Long time no post...
But boy SotA hasn't been boring. PK action picked up quite a bit with increasing player numbers post release, and flattened a little bit with the latest decrease in player numbers. But I can say I never made more money PKing, especially with the newer bounty ruleset. Pushed 3 Videos in 2 Releases so far... Good times.
Interesting enough some of the old guilds came back and some new transitioned over from Mortal Online.. however the older ones seem to be turning their backs again right away, after seeing they cannot get a foot into PVP anymore.
Which is sad, SotA desperatedly needs to give options for low level and casual oriented Players that maybe don't want to risk the ransom when playing alone, but maybe take part in more structured conflict in a group, where the risk of losing is smaller and can be mitigated.
Right now everyone has to compete with the best, and that leads to a lot of frustration for casuals or returning players. Factions...
But let's keep that until R55, here is what Archers need:
Archery suffers extremely from the problem that all two handed weapons and staffs have..
No extra Weapon DMG in the offhand. This weapon DMG is what puts swords, polearms and even bludgeon in some regard into the viable range of PVP weapons.
Combined with the double masterwork for additional skill DMG, their skills can become in the case of polearms, very deadly and even one shot players with a lucky crit.
That problem is a general problem all two handed weapons have, with archery being the only school that only has two handed weapons available, it suffers greatly from that.
Further Archery suffers from having skills that can be countered easily with a shield. At least puncture shouldn't be blockable, so archery gets at least one skill that has guaranteed DMG that is applied to the enemy. That is also something bludgeons need.
Also skills like Disabling Shot when specialized debuff an enemies parry ability, which archers cannot capitalize on. Debuffing dodge would make more sense maybe...
Additionally archers should maybe have a INT debuff, or give them a Silence Arrow, to compensate for the fact they can't debuff healing abilities.
Last but not least is armor choice. Archers still benefit more from Heavy Armor DMG wise than picking light armor. Leather Armor, while being the most costly when choosing Hardened Leather, offers not as much additional DMG, as Heavy Armor does + it's schools STR buffs.
All physical DMG chars that choose light armor suffer from that. With the way combat speed, speed buffs and instruments work in R53, there is no reason not to play heavy armor unless you want to additionally use specific magic schools.
That's about it. IMHO Archers have the potential to become the #1 choice for PVP again, if the two handed weapon disadvantage gets fixed, as their low DMG output is still the main concern. You can outplay your opponents in open battle, but it very much depends on the terrain as higher ground affects the DMG quite a bit.
Overall it really depends on changes in crafting materials, as of future releases new tiers of mats are planned and depending on the changes of weapon dmg they apply to different weapons, the meta might change drasticly.
One thing I see a lot of lately, is people complaining about balance issues when not even playing the school right. Yeah, it can suck if you have to run dual hammers, because it looks ridiculous - but it is the only way to make bludgeons work. Same for a lot of other schools.
Even Archery can be made to work... however as I pointed out, they have innate disadvantages and it is compared to a school which also has a bad rep for being underpowered aka bludgeons, NOT possible to cope with other skills or mechanics to make it work as easily as crafting and masterworking the right weapons.
Unfortunately R54 has nothing new for archers or fixing the "two handed lack of offhand DMG" problem.
But boy SotA hasn't been boring. PK action picked up quite a bit with increasing player numbers post release, and flattened a little bit with the latest decrease in player numbers. But I can say I never made more money PKing, especially with the newer bounty ruleset. Pushed 3 Videos in 2 Releases so far... Good times.
Interesting enough some of the old guilds came back and some new transitioned over from Mortal Online.. however the older ones seem to be turning their backs again right away, after seeing they cannot get a foot into PVP anymore.
Which is sad, SotA desperatedly needs to give options for low level and casual oriented Players that maybe don't want to risk the ransom when playing alone, but maybe take part in more structured conflict in a group, where the risk of losing is smaller and can be mitigated.
Right now everyone has to compete with the best, and that leads to a lot of frustration for casuals or returning players. Factions...
But let's keep that until R55, here is what Archers need:
Archery suffers extremely from the problem that all two handed weapons and staffs have..
No extra Weapon DMG in the offhand. This weapon DMG is what puts swords, polearms and even bludgeon in some regard into the viable range of PVP weapons.
Combined with the double masterwork for additional skill DMG, their skills can become in the case of polearms, very deadly and even one shot players with a lucky crit.
That problem is a general problem all two handed weapons have, with archery being the only school that only has two handed weapons available, it suffers greatly from that.
Further Archery suffers from having skills that can be countered easily with a shield. At least puncture shouldn't be blockable, so archery gets at least one skill that has guaranteed DMG that is applied to the enemy. That is also something bludgeons need.
Also skills like Disabling Shot when specialized debuff an enemies parry ability, which archers cannot capitalize on. Debuffing dodge would make more sense maybe...
Additionally archers should maybe have a INT debuff, or give them a Silence Arrow, to compensate for the fact they can't debuff healing abilities.
Last but not least is armor choice. Archers still benefit more from Heavy Armor DMG wise than picking light armor. Leather Armor, while being the most costly when choosing Hardened Leather, offers not as much additional DMG, as Heavy Armor does + it's schools STR buffs.
All physical DMG chars that choose light armor suffer from that. With the way combat speed, speed buffs and instruments work in R53, there is no reason not to play heavy armor unless you want to additionally use specific magic schools.
That's about it. IMHO Archers have the potential to become the #1 choice for PVP again, if the two handed weapon disadvantage gets fixed, as their low DMG output is still the main concern. You can outplay your opponents in open battle, but it very much depends on the terrain as higher ground affects the DMG quite a bit.
Overall it really depends on changes in crafting materials, as of future releases new tiers of mats are planned and depending on the changes of weapon dmg they apply to different weapons, the meta might change drasticly.
One thing I see a lot of lately, is people complaining about balance issues when not even playing the school right. Yeah, it can suck if you have to run dual hammers, because it looks ridiculous - but it is the only way to make bludgeons work. Same for a lot of other schools.
Even Archery can be made to work... however as I pointed out, they have innate disadvantages and it is compared to a school which also has a bad rep for being underpowered aka bludgeons, NOT possible to cope with other skills or mechanics to make it work as easily as crafting and masterworking the right weapons.
Unfortunately R54 has nothing new for archers or fixing the "two handed lack of offhand DMG" problem.
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