A Quick and Dirty analysis of Swords
Expectations: “Cyclone”.
Reality: “Sand cyclone x3, electric cyclone, half cyclones, bloody cyclone at 45°, jump cyclone, cyclone with bloody projectiles, rotated at 90° tornado but its actually just a long cyclone”.
cyclone/whirlwind is a extremely popular archetype so it makes sense to broaden it among different skills then trying to force and balance everything in 1 package.
we also got shadow clone cyclone in 0.5
Cyclone is a bit of a weird one to balance, as PoE1’s either CoC which is pretty hard to make not OP with PoE2’s CoC, and Tumult which doesn’t exist and requires a unique to not feel bad.
Big damage circle is probably the most common skill type in Path of Exile 2.
Cyclone twerking
Twerklone
sidenote: none of the skills are the actual name, it’s just the closest equivalent to PoE1
there was some other stuff too, such as the sword glowing before eviscerate, though it could mean anything, from a buff from parries or other skills
there’s also some strange cases of swords using skills from other weapons, like the backflip at the beginning of the trailer possibly being spear’s Disengage skill, and the elephant in the room Flicker Slash (also requires no charges it looks like)
i also forgot to include that there is a Sand Eviscerate in the teaser, it’s pretty obvious but it’s the multiple flurry of sand waves shaped the same way as Blood Eviscerate
Yes, I noticed the skill overlap too, especially swords having flicker, but after a closer look, it is shown right before the unique Count Geonor sword and after another sword move that looks like it comes from a unique item.
So this might actually be the Oro’s sacrifice Unique, giving it its own special flicker because of its history in PoE 1, the shape of the weapon would fit too and the flicker slashes having a flame effect.
swords have flicker
PLSPLSPLSPLSPLSPLPSLSPLSPLS
there is absolutely no way flicker strike is not available to swords. they’ll make it consume frenzy for swords and power for staffs.
Actually the sword in the flicker strike scene looks more like terminus est. When you look at the frames where there isn’t any animation/effect going on with the sword it looks like it has a wide blade and a blunt tip.
Also before oro became a thing for flicker there was only one sword that worked for a long time for flicker and that was terminus est.
Most likely these would be “Wind” skills rather than “Sand.” Monks have a similar archetype for their non-elemental skills
I think its sand. Since he is in a gladiator arena with sand.
Blood and Sand is already an established thing in PoE
Oo I see never heard of Sand from PoE1 looks like it’s confirmed too on Cyclone
It’s a little on the nose that Spartacus was airing on showtime starz and was big around that time in poe1. Hence the helmet “bringer of rain”.
Btw for the flicker if you check in frames where the sword doesn’t have any special effects the sword looks to be very similar to terminus est/executioner sword. Wide blade and blunt tip.
This 2-hit combo is a great way to balance melee while preserving some melee aspect of it. Most successful “melee” skills end up being glorified ranged attacks/spells with huge AoE, but this could be a way to preserve the melee feel while also enabling screen-clearing AoE.
The slowed down video for swords looks like normal speed mace gameplay lol
I wonder what the ascendancy have for dual weild sword, I saw some gameplay with it. Normally you would just 2H sword or sword and shield like in poe1
Yeah I’m def maining dual weild sword until daggers come out, looks super cool. Some of the ability looked crazy flashy
Yeah I really like the flicker strike ish, or dash attack like. If there is blood/sand stance im sure will try bleeding build for sure.
I also remark that the duelist parry q boss with his dual weild sword on the video
I think that flicker strike-like attack might’ve been a weapon skill. Because it’s shown between what seems to be Geonor’s unique greatsword and Chayula’s.
For sure same here, I played a few different bleed builds the last couple of leagues so I know a lot more about building for them I am also planning on playing that one
Hopefully bleed gets some love like they hinted in 0.5.5
Didnt play any bleeding build so far in poe2. Is theres a lot of bleeding dmg/chance node in the skill tree?
There is since it counts as an ailment but unless they rework it you’re better off going all in on crit for a lot of the builds since it scales off the hit
I’m planning on making some kind of blademaster build, utilizing two sets of swords. Likely dual wield + greatsword, hopefully with some kind of synergy.
Nah, Imma Bringer of Rain two 2H or die trying.
Prob dying.
I can already imagine a high damage ascendancy that gets the ability to parry/block while dual wielding with huge damage buff if successful.
High risk high reward glass cannon kinda shit
I mean, early on dual wielding two-handed maces was the go to in PoE 2.
So I’m guess you’ll do the same but with swords
Bleed bow is about to make its come back. 😂
Bleeding Rain of arrow or bleeding siege cascade with corpse explosion please that would be insane
Its not depicted here, but im most interested in that dash that looks like it leaves behind a tear (chaos?) and the flicker strike-esque attack.
Looking forward to the 27th for more info.
The void dash is almost certainly the unique skill from the breach katana. I think everything they were showing after the Geonor sword bit were all uniques and their skills.
I would be surprised if the chaos-tear-dash sword isn’t the katana from one of the breach bosses.
I doubt they are going to show duelist tomorrow, cause it’s going for 1.0
The “Eviserate” one looks friggin badass. And i could swear i saw a flicker-like skill later in the video. Though maybe that simply is flicker and it can also be used on swords.
Good catch there! Now just give me 2h sword parrying (w/o shields/bucklers) like old Magma Barrier and I’m in heaven.
Whether you like it or not we are getting combos.
I’m ok with this as long as its good
He moves like Henry Cavill in the Witcher.
Soo…. The Witcher? All the same stuff from the game
I am so excited for having two swords at the same time.
No fire attacks?
It looks like you can channel some sword skills and they won’t stop, making you travel in the process.
Haven’t had a chance to watch the announcement yet, I’m assuming this is all slated for the 1.0 release?
Yes
Sick, thanks! I know what kinda character m building on 1.0
Swords confirmed 2h only or unknown?
Edit: I just totally missed the dual wielding.
Okay what stance and skill is going to be objectively better then the rest doing million dps pre end game
Spear has twister
Elemental has CoC Comet
Nature has plant
Crossbow has grenade
Mace has shield wall
Summon has gorilla or skeletal sniper gas arrow explosion
shields have shield wall, its not mace related at all
Mace has default skill lol kinda missthe splash hammer default attack pops. I guess one handed hammer has earthshatter. I think supercharged slam is a thing this leaugue too
Mace has totem and slams
Mace has bear slams
Mace has reduced attack speed
Idc if Cyclone does no damage. I’ll play Cyclone.
thats fine i’d just like more then one to two usable skills per tree
This is probably the combo gameplay they want because the follow up attacks look pretty cool
Hope it’s not just the equivalent of whirlwind x3 then twister though
Lightning meta ftw
That’s for sure Lightning Strike redone.
hopefully this is actual combo gameplay where skills chain into one another, instead of bullshit charges or parry
Okay but how is this going to work with how the game is right now. This sounds like a slow tactical playstyle used against like 5 enemies in these clips when in reality maps are going to be like 50 enemies bum rushing you at once and you’re never going to have time to think about the mechanics of this.
anyone else feel like there are 2 endgame viable skills in cyclone and flicker? The rest looks way too clunky even assuming 3x speed.
Stack attack speed and get 1.5 attacks per second with those animations. They sure have some serious balancing ahead of them to balance everything well.
The dual wield animation looks badass
I knew they’d make it this way.
I’m not sure why people are so excited for swords?
Me either, and they’ve hyped themselves up so much for them that if they come out and aren’t the most broken op thing in the game they’re going to flip to complaining. I think it has a lot to do with what was good in poe1, and I honestly hope that they make it as good as warrior to counteract that expectation.
its fuckin swords
Curved swords.
For me, a lot of the skills don’t feel that different from the Monk. They just look way better. I really wish they’d rework a bunch of the Monk skills.
nah i lowkey disagree, poe2 makes all the melee look different, from what weve seen so far. quarterstaff skills very much look like you’re whacking something with a stick, where as all these sword skills seem very slashy and swipey. most mace skills are distinct as slams, but the mace strike basic feels more impactful and weighted than a quarterstaff whose weight is uniform throughout the staff. Of course, they are all still swinging some long object in an arc, but thats melee at a basic level. These skills have some identity, cyclone and whirling assault look different. The lighting sword skill and tempest flurry look different. If i didnt know anythign about poe, i think id still be able to say these are all sword skills.
well, there is very much a reason a lot of melee skills were shared by weapons in PoE1, and it’s because it is pretty hard to create unique skills for specific weapons, especially when it’s an entire suite of them. i wouldn’t be surprised if in the future we do start sharing some skills again
not saying that it’s impossible to be entirely unique, but there is definitely bound to be overlap and we’ll just have to see how they use weapon bases/uniques to make similar skills in other weapon types appealing to eachother
I think it also comes from the simple fact that for example cyclone and whirling assault are fundamentally the same skill.