February 2012 Weapon Changes/Option 1

Official Forum Thread Thread Closed Nov 17
February Update Option #1
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.
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 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. Ultimately a character can only achieve one augmentation for a melee skill and one augmentation for a missile skill.
Melee Skill Consolidation and Missile Skill Consolidation
Due to the varying costs of melee skills, several choices are ignored due to being underpowered. Also, unlike Two Handed, Magic, and Missile combat, each skill is missing/weak in certain elements where as the other combat types have access to all damage types. We feel two handed is a great example of how a melee skill should work.
 All of the melee skills will be condensed into 3 new skills.
 Heavy Weapons: A 6/6 one handed melee combat skill based off Strength/Coordination.
 Light Weapons: A 4/4 one handed melee combat skill based off Strength/Coordination.
 Finesse Weapons: A 4/4 one handed melee combat skill based off Quickness/Coordination.
 Weapons of all types (mace, sword, dagger) will drop for each weapon skill.
 Most one handed weapons will use the Heavy Weapons skill.
 Some weapons will be designated as light weapons and use the Light Weapons skill. These weapons will do less damage than heavy weapons.
 Some weapons (stiletto, rapier, etc.) will be designated as finesse weapons and use the Finesse Weapons skill.
 Heavy weapons will be balanced against each other and competitive with one handed swords.
 As you might expect from the lower skill cost, light weapons and finesse weapons will do lower damage than heavy weapons.
Missile weapon skills will also be consolidated.
 All of the missile skills will be condensed into Missile Weapons: A 6/6 missile combat skill.
 All missile weapons will use the Missile Weapons skill.
 Bows, crossbows and thrown weapons will be balanced against each other and competitive with Bow.
With the consolidation of melee skills and missile skills we want to make sure we preserve a sense of flavor depending on the weapon you choose.
 All melee and missile weapon types will have uniqueness to their stats. Daggers, for example, might all be multi strike, and axes might have lower damage but bigger crits.
 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 augmented and one missile weapon augmented at any one time.
 Existing characters will get one free change to either the melee weapon augmentation or missile 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. 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. Weapon buff spells will be updated to one of the three weapon skills. Our current plan is to change spells on loot pieces and quest pieces as follows:
 Sword, Axe change to Heavy Weapons
 Mace, Unarmed Combat, and Spear change to Light Weapons
 Dagger and Staff change to Finesse Weapons
New versions of the existing Rare Weapons will be introduced and balanced to be on par with each other. As such, the use of all three skills will be distributed among the weapons depending on the flavor of the weapon. Players with existing Rare weapons will be able to trade them in for a melee Rare Weapon of their choice. 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.)
Existing weapons will be changed to use the new skills as follows:
 Sword, Axe change to Heavy Weapons
 Mace, Unarmed Combat, and Spear change to Light Weapons
 Dagger and Staff change to Finesse Weapons
Weapons that drop in loot will be better across the board than existing weapons. Melee weapons, missile weapons and even casters will all get a boost and drop so players will be on equal footing. Players will be able to obtain new, higher damage weapons and casters across the board.
Sev~
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