Work In Progress: Weapon Mastery (Updated)

I have an update for Support Roles. On the last FNL Spytle and Mepps answered some fan questions. One question was regarding the bonuses for Support roles using weapon mastery. Spytel said there was a ton going on with GU36 (Memory was foggy) but did comment that Support roles would receive a reduced power cost (to finisher powers). More information would be released in a formal announcement.

that isnt worth the amount of SP' needed IMO, and I was here giving idea's a day or 2 ago lol

its sad that they cant be more creative when it comes to WM and support roles

I know I didnt mean to come off demeaning or anything (if i did) or to shoot your idea down ect


Good idea's but alot would complain they make the content too easy, as the power nvr drops, health is always at full, tanks nvr lose aggro ect


gives no1 nothing to really work for know what I mean? Heck my idea was shot down by some one lol but Im thinking of more

My concerns are thus:
A) how viable will this be in end game content?
(I know in Trigon i can barely get off a regular combo let alone a full combo)

B) With the enemies 80% of the time "flashing blue" because of immunities... The enemy will just turtle the whole time and we won't be able to do anything until they come out. immunities can be farmed off of NPCs so it we the player base could be the "best" combat mechanic expert and still not able to block break because of "Superman" or "Lex". (thus rendering the Mastery obsolete because they will just block before you can finish and you won't be able to block break because they are immune.)

C) How big of a "Reward" are we talking if we succeed in this "mastery"? from the videos I have seen so far, I can fit more damage in doing short combo / power per rotation than if I get the "payday" combo at the end... The reward has to be pretty huge for anyone to want to do these.


Sum Up:
I think more people would be apt and more excited for these Mastery Combos if NPCs (Enemies in PVE) didn't EVER get immune... EVER... Keep the block breaks, blocking and lunging viable in the content.. but the risk is TOO HIGH right now at the risk of making an enemy immune to counter mechanics for the reward you get in return.

This really takes away from the fact that many players are proficient with multiple weapons not necessarily the weapon combinations they are putting together. For myself, I'm best with HB but I'm also very good with the staff, 2H, bow and dual wield the issue is that I can only use one at a time, there's no way to quickly rotate your weapon sets outside of armories. Using armories just for a weapon spec is a waste of 600 loyalty points. I know tunso said it would be "boring" to just swap weapons and that we can do it already, while boring is untrue, we can indeed swap weapons but that requires stopping what you're doing, opening your inventory and then equipping it.

I like the idea...just hope it does TONS of damage becsuse i am fond of usijg my weapons, but also i hope the damage between aoe combos and singletarget are balanced...i shouldnt be penalized for ending my combo with a single tatger move like explosive shot

Don't worry you didn't come out demanding

Its on PC test now so this thread is pretty much done.

I saw it on pc test and holy cow!!! Theres gonna be sooo much sp needed now!!!

Actually its not that bad. If you choose to master a weapon slots open that boost your might AND precision by 25 per point. i was able to master 4 or 5 weapons and got a very nice boost in stats with the 142 they gave us.

On the test server already? Well, I guess I'm done with the thread, maybe even the game. Best wishes devs, I hope you know what you're doing.

Is there a place to enter in bugs yet? Two of the shield combos are mixed up. Two handed is terrible trying to get those MA ones. I was doing 2H as ice, hit Frost Snip and it acted like Ice Bash, even in the combat log. I had a hard time hitting the power on those final hits.

So I've seen a few videos showing Weapon Mastery and how it's going to work.

Congrats on turning DCUO into a grindfest. Welcome to DCUMaplestory.

First : So... based on your first video each weapon ties into 4 others, so 80 skill points per weapon "mastery". So 800 feat points per weapon? Yeah, right there this is gonna be a grind fest. Why not just call it "DCUWushu" or "DCUFarmville" now?

Second, you've just shut out all but the "hardcore" players from getting weapon mastery. The price of entry on "higher raids" has now become "are you willing to grind to get this?" MMO Hazing, if you will. Or, simply put....

Third, you've just erected a barrier to keep the "hardcore" and the "casuals" apart. Congrats. You've just segregated your community further than it has been prior to this. Don't hate on me for pointing it out, the divide is "grand canyon" sized and stuff like Weapon Mastery only serves to make it wider. Sit in on my livestream some Friday night, you'll see what I mean.

Fourth, power creep. It's Panderia without the furries. Higher damage numbers, but the gameplay and end effects are the same, nothing new is being brought to the table game wise other than pigeon-holing players into one weapon build or another. I wonder if they'll have a service for $60 to insti-level a toon up to an SP of 120 to fully use once weapon mastery?

Fifth, and finally, what does it add to the gameplay for most of the players? Nothing. Seriously, nothing. I see no real benefit other than "pure DPS" players out-scoring non-DPS players as usual. Wasn't a part of this, according to the senior dev team guys, to give support roles a feeling that they were "doing something"? Sorry, no, you failed! "Support" roles will still appear to be doing "no DPS" in relation to your pure DPS guys, and will be relinquished into, as Spyttle put it, "feeding the DPS".

I know you people call this the "work in progress" forum, but I believe wholeheartedly that this is a "done deal". Weapon Mastery is in the game at this point. Test server is short hand for "it's in the next DLC if our players like it or not". Not that I think the dev team cares what a casual player thinks, my $15 a month is a pittance compared to guys willing to dump in $100-$200+ a month to buy more bag space or armories and post on forums to shout down all opinions other than theirs. So their opinion appears to be the "majority". But I'm also a jaded bastard who's seen this dozens of times before. Companies cater to the "hardcore" crowd, alienate the casual players who leave, and as soon as the hardcore guys get bored and leave the game dies. Ask me about "Photon" some time, quite the story.



tl:dr No, not a fan of "Weapon mastery", I wasn't from the beginning. Your intro video felt like I was at a used car lot being sold a hunk of junk and being told I'd love it by a sleazy used car salesman. Every video I've seen of it from DCUO and from the youtube gamer crowd ever since then has not warmed me up to the concept. It seems extraneous, unnecessary, and simply another tool the "hardcore" players will use to justify soft-power exercises to let us awful, stupid, n00b "entitled casual players" play your game.

I am a Hard light troll

For the weapon mastery combos to work for me they need to give power directly like recharge. If I need to stop giving power to use my combo it will hurt the burn. Recharge is like a heartbeat for the the whole raid and at higher levels of trolling (USPS LuckyTheLeprechaun) the only moves I use are the ones that fit between power out. Even if I get a stat boost for a the combo, I would hurt the burn to get it. If weapon mastery for trolls would cast recharge, we could do our role WITH our weapons, as a true Weapon Master would. Healers and tanks would like the same action I bet, using the weapon combo to get heals out or keep aggro, whatever healers and tanks do. Just have it add the effects that recharge would and activate the cool down for recharge. I would not need to stop swinging to recast the same move every 2 seconds.

I cant stop playing my role for some extra damage. If the raid group wants more damage it will invite a DPS not a troll. If I want more stats I'll hit my trinket or drink a soda or eat a candy or drink a brew, something fast. For a raid group to tolerate this new weapon activity it needs to contribute to the role of the player directly. No problem for a DPS but nobody wants to wait for me to get my little stat boost going so they can have some power. If this weapon mastery thing is supposed to free me from just filling power bars, have it give some power as well and lighten the load.

I would like to show off my SP by working these new moves into the rotation, but If I can't keep a raid group powered they will need to find a troll that can. I would hate to have all the new stuff and still just cast the same 2 moves all raid long.

Im totally disappointed with the support roles buff for trolls and tanks.

Healers get a reduction on power cost and tanks and trollers only get dominance are you kidding me?

Good luck on PvP...

The weapon mastery SP requirements is nuts. I don't mind spending 20 SP in a tree but I would want to have a stat that boosts my role and totally an idiotic idea that I should invest hard earned SP into dom, vit, resto, etc. that have no bearing on my role.

That's because the W.I.P. threads are for show rather than actually getting us involved I think.

So many great ideas in this threads. Literally none of them used. We even said that the cost was too high. We even said that Support roles needed meaningful boosts. What did we get?

At least its on the test server so hordes of players the Devs actually listen too, can tell them that we were right all along.

A bit off topic...But shouldn't something like Weapon Mastery be in a game update instead of a DLC? It just screams 'pay to win' as those who have WM, will have a distinct edge over others. I could be wrong,,,,

I was saying the same some time ago and yes, this is going to be the same as home turf and in a small normal scale utility belts, is not only the buff for doing WM combos, is also the dps innates like +25 prec/+25 might per point...

On a side note, the devs needs to consider changing the controller and tank buff.

Im a tank and i dont really need more dominance, i can CC nearly every NPC and the risk for doing WM combos as a tank just for dominance is a terrible idea, also the innates related to tanks are a joke compared to the dps ones.

The innates have to be changed to a more high value of health + defense toughness and after finishing a WM combo the tank buff should be more defense/toughness for the risk doing combos.

Controllers needs a vitalization boost after doing WM plus the dom increase to CC effects but jesus christ put them a vita boost.

I don't understand...

The WIP Combat Balance - Jump Canceling Solutions thread had active Dev participation...
The WIP Combat Balance - Animation Timing thread had active Dev participation...
The WIP Hard Light Balance had active Dev Participation. Even personal attention from Spytle (videos and all)!
Earth and Electricity got their own WIP Threads started..
The WIP Marketplace Amenities had active Dev participation...
The WIP Total Recovery Kits had active Dev Participation...

The Support Roles were told to be patient... We waited... Stayed constructive... and we waited...

I would like to know the decision proscess behind how the bonuses were decided for support roles.

A reduced cost for Healers is great in theory, but you don't give us a chance to talk out the practical application. Heals aren't always needed. But when they are needed they are needed instantly. We don't have time to do a weapon combo first and then cast the heal. Do you expect us to cast a heal at the end of a weapon combo regardless...

Well at least I can use the reduced power cost on stacking my HOTs... Or can I?. As I understand it, the bonuses on test are only working with instant / burst powers. I won't be able to combo into a Soul Well or Circle of Protection.

So If I can't use the bonus to stack HOTs and I may or may not be in the (very small) combo window when a heal is needed... What incentive do I have for spending 60 skill points on Weapon Mastery?

Are we still at square one? When Tunso said "So I mean, pretty much everybody has the opportunity to do damage, but um... so more or less everybody will... will um, be able to do more damage. If you have weapon mastery. I mean, I imagine just, doing combos gets your power up as a healer, and being able to contribute a lot more than just sitting there and, you know, spamming whatever is, you know, fastest."

I don't know what else to say...