Hello all, I just wanted to preface this post by saying
I'm not the best PvPer in the game. I enjoy PvP, hell, I wouldn't have kept playing if it was not for PvP.
That being said, I believe that the state of (Sword) PvP at the moment is spammy and easy.
Let's start with:
1.) Cutlass (Pre-Ships of Fortune)
The cutlass before Ships of Fortune was a joke, not only was the damage pitiful put it was also out-classed by double gunning in every way.
Double gunning could output twice the damage of the cutlass at half the time whilst also not sacrificing range.
It was clear it needed a buff.
2.) Cutlass (Pre-Haunted Shores)
Ships of Fortune rolls out and with it, (in addition to every other great thing in that update) came a cutlass buff.
Cutlasses were now a force to be reckoned with, outputting 25% damage every swing and 60% every lunge.
This change didn't make it unstoppable, however, you could still die whether it be due to poor positioning or a bad reaction time.
This was the cutlass at its peak, not too powerful but not too weak, a balanced weapon.
3.) Cutlass (Post-Haunted Shores)
Haunted Shores comes out and alongside spooky ghost ships; comes a cutlass buff.
This buff now made it so that if you slice your opponent: they will be unable to retaliate, instead requiring them to sword block.
My problems with the cutlass begin here, whereas before you could simply shoot them as they were slicing you, forcing them to attempt to manoeuvre to avoid your bullets, now they could just blindly sword you with no repercussions.
Wanna shoot them? Nope, you can't because they're slicing you.
Wanna block? No chance, they'll either kill you due to its 4-hit kill or you'll block and they'll still kill you because it didn't register your block.
I think RARE is confused about where they want to take the cutlass.
On one hand, they're trying to make it powerful due to its damage,
on the other, they're trying to make it powerful due to its stun.
My solution(s)?
Idea 1:
Nerf the cutlass to a 2-hit combo.
50 damage is a lot to be putting out, especially considering that it would only take 2 combos to kill somebody.
Idea 2:
Nerf the cutlass to 20 per swing.
20 damage would be a nice compromise between 25 and 15 because it's enough to be effective but not enough to just be used as its own thing.
and Idea 3:
Bring back the slow-down that came with swinging.
This would make it a lot harder to spam as you'll be slowed down every swing, making you an easier target.
Of course, a skilled player will use the sword hops to their advantage when trying to dodge bullet fire when slowed down, making it take a fair bit of skill.
Well, that took too long to type, tell me what you think in the replies.
Maybe I'm just bad at PvP, who knows.
