]

Bump.

 

[Handsome Young Man]

Bump. This is an important topic to me. I feel like poles need some love and are actually busted right now.