Weapon Skill Changes
Melee and Missile weapon skills are receiving major revisions.
- The Axe, Bow, Crossbow, Dagger, Mace, Spear, Staff, Sword, Thrown Weapons, and Unarmed Combat skills are being retired.
- New consolidated skills are being introduced:
- Heavy Weapons - One handed melee combat skill. 6 to train, 6 to specialize. Its formula will be based off of Strength and Coordination.[1]
- Light Weapons - One handed melee combat skill. 4 to train, 4 to specialize. Its formula will be based off of Strength and Coordination.[1]
- Finesse Weapons - One handed melee combat skill. 4 to train, 4 to specialize. Its formula will be based off of Quickness and Coordination.[1]
- Missile Weapons - A consolidated skill for use of all missile weapons. 6 to train, 6 to specialize.[1] Although not stated specifically, its formula will likely be based off of Coordination alone, like the current missile weapon skills.
- Two Handed Combat will remain in the game as is.
New Combat Skills
Five new combat related skills are being introduced:
- Shield - 2 to train, 2 to specialize. Its formula will be based off of Strength and Coordination.[1]
- Dirty Fighting - 2 to train, 2 to specialize. Its formula will be based off of Coordination.[1]
- Will grant different effects based on your attack's height:
- The bleed effect would scale with the value of the weapon; weapons from lower tiers would have a light bleed effect, weapons from mid tiers would have a medium bleed effect, and weapons from the highest tier would have a heavy bleed effect. The heaviest bleed effect would not be as good as any of the Nether damage over time spells.[1]
- The chance to activate the debuffs would be based on the skill level and could range as high as 25%. Characters with the skill specialized would use a better version of the debuff effects. The values of these debuffs are still being discussed.[1]
- Dual Wield - 2 to train, 2 to specialize.[1] Its formula is unknown.
- Will allow you to wield a weapon in your off hand and use an alternate Dual Wield animation while attacking. Your attacks would alternate between the two weapons, and your weapon swings would be delivered faster than a single weapon. Attack modifiers for each weapon would only apply to attacks with that weapon, and you would use only the highest defense modifier from the two weapons.
- Recklessness - 4 to train, 2 to specialize. Its formula will be based off of Quickness and Strength.[1]
- Will be activated only when you were swinging at nearly maximum speed.[1]
- The actual damage modifier would be based on your Recklessness skill and how close it was to your attack skill. If Recklessness is equal to or greater than your attack skill then you get the full benefit of 20 damage rating on strikes that are not critical hits. The additional damage you take from non-critical hits is always equal to the damage you output so you could intentionally not raise the skill if you wanted an option to do 10 damage rating and take an additional 10 damage rating from hits that are not critical strikes.[1]
- Sneak Attack - 4 to train, 2 to specialize. Its formula will be based off of Quickness and Coordination.[1]
- Will deal extra damage from behind by making a check against your attack roll when you hit from behind. If the Sneak Attack also hits you'd do an extra 10 damage rating for trained and an extra 20 damage rating for specialized Sneak Attack hits. In addition, characters with high Deception skills would have a small (2-5%) chance to proc some of the extra damage with front hits, but the extra damage rating would be halved for Deception hits.[1]