Slayer is incredibly weak.

[Matiati]

I have Bardin on lvl26 and current attempting Champion missions.

When I join a game and pick my favorite carrier (slayer) I am immediately kicked out in 2 out of 3 games if I refuse to switch to ironbreaker. Even if there is a Kruber in the group it is me who is forced to convert to a tank.

I want the slayer to be my favorite class as I always liked playing dps melee and take things up close and personal :D. But it frustrates me how weak this class is.

Everyone prefers (and forces) the ironbreaker now. And for a good cause.

Ironbreaker has everything combined. Awesome ranged damage with dual pistols and does not require ammunition. Superb damage reduction. Ulti which protect for 10 seconds with 0 damage taken, passive which completely absorbs an attack in every 20 (or 13) seconds and even heals the Bardin.

So what do we have on slayer? A jump that does nothing except giving %25 attack speed and slight stagger... Very very short range dual axes that puts you in immediate danger always. A stackable buff which has incredibly short duration and only slightly increases attack speed and damage.

Plus the only health generation mechanics is the lvl20 talent which you cant use on small groups as your ranged dps always kill em first so you cant even get temp health.

Slayer is supposed to be a melee monster but even a waystalker archer elf beats its melee as she has a very long spear that attacks as fast as your dual axes, is versatile and deals cleave damage, kills elites as fast as a two handed axe on head shots and gives increased dodge distance. Plus she can heal the entire group and can always depend on her swift bow to steal your kill hp regen (and she gets kill hp regen from ranged kills as well).

Slayer needs passive talents to either decrease melee damage taken or talents like bloodlust which makes you heal on melee kills. Just like ironbreaker has decreased damage taken slayer should have like %50 increased hp by default.

In the current state of the game he is incredibly and stupidly weak.

Even if you play like a pro he would never shine like a puny elf no matter what.

[Shining_Darkness]

I think for whatever reason slayer either takes more damage or has less HP. Ranger Vet gets hit once and loses like 5-10% HP Slayer gets hit and seems to lose like 15% FROM BASIC ENEMIES. Like what? And for people saying "Well yeah he has no armor" B**** Selena is wearing robes in two of her classes and she takes less damage than Slayer.

The simple "band-aid" fix is to give slayer a +25% or even +50% HP passive patched in ASAP and later a third passive that grants either attack speed or damage based on how low his HP is.


As it stands he is the most enjoyable class for me but is simply too much effort in comparison to literally every other class. He has no real way to mitigate damage (and don't say just parry/dodge we have all been hit by that weak enemy that decided to not die to a hit that killed the dude next to it and didn't stagger due to lag)

[Kaggy]

Slayer is really just weaker thatn Ironbreaker, and I say this having done ledendaries as a slayer including finishing skittergate.
You still do more dmg as an Ironbreaker and more for your team.

Slayer needs some love.

[There is no Mango]

You need very low latency to play the Slayer.
As well as high end equipment.

[Pungent]

Dual axes:
+10% crit chance (combined with trinket), +7.4% attack speed (combined with charm), Swift Slaying

1h hammer:
+10% crit chance (combined with trinket), +8.8% attack speed (combined with charm), Resourceful combatant

Necklace:
+2 stamina, +20% health

Charm:
+9.5% dmg against armor, +4.2% attack speed

Trinket:
+5% crit chance, 30.8% curse resistance

Talents:
Stoutfellow (+45% health combined with necklace), Oblivious to Pain, Adrenaline Surge, Grudge Borne, No Escape


Have 0 problems doing just fine on Legend. The extra health is probably the most important thing to have since he is so weak by default. The 1h hammer with cooldown reduction on crits + adrenaline surge talent usually let me have another leap ready within seconds of having finished the previous one. The only way I'd improve my axes would be to trade the extra attack speed for another +2 stamina to increase the amount of push attacks available, since that attack is by far one of the most efficient armor killers in the game.

To enjoy playing as Slayer, you have to do 2 things:
1) Enjoy the challenge of playing with a high mobility, high damage output character that demolishes armor but requires serious thought put into positioning and situational awareness to avoid getting caught by specials.

2) Enjoy playing the game without giving a ♥♥♥♥ about bad players who only want things the easy way and will bemoan your character choice the first opportunity they get.

It's just a game, so try to enjoy it however you can. If you keep running into people who only ever want to see Ironbreaker, Pyromancer, Waystalker and Bounty Hunter selected, host the game yourself and tell those people to ♥♥♥♥ off if they join your lobby just to complain.

[NeoMuHae-X2]

I love Slayer. I play Slayer often in Champ and do pretty well. Usually I manage to get the lowest damage taken and still get top melee kills.

That being said, Slayer really can't do anything better than the ranged DPS classes. Slayer has major drawbacks and is extremely squishy. I've seen others mention that the +25% health talent may even be bugged so that it doesn't work unless the Slayer is host, meaning that many Slayer players are running around with the same health pool as the ranged characters without realizing it.

In certain situations, Slayer is at a major disadvantage. A couple nights ago, I hung back to protect a Sienna because she fell behind. She got hooked by a hookrat (which I tagged but couldn't shoot, because no ranged). Then she got dragged up and over a steep rock which I could not jump over, nor could I walk over. I even tried leaping over it, but it was too high. So... she died. If I had been literally any other class I could have saved her. When the hookrat came for me, I dodged and killed him, but it felt bad that I couldn't help simply because of my class.

If you find yourself in an open space with no cover when a ratling gunner appears, you get wrecked quickly with no way to effeciently kill it. Combining the low health and defense means they can down you quick.

A lifeleach spawns behind you during a horde? You are completely at the mercy of your team. If they spot it quick you'll be fine. If they don't? You're down. I've had numerous games in which the only times I took significant damage was when a lifeleach spawned behind me and immediately grabbed. IB's passives do a lot to mitigate the damage done by these moments.

Finally, a good IB can carry and save from total party wipes pretty easily. Slayer cannot do this reliably. A good IB can hold back entire hordes and take little to no damage between blocking, bashing and his passive. For a Slayer to do this, you need a combination of low lag, good luck, good timing, and high skill. Mis-timing a block or dodge for even a moment means taking massive damage from a very limited health pool.

All of these downsides and he really can't do anything in melee that makes the choice of Slayer worth it from a meta perspective. Most of his unique traits are "meh". Yeah, he can kill a Chaos Warrior quickly, but as IB I can do it much more safely, and while controlling a massive horde at the same time.

All that being said, Slayer is not bad. It's just not optimal. People shouldn't be kicking players who pick Slayer without seeing how they play. Is it good to have an IB? Yes, absolutely. Is it necessary to have an IB? No. Let people play the classes they want. If one wants to get good with a class, they have to get practice playing it with other live players.

[Grailer]

I kick slayers from my group usually unless its just a recruit or vet farming run

[Ubaldios]

He's pretty good on champ but to survive legend I have to play very defensive and it doesn't really feel like a slayer should. What about maybe he gets double the temp health but losses it twice as fast so you have to get stuck in all the time to keep your health up?

[NeoMuHae-X2]

Автор сообщения: Groth one eye

He's pretty good on champ but to survive legend I have to play very defensive and it doesn't really feel like a slayer should. What about maybe he gets double the temp health but losses it twice as fast so you have to get stuck in all the time to keep your health up?

Honestly, he should get just straight buffs. He doesn't need any more downsides, lol

I think he should get something like maybe (green) health on hit as a career passive to pair with his level 20 talent. That would help with fighting bosses more effectively. Additionally his base health should probabaly be brought up to the standard of the other melee characters and his stacking damage buff should be improved.

It can already be hard to keep temp health up in this meta, with so many ranged careers killing things before you can get to them.

[I'm too old for this]

I’m 28 Bardin and I’m torn. Because I love slayer. But when I play him, I stick to veteran and under. Because
1 I’m not skilled enough to avoid damage completely
And
2 iron breaker is always better for the team.

Because slayer is a Melee elite killer and crown controller with two handed or one handed hammer. But guess what...iron breaker is too. And he takes waaaaay less damage and has higher armour, and ignores a hit every 13 seconds with the right talent...can still take on armoured elites (I’ve seen others including myself tank and kill entire patrols alone on champion) and CAn crowd control with drake gun for AOE damage, then switch to axe and shield to keep bashing hordes down constantly.

Most important is that ironbreaker takes less damage which means waaaay more healing for the group. I’ve done champion runs where I’ve only had to heal once or not st all, leaving my group to heal 2 times each or more. And it’s not cause I’m so skilled, it’s cause iron breaker is the best tank In the game.

It’s too bad cause I love slayer. But I just play slayer on recruit/veteran to help carry friends for better loot and levels for them.

[Phier]

Slayer is fine in champ if you are good. Legend is too special killing dependant.

[shiny_dirk]

i played with a slayer on champion yesterday, and we did not only multiple succesful runs, but also one champion festering grounds deed with 2xhp/dmg and damage over time mutators on it.

no complaints from my side about this dude's slayer here

[luigi430]

Автор сообщения: shiny_dirk

i played with a slayer on champion yesterday, and we did not only multiple succesful runs, but also one champion festering grounds deed with 2xhp/dmg and damage over time mutators on it.

no complaints from my side about this dude's slayer here

Some slayers can perform well in their team comp, it is not impossible. I did a slayer run on Legend once on Screaming Bell with both grims/3tomes and we won. My dig is the slayer axes with crit chance and speed along with a crit hit attack speed increase, the 2 handed hammer with swift slayer again like my speedy axes for CC. Crit plays a role in my build since tanky sustain seems to malfuntion like most talents on the game. The axes do so much damage to Chaos most of the time I feel like they are such a predictable scripted enemy. In fact I only got hit once by a Chaos warrior from behind because most don't even get to finish their animation from their charged overhead without falling over. The attack speed just plays a blessing in my run. The two hammer, my CC chief in command, hits so many slaves sometimes I wonder how do they survive? My dodges,free speed syncs and leap cooldown constantly helps me clear hordes. Now, one match does not prove slayer doesn't need a tweak here and there, but it's not out of the realm possibility. I bet I can beat Legend with Witch Hunter Captain, it still doesn't mean the class is fine. Slayer has to be melee wet dream he was intended to play as, but currently he is switched for a class that requires a shield and a drakegun. In a perfect world, all classes would be played with no issues, that ain't happening. If the talents are patched and he becomes more viable, that would be hallelujah. But if that's not the case, he needs to be operated in the meta ER.

[Captain Worthy]

OP, have you noticed the second melee weapon slot for the Slayer? You can take a two handed, longer reach CC weapon there if you want.

It is true that IB is preferred over the Slayer because IB has more reliable horde control, aggro ability and all the (limited)invulnerability stuff. IB just helps the party more and makes play easier to them. With Slayer they do not have as much protection as there is no one to aggro the surprise combo of a Stormvermin Patrol and some Chaos Warriors...

[YMD]

When i see Slayer in champion / legendary, I silently facepalm and resign myself to be a carry

[Bananskal]

Lol this guy plays Slayer! *points and laugh*