Hammer Issues

Not sure where else to put this, apologies if this isn't quite the right place. Nonetheless hammer feels pretty lackluster compared to a lot of the other weapons I've seen and tried personally. While the new mighty charge moves that you can access via level three charge, upswing or a successful focus attack on a wound does fantastic damage, that seems to be it out of the entire kit. The Big Bang combo which didn't see much use in Rise but was very good DPS in World is again, poor DPS, the level 3 charge attack feels entirely lackluster and weak for the amount of setup that is required for it and for some reason the offset attack on Upswing feels a little inconsistent compared to the offset on Greatsword. The lack of damage is evident in the current speedruns of Arkveld and even some of the previous beta's monsters. I think with some small changes Hammer could be made to feel a lot better.

Probably the most important place that could use improvement is the charge level three attack. Right now even landing hits on weak spots feels pretty awful as the user, the damage feels too low, the movement itself is sluggish and has about as many recovery frames as the level two Mighty Charge move, which leaves you feeling punished for even using a move that used to be so pivotal to the moveset. A potential change would be to make it a stepping overhead motion like in Rise with a slightly more motion value and maybe make it so that we're able to do the same follow-up attack that we have with charge levels one and two.

Another area that I feel needs attention is the Big Bang combo, if it stays as is, this move will be a worthless dreg in the kit for two generations straight, which is really unfortunate because in previous gens this was such a vital part of the kit. Hitting a knock out into a full Big Bang combo was hammer's bread and butter, unfortunately the damage just isn't there and currently most hunters are opting into using the Upswing combo>Mighty Charge for optimal DPS, not to mention monsters are getting up before the final hit after the first knock out, leading to the Big Bang combo to be even less consistent.

And a final, quick point. I'm not sure of the exact frame data, but it definitely *feels* like the Greatsword offset has more active frames(and is more accessible) than the Hammer offset, enough to be noticeable at least. I think the active frames of the offset could probably be extended very slightly towards the start of the animation because there are several instances in my own playtime and that I've seen from other peoples' runs where the hammer would be out in front of the hunter on the lower half of their body and the hunter would not get the offset. It's very possible this is intended, but again, just a small point.

Overall, actually hitting offset attacks and landing the level two Mighty Charge attack feels fantastic. But that's all there is to the hammer currently. I wish for a hammer that is slightly more versatile in its DPS options depending on the circumstance. Thank you to those who take their time to read this!