[dev1049] New weapon skills

[Economizer]

It's just like rl

This isn't "real life" and shouldn't be a mirror of it.

We have a job system where you can change your abilities at a moment's notice. This isn't how real life works either.

This limitation is purely artificial, and to imply that Final Fantasy should try to mirror how life functions in this way is nonsensical.

And this is not the first time SE do this with storyline gears

Gear is widely different, and even so there is no gear selection choice that comes close to this merit choice. Not even remotely close.

Even picking up Relic, Empyrean, and Mythic weapons - which very much so lock you down to your choice unless you can muster the considerable resources to get another - are just items. You can still get another one if you pay the cost though.

that's just not fair because I can never make my main job stand out

You want to make your job stand out? Play better at it.

I will admit that I'm not always the best at gearing the job I like to play most, but even when I play with other people who are better geared then I am, I play better at my job.

In fact, this is the closest thing to a real life aspect you should have in Final Fantasy - player skill. If people can only be good at so many things, then they will naturally have one job they are better at playing then others. Since this is outside of the game code already, there is no need to implement it into the game code.

[Alhanelem]

I don't know why people are saying Shijin spiral isnt good... Outside of abyssea, it seems to be on par with Victory Smite, with an additional effect.

[xbobx]

The problem si they are testing it in abyessa and obviously it is not going to perform as will with a crit based weaponskill.

To many abyessa is the only content, but we are moving away from it. I tried in cape last night and on average it was better then pummel. Pummel had to do almost full crits to match the damage. I was doing 1900-2400 with Shinjin

[Greatguardian]

Hello Stalwart Soul? Even with eight hits landed and assuming no new tiers of the trait you'd only lose 40% of your HP (48% if you find somewhere to stick an Enhance SE piece) but add 1200-1440 damage.

Blood weapon doesn't work on WS anyway, derp?

Grill me about WS alpha values but then don't know these simple things about DRK? For shame...

Napkin math: A 4k WS ~33% of the time? About 3k average? Sounds good to me if you consider how hard it'd be to maintain that on higher level targets. Expect Quietus to match or surpass it on anything IT or (new)HNM.

I know Alpha because it's universal common knowledge and every DD in the game should know basic shit like that. I don't know jack shit about DRK specifically, so it's good to hear that they fixed the whole "Kill yourself with WS" crap. I know MNK/DRK Asuran back in the day was a death sentence.

@Mnk WS, it's alright but I'd expect it to drop off compared to Smite on harder (higher def) targets. Aftermath with Vereth should still beat out, or at least be close to depending on what new gear we end up with, Spharai+Shijin. Anything else+Shijin should be a clear loss to Vereth+Smite.

[brayen]

Why do people keep using the cookie-cutter excuse? the game can't change that. There is always a "best" gear choice for x situation, as well as a "best attainable" option that will always "plague" your game. trying to use that to justify having to "specialize" on a single set of weapons is just asinine. as it will be the same for weaponskills anyways. Fact of the matter is the change job option has been a fundamental aspect of this game in where you are allowed to play all the job classes to the fullest that you wish, initiating strict road blocks on that versatility is beyond me. As mentioned before this if you wish to "stand out" then gear up better, you would be surprised how often these so called "cookie cutter" people are geared poorly, the fact that this is being overlooked tells me a bit about how knowledgeable some people are in the actual mechanics and gear options of this game.

[Koren]

I would have liked to get the weapon skills naturally at the 350 or whatever skill level and have the merits adjust the additional affects for each one leaving the mod constant from when it was learned instead of this 17% increase per merit. Just have each be a damage varies with TP as a start. Then let the players decide what else the WS could do.

Example: Each weapon is its own category. 5 levels in each weapon merit, max 5 merits in each category. So 5 can be in Sword, 5 in H2H, 5 in Dagger, etc.

Sword Merit 1: Restores MP
Sword Merit 2: Critical Hit
Sword Merit 3: Lowers Enemy Attack
Sword Merit 4: Inflicts Paralysis
Sword Merit 5: Double Attack Aftermath

H2H Merit 1: Occ. Doubles Damage Aftermath
H2H Merit 2: Inflicts Slow
H2H Merit 3: Enfire effect
H2H Merit 4: Restores HP
H2H Merit 5: Allows one Additional Hit to Weapon Skill

and so on...

These are just examples so I don't really need to hear that H2H Merit 3 sucks vs the others or that I should have a healer or be /DNC if I want to heal myself.

At least this way would let us tailor-make these WS to the way we play, or the groups we may choose to play with. If you want a pure damage dealing WS there's a choice for that, if you want utility you can choose that instead. There are enough math fans here to figure out which would cause the most damage between Critical Hit and Double Attack Aftermath or if its better to put 3 merits in one and 2 in another or the difference between 2 and 3 merits is so small you might as well go 2-2-1 and get a minor additional effect slapped on for some utility.

I'm also for this because I'm a collective type player and the idea that some of these shiny WS would be out of my reach is abhorrent. I don't mind being able to max out 3 of my choice, but being unable to play with the others is just terrible. I'd like to be the best I reasonably can on my favorite jobs.

[Malamasala]

Staff WS is pretty hot. Tried it out on smn with little WS gear on (Server went down before I could really test it) and I was popping out 1.7k ws. Will try with a full int build on smn, sch, and blm to see what happens. But damn... 1.7k ws w/o the right gear.

What were you hitting? Not that it really matters since I rarely see numbers past 500 unless it is a EP mob or I'm using Cataclysm.

[Tannlore]

What were you hitting? Not that it really matters since I rarely see numbers past 500 unless it is a EP mob or I'm using Cataclysm.

I was popping them off on any mobs with no cruour buffs and just regain atmas. I plan to log in tonight and do some thorough testing in and out of aby mixing in various atmas and gearsets. I'll post my findings on the smn forum.

[Greatguardian]

If you want to do serious testing for the WS (this goes for anyone), Sneak attack them on level 0 bunnies in East Ronfaure and record your stats. Get about 20 WS naked, and 20 with as much {stat mod} as you can tack on.

Numbers on Aby and VW are nice, but don't really teach us anything about the WS.

Edit: Obviously, write down every WS# and note high/low, and # of merits in the WS.

[Tannlore]

If you want to do serious testing for the WS (this goes for anyone), Sneak attack them on level 0 bunnies in East Ronfaure and record your stats. Get about 20 WS naked, and 20 with as much {stat mod} as you can tack on.

Numbers on Aby and VW are nice, but don't really teach us anything about the WS.

Edit: Obviously, write down every WS# and note high/low, and # of merits in the WS.

Thank you for the explanation. Didn't feel like posting such gross details about my methods for testing. Typing it all on iPhone makes meh lazy. Good info for others testing.

Although testing in aby/vw tells me nothing? I beg to differ there. I want to know how these ws will behave in these circumstances as well. Which atma suit it more? Which ones do you think would work but for some reason aren't? (maybe broken and needs attention)