Bungie has made it clear with the release of this new Legendary campaign that swords have no place in higher-end difficulty. [b][u]The Mods:[/u][/b] > [u]The Lucent Blade Mod:[/u] Considering how everyone thinks of the new mod system I think it's no surprise that I [i]hate[/i] the changes to the mandatory sword mod since Arrivals, [b]Lucent Blade[/b]. Lucent Blade used to give a 35% (non-stacking) increase in damage and a 20% decrease in charge time for swords. Now, it only gives a decrease in charge time and a lesser one at that. After equipping 3 Lucent Blade mods it feels that I can get something of what I once had with the perk's original [i]secondary[/i] effect. Are you serious? Swords do less damage per hit than special GLs, how am I supposed to compete? Not to mention that these mods share the same armor piece as Concussive Dampener which is nearly mandatory to not get 1-shot by every -blam!- boss in the campaign. So now I have to weigh either dps vs survivability, and I can't kill a bad guy if I'm dead. > [u]Striking Light:[/u] This is less of a gripe, but it was still a decent mod for swords as it allowed swords to get extra damage resist when trying to close the gap. Plus it was super fun in super builds as spawning an orb on every sword kill was a lot of fun and lead to crazy amounts of super spam for ad-filled events. [b][u]The Campaign:[/u][/b] Legendary of course > [u]Swords and Strand:[/u] I tried to complete the entire campaign using mainly swords but that was impossible. Using strand was a nightmare as it had no survivability when up close to bosses so I needed to switch my weapons when dealing with bosses. But that was because my first roadblock was the strand training course in the vex network with Osiris. I was just not able to complete it. Strand had no way to counteract the insane boss stomps that minotaur put out. Which was weird because the stomp wasn't the killer. Its fire was, that was insanely aggressive fire for a boss stomp from a minotaur which also was horrible because the main source of damage from a strand hunter is the grapple melees, ya know the up-close attack. Using [i]any[/i] light subclass would've made that encounter a breeze. > [u]Tormentors:[/u] A new and interesting enemy type to combat against, or so I thought. When I first met one I thought I would have a chance to use a heavy weapon against it. Clearly, I was wrong. This new enemy is just a really big F-U to anyone who uses a sword. Without just straight using Lament, it takes forever to kill one if you have no way to deal precision damage. I now have Lucky Pants in my back pocket just to deal with stuff like this. An enemy who is only susceptible to precision damage and everything else has huge damage resist, not only that but if you get close you'll get suppressed and you can get grabbed. Thanks for another "don't touch me" enemy, but this time it doesn't explode. > [u]Bosses that are Flying, and are Flying Behind Invisible Barriers:[/u] One of the lost sectors for the exotic quest has a boss who is just flying in the air, and swords have been nerfed last year to no longer be able to keep a combo going in the air for longer than 4 hits [i]and[/i] only if you started on the ground. So you need to use Black Talon or a Caster Frame for anything close to consistent damage and the ammo economy on the latter is piss poor. Not to mention that for the strike, the final phase of the boss battle is behind an invisible barrier so even if I wanted to jump off a cliff to smack it, I can't. Thanks. > [spoiler][u]Calus's 2nd Phase:[/u] This was the final straw. I tried blocking to absorb some of the blow before using a lament combo but it didn't block anything even close to enough damage to withstand his blows. Calus swipes too fast and too hard for CQB to be anything useful I tried many times to try and get a sword hit and I really did, with nearly 20 death at that boss alone. But eventually, I just switched to anarchy and beat him on my first try. Riveting [/spoiler] > I was able to beat Witch Queen using only swords, and it was possible. But in Lightfall, it is clearly not worth the effort to be smacked around for a tiny bit of damage from a stick that has mechanics built into every boss fight against them. 1-hit stomps, fire pools, [spoiler]a final boss where you run in circles to win[/spoiler]. Bungie really does not want you to use swords and it shows. Swords have been left in the dust each year. Worldline Zero and Black Talon still need their catalysts reworked since season 10. Lament has no place in anything higher than heroic difficulty. Heartshadow has never had its spotlight. Nearly all the useful perks on swords are utilities to swap for niche uses. And any frame besides Aggressive and Vortex has little to no use. Swords need some love, and I hope they get it. My Worldline Zero kill count: 172,000+