Wheel of Time MUD

Will lances be on the radar for changes anytime soon?

I feel like this is a weapon class in dire need of attention! I happen to fancy lances, but won't be able to use them without severely outclassing myself, as the lance class as a whole is currently overshadowed by too many other common weapons and just do not compete well in the current game meta. But I feel like maybe this could be fixed!

Let's take a look at the 4 primary weapons of choice in this weapon class:

leatherleaf -> hollow steel -> steel-shafted -> diamond-tipped

Nothing really impressive or reliable up until the dt-lance, which is a rare and probably one of the most infrequently seen rares in game right now due to low durability and no sure source of load.

These are the main problems I think lances have:

- Low Durability
Last time I used steel-shafteds, I quickly noticed that they never lasted long. Though, they were pretty common (I'd have 4-5 stored up), they all started out in "Good" condition, and did not last very long from there on, sadly making them throw-away weapons. As there was no point to use lances for melee, people began to abuse them for the ability of charging only, by practicing charge and not lances. There would be a different primary weapon for bashing and/or defense, and the lance would be switched to for surprise charging, without even knowing how to use a lance! It's a weird hackish setup I would like to see replaced with actual an full-fledged lance setup. (can you backstab with 0% in sblades/javelins?).

- No Defense
Lances should probably have lower pb than spears, but at least have some defense. As far as I know, they have a little more damage and more weight than spears, so this class could be thought of as the more offensive charging weapon. Adding like a very small bit of pb to this class to make them viable as an offense-primary/defense-secondary setup meta. This still keeps 1-handed spears still relevant setup as they will be the more defensive route. Though, 1h spears suffer itself due to the same viability gap lances have, from Mahogany to PoG, but that's a whole other different story)

- Limited Mending
This speaks for itself. This is a huuuge hit to this weapon class in all aspects of the game: EXPing, smobbing, and PK. Too much of a hassle to manage the weapon's condition to keep it at its full potential most likely scares off away many people who would like to use lances.

- Huge Viability Gap
The viability gap from steel-shafted to diamond-tipped is huge. I get that the steel-shafted are super common as it is, so maybe there could be a new lance added to fit between sslance and dtlance that is reliable and fits well competitively with the rest of the popular weapon classes?

If this class was to be addressed, I can guarantee I'd be one of the first to be resetting.

I've been using lances extensively for a while now, and I can honestly say I think they're actually pretty good balance in terms of PK. You can bash pretty well, not bad damage, and you get charge as a bonus. It's also awesome they have no defence. Not everything should be balanced with PB.

The durability issue is addressed, most now load pristine.

In terms of non-PK they're just an example of a class that works well in tandem with a secondary weapon.

My only complaint is that nobody plays DT lances but me and Shzrei, so there are loads in game but none in circulation! A difficult to get but not as difficult as DT step up from steel-shafted might be good, but I honestly think much better and it would be too good.

Xylan wrote:they all started out in "Good" condition, and did not last very long from there on

If you see any weapon load in less than pristine condition, please post on Bugs, it's not intended.

Xylan wrote: - Limited Mending
This speaks for itself. This is a huuuge hit to this weapon class in all aspects of the game: EXPing, smobbing, and PK. Too much of a hassle to manage the weapon's condition to keep it at its full potential most likely scares off away many people who would like to use lances.

We put up a request for a stone to mend lances and flails to be implemented some time ago, but the change hasn't been made (yet). It's entirely up to Flash whether this happens and no guarantee if or when it will.

Elysia wrote:

Xylan wrote:they all started out in "Good" condition, and did not last very long from there on

If you see any weapon load in less than pristine condition, please post on Bugs, it's not intended.

Xylan wrote: - Limited Mending
This speaks for itself. This is a huuuge hit to this weapon class in all aspects of the game: EXPing, smobbing, and PK. Too much of a hassle to manage the weapon's condition to keep it at its full potential most likely scares off away many people who would like to use lances.

We put up a request for a stone to mend lances and flails to be implemented some time ago, but the change hasn't been made (yet). It's entirely up to Flash whether this happens and no guarantee if or when it will.

Ah okay. Thanks for the response, very much appreciated. It's been a while since I've used ssl's, maybe the durability has been fixed after all. Sucks that mending boils down to a coding thing. If I had to imagine, such a change for making a weapon mendable by a certain stone would simply be toggling a single number from 0 (none) to either 1 (oilstone) or 2 (sandstone), and recompiling the game's source. But, oh well. I won't pretend to know all the antics going into the code.

Thanks again.