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Solmyr

What are your Favorite Heretic and Hexen Weapons?

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From Heretic: The Hellstaff powered by the Tome of Power, i always love to use it on hordes of weaker enemies like Gargoyles, Mummies and Saberclaws, and watch how the rain of red death falls through them, quickly stun locking them for a few moments before they get killed and or gibbed by it. Too bad the rain only spawns two times.

 

The Gauntlets of the Necromancer, Heretic's chainsaw, these when powered have the effect of draining health, plus increased damage, it can rip through Iron Liches (700 hp) in seconds, you can't kill a Doom monster with similar health, like an Arch-Vile as fast with a chainsaw.

 

From Hexen: The Wraithverge, the most badass ultimate weapon from the three player classes. What is more awesome than a holy sigil wich summons angry spirits from hell to rip and tear any monster that isn't the Cleric wielding the Wraithverge.

 

So, what are yours? 

Edited by Solmyr

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In Hexen, the Arcs of Death is probably my favorite. I just love watching that lightning traveling until it "snags" on a monster and fries it. Plus ettins and centaurs make these howl-howl-howl sounds like a hurt puppy and it's really funny, and anything that can hurt centaurs despite their shields is good.

 

Oh, certainly, the ultimate weapons are more powerful, but then again, they're ultimates.

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Firemace, because it's only weapon which have not derivate from Doom.

Also seconded the Wraithverge.

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For Heretic, it has to be the Ethereal Crossbow. They call the Super Shotgun a marine's best friend, so it's only natural that the crossbow would be a Heretic's best friend. Hexen's a much tougher choice, but if I may skip to Hexen 2, then I really liked the Necromancer's Bone Shards in that one.

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The crossbow ain't got nothing on the hell staff and dragon claw. Unless tomed to kill few enemies (but then again the hellstaff can oneshot almost everything when powered up).

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For Heretic, the firemace is probably the oddest and potentially the most fun to use (though limited to just when it's powered up). The speed of those big bouncing balls is determined by your speed, so the faster you move, the faster they move. But the opposite is true. If you are walking backwards at just the right speed when you fire, those balls will be completely stationary as they bounce. They will remain there until they 1. hit the ceiling, since they will bounce a little higher with each bounce, or 2. detect an enemy, at which point they will bounce after it. In deathmatch (who even plays Heretic deathmatch anymore?), they could be really nasty traps. Open a door, get balls in the face.

 

For Hexen, that's a bit trickier. I think I'd go with the arc of death. Those bolts will attach itself to any enemy (or shrub if you're unlucky). The only down side is it will instantly dissipate if it hits a wall, even when it's on an enemy. That slaughtaur hanging out next to a wall in Wastelands? Good luck with that. You're better off using flechettes on it. However, there is one thing about the arc of death that makes it unique. It will go over every floor no matter how high or low as if it was level ground. There could be an enemy hiding behind a hill or an afrit flying around the sky high above and out of view. This thing will hit them both and you don't even need to see the target to actually hit it. Sure, it's the same way with the wraithverge, which is more of a fire-and-forget kind of weapon. There's something amusing about firing one of these over a tower and seeing it abruptly stop as it hits an enemy on the other side that you didn't even know was there.

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3 minutes ago, Ichor said:

Open a door, get balls in the face.

I can't say if that sounds worse than it actually is or not.

I didn't play far enough through Heretic to have a favorite weapon. I mostly defaulted to the crossbow for what I played.

For my favorite Hexen weapon, I'd have to say the Timon's Axe, just because it's a good all-around for the fighter with good range, cheap ammo cost, and fairly strong attack. Quietus and Wraithverge are fun to use, but I liked the non-ultimates better.

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9 minutes ago, Aquila Chrysaetos said:

I can't say if that sounds worse than it actually is or not.

Oh it's worse. Those big spheres the powered up firemace fires is instant death to anything except bosses. That includes other players, and even yourself if it happens to telefrag you (yes, that can happen). The only salvation is a chaos device, oddly enough. Instead of killing you outright, it teleports you to the beginning of the map and removes 1/2 of your health.

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For Heretic? I think it's called the hellstaff (whatever the plasma replacement is). That thing is fun to use... otherwise the phoenix rod wins.

 

Hexen? Probably the Quitus. Straight forward and no fannying about.

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The fighter's fists are certainly the most satisfying. Sure Timon's Axe is more powerful, but you don't get the pow, pow, POW combo.

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12 minutes ago, whirledtsar said:

The fighter's fists are certainly the most satisfying. Sure Timon's Axe is more powerful, but you don't get the pow, pow, POW combo.

Agreed. the spiked gauntlets are fun and satisfying, but also very manly, the Fighter seemingly has no hair in it's arms or it's entire body but that doesn't detract from the fact that he's manly and ripped.

 

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Wraithverge is my guilty pleasure. There is no gameplay to it -- just shoot the thing and your problems all vanish in a shower of giblets! And I mean all of your problems... even the ones in monster closets that you weren't yet aware of. :-P

 

Besides that, I find the Arc of Death to be quite amusing to use. Due to its mechanics, it can hit enemies that you can't see or hit with other weapons, such as on the other side of a barrier, provided that that barrier does not stretch from floor to ceiling. The fact that it one-shots chaos serpents is a nice bonus too.

 

For Heretic, I guess the most satisfying weapons are tomed gauntlets (especially when used on maulotaurs), and tomed dragon claw (when used in a large mob of mid-to-low-tier enemies.

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Heretic - The Ethereal Crossbow. Probably the best weapon in the game and the most versatile. Good stopping power, rate of fire and overall damage.   

 

Hexen - Either Frost Shards or Timon's Axe. Both are extremely satisfying to use. Also the Quietus is very simple but awesome as well. 

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7 hours ago, 42PercentHealth said:

Wraithverge is my guilty pleasure. There is no gameplay to it -- just shoot the thing and your problems all vanish in a shower of giblets! And I mean all of your problems... even the ones in monster closets that you weren't yet aware of. :-P

 

Well, guilty pleasure implies that you enjoy something that you should be ashamed of, or it's generally frowned upon by most. There is no shame in using such an awesome ultimate, even if it's basically press "mouse 1 or ctrl to win" The Wraithverge can't solve all of your problems, when you find a Heresiarch, and the moment it casts an invulnerability spell on itself that can bounce the Wratihverge's wraiths back to you then if you don't haul ass or you don't know that discs of repulsion can bounce back those wraiths, you are screwed. The same happens when you encounter Traductus and if you let him fire his Wraithverge first.

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22 minutes ago, Solmyr said:

Well, guilty pleasure implies that you enjoy something that you should be ashamed of, or it's generally frowned upon by most. There is no shame in using such an awesome ultimate, even if it's basically press "mouse 1 or ctrl to win"

Of course, I'm speaking somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Of course it's satisfying to use... but, y'know, using it doesn't make you better at the game. :-P This is fine by me, since I just play games for fun anyway.

 

22 minutes ago, Solmyr said:

The Wraithverge can't solve all of your problems, when you find a Heresiarch, and the moment it casts an invulnerability spell on itself that can bounce the Wratihverge's wraiths back to you then if you don't haul ass or you don't know that discs of repulsion can bounce back those wraiths, you are screwed. The same happens when you encounter Traductus and if you let him fire his Wraithverge first.

Yeah, so there's one instance where its use can backfire (if we count Heresiarch/centaurs/slaughtaurs as one instance). In this case, it's a simple matter of knowing when not to shoot. Not sure I'd qualify that as any kind of advanced tactics. ;-)

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6 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

Of course, I'm speaking somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Of course it's satisfying to use... but, y'know, using it doesn't make you better at the game. :-P This is fine by me, since I just play games for fun anyway.

I know, sorry if i sounded like an elitist ass, that wasn't my intention. 

 

6 minutes ago, 42PercentHealth said:

Yeah, so there's one instance where its use can backfire (if we count Heresiarch/centaurs/slaughtaurs as one instance). In this case, it's a simple matter of knowing when not to shoot. Not sure I'd qualify that as any kind of advanced tactics. ;-)

Or you can play tennis with the Heresiarch until eirther it's invulenrability or your discs of repusion wears off, you can do that with the mage's Bloodscourge, i don't know if it is possible to do that with the Wriatihverge's wraiths, but it's fun, as long as there are no other monsters nearby.

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Heretic: Hellstaff

It is really powerful, ammo is kinda plentiful and it fires super fast!

 

Hexen: I guess it is the Wraithverge. It is simply overkill to even wield the thing and let's not talk about how much damage it can do (I completely realized when I first faced that undead iirc cleric Traductus).

A close second would be the Serpent Staff. Really like it's design and I enjoy shooting with double particles or absorbing health if needed.

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2 hours ago, ShoDemo said:

Heretic: Hellstaff

It is really powerful, ammo is kinda plentiful and it fires super fast!

 

Hexen: I guess it is the Wraithverge. It is simply overkill to even wield the thing and let's not talk about how much damage it can do (I completely realized when I first faced that undead iirc cleric Traductus).

A close second would be the Serpent Staff. Really like it's design and I enjoy shooting with double particles or absorbing health if needed.

IIRC he is alive, just a bad guy who allied with Korax.

 

Edit: Nevermind, according to the manual Korax did indeed "reward them with the dark gift of unlife."

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1 minute ago, whirledtsar said:

IIRC he is alive, just a bad guy who allied with Korax.

In the game manual it is stated that Korax seduced the three kings of Cronos with eternal life in exchange of their souls, in the end all was a lie, and Korax turned them into undead puppets, they appear in the Necropolis hub in three separate tomb levels, Traductus' Tomb, Zedek's Tomb, and Menelkir's Tomb.

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Gauntlets of the Necromancer, not only do they let you give your enemies the Emperor Palpatine treatment but they really become a holy terror when you've got a Tome active.  Who needs health potions when you've got Gauntlets and a Tome?

Phoenix Rod, which nicely demolishes things.  IIRC it destroys Iron Liches in regular mode faster than Doom's rocket launcher will take down a Baron of Hell.

 

Timon's Axe and Hammer of Retribution aren't super interesting, but they sure are satisfying.

Serpent Staff, while not quite as satisfying as the Gauntlets of the Necromancer, is still nice for similar reasons in the life leeching department.

Frost Shards are sorely underappreciated no doubt due to the odd counterintuitive ways that they're best used (i.e. as a melee weapon).  Once you learn to feel up enemies with your sub-zero hands and shove their solidified ice corpses around to block other monster's paths you really feel like a master mage.

Wraithverge should need no explanation.

 

While the Ethereal Crossbow isn't quite a favorite in and of itself, I am kind of disappointed that they didn't bring back some form of crossbow in Heretic II.  Replacing it with a more standard bow kind of felt like they were lamely succumbing to generic fantasy tropes about elves using bows rather than having any good reason for it not to be a crossbow still.  It still baffles me somewhat that they chose the Hellstaff as the most iconic weapon to bring back.

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2 hours ago, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

While the Ethereal Crossbow isn't quite a favorite in and of itself, I am kind of disappointed that they didn't bring back some form of crossbow in Heretic II.  Replacing it with a more standard bow kind of felt like they were lamely succumbing to generic fantasy tropes about elves using bows rather than having any good reason for it not to be a crossbow still.  It still baffles me somewhat that they chose the Hellstaff as the most iconic weapon to bring back.

 

I felt the same about the ethereal crossbow replacement back in the day when i played Heretic II, it was a pity that it didn't return as a crossbow, but i appreciated the fact that they turned the Phoenix Rod into a bow, even if was succumbing to the fantasy trope of elves and their bows, i never liked the design of that weapon it looked more like a royal scepter rather than a magical rod infused with the power of a phoenix.

 

About the Hellstaff i wouldn't be surprised that they brought it back in Heretic II because it was a favorite in Raven's development team when they made Heretic, it has an edgy look and the most interesting gimmick of all the weapons when powered, also IIRC it was one of the most common weapons since the second level of episode 2 and the rest of the game, it was abnormaly common for a high level weapon. What i found lame about the Hellstaff in Heretic II is that they replaced the spinal cord with a wooden rod, they turned that weapon into an edgy version of the Phoenix Rod.

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Heretic: Golden Wand

 

Hexen: Saphire Wand

 

What?, the projectiles are great :U

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I remember playing Heretic a lot. I need to get that game again.

Well i really like the crossbow. And I remember the Tome Of Power being awesome

when it powered it up.

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9 minutes ago, SoulSphere said:

I remember playing Heretic a lot. I need to get that game again.

Well i really like the crossbow. And I remember the Tome Of Power being awesome

when it powered it up.

You can also play Heretical (https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=56762) with your Doom iwad, works fine, and every weapon becomes hilariously badass, even the yellow wand. XD

 

As for myself, my favourite's the underappreciated Dragon-Claw. I mean, I know its the chaingun in disguise, but the whole concept is just awesome.

In Hexen, it would be Timon's Axe, Wraithverge, and Arcstorm respectively as the best weapons for the Fighter, Cleric, and Mage.

Hexen 2... well the Vorpal Sword, the Lightbringer, Grenades, and Bone Shards respectively for the Paladin, Crusader, Assassin and Necromancer.

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Heretic's weapons never really did it for me. I felt they lacked "oomph" to them.  HeXen, however, has the Firestorm, the Frost Shards and the Bloodscourge.  Freakin' loved those.  Heretic needed something like that.

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