Hello everyone! First time poster long time admirer here.
Been playing since combat alpha and I have some points to make about weapon balance and the history that got us to where we are at. (Timing could be wrong please correct me where applicable this is just from memory)
Combat Alpha -
I started with full steel hammers (for the lolz) when we could just loot steel from barrels and would swing 2 times and lose all my stamina but wreck anything I hit block or not. That was funny but not practical so I swapped to axes as a kind of mid ground between hammer and sword speeds.
The system in place at this time was heavier weapon = more chip damage. This was like a golden era for heavy weapons imo (too strong).
Early Beta-
Early on a massive switch happened weapon weight was calculated much less and opposing strength was heavily considered. This caused mages to drop blocking skill right out due to the strength being the main factor. Even some footies with lower strength followed in this (weird times).
Mid Beta-
A focus was made on the skills portion of the game at this point. Blocking skill became paramount for negating "chip" damage. This caused many mages to need blocking skill again and any footies running sub 100 blocking skill to max it out. It was around this time that a cool mechanic was put in called "Counter Reduced". This was a huge help for axe users at this point cause any and all chip damage was lost that we had in previous iterations. Around this time sword users were starting to become the established norm we see now and spear users were dominating the meta. The speed these weapon had over the axe was considerable but due to how "Counter Reduced" worked at the time you could "trade" with these weapons and come out on top.
Late Beta-
Regrettably I didn't play a massive amount in this era. When I came back for release the meta had shifted massively away from heavier weapons. I am not sure if it was a change or something with practice was what figured out as a counter but the "new" hit to reset and quickly block meta was upon us. The window to get counter reduce was reduced substantially. I used to joke around and hold my attacks till the opponent came in with a swing but with how much faster most weapons are they can tag me and block my swing all at the same time. This was a colossal miss step in my opinion. The cost to attack for a heavier weapon is substantially higher and "trades" were often the only way to eek damage into a fight. With swings being substantially slower and stamina costs being much higher heavier weapons fell far out of favor with only a few key "morphs's" saving heavy weapons.
Launch-
Faster weapons got faster. Fuck me.
Thoughts-
I enjoyed the early game but the skill involved with swinging wildly and chipping people down was very very low. It led to unenjoyable gameplay for lighter weapons. I would like to see a block break system or the knock down system in play it may even out the odds. Heavy weapons still have a place in team fights where you can catch a player unaware and shift a focus away from a player to keep your attacks from hitting them further.
Something for thought. Could be cool to see a temp hp loss type system. Replace the "chip" damage one with temporary damage. Have hp not lost until your hit then the accumulated damage will pour in. I think having the temp hp loss only stick around for a few seconds after a hit so maintaining pressure on the player "parry whoring" is actually worth it if you can sneak in a hit. I would also like to see a bleed effect on swords and that sort of thing for every weapon. I know its been discussed that weapons may have abilities and I am hoping that shores up some of the issues.
Anyways would love to hear your thoughts and opinions.
Thank you for reading my wall of text.
Been playing since combat alpha and I have some points to make about weapon balance and the history that got us to where we are at. (Timing could be wrong please correct me where applicable this is just from memory)
Combat Alpha -
I started with full steel hammers (for the lolz) when we could just loot steel from barrels and would swing 2 times and lose all my stamina but wreck anything I hit block or not. That was funny but not practical so I swapped to axes as a kind of mid ground between hammer and sword speeds.
The system in place at this time was heavier weapon = more chip damage. This was like a golden era for heavy weapons imo (too strong).
Early Beta-
Early on a massive switch happened weapon weight was calculated much less and opposing strength was heavily considered. This caused mages to drop blocking skill right out due to the strength being the main factor. Even some footies with lower strength followed in this (weird times).
Mid Beta-
A focus was made on the skills portion of the game at this point. Blocking skill became paramount for negating "chip" damage. This caused many mages to need blocking skill again and any footies running sub 100 blocking skill to max it out. It was around this time that a cool mechanic was put in called "Counter Reduced". This was a huge help for axe users at this point cause any and all chip damage was lost that we had in previous iterations. Around this time sword users were starting to become the established norm we see now and spear users were dominating the meta. The speed these weapon had over the axe was considerable but due to how "Counter Reduced" worked at the time you could "trade" with these weapons and come out on top.
Late Beta-
Regrettably I didn't play a massive amount in this era. When I came back for release the meta had shifted massively away from heavier weapons. I am not sure if it was a change or something with practice was what figured out as a counter but the "new" hit to reset and quickly block meta was upon us. The window to get counter reduce was reduced substantially. I used to joke around and hold my attacks till the opponent came in with a swing but with how much faster most weapons are they can tag me and block my swing all at the same time. This was a colossal miss step in my opinion. The cost to attack for a heavier weapon is substantially higher and "trades" were often the only way to eek damage into a fight. With swings being substantially slower and stamina costs being much higher heavier weapons fell far out of favor with only a few key "morphs's" saving heavy weapons.
Launch-
Faster weapons got faster. Fuck me.
Thoughts-
I enjoyed the early game but the skill involved with swinging wildly and chipping people down was very very low. It led to unenjoyable gameplay for lighter weapons. I would like to see a block break system or the knock down system in play it may even out the odds. Heavy weapons still have a place in team fights where you can catch a player unaware and shift a focus away from a player to keep your attacks from hitting them further.
Something for thought. Could be cool to see a temp hp loss type system. Replace the "chip" damage one with temporary damage. Have hp not lost until your hit then the accumulated damage will pour in. I think having the temp hp loss only stick around for a few seconds after a hit so maintaining pressure on the player "parry whoring" is actually worth it if you can sneak in a hit. I would also like to see a bleed effect on swords and that sort of thing for every weapon. I know its been discussed that weapons may have abilities and I am hoping that shores up some of the issues.
Anyways would love to hear your thoughts and opinions.
Thank you for reading my wall of text.
