#ullapool caber

Every hit - no bothersome recharge timers here. Of course, the damage output is a lot lower, and even with self-damage reduction you’ll be taking maybe 40-45 damage per hit.

But wait. Where there’s self-damage, there’s a potential to boost your jump, ascending to new areas of the map without the massive self-damage of a stickybomb jump. Although I wish this could be a little more intuitive to new Caber users (hence why I added the “propelling you into the air” text), this opens up a lot of options that you don’t really have with the current Caber, limited as it is.

Speaking generally, if a weapon introduces a new way to play, you want that new way to be as accessible as possible. The existing Ullapool Caber isn’t that; it comes into play very rarely, which is necessary because of how powerful it is. I’ve remarked before: “Huge upsides and huge downsides may cancel each other out, but they don’t necessarily make a fun weapon.”

Before I go on, I should note that the Caber is pretty well in line with what melee weapons are supposed to do; it’s a last-resort kind of thing. But the way it does it is to present an extremely high-stakes, winner-take-all proposition for both the attacker and defender.

The Caber’s melee hit does 55 damage, plus 75 for the explosion. Explosive falloff is 75% at most. This means that the target of the stick-bomb will be taking about 130 damage, and everybody in range will be taking somewhere between 56 and 75. (The Demoman who’s using it will take about 55, thanks to self-damage reduction).

This weapon can immediately turn around an engagement against a light class, i.e. Scouts, Engineers, Snipers, and Spies - it one-shots them. It’s not easy to hit them, to be sure, but it’s a significant threat. This is what necessitates that massively slow deployment, ensuring that it’s less of an immediate panic to see the Caber come out - you have time to escape, and there are counterplay options.

However, of all the classes, the Demoman arguably has the best resources for melee combat: the Demoknight weapons. The Ali Baba’s Wee Booties/Bootlegger bring his movement speed up, and the shield charges give him great mobility - and, if you time it right, guaranteed melee crits.

The Caber, courtesy of its explosion, practically begs to be used when surrounded by enemies. Critical damage is massive. With this in mind, it’s clear that the Caber’s best option is to shield charge into a group of enemies, then detonate. This deals 165 melee damage to whoever you hit, plus 168-225 to anybody in range. That’s enough to eliminate virtually any target - possibly multiple!

And here’s the key point: it’s difficult to interrupt a charging Demoman, especially if he came out of a nearby spawn. Pyros can do it most reliably, but it happens so quickly that it may be difficult to react. Players who fall victim to this may find themselves feeling helpless, like there was nothing they or their teammates could do. At least dying to stickybombs is something you can usually see coming.

Of course, this comes at a steep price, likely resulting in the death of the Demoman who dealt it. Life for a Caberknight is boring, then briefly exciting, then over - or at least boring again, since you’ll have to run back to resupply your Caber if you want to do it again. Implementing a regeneration timer is difficult - if it’s too short, your “sacrifice” is lessened, and if it’s too long, you’re better off going to resupply.

The Caber presents an interesting dynamic when it’s a basic melee weapon; it’s very risk-versus-reward. But when combined with the shield charge, it can become a powerful sacrifice play that results in a lot of downtime for the user and frustration for the targets.

Ullapool Caber Iteration 2 (+) On hit: Explodes (+) Damage done recharges meter (800 to fully charge) (-) -100% deploy speed (-) -20% firing speed (-) -15% melee damage (-) No random critical hits (-) Mini-crits when it would normally crit

Limiting its shield charge potential is one step to fixing this weapon. I’ve also implemented a recharge, allowing you to build it back up and disincentivizing bringing only the Caber.

However, no matter how I try to balance it, I arrive at the same kind of conclusion: should the Demoman be able to threaten enemies so hard with his melee weapon? Getting close to a Demo means you’ve dodged the grenades and stickies and probably held off a few of his team members. It’s a major achievement, and he’s quite weak in close quarters. Is it fair to threaten close-range attackers with such a powerful attack, even if it is hard to land?