Weapons and armors system balance and rework

Currently the best all around weapon for PVP is spear, even if slightly nerfed is above all the weapons in terms of mechanics because of the longest reach, chasing potential and hitting the target. I would suggest that all the weapons should be balanced in order to really offer the player a choice and break the spear meta by making all the weapons able to compete.
What can be done:

  1. much faster animation times for all one handed weapons and daggers (you can decrease their damage per hit while increasing their attack speed and balance it out in terms of dps), offer them a slightly longer reach. Make the “dagger jump animation” consume less stamina and be slightly faster, daggers are already the worst in terms of pvp dps and only useful for the bleed effect that stops the healing, giving dagger users more mobility could make up for the low dps by making skilled dagger wielders much harder to hit, also a small bonus for hits from behind would be quite nice and rewarding for skilled players.
  2. much longer reach/range for Two-Handed weapons(especially hammer), and slightly faster animation times, damage per hit can be nerfed accordingly in order to keep roughly the same amount of dps but grant a range/attack speed buff which is much required in PVP.
  3. test all the weapons on running enemies and check how much dps you can do with each weapon so you can adjust ranges/speeds accordingly
  4. grant more defense to heavy armors, currently they offer too little to be considered viable, can work well only on thralls, slightly nerf the light armors to break the Darfari Meta and offer more options in terms of builds, we need a bigger gap between armor types.

I agree with a lot of what you are saying. Heavy armor is basically trash. Light armor has an incredible mobility as it is. The numbers show that effective health should favor the Heavy armor, but game does not execute it that way.

My thoughts on what things that armor is for in game…
Defense, Agility, Stamina, and Elemental Protection.

Elemental Protection should be the same for gaming purposes.

Stamina Drain should be effected by the weight. Should effect stamina drain on swimming, sprinting, climbing. Light best, Heavy worst.

Agility should be effected by the weight. Light best, Heavy worst, as is now with roll distance and short side steps mechanic.

so with heavy being the worst at 2 of the first 3, the balance should weight heavily in favor of combat defense to make it viable and a choice.

Medium should be designed to be in middle on all, as ti is the every build armor.

And certain builds can counter balance ones short comings.

4th Grit build to help reduce stamina loss on heavy.
4th Agility build to move one tier down (medium roll in heavy etc.)

4th Accuracy build for higher damage (light armor stick and move would be more deadly).

Make armor reduction % having a wider margin. Lets say light 15%, medium 45%, and heavy 75%

The spear’s first heavy attack is fast and has a long reach. This is the advantage a spear has, and should have. Funcom already reduced the damage of the spear’s first two attacks and put in a delay between the attack and dodging, which has already reduced the spear’s effectiveness in many combat situations. The reach and stagger still make it the best 1-vs-1 PVP weapon, I guess, but it’s far from ubiquitous in PVE. Axes, swords (both one- and two-handed) and daggers all have their place in PVE.

As for armor - I agree that currently, heavy armor is not attractive as an option for a player character because dodging is so important. A slight increase in heavy armor’s damage reduction, and a slight decrease in both medium and light armors, would probably be reasonable. Flawless Epic Light armor can get to over 50 % damage reduction, which is probably too much (and I’m saying this as a light armor player) - but I’d like to see light armor still useful for damage reduction too and not just stat buffs and temperature resistance.

Light armor is probably what most players start with, as its crafting materials are easily gathered, so it needs to be useful. Remember, not everything in the game is Level 60, so when requesting rebalancing, we need to consider the impact on low-level equipment and low-level players, too. A Flawless Epic Light armor should probably cap at around 35 % damage reduction.

Medium armor still lets you dodge, but it’s heavy enough that you need to invest in Encumbrance if you intend to wear medium on a daily basis. It needs to offer a reasonable amount of protection compared to light armor, or the extra weight and reduced dodging ability won’t be justified.

Heavy armor makes dodging difficult, and it weighs a lot, requiring extra investment in Encumbrance. In return, it should offer significant damage reduction, because unlike other armors, you won’t have the option to take no damage at all by dodging. 80 % at Flawless Epic levels would not be unreasonable, but it can’t be much more than that or heavy armored players turn invulnerable with certain stat builds.

Another way to rebalance armors would be to reduce the durability of light armors significantly, rather than make them a lot less protective. This would encourage light armor wearers to dodge most of the time, the armor would save them from the occasional slip of concentration, but it couldn’t be used to face-tank because the armor would break easily. (I admit, this would be the solution that’d annoy me the most, because I hate having to repair my armor - but it’s still a reasonable idea that I believe is worth discussing.)

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I have a counterproposal, maybe it can match needs of pvp and the needs of pve-c, where the spear is now slightly useless out of pvp fight dued to too few dmg it deals:

Remove the step foward the character do after each hit while performing the spear 4 heavy hits combo.

While fighting another player this is an advantage, reducing to zero his chances of dodging, this is also a tremendous drawback while trying to use the spear to fight a boss in pve-c, because after finished the combo you’ll be in melee and hitted 100% of the time by the first counterattack.

Eliminating this step imho will reduce effectivness of spear in pvp while it will be better as weapon in pve.

Can only agree with most points you stated here.

While i’m also mostly a lover and user of light-armor, some are bit OP i agree.
A durability reduction would make some sens, if it’s done slighty, and like you said, with the full progression in mind.

I love when people post with all communities in mind, and not just short sighted like some do and focused only on one community.
Yes, like many said, spears may be the weapon used in pvp, but in pve this change, and all, especially axes have a good place.
There are lot of singelplayers around to. Mostly a less vocal community, and we have not to forget them to. Durability reduction would also hit them. Sure they can use mods, alter the sliders, but still.

Thanks for the nice post and analysis. :wink:

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