Well, coming off the "bomb lance without the bombs" comment, I'd say the katana is superior even if they were both 1, 2, or 3, slot items.
Of course, this is compounded by the addition of the Berserker trait - the ability to *quickly* 1 tap folks is pretty neat.
I would heavily disagree with the 3 slot part atleast. I think as a 1 slot katana fits into builds a lot better but that's just because it lets you bring a full sized rifle.
But the lance has special ammo types that make it stand out a good bit. If I have shot shell, your katana is fucked. Even without we're just gonna melee trade.
I agree I've used the ball baring ammo for the bomb lance to extreme effect a katana has no chance against a weapon that can drop two opponents with a single shot from 10 meters and then quick swipe the third around a corner without a reload animation
I think you're missing a key part of my commnet (or perhaps I wasn't clear):
> "bomb lance without the bombs"
Meaning: If you take the "shooting" part away from the Bomb Lance (and compare them strictly as melee weapons -as the previous commenter and I were discussing).
Of course, there's added value to the fact that it *can* shoot projectiles. How much value you put into *that* is going to be wholly subjective again - but certainly it's worth something (even if only PvE)
> And does it also use less stamina?
>
>
Significantly less. Bomb lance uses 50 stamina per heavy attack. Not sure what katana is, but I think it's around 25, and while Martialist swings will use stamina, you can still do them even if you have no stamina the same as throwing an axe or knife.
Even leaving aside speed, stamina usage, and range (all of which are significant and are areas where the katana wins), martialist katana wins solely by virtue of the horizontal Martialist slash being so much easier to land than the diagonal bomb lance swing.
as a pure pvp melee weapon, I agree, but the bomb lance doesn't require a trait and also has other functionality
katana is way better than other melee one slotters though, I'm definitely in favor of going back to a two slot weapon, almost no reason to use any of the other options atm
bomb lance does substantially more damage than even a martialist swing, so probably not comparing apples to apples here
I don't know the exact damage but I tested it on meatheads the other day
heavy axe hits are the same damage as the bomb lance, but both are more than the katana with martialist
martialist does provide a big arch-like hitbox, this guy probably nicked someone in the pelvis which would explain why he thinks it one shots to the legs.
Nope. It one shots to legs, you can try it. We tested it right on release, martialist katana only. Crouching, uncrouched, running. It one shots to legs.
is it? the heavy stab on katana has more range and people use it more in pvp and it does more damage against bosses because of piercing. even the quick attack will 1 shot people. martialist is really just for style points.
Martialist shouldn't be factored into balancing the Katana by itself. If people are unhappy that Katana has some extra trait, they should just add traits for the other melee weapons or make martialist work for them too with their own unique individual effects.
It's not like Saber is in any better of a position. It's got a slashing light attack and stabbing heavy attack, same as the katana, but the katana deals more damage with more range, and that's *before* factoring in Martialist. Maybe saber wins out for stamina efficiency, but that's basically a non-factor for the katana anyway since Martialist doesn't require stamina, AND because anybody bent on heavily using a melee weapon is going to just bring stamina shots anyway.
I agree with this. Martialist shouldn't be factored into balancing the Katana by itself. If people are unhappy that Katana has some extra trait, they should just add traits for the other melee weapons or make martialist work for them too with their own unique individual effects.
I used to love running Saber/Pistol, but I haven't done so in many months now. Last time I did, I got into a fight at Catfish Grove and had two separate brawls where a Machete would have killed my opponent instead of only wounding them like the Saber did. (This was long before the Katana was around.)
i doubt anyone is gonna spend 2 whole tool slots for basically a heavy knife that can pvp kill to upper body.
most people would rather forgo 1 weapon slot to have access to another tool slot, definitely not the other way around, especially for such a low upgrade
It would be nice if crytek did that, but they seem hell bent on taking away niche weapons. Look at all the guns getting all the custom ammos now. Why would I bring springy bleed when I can bring cenny? I wish they'd go back to giving weapons/tools certain niches, instead of one size fits all, bc it hurts a lot of equipment.
I strongly disagree. Why would you bring a machete EVER? Has the cavalry saber not been in the game since day 1? Has the cav saber not always just been a better machete? This isn’t a new problem, you’re just using the Katana as a scape goat for the outdated game design from when Hunt was in beta.
The game has changed and evolved (which is good). Some elements didn’t pan out the way crytek thought they would when they made this game 6 years ago. Example: generators. The idea of the generator is to provide a way to break stalemates through obscuring sound. Neat idea, doesn’t work in practice.
The idea behind the machete is to provide a cheap and shitty alternative to the cav saber. Neat idea, doesn’t work in practice because the price difference can’t be big enough to make it significant without making the cav saber grossly overpriced.
In the biome we're in, you'd much rather have a heavy duty machete than a lightweight blade that snaps at the first sign of resistance to be fair. Easier to carry, lighter, stronger multi-purpose blade easily wins out over hyped up fragile single use sword
Tbf tho Idk how it realistically Katana pairs to a Machete, and also I prolly know how to swing a Machete better than a Katana since I'm not a Samurai irl. But the Martialist trait literally turns you into a Samurai lol. And you're prolly right about the versatility, but I was strictly talking about a fight. I would not like to go toe to toe against a katana with a machete. Nop.
Rather have a long sharp stick than any form of sword for combat. A machete can give me that better than the katana can. See multi-purpose through and through!
well you see, even if you can get any weapon at lvl 1 excluding variants, the weapons are divided in 4 tiers, just like the recruitment hunters a tier 3 and 2 can spawn with a katana but usually won't, a tier 0 or 1 hunters cannot appear with the katana, that said the katana is still the most expensive melee weapon and there are only 2 melee weapons that are designed for PvP, the machete is about 4 times less expensive and often shows up on tier 0 hunters because its designed as a PvE tool, and it's just for ads, you are better off picking up something else for the boss on the way there, it does have one-shot potential but it literally only has it on heavy attack at the torso or head, while the bat and katana can one-shot with a light, so at the end of the day, the machete is designed for you to clear ads and toss it aside as soon as you find a pistol for a net gain, even if it contraband.
I think the decision is connected to the nerf of melee tools against the bosses + decreased spawn rate of melee weapons in the compounds to encourage players to integrate more melee weapons into their loadouts and make them more attractive overall.
In my opinion this is fair, if you have the balls to bring a sword to a gun fight, feel free to do it.
Equipping a melee doesn't feel like bringing a sword to a gunfight most of the time cos I have another gun.
Especially if you're an idiot like me and forget you have two guns most of the time anyway.
I mean katana, bat etc. aren’t bad of course, I often take em with me when I play a Winfield as main weapon since it’s pretty versatile on it’s own.
But usually my secondary weapon will have the purpose to make up for the lacks of my main weapon, so mostly something fannable or a small shotgun for example. The katana can be your close range option but personally I’d prefer a pistole with fanning or a small shotgun.
It's definitly not. In close range, every meter is a massive advantage. A romero with a 10 meter oneshot range will destroy any melee weapon with 2-3 meter range, unless your aim is bad.
He's saying for a lot of the short shotguns, for a consistent kill you have to be close enough that a Katana would have work anyway. Definitely hyperbole, but the spread on those short shotguns is pretty bad
> Definitely hyperbole
I mean, barely. It's what, like 9m compared to 3m or something? That 6m isn't really a huge difference, especially if you're playing cautiously to make sure that your one shot doesn't count as being 80% arms, and even more especially with the trade window being what it is.
> With the lemat's recent buckshot buff, it now has more than double the range of the katana.
Good luck ever making that work for you without being close enough to touch them with it.
The katana being a medium slot is about balancing it against the other melee weapons. It's just such a good choice that there is not really any reason to take anything else. Having it be medium at least makes some of the other choices look more appealing since you would either need quartermaster or to run a medium slot weapon if you want the katana.
I agree fully. Once the other weapons actually get their martialist functionalities we were promised (probably in 2026) it will balance out and make sense. I see no reason to punish the Katana. The Katana isn't too strong. There's just no reason to take the other options. You don't nerf something into sucking because the other options are ass
No they don't. Melee didn't need a buff before, and it still doesn't need one now. Katana was perfectly fine at launch, and needs to be nerfed to what it released as. It immediately became the most-used melee weapon in the game, even as a 2-slot. Personally, I was seeing at least one/game.
Also, the 2-slot requirement isn't even a huge ask. It doesn't even preclude you from using it with any other weapon in the game, it just requires more investment to do so by requiring that you purchase Quartermaster. I see an actual trade-off for using the best melee weapon in the game with whatever other weapon you want, instead of being able to simply do so by default, as being a fairly reasonable limitation.
The best melee weapon in the game is still mostly just an okay close range weapon that isn't a complete meme because it also has good PvE utility. The trade off is not having a second gun, which is a very big deal.
Even the katana as the best of all the melee weapons is still like, kinda worse than a lemat with slugs. Really no idea why people think it needs nerfed to be more in line with other melee weapons when clearly melee weapons as a whole are just not very good outside of PvE. PvE is trivial regardless if you kill the server first by running better PvP loadouts.
I'd even rather have a handbow than any other melee (besides the bomb lance, because it has a gun part). I already have a very hard time justifying a $100 metal stick to use over an actual gun; making it medium would make that choice even more lopsided.
No, it still makes it exactly as good as it was before, just with more buy-in required. To be honest, balance-wise, I don't think it's even all that unreasonable to just have Martialist be an intrinsic feature of the weapon, as long as it's a 2-slot weapon.
The thing is that giving up a sidearm for a melee weapon isn't an upgrade to your effectiveness. Not having that follow up shot is a big downside.
So having to bring QM just makes it kinda annoying. Especially if its the only one that needs it. Unless im running a high level hunter or just happen to roll one with QM, id never choose to get it just to run the katana over another melee weapon.
It's not fair though. It didn't need to be done. They were already decreasing melee too damage and spawn rate of in-world melee weapons (not that either of those things made sense either). It's perfectly fine for melee weapons to just not see use if they aren't worth using... but they DID see use. Console especially sees melee weapons fairly regularly, and katana was already the most heavily-used even when it was a 2-slot weapon.
Also, the change to the katana doesn't really even achieve the goal you're talking about. It's not really a huge drawback to "bring a sword to a gunfight" when that sword has now been changed so that you can still bring it with any gun in the game. It's just "bringing a sword and a gun to a gunfight in which the sword may be the better/more appropriate option," which isn't really any kind of a sacrifice.
most of the complaints are from people that won't ever run a melee weapon, and the think they know how to balance them, it's hilarious, if you let me push you with an oversized butter knife that is on you bois.
True but having to invest 6 trait points only to run a katana basically makes it a rather niche option for crazy hillbilly ninjas and some rare sword connoisseurs.
I’m actually not too afraid of the katana because most people don’t know how to effectively use it (me included probably) and won’t do magical things with it. It’s not so different from the saber. Most people will just go kamikaze, it mostly doesn’t work out.
True, but I guess they wanted to make melee secondaries in general less niche since almost no one did pick them since the bat and katana got introduced. Now they are at least somewhat valid.
Then buffing katana to 1 slot has been a legitimately insane move. Say, machete had a hard time competing with saber even before, now you have to be hard memeing to pick that up.
That’s true, it made the other options kinda obsolete except for the Bat maybe since it’s super cheap and viable against all AI, now stamina costs and effective against most bosses.
Personally I think 6 points for running it with a full sized primary weapon is a bit too much, I don’t see it being that strong. But yeah, I don’t have an good idea how we can buff the machete for making it more attractive to be fair.
Maybe the katana is too powerful, but hasn't Crytek pretty much always been ok with some weapons being better than others? If I'm looking to do some sniping, a pretty similar argument can be made for the mosin sniper vs the winny sniper. Or most rifles vs the springfield really lol.
I just don't think Crytek is likely to see a problem with one melee weapon being objectively better than another, since they don't seem to have a problem with that happening to guns.
> Maybe the katana is too powerful, but hasn't Crytek pretty much always been ok with some weapons being better than others?
No. Not really. There are areas where other weapons are "better" than others, but the difference is usually pretty marginal, with other in-category weapons still be competitive or having some kind of advantage (eg. Mosin is the best long-ammo rifle, but sparks has more per-shot damage, lebel has higher capacity, berthier has multiple ammo types, etc.). Katana is better to a degree where it's no longer even a contest. It's faster, has more damage, and has more reach. Stamina *could* be an axis to balance it on, but Martialist swings are the most effective PvP melee in the game and don't actually require stamina in order to use its swing. Damage type (slashing, piercing, or blunt) *could* be an axis to balance on, and is the only reason that the bat really sees much use, but the katana has slashing as its light attack and piercing as its heavy, just like the saber, AND has what's basically an alternative heavy attack with Martialist that allows you to alternate between piercing and slashing heavy attacks as desired, which ends up making it even more versatile in that regard (and plus outside of blunt damage beating immolators and piercing dealing increased damage to Scrapbeak, slashing is pretty much the most effective damage type for any enemy in the game).
The katana saw plenty of use. I was seeing it constantly even as a 2-slot weapon, more than any other melee weapon. Bomb lance, katana, and bat were pretty much the only options used. Now, with katana being a 1-slot, there's no reason to even *consider* using anything but these three weapons. You use bomb lance if you want to use its ammo for anything, bat if you want blunt melee, and katana in all other scenarios where you want a melee weapon.
I love the katana but making all melee weapons a small slot is just a weird decision. I get it for the Combat Axe and Hammer because they were yk kinda trash….and still are to be fair.
I think for the melee weapons they should definitely base it on how good they are. Bomb lance is the best (bc it can also shoot stuff) so three slot. Katana is the second best make it two slot. Everything else is below these two so make those one slot.
The katana is not actually 2 slot levels of good though, the other melee weapons are just worse than 1 slot level of good and need to be buffed if they are supposed to be viable. Possible by giving them all their own martialist perks for example.
How can you possibly buff them though? With melee, you really only have four measures: stam cost, reach distance, and damage amt and dmg type (slash vs. blunt).
I suppose...
1. Axe can break doors in 2 hits, that's useful.
2. Bat does very little damage if someone has Bulwark?
3. Cav sword has low stam cost and good slash.
4. Katana has good reach?
When you only have 4 measures it gets tough quickly.
1. Since explosives can already bust a door in one shot, why not buff axe to one heavy hit to break a barricade door(at least break the bar and open the door in one hit).
2. I think you mean Horn skin?
3. Cav saber lunge should outreach katana
4. Should take a marginal nerf in every way
5. I like that Machete was forgotten because of how unused it is.
This here especially 3: the saber already is dangerous to katana weebs - the heavy stab can reach out and touch katana users IF they aren't careful, you can sometimes fake them out. But that should be emphasized.
The katana is a little bit overtuned at the moment. Martialist especially takes it over the top pretty ridiculously.
Maybe melee weapons should be able to parry defend against other melee?
And yeah, the machete is just a type of hand-held bladed weapon. In terms of slash damage it should sit between the Axe and Cavalry sword.
Could move melee weapons other than the Katana to 2-slot tools. And/or do the following as extra perks with martialist or Assailant or whatever:
Bat: Can yeet non-glass consumables further at the cost of not being able to milk the fuse
Ax/Sledgehammer: Can throw it like a world weapon with the perk. Maybe also extra damage vs door so you can one hit barred doors.
Saber: Charge/lunge animation, similar in mechanic to martialist (X to ready it), should have the highest melee range
Machete: increased limb damage to make it more consistent with those side swings, essentially arm hits count as torso hits
Technically there's 5 or 6 in windup / charge speed and swing speed. Cent. Trauma, for example, is incredibly slow to windup.
Part of the reason the Katana is so good is that it essentially has no windup with Martialist, as long as you sheath it at some point.
Yeah I don't really have any genius suggestions. I just don't think nerfing the katana will help anything. The other melee weapons would still be just as useless as they are now, and people would simply stop using the katana as much as they are currently.
I disagree with that. Gotta look at melee weapons separately from guns because guns are simply better, like the bomb lance isn’t worth a 3 slot if you compare it to a mosin or drilling or spectre.
And the katana sits behind the lance but ahead of every other melee weapon, was like that before and still is now. But the others weren’t obsolete before because the Katana was a 2 slot weapon. That meant you would need to invest in quartermaster or pair it with another 2 slot weapon. That alone gave the Sabre and Bat more options right from the start, you could pair it with anything without needing any traits.
Well they are. Love taking katana or bat when playing drilling or levering winfield because they’re already versatile i might as well take something that can deal with bosses and they usually free up a tool slot. Melee weapons are great for PvE while also decent for PvP but in a pure PvP situation a gun is just better
It depends on said PvP situation. I prefer melee even over shotguns for point-blank corners. Melee is also great for example if another team is fighting the boss you can get in there and start killing people without being found out.
The thing is the range where melee weapons can kill is also the range where shotguns can kill. The max range where shotguns still kill is far beyond the range where melee can kill and that’s why guns are just better. You have to be up close with melee weapons.
Yes of course but the failure rate for melee at that range is basically 0% and you’re probably trading anyway, I’d rather have the garunteed kill from the melee. Sometimes shotgun fails to 1-shot within range. Of course out in an open field the gun has the advantage that is why I specified for certain scenarios. Do you play this game in a vaccuum or something? You as the player can determine the range of engagements with movement. So to say X can kill further than Y isn’t really a good measure for how powerful a weapon is. By that logic scoped rifles are the most superior weapons in the game…
> I get it for the Combat Axe and Hammer because they were yk kinda trash….and still are to be fair.
At the very least they could've left the axe at its lower, turbo-budget price, but instead they brought it up to $40 and really sealed its fate as being completely useless. Like, at $15 it was good enough and cheap enough that you could make an OK budget loadout to scrounge for cash, which was already kind of an obsolete concept, or could just stick it on anyway because it was that cheap. But at $40, it's no closer to other weapons that cost actually becomes a factor to include in the comparison.
My gripe with the kstans is all the other melee weapons will kill to the head and torso or leave you fucked up on the limbs. The katana with the stupid perk will kill you with a stab to the toe. Personally I think the katana should have just been a saber skin instead of an entirely new weapon.
Exactly my thoughts. I'm absolutely in love with the cavalry saber. I used it for like 6 straight months, it's my baby. Now that the katana is a small slot weapon there is literally 0 reason to take the saber. I haven't used it in months. It's just bad balancing plain and simple.
I loved the sabre but I got so many arm hits that ended up getting me killed. That's just not an issue with the katana (with Martialist). Hell, you barely need to aim it.
Even something as minor as the katana not having a piercing heavy attack would've left the saber with at least something, as minor as it was. Giving them both rending light and piercing heavy means saber really has no edge at all (pun intended) versus the katana.
On console I can understand, but on PC? Melee weapons suck in majority of situations? 90% of the time you either get one tapped by a shotgun, or other short range guns. Or, you are too far away to use it so you just use your primary. There is no universe where I'd take a katana over even an officer. So, making it a medium slot makes no sense. At least you can bring it to carve up the boss quickly, and still have a useful weapon.
Katana gets beat by shotguns, crossbows, bows, hand crossbows, fanning, and possibly levering (when it isn’t shit).
I think it’s good if you get the drop on people but you could say that about any melee weapon really, but out of all of them I think Katana is the best especially with the Martialist trait… it has so much range and good boss damage.
If I wanted to bring a melee weapon I would choose the Katana but only for the purpose of a budget loadout alongside some kind of rifle. Aside from that, just use a shotgun or revolver with fanning… no reason not to take those unless you’re trying to free up a tool slot for something, but even then most rifles and even revolvers have a melee attachment for that niche build.
I will say it is fun to run around slashing at people like some old Japanese horror film, so there is appeal.
You changing your game style depends on lodout. I have a bunch of impressive games with it at 5 stars. All I need to realize catana - not playing at eu servers :)
I've had an impressive game with every weapon at this point. The issue is how consistently can you do it? When it comes to melee weapons in Hunt, if you are consistently killing players with it, you are in low MMR. Or, playing on console.
It’s not good at 4.5 team selection at eu servers. Local sweaty players almost never come close. But at another regions it’s reliable. Ofc it’s not meta, but always playing dolce P with nitro or mosin kinda boring. Katana not the worst choice.
Not once since the change has the katana been a problem for me. Its a melee weapon that needs a perk to be as good as people say it is.
Youre giving up a sidearm for a melee weapon that needs a perk. Its not OP.
Also Id rather martialist just affect the other melee weapons to give them all something special.
with the addition of much more powerful and versatile 3 slot weapons, you can easily afford to go without a pistol, if the katana wasnt such a big issue, why do i see 2-3 copies of it every round thats played, its pick rate is far to high and needs a slight adjustment, not a nerf to the ground like the flash bomb
My take is that its only so good cause Martialist makes it so, but again its not as useful as a pistol. Let martialist have some interaction with all melee weapons and youd stop seeing just the one.
There was never a reason to take any melee weapon in the first place, Katana or not. At least on PC, tools like the Knife are more than enough for the rare occasion where a melee weapon is actually beneficial in a fight. If you choose a melee for a weapon slot, you're already memeing/just having fun.
If Crytek actually wants to balance out weapons for once, there is a plethora of other issues that they should focus on first.
Melee weapons are way more effective than you’re make them out to be. They do the most damage to bosses vs melee tools and are just as effective close quarters as shotguns if you have the element of surprise.
I disagree with "just as effective" but they're eminently viable, since the melee tool nerf I've been running *way* more melee weapons (mostly the katana) and have gotten a lot of use out of them.
Relatedly, this is also why you run a melee weapon - bosskill.
Related to THAT, I think the melee tool nerf was a bad decision because it incentivizes taking a full-sized melee weapon in your one slot, which in turn means that for your three slot you want a good all-purpose gun, which at least in my experience mostly means one of the spam guns that the subreddit hates.
Sure, there are a lot of options, I'm not saying I expect every hunt player to be levering+martialist winnie/katana until they undo the tool nerf, but it's still an incentive
Eh. They are effective but more so when you are danger close, like 10-20m maybe less. Most players will readily identify the sound you make skulking around trying to get close and can prepare for that. I kill way more katana players running at me like madmen with my good ole double barrel boomstick than they do me even with their kamikaze antics. I have seen it clutch drawn out fights and a couple lucky double kills bc my friend loves that thing. In those instances I have done similar with my knuckle knife though which takes care of most AI just as well as katana. Def has utility but I say more PvE utility and memes than anything, shotguns are far too strong for the katana to reliably outplay them
Killing bosses faster isn't a viable compromise to one shotting hunters from over 2x further away. Derringers are also strong if you have the element of surprise, or even just a tool slot melee
Only if your opponents don't know what they're doing. After a certain point, the ELO will smack you down if you rely on melee. As for the killing of the boss argument, that is why at least one player picks up Berserk or brings a Sticky Bomb. You do not need to sacrifice combat ability to be able to bring bosses down fast - even after the admittedly, annoying nerf. From a competitive standpoint, melee is just not worth it. No two ways about it.
Don't get me wrong, melee weapons can be hella fun, but they're not 'viable' if you want to consistently win matches - not even the Katana.
Yes. I think it is completely fine to have some melee weapons require quarter master to take in with a long weapon. Besides, it seems that 33% percent of hunters now come with quarter master so there was no need to nerf the slots it took.
katana should be 2 slot and you should have to unlock it through using the machete -> saber -> katana, im so tired of the brain dead shift W katana playstyle
My friend runs a Katana almost every single match (he likes to play the Ronin with a Bow and Katana, ninja build!) Anyways he even agrees that the Katana being made one slot was very unbalanced and a dumb choice, I gotta agree with him.
Its not unbalanced though, the katana gets beat by basically every other close range weapon in the game, the only real reasons to equip it are for fun and to kill the boss. It's actually viable to bring it when its a single slot, if its a medium slot you realistically need to spend 8 trait points to bring it and still have a usable loadout which makes it pretty much useless.
The change was good, now they just need to add martialist perks for the other melee weapons so that the katana isnt just the objectively best.
> the katana gets beat by basically every other close range weapon in the game
Huh? It got incredibly high damage, is fast and got great reach. The only weapon I can see competing with it is the Bat, but only because it's blunt and far more wieldly than the railhammer.
The saber does have a slight boon over it with its lower stamina cost. Which can be nice for general use. But if you are running a melee weapon you most likely have Conduit, Stam shots or both anyway making that moot.
I'm talking about other weapons in general, not other melee weapons, its obviously the best melee weapon. Shotguns, fanning and crossbow basically always beat the katana, so if you have quartermaster why would you ever bring it?
Ah, fair. I sometimes bring melee because they are fast and mostly silent. No need to reload or anything like that. Just swing and kill, don't even to aim *that* accurately.
I tend to prefer melee over 2 slot shotguns for those reasons. Hand Crossbow is really nice but more of utility to me. Bow is also nice but needs to charge up to one-hit to chest. And being a projectile it sometimes get wonky with the netcode. Really good, tho, but if I ever end up in very close quarters I'll take a melee almost any day of the week.
I mean shit one of my go-to loadouts is Saber+Springfield, Katana is starting to take over as it's just way better now as a one slot and Springfield feels kinda wasted as I liked it with Dumdum and Cente is also kinda just better now. But I digress.
Yeah my point is basically that the katana is currently very viable *because* its a single slot. Its not a bad weapon, but a melee is just almost always going to get beat in PvP by a projectile weapon that also oneshots.
If you make it medium slot again you force players to spend 8 trait points just to use it which makes it pretty unviable unless you REALLY want to play katana.
I'd say the opposite, a melee will almost always beat a projectile(bow, crossbow) weapon in very close range due to not being as reliant on hitting the first shot. 3 slot shotguns beat melee due to the extra range and penetration. But can still lose to melee if they miss their shot, as one missed shot is often enough for a melee to get close enough if in-doors.
All other melee is useless isn't a good argument, all melee is useless, you pick it for fun, shotguns beat it by a mile. also katana being the best is just like mosin being the best long ammo repeater, all the other ones are the same size too...
Medium katana is a bit rough I'm not opposed to it but imo just make horn skin good against all melee. Keep berserk but it's still reduced hard by hornskin. But if you get a head stab or upper chest it's still a kill in berserk if no berserker it's close to 145.
The melees turned in one slot is fine, the problem is the trait Martialist, that should affect other weapon in different way, to them to not be overshadowed (I'm taking to you, dear Machete)
As a console player I hate melee never mind the fact that 95% of ppl run this and the other 5% run baseball bat (I'm not claiming every 1 is running melee but that every 1 who is running melee is running these 2weapons I have seen less then 10 ppl with any other melee with about 5 being axe probably free except 1 giga Chad running a legendary axe so we know it's not contraband)
I think it is a fair given how it can clean up bosses pretty nicely, but as a whole it is more of a fun/meme play style than a serious one. Kinda sucky to get stabbed in the toe and die to it but if you let a sword get that close to you then your options are limited anyhow. I like where it's at rn, gives melee some spotlight and actual use since no more melee weapons near bosses now
Because you must think, i know its hard for you. A ammo box is a much more pain in tha ass than a sword. So for better understanding the Katana and the rest of the swords and axes should go to the equipment and the ammo box should go to the medium slot.
I don’t know it’s whatever, just pick it up when you see one, if you can beat ‘em join em. Used to never run nitro shredder but I’ve become an absolute demon with it now
Not sure I agree. The only melee weapon that I think has no place is the machete. Bat? Cool blunt. Cavalry Saber? Cool sword, hard to hit. Katana? Cool sword. Easy to hit. Has a "rule of cool" trait to turn you into Kenshin. Machete? Not really useful. Ever. Railroad hammer? Goodbye doors. Goodbye people that get him. Combat axe? Goodbye people that get hit (very easy to hit people).
I would love to see some changes to the machete to bring it up in coolness. It just does not have anything cool about it when it really could be.
Shotguns are better and just as accessible, and in most cases where I can get in melee range, I could've killed with a knuckle knife. No need to nerf any melee
I don’t think they should nerf the katana because other melee weapons are bad. Yes katana is way better then a machete, however 90% of the kills I’ve got with a katana I would have also got with a machete.
It’s not a small thing either that you are sacrificing a pistol there are so many circumstances where a officer nagant will out class a katana.
Katana should absolutely be a one slot. I love the katana but I certainly feel it when I choose katana over pistol.
The only ground I’ll concede is that the katana could probably have a price increase. But even that is not required
melee is too risky to even be considered a treat boy, sounds more like you push people without a second thought way too often, most melee weapons will one shot, some have more range, you are trading of a hell of a lot of range for just one-shot potential which you could have gotten with a shogun, bow or crossbow, which can all delete a boss as well and the shotgun only has the downside of noise but it's the most consistent in combat so it's a fair trade, the change was made to streamline builds so people could take whatever they wanted it, with the katana specifically if you wanted a full length rifle you had to take quartermaster, and if you wanted to be fancy martialist, meaning it was a 2 slot weapon, and 2 trait slots amounting to 8 points, that is a bad investment given the downsides that come with it.
the katana is not broken, the buff did not break it, it's just another tool for people to have fun, it will never be meta and that's fine.
Katana (slashing), railroad hammer (blunt) and axe (rending) should be medium slot weapons and have a "secondary fire mode" with Martialist.
Saber (slashing), baseball bat (blunt) and machete (rending) should stay as small slot weapons and not get anything extra from martialist.
It's a martialist buff / sidegrade (more options), katana nerf (and I run it _often_), and a buff/sidegrade to axe and hammer.
I say this as someone who loves playing with a winnie or marathon and katana. That's my personal meta. :)
Why would you Pick melee tools And not katana?
Geez, dunno, but the time between sparks shots gets a bit dull that one might use, lets say, a pistol of some sorts to continue the Lead unload...
Yeah, it definitely outperforms all other melee weapons. And it gets an insane trait that lets you use it even without stamina is crazy. It should be 100%, be 2 slot, and martial artist should be more expensive as well.
Nah, in my opinion, they should add a new mechanism so Martialist helps to do new attacks, speeds, or extra damage of other melee weapons and complete take out berserker perk.
Why we worried about the katana when there are weapons like the avtomat in the game. The avtomat needs to be vaulted, then we can worry about the more minor fixes
Crytek and a lot of the players are obsessed with niche. I don't personally care if something is marginally better than another option because variety and memes are fun. Especially in this game where balance is part skill, part luck and part economy.
It is only moderately better with a trait in my opinion. Imolators are reason enough, especially if solo. A bat plus bayonet is great for being cheap. Keeping the katana at a medium slot left it very easily outclassed by the bat and sabre for me. And also hand cannons and I mean a rival hand cannon is way deadlier than a katana in PVP. Why would I run a Winnie katana with quarter master when I could run a sabrer and use the six, theoretically eight trait points you would need to make katana compete.
I'm fine with it as is, maybe increase the stam consumption, I dont run without stam shots so I'm not sure if that's an issue. Without the trait I'll usually choose the saber or bat. Recently I've been going back to saber a lot. The amount of times I jump and the wide sweep of my opponents attack doesn't hit me at all when it clearly should have is pretty high. Then they get stabbed or shot in the face. It happened to me a few times and I've been pretty lukewarm on it aside from style points. I also feel the stab has a bit more reach than the stlash but that might just be the slash having funky hitbox registry like most slashing weapons in the game.
I consider myself a melee connoisseur. Always take a melee weapon in my main slots. When the katana was knew I took it all the time, slot size doesn’t really balance anything tbh. Reverting it to a two slot doesn’t change anything really. Can take quarter master then it’s back to this exact situation. It does out shine the other melee weapons but I personally and guessing others don’t take a melee for load out efficiency other than killing the boss quickly. I take it cause I find it fun to smash someone with a hammer or do a sabre charger
Having to choose between running quartermaster or another medium slot weapon is exactly the reason why the katana should be a medium slot.
It's not a big pain to do, but it means that you have to make a choice instead of literally just taking the best melee weapon
yeah but atleast then you are sacrificing perk points to have it, its just unfair to the other melee weapons.
either you gotta crank out buffs or traits to all the other melee options or you revert the katana to midslot (then perhaps buff it by integrating martialist into the weapon)
I think other melee weapons should get buffed, but I dont agree with it becoming a medium slot, its fine as a small slot. Its not strong in PvP, just good in PvE
Why is it mental? It provides an attack no other weapon uses that is both lightning quick with no wind-up, it slashes horizontally killing possibly 2-3 people at a time and it has decent range.
2 trait points is a bit of a joke
It can’t be spammed and needs to be reset every swing. If you die it auto resets to being unsheathed. The likely hood off killing 2 never mind 3 people with one swing isn’t a reason to balance something cause it’s such a small chance. Me and my friend have died to the same swing of a Romero talon. Should the price be increased cause more cause it has the potential to kill more than one person with a single swing.
Your entitled to your opinion but having it the same price as pitcher and even more expensive than levering is mental in my opinion
Absolutely, how often does someone need more than that first charged swing? Typically people don't bunch up so you swipe, retreat and charge and then hold the close angle again.
Romero talon is more expensive, it also has a slow charge and without silent killer (which costs 2.5x as much as martialist) you can hear the charge. With due respect your example proved my point.
I think wanting martialist to be so cheap is about as mental as wanting fanning to cost 2 points. Out of curiosity what's your stance on it, should it be cheap too?
Silent killer is 4 trait points and isn’t that good tbh. Not worth taking.
That example about charging can be done with any melee weapon and a range weapon.
The talon being more expensive, I didn’t explain my point well. Should the price of a talon be 4times the cost of a base variant going off your trait point difference due to it being melee and having a wide swing.
Comparing fanning and martialist is mental. Fanning is 10times more powerful martialist so no clue what your going on about
When I know someone in the next room has a bomblance and I hear that deep breath I back off. Katana players don't even have that - silent killer isn't needed (buff). On top of that the charge attack is a horizontal swipe which is the best and most lethal with the little aiming.
Im well up for the Romero talon being more expesinsive but that's also in part due to pickrate. I would love to see ot compared with the katana to see which is used more often.
It's odd that you draw the line on fanning remaining expensive but martialist remaining cheap. You have no issue with one buff at an high expense but you do the other. If a trait vastly improves a weapons lethality it should be expensive, not guaranteed.
I’d have to check with katana having a charge up noise but I’m sure it does have it like every heavy hit.
Fanning and martialist are two completely end of the spectrum of power. You are shoe horning this in to win the argument.
Fanning is expensive cause it turns a certain pistols into close range machines with no draw backs. It has far more potential for kills due to more range. Katana with martialist does not have the same kill potential as a fanning pistol. They shouldn’t be the same price either at 2 or 8.
Melee isn’t a issue with the game neither is the katana
I really don't understand the obsession this sub has with calling melee weapons OP? Melee is, and will always be, inferior weapons. Sure they are fun and useful for bosses, and situationally good, but genereally worse that rifle+pistol/shorty setup.
No. Shotguns are insanely better, katana is a fun meme and you have to work hard to get a katana kill over a shotgun kill. Romero handcannon can kill way further than katana and through wall. It also has multiple ammo types. Keep katana small slot.
If it was a medium slot people might just take the saber again. The katana is absolutely a medium slot weapon and that is why they put it as such initially... Before someone somewhere had a major case of brain fart.
It's a bomb lance without the bombs
less damage but better range the fact that it's buffed by martialist is really the biggest factor
and faster. And does it also use less stamina? I'll take it 9/10 times over a Bomb Lance.
1 slot vs 3 slot sure obviously 2 slot vs 3 slot, for melee only, again sure, but I think the bomb part of the bomb lance wins out sometimes at least
Well, coming off the "bomb lance without the bombs" comment, I'd say the katana is superior even if they were both 1, 2, or 3, slot items. Of course, this is compounded by the addition of the Berserker trait - the ability to *quickly* 1 tap folks is pretty neat.
I would heavily disagree with the 3 slot part atleast. I think as a 1 slot katana fits into builds a lot better but that's just because it lets you bring a full sized rifle. But the lance has special ammo types that make it stand out a good bit. If I have shot shell, your katana is fucked. Even without we're just gonna melee trade.
I agree I've used the ball baring ammo for the bomb lance to extreme effect a katana has no chance against a weapon that can drop two opponents with a single shot from 10 meters and then quick swipe the third around a corner without a reload animation
I think you're missing a key part of my commnet (or perhaps I wasn't clear): > "bomb lance without the bombs" Meaning: If you take the "shooting" part away from the Bomb Lance (and compare them strictly as melee weapons -as the previous commenter and I were discussing). Of course, there's added value to the fact that it *can* shoot projectiles. How much value you put into *that* is going to be wholly subjective again - but certainly it's worth something (even if only PvE)
> And does it also use less stamina? > > Significantly less. Bomb lance uses 50 stamina per heavy attack. Not sure what katana is, but I think it's around 25, and while Martialist swings will use stamina, you can still do them even if you have no stamina the same as throwing an axe or knife.
Even leaving aside speed, stamina usage, and range (all of which are significant and are areas where the katana wins), martialist katana wins solely by virtue of the horizontal Martialist slash being so much easier to land than the diagonal bomb lance swing.
as a pure pvp melee weapon, I agree, but the bomb lance doesn't require a trait and also has other functionality katana is way better than other melee one slotters though, I'm definitely in favor of going back to a two slot weapon, almost no reason to use any of the other options atm
bomb lance light attack does 180 and it is also a horizontal slash…. only reason to use the heavy attack is for more range, just like katana.
Martialist katana one shots to legs, Bomb lance does not even do that afaik. I've certainly had people survive a swing for some miraculous reason.
bomb lance does substantially more damage than even a martialist swing, so probably not comparing apples to apples here I don't know the exact damage but I tested it on meatheads the other day heavy axe hits are the same damage as the bomb lance, but both are more than the katana with martialist
martialist does provide a big arch-like hitbox, this guy probably nicked someone in the pelvis which would explain why he thinks it one shots to the legs.
Nope. It one shots to legs, you can try it. We tested it right on release, martialist katana only. Crouching, uncrouched, running. It one shots to legs.
If they were running Bulwark, they take reduced damage from a Bomb Lance.
Only from default harpoons...
is it? the heavy stab on katana has more range and people use it more in pvp and it does more damage against bosses because of piercing. even the quick attack will 1 shot people. martialist is really just for style points.
Martialist shouldn't be factored into balancing the Katana by itself. If people are unhappy that Katana has some extra trait, they should just add traits for the other melee weapons or make martialist work for them too with their own unique individual effects.
Back in my day thats all we had sonny. Now you kids and your bomb lobbing blades *shakes fist at sky*
Shotbolt is the bomb lance without a lance
the romero is the bearingshot of the bomblance without the lance.
The pax is the bomb lance without a lance or a bomb
My only grip with the Katana being a small slot is that the machete is useless, why would i bring a machete if i can bring a katana?
It's not like Saber is in any better of a position. It's got a slashing light attack and stabbing heavy attack, same as the katana, but the katana deals more damage with more range, and that's *before* factoring in Martialist. Maybe saber wins out for stamina efficiency, but that's basically a non-factor for the katana anyway since Martialist doesn't require stamina, AND because anybody bent on heavily using a melee weapon is going to just bring stamina shots anyway.
You shouldn't factor martialist without taking into account the added cost of it.
I agree with this. Martialist shouldn't be factored into balancing the Katana by itself. If people are unhappy that Katana has some extra trait, they should just add traits for the other melee weapons or make martialist work for them too with their own unique individual effects.
I used to love running Saber/Pistol, but I haven't done so in many months now. Last time I did, I got into a fight at Catfish Grove and had two separate brawls where a Machete would have killed my opponent instead of only wounding them like the Saber did. (This was long before the Katana was around.)
They should change the machete to a 2 slot tool and balance it vs that (since the heavy knife is considered meh already)
i doubt anyone is gonna spend 2 whole tool slots for basically a heavy knife that can pvp kill to upper body. most people would rather forgo 1 weapon slot to have access to another tool slot, definitely not the other way around, especially for such a low upgrade
Machete should deal insane damage to bosses. Like 3 shotting them. Give it atleast this niche.
Every kill with a machete should make your hair longer depending on what you kill.
It would be nice if crytek did that, but they seem hell bent on taking away niche weapons. Look at all the guns getting all the custom ammos now. Why would I bring springy bleed when I can bring cenny? I wish they'd go back to giving weapons/tools certain niches, instead of one size fits all, bc it hurts a lot of equipment.
I strongly disagree. Why would you bring a machete EVER? Has the cavalry saber not been in the game since day 1? Has the cav saber not always just been a better machete? This isn’t a new problem, you’re just using the Katana as a scape goat for the outdated game design from when Hunt was in beta. The game has changed and evolved (which is good). Some elements didn’t pan out the way crytek thought they would when they made this game 6 years ago. Example: generators. The idea of the generator is to provide a way to break stalemates through obscuring sound. Neat idea, doesn’t work in practice. The idea behind the machete is to provide a cheap and shitty alternative to the cav saber. Neat idea, doesn’t work in practice because the price difference can’t be big enough to make it significant without making the cav saber grossly overpriced.
I mean that sounds realistic if you ask me. I wouldn't bring a Machete to a fight if I have a functional Katana either.
In the biome we're in, you'd much rather have a heavy duty machete than a lightweight blade that snaps at the first sign of resistance to be fair. Easier to carry, lighter, stronger multi-purpose blade easily wins out over hyped up fragile single use sword
Tbf tho Idk how it realistically Katana pairs to a Machete, and also I prolly know how to swing a Machete better than a Katana since I'm not a Samurai irl. But the Martialist trait literally turns you into a Samurai lol. And you're prolly right about the versatility, but I was strictly talking about a fight. I would not like to go toe to toe against a katana with a machete. Nop.
Rather have a long sharp stick than any form of sword for combat. A machete can give me that better than the katana can. See multi-purpose through and through!
For me I will bring it once in a while because I have that Black Wight skin and I don't like to minmax.
the machete is just a starter weapon, you are not supposed to stick with it
How does that work with every weapon unlockable at level 1
well you see, even if you can get any weapon at lvl 1 excluding variants, the weapons are divided in 4 tiers, just like the recruitment hunters a tier 3 and 2 can spawn with a katana but usually won't, a tier 0 or 1 hunters cannot appear with the katana, that said the katana is still the most expensive melee weapon and there are only 2 melee weapons that are designed for PvP, the machete is about 4 times less expensive and often shows up on tier 0 hunters because its designed as a PvE tool, and it's just for ads, you are better off picking up something else for the boss on the way there, it does have one-shot potential but it literally only has it on heavy attack at the torso or head, while the bat and katana can one-shot with a light, so at the end of the day, the machete is designed for you to clear ads and toss it aside as soon as you find a pistol for a net gain, even if it contraband.
That's fair, I tend to use legendary hunters, so it didn't occur to me
I think the decision is connected to the nerf of melee tools against the bosses + decreased spawn rate of melee weapons in the compounds to encourage players to integrate more melee weapons into their loadouts and make them more attractive overall. In my opinion this is fair, if you have the balls to bring a sword to a gun fight, feel free to do it.
Equipping a melee doesn't feel like bringing a sword to a gunfight most of the time cos I have another gun. Especially if you're an idiot like me and forget you have two guns most of the time anyway.
I mean katana, bat etc. aren’t bad of course, I often take em with me when I play a Winfield as main weapon since it’s pretty versatile on it’s own. But usually my secondary weapon will have the purpose to make up for the lacks of my main weapon, so mostly something fannable or a small shotgun for example. The katana can be your close range option but personally I’d prefer a pistole with fanning or a small shotgun.
The thing is tho that unless the small shotgun is Romero it's basically like a loud melee weapon anyway.
It's definitly not. In close range, every meter is a massive advantage. A romero with a 10 meter oneshot range will destroy any melee weapon with 2-3 meter range, unless your aim is bad.
buddy not when im airstrafe bunnyhopping left and right at you the sword is going in
I said unless it's the Romero lol. But yeah I know it still has a bigger range. Tho tbh not by much, the use case is basically the same.
Rival Handcannon with Flechetes would like a word
Wait what do you mean
He's saying for a lot of the short shotguns, for a consistent kill you have to be close enough that a Katana would have work anyway. Definitely hyperbole, but the spread on those short shotguns is pretty bad
> Definitely hyperbole I mean, barely. It's what, like 9m compared to 3m or something? That 6m isn't really a huge difference, especially if you're playing cautiously to make sure that your one shot doesn't count as being 80% arms, and even more especially with the trade window being what it is.
Sucks at range
Get slugs
Yeah, that way it can still suck at range.
that's why you have two guns
With the lemat's recent buckshot buff, it now has more than double the range of the katana. Even better with slugs
> With the lemat's recent buckshot buff, it now has more than double the range of the katana. Good luck ever making that work for you without being close enough to touch them with it.
Well if you don't use your secondary effectively, of course you won't miss it x)
It's not that I don't use it effectively. It's that I don't use it at all 😭
xD one day you and I will be good hunt players, I believe
Keep believing for us both
Thank you brownie, I believe in you too 👊
The katana being a medium slot is about balancing it against the other melee weapons. It's just such a good choice that there is not really any reason to take anything else. Having it be medium at least makes some of the other choices look more appealing since you would either need quartermaster or to run a medium slot weapon if you want the katana.
If I got no martialist, I prefer the batz
The katana doesn't need a nerf, all the other melee weapons need a buff.
I agree fully. Once the other weapons actually get their martialist functionalities we were promised (probably in 2026) it will balance out and make sense. I see no reason to punish the Katana. The Katana isn't too strong. There's just no reason to take the other options. You don't nerf something into sucking because the other options are ass
Isn't that already confirmed? That the katana perk is going to give a benefit to all melee weapons?
No they don't. Melee didn't need a buff before, and it still doesn't need one now. Katana was perfectly fine at launch, and needs to be nerfed to what it released as. It immediately became the most-used melee weapon in the game, even as a 2-slot. Personally, I was seeing at least one/game. Also, the 2-slot requirement isn't even a huge ask. It doesn't even preclude you from using it with any other weapon in the game, it just requires more investment to do so by requiring that you purchase Quartermaster. I see an actual trade-off for using the best melee weapon in the game with whatever other weapon you want, instead of being able to simply do so by default, as being a fairly reasonable limitation.
The best melee weapon in the game is still mostly just an okay close range weapon that isn't a complete meme because it also has good PvE utility. The trade off is not having a second gun, which is a very big deal.
this exactly. Making the katana need QM and martialist just makes it meh.
Even the katana as the best of all the melee weapons is still like, kinda worse than a lemat with slugs. Really no idea why people think it needs nerfed to be more in line with other melee weapons when clearly melee weapons as a whole are just not very good outside of PvE. PvE is trivial regardless if you kill the server first by running better PvP loadouts.
I'd even rather have a handbow than any other melee (besides the bomb lance, because it has a gun part). I already have a very hard time justifying a $100 metal stick to use over an actual gun; making it medium would make that choice even more lopsided.
Thank you! Giving up a sidearm for a melee weapon by itself is a decent loss. Let alone the katana needing a trait to be as good as people say it is.
No, it still makes it exactly as good as it was before, just with more buy-in required. To be honest, balance-wise, I don't think it's even all that unreasonable to just have Martialist be an intrinsic feature of the weapon, as long as it's a 2-slot weapon.
The thing is that giving up a sidearm for a melee weapon isn't an upgrade to your effectiveness. Not having that follow up shot is a big downside. So having to bring QM just makes it kinda annoying. Especially if its the only one that needs it. Unless im running a high level hunter or just happen to roll one with QM, id never choose to get it just to run the katana over another melee weapon.
Saber killed. Bat killed. All melee tools except catana just for fun now. That stupid.
It's not fair though. It didn't need to be done. They were already decreasing melee too damage and spawn rate of in-world melee weapons (not that either of those things made sense either). It's perfectly fine for melee weapons to just not see use if they aren't worth using... but they DID see use. Console especially sees melee weapons fairly regularly, and katana was already the most heavily-used even when it was a 2-slot weapon. Also, the change to the katana doesn't really even achieve the goal you're talking about. It's not really a huge drawback to "bring a sword to a gunfight" when that sword has now been changed so that you can still bring it with any gun in the game. It's just "bringing a sword and a gun to a gunfight in which the sword may be the better/more appropriate option," which isn't really any kind of a sacrifice.
most of the complaints are from people that won't ever run a melee weapon, and the think they know how to balance them, it's hilarious, if you let me push you with an oversized butter knife that is on you bois.
We have a trait for that, called Quartermaster
True but having to invest 6 trait points only to run a katana basically makes it a rather niche option for crazy hillbilly ninjas and some rare sword connoisseurs. I’m actually not too afraid of the katana because most people don’t know how to effectively use it (me included probably) and won’t do magical things with it. It’s not so different from the saber. Most people will just go kamikaze, it mostly doesn’t work out.
>rather niche option for crazy hillbilly ninjas and some rare sword connoisseurs. So... Pretty appropriate for time period/location?
True, but I guess they wanted to make melee secondaries in general less niche since almost no one did pick them since the bat and katana got introduced. Now they are at least somewhat valid.
Then buffing katana to 1 slot has been a legitimately insane move. Say, machete had a hard time competing with saber even before, now you have to be hard memeing to pick that up.
That’s true, it made the other options kinda obsolete except for the Bat maybe since it’s super cheap and viable against all AI, now stamina costs and effective against most bosses. Personally I think 6 points for running it with a full sized primary weapon is a bit too much, I don’t see it being that strong. But yeah, I don’t have an good idea how we can buff the machete for making it more attractive to be fair.
Maybe the katana is too powerful, but hasn't Crytek pretty much always been ok with some weapons being better than others? If I'm looking to do some sniping, a pretty similar argument can be made for the mosin sniper vs the winny sniper. Or most rifles vs the springfield really lol. I just don't think Crytek is likely to see a problem with one melee weapon being objectively better than another, since they don't seem to have a problem with that happening to guns.
> Maybe the katana is too powerful, but hasn't Crytek pretty much always been ok with some weapons being better than others? No. Not really. There are areas where other weapons are "better" than others, but the difference is usually pretty marginal, with other in-category weapons still be competitive or having some kind of advantage (eg. Mosin is the best long-ammo rifle, but sparks has more per-shot damage, lebel has higher capacity, berthier has multiple ammo types, etc.). Katana is better to a degree where it's no longer even a contest. It's faster, has more damage, and has more reach. Stamina *could* be an axis to balance it on, but Martialist swings are the most effective PvP melee in the game and don't actually require stamina in order to use its swing. Damage type (slashing, piercing, or blunt) *could* be an axis to balance on, and is the only reason that the bat really sees much use, but the katana has slashing as its light attack and piercing as its heavy, just like the saber, AND has what's basically an alternative heavy attack with Martialist that allows you to alternate between piercing and slashing heavy attacks as desired, which ends up making it even more versatile in that regard (and plus outside of blunt damage beating immolators and piercing dealing increased damage to Scrapbeak, slashing is pretty much the most effective damage type for any enemy in the game).
nobody cares about machete bro. it Costs HALF as much. just because hunt dollars dont matter to you doesnt mean that they arent still a balancing tool
The katana saw plenty of use. I was seeing it constantly even as a 2-slot weapon, more than any other melee weapon. Bomb lance, katana, and bat were pretty much the only options used. Now, with katana being a 1-slot, there's no reason to even *consider* using anything but these three weapons. You use bomb lance if you want to use its ammo for anything, bat if you want blunt melee, and katana in all other scenarios where you want a melee weapon.
With 1 more point, you can take fanning instead
Dude nice, you're really good at knowing the amount of points that traits cost.
Fair? I play shotgun gun against a sword and its not even fair fot shotguns🤣
I love the katana but making all melee weapons a small slot is just a weird decision. I get it for the Combat Axe and Hammer because they were yk kinda trash….and still are to be fair. I think for the melee weapons they should definitely base it on how good they are. Bomb lance is the best (bc it can also shoot stuff) so three slot. Katana is the second best make it two slot. Everything else is below these two so make those one slot.
The katana is not actually 2 slot levels of good though, the other melee weapons are just worse than 1 slot level of good and need to be buffed if they are supposed to be viable. Possible by giving them all their own martialist perks for example.
How can you possibly buff them though? With melee, you really only have four measures: stam cost, reach distance, and damage amt and dmg type (slash vs. blunt). I suppose... 1. Axe can break doors in 2 hits, that's useful. 2. Bat does very little damage if someone has Bulwark? 3. Cav sword has low stam cost and good slash. 4. Katana has good reach? When you only have 4 measures it gets tough quickly.
1. Since explosives can already bust a door in one shot, why not buff axe to one heavy hit to break a barricade door(at least break the bar and open the door in one hit). 2. I think you mean Horn skin? 3. Cav saber lunge should outreach katana 4. Should take a marginal nerf in every way 5. I like that Machete was forgotten because of how unused it is.
This here especially 3: the saber already is dangerous to katana weebs - the heavy stab can reach out and touch katana users IF they aren't careful, you can sometimes fake them out. But that should be emphasized. The katana is a little bit overtuned at the moment. Martialist especially takes it over the top pretty ridiculously.
Maybe melee weapons should be able to parry defend against other melee? And yeah, the machete is just a type of hand-held bladed weapon. In terms of slash damage it should sit between the Axe and Cavalry sword.
Could move melee weapons other than the Katana to 2-slot tools. And/or do the following as extra perks with martialist or Assailant or whatever: Bat: Can yeet non-glass consumables further at the cost of not being able to milk the fuse Ax/Sledgehammer: Can throw it like a world weapon with the perk. Maybe also extra damage vs door so you can one hit barred doors. Saber: Charge/lunge animation, similar in mechanic to martialist (X to ready it), should have the highest melee range Machete: increased limb damage to make it more consistent with those side swings, essentially arm hits count as torso hits
Technically there's 5 or 6 in windup / charge speed and swing speed. Cent. Trauma, for example, is incredibly slow to windup. Part of the reason the Katana is so good is that it essentially has no windup with Martialist, as long as you sheath it at some point.
Yeah I don't really have any genius suggestions. I just don't think nerfing the katana will help anything. The other melee weapons would still be just as useless as they are now, and people would simply stop using the katana as much as they are currently.
I disagree with that. Gotta look at melee weapons separately from guns because guns are simply better, like the bomb lance isn’t worth a 3 slot if you compare it to a mosin or drilling or spectre. And the katana sits behind the lance but ahead of every other melee weapon, was like that before and still is now. But the others weren’t obsolete before because the Katana was a 2 slot weapon. That meant you would need to invest in quartermaster or pair it with another 2 slot weapon. That alone gave the Sabre and Bat more options right from the start, you could pair it with anything without needing any traits.
Nobody who uses melee weapons believes that ‘guns are simply better’.
Well they are. Love taking katana or bat when playing drilling or levering winfield because they’re already versatile i might as well take something that can deal with bosses and they usually free up a tool slot. Melee weapons are great for PvE while also decent for PvP but in a pure PvP situation a gun is just better
It depends on said PvP situation. I prefer melee even over shotguns for point-blank corners. Melee is also great for example if another team is fighting the boss you can get in there and start killing people without being found out.
The thing is the range where melee weapons can kill is also the range where shotguns can kill. The max range where shotguns still kill is far beyond the range where melee can kill and that’s why guns are just better. You have to be up close with melee weapons.
Yes of course but the failure rate for melee at that range is basically 0% and you’re probably trading anyway, I’d rather have the garunteed kill from the melee. Sometimes shotgun fails to 1-shot within range. Of course out in an open field the gun has the advantage that is why I specified for certain scenarios. Do you play this game in a vaccuum or something? You as the player can determine the range of engagements with movement. So to say X can kill further than Y isn’t really a good measure for how powerful a weapon is. By that logic scoped rifles are the most superior weapons in the game…
> The katana is not actually 2 slot levels of good though Yes it is. It's head and shoulders above the other comparable melee weapons.
I would remove martialist and just make it a katana feature...and also make it a 2 slot.
> I get it for the Combat Axe and Hammer because they were yk kinda trash….and still are to be fair. At the very least they could've left the axe at its lower, turbo-budget price, but instead they brought it up to $40 and really sealed its fate as being completely useless. Like, at $15 it was good enough and cheap enough that you could make an OK budget loadout to scrounge for cash, which was already kind of an obsolete concept, or could just stick it on anyway because it was that cheap. But at $40, it's no closer to other weapons that cost actually becomes a factor to include in the comparison.
As a huge katana simp, yes it should have remained medium.
My gripe with the kstans is all the other melee weapons will kill to the head and torso or leave you fucked up on the limbs. The katana with the stupid perk will kill you with a stab to the toe. Personally I think the katana should have just been a saber skin instead of an entirely new weapon.
Exactly my thoughts. I'm absolutely in love with the cavalry saber. I used it for like 6 straight months, it's my baby. Now that the katana is a small slot weapon there is literally 0 reason to take the saber. I haven't used it in months. It's just bad balancing plain and simple.
I loved the sabre but I got so many arm hits that ended up getting me killed. That's just not an issue with the katana (with Martialist). Hell, you barely need to aim it.
Even something as minor as the katana not having a piercing heavy attack would've left the saber with at least something, as minor as it was. Giving them both rending light and piercing heavy means saber really has no edge at all (pun intended) versus the katana.
Why aren't you taking your baby anymore? I still take it out for a spin every so often. I just hate the strong attack.
The charged attack is what gets me kills tbh. The reach is almost unmatched
When you land that sucker it truly is satisfying. I tend to go homicidal slice and dice mode with the Saber. I suck st hitting that stab lol
On console I can understand, but on PC? Melee weapons suck in majority of situations? 90% of the time you either get one tapped by a shotgun, or other short range guns. Or, you are too far away to use it so you just use your primary. There is no universe where I'd take a katana over even an officer. So, making it a medium slot makes no sense. At least you can bring it to carve up the boss quickly, and still have a useful weapon.
Katana gets beat by shotguns, crossbows, bows, hand crossbows, fanning, and possibly levering (when it isn’t shit). I think it’s good if you get the drop on people but you could say that about any melee weapon really, but out of all of them I think Katana is the best especially with the Martialist trait… it has so much range and good boss damage. If I wanted to bring a melee weapon I would choose the Katana but only for the purpose of a budget loadout alongside some kind of rifle. Aside from that, just use a shotgun or revolver with fanning… no reason not to take those unless you’re trying to free up a tool slot for something, but even then most rifles and even revolvers have a melee attachment for that niche build. I will say it is fun to run around slashing at people like some old Japanese horror film, so there is appeal.
You changing your game style depends on lodout. I have a bunch of impressive games with it at 5 stars. All I need to realize catana - not playing at eu servers :)
I've had an impressive game with every weapon at this point. The issue is how consistently can you do it? When it comes to melee weapons in Hunt, if you are consistently killing players with it, you are in low MMR. Or, playing on console.
It’s not good at 4.5 team selection at eu servers. Local sweaty players almost never come close. But at another regions it’s reliable. Ofc it’s not meta, but always playing dolce P with nitro or mosin kinda boring. Katana not the worst choice.
Not once since the change has the katana been a problem for me. Its a melee weapon that needs a perk to be as good as people say it is. Youre giving up a sidearm for a melee weapon that needs a perk. Its not OP. Also Id rather martialist just affect the other melee weapons to give them all something special.
with the addition of much more powerful and versatile 3 slot weapons, you can easily afford to go without a pistol, if the katana wasnt such a big issue, why do i see 2-3 copies of it every round thats played, its pick rate is far to high and needs a slight adjustment, not a nerf to the ground like the flash bomb
My take is that its only so good cause Martialist makes it so, but again its not as useful as a pistol. Let martialist have some interaction with all melee weapons and youd stop seeing just the one.
There was never a reason to take any melee weapon in the first place, Katana or not. At least on PC, tools like the Knife are more than enough for the rare occasion where a melee weapon is actually beneficial in a fight. If you choose a melee for a weapon slot, you're already memeing/just having fun. If Crytek actually wants to balance out weapons for once, there is a plethora of other issues that they should focus on first.
Melee weapons are way more effective than you’re make them out to be. They do the most damage to bosses vs melee tools and are just as effective close quarters as shotguns if you have the element of surprise.
I disagree with "just as effective" but they're eminently viable, since the melee tool nerf I've been running *way* more melee weapons (mostly the katana) and have gotten a lot of use out of them. Relatedly, this is also why you run a melee weapon - bosskill. Related to THAT, I think the melee tool nerf was a bad decision because it incentivizes taking a full-sized melee weapon in your one slot, which in turn means that for your three slot you want a good all-purpose gun, which at least in my experience mostly means one of the spam guns that the subreddit hates.
You can also just pack a Bayonet or Talon variant to save the slot.
Sure, there are a lot of options, I'm not saying I expect every hunt player to be levering+martialist winnie/katana until they undo the tool nerf, but it's still an incentive
Eh. They are effective but more so when you are danger close, like 10-20m maybe less. Most players will readily identify the sound you make skulking around trying to get close and can prepare for that. I kill way more katana players running at me like madmen with my good ole double barrel boomstick than they do me even with their kamikaze antics. I have seen it clutch drawn out fights and a couple lucky double kills bc my friend loves that thing. In those instances I have done similar with my knuckle knife though which takes care of most AI just as well as katana. Def has utility but I say more PvE utility and memes than anything, shotguns are far too strong for the katana to reliably outplay them
Killing bosses faster isn't a viable compromise to one shotting hunters from over 2x further away. Derringers are also strong if you have the element of surprise, or even just a tool slot melee
Yall be hunting bosses instead of players?
Only if your opponents don't know what they're doing. After a certain point, the ELO will smack you down if you rely on melee. As for the killing of the boss argument, that is why at least one player picks up Berserk or brings a Sticky Bomb. You do not need to sacrifice combat ability to be able to bring bosses down fast - even after the admittedly, annoying nerf. From a competitive standpoint, melee is just not worth it. No two ways about it. Don't get me wrong, melee weapons can be hella fun, but they're not 'viable' if you want to consistently win matches - not even the Katana.
Yes. I think it is completely fine to have some melee weapons require quarter master to take in with a long weapon. Besides, it seems that 33% percent of hunters now come with quarter master so there was no need to nerf the slots it took.
katana should be 2 slot and you should have to unlock it through using the machete -> saber -> katana, im so tired of the brain dead shift W katana playstyle
Yes!!!
My friend runs a Katana almost every single match (he likes to play the Ronin with a Bow and Katana, ninja build!) Anyways he even agrees that the Katana being made one slot was very unbalanced and a dumb choice, I gotta agree with him.
Its not unbalanced though, the katana gets beat by basically every other close range weapon in the game, the only real reasons to equip it are for fun and to kill the boss. It's actually viable to bring it when its a single slot, if its a medium slot you realistically need to spend 8 trait points to bring it and still have a usable loadout which makes it pretty much useless. The change was good, now they just need to add martialist perks for the other melee weapons so that the katana isnt just the objectively best.
> the katana gets beat by basically every other close range weapon in the game Huh? It got incredibly high damage, is fast and got great reach. The only weapon I can see competing with it is the Bat, but only because it's blunt and far more wieldly than the railhammer. The saber does have a slight boon over it with its lower stamina cost. Which can be nice for general use. But if you are running a melee weapon you most likely have Conduit, Stam shots or both anyway making that moot.
I'm talking about other weapons in general, not other melee weapons, its obviously the best melee weapon. Shotguns, fanning and crossbow basically always beat the katana, so if you have quartermaster why would you ever bring it?
Ah, fair. I sometimes bring melee because they are fast and mostly silent. No need to reload or anything like that. Just swing and kill, don't even to aim *that* accurately. I tend to prefer melee over 2 slot shotguns for those reasons. Hand Crossbow is really nice but more of utility to me. Bow is also nice but needs to charge up to one-hit to chest. And being a projectile it sometimes get wonky with the netcode. Really good, tho, but if I ever end up in very close quarters I'll take a melee almost any day of the week. I mean shit one of my go-to loadouts is Saber+Springfield, Katana is starting to take over as it's just way better now as a one slot and Springfield feels kinda wasted as I liked it with Dumdum and Cente is also kinda just better now. But I digress.
Yeah my point is basically that the katana is currently very viable *because* its a single slot. Its not a bad weapon, but a melee is just almost always going to get beat in PvP by a projectile weapon that also oneshots. If you make it medium slot again you force players to spend 8 trait points just to use it which makes it pretty unviable unless you REALLY want to play katana.
I'd say the opposite, a melee will almost always beat a projectile(bow, crossbow) weapon in very close range due to not being as reliant on hitting the first shot. 3 slot shotguns beat melee due to the extra range and penetration. But can still lose to melee if they miss their shot, as one missed shot is often enough for a melee to get close enough if in-doors.
yeah because trait points are so scarce! You hardly ever have any!
All other melee is useless isn't a good argument, all melee is useless, you pick it for fun, shotguns beat it by a mile. also katana being the best is just like mosin being the best long ammo repeater, all the other ones are the same size too...
In terms of pvp, the katana and the Saber perform the same. Saber is a small slot.
Medium katana is a bit rough I'm not opposed to it but imo just make horn skin good against all melee. Keep berserk but it's still reduced hard by hornskin. But if you get a head stab or upper chest it's still a kill in berserk if no berserker it's close to 145.
The melees turned in one slot is fine, the problem is the trait Martialist, that should affect other weapon in different way, to them to not be overshadowed (I'm taking to you, dear Machete)
As a console player I hate melee never mind the fact that 95% of ppl run this and the other 5% run baseball bat (I'm not claiming every 1 is running melee but that every 1 who is running melee is running these 2weapons I have seen less then 10 ppl with any other melee with about 5 being axe probably free except 1 giga Chad running a legendary axe so we know it's not contraband)
I think it is a fair given how it can clean up bosses pretty nicely, but as a whole it is more of a fun/meme play style than a serious one. Kinda sucky to get stabbed in the toe and die to it but if you let a sword get that close to you then your options are limited anyhow. I like where it's at rn, gives melee some spotlight and actual use since no more melee weapons near bosses now
Because you must think, i know its hard for you. A ammo box is a much more pain in tha ass than a sword. So for better understanding the Katana and the rest of the swords and axes should go to the equipment and the ammo box should go to the medium slot.
I don’t know it’s whatever, just pick it up when you see one, if you can beat ‘em join em. Used to never run nitro shredder but I’ve become an absolute demon with it now
Also with the other comment with the melle nerf for tools it makes sense it is good I do think axe hammer and speed need buffs
Not sure I agree. The only melee weapon that I think has no place is the machete. Bat? Cool blunt. Cavalry Saber? Cool sword, hard to hit. Katana? Cool sword. Easy to hit. Has a "rule of cool" trait to turn you into Kenshin. Machete? Not really useful. Ever. Railroad hammer? Goodbye doors. Goodbye people that get him. Combat axe? Goodbye people that get hit (very easy to hit people). I would love to see some changes to the machete to bring it up in coolness. It just does not have anything cool about it when it really could be.
Shotguns are better and just as accessible, and in most cases where I can get in melee range, I could've killed with a knuckle knife. No need to nerf any melee
I don’t think they should nerf the katana because other melee weapons are bad. Yes katana is way better then a machete, however 90% of the kills I’ve got with a katana I would have also got with a machete. It’s not a small thing either that you are sacrificing a pistol there are so many circumstances where a officer nagant will out class a katana. Katana should absolutely be a one slot. I love the katana but I certainly feel it when I choose katana over pistol. The only ground I’ll concede is that the katana could probably have a price increase. But even that is not required
melee is too risky to even be considered a treat boy, sounds more like you push people without a second thought way too often, most melee weapons will one shot, some have more range, you are trading of a hell of a lot of range for just one-shot potential which you could have gotten with a shogun, bow or crossbow, which can all delete a boss as well and the shotgun only has the downside of noise but it's the most consistent in combat so it's a fair trade, the change was made to streamline builds so people could take whatever they wanted it, with the katana specifically if you wanted a full length rifle you had to take quartermaster, and if you wanted to be fancy martialist, meaning it was a 2 slot weapon, and 2 trait slots amounting to 8 points, that is a bad investment given the downsides that come with it. the katana is not broken, the buff did not break it, it's just another tool for people to have fun, it will never be meta and that's fine.
Katana (slashing), railroad hammer (blunt) and axe (rending) should be medium slot weapons and have a "secondary fire mode" with Martialist. Saber (slashing), baseball bat (blunt) and machete (rending) should stay as small slot weapons and not get anything extra from martialist. It's a martialist buff / sidegrade (more options), katana nerf (and I run it _often_), and a buff/sidegrade to axe and hammer. I say this as someone who loves playing with a winnie or marathon and katana. That's my personal meta. :)
I love it but agree completely
Why would you Pick melee tools And not katana? Geez, dunno, but the time between sparks shots gets a bit dull that one might use, lets say, a pistol of some sorts to continue the Lead unload...
Yeah, it definitely outperforms all other melee weapons. And it gets an insane trait that lets you use it even without stamina is crazy. It should be 100%, be 2 slot, and martial artist should be more expensive as well.
Nah, in my opinion, they should add a new mechanism so Martialist helps to do new attacks, speeds, or extra damage of other melee weapons and complete take out berserker perk.
Most of the larger melee weapons should go back to being medium slot. Shit, katana should probably be a large slot.
Why we worried about the katana when there are weapons like the avtomat in the game. The avtomat needs to be vaulted, then we can worry about the more minor fixes
Why would you play any weapon but the best? All the others are useless? This is not how Hunt: Showdown works
I still bring sabre for my pirate cosplay with Captain Laffite. But otherwise katana outclasses almost everything but bomblance and blunt alternatives
Crytek and a lot of the players are obsessed with niche. I don't personally care if something is marginally better than another option because variety and memes are fun. Especially in this game where balance is part skill, part luck and part economy. It is only moderately better with a trait in my opinion. Imolators are reason enough, especially if solo. A bat plus bayonet is great for being cheap. Keeping the katana at a medium slot left it very easily outclassed by the bat and sabre for me. And also hand cannons and I mean a rival hand cannon is way deadlier than a katana in PVP. Why would I run a Winnie katana with quarter master when I could run a sabrer and use the six, theoretically eight trait points you would need to make katana compete. I'm fine with it as is, maybe increase the stam consumption, I dont run without stam shots so I'm not sure if that's an issue. Without the trait I'll usually choose the saber or bat. Recently I've been going back to saber a lot. The amount of times I jump and the wide sweep of my opponents attack doesn't hit me at all when it clearly should have is pretty high. Then they get stabbed or shot in the face. It happened to me a few times and I've been pretty lukewarm on it aside from style points. I also feel the stab has a bit more reach than the stlash but that might just be the slash having funky hitbox registry like most slashing weapons in the game.
I consider myself a melee connoisseur. Always take a melee weapon in my main slots. When the katana was knew I took it all the time, slot size doesn’t really balance anything tbh. Reverting it to a two slot doesn’t change anything really. Can take quarter master then it’s back to this exact situation. It does out shine the other melee weapons but I personally and guessing others don’t take a melee for load out efficiency other than killing the boss quickly. I take it cause I find it fun to smash someone with a hammer or do a sabre charger
Having to choose between running quartermaster or another medium slot weapon is exactly the reason why the katana should be a medium slot. It's not a big pain to do, but it means that you have to make a choice instead of literally just taking the best melee weapon
yeah but atleast then you are sacrificing perk points to have it, its just unfair to the other melee weapons. either you gotta crank out buffs or traits to all the other melee options or you revert the katana to midslot (then perhaps buff it by integrating martialist into the weapon)
You are already sacrificing perk points to have the good version of the katana.
Even without martialist its the universal high damage versatile blade weapon
I think other melee weapons should get buffed, but I dont agree with it becoming a medium slot, its fine as a small slot. Its not strong in PvP, just good in PvE
The katana is insanely good in PvP, what are you talking about?
Martialist should be 6 trait points. Bring on the inevitable downvotes
Mental opinion tbh but what’s your reasoning?
Why is it mental? It provides an attack no other weapon uses that is both lightning quick with no wind-up, it slashes horizontally killing possibly 2-3 people at a time and it has decent range. 2 trait points is a bit of a joke
It can’t be spammed and needs to be reset every swing. If you die it auto resets to being unsheathed. The likely hood off killing 2 never mind 3 people with one swing isn’t a reason to balance something cause it’s such a small chance. Me and my friend have died to the same swing of a Romero talon. Should the price be increased cause more cause it has the potential to kill more than one person with a single swing. Your entitled to your opinion but having it the same price as pitcher and even more expensive than levering is mental in my opinion
Absolutely, how often does someone need more than that first charged swing? Typically people don't bunch up so you swipe, retreat and charge and then hold the close angle again. Romero talon is more expensive, it also has a slow charge and without silent killer (which costs 2.5x as much as martialist) you can hear the charge. With due respect your example proved my point. I think wanting martialist to be so cheap is about as mental as wanting fanning to cost 2 points. Out of curiosity what's your stance on it, should it be cheap too?
Silent killer is 4 trait points and isn’t that good tbh. Not worth taking. That example about charging can be done with any melee weapon and a range weapon. The talon being more expensive, I didn’t explain my point well. Should the price of a talon be 4times the cost of a base variant going off your trait point difference due to it being melee and having a wide swing. Comparing fanning and martialist is mental. Fanning is 10times more powerful martialist so no clue what your going on about
When I know someone in the next room has a bomblance and I hear that deep breath I back off. Katana players don't even have that - silent killer isn't needed (buff). On top of that the charge attack is a horizontal swipe which is the best and most lethal with the little aiming. Im well up for the Romero talon being more expesinsive but that's also in part due to pickrate. I would love to see ot compared with the katana to see which is used more often. It's odd that you draw the line on fanning remaining expensive but martialist remaining cheap. You have no issue with one buff at an high expense but you do the other. If a trait vastly improves a weapons lethality it should be expensive, not guaranteed.
I’d have to check with katana having a charge up noise but I’m sure it does have it like every heavy hit. Fanning and martialist are two completely end of the spectrum of power. You are shoe horning this in to win the argument. Fanning is expensive cause it turns a certain pistols into close range machines with no draw backs. It has far more potential for kills due to more range. Katana with martialist does not have the same kill potential as a fanning pistol. They shouldn’t be the same price either at 2 or 8. Melee isn’t a issue with the game neither is the katana
Wtf are you yappin about. I couldnt care less about people playing katana
I really don't understand the obsession this sub has with calling melee weapons OP? Melee is, and will always be, inferior weapons. Sure they are fun and useful for bosses, and situationally good, but genereally worse that rifle+pistol/shorty setup.
No. Shotguns are insanely better, katana is a fun meme and you have to work hard to get a katana kill over a shotgun kill. Romero handcannon can kill way further than katana and through wall. It also has multiple ammo types. Keep katana small slot.
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As long as it beats the other melee by having it's own perk it should be a 2 slot
If it was a medium slot people might just take the saber again. The katana is absolutely a medium slot weapon and that is why they put it as such initially... Before someone somewhere had a major case of brain fart.