I did class balance suggestion on a the range weapons. From what i can gather from people after level 20 or 30 ( i forget which they said ), the weapon becomes very good, but before that they are near useless.
this seems to be a scaling related issue, which means the base damage of the weapon is probably the culprit, but that being said buffing the weapon will not be enough because if they are performing very well buffing the weapon will result in absolutely overpowered gameplay later, so what ever talent (end-talent trees?) or collection are over tuning the weapon, will need a nerf.
I think the solution here is actually to do a full design pass on the weapons. Bows should be able to just shoot point blank with out aim and guns should relay on the trap option very heavily, for that reason i think traps should have a very short cooldown (< 8 seconds).
I find that scatter shot is useless, funtionally bad, and resource intensive and think it should be replaced with another single target ability that deals damage over time (bleed) or some sort of sprint ability. I dont care for poison arrow being a cloud. I think rain of arrows is already over powered and poison arrow should be an even stronger damage over time effect for a single target.
That being said, the bows and guns should start at a min of 10% critical strike, and i’d advocate that guns start at 15% While bows start at 10%, but at the same time i also advocate for the removal of headshot based mechanics i find them undependable and functionally just a bad feature, even more so that such a mechanic will hold back the weapons from even being balanced because the argument will always be made “land headshots”.
Lastly, I think there should be some sort of penetration aspect to arrows and bullets, especially with abilities, because they are problematic in crowded pvp situations.
I disagree with mostly everything you said Nourri…
The musket’s skeleton is just fine… it’s the fleshing of it out that is a fail.
I kill bow users and fire users mid range with my Musket all the time and that’s landing headshots.
A good musket user can land headshots at close and far range pretty easily… (midrange is the tough spot).
They just need to fix broken mechanics and reward headshots.
A good light armored musket user, should be able to kill a bad Great Axe / Hammer user close range. I know I do it often… but I cannot beat a good great axe user with VB heavy 1/10 times. Their charge and gravity well are just too strong. Maybe that class just stays a hard counter… that’s ok.
However, if I play a decent fire mage / bow user in light… same skill level, I win 3/10 because mechanics for musket just are broken. It’s not fair that I can’t even do what the game currently says I should be able to do because all the broken weapon swap / key registry issues they are “fixing” currently hit us the hardest… and that’s without crit bugs and heavy meta hard countering us.
If I hear another fire mage bitch that they only do 2k damage when a bow user cries for 4-6k. Yeah that 2k is light attacks with a left click… I digress.
Magic users will get more damage out of each hit, but consider that the magical projectiles shot at max range targets become very hard to hit with any consistency. While a musket can consistently hit a target each shot, a magical projectile is extremely unreliable due to moving targets and flight time. If a magic user wants to finish someone with a high degree of certainty, they need to be closer.
It’s not a question of skill, but one of chance. You essentially have to guess what a player is going to do. A bad enemy player will stay still or run in a straight line, and those players are easy to hit. A good player will always move unpredictably, with an almost jittery style of movement. There is a good chance that in 1-2 seconds when your projectile arrives, they won’t be where you thought they would be.
If a musketeer shoots at me from max range, I can shoot my fire staff back at them and my fire projectile disappears before it reaches them.
I don’t complain about these disadvantages though, even though in various scenarios I’ve died as a direct result of them. I simply understand that different weapons are better suited for different situations.
The game wouldn’t be fun without these weaknesses.
The problem with the headshot mechanic is player skill. Its to skill oriented as it is, to depend on balancing it around less skill players to bring about some balance. as long as that mechanic is there, it will be carried by skilled players, making the weapon insanely skill capped, and broken in the hands of the right players. This is not a good thing.
Skill is playing the game on an equal footing and excelling over others because you have better control and decision making.
This is NOT about skill, its about power. and so rightfully it needs to be changed. I think doing something with the charging mechanic, or how people manage shots before the reload animation is a much better way of dealing with both bow, and gun.
I am certain however, that as long as that headshot mechanic is there, the weapons will remain highly unstable.
I agree that its bad in Outpost Rush. But I have to disagree with you on wars. Our musketer’s main objective during wars is to destroy the sieges and finish off the downed or low hp and they deliver their jobs excellently. Its a matter of how you use the weapon based on the situation.
However, I do believe that the weapon tree needs to be reworked. Tbf the musket feels underpowered because of the current meta
and then of course heavy armor… mainly since armor balance is utterly broken
but yes weapon systems need improvement… the high mobility abilities are literally applied to the highest damage weapons and armor… its just broken
you need to increase the rate of fire, make the recharge in the roll constant and not once every 10 seconds, endurance will act as a limitation,
or add a revolver type when reloading will start after we release 5-8 rounds from the clip
I am under the baron’s buff, I apply 2k from a musket and waste time recharging, while the magician just spams me with 1 button and gives the same 2k, I also need to spend time standing in 1 place to charge my abilities when the magician activates your abilities instantly
That applies in 1vs1, any form of group PvP traps get easily nullified and anyway as a musketeer you are supposed to stay at high range from the battlefront.
I agree with the OP, the musket need an urgent overhaul to be funny to play.
The musket concept is the only little soul of this game, everything else is more a copy/paste from another MMO, don’t let this soul fades.
It’s truly hard to play with a musket, indeed. WPVP may give you a chance to use its advantages in some situations, but there’s no reason to use it in wars\outpost rushes - any random heal negates all your damage, any bow user does much more damage + has good AOE and decent escape.
I am playing all dex weapons and the only viable combination with a musket that works for me is left tree bleed rapier\burn+power+knockback shots musket.
I wish that musket has more stopping power and some armour penetration. It’s kinda surreal that a bow is in general better than a firearm. Also, why do shields\right-click\riposte block musket shots? I’d expect it to lower the received damage (so, in total -stamina and -health), but not block it entirely.
Musket just needs a 10-15% damage increase overall. AGS needs to be careful with the musket, because it could potentially become way to overpowered with the slightest change. The ability to snipe people across the map already provides a great asset to the weapon.
If you buff the musket for the average user, it’ll make it the all mighty weapon for the experienced. It needs some tweaks, but not over-tuning.
I also don’t want there to be an OP in PvP, but in PvE it’s the worst weapon in the game, it’s totally useless compared to other weapons
The suggestion is to change the primary shot from 100% to 130-150%
and a total change of AOE skill, generally a musketeer is such a peg that reloads more than fights: D
for testing I would increase its rate of fire
this is the standard balance formula, at low damage they increase the rate of fire
its attack range and ballistics do not give anything when there is no way to normally inflict damage and weapon skill will still be the decisive factor
This could actually work, but not sure if this would be the solution. The whole purpose with the musket is to be an assassin. To pick off the back (squishy) targets shot per shot while still being out of dangers way.
In my opinion, increasing the rate of fire would buff the overall damage, and close to medium range combat capabilities.
