Work In Progress Work In Progress: Weapon Mastery

I did edit my post to voice a concern about that. It seems like doing those combos provide you with a massive bonus so they are somwhat necessary to do if you want that bonus.

I don't know when it comes to a temp stat boost, but how about intergrating the pvp confidence boost systems 135% brief dmg boost after a successfully timed combo in addition to role buffs

Since I do have a weapon master background story for my main I will properly incorporate this system for the sake of role play but unless the final combo does a lot more damage than what I saw in the live stream you will do more damage with shorter "base" combos and a clip in the long run.

Nature has the longest time of any powerset between setups. Depending on the weapon and the current duration of Poison Spores and depending on the weapon I can get anywhere between 2-4 fast base combos with a clip. With the increase to 12 seconds in the next update I could probably get that to 3-7. This is a very special case though and Nature has a unique circumstance that benefits from Precision and Might at the same time. Other powersets can be like Nature (shorter window) and others simply don't have room for drawn out weapon attacks.

Rage and Light are prime examples that while technically could use drawn out weapon combos but per target they get less overall damage. Single combos from Rage, for example, can easily do similar damage to what I saw in the drawn out Weapon Mastery combos I saw in the live stream. Both are Precision base but the difference is that Rage combos get the boost from Plasma Burn and weapons do not. There are not a lot of effective damage over time abilities that Rage could use to match Nature in weapon windows so why would Rage want to use Weapon Mastery combos?

Light is in a similar situation but instead gets its damage from rapid succession. Both sets rarely use actual weapon combos.

Celestial is similar to Rage and Light in a way. They do have damage over time but it has shorter duration which means the effects need to be reapplied more often which means less time for drawn out combos.

Powersets like Quantum, Mental, Electricity and Earth (Crushed) do have room for drawn out weapon combos but still half the time that Nature has as reapplication needs to be done quicker or they are charge damage (Mental and Quantum) that can do more damage to more targets than weapon combos can and eat up the duration times of the damage over time effects. Electricity and Earth are good candidates alongside Nature for Weapon Mastery combos. Dazed Earth loadouts use a lot of Jackhammer again leaving little room for drawn out combos.

Sorcery is ahead of Electricity and Earth but behind Nature in weapon usage windows.

That leaves Gadgets, Ice and Fire. Ranged Gadgets players typically clip an attack that gives the best damage to time ratio. A melee Gadgets users have a slight edge but that play style is less viable in harder current tier content.

Ice and Fire have there own categorization because, in theory, they could never use a weapon and rely purely on Might. Fire has more options for damage over time thus giving them some weapon usage windows. Ice typically uses a clipping mentality when relying on Precision similar to Gadgets.

I realize this is a very general analysis but my point is about 60% of the powersets don't have a lot of room for weapon combos so I question the useful of this for the player package of a DLC. In my opinion the true benefit of the Weapon Mastery system will be the additional innates that were mentioned and not the combos themselves.

Weapon Mastery combos are a nice addition but in my opinion they are generally going to be wasted with most powersets. I may be completely wrong, and I partially hope I am, so if you have a good way to incorporate Weapon Mastery combos into your rotations feel free to add your thoughts.

Work In Progress

Shorthand for 'work in progress'

no love for the tanks and healers?

Still trying to figure out how this will be balanced against clipping. Clipping cannot be interrupted/telegraphed, but combos, after all, can.

Been gone awhile I admit, but maybe somebody can assuage my fears.

This delay on clipping powers is not going to go over well when/if it goes live.

I think the combo system is interesting. Just be advised that the clipping mechanics have been in place for 3+ years now (with official support). You guys would be walking an extremely fine line by favoring one over the other and obviously increased delays works against clipping. I'd recommend shorting that time significantly or grant clips an additional damage bonus like weapon mastery will provide.

I'm not worried about this affecting PvP too much since getting up to some of those combos in an intense match would be miraculous. I'm just very weary with this cast time direction. I like playing an action MMO based on speed in regards to movement, weapon & powers... not one loaded with cast times or we'd all be playing WoW.

Clipping can be interrupted, try clipping a power with a ranged attack or block break

lol, yeah okay

But I'd say a instant heal or instant power is the only thing that can make up for taking time out to do combo. Like one instant as combo starts then some bonus after completion.

Just doing larger combos as tank, con or heal you already lost stuff away from doing your role before even doing the new ones.

Spytle!

Hey bud, we met at the NYC meetup-- I was wearing the Speedy as junkie T-shirt.

Anyway, intrigued by Weapon Mastery. I have a thought that might get at some of the concerns a lot of the dps community has had about Precision vs Might. Why not make Mastery trees that do might based weapon combos? That has the possibility to go a long way toward addressing some of the more might-based dps users' concerns.

@Ace1

I believe that what they said was that the Weapon hold timer is going away completely.

Sorry, what I was trying to get across is that with a longer animation, I can see what you're doing and actively take steps to stop/interrupt you. Interrupting clipping seems largely based on strictly anticipation/knowing what someone is likely to do. There's little to react to from an "OK I see this animation, so I will do this to counter" standpoint.

Thanks also, that's what I thought I heard as well. Like if they removed hold timers combat would be more fluid? I thought I heard something too about lifting barrels and the time it took to do that but I got distracted when that was being said.

As I stated in another thread. I want to know when exactly I'm supposed to get one of these fancy weapon combos off while tanking a boss? I'm fire, I have to block.

It was then said "After you countered them?"

But see the thing is in high end PvE there is no time for combos like that for fire. PvP sure. But I don't see this being used well by fire tanks when we have to be block heavy in PvE.

You can clip any power with the combo'd weapon. So as a healer maybe clip an HoT. if the devs go through with this they can give healers a huge chance to crit as well as buff healing magnitude. So the heal you clipped into will be buffed up for 5 seconds or so.

This won't help my troller with over 160 sp in anyway .

Yes, I am talking about the 3 seconds you are working up say smokebomb and can't insta heal, power spam or hold block/pull aggro.

For the dps is different he is doing what he is supposed to. On heal or whatever you are taking time away from you are supposed to do.

But I guess support roles will go for fastest combo and then clip out if people get in trouble.

Meh, it works similar to HL. you can try to predict what they will combo into and counter it, or they can play it smart and try to read what you will do, and instead of finishing their combo they can block, or block break, depending on what you do. Trickery I call it, Hl dps do it a lot in pvp.

Here is one of the veterans of this game talking. I know this isn't much but the currently gameplay is what makes me "fall in love" for this game and held me for over 27 months.

Why nerf the jump clips? There's lots of lovers of DCUO, mostly of dps, that loves to play with the jump clips and powers to powers clips.

With this new changes, I will not be able to clip my 1h combos with FearGas + jump clip > Gauss Grenade like before.
I will not be able to clip my CryoField with Intimidation.
This is just one small example of the change in the gameplay.

My point is:

The currently clipping system is fun for mostly of the players.
I agree with the new Mastery Weapons system because seems fun and pretty awesome.

I don't clip my powers because it does more damage, isn't the only reason. I clip the powers because it's fun!!! Is fast and heavy gameplay, is needed lots of tests and time training to masterize this. Why take off?

The devs could make the new changes work together with the currently system.


For sure I will be one of the players that will stop to play with this "fix" on clip system coming out. I have lot of friends that play this game for over 2 years and they will not play anymore because of an unecessary nerf.

Please.
Change your minds about it and make both system work together!!!