Pretty much summed it up in the title… what happened with the floating weapons animations? those were so freaking cool??? Literally what made me want to play one. They could have been improved not removed…
Staff before:
Staff after:
Two handed axe before:
Two handed axe after:
One handed axe before:
One handed axe after:
Yeah, same confusion. Can someone comment on this pls?
For me it’s kind of a dealbreaker, I’d rather go play another class if this is going to be here for some time ahead.
Wait, they changed the Mage melee animations? I didn’t roll one for 1.0 but like Dzet, that’s a bit of a deal breaker for a Spellblade for me.
I haven’t had a chance to load up a mage, but I remember using Mana Strike on my Spellblade and it was always just a back and forth swing animation. While Flame Reave was a stab with a fire jet. What floating swords?
Shatter Strike has repeat strikes with a specific nodes, is that what you mean?
Before 1.0 the animation for weapons swings on mana strike and flame reave for example were the same as what an exiled mage does if you’ve seen those.
Mage was directing what the weapon did with his hands left and right and the weapon would magically float in front of him and swing in those same directions. It looked really cool and fit the class fantasy so well imo.
Right now you’re literally looking like a bored janitor swinging his mop thinking he’s some sort of monk. Seems so lackluster for someone in fancy robes too. That telekinetic-like movement was just elegant… I can’t wrap my head around why they would remove it
This is a video I recorded 9 months ago. You can see my character just swing his sword back and forth “like a really bored janitor”. So either they changed it over 9 months ago, or they improved it after I recorded the video and then changed it back for 1.0. Or you’re not remembering correctly. This is just Mana Strike and Flame Reave though. I could try to track down pre-patch footage of Shatterstrike and Fire Brand if you’d like.
I don’t know why I need to prove anything as it is obvious to anyone who played before and after as that’s exactly what I did… but sure! Updated the initial post with gif’s of that specifically.
Well, guess I’m going to be the odd man out on this thread, but I’m actually happy to see they’ve made these changes. I was never really a fan of the telekinetic swings.
Seeing them in the gif it’s more like the animation was fixed. I always played 1h + shield so it wasn’t as obvious, but the staff is very clearly a broken animation rather than intended
Wasn’t trying to come off as “proving” anything. Just never noticed the animations were broken before 1.0 and didn’t remember “telekinetic swings”.
I can see how the 1 hand animation isn’t as striking of a difference, yeah… but to say the staff animation is “clearly broken and unintended” when you can clearly see it’s aligned with his hand movements is… a hot take to say the least.
Admittedly that staff animation wasn’t my fave of the bunch… but like I mentioned initially as well… I’m sure it could have been made better within the same concept instead of swinging it like any other melee dude. Why would I even want to play a melee swinging mage in this case from a visual standpoint instead of a sentinel which literally swings his weapons better within his visual fantasy theme?
My fav was a scepter/1h sword with a side book. it looked exactly like it should be, unlike other ARPGs. Right now it’s… just dissapointing. I’d rather go any melee char then.
To me it looks like the staff model isn’t aligned with the hands like it was meant to be a thrust but the staff ended up off to the side.
Same with the 2h weapons just in a different swing. I prefer the new animations personally, but I can see why you’d be upset by the change.
If you actually looked (I did because I love watching my characters fight and move) the Mage would gesture and the weapon would be about an ‘in game’ foot away from the his hand.
I’d like to have some comment on that from devs, really. If that’s as intended - then fine, I’ll go level another class, but i’d prefer to roll with swordmage with this kind of aestetic if it’s a bug.
If you look closely at the staff gif, the mage’s fingers are pointing forward with their index and middle finger. If they were supposed to be gripping the staff and was bugged it would then be a gripping hand instead of the finger pointing one. Also, none of the telekinetic swings have a gripping hand, they’re all open.
They clearly had telekinetic weapon attacks in mind at the start but may have decided to remove it due to some unforeseen wonkiness when the attack speeds go high?
But yeah, the telekinetic swings might not be some people’s cup of tea, but I for one love it on a mage, specially when they twirl them things when they cast. And yet it still depends on the world they are in since I don’t expect Gandalf to do it.
I didn’t play spellblade before/yet, so please bear with me for a moment:
If they really changed that for basic weapon attacks, it’s really unfortunate i get that, because it was a small little detail which would give the mage a bit more identity… ‘but’ geniune question: Does anyone after the first few level - esp. later on still use basic attack? So again while it’s unfortunate i don’t see it as that much of an dealbreaker.
But now in regards if there are any spellblade melee attacks which base their animation from the base attack… i can see the issue and would be cool if maybe in the future EHG adress this. (And if that’s the case, can someone verify that these skills are also effected, because i could potentially see that they only changed it for the base attack… given that i assume the give is base attack and not a skill already.)
Yeah idk, I dont play totally zoomed into my game so I honestly never even noticed the change. There is so much going on in the screen with lots of effects from spells and such that you barely see it at all in the first place unless you zoom in.
I do think the telekinetic attacks looked neat, but I’m also totally unbothered by it not being a thing. Its a bit of a weird take that, of ALL the things about the mage, this is the one singular deal breaker though. If it was causing issues in some way, whether that be with coding or with animations, then its reasonable that they removed it. They updated a metric ton of animations and models for the 1.0 as far as I can tell, so it’s also feasible that something just broke with the new model and old animation and rather than spend the time to recreate it they simply made a new one that was more straight forward.
Can’t say for sure, but what I can say with fair certainty is that this is very likely to be low on their priority list with all the actual major issues and bugs they still need to fix post 1.0 release and while they prepare for the first REAL cycles to get going. In other words, it would be neat if it had cooler animations again but I wouldnt hold my breathe waiting for it
I can confirm that at the very least Mana Strike uses the basic attack animation. But with 5+ Fire Aura stacks, and Flame Reave every 3/4 swings, it’s hard to see anything.
How is it a weird take that an animation looking worse is a deal breaker though? Everyone plays games for visual enjoyment as well, no? People literally buy cosmetics so their characters look better and stuff, In PoE they also do it for skills. Also the “too much stuff on my screen” argument is irrelevant until endgame and I’d argue even then you can still see stuff untill you get 200% attackspeed or something depending on what you play. I was playing flame reave with two handed weapons specifically because I used to like the animation before 1.0. Not anymore though.
I do agree it’s not a priority, but it doesn’t make it any less dissapointing