Please Rework "FULL BREAK'S" effectiveness + other GA ws's like it DEV TEAM /wave
Hey Dev Team ^^/wave
Break Weapon Skills: The Problem
From the moment I got access to this weapon skill years ago, to now, I've been greatly disappointed in the effectiveness of Full Break on monsters across Vana'diel. The supposed listed weapon skill effects "Lowers accuracy, weakens attacks and defense, and impairs evasion of target." had me very excited as a young WAR a couple of years back, but I'm sure nearly every WAR+DRK (non Full Break ws's for DRK) out there would agree that this weapon skill has very subtle/weak returns when using it.
GA's Design: The Cause
GA's intended design as based on it's weapon skill list would constitute an enfeebling weapon that can equally cause some of the most powerful melee damage in the game. Unfortunately, I don't think I've ever seen a visible difference in "Lowered" accuracy, -attack/defense, or the evasion after using these ws's, and that just begs the question of, "can it be reworked?" The lower Break ws's inform us that the duration of the effect varies with TP, but increasing the duration of a super weak enfeebling effect doesn't really do much to excite the user. The only thing I can think of in regards to the inefficiency of these ws's is that their potential haven't been revisited since their introduction >< lol. The fixes would be rather easy in my thinking, and would just need feedback from players to adjust the power and balance of these ws's. I would love to be able to use the GA's intended design as an enfeebling weapon that can also break bones at high levels! ^^
Suggestions: The Solutions- Add new high level Job Traits that drastically enhance the potency of "Break" weapon skills.
- Increase the potency of Break weapon skills based on GA skill
- Multiple uses of the same Break weapon skill (Shield, Armor, Weapon, Full Break) on a target would stack to increase the potency and duration. A maximum amount of uses could be determined.
- Add a new GA weapon skill ("Skull Smash" or something) that drastically enhances the potency of Break weapon skills.
The Dev Team has reworked major systems in this game based on player feedback that called for progressive change before. So again, to reiterate my point, at the base of what I'm proposing, I'm calling for action to rework a system that is causing up to four ws's(and potentially more enfeebling ws's outside of GA) to be considered useless by a LARGE number of players. That is a real problem, and such a problem deserves attention. Thanks for listening :D /salute
Another possibility: Bolstering stats for party members-What if, after inflicting a set amount/percentage of a particular enfeeble at the point of striking a target with one of the 4 Break weaponskills, they then worked similar to how DNC's Steps function? For anyone that doesn't know about how Steps works:
-Steps are used to enfeeble an enemy, while at the same time generating the Finishing Moves required to perform Flourishes. The enfeebling effects produced by Steps can be stacked up to five times. The more times an effect is stacked, the more powerful it becomes.
Perhaps directly after you use a Break weaponskill, Armor Break for instance, the more you land successful melee hits on the target the more bolstered your melee damage would become. The ws would still cause some damage upon using it, but after inflicting the initial enfeebling effect, it would have a bolstering of stats effect so the concept of the enfeeble can become more apparent over time. It could still of course have a determined duration window of effect, but once it's effect duration has reached it's end and worn off the bolstered damage would also disappear. It could even have the "Defense down" effect animation added to each melee hit to the target similar to how most additional effect enfeebling weapons function. The same goes for the other corresponding ws's.
So then, Shield break once landed on a high evasion monster would see a percentage drop to it's evasion and improve Accuracy to the players over the course of the user successfully landing hits on the target. So this would bolster +Accuracy per successful melee hit to all party members within the area of effect.
-Weapon break once landed would see a percentage drop in Attack and improve -PDT% over the course of the user successfully landing hits on the target. So this would by effect bolster -PDT% per successful melee hit to all party members within the area of effect.
-And full break would be a drop to all 3 attack, evasion, and defense at the point of using the ws, then bolster damage, -PDT, and Accuracy per each successful melee hit to the target to all party members within the area of effect.
So perhaps you could still allow the current base enfeebles already in place with the ws's that are used to calculate set percentages upon 1st impact to remain, then allow the bolstering of stats effect to further make idea noticeable for all party members. This would create a new and "VISIBLE" way for these ws's to function. Plus all the current battle code could remain untouched since the ws's would now in essence be more of a "Bolstering to stats" set of ws's based on the way they would enhance the enfeebling concept.
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Update*
This thread received an answer on page 24 from the Community Reps on 4-27-2011: Post 235
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Camate
After speaking to the development team about this, they confirmed that they're planning adjustments for a wide variety of weapon skills, which will include the break-related WS, too. :)
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Update*(2014)
Dreams do come true...you just have to be patient :)
Updated Weapon Skills