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Armor piercing weapons.

With the ridiculous level of AC we are seeing today, -800 AC. Perhaps it's time to introduce a new counter mechanic to give those players not having access to godly suits some chance to fight. By lowering the lower bar, while maintaining the high bar of EQ/balance.

So the idea is a new weapon flag similar to "glow, bless, evil ..." that would allow that weapon to pierce armor.

On a strike the weapon would calculate armor on a 2/3 reduction. This means that 800 AC -> 266. 300 -> 100.

This would trigger on the AC damage reduction and perhaps on the AC "miss" check (if not to hard to code).

This flag should be used mainly on Physical weapons, with an odd unique magical one (aka Excalibur).

These weapons should be rare, because options should have a cost. And either a sword or a mace.

Maces because it makes sense, since maces were used to fight armor due to the nature of concussive wounds, and because all mages know maces.

Swords, because every meele knows them and they aren't very offensive.

These weapons should have low average damage, like 22 or 24. The idea is to give low end EQ characters a fighting chance, not Empower Decked Ogre Avatar Berserkers. :devil:

Perhaps a further tweek hack could be made to reduce damroll on a hit with these kind of weapons by:

if (damroll > 30) damroll = 30 + (((damroll -30) * 3) / 5 );    ( a 40% cut on values above 30 damroll).

 

Or we could take an uninspired route and have acid damage weapons, on each hit do what a certain Necro path does to AC.

Or even better, have both as 2 separate flags. The first for weapons for underdogs , and the last for other weapons. :D

Edited

Getting that high AC is the only way some mages can last against heavy hitting mages. What's stopping a decked melee from using these weapons?

More melee support... Oh God please no

1 hour ago, mya said:

With the ridiculous level of AC we are seeing today, -800 AC. Perhaps it's time to introduce a new counter mechanic

Nope. 

A counter mechanic to stupid high AC was very recently introduced, it's called diminishing returns.

There was also another counter mechanic, which was called limiting parry for mages to 105%.

I personally think those two combined are a bit of an overkill.

Besides, no matter what everyone claims, stupid high AC, just like stupid high hit/dam, or stupid high saves, is not so easily achievable, nor is it a very smart decision either.

Edited

There is already something for melees to armorpierce with in game. 

 

I'm not adding more unless one of the "real Imms" dictate it.

What is this armorpierce thingy?

59 minutes ago, Lloth said:

There is already something for melees to armorpierce with in game. 

 

I'm not adding more unless one of the "real Imms" dictate it.

Oh, your real enough or I wouldn't have so many characters that follow you. I will wave your flag until you can bring "Peace" at will. :)

2 hours ago, Fireman said:

Getting that high AC is the only way some mages can last against heavy hitting mages. What's stopping a decked melee from using these weapons?

Only the fact that they would perform worse than using a regular weapon. The idea is to aid reduce the EQ gap not empower those at their peak.

I think I understand your point Mya, but wouldn't making new or upgrading equipment that easy to obtain closer to BIS gear from end areas be better? Or reduce BIS gear from being so dang good?

Basically, your talking about heirloom items in WOW only in reverse?

World of Forsakenlands! Mists of Aabaharan expansion! New Panda Race and Farm system to grow your own consumables.

Edited

Great idea Mya.  IMO while we could resolve this with adding in more tier 2 equipment - that is a bit of a 'boring' fix.  Mya's suggestion, if well balanced, gives actual counter play to AC stacking.

One of the things I feel has been lost within the game due to equipment creep is some of the more strategic approaches to gearing.  When you have items that are good in every way, you don't need to think about whether you want to use it or not, its just a no-brainer.  I feel like creating a balanced set used to be more challenging, and while I appreciate the QoL increases, I do think we have a few to many 'no-brainer' pieces these days.  Counter play, and the ability to out think / strategize your opponent is always the sign of a good PVP environment.  Having an obvious BiS that is always your go to is not a good sign of a good PK environment (IMO).

Instead of addressing ac stacking, why don't we address why mages need to ac stack. Which is mega hit/dam. 

Some of the most enjoyable fights I've had in recent times have been undergeared vs undergeared fights. They resemble what fights used to look like back in the day. 

The pace of fights are so much quicker these days it's crazy, I was looking at old early 2.0 fights and they're so much slower that it allows for strategic choices and use of skills.

The bias in this thread gives me cancer.

The only thing that actually surprised me though, is since when did Mya start playing melees?

No surprise she is getting owned.

Doesn't help monks. Not interested.

27 minutes ago, Zoichan said:

Doesn't help monks. Not interested.

Make chii bolt level 4 do this. :thankyou:

Omg.. .There is ONE mage in the game right now who sacrifices most everything else to get that -ac who also happens to be a qclass,  so to combat HIS -ac you want to add armor piercing to regular gameplay...

Go play a mage and fight some warmasters first, lol

UC

Listen guys.. I say we take away all the classes and make ONE class. Now... hear me out.. We give everyone the same skills, the same EQ, the same weapons, the same RP points, the same race, and no more cabals. Now.. then what we do is we name them Player A through Z and double them if we need to. IE: Aa, Bb, Cc, etc.

There. Now that everyone has the same as everyone else, no more whining!

Edited

1 minute ago, Fireman said:

Listen guys.. I say we take away all the classes and make ONE class. Now... hear me out.. We give everyone the same skills, the same EQ, the same weapons, the same RP points, the same race, and no more cabals. Now.. then what we do is we name them Player A through Z and double them if we need to. IE: Aa, Bb, Cc, etc.

There. Now that everyone has the same as everyone else, no more whining!

So like chess? I like it.

? How is that like chess?

I hate to break it to you, but you haven't been doing it right.

Lol, I meant that everyone has the same load out. 

If you imagine your chess pieces as your abilities and the all of them combined as your class, for example a mage could be comprised purely of Knights, a warrior might have mostly rooks etc. 

Standardizing the load out would be like chess I guess? 

I dunno man, this turtle weed is strong.