PVP Weapon Changes

Original Link (now dead) - http://ac.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=243

PvP Weapon Changes

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posted on 19-May-2004

In June we will be making a number of changes to the PvP weapon suites – Weeping Weapons, Hollow Weapons, Deadly Hollow Weapons, and Phantom Weapons. Our goals with these changes are the improvement of PvP weapon balance and diversity. To that end many of the less-powerful weapons are being made more powerful, and a handful of the most powerful weapons are having their power decreased.

Here is a summary of the upcoming changes:

Weeping Weapons

All of the melee Weeping Weapons, including the elemental variants, will have their non-spell attack and defense modifiers removed. The special Item Enchantment spells on the Weeping Weapons that boost these modifiers by 18% will remain. The Human Slayer bonus will be decreased 14% on all melee Weeping Weapons – however, all non-sword Weeping Weapons will now have higher base damage, allowing these weapon classes to compete better with sword in terms of PvP damage.

All missile Weeping weapons will have their non-spell defense modifiers removed, but the special Item Enchantment spell on the Weeping weapons that boosts the defense modifier by 18% will remain. The base damage modifier for the Weeping bow has been increased, while the base damage modifiers for both the atlatl and the crossbow have been decreased. Weeping Bow damage is now comparable with Weeping Sword; Weeping Atlatl and Crossbow damage now more closely correlates to that of the Weeping Axe and Mace.

We are looking at decreasing the shield-hollow effects of the Weeping Weapons. Currently melee and missile Weeping Weapons ignore 100% of the AL of the target's shield. We are considering decreasing this to 90% so that there is now some reason to use a shield when fighting an opponent using these weapons.

Weeping Wands will have their non-spell Mana Conversion modifiers reduced to 1%. The special Item Enchantment spell on the Weeping Wand that boosts the Mana Conversion percentage will remain. The Hunter's Lash spell found on the Weeping Wand will have a wider damage range of 70-180 (formerly 110 – 180). The Human Slayer on the Weeping Wand is not being changed.

Hollow Weapons

All melee Hollow weapons will have a 5% attack modifier, and all melee Deadly Hollows will have an 8% attack modifier. All melee Hollow and Deadly Hollow weapons are having their damage over time improved considerably.

Also, all "Heavy" (Sword, Axe, Mace, Spear) Hollow melee weapons will now have a weapon speed of 30, while all "Light" (Staff, Dagger, Unarmed) Hollow melee weapons will now have a weapon speed of 20.

The Hollow missile weapons are gaining a 6% defense modifier, and the damage of Chorizite and Deadly Chorizite ammunition is being increased. The damage modifier of the Hollow Crossbow is being decreased, but the average damage will go up due to the increased damage on the ammunition.

As both Hollow and Phantom missile weapons use Chorizite ammunition, we found that this was the best way to balance the damage output of these weapons. We set the damage on the ammunition and then balanced the weapons accordingly.

Phantom Weapons

All melee Phantom weapons are gaining a 10% attack modifier. Several weapons are gaining a speed increase, and the damage on the Mace, Spear, Staff, and Dagger is being increased. The weapon speed changes for Phantom melee weapons are identical to those for the Hollow melee weapons (Heavy weapons use 30 speed, light weapons use 20 speed).

The Phantom missile weapons will have a 10% defense modifier, and have had their speed adjusted. The damage mod on all three weapons has decreased, but with the improved Choritize ammunition all three will see increased damage over time. As was mentioned above, both Hollow and Phantom missile weapons were balanced around the increased damage on the ammunition.

Conclusion

In general, we have tried to improve all Hollow, Deadly Hollow, and Phantom weapons so that they will be more useful in today's PvP combat. Although the Weeping Sword, Atlatl, and Crossbow will see a slight reduction in damage, all other Weeping Weapons will have increased damage, making them more competitive than they were previously. The difference in damage across all weapon classes in PvP combat will continue to scale from sword (the highest or most damaging) down to dagger (the lowest or least damaging), but the differences between these weapons is now greatly reduced.

Looking to the future, we have a lot in store for higher wield-requirement weapons and casters, as well as new types of imbues. The ability to find and tinker loot-generated weapons and casters that are comparable to or better than the Weeping Weapons is in-concept currently.