Combat Module A: Dual wield and enhanced damage changes.

[Burzuk]

Generally speaking, dual wield right used to be a no-brainer compared to two-handed weapons or wearing a shield. As part of our "brains over brawn" ethos here on AR, however, we’re moving toward a more balanced model where all of these different fighting styles (dual wield, single weapon, and weapon/shield) are more competitive with each other, instead of always simply grabbing the two biggest weapons you can find. So first and foremost, dual wield needed to be brought down from its dominant position.

One way we've done this is by modifying enhanced damage. Enhanced damage now has double effect when using two-handed weapons, while it has no effect upon dual wielded off-hand weapons. One-handed weapons in the primary hand retains its normal enhanced damage bonus regardless of what’s in the other hand. Notice this only affects enhanced damage, and not the MANY other factors that contribute to combat damage (weapon average, damroll, class and stat modifiers, skill multipliers, etc). This means that the effect is FAR less than doubling two-handed damage or halving off-hand damage. Ninjas and rangers retain their full off-hand enhanced damage modifiers as a class bonus, since these two classes are more ambidextrous than other classes. Note that despite this change, dual wield still considerably outstrips two-handed weapons in raw damage. We’ve only partially closed the gap with this change.

Another significant change is that hit/dam bonuses for each weapon are now calculated independently. This negates the "stacking double enchanted weapons" advantage that dual wielding offers over other styles of fighting, since now a weapon enchantments are only good for attacks with that specific weapon. This makes things fairer to people using a single two-handed weapon or using a shield, since weapons offer FAR more hit/dam bonuses than any other items. If you are dual wielding, you will see both your primary and your secondary hit/dam displayed separately on the score display.

Lastly, dual wield now carries a level-based hitroll penalty This won’t affect leveling much, since hitroll matters much less in mob fights than PK’s. However, it means that with the hitroll penalty, offhand attacks will be easier to defend against (dodge, parry, shield block, etc) at lower levels during PKs, which will slow down overaggressive lowbie PKing somewhat. This gives fighting classes an additional incentive to level up as much as they can so that they can make better use of their offhand weapon. The offhand hitroll penalty applies to rangers and ninjas as well, and is factored into your offhand hit/dam in your score display.

Feedback and further discussions are welcome.

[Nuonorp]

I'll just be the first to say that I really like these changes. It may even sway people to use polearms...... Anyways, I really like giving rangers and ninjas the "ambidextrous trait," especially since it will help rangers stand out against the warrior and berserker furthermore. The best change from this, in my opinion, is that the stacking bonus on dual wielding is gone, because that was obscene getting a pair of 7/7 weapons--not that I didn't do it, but it was obscene..... and that's my two cents

P.S. If a giant is wielding a 2-handed weapon in one hand, does he still get the double enhanced damage bonus? That looks like much pain...

[Burzuk]

The enhanced damage bonuses are based on how a weapon is wielded (whether as a one-handed primary, two-handed, or offhand) and not by what the weapon's class is or whether it has a twohands flag on it. Even if you could wield a three-handed or ten-handed weapon in one hand, if you're wielding it with one hand, it counts as a one-handed weapon for the purpose of enhanced damage. The opposite of that is, in the near future you'll be able to use double grip on a one-handed weapon to allow you to use the two-handed enhanced damage bonus while wielding a "normal" one-handed weapon. It's all based on how you wield the weapon, not what the weapon is.

[Adebaldi]

Im wondering about favoured weapons. It seems that all warrior classes benefit from it except for monks who do not use weapons. Were the changes made to weaken the monks or is the weakened dual wield system supposed to make it even for them?

Also why aren't minotaurs and werebeasts mentioned in the helpfile? Im assuming werebeasts go under humans, but minotuaurs defenately wouldn't go under giants because minotaurs are supposed to excel in axes not maces.

[Davairus]

Favored weapons are warrior-only.

[Adebaldi]

Sorry I just noticed my bad.

[Baer]

With the exception of elven rangers using bows, but that doesn't really count, as it's a legacy bonus.