[dev1216] Weapon Skill Adjustments

[Byrth]

Weapon Skill adjustments look great. Good job!

If we could get the 100, 200, and 300 TP anchor points in the official update notes, that would be awesome. =p


For those that are having difficulty interpreting the post, a few notes:

1) Weapon Skills currently have stat modifiers that determine base damage. The magnitude of these modifiers matters more for high fTP WSs (WSs with a lot of hits or high first-hit fTP) than for WSs with low fTP. So SE's decision to increase Evisceration (realistically a 6 fTP base) from a 30 to 50% DEX mod is more significant than, say, their decision to increase Tachi: Kaiten from a 60% to an 80% STR mod (3 fTP).



2) Weapon Skills also use TP Anchor Points to determine the effect of TP over 100 (fTP+, Crit rate +%, Additional effect duration, etc.) The way that it is commonly represented, TP modifier is calculated piecewise like this:
TP modifier = Bottom Anchorpoint + (Top Anchorpoint - Bottom Anchorpoint)*(TP - Bottom Anchorpoint TP)/100

So the 100 TP and 200 TP anchorpoints determine the potency of TP between 100 and 200 TP. The 300 TP anchorpoint is only used if you have 200-300 TP (rarely), so it's not very important.

So you can translate:
* "TP bonus increased when the bearer has 1,000 or more TP" = They've increased the 100, 200, and 300 TP anchor point. Very important, as it will directly affect the WS's TP modifier's potency at every TP level.
* "TP bonus increased when the bearer has 2,000 or more TP" = They've increased the 200 and 300 TP anchor point. Important, as it will affect the potency of TP over 100.
* "TP bonus increased when the bearer has 3,000 TP" = They've increased the 300 TP anchor point only. Kind of unimportant, because you rarely WS with between 200 and 300 TP.



3) SE also provided some helpful Notes. Some of them are obvious, but some are more obscure:
* "The attack power of the weapon skill itself will also be raised." - This likely means that they're changing the fTP of the weaponskill. So Death Blossom has this note and currently has a first-hit fTP of 1.125. It's likely going to increase. This is probably also what they mean for Primal Rend, although that's less clear.
* "Twofold attack for the first stage only" - This note on Exenterator is very ambiguous. It seems to imply that they're doubling attack on the first hit (a la Viper Bite).
Kincard says: "The Japanese version says "Double Damage for First Strike only"
* "The calculation used for determining maximum damage will be adjusted." This note on Atonement indicates that they're going to increase its damage "cap", which was currently 750.

[Rubeus]

exenterator stage1 went down to 2 attacks instead of 4. just pointing that out.

[Byrth]

You didn't read the OP. Just pointing that out.

[Demonjustin]

I like a lot of the changes, but I'm also very disappointed in the fact some WSs got no change at all. An example for instance being Knights of Round, it's still STR: 40%, MND: 40%, that means this WS won't really have any use at all still. Right now it doesn't beat CDC hardly ever, when it does Req beats it instead(mind you this is for RDM) which means KoR currently has no use. While Death Blossom has some hope thanks to an adjustment to what is likely it's fTP and Atonement is getting an adjustment to the cap it seems that KoR is just going to be left behind.

[Arbalest]

So, does this mean that for Rune Fencer, we'll be seeing some slightly-higher damage numbers?

[Alhanelem]

Some good changes in there. Should in some cases expand the viable WS options.

[Angrykitty]

wow, wonderful fixes... just thrilled.


Now, if we could only fix the players.

[Unelonborro]

Hello, everyone!

Japanese QA pointed out two errors in the original post (in all languages), and I would like to share it with you all here (who wants to wade through pages of weapons skills just to find two changes--although I'll make sure we get that cleaned up, too.)

* Thunder Thrust (Polearm weapon skill): STR 40% DEX 40% INT 40%
* Raiden Thrust (Polearm weapon skill): STR 40% DEX 40% INT 40%

Hopefully this error didn't cause too much consternation, but I wanted to keep you abreast of the correct information.

Happy hunting!

Unelonborro
EN Localization Team

[Demonjustin]

Hello, everyone!

Japanese QA pointed out two errors in the original post (in all languages), and I would like to share it with you all here (who wants to wade through pages of weapons skills just to find two changes--although I'll make sure we get that cleaned up, too.)

* Thunder Thrust (Polearm weapon skill): STR 40% DEX 40% INT 40%
* Raiden Thrust (Polearm weapon skill): STR 40% DEX 40% INT 40%

Hopefully this error didn't cause too much consternation, but I wanted to keep you abreast of the correct information.

Happy hunting!

Unelonborro
EN Localization Team

While I'm sure it's not possible for this update I'd really appreciate it if you could point out to the team that Knights of Round is severely underpowered right now compared to other Sword WSs, never is it better than it's Empyrean or Merit counterparts. As a result of this update the gap will grow even larger and this WS isn't being adjusted at all. I'm sure there are some others similar to this but I don't play anything but RDM anymore so I can't say for certain, that said I'm sure others will point out any I'm not aware of.

[Zerowone]

What about Physical Blue Magic Spells? Under the effects of Chain Affinity and Azure Lore they are considered to be Weapon Skills. Will there be an adjustment to their Attribute/TP modifiers, when under those conditions, in the near future?