February 2012 Weapon Changes/Option 0.3

Official Forum Thread (Post Questions and Comments here)
Weapon Revamp 0.3
Greetings.
We have been reviewing player feedback for quite some time and we are in the process of designing some changes for the February update in response to player feedback and suggestions. We are looking for early feedback on these changes and posting this early design well in advance of our February update so we have plenty of time to make adjustments.
We have previously proposed two options and received a lot of feedback on those options. We want to start a discussion on a new proposal that keeps many of the advantages of both and still keeps the flavor of the current weapon system.
We want feedback on this design so for now we have locked the other threads. This does not mean that those options are completely off the table. We are just trying to incorporate player feedback into our design.
Player Goals and Requests
We have rounded up player feedback and the players have, over time, put forth the following goals and suggestions.
~ Address the racial imbalance in templates.
~ Allow a greater variety of weapons to be useful.
~ Allow greater freedom in player templates and racial choices.
We realize there are many questions about the small details arising from this post. Our goal for this initial description is to get feedback on the larger design and the ideas presented without micromanaging the specifics.
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.
 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.
 Ultimately a character can only achieve one augmentation for a melee skill and one augmentation for a missile skill.
 Existing character would gain one free change.
Melee Skill Rebalance
Due to the varying costs of melee skills, several choices are ignored due to being underpowered. We want to bring the melee skills parity while retaining the flavor of the current system.
 One handed weapon skills remain Dagger, Staff, Axe, Mace, Unarmed Combat, Spear and Sword.
 All of the melee skills will be changed to cost 4/4.
 All of the melee skills will be balanced against one another.
 There will be a new One Handed Mastery skill that costs 2/2.
 The One Handed Mastery skill will significantly boost damage.
 One Handed Mastery will apply to all one handed weapon skills.
 One Handed Mastery will be based on (Strength + Coordination / 3).
 One Handed Mastery trained will apply a maximum of 15% damage.
 One Handed Mastery specialized will apply a maximum of 30% damage.
 The damage boost will be reduced if the skill is lower than your weapon skill.
 Base weapon skills will be balanced to current Mace damage.
 Weapon + Mastery will be balanced to current Sword damage.
 Damage numbers subject to change.
 Unarmed would get changes to keep it balanced.
 Unarmed would retain it's faster animation and lose a slight amount of damage to keep it even.
 Unarmed would be changed to calculate damage the same way other weapons do.
 Unarmed would lose access to Slashing. Those weapons would change to Piercing.
Dagger would keep its formula based on Coordination and Quickness. This means it will synergize very well with missile weapons, but lose out slightly when synergizing with Shield and Mastery skills.
Missile weapon rebalance
 Missile skills are Bow, Crossbow and Thrown Weapon.
 All of the missile skills will be changed to cost 6/6.
 All of the melee skills will be balanced against one another.
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. 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.
Loot:
Due to the changes in the skills section, there will be changes to loot.
Armor, jewelry and other non-weapon pieces will remain largely unchanged.
New versions of the existing Rare Weapons will be introduced and balanced to be on par with each other. Sadly this means that experience earned for that weapon will be lost.
(For the one person in game who obtained a name change for their rare weapon, PM me if players choose this option.)
There will be a follow up post that will discuss the changes to loot weapons and quest weapons, how existing weapons are affected, and what players can expect in loot going forward.
Sev~
Category:Developer Chats