Aspect of Madea just direct downgrade of the aspect of Beowulf

[Yiddish Schnozz Goblin]

The aspect of Madea really feels like it needs something more to make it properly unique from the aspect of Beowulf in hades 1. As of right now this aspect behaves almost identically in terms of gameplay other than the thing you load being your attack instead of your cast.

The other large difference is that the skull blocks no damage, whereas the shield is a shield and blocks everything you charge into. The bonus casts have just been moved into the deadelus hammer so you end up with 5 (3 base + 2 from hammer) attacks by end game, where you could get even more casts via chaos + gods in hades 1 (I think max was like 6 or 7, if not more with temp items).

Due to this i really feel like the aspect of Madea really needs a little more jazz in some form to make it actually stand out, or make it even remotely feel good to the thing it's clearly copying from the first game.

I don't at all mind re-using weapons designs from hades 1 and putting a twist on them. The twist shouldn't just be making it less fun and scale more poorly in almost every aspect.

I apologize for not having better feedback on how to improve on this weapon, but to be clear i'm not just asking to juice the numbers. The problem it really has is that if your going to take away from multiple aspects of what makes a weapon good, you need to give it something to make up for it. Be that a more interesting mechanical change, or bringing forward some of the things removed from the first game to bring it more up to par.

[NoChinaRussiaWarPlzThx]

I think it's fine, just remember not to lean your entire run on your weapon aspects. Dropped Nightmares on upgrading this 1st before any other not-Melinoe aspect.

[wwwJam]

Originally posted by NoChinaRussiaWarPlzThx:

I think it's fine, just remember not to lean your entire run on your weapon aspects.

You kind of have to with Medea, seeing as your basic attack is nonfunctional. The Sister Blades with Pan aspect but no good flourish boon by Chronos still function perfectly well as the Sister Blades. Even if you have a bad habit face tanking and can never seem to maintain crit chance with Thanatos axe, it's still functionally the axe.
Medea aspect Skull is one of two things: perform its awkward attack+special dance, or focus entirely on Special and ignore the skull loading that stuns you as you load each skull.
It's basically just a neutered version of the base weapon at that point. Why even run it? Better to run Melinoe aspect if you don't want to lean on the aspect's actual strength; It's more reliable, flexible, and arguably the better attack-based aspect anyway.

Honestly I'd rather this aspect be scrapped and reworked from the ground up entirely. What about it even relates to Medea?

[RedFlagDiver]

I don't think it being a direct downgrade from a Hades 1 aspect really matters, since you don't have access to that anyway, but I agree that this aspect needs some work/a full rework.
When I read the description, I thought Mel would be carrying the skull attacks in front of her, being able to use it as kind of a melee attack, and that sounded more interesting at least. Maybe it could almost be an analogue to the fists weapon in the first game.

[The Sojourner]

I too can't quite get used to this aspect either, until I realized that it's "intended" to empower your Special with your Attack (which in a way is the result of poor wording — "within reach" to me does not mean "stuck to you"). Even then, because the Special doesn't seem to have i-frames (or not enough of them), it makes this aspect kinda seem like trash currently.

[Takocrotch]

I personally love the aspect of Medea. I think it to be a fine successor to the Beowulf shield, personally, I felt it was pretty OP in the first game. It feels pretty satisfying to load in a shell and get up in some enemies' business. My only complaint is that there's not a very sound way to deal with the sea serpants in Oceanus, half the time they're just out of reach.

[Zanian]

I feel like it needs something more like being shot forward by your special or something like that. Otherwise it becomes a bit too easy to just die.

[AvgJoe45]

This is my most favorite aspect for the skull. Basically an extra dash, makes dropped skulls easily collectable, and requires little to no mana usage. You tend to eat more damage without the beowulf shielding, but if you have the hammer for reduced damage while doing the special, the Hephaestus boon for +100% more damage when you take damage, and Aphrodite on your attack and special, this aspect just becomes insanely good. Melts basically everything