Minecraft mace finally receives some necessary nerfs, but it's still the strongest weapon

Minecraft's mace is the newest type of weapon in the game, the first added since the Village and Pillage update introduced crossbows. After its inclusion, there was some concern that it was too strong, as it could one-shot every mob in the game with relative ease. Thankfully, it seems that Mojang has finally addressed the issue and brought the mace closer to the rest of the weapons.

The latest preview for Minecraft Tricky Trials, Bedrock 1.20.0.24, has finally nerfed the mace in several meaningful ways. However, the weapon is still incredible.

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How Minecraft's new mace has been nerfed

Damage

Falling will still greatly increase damage, but at a slower rate (Image via Mojang)

The first damage nerf to maces, obtainable by looting Minecraft Tricky Trial's trial chambers, is that its base damage has been reduced from seven, or 3.5 hearts, to five, or 2.5 hearts per hit. For comparison, iron swords deal three hearts of damage on Java and 3.5 hearts on Bedrock. This means that the mace is now worse than iron swords in both versions of the game.

The largest nerf to mace damage comes from a significant change in how the falling damage buff works. When originally added, maces would deal 2.5 hearts of extra damage per block fallen. This was reduced to 1.5 hearts when enchantments were added to the mace and has been changed yet again with 1.21.0.24.

There are now different damage bonuses depending on how far the player has fallen, with greater distances giving less bonus damage. The first three blocks fallen will give two hearts of damage per block; the next five blocks fallen will give one heart of damage per block fallen; and any blocks past this will only give half a heart of damage.

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Enchantments

Combining damaging mace enchantments will no longer be possible with 1.21.0.24 (Image via Mojang)

The other major nerf that maces received with Minecraft Bedrock Beta 1.21.0.24 is that all four of the different damage enchantments available for it — breach, density, smite, and bane of arthropods — are now mutually exclusive. This means that players won't be able to stack smite, breach, and density all on a single mace.

This is essentially another damage nerf since these enchantments were all centered around increasing the player's potential damage output. It is unfortunate that all three of the new Minecraft mace enchantments can now no longer be placed on a single mace, but it's probably for the best.

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Minor mace buff

Players should spend less levels and resources repairing maces thanks to this buff (Image via Mojang)

The mace also got a minor buff with 1.21.0.24. The weapon's base durability has been increased from 250 to 500. This, combined with access to some of Minecraft's best enchantments in Mending and Unbreaking, should be more than enough to stop maces from breaking, even if players have to hit enemies more due to the lowered damage.

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At the end of the day, all that Bedrock Beta 1.21.0.24 has done for maces is make it harder to one-shot mobs and players. Since there's still no damage cap, players will still be able to one shot every mob with it; the drop height will just need to be higher. This means the mace is still the best weapon in the game, as nothing else can one shot both Minecraft's Wither boss and Warden mob.