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Minecraft's new mace weapon has only been available in betas for a limited time, but players are already coming up with fun and innovative enchantments for it. To that end, Redditor u/MrMakistein shared their latest enchantment idea for maces on the game's subreddit, giving players the ability to bounce back into the air when they land a smash attack.
Based on u/MrMakistein's Reddit video, the Bounce enchantment appeared to launch players into the air, in the same way wind charges do. This allows players to stay in the air and land sequential smash attacks without hitting the ground.
This led fans like u/SpecterVamp to remark:
"That's a really fun concept. A bit broken imo but fun." - u/SpecterVamp, Reddit, March 20, 2024
While many fans agree that a Bounce enchantment could be a lot of fun for the mace in Minecraft, others are against the notion that such an enchantment - or the weapon itself - is considered broken for game balance. This is especially true, given the difficulty of landing a smash attack since opposing targets can easily move to one side or another and avoid it.
u/SpecterVamp seemed a bit confused about how the Bounce enchantment worked, as u/MrMakistein stated that using the crouch (shift) key could allow players to descend from their bounce.
However, u/Staticbomber_ pushed back that this likely meant that the player would still take fall damage. This would make the use of the crouch key dangerous for players who missed their smash attack.
Meanwhile, other Minecraft fans, like u/TheEndengineer_2, suggested some ways to limit the Bounce enchantment by placing a cap on the max number of bounces.
u/Tablondemadera suggested a bounce height limit instead to avoid accruing a high amount of smash attack damage. u/TheEndengineer_2 also suggested a shockwave-styled attack.
u/ConnectionMotor8311 expressed their doubts about Mojang’s willingness to implement a Bounce enchantment when an ideal smash attack could one-hit kill a player even if they were in full netherite Protection IV-enchanted armor. However, crazier things have certainly happened in Minecraft’s past when it comes to weapon enchantments.
Will mace enchantments in Minecraft make the weapon overpowered?
On its face, the mace can be one of the most devastating weapons in Minecraft. Its smash attack increases in damage based on how far players have fallen, giving them the ability to one-hit kill players with full netherite armor enchanted with Protection IV after falling 15 blocks. Fans can even one-shot the Warden if they fell 97 blocks and landed a smash attack on it.
Be that as it may, enchanted or not, landing such a devastating smash attack with the Minecraft mace is easier in theory than in practice. While players are falling (or gliding downward with elytra), targets that see them coming can easily move out of the way. This results in players missing the smash attack and potentially taking a heavy amount of fall damage.
Moreover, without elytra, Minecraft fans can't move particularly well during a fall, so their ability to course correct and land their smash attack is limited at best. Elytra and firework rockets can allow players to dive in and then ascend after making their smash attack. However, even then, these tactics require a substantial amount of practice and can be somewhat negated if the target has a shield.
With that having been said, would a Bounce enchantment for maces make the weapon overpowered? Perhaps, perhaps not; it would likely depend on the enchantment's core mechanics. Adding a crouch cancel for bounce momentum, as u/MrMakistein shows in their video, would add another facet to the Bounce enchantment that players would have to practice, increasing its difficulty of use.
Without factoring in the smash attack, the mace is outclassed in ground combat by other weapons like enchanted diamond swords or netherite weapons, but it's the smash attack that makes the mace so deadly. The mace has no enchantments in current betas, but if Mojang plans to add them, they'll need to be incredibly cautious about how they do so to avoid making the mace too powerful.
In its current state, the mace is largely as dangerous as the player who wields it, and it still has no counter to ranged weapons. Without a masterful use of the smash attack, the mace is relatively limited, though the right enchantments in the future could remedy this.
Time will tell if Mojang adjusts the overall damage of the mace in Minecraft or if the enchantments they have planned for it affect the game balance. Since it's still in development, the mace likely has many revisions in its future before it's fully implemented into the vanilla game as its latest unique melee weapon.
