Inquiry for Mr. Matsui: Upcoming Weapon Skill Refinements?

[Nebo]

Rudra's problem is that it sucks unstacked. If they gave it the ability to critical hit without changing anything else about it, the weaponskill would instantly become much more useful. It would suddenly have a 30-40% chance to critical hit and we could probably just spam it and maintain Twashtar aftermath.

Considering the damage isn't really that mindblowing when using it with SA/TA/CF, I don't think this is really so far out of line. If I do the same damage as an average Ukko's Fury when I use Climactic Flourish -> Rudra's Storm (which adds 20% damage with AF3+2 head), then letting it crit normally shouldn't be an issue.

Agreed. I think Mercy Stroke, Rudra's Storm and Mandalic Stab all have the same problem....They were unlucky enough to be programmed as Dagger WS They suck.

If you don't combine them with job abilities, their damage won't outdo a WS you obtain at level 60. The Ability timer bottleneck forces you to use non Relic/Mythic/Empyrean WS unstacked to do BETTER damage than the Relic/Empyrean/Mythic you spent your heard earned money and time to obtain.

And the Positional restriction on THF job abilities limits this even further.

This really should not be the case for these "Ultimate Weapons."

[Sephiran]

A boost to the critical hit rate for Chant du Cygne to place it on par with Victory Smite would be quite welcome. If not that, then maybe a slight base damage increase.

[Kieron]

Expiacion literally does nothing. Making it similar to Mystic Boon or even 1/2 of that effect would make it useful. Rudra Storm should really have a stand alone chance to crit because it's pretty much a slap in the face the way it is. It's just an unnecessary added condition to make it on par with the other ws. Many relic ws really deserve a major dmg increase to compete with the newer ws.

And... Unlock the cap for meriting the newer ws. That cap shouldn't have been there in the first place.

[Trumpy]

Crimsonwizard is correct in what they meant by weaponskill adjustments. when first announced it stated something about adding/removing/improving (as in raising the skill level not the ws themselves) the WS we had access to on certain jobs to spread the proc love around. hopefully they dont wait until abyssea is completely illrelevant to do this. for instance his mention of rdm native staff skill since most non melee rdm are using staves, or pups throwing skill but they need to have animators in that slot kinda crap, or i think blu can use chackrams but have no throwing skill (its been a while since i looked at that)?

[Afania]

Didn't wildfire's performance scale poorly as we leveled up? I mean when the level cap was 85/90 it was awesome but now at 99 it is just "sort of average" compared to other physical WSes?

No it's not like that, WF is a magical WS, so atma/atmacite/firestorm boosts it's dmg greatly, and performs better(compare with physical WS) when pt's attack is low. Performs worse than physical WS if pt's attack is high or mob has higher MDB.

At lv 85/90 you probably mean abyssea era, when you can use 3x dmg boost atma. When VW was just out, a lot of the DDs aren't properly buffed, so WF seems higher because it doesn't require large attack buff to do decent dmg on mobs like Hahava. Then as more and more Atmacite released, WF still remain high due to 3x atmacite and firestorm + MAB drink.

Outside of VW and Abyssea it's worse than properly buffed physical WS though, due to lack of MAB atmacite, and quite a lot of mobs outside of VW have high MDB, without many ways to lower it. Think of it this way, if WF does 2k outside of abyssea/VW, in Abyssea/VW you do 3~5k due to buff, so that seems high. If you pt with a physical DD with low pDIF and no buff, and he did something like 1.5k physical WS, unbuffed 2k WF still seems high. Buff physical with higher pDIF, now physical WS did 3k and WF do 2.5k without atma/atmacite but only firestorm/wizards, now WF seems weak. It's just nearly impossible to buff WF over 3~4k outside of VW/abyssea on most mobs, while physical still very possible with dia 3/angon/SV min x4/chaos/LR etc. There aren't many debuff to weaken mob MDB too, while there are many ways to weaken def for physical WS.

WF is just harder to buff or debuff to high number outside of Abyssea/VW, unlike physical WS.

Edit: Another reason why WF seems sucked now is because majority of COR and RNG doesn't buff WF properly, they don't lv up atmacite which makes huge difference, and nobody feed them firestorms, which also makes huge difference with karin obi. I also rarely see COR use wizard roll on themselves, they often just stick with melee rolls. A properly buffed WF in VW can hit 3k~4k easily unless mob have higher MDB, which isn't bad compare with physical WS at all. WF is still my WS of choice over last stand in majority of situations, unless I'm getting at least 2 attack song+chaos+/WAR+attack food+ dia and angon, or unless mob just resists/absorbs fire and magic.

[Afania]

While wild fire and last stand are fine, Laeden salute is beneath earth atm. The WS sucks from a modifier point of view and the lack of dmg is just fucked, not to mention that alot of mobs (especially NMs) tend to resist the shit out of dark magic elements.

All mythic WS except DRG and PUP needs adjustment tbh. Would make Mythic a lot better than it is now.

[Mirage]

No it's not like that, WF is a magical WS, so atma/atmacite/firestorm boosts it's dmg greatly, and performs better(compare with physical WS) when pt's attack is low. Performs worse than physical WS if pt's attack is high or mob has higher MDB.

At lv 85/90 you probably mean abyssea era, when you can use 3x dmg boost atma. When VW was just out, a lot of the DDs aren't properly buffed, so WF seems higher because it doesn't require large attack buff to do decent dmg on mobs like Hahava. Then as more and more Atmacite released, WF still remain high due to 3x atmacite and firestorm + MAB drink.

Outside of VW and Abyssea it's worse than properly buffed physical WS though, due to lack of MAB atmacite, and quite a lot of mobs outside of VW have high MDB, without many ways to lower it. Think of it this way, if WF does 2k outside of abyssea/VW, in Abyssea/VW you do 3~5k due to buff, so that seems high. If you pt with a physical DD with low pDIF and no buff, and he did something like 1.5k physical WS, unbuffed 2k WF still seems high. Buff physical with higher pDIF, now physical WS did 3k and WF do 2.5k without atma/atmacite but only firestorm/wizards, now WF seems weak. It's just nearly impossible to buff WF over 3~4k outside of VW/abyssea on most mobs, while physical still very possible with dia 3/angon/SV min x4/chaos/LR etc. There aren't many debuff to weaken mob MDB too, while there are many ways to weaken def for physical WS.

WF is just harder to buff or debuff to high number outside of Abyssea/VW, unlike physical WS.

Edit: Another reason why WF seems sucked now is because majority of COR and RNG doesn't buff WF properly, they don't lv up atmacite which makes huge difference, and nobody feed them firestorms, which also makes huge difference with karin obi. I also rarely see COR use wizard roll on themselves, they often just stick with melee rolls. A properly buffed WF in VW can hit 3k~4k easily unless mob have higher MDB, which isn't bad compare with physical WS at all. WF is still my WS of choice over last stand in majority of situations, unless I'm getting at least 2 attack song+chaos+/WAR+attack food+ dia and angon, or unless mob just resists/absorbs fire and magic.

That post pretty much confirmed what I thought was the case. Wildfire is not great without content-specific magical boosts, and physical WSes are much easier to buff to high values, especially at lv99.

That seems to be the case for a lot of magical WSes, really. It seems like magical WSes through the entire game always stay at a certain power level, and never really increases significantly in damage, such as all other physical WSes do. I guess this is partially because the magical WSes always have the same DMG rating, no matter what level you are and which weapon you use, while physical WSes use the DMG rating of your weapon, which in many cases increase a lot with levels.

Maybe the player's level should be made part of the equation for magical WSes, or perhaps magical WSes should use the weapon's dmg rating as well, or a combination of its own DMG, and the weapon DMG.

Alternatively, magical WSes could instead get a MAB boost based on how much skill we have in the particular weapon. It could be based on how much higher our current skill is compared to the skill required to unlock the WS. Exactly how much this would amount to would have to be mathed out, of course, to maintain the very important Balance.

[Taint2]

Torcleaver hardly sucks, Resolution is just that good.

[Tanama]

Wasnt the Weapon Skill adjustment supposed to be, altering what WS's can be performed by each job, not the WS effects themselves, there was some mention long long ago, in regards to giving certain WS to a wider variety of jobs, to enable more jobs to proc in Abyssea.
Last time anything was mentioned on this would be around Dec 2011, when SE made a comment in regards to RDM's temper spell, about "Reviewing RDM's weapon proficiencies next update" ( Connected to the FAQ for each job around that time, and giving RDM native staff skill).

Crimsonwizard is correct in what they meant by weaponskill adjustments. when first announced it stated something about adding/removing/improving (as in raising the skill level not the ws themselves) the WS we had access to on certain jobs to spread the proc love around. hopefully they dont wait until abyssea is completely illrelevant to do this. for instance his mention of rdm native staff skill since most non melee rdm are using staves, or pups throwing skill but they need to have animators in that slot kinda crap, or i think blu can use chackrams but have no throwing skill (its been a while since i looked at that)?

Perhaps that is what they may have meant in 2011 but Camate's quote is from earlier this year in response to Beastmasters wanting better options with scythes and having access to Dark Knight's EX weapon skills. Then he goes to mention that the development team has plans to revamp each job's weapon skills and that is the main point here.

More scythes for beastmaster eh?

Well, the development team just told me that they do in fact have plans to add some new scythes to beastmaster's array of weaponry.

In regards to weapon skills, we are also planning to revamp each job's weapon skills in the future, but we can't make any promises about giving Guillotine and other EX weapon skills to beastmaster.

This change is in dire need. My only hope is that they don't nerf anything when or if this update does happen.

[Cowardlybabooon]

Just let us know what you are going to nerf so that I don't get that relic lol. Honestly I'm scared to get a ragnorak cause I see the nerf coming on resolution.