Upcoming Smithing/Weapon/Knight Changes
As announced, Smithing is going to be moved into a general skill, and
knights will be getting a third skill. Here is some more information on
all of this.
Please remember that all this is still tentative and may (and likely will) change during implementation and the beta. Especially numbers will be subject to further tweaks depending on feedback. At this point, this information should be considered as a rough overview of the upcoming changes.
Whip - Assassin/Renegade weapon - 75/165
Spear, Trident - Outrider weapon - 86/160
Axe - Outrider throwing axe - 105/205
Glaive, Javelin - Ranger/Amazon weapon - 255/85
Flail - Defiler weapon - 100/165
Sitara - Predator weapon - 80/210 (bone will only determine the color)
(quarterstaves and maces already have fixed stats)
Scimitar - 100/195, parried attacks still do reduced damage (75%), no venom or limb damage though, on-parry effects (riposte, rebuke, monk guarding throw, etc) will not be triggered if parry is hit
Longsword - 130/170, more bleeding damage
Shortsword - 75/160, bypasses rebounding
Broadsword - 145/150, increased damage against mobiles
Battleaxe (not a sword, but used as one) - 160/140
Claymore, Halberd, Bardiche - two-handed - 190/120
Others:
Club - 70/160
Mace - this one will likely be removed to avoid confusion with the priests' one
Dagger (throwing) - 55/215
Morningstar (blunt) - 130/150
Warhammer (two-handed blunt) - 180/125
Wielding a weapon will incur a 2-second delay, during which any attacks performed with the weapon will take 2s longer. This is rather tentative, the goal is to detrivialise weapon swapping mid-fight by giving it an opportunity cost.
Please remember that all this is still tentative and may (and likely will) change during implementation and the beta. Especially numbers will be subject to further tweaks depending on feedback. At this point, this information should be considered as a rough overview of the upcoming changes.
1. Weapons
- The to-hit stat will be removed; each weapon will have two main stats (damage/speed) and up to two extra properties
- Weapons can have one extra property, two if crystehl is used or it's an artifact weapon
- weapon properties include (some of those cannot be placed on the same weapon at once):
* heavy: add 2 more ingots, get +20% damage and -20% speed
* light: +10 to speed stat, halved damage
* sharp: higher armor penetration, -25% lifespan
* blunt: lower armor penetration, +bleeding
* infused: requires an electrum ingot (new ingot, details later) and a
blueshard, gives -10% speed, special effect cooldown reduced by 1s (see
below)
- Resmith will allow smiths to add/remove these properties on artifact weapons at any time. Regular weapons will not be modifiable once made.
- Weapon stats will be fixed across all weapons of a type
- The mid-range weapons will receive extra functionality, knights will also receive new attacks that require a specific weapon type (more below)
- Artifact weapons will have the same speed as their non-artifact counter-parts, and a +10%/+15%/+20% to damage
Profession-specific weapon stats:
Dirk - Assassin/Renegade weapon, stats don't matter - 60/196Whip - Assassin/Renegade weapon - 75/165
Spear, Trident - Outrider weapon - 86/160
Axe - Outrider throwing axe - 105/205
Glaive, Javelin - Ranger/Amazon weapon - 255/85
Flail - Defiler weapon - 100/165
Sitara - Predator weapon - 80/210 (bone will only determine the color)
(quarterstaves and maces already have fixed stats)
Sword-type weapons (used by knights, etc) weapon stats:
Sabre - 75/215Scimitar - 100/195, parried attacks still do reduced damage (75%), no venom or limb damage though, on-parry effects (riposte, rebuke, monk guarding throw, etc) will not be triggered if parry is hit
Longsword - 130/170, more bleeding damage
Shortsword - 75/160, bypasses rebounding
Broadsword - 145/150, increased damage against mobiles
Battleaxe (not a sword, but used as one) - 160/140
Claymore, Halberd, Bardiche - two-handed - 190/120
Others:
Club - 70/160
Mace - this one will likely be removed to avoid confusion with the priests' one
Dagger (throwing) - 55/215
Morningstar (blunt) - 130/150
Warhammer (two-handed blunt) - 180/125
2. Wielding
Listing this separately, as it's a big change:Wielding a weapon will incur a 2-second delay, during which any attacks performed with the weapon will take 2s longer. This is rather tentative, the goal is to detrivialise weapon swapping mid-fight by giving it an opportunity cost.
3. Knights
Chivalry/Brutality will be split into two skills, names to be determinedSkill 1
- The first skill will receive all the weapon-related skills (proficiencies, raze, impale, engage, etc), archery, and a few other abilities from Chivalry
- Additionally, several new attacks will be added
- DSL/RSL/etc will be split into a generic "combo" ability, with the old DSL/... commands provided for convenience
- there will be new weapon attacks added for the mid-range weapons - longswords, scimitars, and battleaxes
- Longswords will receive attacks focusing on bleeding-based strategies
- Scimitars will focus on limb damage (in a very different way than the existing limb classes)
- Battleaxes will focus on momentum-based speed/damage modifiers
Skill 2
- The second skill will receive falconry, mounted attacks, defences (weathering, fitness, etc), and weapon enhancements
- Weapon enhancements are an expansion of the existing purifications/etchings/soulbinds concept
- Like now, each weapon will be able to hold two special effects (three, at a stat penalty) that will flare alongside regular attacks
- Enhancements on a weapon will be changeable at an equilibrium cost
- Enhancements will only work for knights now, unless stated otherwise
- Rather than being random, each enhancement has its own per-target cooldown, limiting how often it can hit
- Hawk - beckon weapons, works for non-knights
- Flame - ablaze, damage if already on fire, 4s cd
- Snowflake - freeze, damage if already shivering, 4s cd
- Bolt - epilepsy, 6s cd
- Knife - negate armour for 2s, 10s cd
- Lightning - electric damage, slightly scaling to affcount, 7s cd
- Boomerang - weapon returns to its owner if thrown, works for non-knights
- Drum - razing with this weapon can remove prismatic as well, has a longer balance (3s) when it does that
- Soulquench - damage, 5s cd
- Agony - blocks passive curing, effect lasts 8s, 8s cd
- Rending - breaks a random limb, 8s cd
- Sundering - arcing with this weapon breaks shields and prismatic barriers
- Draining - drains 5% mana, gives to caster, 6s cd
- Teeth - causes some bleeding, 7s cd
- Fleshburn - damage based on bleeding, 6s cd
- Negating - clears all pending enhancement effect cooldowns when it fires (this happens even if there are no cooldowns), 6s cd
- Emblazing - fire damage, 5s cd
- Mirroring - repeat one aff, 10s cd
- Purification - drains 5% mana, gives to caster, 6s cd
- Banishment - damage scaling to affcount if target has hellsight, nothing otherwise (but still uses up the cd), 3s cd
- Purge - afflict manaleech, 7s cd
- Faithroot - while wielding this weapon, devotion flare does 40% less damage, but does not consume the rite
- Burning - put target on fire, damage if they already are, 4s cd
- Resonate - if put on a banded weapon, the owner can find the location of this weapon, works for non-knights
4. Other changes
We will very likely be getting rid or significantly altering the Vivisect ability, as it currently presents a very substantial design block, and possibly adding some new things to Necromancy as a result. This is extremely tentative right now, and will depend on how the changes to Deathknights end up looking like.3
Comments
How is this going to work with Warden? Currently, they're designed around a "break with glaive, switch to bow, incendiary, switch back to glaive" kill? Other classes like Outrider(spear/axe) or Assassin(whip/dirk) dual-wield 1h weapons and so they can always forgo the shield for the speed if they so wish, but Wardens have to switch out to a 2h weapon and don't get that option.
Additional concerns:
Resmith: Can this please be somewhat low in the skillset, or a skill that appears in both Chivalry and Smithing? I don't want to be forced to learn a crafting skill specifically so that I can use my artifact weapon to its full potential.
Actually, I'd really like it if Resmithing could be made a general skill that doesn't require a forge, since the purpose of an artifact weapon is somewhat defeated if it becomes optimal to have a spread of weapons to cover various situations, like wanting +bleed+speed in some situations but +damage+ARP in others; without an artifact weapon I'd just have two normal weapons, but with an artifact weapon I lose my benefit as soon as I switch away from it.
Shifting Weapons: Right now, my shifting weapon has the same enchants in every single form. My mercurial trident has emblazon/mirroring because those are the enchants my claymore has. I would really like it if my sabre didn't have to be heavy and sharp because my claymore is.
Blunt: Blunt weapons doing extra bleeding just seems wrong to me. Could this possibly be changed to 'serrated' instead? It makes way more sense.
Resonate: How about this breaks prismatic barriers somehow instead of providing an essentially worthless benefit? AM is the only circle without a prismatic breaking enhancement as it stands now.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
Sunder: At the moment, sunder attempts are typically stopped by unwielding a weapon, wielding a bow/handaxe, hitting the sunderer with it, and switching back to a main weapon to continue the fight. As these changes are written, doing so would incur a 2s penalty on the axe-toss and a 2s penalty when switching back. Sunder could probably stand to be removed entirely, but I'd like this to be considered if it is kept.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
Bloodthirst juggling with kicks is awkward and unpleasant to deal with, and the 'heavier' kicks are so slow that they've pretty much rotated completely out of use; keeping bloodthirst up is so important that kickflip has become basically the only kick you'll ever see. They've lost their status as the best afflictors and it's been years since they were a solid damage threat other than a gimmick bladespin>strike|strike|sdrop|eviscerate combo that tanky people can tank anyways. Their shield attacks do no damage, so they basically have to roll sword/sword for anything but flicking. They're not even particularly good bashers anymore. They've just become a very unsastisfying class because, for all their abilities, all they can really do is DSL and they don't even do that as well as a knight does, knights being better at both afflicting and damaging.
With the all the various changes to the weapons going into play, I think that the Wardancers deserve a bit of time in the spotlight. These changes would necessitate a balance pass anyways, since sword strikes are the majority of their offense and this necessitates a heavy-duty examination regardless of any filed classleads. I'd just like to see it go a little further and hopefully refine the Wardancer into a coherent whole with skills that actually work together instead of a mismatched heap of abilities held together with bandaids and baling wire.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
‘Every sword’s a weight to carry. Men don’t see that when they pick ’em up. But they get heavier with time.”
Wristraps, fist sigils, and banding prevent the weapon from being unwielded up[on an arm break, so that shouldn't be a significant concern.
Quickdraw etc, yeah, that shouldn't apply the penalty if you just wield the same thing back
I'll figure something out for wardens.
No plans for more kestrel/hound/mount abilities, but if you have any interesting ideas that won't have a significant impact, we can do something there.
Dwarven bonus increases weapon lifespan nowadays (it doesn't affect stats at all), so that'll likely stay as-is. As for hammer, undecided there as of yet.
Blunt->serrated, sure.
Morph weapons, yeah, we'll figure something out there
Prismatic and AM - the omission is currently intentional, as Devotion Penance bypasses prismatic. Can revisit this if needed.
Switching enchants will not be comboable.
Sunder - I'll keep that in mind,
Cleave remains, sure.
Wardancers - no specific plans here, Sarrius keeps pushing for some changes, so I'm waiting to see what he submits.
Soulspear requires you to have the consumable item in your inventory, and they have a decay time of less than a week. They're a viable option when you have plenty of necromancers around who have all stocked up in recent fights, but otherwise it's not really an option. You cannot preserve them in any fashion, nor can you pool them.
I have the perfect solution. Seriously. Hear me out!
Knights wielding two handed hammers get a new skill called "Full Force Smash" or "FFS" after what people yell when being Prismatic or Shield spammed.
This blow, driven by righteous frustration at being unable to properly chop an enemy into sashimi, is an unstoppable but highly innacurate juggernaught of heavy metal thing on a stick. FFS is normally on a 2.7 second balance. It's effectiveness depends entirely on the solidity of whatever it encounters.
- If it strikes a Prismatic Barrier, it shatters it, doing significant damage to the target.
- If it strikes a shield (from a shield tattoo or equivalent player skill) it shatters it, doing significant damage to the target.
- If it strikes neither, the attack misses and throws the attacker off balance for an additional 1.3 seconds (for a total of 4.0 second balance loss).
Now, this solution would only work if weapon-switching does incur a two second delay. This two second window gives the shielder a chance to drop their barrier themselves, potentially at the last moment (thus baiting out a miss-swing). In a team scenario, it rewards coordination (as having four knights all take out hammers and FFS a target would see three of them essentially waste 6 seconds of attacking balance). It also means that a team with a dedicated FFS'er can counter prismatic spam by keeping their hammer out (the hammer is his hammer).
Garryn (and riot) pls.