[dev1216] Weapon Skill Adjustments

[Byrth]

I won't say that their buffs to Scythe were as big as their buffs to Great Sword, but they didn't forget Scythe:
http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Insurgency
http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Entropy

They more than doubled the fTP of these weaponskills at 300 TP. Insurgency is particularly striking, as its combined base damage multiplier (including extra hits and assuming ~20% DA) goes like this:
3.9 -> 6.65 -> 9.4
Considering WS delay and the nearly-linear scaling, Insurgency users might as well sit on TP essentially until they are at 300 TP (or at least until someone uses a WS they can skillchain off of). It is a very unique playstyle right now.

[Demonjustin]

I won't say that their buffs to Scythe were as big as their buffs to Great Sword, but they didn't forget Scythe:
http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Insurgency
http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Entropy

They more than doubled the fTP of these weaponskills at 300 TP. Insurgency is particularly striking, as its combined base damage multiplier (including extra hits and assuming ~20% DA) goes like this:
3.9 -> 6.65 -> 9.4
Considering WS delay and the nearly-linear scaling, Insurgency users might as well sit on TP essentially until they are at 300 TP (or at least until someone uses a WS they can skillchain off of). It is a very unique playstyle right now.

Well on that same subject then, is there any word on how Death Blossom is Byrth?

[Raydeus]

Finally a reason to use 300 tp? That's insanity.

[Byrth]

Well on that same subject then, is there any word on how Death Blossom is Byrth?

There hasn't been sufficient testing to say for sure, but it looks like they bumped the first-hit fTP up to 2.0 (from 1.125) and called it a day. If that is correct, then it's better than it was... but CDC is much better without Murgleis.

CDC - 3 hits, 80% DEX, 2.25 first hit fTP, can crit and has a modest crit rate boost at all levels.
Death Blossom - 3 hits, 50% MND / 30% STR, 2 first hit fTP and can't crit.

So they have almost the same fTP, but CDC has a more useful mod and can critical hit. With Murgleis, I bet Death Blossom is better in places where you have a crap crit rate. Without Murgleis, it looks like CDC is going to be better almost everywhere because it can crit.

[Demonjustin]

Hmm~ ok!

I figured CDC would trump it still and any time I've meleed since the update it's shown, but I was more or less curious if it was due to the WS itself or my lack of a dedicated WS set for it. It's nice to know it might be a good WS once I finish my Murgleis, besides that the extra DMG at least makes it less of a loss on DMG when I do Difficult MPNMs I suppose.

[Sasaraixx]

Greetings,



We understand the concerns about enmity for tanks due to the weapon skill adjustments, but we would like to take some time to monitor the situation with the new enmity spells that were introduced along with the amount of enmity being generated by damage dealers. The June version update introduced various adjustments that largely changed battle balance, so we need a bit of time to monitor and discuss how battles have changed.




We’d like to make adjustments to the stats of elemental magic, and in particular, the higher tier spells. While this is still in the planning phase and I can’t make any promises at the moment, we are looking into making adjustments to the ratio of damage to MP of tier-V elemental magic spells so that they can be used better in battle.

Thank you for the response Camate. It's good to know that the team is considering these issues. I just hope they realize that there needs to be pretty far reaching changes to enmity and enmity altering spells/abilities.

Also, improving MP efficiency for higher tier nukes is a good start. I think the changes here need to be pretty extensive too. The dev team has done a good job including content that requires magic damage. (Kamihr delve is a good example of this.) The problem is it often isn't beneficial to have a BLM or SCH in the party because a melee job can handle most of these situations and are also more useful for the remainder of the run.

I also completely agree with the comments about blue magic.

Thanks again for responding!

[Babekeke]

One useful change for magic, would be to allow it to MB, even if someone has used a WS since the SC occurred. Currently you have to wait ~2-4 seconds to land your nuke for it to MB, but if another WS goes off before your nuke lands, your nuke won't MB!!

[AppropriateName5786]

One useful change for magic, would be to allow it to MB, even if someone has used a WS since the SC occurred. Currently you have to wait ~2-4 seconds to land your nuke for it to MB, but if another WS goes off before your nuke lands, your nuke won't MB!!

If they ever plan to boost magic damage output by altering MB mechanics, that honestly would be 1 step forward and 20 steps back. It would be best if they just fixed higher tier spells themselves.

[Malithar]

How would that possibly be 20 steps back? Not saying it'd fix things, but it'd certainly be better if SCs simply applied a debuff that lasted 5 seconds that allowed all spells to MB, without followup WSs or SCs removing it.

Magic damage still does fairly well, it just doesn't compare to buffed DDs, specially in stand-there-and-kill NM fights, or D+ content where the massive amount of -MDT/MEva/MDB destroys any chance of nuking decently. Did a Dho Gates CP party yesterday as Geo, was 7% behind a mythic Mnk, and 5-10% ahead of an Oats Mnk and Amano Sam, none of them brain dead players. Although the Sam was more concerned with running off and solo SCing a random mob and giggling like a school girl, so that prolly had a large part in him not doing better. Do decently well in Delves too, typically about 60-75% of a DDs DPS.

[Babekeke]

Byrth, any info on what is best for RUN since update, WS wise when /NIN? Stick with GS or go for Axe or Sword? And which WS would work out best for each weapon, bearing in mind no att boost from berserk/last resort.

Wiki pages for many of the WS don't appear to have been updated by anyone yet (if any testing has even been carried out on them, idk)