It's a bit late in the game (read: WAY late in the game), but I've been wondering for years why weapons are so boring. Every once in a while, I would find something that seemed like a departure from the norm... like the Spore Covered Rod or Marked Glowing Staff from Darkhollow, pet weapons and augs, Sword of the Undead Kings... and I'd get excited, thinking SOE was breaking away... but it never happens. Think about it... there's a lot of fine control to creating a weapon. Any spell effect can be attached... and there's already a library of thousands of existing effects... and the proc rate can be adjusted. I thought for a long time that caster weapons would end up going the route of "low ratio, high proc rate, high damage dd" effects or something similar... something to take advantage of the innate abilities of being a caster. Really... a 30 delay, 200 damage twohander may be a fun toy, but it's not going to do an Enchanter much good. Look at all the various effects available and imagine... don't want to return to slow weapons? How about ATK or accuracy debuffs, Str reducers, stuff like that? They could be made to not stack with various class effects to limit their usefulness. BER/WAR-only 2h that procs targetted ae mez (they're probably going to hit their target again and break the mez, so it's no instant lockdown). Caster weapons that actually reflect their classes... how about a choice between a caster weapon with a lower-damage, lower-proc rate proc and higher Spell Damage or one with lower Spell Damage but a stronger, faster proc? A melee weapon that procs a high-damage, hit-limited DS on the wielder (only useful if you're getting hit!). Heck... a Halloween weapon that procs group NDT, just for chuckles. No, I know NDT isn't powerful anymore... but it'd be holiday-appropriate and a break from the usual. What are some unusual weapon ideas you'd like to see? Mind you, I'm not looking for Monty Haul, Soul Devourer-esque game-breakers, but if you think they could be doing more with weapons, what would you like to see?
I imagine the reason there isn't much variation with weapons is because a lot of the effects , etc are covered with augs , aa's and spells. also it would add to the already complicated mess of trying to balance the classes. not to mention the time / cost for all the developer time that would be required.
Why are weapons boring? Because they are not like the Screaming Mace where you hear a screaming sound and graphics :^)
Bone Melt. Bone Melt everywhere. It's not a raid unless something gets skeleton'd. http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spell.html?spell=1961
Grenade launcher, where the grenades are on a timer and can bounce their way to the target around corners, down stairs etc. Think Quake. (gnomes, get to tinkering!)
And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shalt be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thou foe, who being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.
I thought the Sword of the Sanative was different and interesting. I liked being able to assist healing the tank (usually myself) and to heal the group. I put the Dulled Gem of Evaporating Life into it to further reinforce its purpose. I've named that weaponset "Paladin" and it has situational uses. It would have been nice to see a raid version of this weapon in more than appearance alone. Oathbound Hammer was a take on swarm pet weapons that was never implemented properly. It doesn't summon a swarm-pet that comes out swinging, but a short duration normal pet (you'll get the red warning message about not being able to have more than 1 pet up at once). You have to click the "Attack" button to get him to engage, or take damage to make him respond. He's the "Doug" model, but makes spooky ghost noises, so he's probably supposed to look like a dead Qeynos guard based on the content you get the weapon from. The player crafted weapons started to go a different direction. Temporal Drain proc from Cleaver of Time (not sure how useful sapping enemy mana is at this point in the game, or if sapping NPC endurance has any effect at all). Displacement Tear proc (finally a DoT instead of a DD!) from Displacer Blade. Non-bow ranged items that were permanent (Timesplitter Throwing Axe, Ethercharged Bola, and Etherpiercer Javelin). I would like to see self-buff procs like the Avatar spell effect from Primal weapons (but not Avatar specifically, we're capped on stats anyways) and debuff procs make a return. Maybe combine the two, like how SKs steal AC or attack rating. I also like Jonny's idea of weapons with illusion procs.
Ghoulbane was awesome back in the day. I'm just bummed that weapons haven't become much more interesting since then. Koryu makes some good points, although I was bummed to discover that all the "interesting" procs in the newer crafted weapons (like Cleaver of Time) are on onehanders and big twohanders... but not fast twohanders. Anyone (read: any Zerk) who wants a 30 delay crafted weapon like Etherwood Greatclub has to settle for more normal procs. I'm not looking for ludicrous ideas, but it seems like there could be plenty more done; interesting tools for various classes. If we have group heal procs, how about bite-style procs? Procs that fire disc-like multiple small physical attacks? How about a low-damage weapon with a high-proc-rate Crimson-Blade-like or Arcblade-like effect? They could call it Crissaegrim, after a certain famous classic video game weapon. Give it a Riposte mod (or even just a +Riposte skill mod, like +5 instead of +5%, the weapon's lower actual damage will make Riposte less damaging) and make it sentient, it'll seem like a sword possessed by a fencing master. There's just more options than they really explore.
In the past couple years they've done a good job with rare items. For weapons, slow, AE, heal target, and cripple procs are some examples. And, there's the long list of the clicky-only items (eg Bifold), which was a good idea. (A bit older) the OMM merchant has some unique effects on it too. I think they want to avoid getting too crazy with weapon procs on permanent content. If they were to do that, I think the most appropriate place would be on revamped/bonus content, like they did with OMM and PoWar. The biggest missed opportunity is with weapon augs. The fact there isn't some type of epic weapon aug (eg stats + dmg + proc) is disappointing.
I have this. It its is awsome! I just wish I could use undead spells on the NPC once transformed into a skelly.
Because the current developer team is scared to death of anything outside of their cookie-cutter box... be thankful for the evolving shoulders, dps ring/belt, etc. It's just far too easy to use the static bump in stats that has become the upgrade path for gear. The idea of balancing unique weaponry is probably pushing the limit... I thought the ROF class weapons were a good idea... albeit short-lived in usefulness. Maybe if they expanded on that formula... hmmm
The paladin ROF weapon would have been even more amazing, but grognards had to whine it wasn't following the standard formula and got its proc changed back to a rune instead of a group heal as it originally was.
