Make the Axe a weapon//tool

Hard no. We don't need handheld weapons doing easy damage to ships. Being boarded by a bigger crew is already a death sentence to a Solo. I can only imagine the troll potential of a 4 man Gally going full Minecraft on a Sloop and wrecking everything while one or two guys spawn camps the crew. Even just the ability to easily wreck another boat's wheel with a couple swings is a complete fight swinger.

Better off keeping the idea of boarding axes as just a boarding tool. It really doesn't need to be more than that as being able to bypass ladders in order to board would already be a significant game changer.

I don’t know about putting a 4th weapon into the game. it is already hard enough to keep things balanced. However, i don’t see why we couldn’t have more axes that work like the cutlass. Basically just a skin, like the Merreck spear from the plunder pass or the crossbow eye of reach from a few seasons back.

@olemusky said in Make the Axe a weapon//tool:

@vakrisone

That is a skill issue. Don't get boarded then. As a sloop, you should easily be able to get away from a Gally.

If you really need an axe to do damage to the mast, wheel and the boat then that too be kind of a skill issue my dude. Git gud at naval and you should easily never need an axe to crutch on for ship damage :)

@olemusky
sounds like the most balanced post i have seen so far

I'd like an axe in the game, the sword is fun to hack and slash but sometimes I just want to chop a skelton in two with a heavy blow.

I dont think a handheld weapon should do damage to a ship as it would create a bigger "meta" than double gunning, the variety is what makes each encounter special and if every combat scenario ends in someone chopping your ship in half with an axe it would get annoying fast. What's more a 4 man crew wouldn't even need a galleon, they could just just row around with axes and sneakily scuttle a ship before the crew even notice.

However, instead I wouid like to see players given the option to rip off repairs made by other crews to either let water through an already existing hole or to rip the repairs to a mast to make it fall, i wouldn't bother adding the option to the helm and anchor though. This wouldn't need any kind if weapon but would take a co serabke amount of time, if they get knocked off in the attempt they have to start again.

@olemusky Never said it would replace. But it would make it so much easier to just board and sabotage an enemy boat that naval would be rendered as an extremely sub par option by comparison.

As a boarding tool, the axe could be an interesting addition. As a ship damaging weapon, it's too overpowered and would create a boarding meta on steroids.

Adding an axe gets my vote, but if it gets added, i think it would have to work a bit differently, probably more damage to players, but less mobility, or possibly boarding being its mobility option. Punching holes in ships with it seems a bit op tho.

My eyes rolled so hard when I saw that emote.

Knew the spawncampers would be begging for it to be a weapon.

Oh. And horrible idea. We have chainshots that do that and require a teensy bit of skill.

Axe could never work to actually deal ship damage as it would just be far too strong. Imagine getting quad boarded and within 10 seconds on the ferry you return and the 4 of them have broken your mast your capstan your helm and have put 10 tier 3 holes into your ship.

The idea of boarding with the axe is also a no go because the entire point is there's limited spots. If they could board from literally anywhere it'd be impossible to block boarders.

A better idea for alternate boarding is to swing from a rope on your mast which only works very close range and is very telegraphed so the enemy getting boarded has a good time to react. Unlike boarding axe where I could just get boarded from the very back of my ship near where the rowboat docks and have 0 way of actually telling I just got boarded.