[firehawk11]

This Launcher Gun is pretty good based off of it's stats alone. However with it being a 40% STR and 70% FAI scaling could we possibly make it a Spell-edge for Mercala domain spells to increase build variety even if that isd pretty limiting to Priest. However it would make the FAI scaling feel like a better investment then an odd choice since nothing else uses FAI outside of the special bonus effect if the Holy Word has the Jeweled Enchantment. It is also odd that it is made from chapters and not materials but that's just a secondary in the end.

With the Jeweled Enchantment it would be best if that also made it Spell-edge for Mercala Domain Spells allowing you to do some additional builds with it's odd 40% STR, 70% FAI scaling. As it fits now I am unsure what the main build is suppose to be with this weapon, it deals Light damage but does not synergy with Curate or any of it's Promotes. The skills that it grant can not crit, so no crit builds or duelist of any sort (dunno why you want duelist anyways), no Movement skills outside of the basic move. Maybe the Holy Word is so specialized that the build is 100% built around it's two special sills.

[Lolzytripd]

This Launcher Gun is pretty good based off of it's stats alone. However with it being a 40% STR and 70% FAI scaling could we possibly make it a Spell-edge for Mercala domain spells to increase build variety even if that isd pretty limiting to Priest. However it would make the FAI scaling feel like a better investment then an odd choice since nothing else uses FAI outside of the special bonus effect if the Holy Word has the Jeweled Enchantment. It is also odd that it is made from chapters and not materials but that's just a secondary in the end.

With the Jeweled Enchantment it would be best if that also made it Spell-edge for Mercala Domain Spells allowing you to do some additional builds with it's odd 40% STR, 70% FAI scaling. As it fits now I am unsure what the main build is suppose to be with this weapon, it deals Light damage but does not synergy with Curate or any of it's Promotes. The skills that it grant can not crit, so no crit builds or duelist of any sort (dunno why you want duelist anyways), no Movement skills outside of the basic move. Maybe the Holy Word is so specialized that the build is 100% built around it's two special sills.

I like all this, I'd only add

A mercala casting material

Launchers working for arbalest

[Snake]

Don't forget making it able to be used with Solblader.

[Poruku]

The fact it doesn't work well with solblader or priest is the real problem here. Same thing with blind bright

[firehawk11]

I love the weapon, it is hard to make a build for it which is not MG/DH of some sort.

[Rendar]

I love the weapon, it is hard to make a build for it which is not MG/DH of some sort.

DH is basically worthless with it, since you can't use Cobra, at all, and you lose access to Chaser (your general go-to for Reaver)...

So you get Desperado and Matador.

[pilcrow]

Holy Word is something I constantly go back and rotate in my head trying to fit it into SOME kind of build, but no matter what I do, there's always just alternatives to it that are better in every single way. It's kind of insane to me that a weapon can have such stacked stats and be so awful, but I think it's because of its anti-synergies in every other respect.

FAI/STR means it doesn't get strength crit and it only has the one shot so it can't multihit for skewed crit chances (outside of using its fiddly AoE incredibly well), it being a STR weapon without two-hand means it always lacks for SWA, it can't well use the FAI on its own because it isn't a casting tool and doesn't have any scrolls to use with besides Light Shine (which also requires an enchant that is, frankly, bad), it's a launcher so it doesn't get any particular gun type bonus, it is obscenely heavy, and its movement restrictions prevent it from being usable on a number of classes that it would've otherwise been an okay pick for.

Speaking of classes. You can't use it on solblader because it turns off ALL of your offensive kit (godray undertow, chariot star, rising dawn, and light on high are ALL movement abilities, as is retreating swipe should you play Flash with it for some reason.), the FAI could make it an 'ok' pick on BK but it turns off hanging and crescent rook and can't be used with any soldier skills, it not being a casting tool rules it out for priest, LB, or any mage promo (and arcane slaughters its bad SWA), you can't really use it on DH because it turns off all of DH's most critical abilities including chaser, you can kinda use it on MG but you don't get as much out of it because it doesn't stack shells as well as other options and gets even FEWER skills to use than normal (even parting shot is blocked!), you can't use it on arb because it isn't a rifle, you can't go ghost with it because it doesn't build enough crit or crit mod to function when basic attacking, its paper material means it can't even BECOME a casting tool for anything without Arcane, and since it's not actually a tome there aren't even any weird tact combos to be used with it.

There's also the hard numbers. The FIRST thing I tried to do with it was fit it onto Oscar's statline because he builds 50 scaled STR/FAI. (He also builds 56 scaled WIL so his kraken chapter zerotrain hits 129. For posterity, 50/60 scaled WIL/SKI on the same zerotrain is.. 124. )
Holy Word Oscar gets 126 SWA, slightly better accuracy (237% without glove hit, could be a LOT better as a rifle), not enough crit or crit scaling to basic with (55%), and no casting tool!
In contrast, he can also take Magical Star for 136 SWA (130 on the dot if his scaled WIL is lowered to 50), 237% hit, 80% crit, Monk Priest's for 125 SWA, 231% hit, and 71% crit, or Diamond-Head Staff for 124 SWA + 5 Light ATK, 231% hit, and 'who cares it's a gemstaff' crit.
At its maximum reasonable scaling of 60 scaled FAI/STR, Holy Word reaches 146 SWA. Monk Priest's and Magical Star.. also both reach 146 SWA. Two-hand consistently matches the 30 power.
(60 scaled WIL/SKI zerotrain.. also hits 140s, mind!)

Naturally, all of these options would be better than holy word for Oscar even if statistically equivalent because of the sheer opportunity cost to using Holy Word as it is now. And this is on a class combo that can bypass its restrictions because Druid is Just Like That!

The special attack combo is.. also just 'ok' numerically. I'd have to crunch the numbers again but the short of it is that it's basically got the same restrictions as starting a combo with Needle, Sidecut, Hirazuki, or Chariot Star, but does equivalent or less damage than most builds designed to work with them will (For example, Oscar's spirited Needle + Shine Ray gets about the same pre-mit damage but only if you don't account for Needle's light damage explosion.. and it also heals, is a multihit for safety + mirror popping, and Shine Ray can be replaced with Holy Spark in AoE situations) and has far less flexibility in every other way.

It feels a little like it was made for a class combo that frankly doesn't exist, especially with all its carve-outs for nonexistant things, which is a shame because it's SUCH A COOL WEAPON. I LOVE ITS STYLE SO MUCH. I WANNA USE IT SO BADLY. I'M GONNA USE IT ON A BUILD EVEN THOUGH IT'S SO MUCH WORSE THAN MY OTHER OPTIONS. The clumsy restriction IS an interesting form of friction but right now it just isn't good enough to justify it!
It feels like it just needs a push in the right direction and it could become a really cool tool to build around, and I don't know what form that might take but there's a lot of directions it could go.

I think a solid minimum would be giving it the rifle subtype, because Jackhammer getting the launcher subtype is a *downside* to its insane stats (its massive AoE and it can attack with +55 BASE HIT???) while Holy Word gets downsides on top of that and none of the insanity to compensate!

It'd also, like a lot of weapons, be sorely helped if STR crit also applied to substat STR. All the STR guns, tomes, and the gemstaffs get kinda hosed by that because they're building stats antithetical to critting with (the exact problem ALL STR weapons had before STR crit. It's also why you don't really see the basic attacker tomes be used for basics)
I also wanna say it feels weird that paper isn't an elemental casting material now that we're getting non-tome paper weapons. It'd make any mutated tome function a little more for sure, and a Mercalan Chapter Holy Word would be functional with priest as a result. That scroll fist would also get an interesting niche.

Anyway! I hope it gets some love in an update because it's a scrunkly lil creature, and it's genuinely stylish enough and has a cool enough sprite that I am genuinely tempted to use it completely unregalia'd. The sound design on that thing is insane too, honestly - I had to pay real-ass money to get hammer bunny's hammer to make sounds as cool as that!