Editing Announcements - 2005/01 - Assault (section)

== Higher Wield-Req Weapons ==

{{Turbine 2003
 |  Link = <nowiki>http://ac.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=335</nowiki>
 | Title = Higher Wield-Req Weapons
 |  Text =
<p align=right><small>''posted on 05-Jan-2005''</small></p>
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As we wrote in the December Letter to the Players, January brings with it the implementation of something we've been working on for several months now higher wield-req weapons.
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'''What Do They Do?'''
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Currently the best melee weapons that a player can find are those with a 325 base skill wield requirement. Likewise, missile weapons go up to 290 base skill wield requirements. War mages currently have no wield-requirement casters, relying solely on the strength of their spells in order to deal more damage.
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Since the introduction of wield-req weapons, we've introduced bigger and tougher creatures, and players have advanced to higher and higher levels of skill. But there's been no new equipment to strive for beyond the existing limits, and little for war mages to look for once they have gained the ability to cast level 7 spells.
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In January, all this changes. We will be introducing a new tier of 350 wield-req melee weapons, 315 wield-req missile weapons, and two tiers of war casters at 290 and 310 wield-reqs.
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The melee weapons are straightforward the higher the wield-req, the higher the max damage on the loot weapon.
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The missile weapons have a twist to them 315 wield-req missile weapons will receive a bonus to a specific elemental type. For example you might find a 315 wield-req bow that has a damage modifier of 127% as well as a +2 to fire damage. Whenever fire arrows are used with this bow, it will do an additional 2 points of damage to the target. (And no, +2 is not the best that you can find!)
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The casters also gain damage bonuses. The 290 and 310 war magic wield-req casters will be found with a bonus to damage done by a specific element. In the case of casters, the damage bonus is a small % of damage done rather than a flat damage increase. This bonus applies to any spell of the matching damage type, even the inherent spell on the caster. For instance, a 310 wield-req caster might have a bonus of 3% on slashing spells. The bonus on casters with a 310 skill requirement is higher than that on casters with a 290 skill requirement. The 290 wield-req casters are comparable to the existing 325 melee and 290 missile weapons.
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''Overall, these new weapons are expected to improve damage over time at high levels by around 5%.''
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'''How Do I Get One?'''
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These new weapons will be loot-generated and found at the highest tiers of treasure, those tiers intended for players at levels 80 and above. The exception is the 290 wield-req casters, which will begin to be found in the tier intended for players at levels 60 to 80.<br><br>
'''What About...?'''
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* ...PvP! Won't these new casters be overpowering? The elemental damage bonus for casters is reduced when these weapons are used against other players. The effectiveness against both creatures and players can be seen when you ID the caster. Note that the elemental damage bonus on missile weapons is not reduced in PvP combat, as the bonus on missile weapons is flat and not a percentage.
* ...Wield-Req casters for magic schools other than War? There aren't any plans for these at this time.
* ...Life magic bolts? For now, the wield req casters can only generate with the 7 normal damage types, so they do not have any effect on life bolt spells.
* ...Even higher wield-req weapons? Coming in the future!
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[[Category:Event Announcements]]