Contrary to what some seem to think, Sea of Thieves is largely a PvP game. This is inherit to its existance as an open sandbox game. In my eyes, the game is most like another game called Rust in this regard.
Because of this, balancing weapons for PvP gameplay is extremely important to get right, and is something I feel has been mishandled in recent years.
A general piece of balance advice I've heard is that it is more beneficial to buff than it is to nerf. This is important to mention as SoT has a number of weapons that aren't as good as they could/should be.
The Double Barrel Pistol currently does about 90% of a player's health after two shots, then requiring a reload. This feels underpowered compared to the regular Pistol's 60% damage per bullet.
In the amount of time it'd take to shoot both bullets (by either methond), then reload and shoot a third, the regular Pistol could have already shot twice and be reloading a third round.
I believe the fix for this would be to increase the Double Barrel Pistol's damage to 50% of a player's HP per bullet, resulting in a kill after both shots.
This would make the weapon a risk vs. reward variant of the regular Pistol, trading the consistant reload rate for an opprotunity for a quick kill, given good aiming and/or timing with both barrels loaded.
Another suggestion I have is that the current hold-and-release firing method for the weapon feels very strange, considering it is the only one of its kind mechanically in the game.
It would make more sense to have it fire like normal (on press), and have switching to firing both barrels at once being tied to a button (such as R on keyboard, the button currently used to manually reload after firing one bullet).
The Throwing Knife's ranged attack is in an alright spot right now (though it could benefit from some more speed), the main issue being hit registration.
Since that's a more wide-scope type issue, I won't be going into it.
The Knife's melee attacks are very underwhelming compared to other options in the Armoury. The Heavy Strike does equal damage to the Sword's Charge Lunge, with less range and movement and, critically, without the stun that Sword attacks have regularly.
The stab is a joke.
I'd say for the Heavy Strike to implement some kind of Backstab system, wherein you deal one-shot damage to a player hit from behind with the Heavy Strike. (though given hit registration currently, I might want to hold off on this)
The Stab is minor enough that it might be fine to leave it as is, though it might be worth considering buffing the damage. Say, to kill in 5 hits, akin to older versions of the Cutlass?
Personally, I lack experience against the Sword to have too much of my own to say, so I'm mostly repeating popular competetive consensus when I say that Sword gives too much reward relative to how easy it is to use.
Stun is never a fun mechanic in any game its in, yet removal of the mechanic entirely would negate the Sword's entire use-case.
I'd say consider lowering its damage (AGAINST PLAYERS ONLY) to 5 hits to kill, like in older versions.
The Eye of Reach is fine where it is. Good job!
(also revert the unneccesary Blunderbuss nerf and decrease the delays on firing weapons after deploying them k thx bye)
