Hey there,
I love the idea of equipping my character with mantis blades and slicing through my opponents. This is by far my most favorite weapon in the game. Sadly there isn't much to do to upgrade it so you can reach the best equipment and maximum possible damage very quickly. However, they never feel weak - if anything they might just be a little too strong.
But that's not what this is about.
At some point my Mantis Blades were strong enough that I could jump onto opponents and kill them immediately with that animation where you stab an enemy with both arms, pick them up for a short moment and throw them away again.
Right now the animation always plays, when I use the jump attack and one-hit kill the targeted enemy. It also triggers extremely often when I one-hit-kill someone without the jump and just use a strong attack. This yields a few problems.
The Blades Skill:
The blades skill does not level up any further from it. When I want to level my Blades Skill I can not use the jump (despite it being the best thing about the mantis blades imho) or strong attacks anymore. I always have to run up to opponents and use quick attacks. This is kinda sad since two of the three moves are just become a bad option due to this animation. I'd say this might as well just be an oversight and maybe it can be fixed in further updates - or mods for that matter.
It conserves movement:
When the animation plays after a jump attack it actually conserves the movement of the jump. After it's finished playing you immediately keep flying as if the jump had never stopped. This also keep putting me in awkward situations when I try to silently take out an opponent with it and then fly into another group of enemies that immediately spot me because I can not prevent running at them at super fast speed.
It triggers the combat state:
Taking out an enemy silently the animation always makes the targeted opponent cautions, triggering the synaptic accelerator and ally voicelines in the "careful, they can see you"-category. When the enemies are already cautios, it triggers combat state which results in the most nonsensical voice lines from allies where they shout at the opponents while you're trying to be silent. Thankfully when the animation ends the hostility-state is reverted to where it should have been all the time.
It renders you defenseless:
This animation is way too slow. Whenever it triggers and I am actually in combat, running through enemy lines and trying to pick up a kill and I get stuck on this animation it happens very often that some stray bullet hits V and I am dead without being able to do something about it. It's just random and every time I try to use the mantis blades in a way that's just the most fun to me it's a gamble if I am able to avoid the animation or die from it without anything I can do about it.
I've just started up the game and ran to the first enemies I could reach and the three of the four problems I listed here are immediately obvious, so I recorded them:
If I get the chance to show the nonsensical voicelines in my current save, I'll post another video here.
This animation is cool the first few times but it gets annoying really quickly. If you ask me it should only be used when taking out an enemy silently but please stop forcing it on me when I am in combat. It is a hindrance more than anything else.
Does anyone here share my experience?
I love the idea of equipping my character with mantis blades and slicing through my opponents. This is by far my most favorite weapon in the game. Sadly there isn't much to do to upgrade it so you can reach the best equipment and maximum possible damage very quickly. However, they never feel weak - if anything they might just be a little too strong.
But that's not what this is about.
At some point my Mantis Blades were strong enough that I could jump onto opponents and kill them immediately with that animation where you stab an enemy with both arms, pick them up for a short moment and throw them away again.
Right now the animation always plays, when I use the jump attack and one-hit kill the targeted enemy. It also triggers extremely often when I one-hit-kill someone without the jump and just use a strong attack. This yields a few problems.
The Blades Skill:
The blades skill does not level up any further from it. When I want to level my Blades Skill I can not use the jump (despite it being the best thing about the mantis blades imho) or strong attacks anymore. I always have to run up to opponents and use quick attacks. This is kinda sad since two of the three moves are just become a bad option due to this animation. I'd say this might as well just be an oversight and maybe it can be fixed in further updates - or mods for that matter.
It conserves movement:
When the animation plays after a jump attack it actually conserves the movement of the jump. After it's finished playing you immediately keep flying as if the jump had never stopped. This also keep putting me in awkward situations when I try to silently take out an opponent with it and then fly into another group of enemies that immediately spot me because I can not prevent running at them at super fast speed.
It triggers the combat state:
Taking out an enemy silently the animation always makes the targeted opponent cautions, triggering the synaptic accelerator and ally voicelines in the "careful, they can see you"-category. When the enemies are already cautios, it triggers combat state which results in the most nonsensical voice lines from allies where they shout at the opponents while you're trying to be silent. Thankfully when the animation ends the hostility-state is reverted to where it should have been all the time.
It renders you defenseless:
This animation is way too slow. Whenever it triggers and I am actually in combat, running through enemy lines and trying to pick up a kill and I get stuck on this animation it happens very often that some stray bullet hits V and I am dead without being able to do something about it. It's just random and every time I try to use the mantis blades in a way that's just the most fun to me it's a gamble if I am able to avoid the animation or die from it without anything I can do about it.
I've just started up the game and ran to the first enemies I could reach and the three of the four problems I listed here are immediately obvious, so I recorded them:
If I get the chance to show the nonsensical voicelines in my current save, I'll post another video here.
This animation is cool the first few times but it gets annoying really quickly. If you ask me it should only be used when taking out an enemy silently but please stop forcing it on me when I am in combat. It is a hindrance more than anything else.
Does anyone here share my experience?
