Dev Discussion Development Update: Weapons and Artifacts

Surprised no one has mentioned how the weapon changes will impact PvP. One of the big problems there is underperforming weapons, if they get a buff then it'll greatly help it. Not FIX it, but put it in a better state than it is now.

Same here. I came back a day or two ago. Gonna hit those double weekends for catch up and see if this update works.

I do like the tall about weapon balance, but like others have said, waaayyyy over due. I also get that the VWD was strong, but are we really saying it was the artifact that was broken and not the two WM combos. I'd like to know more about the weapon balancing rather than the artifact nerfing. Are you, the devs, saying that your attempting to make each weapon on par with each other? This would literally be a first for the game, sorry but true. Is it just the WM that are being looked at or thr overall damage of each weapon? Not sure many people really like having to use WM for more damage. If we can't have specifics of what changing, cool, but maybe an outline of what your trying to achieve? Not just vaguely saying weapons balance. Example, is your goal for each weapon to have a decent single and aoe damage? Only reason I ask this. Most might powers are not balanced this way. Most of us have to resort to using iconics for the lack of aoe or single target powers.

Myself, I'd much rather we go back to how dpsing used to be. Not just pressing buttons going 1234 or doing one or two weapon combos in all content. Using both weapons and powers put more skill into the game. This is what I'd like to see.

Please make sure scissor kick gets some love as I would like to go back to hybrid/precision. You can probably guess what my power(s) was(were) prior to stats revamp...HAHA! Sorry if my comment doesn't add value, but I don't care for the majority of WM combos. Thanks!

They said as it currently stands it is twice as much as they want it, if you half the damage buff but double the duration of the buff then you imbalance it again.

When it's tested im sure that can be looked at, i know you're wanting to have the window increased to allow for longer weapon combos etc. But you also have to consider what impact lengthening that duration will have on the shorter combos, the last thing we want is the status quo to remain, no matter how much some people might want that.

Did my example of the bow weapon being diverse make sense? That other weapons that don't have that diversity should have multiple attacks changed. Since I believe damage should scale based on the length of the combo and example of some changes could come to

Martial Arts:

-Knee Up/Cartwheel Kick/Elbow Drop are all quicker to do combos and are all Single Target
-Spinning Punch/Smoke Bomb are all AoE damage and longer to perform

My suggestion would be to Change Cartwheel Kick to AoE and Spinning punch to single target, that would create more diversity and improve usage with hybrid play styles for those who want to clip with a fast cool down power and/or clip with a longer cool down power by performing a longer combo.

-Cartwheel Kick to Hand Blaster Uppercut single target
-Knee Up to Loft Shot is single target as well
-Spinning Punch to Sweep Shot AoE Melee
-Enhanced Shuriken to Meteor Blast AoE Range

To diversify this so that every Weapon Mastery Combo has a purpose make Knee Up to Loft Shot a Single Target Range attack. What reason does anyone have to do Knee Up to Loft Shot when it only takes more more input for the next combo that does the exact same thing?

Issues with these WM combos too are that Spinning Punch into Sweep Shot and Enhanced Shuriken to Meteor Blast do very little damage for the amount of time invested to do the combo, and wouldn't even be useful with the VWD artifact.

VWD artifact should get nerfed but at the same time should last the same amount of time as a weapon buff. Theres no reward for performing a long weapon mastery combo with a risk of getting interrupted if the buff of the artifact doesn't last long enough.

Cog should also be change for just performing weapon combos to help all precision dps and not just WM precision dps, more benefits allow for more diversity in builds.

Hmm. I purchased the Lair System, and I was wondering if the new revamp affects the Lair System in any way, shape or form?

From what they have said I would assume the Lair system is not altered at all. The only aspect of Lairs that could have an impact at all is Armories and if you can save different sets of Artifacts to different Armories.

Will this update affect our current armory builds and make them invalid?? I'm asking because it happened to my armories "all 16 to be exact lol" and I want to know if I need to write down my color codes for each one. Have a blessed day everyone!!

You can always re active your armories manually going to your base, then go to the desired armory and active your style, gear and title. Then go respec and resave, u wouldn’t lose styles that way (u have to do this when u change powers or some change that causes it to become invalid)

Or in other case scenario, if u have a lot of sp unspent and won’t let u active armory by key, go to your base, go to desired armory and active all, spend sp, then resave (only have to do this with a lot of unspent sp)

Has the Sparring A.I. been looked at as far as what procs it? I’ve searched online and asked countless other players and have never found a clear answer regarding what procs it. I do know it rarely procs for me, the Flurry shot block break doesn’t proc it and lunge counters don’t proc it. Everyone just runs it for the stats which I’m pretty sure was not the original intention.

It doesn’t dole out it’s own damage but does have stats that boost precision even when the buff is not proced by the weapon buff power. Is that what you meant?

So why has the nerf approach changed? Before you (the dev team) seemed adamant about not nerfing Eye of Gemini, instead choosing to nerf the powers that were most closely associated with maximizing the effect of Eye of Gemini. Whereas now, it would seem, Venom Wrist Dispenser is your first priority, instead of Dual Wield-Flurry Shot Mastery and (to a somewhat lesser degree) Bow-Smoke Bomb Mastery?

Could you elaborate on your plans for allowing players greater ease in switching form one artifact to another, and changing Focus?

It seems that increasing ranks would put an even greater barrier on changing artifacts in the future. How is that in keeping with your plans to allow greater player flexibility? You said that "Increasing ranks is about increasing ranks, not about balance" -- why do something just to do it? Why, even if you feel that it's a necessity, would you choose to do this *in the midst of* doing a weapons balance, like why not wait until the weapons are evened out so that you're not trying to hold onto running water?

Like, it's great that Batuba has become a bug-fixing juggernaut, and that you're doing this weapons re-balance, but that is all essentially basic maintenance. The grand plans you've announced meanwhile, seem to be at odds with one another.

I would like to recommend, that the Rifle Attack is faster? I feel like the shooting should be sped up to better match a real rifle, and I also ask, because the "combos" for the rifle are in my opinion a tad-bit lousy. The handguns sound so fast that they are deafening... Which is great. But the rifle is extremely slow. Please update it to make it atleast .5X faster?

Are there plans to have a sale on weapon and power respec tokens when this update gets released? I'd like to try and switch up some of my character weapons when the new adjustments come out... but don't want to expend all of the monthly money I allot myself (an exercise in my self-control) on tokens, or have to make a new character and go through grinding out the levels/SP to fill out the weapon and secondary weapon mastery tables.

I'm a PlayStation player, so I can't just go on the test server to try things out.

QUESTION
will you take a look at playstyle stats and consider readjustments?
adding might to hybrid and super powered was realy not needed...
however: the last minute change before revamp was making VWD,
and artifacts in general needed to fix playstyle stats in the fist place.

IMO play styles need readjustments first,
to make them work even without artifact.

1. Get people to buy you're OP item.
2. Nerf OP item after people have money for OP item
3. Offer Gift which is only 1/16th $ value of OP item.
4. Offer OP item at half potency for full price.

The Might DPSers whined and cried about it over and over until the development team felt that they had to nerf it. The developers are just giving them what they asked for. Might DPS is a bigger portion of the DPS community, and therefore a higher source of income. They're just doing what they have to do to satisfy the the larger number of customers.

I disagree with appeasing them, but it won't affect me enough (I primarily play to keep green and blue bars up! ^_^) to make me want to stop playing. However, if it makes you (or anyone else) super unsatisfied with the game, I urge you to stop playing and speak with your time and wallets. Don't stay in a relationship that is causing you pain and anguish. It's unhealthy.

So let me get this right. The only play style in this game which actaully need some skills in cliping will be nerfed because might players, which basiclly use 1234 or 123 + spam 4 rotation was doing lower damage then players who put efforts in learning how to do combos fast.
Great, now all styles will be brainless standing in mid range and pressing 1234. And again going back to flavor of the month.

And for those who complain why should prec based get extra boost on venom artifacts - imagine sitation that they nerf weapons which atm doing most damage + nerf Venom artifact and after change prec based players will left with nothing because Venom will suck aswell with weapon they have , and if they decide to stay on prec they will need to get new weapon from vendor and marks on them.