ANNOUNCE NEWS #332
Date: 7/16/2005 at 20:33
From: Roark Libertas
To  : Everyone
Subj: Warrior New Additions

Several things are worth noting regarding warriors right now.

First off, some changes have been made to weapons. Rapiers and hammers,
before precision, were fast but did low wounding. After precision was
introduced, they become fast with high precision, which causes the two
to compound their impacts. This was in a sense inadvertent since I
hadn't realized that speed compounds the effectiveness of precision.
(Yes, duh, feel free to slap me for that oversight.) Another unrelated
issue is that morningstars and scimitars have been mildly undefined.
Longswords and maces are what we consider "benchmark" weapons. Flail and
broadsword are heavier on damage. Rapier and hammer has always been a
speed weapon, but now it has become the speed and wounding weapon. So
now rapier and hammer will return to just being a speed weapon. Its
precision will forge lower than previously, though other stats have been
boosted to compensate somewhat. Scimitars and morningstars will be
better at precision than previously, giving them more of a solid
definition.

Secondly, Barl Cleaver the dwarf is not just an artisan but also a
former member of a group called the League of Elite Weaponmasters. His
former compatriots, Fraq Slasher the igasho, Erec Cleaver the krokani,
and Thes Bonegrinder the orclach, arrived and convinced him to take up
his axe again. Thes also carries a two-handed claymore sword, Fraq
practices blademaster, and Erec practices bonecrusher. Each claims to
have a specialized fighting technique for their respective races. What
this means is...

For warrior specializations, now certain races will do better in certain
specializations. If your race matches with your specialization then your
accuracy will be better than other warriors. The map is:
Blademaster - Igasho
Bonecrusher - Krokani
Axelord - Dwarf
Pureblade - Orclach

Now a word about the two-handed specializations from Barl (axelord) and
Thes (pureblade). They are not clones of the previous specializations,
but there are many elements of both in each of the two new skillsets.
The main differences is how two-handedness impacts combat. The most
obvious thing is they hit half as often, which needs to be addressed.
The two-handed weapons will forge on average double the damage of their
one-handed counterparts, and so damage over time should be the same. But
with less hits, that means less chances to induce a wound. Precision
lets us compensate. The two-handed weapons will on average have more
than double the precision of their one-handed counterparts. This means
that a two-handed weapon will do less wounds, but it will do worse
wounds sooner than a one-handed weapon combo attack. Plus their top
wounds should be a tad more powerful than the one-handed skillset
wounds.

The weapons available for each are as follows:
+ Bastard and battleaxe - average. (Note that your existing battleaxes,
used for chopping trees, will probably be below average since they were
not forged when we had them in mind for combat.)
+ Claymore and waraxe - heavier on damage.
+ Katana and klangaxe - swift on speed.
+ Greatsword and greataxe - heavier on precision.

As for artifact runes... You can attach two of each type on a two-handed

weapon. Note that the damage type runes are half as effective on a
two-handed weapon, which means that two such runes on a single
two-handed weapon will have the same impact as putting a pair of the
runes on a pair of one-handed weapons. As for the max stats for such
weapons, you must now calculate your weapon's "score". For one-handed
weapons, its score is as before: add up all the stats. For two-handed
weapons, you must divide damage in half and divide precision by 2.2,
leave speed the same. Then add those together to get its score, which
must be less than whatever it was for one-handed weapons.

Please note that I will be monitoring the balance of the two-handed
weapons. If the precision is too high or too low, I will change it. This
means that if you rune your weapons now then they might end up being
tweaked. I hope to have a balance settled soon (and ideally need to do
nothing more). Similarly, I *might* have to adjust how that weapon
"score" mentioned above is calculated for two-handed weapons. If there
are any growing pains with it, please be reminded that knighthood
weapons are the most difficult things to get balanced in Lusternia, and
they will be quickly addressed as problems or deficiencies are
discovered.

Enjoy!


-Roark.

Penned by my hand on the 9th of Avechary, in the year 122 CE.

Rapier and hammer has always been a
speed weapon, but now it has become the speed and wounding weapon. So
now rapier and hammer will return to just being a speed weapon. Its
precision will forge lower than previously, though other stats have been
boosted to compensate somewhat.