February 2012 Weapon Changes/Option 2

Official Forum Thread Thread Closed Nov 17
February Update Option #2
Racial Skills
Racial Skills have had balance issues essentially since the game launched. New players are currently able to choose a race and already have an inferior template even as they enter the training academy. Our goal is that races retain their initial flavor, but in the end no race is the superior choice as all races can achieve template parity.
 All current racial skills will be removed.
 All races will get Arcane Lore automatically trained for free
 All races will get 2 additional skill credits to spend at creation
 All races will get 6 additional points added to the specialization cap
 Skill/Attribute Reset NPCs and the Temples will have their timers/uses reset to allow players to easily adjust to the new changes.
 Races will still have their free starting augmentation.
 Races will gain a free augmentation that provides a small damage boost to one weapon type. Higher level characters can work toward changing this augmentation to any other weapon type so any racial choice can ultimately achieve any template. Characters will be able to change to alternate weapon types that may not be included in the preferred weapon type of any race.
Melee Skill and Missile Skill Update
Due to the addition of the Shield skill, all one handed melee skills and missile skills will be reduced by 2/2 to compensate. Spear will be upgraded in damage slightly and turned into a 4/4 skill since it does too much damage for its cost. Otherwise weapon skills and the weapons they use would be unchanged.
The new costs:
Sword: 6/6
Axe: 4/4
Mace: 4/4
Unarmed Combat: 4/4
Spear: 4/4
Dagger: 2/2
Staff: 2/2
Bow: 6/6
Crossbow: 4/4
Thrown Weapon: 4/4
 The racial augmentation will allow each race to favor a specific weapon type by giving the character a small damage boost with that type of weapon. Higher level characters can work to change this augmentation to favor any weapon type.
 Characters can only have one melee weapon type and one missile weapon type augmented at any one time.
 Existing characters will get one free change to the melee weapon or missile weapon augmentation of their choice.
Shield Skill
At the same time as the consolidation skills we will be adding a 2/2 shield skill that uses Strength.
 This skill will determine how much al/aegis effect you gain from equipping a shield.
 Specializing in Shields and leveling your skill will provide the full benefit to top end shields.
 Training in Shields and leveling your skill will provide a lesser benefit.
 The idea is that Two Handed Combat, Weapon and Shield Combat, and eventually Two Weapon Combat will all have similar 8/8 total cost with top end weapons. These styles will be balanced against each other.
Skill Adjustments:
Some skills could use a bit of an adjustment to make them more useful.
 Missile and Magic Defense formulas would be adjusted to mirror the offensive skills.
 We will be doing a balance pass on all creatures to rebalance Missile and Magic Defense skills to reflect these new values. As a result this should fix defenses on creatures to more consistently reflect the relative power of the creature.
 We will be doing a balance pass on all creatures to rebalance melee and skill attack skills to reflect these changes. As a result this should fix offensive values on creatures to more consistently reflect the relative power of the creature and make Missile Defense more useful.
 Gearcrafting would be folded into Item Tinkering with no increase in cost to Item Tinkering.
New Skills:
Although we are not ready to discuss these with players, the February patch would bring in new skills that would enhance different aspects of combat. Part of the goal is to give the height/power attack options more of an effect.
To give a slight tease into what we are considering, a 2/2 Dual Wield skill may be on the table.
Another skill we are looking at is a 4/2 Sneak Attack skill based on Coordination/Quickness. This skill would do extra damage from behind by making a check against your attack roll when you hit from behind. If the Sneak Attack also hits you'd do an extra 10 damage rating for trained and an extra 20 damage rating for specialized Sneak Attack hits. In addition, characters with high Deception skills would have a small (2-5%) chance to proc some of the extra damage with front hits, but the extra damage rating would be halved for Deception hits.
Sev~
Category:Developer Chats