Dev Team Request: Weapon Skills

[Lumiya]

First off let me apologize for not giving this an appropriate tag if there is one. it wasn't on topic to any of the dev team tags I saw on the forums, and I'm too new to know if there is a general tag to use. To the point, I am requesting that new weapon skill are added to the game and existing weapon skills from relic and empyrean weapons are made usable without the weapons.

For additional weapon skills, I honestly feel given the past fifteen levels since we got a new weapon skill and almost one hundred skill levels later, it is a bit past due. I won't make any specific requests as to what type of weapon skills, I am not the dev team. I just feel as a player a bit let down that no new ones have yet come out.

As for the relic and empyrean weapon skills, I think this is years past due on relic and should of been done from the start for empyrean. One of the most enjoyable parts of mythic weapons being added wasn't trying to attain the full weapons themselves, that is a task only for the die hard player, but getting the weapon skills for every job. It was a quest that was extremely daunting at first and became easier with further progression through the game, and brought many great weapon skills to the table of use. I was hoping when it was said and done, relic would eventually be given the same ability, but have sat many years in waiting with no such quest in sight.

Now in the age of Empyrean weapons, it seems that the problem has repeated itself. Many of the Empyrean weapon skills are amazing additions to the jobs, but the weapon skills themselves can only be used with one of two weapons. I love how the 'mini' empyrean weapons give access to the skill itself, but why not make it part of a quest to unlock them entirely? Additionally it would further help alleviate the issues with Empyrean weapons superiority, which while lying part in their aftermath, is also in part due to the extreme superiority of many of the weapon skills themselves.

My request would be some sort of method to unlock relic and empyrean weapon skills for open use with any weapon. As such I would expect the weapon skills to be more limited than on the full weapons, such as the mythic counterparts disbarring the aftermath and the chainging of tier three skill chains. I think even using the 'mini' relic and empyrean weapons that are available, through Scars zone Abyssea NMs and Trial of Magians respectively, gives an open oppurtunity to add this to the game. I just hope something like this will be implemented.

Please consider the option and look at the benefits it will give the player community. There is no real issue of keeping the weapons worth while, the benefits of the aftermath or weapon effects alone is substantial to keep them as the best weapons in the game. It would just allow players the ability to choose what weapons they would prefer instead of feeling ushered into having to rely on a select few weapons or suffer severe loss in damage potential.

[Lumiya]

Wow, I have to admit I am kind of shocked. Three days later and not a single comment from any players supporting this idea?

[MDenham]

I don't know about anyone else, but the last time a thread about new WSes came up (which I'm too lazy to find right now), this is what I mentioned:

* Katana and Club are the only two one-handed weapon types that don't currently have an AoE WS;
* There exists a Club WS that's AoE, but not available to players (Scouring Bubbles);
* ...please give it to us (and come up with a comparable one for Katana, I suppose).

[Economizer]

I had a post written and it got deleted through some forum glitch. :(

Anyways, the devs wrote a post in the previously mentioned thread about weapon skills:


Though the exact implementation time period is still up in the air, we are planning to introduce some new weapon skills around the level 99 cap increase timing.

As for campaign weapon skills, this is still in the discussion phase and there have been no concrete plans made as of yet.

Basically, this means you should make suggestions for weapon skills now, while they are still deciding on what weapon skills to add.

While I'm all for getting the Relic and Empyrean weapon skills, even if they are based on incredibly hard to get quests, there are a few possible issues. Some aren't very worth getting (Randgrith, Dagan), whereas others are a major power component of their respective weapon (Tachi: Kaiten, Tachi: Fudo). Further, some jobs aren't listed on Relic weapons, but are on fake Relics, so you'd either have to base it on the fake Relics or list jobs on the Relics. Personally, I prefer the fake Relics, because there is a certain job on the wrong weapon instead of the weapon it should be on, and that job should never be added to that weapon ever, period.

On the quest to get the Relic/Empyrean weapon skills, they should just be set so you have to acquire a weapon capable of doing the weapon skill, then doing the weapon skill so many times. It could even be a reducible number based on some other quest you have to do, such as having Dynamis clears reducing your Relic WS count from something like 500 to 25 depending on how many you have, or for the Empyrean weapon skill, having Abyssea and WoE flux clears reducing the Empyrean WS count from like 20000 to 250.

You could also have something similar for Campaign weapon skills if these ever got implemented, and perhaps Scouring Bubbles could be made questable in addition to something for Katana.

As for new weapon skills in general, I'm tempted to ask for a new line of job specific ones that require capped exp or something, but anything new in general has the potential to be good.

[Lumiya]

My thought for a quest regarding Relic was something along the lines of acquiring the fake Relic, starting the quest, and then having to do a certain number of weapon skills inside of Dynamis. I would say around 300 or so to kind of balance it with every other similar quest that has been done. Having it start much higher and be reduced for every Dynamis zone completed also makes a good amount of sense. I don't think it should go below 300 though.

For Empyrean weapon skills though, mostly since they are quite useful compared to others, I feel the quest should actually involve the mini and full Empyrean weapons. You have to obtain the weapon skill through either weapon, and once you have it you need to do a certain number of that weapon skill in Abyssea. The mini Empyreans should require more than the full Empyreans. It doesn't need to be a completed weapon though, just the lvl 85 version as a minimum. Such a quest would stop people who spent the time and effort on mini Empyreans from having wasted that time.

New weapon skills requests... I would like to see new regular weapon skills that give aftermath effects, albeit nothing as extreme as what is seen on other weapons. I would like to see a multihit critical weapon skill finally added to Scythe, Staff, Great Sword, and Great Katana. I would like to see weapon skills added to both Marksmanship and Archery that boosts RATK as an aftermath. I would like to see a weapon skill added to Katana that boosts MAB as an aftermath. I would like to see a weapon skill added to Club that gives a quick cast percent aftermath. I would like to see a weapon skill added to Polearm and Dagger that boosts ATK as an aftermath. I would like to see a weapon skill added to Sword that gives a damage reduction aftermath; maybe a scaling 5-15% reduced damage taken based on TP. I honestly don't feel Hand-to-hand, Axe, or Great Axe need much of an improvement at all so whatever could be done to them to not make them more overpowered than they currently are would be good.

[Economizer]

Having it start much higher and be reduced for every Dynamis zone completed also makes a good amount of sense. I don't think it should go below 300 though.

The reason I suggested such a low number was because you already have to do something like 13 WS with the Fake Relic to get the latent weapon skill, plus, those with a Relic should be able to pretty much auto-get the weapon skill with minimal effort. Further, I suggested it would be by straight weapon skills, not weapon skill points, which makes it pretty hard as is.


The mini Empyreans should require more than the full Empyreans. It doesn't need to be a completed weapon though, just the lvl 85 version as a minimum.

For the Empyrean, I see no reason why the WoE version should require any more weapon skills. If you only got the weapon for the weapon skill, that's already a ton of effort, and if you have the full Empyrean, even at 85, you probably aren't going to use any other weapons anyways (although I think at the very least, the 99 WoE weapon should come closer the the 85 Empyrean, it sucks a bit to see it not match even now unless you never activate the aftermath effect - but this is a bit off topic). I definitely agree that the weapon should only have to be the 85 version though - the amount of work put in is already pretty high without things like devious dies or heavy metal plates complicating things.

Since my quest suggestions were using specific weapon skills, I wanted to avoid the higher numbers that come from weapon skill points trials, but if locking to the specific weapon skill for the trial was not neccisary, I'd have said go with higher numbers for both, and work with WSP.

[Lumiya]

A lot of good points, I just didn't want it to seem 'too easy'. Though I agree completely about the Empyrean weapon skills already being a huge challenge to get in comparison. Really I just want to get them, the methods don't matter as much. Free access to all weapon skills a job can use seems like a concept that really is past due. I just hope something is done about it in the near future. ; ;

[FrankReynolds]

I like the idea of making the empyrean WS unlockable like the mythics by acquiring 1 of the 2 weapons. I think the dynamis weapon skills are probably fine how they are.