I've seen many posts arguing both for and against the removal of HMC on the forums and discord and have also seen many posts suggesting HMC return as a separate item. I'd like to give my own take on an upgrade to Melee Charge that restores HMC but would have some drawbacks as a compromise.
Enter: High Momentum Clap (there's a good reason for the name I'll explain later)
High Momentum Clap is a 3,000 soul green item that upgrades from Melee Charge. It rolls in the base damage from Melee Charge to keep the same overall weapon damage while introducing a large bump to Bonus Health and Base Health scaling due to being a Green item. The Passive is a buffed version of Melee Charge, which grants the same amount of ammo but has a faster cooldown and deals more bonus damage. However, the interesting part is the item's active.
When used, the active of HMC will cancel a heavy melee and let you retain full momentum from the point in the melee lunge it was used at (just as old HMC used to function). It will also make a loud clap to let other players know the active has been used, and as the active counts as a movement ability it will be fully disabled by Slowing Hex. This will make HMC easier to counter as you'll be able to predictively stop use of it or anticipate being dived by a HMC user by hearing the clap. Additionally, untethering HMC from other actives will prevent players from chaining multiple HMCs while also still enabling use of other actives to cancel melee without the boost or even intentional use to stop momentum. Finally, tuning the strength of HMC could be done by tuning High Momentum Clap instead of a series of items or the momentum mechanics as a whole, making balancing HMC easier.
Why Crosspath?
HMC is best used by tanky initiators as a mobility option to dive enemies or escape fights. As it was, the two items used for HMC (Melee Charge and Fleetfoot) could be worked into builds without much penalty to this playstyle. Moving HMC to a green slot would force the player to sacrifice survivability to get the movement options provided by it, with the bonus health being there to make it not objectively awful value compared to other green items. Trade-offs like this would make the player consider if HMC is worth it for their build while also pushing movement players to make the most of the item's value. This would also separate it as an in-combat movement option from Warp Stone in the Weapon category.
Overall, I tried to not make this too strong or weak and the item balance is by no means final. Please post any suggestions you have in the replies, I'd love to see a solution like this in game.
Enter: High Momentum Clap (there's a good reason for the name I'll explain later)
High Momentum Clap is a 3,000 soul green item that upgrades from Melee Charge. It rolls in the base damage from Melee Charge to keep the same overall weapon damage while introducing a large bump to Bonus Health and Base Health scaling due to being a Green item. The Passive is a buffed version of Melee Charge, which grants the same amount of ammo but has a faster cooldown and deals more bonus damage. However, the interesting part is the item's active.
When used, the active of HMC will cancel a heavy melee and let you retain full momentum from the point in the melee lunge it was used at (just as old HMC used to function). It will also make a loud clap to let other players know the active has been used, and as the active counts as a movement ability it will be fully disabled by Slowing Hex. This will make HMC easier to counter as you'll be able to predictively stop use of it or anticipate being dived by a HMC user by hearing the clap. Additionally, untethering HMC from other actives will prevent players from chaining multiple HMCs while also still enabling use of other actives to cancel melee without the boost or even intentional use to stop momentum. Finally, tuning the strength of HMC could be done by tuning High Momentum Clap instead of a series of items or the momentum mechanics as a whole, making balancing HMC easier.
Why Crosspath?
HMC is best used by tanky initiators as a mobility option to dive enemies or escape fights. As it was, the two items used for HMC (Melee Charge and Fleetfoot) could be worked into builds without much penalty to this playstyle. Moving HMC to a green slot would force the player to sacrifice survivability to get the movement options provided by it, with the bonus health being there to make it not objectively awful value compared to other green items. Trade-offs like this would make the player consider if HMC is worth it for their build while also pushing movement players to make the most of the item's value. This would also separate it as an in-combat movement option from Warp Stone in the Weapon category.
Overall, I tried to not make this too strong or weak and the item balance is by no means final. Please post any suggestions you have in the replies, I'd love to see a solution like this in game.
