While I disagree with the bracing idea for MM, I think applying it to the standard melta would be objectively bad. The gun already sucks as it is. It doesn't need a nerf.
A few of y'all know me. I use this gun pretty much exclusively in-game in most of the matches I play. The past few patches I ask "is the heavy bolter fixed yet?" because I REALLY don't like that the MM is the weapon I have to take as a Havok/Dev to be able to do most of my frontline infantry killing. I make no excuses, I have embraced the cheese, but in my mind out of necessity at the lack of better options for my preferred class. With that out of the way here are a few things about the weapon for those who haven't used it much. -Damage past 10-15 meters was reduced: Before patch 17 there was damage falloff, but all I would have to do is put a full second of focused fire (Which was super easy to lure people into) to down them. Now it's in a decent spot. I can't kill someone unless they're out in the open for 2 or 3 seconds. It's enough to make them reconsider advancing on me, but not a death sentence if they react fast enough and back off. -Burn stacks faster the closer you are: Unlike the Tac melta which does the same damage regardless of the range the MM stacks its burn debuff a lot faster the closer you are. This makes it incredibly dangerous against melee (go figure) as if they miss any of their swings and allow enough time to get the shot off...they're dead. It also favors ambush playstyles where you hide behind a doorway and wait until the enemy is so close they can't possibly get away. -Turn speed is weird: The weapon still has a reduced turn rate while turning, but before Patch 17 it would keep this reduced turn speed for 1 second after you stopped firing which added an element of risk to it. It also turned slower normally, but not to the extent of when firing. Now after patch 17 my turn speed while not firing is normal instead of slightly reduced and I can turn relatively quickly while firing. I don't agree with this change, it made you play smarter and added a risk each time you pull the trigger. It made you position yourself in ways that the enemy could only advance on you from the front. Now you can be a lot more aggressive with it. -It's more powerful as a Dev than a Havok: This is just a truth. Traitor Assaults have no protection against it, Ground Assaults have something that negates its damage altogether. When the shield is not being used though they die just as fast as TA's. Please don't turn this point into a TA vs GA argument, but given how influential melee can be I felt this was worth noting. Weapon Strengths: -Killing Power: Principle complaint about the weapon from those on the receiving end. You get caught by one, you're dead. Up close I think this should remain a thing, within 5-10 meters is where the weapon does the most damage and requires maybe a half second to a second of channeling to down a Tactical. The weapon could stand a little less, perhaps a 1.5 to 2 seconds at "knife fight" range. Out to 15 meters and beyond they've already tweaked it to a level where I'm happy with the damage. You still have to get pretty close to do anything meaningful with it. -It's a bug zapper: No question about it here, jumpers don't really stand a chance against it. This shouldn't be a thing, but this is less the MM's fault and more the fault of the Jumper's reduced health/armor. A burst that would allow a GA/TA, Tac, or otherwise to get away will almost always kill a jumper. -Vehicle Destruction!: If you want to take a vehicle down this weapon is hands down the fastest way to get it done...You can destroy a rhino or a predator in a single overheat burn if you hit them at 10 meters from behind. During patch 16 you could do the same at 20+ meters as well, but with Patch 17 they have reduced this to merely scorching the armor a little bit. Now any meaningful damage you do to vehicles will be done up close where you are vulnerable to infantry support. It's a good change that means the MM's anti-vehicle capabilities are where they belong, as a high damage/close range niche weapon. That said...two or more working in concert is extremely potent. @Darthy and I held onto the front gate of Harkus almost by ourselves last night running a MM team. Vehicles never stood a chance coming into that gate. TLDR: The weapons' strength is in how fast it can hurt people in its effective range. Weaknesses -Range: At a max range of 30m this weapon still falls short in the range department. It's not that noticeable on a lot of the maps due to how easy it is to close the distance, but the short range is still meant to be the weapon's primary drawback and it shows in various situations. -Cooldown: It has a relatively slow cooldown period. If you overheat in the middle of a firefight you're useless for a few seconds, I haven't timed it. Its normal cooldown (Not overheating) also feels relatively slow. -You're a Devestator: Despite how potent the weapon is...you're still a Devestator. You're slow, you're clunky, you're going to die in melee a lot if you don't kill them before they get to you. -Kill trades: Despite the overwhelming damage of it you still tend to kill trade if you engage one another at the same time. If you start firing first or if your opponent misses a lot you're going to win, but that's true with most weapons and engagements. Any time I get ambushed or I fight 1v1 with a bolter tac I more often that not end up just trading with them. -It does not like suppression: I was actually surprised at this...MM really doesn't like suppression at all. The beam goes everywhere except straight and you have to be point blank to do any kind of meaningful damage with it. I suppose that's true of any weapon, but I've had moments of advancing steadily against a target only to have to fall back because of suppression. How I'd like it -Faster Overheat and Faster Cooldown: Right now you can channel the thing for a long time...I haven't counted exactly how long, but lets say it uses 100 charges per overheat right now. Instead of 100 charges I'd be fine with it using 50 before overheating, as long as it didn't take as long to cool down when overheating. Hopefully this would prevent spamming the weapon for an obscenely long amount of time while still keeping it potent if left unchecked. -Percentage based damage: This would help fix how much damage they do to jump assaults if they did percentage based damage on the burn rather than a flat amount. -An option for burn resistance: With the accessory system coming into play soon we might see an option for burn resistance that would mitigate a lot of the damage done by melta and flamer based weapons. They could also add an option for poison and other types of damage as well. Meltas are supposed to be utterly devastating to most types of targets within their effective range, but besides the Storm Shield there is nothing in game for other classes to mitigate that. If you aren't mitigating it or firing on the heavy you should die if caught within its effective range. Ultimately for Patch 17 the MM is a step in the right direction compared to how it was in Patch 16 (Which had almost no weaknesses). You're seeing more of them because the plasma cannon folks have started using the MM instead, but the damage at range nerf was justified. End goal for the MM is hopefully going to be a weapon you take when you need to engage a mix of heavy infantry and armor where the HB just won't cut it for both. Edit: Added note for the heavy bolter.
I don't think you'll find one person in this game who truly feel thats the Storm Bolter is in a good place right now. The enhanced range of the standard bolter is VASTLY more powerful than the enhanced short range damage of the SB. I rarely ever see the weapon used anymore, that should be proof enough.
I have fantastic success with the Storm Bolter, would never take multi-melta over it to perform the same job.
The Storm Bolter need definitely more LOVE from devs site OR at least reduced the cost ! Because this weapon was so many times nerf that 600 pts is definitely too high .
Fantastic writeup! There were actually a couple things in there about Patch 17 I didn't know. I wish they'd been in the patch notes. I totally agree with you that turn speed should be the same as it was Patch 16. As for your end goal, I generally agree, but rather than a weapon where it's like "whelp, HB won't cut it, time to switch", I'd rather see it succeed against that mix in its own unique way.
Did you miss the 6 weeks of Stormbolter "God Mode" last fall? The game was completely ruined for 6 weeks because the Storm Bolter was so horribly overpowered. I stopped playing for a full month because of this. The current Storm Bolter is where it needs to be, the problem is there are other weapons that are too good at performing multiple roles versus all types of enemies in close quarters battle. Plasma Cannon and MM come to mind. The MM specifically is too good versus fast moving infantry, too good at room clearing, to good at infantry close quarters fighting, and it's an anti infantry nightmare that's also very effective versus armor. Why bring a SB in the squad when you have other options that excel versus both infantry and armor in close quarters?
I need to grab a buddy and test it to know for sure, but I developed reflexes throughout patch 16 for how long I fired on a target, how to move, and how to operate with the MM. Throughout patch 17 those reflexes have been off and I still need to figure out the full extent of the changes to it. The turn speed and damage change at mid-max range have been the two main ones that've been throwing me off.
I'll be playing this weekend. I'll be sure to keep on the lookout for anything that feels different too.
The problem I see is that both the Meltagun and the Multi Melta behaves like short ranged flamers but with more damage. I pictured the Melta weapons as single shot weapons but super destructive. Damn, I cannot believe what I'm going to say but: the Space Marine game made the Meltagun more closer to what it is in the TT game, and it was a fucking shotgun... Are they going to include flamers in the game? Because I don't know why anyone would want to pick one when the melta weapons behave in a very similar manner and with more damage. In my opinion melta weapons should be one shot weapons, with tons of dmg and a little cooldown between shots. Not a fucking flamer.
