“It’s time to nerf the sword in Sea of Thieves”

@f3arm0d3 If we go with that logic, a sniper bullet should one-shot, otherwise it’s not realistic...

(Cutlass/EoR main)

The main things I think need addressing with the cutlass are 1) being able to cancel the lunge with an interaction, and 2) making it feel more responsive.

The intention is that doing a lunge is a risk-reward manoeuvre, so being able to negate that by grabbing something shouldn't be a thing. I think the patch for this is to remove the possibility of interactions once the charge up begins, not after.

When I say "making it feel more responsive", I'm talking about making it closer to one-to-one with button presses. It won't be possible to make it perfect, as animations still need to occur. However, I think there's room to speed up the attacks and reduce the damage per hit to compensate, keeping its DPS the same more or less. Part of why the attacks are spammed is that it doesn't feel immediate and you are effectively "queueing" swipes.

They could also make it so a combo is more about timing additional swipes on the backswings (with visual and audio cues for windows), which I think would add more depth to sword play.

For similar reasons, I would love parry and riposte moves added. Against other cutlass users this would break their combo, stun and open them up for attack. Against projectile weapons, I could see this being used to ricochet the projectile back in a random trajectory (imagine the chaos of it hitting a keg, for example!).

The cutlass is the quintessential pirate weapon but it has its weaknesses and there disadvantages to choosing it. It's a CQC weapon that lacks any substantial range. If the lunge is messed up, you are incapacitated for a non-insignificant time (again, I agree interactions need fixing here).

TL;DR - I don't think the cutlass needs to be "nerfed", just some fixes, but I do think there is also room to improve its gameplay and depth.

I genuinely think it’s time for Rare to take a serious look at the sword’s balance in Sea of Thieves. Right now, it’s simply too powerful in too many situations, and it’s hurting the diversity of combat and overall PvP balance.

so powerful it is, many DG players wont use it because it so powerful.... :/

Lack of effective counterplay: The sword lunge is both a massive damage-dealing move and a free mobility tool. It’s hard to dodge and even harder to punish properly, unless you get lucky or catch someone completely off-guard.

Good damage, easy to also dodge and avoid, you can see when a player is charging up, leaving them also Unable to move...and easy prey. If they miss? They take a breather, leaving them once again. Defenseless. Blunderbombs are good counter.

The flintlock and blunderbuss require careful aim

Umm. No? Have you not encounter the "skillfull" DG? They pop those things off and always tend to hit the target. Blunderbuss is also more of a wide shot, no aiming required.

That’s why most experienced players rely on the sword plus one gun

"experienced players" I have never met another sword user unless they are goofing around.

On ships or in forts, the sword is nearly unbeatable.

Yup. Seem to be best weapon for tight fights. But they tend to hit everything...even corners.

I’m not saying the sword should be useless

Seems you want it too be, but it rarely used in actual combat besides against NPC

I disagree. I think the sword is perfectly balanced and needs no changes.

You can shoot your blunderbass TWICE without eating while person hitting you with a sword non stop. If you cant do that, its not a sword problem really.
Sword is the weakest weapon and i personally stopped using it even for PvE long ago as soon as throwing knives and blowpipe were introduced. It got the lowest damage, hitting 25 points feels really bad both in PvE and PvP, its just for those who struggle with aim. Skilled hands with guns will always beat skilled hands with sword. Also you never gonna kill person with sword who got 5 pineaplles. To defeat sword just run away, distance from it and shoot the guy. Never go below deck as you wont run away that easily. Sword got the worst feedback and least enjoyeable weapon in this game. Swordlunges in PvE very often getting interrupted by skelly blunderfarts which makes gameplay experience with it even more poor.

Sword is good for those who want it. As an endgame PvE\PvP tool its generally utter garbage.

@d3adst1ck

Aye. A lot of what I wrote is just wishful thinking. I figure anything that requires low latency would be almost impossible in the game.

When I'm talking about the responsiveness, it's more about how you can queue up a combo during the first swing and the game just carries out the additional swings. You can see this if you press 3 times rapidly and stop but the game continues with the combo. That doesn't really feel satisfying because there's a disconnect there.

Basically, if there was a need to time your additional swings to combo them, that I think would feel better. Maybe a perfectly timed 3-combo would also do additional damage on the third successful hit (perhaps make it more of a jab for that one - fronthand swipe, backhand swipe, foin).

As a cutlass user, I just wish there was more depth to the actual swordplay beyond the movement boons (block hops and lunges).

Never mind the fact that the sword is the shortest range and lowest base damage and shortest range weapon in your arsenal with the ability to be countered by simply swapping to it or keeping your distance. Its too powerful against ranged weapons that dont have to be near the sword user!

I have watched people argue about sword/gun balance for years, but the fact that both sword and double gun users before the balance was shaken up the last few seasons, claimed the other to be too powerful, shows that the 2 were, and still with how the debate goes on, still are balanced, save for the double barrel, that thing is beyond saving.

the sword is awful, once you learn good movement dying to a sword is very hard. in a 1v1 between a good player with a sword and a good player with double gun, the player with double gun will win almost every time as long as they hit their shots. sword definitely doesnt need a nerf coming from someone who never uses it.

I think it be feelin' more powerful lately because of "food reg". Tibia honest I don't even think it's "food reg" and actually be a change to havin' to complete the food animation because it not be happenin' once in a while. It be every single time. I cannot finish eating before bein' combo'd by a sword combo so the sword just negates eatin', stun's ye from tryin' to run.

Make sure to use a blunderbuss against sword to knock them away be me best advice. It works really well and if not then just swap to sword to block. Most pirates be bad with a sword and spam instead of block and angle attacks above or to the side. Ye got this!