Walter needs a "shotgun slingshot magazine”

[Catapult 2.0]

Demand reasons：

1. The attack speed of a melee weapon is 2.2 times/sec, and the attack speed of a slingshot is only 1.2 times/sec. Even if it is upgraded to the highest level, it is only 1.4 times/sec, which means that under the same damage, the dps of a slingshot is only 60% of that of a melee weapon. When fighting bosses such as Fuelweaver, Toadstool, etc. that have only a short output window without using bugs, slingshots are far more difficult than using melee weapons, and the effect on the attack distance is very small.
2. At present, bullet damage can only be increased by accumulating power attacks, but many bullets have a synergistic attack effect (Cursed rounds, Glass rounds, Horror rounds, Brilliance rounds). The damage of synergistic attacks will not be enhanced by accumulating power. Only the higher the attack frequency, the higher the dps of this part.On the contrary, power-accumulating attacks will make the frequency of attacks lower, which is very unfriendly to this kind of ammunition.

 

Design：

• During a power-accumulating attack, 5 bullets can be fired at different angles at the same time, but each bullet deals 70% of the original damage.
• In the process of accumulating power, the angle between each trajectory is large at the beginning, and it will continue to decrease as time increases until the angle reaches 5 degrees.
• The entire power storage time is the same as the scrap magazine.

Balance and rationality：

1.  This is an option to exchange attack distance and ammo quantity for dps. Using this attack method requires accumulating power closer to the enemy to get all the bullets hit. This mode of high-risk, high-reward and medium attack distance is just like Wanda.
2. This attack method actually only makes the dps of the slingshot reach the same level as melee weapons, not too high. Shotgun slingshot dps/Melee weapon dps= Power accumulation attack speed/Melee weapon attack speed×5×0.7=0.65÷2.2×5×0.7=1.03( The attack speed of a full-power attack is about 0.65 times/second)
3.  This will be a very interesting design. The closer you get to the enemy or the larger the enemy is, the shorter the time you need to accumulate power. For example, when you are completely close to the enemy, or when facing a big guy like Toadstool, you can hardly accumulate power.
4. Each bullet can only deal 70% of the damage, which means that it takes at least 1/0.7=1.42 times the bullet to cause the same damage, and if the distance is not controlled well, some bullets may be wasted.
5. Multiple rounds in a short period of time means that coordinated attacks are triggered more times, which will be more suitable for some bullets.
6.  This is also a kind of range damage, which can cover a great range when launched from a short power reserve. This will be very effective in some battles, such as cleaning up Fuelweaver's invisible hand. We will not need to use the mouse to aim at them, but to cover them with a barrage-like attack.

 

 

 

[Quikin]

I like this idea!, charging an attack and release multiple rounds is cool, and you put good effort in balancing it. Walter needs to get more traction on his skill-tree, whit so many good ideas like this one the community is putting out! for example this could be a entirely new frame for the slingshot .

[OMEGASCRUFF]

One condition... this cannot be used on a Beefalo, please. Otherwise it won't address his risk/reward at all.

[Dingle]

1 minute ago, OMEGASCRUFF said:

One condition... this cannot be used on a Beefalo, please. Otherwise it won't address his risk/reward at all.

That would single out Walter for no particular reason. Bigger elephants in the room

[OMEGASCRUFF]

24 minutes ago, Dingle said:

That would single out Walter for no particular reason. Bigger elephants in the room

The big elephant to me is the risk/reward purpose mentioned in the OP. On a Beefalo, there is very little of that besides against Celestial Champion, whom this attack would probably be inefficient against with its tiny hurtbox. With that in mind, the proposed damage could be higher to surpass unboosted post-rift melee with post-rift rounds, but I'd have to spend some time calculating this to confirm and I am le tired.

But if it's pretty much just for utility, well... what exactly is the purpose when we already have Moonglass Rounds for crowd control? The AoE on them is pretty huge. Is this just to improve his DPS to melee levels but also cost much more ammo? To be honest, I'm not actually sure that's enough reward. I'd probably rather just use actual melee and kite well, or Bone Armors to dodge, or tank and chug food with Marble Suits.

I promise I do like the shotgun idea. I just really want it to be utilized to address Walter's core issues as a character.

Spoiler

...If you ask me, though, he shouldn't be able to shoot the slingshot from a Beefalo at all anymore, now that its DPS has caught up or surpassed other ranged options. But that's besides the point here. I kinda want to wait for the next patch before crunching any numbers.

Also, how would the Enlightened Crown interact with this? Would it do only one Gestalt on the first target to be damaged?

[Catapult 2.0]

OKOK, the beta version was updated a few hours after I posted this post, and Walter's attack speed is now able to solve these problems. My post was written in vain, but I'm still happy because at least the problem was solved. Seeing that so many people like this idea, I will still keep this post