A bone thrown to my 1-handed homies.

[Own]

I haven't bothered to play 1H melee in forever. Shadowclone ain't my style. But I have heard a few people express some disappointment, which brought me to making this image the other day for a laugh.

Looking at it, though, it makes me realize they really have a point. The best 1H melee weapon in the game is a random drop, some crabs claw. It doesn't even get a synergy bonus with all this other crab gear we got going on, like enemy DEF penetration. That's not... too satisfying.

The 1H people should feel as epic as every 2H user gets to, no? I guess this isn't a super necessary suggestion, since people can just go back and equip any other sword as a cosmetic option, but... oh, well!

My suggestion:

Timeblade

Or something slightly less epic. After beating Memorir he bellyflops down to the bottom of the tower in a broken heap. So I'm thinkin', he probably has a spare shard laying around somewhere, right? So if you leave the tower and come back to check him out you can see it twinkling on the floor and grab it. Memorir is associated with time, or at least your past.

Option A) Just give them something to feel cool with. Palette swap the laser swords into a sparkling mirror-like blue or white 'laser' sword and call it a day. Use Memorir's Shard, the (currently useless despite the description indicating otherwise) Fabric of Time, the (also currently useless, but also an aspect of the past) Worn Soldier Doll, maybe one more thing representing time... Season Shards? And call it a day. Maybe it has an ATK or Crit DMG bonus over the Crabby Claw, the important thing is the Rule of Cool is upheld.

If it needs a special effect to be on par with what the 2H folks get, here's a few options off the top of my head:
- After Perfect Guarding, hitting any enemy with this sword casts stasis on them. Because PG is all about timing!
- Increases ASPD at specific thresholds, reset upon taking damage. 10, 25, 50 and 100. Become a time-infused speed demon!

Option B) The option that requires more than a palette swap and is probably more than is necessary now that the game is released. Something involving infusing it with the Aspect of Seasons in the Santa Fae season fairy hut, the Aspect of Past with the blacksmith ghost in Tai Ming and the Aspect of Memory in your childhood room. Probably doesn't need to be this fancy.

Option C is people can just deal with bonking the final boss to death with a crab claw, too, I guess.

 

[Own]

It has come to my attention that there is no actual 'best' purely 1H melee weapon. The best 1H melee is also the best 1H magic, which isn't for purely magic users either, meaning that there is only a best 1H hybrid: The Peg Leg.

Crab Claw: +100 attack.
Peg Leg: +90 ATK, +75 MATK. (+18 ATK with Knowledge = Power)

100 vs 108, with Peg Leg also giving a massive bonus to Thunder Orbs and having a magic missile.

2H kings and queens stay winning.

As an aside, if there were an 'ultimate' pure 1H magic weapon - like the Claymore or Slimestaff - it having a Special Effect tied into its magic missiles would make sense. Since currently zero magic weapons have any special synergy with their missiles. Maybe an ultimate wand that makes Magic Missiles add Spell Charges up to 10 charges, empowering the damage of the next spell cast? This could just be tacked on to the Skeleton Hand as well, but that doesn't seem right for a random drop...

Maybe a special Twisight-exclusive time rift in Tai Ming that lets you reach through into the past and lift one of those pretty pink magical girl wands off the shelves.

 

[Literally Who]

Doesn't the crab claw still get ahead of the peg leg in pure melee (no static touch or other MATK scaling skills) in scenarios where your ATK is signigicantly higher than your MATK, because 1h wands (which the peg leg is one of) scale 40% off ATK and 40% off MATK, while pure 1h melee scales like 75% (or something along those lines) off ATK alone? Or is my knowledge on damage scaling mechanics outdated?

 

[Own]

I have never seen that documented... anywhere across the history of the game. I thought melee hits were ATK and magic missiles were MATK, but I've never had reason to examine that.

It turns out you're right, that magic missiles are significantly weaker than wand hits. And my damage attacking with a toy wand is much weaker than my damage with a wooden sword.

When did this change come about? Has it always been there? I've always been using the Peg Leg in Arcade Mode with my Shadow Clone builds thinking, hey, it's more or less the same as any other option. But it turns out I've probably been doing less damage due to the 40%/40% split.

 

[Literally Who]

Definitely doesn't tell you ingame. I found that information on the wiki.

This game could benefit from an ingame manual of some kind given how demanding it can get build-wise on high difficulties.