What is attack speed?

The whole combat system is goofy like that.

I like the way that staves and wands work. The last time I checked auto attack did less damage (per hit) and it used more focus (assuming you were just swinging or shooting away). If it were up to me I'd remove auto-attack completely, but that's one of many things I'd change.

I'm not overly concerned about playing a pure mage, I haven't had any trouble doing that.

 

Yea auto attack does little damage free attack misses alot but can wreck whole groups with the right skills/weapons

 

I agree these items are quite useful now aiding the the Pure spell caster's ability to cast spells, without having any auto attack. I don't want to bust my staff with an auto attack or even a charged attack. In fact I wouldn't mind if there was an option to disable not only auto attack but turn off the attack using the left click so that I don't accidentally use my staff to attack anybody since it is low damage.

The only time I would ever want to use my valuable staff to attack is if I used the knock down skill or knock back skill. I don't even care if it does a lot of damage, if I can knock down an opponent with my staff so I can either run or set up a spell that to me is far more useful than doing DPS with a weapon as a pure mage.

I think they really did a good job allowing for a pure mage to be useful. The fact that the staff does not get busted up if we do not swing it is also helpful because mages are very expensive characters. I accumulate far more gold using a swordsman because I'm not burning through reagents. So I think the trade off being a mage and not having our expensive staffs subject to a whole lot of durability damage is reasonable, and Knock Down and knock back skill plus the bludgeon innate skill Stunner is probably all the skills we need from bludgeon for it to be useful.
Having the staff increase our spell crit, or damage is far better than an auto attack.

 

I'm not sad that archers one vs one are a threat to pure mages. Archers specialize in a single ranged target. Pure Mages have the benifit of having high powered AOE attacks as well as high powered single target ranged attacks. If archers didn't have a bit of an upper hand against mages then there might not be much strategy difference for fighting against mages or archers and mages might just be totally over powered having no weakness. Even in PvE there is clearly a better tactic when dealing with ranged opponents. I would much rather kill the archer if I'm solo than focus on the mage. Archers slow me and nail me with powerful shots. In PvP I would imagine having an archer in your team to focus on the enemy mages might be very useful. The AOE damage on all party members adds up significantly since it is doing the damage to multiple opponents. That total damage done is greater than one shot from an archer.

So I'm not sad that archers might have a bit of an upper hand one on one against a mage, but in the end there are still things mages can do that archers cannot so it balances out. I think they are doing well so far creating these skills.

 

Amen to that. (but also I'd rather have a spell book than a staff or a wand)

 

Archers should be mage killers. I agree with that. But then the question becomes, what's an archer killer? What's a hybrid archer killer?

On the subject of ranged attacks, I do feel that archers get away with moving too much. Their counter argument is that if they didn't move they'd be dead. Which to me is the point. As a pure mage, I don't move very much and I'm not dead. but that's because I have close ranged attacks and ways to slow down my opponents, etc, etc.. So I see archery as a lazy attack. Players are mostly spamming auto-attack and running around. My kids can do that.

 

My Fear is... that we will constantly demand balance with every new combat skill added to any single combat style.
I mean... just how much time, effort and therefore $ is going to reworking each to accomplish a constantly balanced system?

... and without a more clear understanding or simplified explanation, things like questions about attack speed will be a constant companion of our forums


~Time Lord~

 

Attack speed is a weapon-centric stat that mainly affects attack rate of auto attack and charge rate of free attack

 

Shield users are pretty effective at killing archers, by having a higher chance to completely negate thier attack (block compares your strength to your targets strength) that stacks with avoidance and dodge chance, having a gap closer that stuns, the hiest stun resistance available, and a secon stun attack that executes quickly.

 

All MMO's are like that, because all MMO's use this stupid DPS structure.

Archers gets a buff? That basically means Mages and Melee Fighters got a nerf. Two-handed weapons get a nerf? That just made one-handed weapons get a buff.

You can't escape it. It's just going to go on like that forever. What I try to do is not get caught up in the "such and such is OP" fights. (yes I'm aware I sometimes make statements that things are OP) And instead focus on the functionality of combat skills and spells, and what they mean to the system as a whole. In this case, I wasn't clear what attack speed was doing. EMPstrike and others helped clear that up for me. Thanks.

Like I said above, auto-attack in general is a bad idea but I doubt they're going to get rid of it. Attack speed doesn't seem super unbalanced to me the way it is. It really comes down to how much DPS can you get with auto-attack or without auto-attack.

 

Can you block, dodge, and parry arrows? Also, do bows ever interrupt the caster anymore? That used to be a huge problem but I don't see that happening as much in PVE.

 

Also shield users arent as effective against mages because spells seem to partially penetrate block, and polearms always penetrate block as well

 

You cant parry arrows, you can dodge, block, and avoid them

 

Parry is an extremely effective defense for dual wielders against strong melee

 

That's not spelled out anywhere but within the forums?... is it?
If that's the only way to get a clear information line between the game and the player, it would seem to demand more than this, unless we're to create a sticky FYI post of such things...

There will be those coming to our game that will be better served with that info in black and white.

同樣是143%，速度差超多ˊ ˋ You get my meaning here?
~Time Lord~

 

As a mage, to beef up your defense against arrows, you can carry a buckler, get armor masterworked with Damage avoidance, and use ice shield and/or death shield and defensive stance

 

Seems like the tank is the likely candidate to becoming the archer killer. The shield blocking arrows must be really annoying to the archer basically nullifying the archer's offense. the archer might be able to run but if there is a team then the archer needs to watch out for that one guy that he cannot easily kill. if he doesn't run from the tank the tank will likely tear him or her apart. if he does run then the mage sets him on fire and stuns him. If the tank were able to cast earth spells more effectively while in armor that might really give the advantage to the the tank hybrid. The annoying roots and earth quakes might be trouble. Although that seems like the tank hybrid might be one of the most powerful characters in the game if they had a reduced fizzle for heavy armor, and mages might be overwhelmed by having too many opponents that can kill them. So possibly just having a character that can block the arrows is a sufficient drawback of being an archer. Blocking arrows nulifies their offense and if the archer is fighting multiple opponents that is a threat.

So a tank hybrid I don't think really needs to hybrid as a mage. Perhaps the guy who wants to bulk up might want to choose to use a weapon and a shield, and then their best hybrid might actually be to take on pole arms or archery themselves for an alt deck???

A good tank might use bludgeons instead of sword so they keep stunning their opponent to take them out of damage dealing. To me that seems to be an ideal tank, but a swords tank might be great for slashing the heck out of a guy and using tactics skills for stuns. Not sure. This skill system is really impressive when I think about it.

 

truly complex skill system. Lots of options. What about wooden shields?

 

It is now

 

Earth magic is the least affected by armor