In preface, we look back to the annals of history when enchanted weapons were very strong compared to innate weapons and spells. The discrepancy between a character with an enchanted weapon and without was, on average, quite large. This created a bit of a lifestyle gamer/casual player dichotomy, not to mention making it difficult for smaller factions and those without logistics. Furthermore, it funnelled everyone toward the enchanting lifestyle which was frankly a bit tedious. I’ve got about enough gumption to run ONE character with an enchanted weapon, having multiple was always a bridge too far for me.
Which is all to say, the argument that enchanted weapons create an unfair disparity between players/factions with logistics and those without has some merit. However, I think the current balance point has not yet been optimised.
I'll summarise the changes that affected the relative balance and sidelined enchanted weapons, from my understanding.
- B5 added a lot of new innate weapons and made those that existed a lot more powerful overall.
- Spells were also basically unusable for most characters as a main weapon previously, a sharp contrast to the 18 base damage t3 ranged spell that's now available to all spellcasters.
- Damage enchants now cap out at 6, so potenial damage increased slightly
- A new damage type 'supplemental' was introduced, which enchanted weapons use. Because supplemental doesn't stack, and about 2/3 of classes have their own source of supplemental damage, the value of enchanted weapons for those classes went down massively.
- A use cost was added. First it was 3 AP + 18 MP to use for an AP cycle. Now there's no need to activate, but 1 MP/attack which could be as much as ~65 MP in a raid.
I’m going to benchmark the typical free-to-use innate as 10 damage total, +10% to hit, or maybe 18 damage if there’s a significant MP requirement.
The basic sword is 6 damage, +5% accuracy assuming averaging out between pristine and average.
So, it really needs about 4 extra damage to be comparable, 6 would make it a little better. In essence, the base numbers are OK. However, that innate doesn’t cost anything to run.
Here’s my proposal.
- Implement some/all of the suggestions in the supplemental damage suggestion https://www.nexusclash.com/viewtopic.ph ... 462#p25462, which mitigates the effect of supplemental damage not stacking and creates more of a level playing field in terms of how useful enchants are for the different classes
- Change the enchant system to be more like it was at the start of B5, when you had to charge up your enchants to use them. However, they now charge automatically.
- Enchants now regenerate to a cap of 25 charges
- Each attack uses up a charge (seal magic would eliminate charges being used)
- There is no additional cost to the character in terms of MP or AP for using the enchanted weapon
- Enchanted weapons are a bit stronger than they were
- Enchanted weapons are particularly reliable for enchanters
- Others would need to carry around 2-3 enchanted weapons for it to last a full raid.
- Enchanted weapons remain a high-maintenance but powerful option