Disclaimer: If you don't want to read, there is a summary at the end.
Let's sum up the facts:
- 3-Hit combo - noticeably slower than standard
- Damage a normal swing on Stratum 6 is about 173 - 183 , last swing 258 - 251
- Can inflict strong fire on every attack
- Charge Attack can cause up to 4 times heavy damage
- Damage per Charge-hit on Stratum 6 is 440 - 483, about 1800 if everything hits
- Good chance to inlfict fire upon yourself when using the charge attack, slightly larger range than a normal attack, circular knockback
Now let's take a look at the Combuster:
- Standard 3-Hit combo - normal speed
- Damage a normal swing on Stratum 6 is about 198 - 203, last swing 291 - 292
- Can inflict strong fire only with the charge attack
- Charge Attack can cause heavy damage and fair damage on each explosion
- Damage per Charge-explosion on Stratum 6 is 106 - 117, initial swing does 481 - 531, about 1200 if everything hits
- No drawbacks to the charge, large range and knockback
Good, so let's compare them:
The FoV is slower, weaker, has small range and will likely set you on fire while it's charge attack has a chance to inflict greater damage as well as generally causing fire more often.
Does the Charge and the chance to inflict fire on normal hits outwight the slower speed, the significantly lower damage on normal hits as well as the chance to burn youself to a chunk of charcoal?
No, not even with a lot of good-will. Spamming the charge-attack outside of boss fights will drain your life more than enemy attacks and even nuking the Jelly King is not viable any more.
The general suggestion is to make the FoV better, but in which way? What niche should the Fang occupy? After all the Combuster already is a good fire inducing sword. (Furious Flamberge is quite useless as well, but that's another story.)
One idea that comes to mind is making it a kind of Ash of Agni. That is not say that it should be a bomb, but it would be great if it became "da bomb". Ha. Well, what I mean is, that it should focus on it's wildfire spreading.
It already does less damage than the Combuster but unfortunatly is also horribly slow and has a poor range.
Now how about we just leave 3/4 Fire but change the attack-pattern to the Wild Hunting Blade? After all it's the FANG of Vog, so Vog biting on attacks would only make sense. Damage would then however need to be adjusted.
The Wild Hunting Blade does 108 - 108 on a normal swing and 57 - 62 on the afterimage, but we want it for the status... Yet WHB and DVS are already rather weak and rather difficult to use. 99-99 and 55-60 should do the trick.
The Charge however should stay mostly the same, except for two things: Damage should be reduced to 360 - 400 and in return it should be stripped of it user-burning. It would still be strong, but a lot more viable.
Summary:
- Change the attack pattern to Wild Hunting Blades
- Lower the damage on normal hits to 99-99 and to 55-60 for the phantasmal Vogs
- Keep the good chance for strong fire as it is
- Lower the damage on the charge attack to 360 - 400
- Remove the chance of receiving Fire from the charge attack
(All numbers are taken from the wiki - I don't assume any liability for them)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbXoQ8odFb8&feature=related