Bring weapons back to DCUO!!

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by Fatal Star, Jan 8, 2018.

  1. Fatal Star 10000 Post Club

    Besides support roles, do weapons really get much use these days?

    I know I know "Fatal crying about ******* weapons again" and I will keep crying until adjustments are made!!!

    Now that that's out the way, weapons have not had proper use since before the introduction of AMs. You can argue during the AM period that pet users like earth and sorc were rocking them, but who else? Also what was being used? One handed flip slash? Hand blaster scissor kick? You rarely saw anything else (although I did see a nature dps once using MA smokebomb, his damage still sucked of course but it was refreshing to see something different).

    Now with the revamp, weapons do have more of a fighting chance but still not where they need to be. Let's take a look at what's going on:

    PvE- mostly PFtT players, If i were to take a wild guess i'd say 90% of the dps I pug with are PFtT.
    PvP- mostly PFtT players, haven't really stepped foot into arenas but did plenty of duels, and it's evident that power spam is the new meta. Hardcore pvpers don't even touch their weapons unless it's to block break.

    Now let's take a look at what could be causing this:
    • For starters, PFtT is just easier, that's no secret. I'm not saying make it complex or dumb down weapons, but unless weapons hit like 2 times harder then powers, people that prefer to take the easy road will still PFtT if it gets them through content just fine
    • The masteries are something to be desired, I mean take a look at super powered- 10% might buff, 10% power pool increase, and a 25% increase to passive regen. Hybrid- a nerf to power regen (but we get weapon regen), 10% might buff, and 5% buff to support role stats. Weapons Expert- even bigger nerf to power regen, and a 10% weapon buff. The passive regen for superpowered blows weapon regen out of the water.
    So if you were a hybrid dps, which mastery would you pick? The one with support role stats or the one with more power and regen? Kind of obvious, isn't it?

    Next problem we have is the risk vs reward factor (I know you're not a big fan of this Harlequin, but something needs to be said about it). With melee combos we face the risk of being next to the enemies catching their splash damage as well as having to worry about falling down to blocks (I know about the weapon artifact that buffs precision when you land a successful counter, step in the right direction but won't come close to remotely fixing weapons). So of course many are going to ask themselves, is it worth it? On top of the healer potentially cussing them out for making them work harder? Well after they do a few parsing tests and try it in content, the answer is usually a big fat NO.

    Now there's a couple of outliers worth using, like DW and bow WM combos, but even those can still fall short against something like a bezerking rage dps, who by the way doesn't need to worry about counters like you do.

    So how to fix it? A couple ideas I have:
    1. Update the masteries, hybrid should have a 10% weapon buff added to it and weapons expert should have a 20%, also increase weapon power regen. Also maybe turn off passive regen for WE and give it a WM damage buff.
    2. Increase damage on melee combos to account for the risk factor. Hell just increase them in general, they don't even hold a candle to rage melee dps.
    3. For PvP, a great place to start is either nerfing might and buffing precision, or make power spam vulnerable to interrupt, the latter may be easier to do since the former doesn't fix the insane healing of atomic tanks and water healers.

    Some of you may agree, some of you won't, and that's fine. Also before the argument comes up about this being a superhero game and you're supposed to use your powers, like 95% of the heroes and villains in all comic books use either a weapon or have punched people in the face at some point, so no I don't accept that as a valid argument.


    TL;DR, do something about weapons. /thread
    • Like x 29
  2. Fatal Star 10000 Post Club

    Also as an example from another thread to really help drive home the point:

    • Like x 3
  3. Kuno Loyal Player

    I agree, weapons are integral part of the gameplay and combat mechanics. Weapons are gear, shouldn't be neglected this way we even need them to get our CR up!
    I'm all up for options, and while weappns shoulnd't be mandatory they should be equal options in damage therms.
    I also add:
    -Create new Weapon Mastery combinations. One hand / shield, martial arts / staff, brawling / shield and so on. (Staff and shield are practically non-existent on WM combos)
    -Create Rare Weapon vendors
    -Include new thematic weapon styles again on vendors
    -Release new weapon styles on the marketplace: Atomic, Military, Water, Star Sapphire...
    • Like x 7
  4. Balistical Ice Loyal Player

    I was about to say is Fatal really crying about the weapons again, but you beat me to it.

    All jokes aside, i agree with yout post
    • Like x 5
  5. Celestial Powers Committed Player

    Honestly, if people start to go anything but the superpower focus there would be more of an uproar since power would be such a bottleneck, you remember how the revamp played out before they added it in.

    Weapon damage buffs to hybrid would be nice but then you're giving up all the OPness from the superpower focus, trolls would be QQing even more so than they are now mainly because the power regen from hybrid is basically non existent when compared to the superpower focus, plus if people start to go hybrid then they may not have 195 in their handy dandy might/power bib so they would have even lower of a base pool for a troll to power meaning one ability would take more of their bar and it'd be a point where they're just using weapons until their troll(s) restore their power in the next hour.

    Oh and thanks to the superpower focus I don't really even attack anymore, there is no reason to.
    • Like x 1
  6. Schimaera Devoted Player

    I like the sentiment. Having a bit more of that good ol' times feeling would be neat.

    Or actually...buff rifles ranged tap and make a lunge out of the hold melee. Would make me happy for a while ^^

    I don't even want the weapons to be 1:1 on par with PftT. Make Hybrid 10% stronger and all is good. People would still go for PftT because the effort needed is much lower and it still yields good numbers. :D
    • Like x 2
  7. Fatal Star 10000 Post Club

    That's why i said buff weapon regen in one of my suggestions, to make up for the smaller power pool. In reality though, hybrid in general does consume less power then PFtT even as hybrid focused, unless you're clipping very short weapon combos, then it'll tend to use more, which if you're doing that then it's better to spec might/power before precision.
  8. Fatal Star 10000 Post Club

    Agree, I think hybrid should have more damage potential then PFtT.
    • Like x 1
  9. No Crying Committed Player

    Very Interesting
    Yet another thread that will go nowhere with the devs yet very Interesting
  10. 9001BPM Steadfast Player

    I only want hybrid to be roughly on par with pftt so pugs stop being mean to me :-( If people playing this game weren’t so mean I wouldn’t even care about balance xD
    • Like x 1
  11. Fatal Star 10000 Post Club

    Stop killing my optimism
    • Like x 1
  12. 9001BPM Steadfast Player

    As someone with different alts and different weapons I like rifle’s pseudo lunge, gives it a different character. Maybe they could make overhead smash into a lunge, like it is when npcs do it lol
  13. Tilz Loyal Player

  14. WilderMidnight Steadfast Player

    i never liked the hybrid combos. i would rather see each weapon have its own special attacks but then i also think dps should have never been broken into three sub groups.

    i would love it if players who opt for a weapon only play style had a few special abilities available only to them (while conversely getting blocked from using certain pfft powers).

    they should have a few instances where everyone loses their powers and has to get through a few rounds with their weapons only...but then that would mean creating content geared to what we have to work with instead of the other way around.
  15. No Crying Committed Player


    Well I am so Optimistic it's just for years I defended my reasoning for playing this game and now I have subjected myself to just reading all these Interesting forum posts that will never go anywhere. The forums is more interesting than this game at the moment for me so everything people post is Interesting to me.
  16. ThePhilosophy Loyal Player

    They have to be working on weapons now, they made precision artifacts after all. We've made thread after thread. I feel like we'll get an announcement within the next 6 months.

    Not just WM combos but regular combos need a buff too.
    • Like x 4
  17. Fatal Star 10000 Post Club

    One would hope a lot sooner then six months! Lol
    • Like x 1
  18. Schimaera Devoted Player

    Yeah I was just seeing it as a progress player. Being able to immediately lunge something and to close distance faster is sometimes really important. On the other hand I really like the rifle how it is right now when playing God of Monsters (Elite) to safely interrupt the phoenix(es) ^^
  19. Black Prime OG Devoted Player

    I agree, but to me they've killed it. Removing the ability to set up PI with weapon buffs pretty much told me they don't know how to balance weapons.

    I agree before PvP can be balanced that weapons need an overhaul. It just seems the majority do not want them, just like a PvP revamp. A buddy of mine was doing great damage as a WE using smoke bomb. He wanted something easier, like electric. Now he's munitions. No damage penalty for playing in the back safely. Removing the mid ranged and ranged damage, which helps incorporate the risk reward from different play styles was also a mistake.

    Not sure I've seen 1 response from any of these threads from a green about weapons since the revamp. Not saying they don't care. Just seems balancing the three play styles wasn't the goal of the revamp.
    • Like x 2
  20. Jay Smeezy Dedicated Player

    Ask and ye shall receive but only to haveth something else taketh away!

    Let's hope this request if ever acted upon, only does what you asking and not one of their wacky quid pro quo actions.