Shoulder charge has been in a bit of a weird spot ever since it’s introduction into Destiny and then into Destiny 2.
It’s decried as an ability that takes zero skill to use because of its lunge and OHK on guardians, but on the other hand it’s also hard to use given how many people use a shotgun in crucible.
In PvE the situation is even worse. All of the subclasses that have it as a melee are some of the worst subclass nodes for Titan given the alternatives (Top Tree Sentinel, Middle Tree Striker, and Bottom Tree Sunbreaker). Peregrine Greaves used to be their saving grace, until Peregrine Strike was unjustifiably nerfed to provide the same buff percentage as abiotic Enhancements (which is just plain stupid, but I digress).
One-Two Punch also used to help, but most if not all of the shotguns who have it have been sunset.
I suggest a rework. Something to keep the ability’s identity, give it a higher skill gap, and at the same time make it effective in both PvP and PvE and make it balanced as well.
Make it like Loader’s Charged Guantlet ability from Risk of Rain 2.
For those who haven’t played that game, the Loader character had an ability where upon holding down the button, she would charge up an attack that would send her flying into the direction you were pointing and dealing damage based on the charge time and the speed you are traveling. This attack would pierce through targets, allowing you to charge it up, plow straight through a crowd of enemies, wait for it to cooldown, and repeat. It also had an alternate version, which automatically charged up upon activation at a greater speed at the cost of not traveling through targets and having less damage (although the damage buff gained from how fast you were going was unaffected)
A form of this ability would be [i][b]perfect[/i][/b] for Titans. All three subclasses too. And they could all be alternate melees that you could slot in once Light Subclasses 2.0 rolls around.
Each of them could have different properties depending on the subclass:
-Shield Bash would either suppress enemies as it already does, or it could give some damage resistance on activation thanks to the shield or even full immunity from the front only.
-Seismic Strike would give you more velocity and thus more damage
-And Melting Point would burn the target(s) and deal a debuff, just as it already does.
These abilities would give shoulder charge both skill to use and reward for using it, because instead of relying on a lunge you would now have to properly aim it. It would also give titans some much-needed mobility options outside of Shiver Strike (although shoulder charge right now is still a decent mobility option)
This is just a concept, however, and it’s meant to be inspiration for something the devs might come up with. Maybe there’s an even better way to do it. If you read this far, then good on you for not being scared by a wall of text. Kthxbye
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Some of us like it just fine atm, but if you would like to buff it...LETS GO! If you think it is “no skill” in this statis/shotgun meta, you are a dumbass. Signed, Skullfort