Destroyer Blade vs Arbalest

[Uscari]

I think the Destroyer Blade is better. 2400 damage on a wide projectile that can hit an infinite number of targets? It's like a mini-BFG shot every time you fire the level 3 blade. The best part? It only costs 50 ammo.

Plus the level 1 blade is a godsend for dealing with carcasses.

Arbalest is great for dealing with Pain Elementals and maybe doing a 1-cycle on Marauders, but I don't ever use it outside of those niche circumstances.

These are both good mods, but which do you think is better?

[Mathelgar]

Arbalest, I dont like being slowed down by destroyer blade

[UNBREAKABLE]

Destroyer blade can feel incredibly broken in a lot of situations and usually the better option compared to Arbalest in my experience. It slows you down but you can charge it while in the air with no speed loss and then even bunny hop to maintain it. Once you max the mod out you don't even need to wait the full charge to get use out of it, such as the carcass instakill with a level 1 blade as aforementioned.

I've only used the Arbalest for pain elementals and specific marauder combos. Maybe I should use it more but even if I found more uses, it still doesn't feel as cool to use as literally erasing everything in front of me. Don't get me started on what a ice bomb + flame + blade combo feels like when pulled off against nasty stuff, the hammer doesn't match it even.

[Žviks]

The animation of heavies getting split in half by Destroyer Blade is the most satisfying thing in this game.

[Grampire]

The ballista is the only weapon in the game where I frequently switch mods.

They're both strong, but I'd give it a bit to Destroyer. If you know how to set up full charges, it's a pretty insane tool - almost a mini BFG.

But it really takes skill and an ability to look 2 steps ahead and recognize situations where it's safe/beneficial to use.

[Ultra-Violence]

Destroyer Blade All Day Everyday

[COOM_Eternal]

Destroyer blade is pretty much just a non-lock-on, wide lock on rocket that can hit more than 1 thing.

[QUAKETALLICA]

Arbalest, no question. Useful as a sticky grenade launcher, kills Cacos instantly and Pain Elementals in a couple of hits. Destroyer Blade takes way too long to charge up and leaves you completely exposed since you can't move. It looks super cool, for sure, but other than the novelty of firing a mini-nuke it's usually not worth the risk of leaving yourself so exposed.

[MattCryptid]

Destroyer Blade by far. It's a powerful tool, it's much more visually satisfying than Arbalest and gives a nice lethal AOE that's only really surpassed by 2 super weapons.

Arbalest is still good though, nice against airborne enemies and the Marauder, but when you start to understand the Destroyer Blade the Arbalest becomes a less and less apppealing sticky bomb that comparatively doesn't do as much damage.

[DanySD]

Destroyer blade is basically a mini bfg, it has amazing synergy with the ice bomb and can effectively wipe out an entire room of heavies with a single well placed shot. And the great thing about it is that it becomes better the harder a level is, and it looks cooler than arbalest which is a plus too. I really only use the arbalest when I'm playing community master levels that have have an entire caco cloud or caco army like the cultist base slaughter map.

So in short, the arbalest is more beginner friendly and I guess more reliable while the destroyer blade is a high risk high reward type weapon.

[Kyoki]

Arbalest is more intuitive and easier to use for new players, plus it is great at quickly eliminating air units (Which is very useful if you are getting swarmed by cacos and pain elementals - like SGN ML.
Destroyer blade feels more situational, however, someone who either mastered the arena or someone who gets a lot of air time, can make it almost a mini bfg. While it's less intuitive, it's way more useful in harder content due to the insane damage and spread of the blade.

If i had to pick one it would be the Destroyer blade... but the ballista is one of those guns where i personally switch and use both mods quite a lot. The other two being rocket launcher and chaingun.

[GreyKarasu]

Arbalest. Never swtched to blade after tests. I don't like slowing down and wasting Chrono Strike to charge in air. Killing bunch of thrash is no problem (frag of sticky), and if you really need to kill horde - why the fck not use BFG. I have more problems take all cells on lvl because my BFG full 80% time.

[Uscari]

The general consensus seems to be that Destroyer Blade is the better mod, but Arbalest is still a good mod.

I feel like Arbalest would get more use if there were more than 2 flying demons, or at least if the Cacodemon didn't get instant-staggered by a sticky bomb in the mouth.

Also, is Destroyer Blade overpowered? It seems like b-hopping, meathook, and jump pads really invalidate it's main downsides. Should the charge take longer?

[MattCryptid]

Originally posted by Uscari:

The general consensus seems to be that Destroyer Blade is the better mod, but Arbalest is still a good mod.

I feel like Arbalest would get more use if there were more than 2 flying demons, or at least if the Cacodemon didn't get instant-staggered by a sticky bomb in the mouth.

Also, is Destroyer Blade overpowered? It seems like b-hopping, meathook, and jump pads really invalidate it's main downsides. Should the charge take longer?

I don't think its overpowered at all, it's balanced perfectly. It has a learning curve that keeps it from being OP and it doesn't dominate like Gauss Siege Mode in 2016.

[DanySD]

Originally posted by Uscari:

The general consensus seems to be that Destroyer Blade is the better mod, but Arbalest is still a good mod.

I feel like Arbalest would get more use if there were more than 2 flying demons, or at least if the Cacodemon didn't get instant-staggered by a sticky bomb in the mouth.

Also, is Destroyer Blade overpowered? It seems like b-hopping, meathook, and jump pads really invalidate it's main downsides. Should the charge take longer?

There's a big difference between something being very powerful in the right hands and something that is very powerful in anyone's hand.

[Uscari]

Originally posted by DanySD:

There's a big difference between something being very powerful in the right hands and something that is very powerful in anyone's hand.

Sure, but a learning curve alone enough to make something balanced?

Ideally, wouldn't you want all mods to be equally viable no matter how good at the game you were?