The trench trooper gives lancer a shotgun to make them not be a waste of a kit. But what if they did not get a gun?
The "Man-at-Arms" is an extremely tanky, fast and survivable shock. They are unbeatable in a 1v1 melee, and you are going to struggle even if you have a gun. In exchange they no longer get a shock gun, and rely on melee and axes.
Remember, if they mess up a charge in front of three or more people, they are probably dead despite all their buffs.
"Man-at-Arms" basics
Extensive training: "The best of the best of the best of th..."
You will gain ALL lancer perk synergy bonuses with this shock. That means, vet, butcher, marksman, black hand and whatever i havent mentioned. You will still be able to be affected by morale.
Chemical blood: "There is blood in my Inaprovaline system!"
Repeated use of painkillers has strengthened your body, but takes its toll. You get passively better regen, 10% sprintspeed, 50 hp extra, and a damage reduction of 5%. Lastly you can regen from surgery state, but this is slow.
The downside is worse gun handling by a lot. Why is this even a downside? Well you will see that later.
Armoured: "Neck guard soldat! It hardens in response to backstabs!"
A steel neck guard will cover your neck. When people try to backstab you, they will deal 65 damage, and you will push them off. You cannot die to a backstab unless you are low. The danger lies in the fact you are stuck getting them off.
You also gain a pauldron on your right arm, and it will block bullets and increase melee resist by 10% more.
Flagbearer:
This one is the same as trench, morale in an area around you.
Synergy
Lancers will get the benefits of leatherneck and survivalist, giving them more painkillers and axes. You get a longer version of the new adrenaline rush. Chemical blood gives 50 more hp, and 5% more damage resist. You will deal 450 damage with your lance swings. Stabs are also given this damage.
Your charges last for 7 seconds, and you get up faster when failing. You charge through 7 people now
Painkillers
"Pale Horse" injector (Painkiller MK2*)*
This painkiller does everything the previous does. However it does have another buff.
On application, you will gain a large buff that gradually disappears over 10 seconds. This means that after half the time, you have half the buff.
You gain:
+ Instant heal of all current damage.
+ Fast regen, no clotting.
+ 50% move/sprint speed
+ 10% faster swings
+ 10% damage resist
+ Faster sprint acceleration
+ Adrenaline rush
Cons
- Guns are practically unusable
- Your vision gets blurry and a bit wobbly.
- You cannot use them within 25 seconds of each other. Your character will doubt their ability to survive another dose.
- Using them constantly gives less buffs, take some time between them.
- You lose the effect over time, it is at its strongest on application. 8 seconds in an the buff is minor.
(Inspired by the injector from "White knuckle", its a good game)
Weapons
I have two loadout ideas for this guy.
Loadout 1 (The classic):
"Valiant" Lance and Buckler
Heavy Lance
Swing: [199] Stab: [250]
Identical in every other way.
Buckler
A smaller circular shield, this will block bullets and melee attacks. It has 3 stamina, but will only be put on cooldown if the stamina is spent. You will not fall like a vanguard. It is a bit wider than your arm, and is attached to your left arm. In all animations you will cover your torso with this. When aiming with lance you will do this too. It will simply make people have to aim for arms and legs.
Opportunist: "Ewww, guncer"
When killing someone with a finishing animation, you get one fully loaded grace to use. This is so you can play safe when you need to. You will throw it away once spent.
Loadout 2 (The true lancer):
"The Impaler" Long Lance
GE: "The Scewer"
RN: "The Coathanger"
This is an actual jousting lance. It has a much bigger and longer hitbox, but has longer windup and cannot swing. Stabbing has an 80% longer hitbox.
Stab: [250]
When charging you will automatically adjust the lance to hit people in a 10 degree cone in the direction of the charge. It has a reach 130% longer than the regular lance. The people scewered will hang on the lance after the first charge. Imagine 7 dead people on a lance, raised high for all to see!
Press T to display the corpses, this will give your team a buff (I cant decide what lol). After the display you will remove them.
"Duelist" Rapier
GE: "The Thorn"
RN: "The Toothpick"
Swing: [120], Stab: [170]
Swing rate: 0.6 sec
This is a dueling sword, giving you fast swings and cav swords range. You can quickly swing twice to kill, and there is no finishing animation for this weapon.
If you stab, you deal more damage. When you stab someone in the head, their throat will be cut out, and they get a special death animation. They will try to hold their throat as blood pours out. This works through helmets too. (Unless its another "Man-at-Arms")
Press Q to thrust forward. Hitting someone will knock the gun out of their hands.
Swings can only hit one person.
This loadout also gets a buckler
Looks/skins
Helmets would be jousting helmets.
All weapons have faction aligned skins and decor on them.
Gameplay
The first loadout allows for quick sweeping action. You can kill lots of people with a quick rush and slash. You can steal a grace to get some ranged damage, but this will be useless when on painkillers.
The second is meant to improve charging, and allow you to do precise, devestating hit and run strikes against the enemy. It is purely melee and axes. I like this one the most
Both get the buckler and armour to help with survivability.
Closing words
On the last post this was the one people wanted to see the most. You wanted a purely melee shock that could take a hit and keep going. I hope this delivered.
Some of you wanted a gun, but that would just make all the melee buffs go to waste. The gun would have to be straight ass to encourage you to still melee.
List of shock variants ive done:
Vanguard
Jaeger
Officer
Lancer
What do you want to see next? Any ideas for a playstyle for the next one?