Weaponsmith Archive

There are many who would say that Weaponsmith is one of the better professions in the game. We makes lots of money, will never be "uneeded", and provide a basic service that every player needs. While this is all true, it does not cover the fact that it is still a broken profession, as has been further broken by other patches. Take a walk with me, if you will, down a path will show you the dark side of the weaponsmith profession...


Thrown Weapons

One of the most broken trees out there. They are easily avoided, rendered useless in PvP by the 75% reduction, and rarely keep people from walking across the mine fields set in front of bases. On top of that, aside from the C12 only one profession can use them. That profession can find them useful in PvE, but not in the Galactic Civil War, which they should be a much larger part of. Make these items useful by removing the 75% PvP reduction from the damage they cause. There should be no such thing as a single sacrifice that is sent to absorb the damage from an entire mine field. This alone would make base raiding more of a chore and create a steady use for the land mines this tree has to offer.

Now, as for the actual thrown weapons, you can't remove the 75% PvP reduction here because everyone would go Commando, and no I don't mean running around with no underwear on. Commando would become the PvP template of choice once again and they would simply lambaste everyone, including Jedi. However, all should be rated medium AP or higher. Also, the accuracy needs to be increased. The old saying goes, "Close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades." Why? Because you don't have to be perfect to hit your target. Making these useful in PvP would increase demand for an item most commandos go without.


Ranged Weapons (Three Parts)

These weapons are so broken I don't even know where to start. However, since I am a Pistoleer, I will start with pistols...

Pistols

There are 18 different pistols available when you count the CDEF. The DE-10 has been made so that only a Pistoleer Master can wield it. This single thing has saved the entire profession. Every pistol in the tree is so weak compared to this that tere would be little reason to use anything else other than a Sonic Blaster. Now, it has been said that the devs will deal with stun damage in the revamp. However, that will not solve anything. If the plan is to remove stun damage altogether then you eliminate two pistols. The Sonic is gone, and so is the Tangle (not that you'll miss it). If you plan to try and balance these guns, a closer observation of these two weapons reveals the same difference as there is between the Republic Blaster and the DE-10. The Sonic is basically twice as powerful as the Tangle. The difference is that the Sonic is widely available, rendering the Tangle Pistol useless, while the DE-10 is very rare and only a few can actually use it. Like the DE-10, the Sonic Blaster needs to be moved to the master box of the Pistoleer tree to make the Tangle useful again. This also removes the need to balance either weapon.

Now, we just talked about the Sonic, the DE-10, and the Republic. Their are only two other guns anyone uses on a semi consistent basis. They are the Scout and the DX2. A gun count here shows that only 6 of 18 avilable pistols are needed, as you can easily get to Pistols 2 using your starting CDEF (it's only 6k XP). That means only 33.3% of the pistols craftable are useful. That screams, "I AM BROKEN! FIX ME!" This number needs to be at least doubled. Change a pistol type to Cold damage, or even Electric. There are 6 AP0, Energy damage pistols in the 140-170 dmg range. Break that up a little more. Since speed becomes a useless stat the further up the pistol trees you get, the variation needs to come in damage and XP needed to move up a tree. Making a person spend more time on a tree is the only way to ensure they at least go out and buy one of the pistols listed for that tree. If I can skip the D18, DL44, DH17, and DL44 Metal and be just fine, why have them? They are a waste of space unless you implement something that makes each pistol useful in their leg of the tree. A Master Pistoleer should be able to find a use for each and every pistol. Since I am a Pistoleer, I have more to say on these weapons than I do any of the other ranged.


Carbines

The main broken thing here is the HAM costs. Lower them and you have already done a great service. As far as affecting this group of guns, almost everything is Energy damage. There is a Heat and two Acids, but that is it. Until you get enough speed to use them, the only gun used in leveling this profession is the DH17 or Snubnose. That leaves out the Laser Carbine, EE3, Elite, DXR6, and E11. After you get the speed mods the EE3, DXR6, and Laser become the only weapons used. Now, this a better ration, but only because of a lack of supply of craftable weapons. There are only 9 craftable carbines, 4 of which are useful.


Rifles

Another area where the same thing is repeated too much: AP0. In a tree that contains the only Cold damage weapon you would think it is a pretty good tree. However, the only guns really needed are the DLT20, the Spraystick, the Jawa, and the T21. The Laser is too erratic, the E11 too weak, the SG82 nearly useless, the DLT20a pointless, and the Berseker uncraftable because of a bug you introduced. The DXR-6b is nice, but still only gives 5 out of 12 rifles reall usefullness. The Tusken needs to be made Kinetic. The SG82 needs to be AP1 minimum. Finally, the Berserker and DXR-6b need to be moved to the Master Rifleman box. Once a person gets into the Rifle trees, they have little need for anything in the marksman boxes.


Melee Weapons

Melee weapons are all screwed up together, so I am not going to split them up. Acklay has destroyed the market for unenhanced gaffis, stun bats, and power hammers. Beyond that, the fact that there is only one AP1 weapon in the whole Fencer profession is simply ludicrous. Even more puzzling is the fact that the most often used weapon is gained in 1-Handed Weapons box 1, the gaffi. In the 2-Hand department it gets even more insane. Once you hit Novice Swordsman you have no use for anything other than a power hammer. People like the Scythe because it looks cool, but there are few PvE areas to use such a weapon, not to mention the fact that it out classes the 2H Curved and 2H Cleaver by so much it makes them worthless. The Scythe either needs to be moved to Master Swords, or reduced to the same level as the Executioner's Hack. Also, the restrictions on the 2H Cleaver need to be relaxed. There is currently no point in having one except for looks. As for polearms, it wouldn't be broken if it weren't for the bad accuracy, slow speed, and heavy HAM costs. Since the Pikeman class is still broken, though, so is the need for crafted polearms. It is simpler to go to Dathomir and kill Night Sisters till you get a good pike than to go buy one from a weaponsmith. Basically, loot has killed everything in this tree except the Vibroknuckler. Praise the Lord you decided against the Black Sun Knuckler.

To fix this you need to reduce Acklay bone drops to one bone per drop. Further, there needs to be more variety. There is one unarmed weapon, 8 Fencer, 8 Swordsman, and 6 pike weapons that are craftable. This is compared to 18 Pistols, 9 Carbines, and 12 Rifles that are craftable. How about evening out those numbers...


Heavy Weapons

Finally we get to the heavy weapons. What would make these worth it is reinstituting the Heavy Weapon Speed skill mods and attachments. Beyond that, relaxing the resource requirements on the temporary use weapons would make them more affordable, and thus more widely used. As of now the Rocket Launcher requirements are so huge it makes the weapon a ridiculous investment. How about at least being to "recharge" them so you get more than one life out of them? In that their condition goes down, kind of like being repaired. To me it just makes sense.




Now, some will disagree with me, and that is ok. You can't argue, though, that weapons lower on the skill trees shouldn't require more resources than those at the top of a profession. We also need some new PERMANENT schematics to craft. We need the useless weapons made useful, even if just for a season. Finally, we need the really good weapons put out of the reach of dabblers. The DE-10 is a perfect example of where the good guns should be located, and where the better melee weapons should be. Perhaps you could add something that says an Acklay enhanced weapon can only be used by a master of the profession. You could do the same on krayt tissue, making sure these extreme weapons are only used by fully elite personel, and not just people mixing and matching skills wihtout mastering anything. Anyway, something needs to be done to make Weaponsmith exciting, as should every other crafting profession be made exciting.

You hit some points, and good post, but honestly there's a lot more broken about weaponsmith - and weapons in general - than folks are willing to care or admit. OTOH, the weapons issue is mostly tied to the CB ... which is a fine, faraway idea.

Of course, take this with a grain of salt. After being a "hardcore" crafter since Beta3 I'm just a crotchety old coot who's annoyed at every niggling little thing.