Swordsman Archive

The Devs don't seem to know how the Armor/AP system works in this game, and if they have their way, they're going to implement a serious, severe nerf for every AP weapon in the game. But Medium and Heavy AP weapons will be hit the most, which means you folks, us Rifle types, and the Carbineers will take the biggest end of the nerf stick.

If you don't know how Armor/AP works in this game, read this thread.

Those results are from testing I did in the game, on the live servers. Compare it to the Advanced Guide: Armor Fundamentals and you will see that the testing reveals that the Armor Guide is (mostly) accurate. There are some issues (in PvP, and in the way vulnerabilities work), but for PvE and for PvP against armored opponents, Armor and AP work just like the Armor Guide says it will.

The problem is, the Devs don't seem to believe these figures and testing. They claim that Armor Piercing does NOT provide a damage bonus. They claim that Armor Piercing simply reduces any applicable resistances. According to them, if you hit a no-armor critter with a Power Hammer, you DO NOT get a damage bonus of (1.25)^2 before the resistances are figured in. They claim that, instead, if you hit a no-armor critter that's resistant to blast damage, the AP of the Power Hammer will reduce the resistance by 50% for every level of difference. So smacking a no-armor critter with a 40% Resistance to blast damage with your Power Hammer would reduce the effective resistance to 10%.

That's how they think it works. And if it doesn't work that way (which it doesn't), they're going to change it so that it does.

This will be a huge nerf for any class which relies on AP weapons, and will hit classes with AP2 and AP3 weapons disproportionately, i.e. Riflemen, Swordsmen, and Carbineers. To understand why, read this message.

Now's the time to make your voices heard.

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And why would i want to dmg armor from mobs/animals when they dont have any? (technicaly they just die, they dont get armor repairs)

Cool, another way to unbalance the melee playing field. Way to go devs.

My initial reaction is dismay, similar to what many readers experience. What's changed my mind is a thread posted by ThunderHeart regarding combat in general.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Developers&message.id=14605#M14605

There are many changes forthcoming and the trepidation many players feel is because of the SOE's past history regarding changes. Existing inequalities in professions take a long time to change, at times 4 months have passed before a minor tweak has been made to a profession; especially if you're not a member of one of the more popular,conjuctly populated, professions such as creature handler or teras kasi master.

However, now that mounts, cities (soon to include vehicles) are out of the way. Professions and the current combat systems are being focused on and more changes, in addition to tweaks toarmor rating and armor piercing values, will be made. Whether this results in a dimunition of a swordsman's combat effectiveness, at least compared to how it is now, remains to be seen.

What ThunderHeart alludes to is that combat needs to change to involve strategy. I hope this pans out and my waning interest in the nonexistent galactic civil war evolves to something better than what exists now. That's not much to ask for.

**edit**

Changes to the current armor rating and armor piercing will not change. Please reference this thread in the pistoleer forum that denounces the validity of the rumors.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=pistoleer&message.id=28746

Thank you for the warning, I appreciate the concern. Theres also some really good info there, the floaty numbers not matching my combat chat always bothered me so thank you for explaning it. However i think it may be too early to get worked up over it. I recommen reading TH's thread in the announcements board, 'the art of combat.' It sounds like the whole combat system is gonna be out of whack for a while, but hopefully when its done it'll be much better.

What about Pikemen? They have high Ap weapons...

LOL!

OK this whole thread is moot, by word of a correspondent (see the link above). But, hypothetically, if this change were to happen, it would NOT be a nerf. It would be a HUGE improvement. Let me explain.

I don't care about stuff w/ no armor and low resists. That stuff goes down easy, so it doesn't matter if you get a dmg bonus. But when you get to stuff with high resists, the hypothetical change makes high AP weapons WAY more powerful

Example: PvP w/ Power Hammer against someone in 90% base resist composite armor (this stuff is getting more common)

Current AP/AR system - 25% bonus to 10% of base dmg = 12.5% of dmg gets through

Hypothetical new system - no bonus, but base resist is reduced to 45% => 55% of dmg gets through


Against someone in 90% composite, a Power Hammer would be 4x more effective than it is now. The difference would be even more dramatic w/ a T21, being about 7x more effective.

I hope they never make a change like that, cause it would make armor useless against Swordsmen, Riflemen, etc.

The rumor regarding changes to the current armor/AP system is not happening.

It was a misunderstanding.

Please check out this thread :

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=pistoleer&message.id=28746

ahhh now I know why I hit stormtroopers for like 4000 damage a hit with a power hammer and when I test it on a gorg I only do like 2500.

The need to constantly change things in agameis due to the fact the company making the game does not take the time to do its homework before it puts the game out and swg is no different. Any of you who played eq knows what im talking about. You change things because you didnt get it right the first time and you ask why?....Cause you didnt take the time to prepare. Anyone with half a brain can see the validity in finishing a game to make sure you covered everything before releasing the game to the public. This game was rushed and it shows and everyone knows it and now WE are the ones paying for it.

Seems like theres some mixed opinions on this issue but if it is in fact a nerf all i can say is master brawler cause warcy2 and intim2 can cure any of lifes problems!

Dominoe - Lowca