Summer Weapon Changes

[Naerin]

This is probably, unfortunately, deliberate. There's a lot of "knowledge being a part of skill" in the game already, and this is another part of that - so people using odd weapons probably have a reason, and they'll probably try to maintain that advantage for a while. The best way to deal with it is just to crowdsource the weapons testing as we're doing now - we can get immediate stats (OB, PB, weight, etc) very quickly for all the common weapons and can figure out bashing ability slowly but use weight as a proxy until then.

As to clubs having a hidden bash bonus, this was something Elysia discovered when she was testing bash a few years ago. Even she was surprised it was there - I'm guessing it wasn't in the Big Book of Implementation Notes.

[cael]

We most likely will not put forward a treatise on balance, much less a revelation of all the specific stats. However, Thuvia regularly goes above and beyond expectations of a normal player, and her resources and tracking are something that you can help and supplement by complying with the very specific instructions that she regularly provides.

Feel free to add those instructions here, Thuvia, if you would like. The resources that are provided by you, Hress, and others, are invaluable to players and it is very much appreciated. All those that provide you help are also appreciated and noticed.

A more clear man-behind-the-curtains statement to your request is no.

While I empathize with the frustrations that are caused by vague statements and a lack of information, we hope that there is something rewarding with the journey to find that what was once new has become new again.

Thanks for the definitive response. I figured it couldn't hurt to ask, even if I figured what the answer would be.

[isabel]

Thanks for responding Feneon and appreciate the time you are taking out to engage with this.

Just wanted to clarify that we weren't asking for a treatise or extensive stats at all.

What we were asking for was - for the type of player who just wants to know what's a basic good bash/damage balanced weapon - kind of like someone asking 'if I just want to be effective in pk without too much effort' and they're told 'stat a 19 19 abser from Two Rivers'

That is ALL the info I was asking for (from players or imms, whoever).

I definitely think that players who are interested in this research/testing should even benefit by finding out little known perks etc - just as someone with a keen interest in exploration will be 'rewarded' by finding out hidden doors or secret easter eggs. But that is not the only type of player on this mud and for all of us to have to wait until Thuvia /playerbase submits their data - that creates a lag where until that happens, we don't know what to play with.

I like that there is a wait time for the nuanced level of choices. And maybe it was intentional to Not have a 'go to' abs weapon. And also ultimately this time lag is finite so of course we can all be patient.

[Petra]

Clubs have an inherent bonus to bash

Just to clarify this statement, the actual information for this came from testing Elysia did - (even imms have to do random testing to work stuff out). I can't remember if it's 10% or 20%, but some inherent part of the club class meant that they seemed to have a x% higher landing rate based on their stats than comparable alternative classes.

[cael]

What I was looking for was a post similar to viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2986 from Elysia in October 2016.

Tweaks to weapons after feedback.
Postby Elysia » Mon Oct 10, 2016 4:57 pm

All,

After reading the feedback on what worked and what didn't, I tweaked a few more weapons. Pretty minor changes, all in all.

I didn't remove 2h combo longblades because then 2h combo would only have tridents and staves as an option. Long story short, after doing the math for warriors, combo warriors who need level 7 survival and level 7 ride in order to pk up in Blight and some west zones, I found the pracs for those don't work out so well with 1h weapons because of the cost of the ride/survival/notice/dodge. I don't want to put warriors out of business and/or limit them by forcing them to use 1h weapons or 2 classes of 2h combo weapons, so I let 2h combo lblades stay as a class. Also keeping in mind the blademaster emotes, here. At least, I think those also apply to 2h combo lblades.

Here's a summary of the changes:

I didn't look at the medium blade class, since I'm still at a loss at what to do with it.

2h combo lblades: Small damage tweak to scimitars and jaggeds.

1h combo lblades: Upped weight, ob and pb on oddly curved longsword and brass hilted. They previously had lower ob than 2h combo lblades, so hopefully that will be rectified now. The other changes should help with bash some. Hopefully I didn't make them too OP now.

1h combo axes: Upped ob and weight on saw toothed axe.

1h combo clubs: Upped ob and pb on metal banded cudgel and bone club. Downed weight on cudgel slightly, since it received a decent pb boost.

2h combo polearms: Some weigth added to barbed steel trident. More ob, less pb, slightly less weight, but better damage for blue steel trident. This essentially makes polearms the heavier class of 2h combo options, so they will have their own niche, which is nice.

2h staves: Leatherleaf got a small upping in ob to make it a bit more viable, while still letting the ob remain as the biggest drawback.

2x abs axes: Titanic axes have gotten a bit more reliable in their damage.

1h spears: Mahogany spear ob, damage and weight upped a bit.

Shortblades: Sai given more parry and damage, it still won't stab for obvious reasons.

Fencing blades: Foil made a bit better so it's an alternative to rapier.

Javelins: Pine javelin ob upped slightly. Damage rolls altered a teensy bit.

I propose that since less weapons were change this time, we do another review and feedback thing in 3 months. As far as I'm concerned, we can keep on going with repeat reviews until we're mostly happy with general balance, although I realize that it will probably impossible to please everyone.

There are no hard numbers, but a brief summary of what changes took place was presented to the player base.

[Eol]

That's super out of date dude. That's from the last change.

[Weir]

He knows, he's just explaining he wanted a post like that for the current changes happening.

[Eol]

Totally misread the first line. Yeah, that was nice. Would love an idea of what weapons were changed even if we aren't told how.

[Kanae]

Short Blades update:

Redstone had it's parry nerfed into the ground. Like 2-4 pb on a redstone now.

Clear had a parry nerf as well, but I can't recall the numbers.

Anyone test the other daggers yet?

[Kanae]

Fencing Blade changes that I know of, haven't tested damage. Foil damage seemed lower than what I recall.

Ruby and Foil still pierce, Opal still slashes.

Ruby and Foil still do not backstab.

Fblades always seemed nice for those who didn't want to bash, stab, or charge as they offered high defense/high offense and average damage with attack. The defense is still there, but not as good - I wasn't able to compete against a character wielding a 2-h weapon as I would lose after being sat down. 1-H characters were mixed - if they could bash me, I lost.

With the changes, I'm not sure I could stand up to even a 1-h weapon user as a hunter. A channeler might have better options since weaves, but I might be turning to a different weapon set now after I find out how damage will turn out.