Alright so i saw this on the discord and remembered how unbalanced and unfun some of the weaponprocs in the early stages of aa were. https://archeage.fandom.com/wiki/Weapons
Id like to propose some changes to make at least the most impactful procs a bit more balanced.
Im mainly talking about the 10k pen procs for shortspear, longspear and staff that should be changed even tho the other procs are kinda worth discussing about aswell but id like to do that in a seperate thread.
Ok so the problem with the 10k procs is mainly that its a high value/gamechanging RNG mechanic with little to no skillexpression and limited counterplay. Yes the melee can prep it just like mages can in theory (burn dots, bleed being a problem) but lets be real here. If u engage in pvp only a few ppl can keep track of it and if the fighting is intense every prep goes out the window anyways. At the end of the day the melee/mage hopes for a 10k proc on his biggest ability while the opponent hopes that thats not the case.
Point is. Its rarely up to the dps and never up to the person getting engaged on. You can only prey to the RNG gods that the proc doesnt occur on precisionstrike/ arc etc. which makes it unfun to play against at least.
Ok so this was the fun/unfun aspect.
Onto it being completly broken on a mathematical lvl.
Im just going to give a plate tank example since if u understand this you will see that its completly broken for everything else.
Imo its fair to assume that plate tanks with an mdef shield (ofc theyre not running a pdef shield) will reach roughly 11-15k pdef depending on their armor choices and grade (epherium-ayanad) (celestial-legendary).
Now since melees get 2k pen from puncture and will have some pen from gear choices (costume roughly 750)/rings/dreamring etc. maybe (lightning necklace roughly 600) iirc) they can easily stack up 2.5-3k from gear (low estimate) + 2k from puncture + 10k on the proc + eventually charms (im going to leave this out just for the sake of not making it too situation specific).
Basically the melee is going to run around with 5-6k pen + maxed out crit (since getting pen doesnt really get in the way of getting crit dmg/rate).
Those stats mean that the melee negates all pdef from clothies doesnt matter if they have shield or not just with his base pen. + He ignores like 80% of leather armors defenses (archers etc without shield having defenses in the range of 6-8k).
Against those base numbers you can argue, hey get some more defense here or there so that u have like 1-2k remaining after his pen which would net you alot of dmg reduction, roughly 10-20% (the first few k over 0 are always alot more impactful (diminishing returns etc.)).
Now here is where the fun ends:
if the melee rngs his proc it doesnt matter what you did since even on the full plate tank he will have more pen than you armor 5-6k base pen + 10k proc > 11-15k defenses.
This renders every gearchoice obsolete and its entirely RNG based whether the melee deletes whatever he sees with a few hits. (a proc with bleed precisionstrike can easily deal 20k upwards.)
One way to fix it if u dont want to revamp the whole system/ patch the later systems would be to make the proc a permanent +1-1.5k pen. ( I came up with 1k because the 10k proc had roughly a chance of 10% to proc iirc, so the overal dps would stay the same and spears and staff would still keep their identity of beeing the puncturing weapons.)
This way both sides (attacker and attacked) can calculate the dmg and change gear depending on needs/wants instead of relying on a low chance high impact RNG proc.)
All the examples listed here also include the mage/staff example without the 2k puncture proc which is battlerage exclusive. (The point is still the same to a lesser degree)
Id like to propose some changes to make at least the most impactful procs a bit more balanced.
Im mainly talking about the 10k pen procs for shortspear, longspear and staff that should be changed even tho the other procs are kinda worth discussing about aswell but id like to do that in a seperate thread.
Ok so the problem with the 10k procs is mainly that its a high value/gamechanging RNG mechanic with little to no skillexpression and limited counterplay. Yes the melee can prep it just like mages can in theory (burn dots, bleed being a problem) but lets be real here. If u engage in pvp only a few ppl can keep track of it and if the fighting is intense every prep goes out the window anyways. At the end of the day the melee/mage hopes for a 10k proc on his biggest ability while the opponent hopes that thats not the case.
Point is. Its rarely up to the dps and never up to the person getting engaged on. You can only prey to the RNG gods that the proc doesnt occur on precisionstrike/ arc etc. which makes it unfun to play against at least.
Ok so this was the fun/unfun aspect.
Onto it being completly broken on a mathematical lvl.
Im just going to give a plate tank example since if u understand this you will see that its completly broken for everything else.
Imo its fair to assume that plate tanks with an mdef shield (ofc theyre not running a pdef shield) will reach roughly 11-15k pdef depending on their armor choices and grade (epherium-ayanad) (celestial-legendary).
Now since melees get 2k pen from puncture and will have some pen from gear choices (costume roughly 750)/rings/dreamring etc. maybe (lightning necklace roughly 600) iirc) they can easily stack up 2.5-3k from gear (low estimate) + 2k from puncture + 10k on the proc + eventually charms (im going to leave this out just for the sake of not making it too situation specific).
Basically the melee is going to run around with 5-6k pen + maxed out crit (since getting pen doesnt really get in the way of getting crit dmg/rate).
Those stats mean that the melee negates all pdef from clothies doesnt matter if they have shield or not just with his base pen. + He ignores like 80% of leather armors defenses (archers etc without shield having defenses in the range of 6-8k).
Against those base numbers you can argue, hey get some more defense here or there so that u have like 1-2k remaining after his pen which would net you alot of dmg reduction, roughly 10-20% (the first few k over 0 are always alot more impactful (diminishing returns etc.)).
Now here is where the fun ends:
if the melee rngs his proc it doesnt matter what you did since even on the full plate tank he will have more pen than you armor 5-6k base pen + 10k proc > 11-15k defenses.
This renders every gearchoice obsolete and its entirely RNG based whether the melee deletes whatever he sees with a few hits. (a proc with bleed precisionstrike can easily deal 20k upwards.)
One way to fix it if u dont want to revamp the whole system/ patch the later systems would be to make the proc a permanent +1-1.5k pen. ( I came up with 1k because the 10k proc had roughly a chance of 10% to proc iirc, so the overal dps would stay the same and spears and staff would still keep their identity of beeing the puncturing weapons.)
This way both sides (attacker and attacked) can calculate the dmg and change gear depending on needs/wants instead of relying on a low chance high impact RNG proc.)
All the examples listed here also include the mage/staff example without the 2k puncture proc which is battlerage exclusive. (The point is still the same to a lesser degree)
