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[Guidance] A preliminary guide to weapon-specific combat balancing


Hello, this is THRONE AND LIBERTY.
We're excited to announce that we'll be balancing weapon-specific combat in an update on Wednesday, 8 May.

To communicate with you about the direction of the rebalance and reveal the major changes, we've prepared a preview.
Please leave your feedback on the upcoming update in the developer feed below, and we'll be sure to take each and every one of them into consideration for the next balance.
1. General Skill Balance Adjustments
As equipment and skills have increased in level and special effects have been added to various pieces of equipment, we've noticed that players with the same level of equipment and skills are dealing different amounts of damage per weapon.
We're making adjustments to balance the damage dealt by each weapon, as well as buffing some skills to increase damage in the other direction.
We'll provide more details on each weapon after point 2.
2. Increasing tension in PvP
We've found that some skills with no countermeasures can lead to one-sided battles that take away from the fun of PvP.
As a result, we've adjusted the duration of some status effects, increased the availability of defensive skills, and provided more ways to react and opportunities to increase tension throughout the duration of a battle.
All 'crowd control skills' will have their duration reduced.
- Two-handed Sword [Shock Strike] 'Stun' duration reduced and cooldown reduced.
- Dagger [Shadow Strike] [Bind, Silence] duration reduced and trigger chance improved.
- Longbow [Binding Arrow] reduced the duration of "Bind" and now applies "Suppress" to immune targets, allowing it to be combo-able.
- Staff [Frozen Tomb] [Petrification: Freeze] duration reduced. Still works the same on monsters.
- Wand [Nightmare Mire] 'Sleep: Curse' duration reduced. Still works the same on monsters.
Changed skills that were previously unable to be defended with 'Defensive Skills' to 'Defensible'.
- Longsword [Roar of Taunt]
- Dagger [Brand of Death]
- Staff [Lightning Strike of Judgement, Infernal Meteorite, Heat Wave, Frozen Tomb
- Wand [Touch of Despair]. Mace [Corruption Circle], [Curse Blast], [Retribution Time], [Calamity Ray], [Nightmare Mire].
- Longbow [Mark of the Maw], [Frenzied Arrow].
Longsword
These skills are designed to help you become a "tank with strong defence and threat" in PvE content, including Co-op dungeons.
However, with the recent addition of higher-end co-op dungeons and the disparity in DPS between players, we've noticed that some players are not able to fulfil this role.
To help maintain a healthy tanking balance, we're increasing the hostility value across skills.
- We've increased the 'hostility' values across skills to make aggro more manageable.
We're adjusting the effects of some skills so that you can manage hostility through different means depending on the situation.
- Taunting Roar will now "always hit monsters," including bosses.
- Chain Hook will now grant maximum aggro to the target when it hits a monster.
Two-handed Sword
The combat mechanic is designed to maximise damage through powerful status ailments and linked skills.
However, we've noticed that the cooldowns of the abilities that chained together in a big way around "Shock Strike" were out of sync, breaking up the flow of combat.
We've adjusted the cooldowns of key skills to better align with each other.
- We've shortened the cooldowns of [Shock Strike], [Ascension Slash], and [Guillotine Blade] to make the main combo of [Shock Strike>Deadly Strike>Ascension Slash>Guillotine Blade] flow more naturally.
We're also increasing the coefficients of some skills to compensate for their growth.
- We've increased the coefficients of skills linked to equipment for [Valiant Bash] and [Strike Special] to improve the feeling of skill growth.
Daggers
Daggers are designed to be a "one-shot" skill mechanic with a long cooldown, but high damage in an instant.
The synergy between the crossbow's [Seize Opportunity] passive and the dagger's [Poison] was intended to be used to compensate for weaknesses, but it became overly effective as players progressed, and we noticed a trend of players seeking out certain weapon combinations in content.
We're making some adjustments to the effects that are focused on 'moments', but will maintain their effectiveness in the long run.
- We're nerfing the damage of [Brutal Dismemberment] and [Mark of Death], but reducing the skill's cooldown to maintain DPS over time.
- Changed the "Stop Health Regeneration" effect of [Venomous Infusion] to gradually reduce health regeneration over time through stacking.
Improved AoE abilities.
- [Frenzied Sword Dance] and [Black Wind Spirit] now deal more damage when triggered by a 'Secondary Weapon Attack'.
Longbow
The Longbow has a long range and powerful attacks, as well as skills that support allies in a variety of ways.
However, one of its main mechanics, the Bind buff, does not apply to targets that are immune to Bind, such as bosses, and we want to improve the situation where players do not experience the intended buff in PvE.
When using [Bind Arrow], you will now receive a 'Suppress' effect that can be comboed.
- [Binding Arrow] now grants the "Suppress" effect when used, and can now be used in boss battles to receive combo skill effects.
Increased the effectiveness of some skills to make them more useful.
- Increased the damage of [Berserk Arrow] and added "Cooldown Reduction" when hitting a centred target.
- Improved the duration of [Nature's Favour] and changed the health regeneration effect from a fixed value to a modifier.
Crossbow
Crossbows are designed for stylish combat with fast attack speeds, constant attacks, and a variety of movement-related skills, and are intended to be played with 'cooldown reduction' to maintain high DPS.
However, we've found that the combination of the dual-wielding 'Many Hits' and 'Bonus Damage' effects, as well as the ability to create a near-certain 'Secondary Weapon Trigger Chance', are causing the crossbow to sustain explosive DPS for longer than intended, so we're adjusting some of its effects.
We're adjusting the effects of some skills to make them deal a bit more inflexible damage.
- [Infiltration of the Unseen] will have its 'Secondary Weapon Trigger Chance' reduced.
- We've reduced the "additional damage" of Mark of the Dead and added a "reduced healing" effect to the skill.
Wands
The Staff was designed to be a weapon that stacks effects, builds up steadily, and then delivers a powerful one-shot.
However, we've found that it takes a long time to build up, and during that time, it lacks some DPS compared to other weapons, so we're looking to make up for that.
Stacking 'Ignite' will increase DPS over the course of play.
- We've increased the damage of [Fireball].
- [Mana Sphere Eruption] now triggers the "Extra Mana Sphere" effect when firing skill projectiles.
Increased the effectiveness of your main skill.
- Reduced the cooldown and mana cost of [Judgement Lightning].
- [Ice Spear] damage increased, cooldown and mana cost reduced.
- Significantly reduced the cooldown of [High Focus].
Wands
Wands were designed to be an essential weapon in a party, dealing stacking damage from various ailments such as Curse, Weakness, and Sleep, as well as healing and supporting party members.
With this update, we'll be changing the 'Skill Damage Amplification' to also apply to 'Healing Skills', but we're concerned about overpowering PvP efficiency in the process, so we're adjusting the effects of some skills.
Healing skills will now also have 'Skill Damage Amplification' applied to them, improving overall healing.
- The 'Skill Damage Amplification' stat effect will be applied to all healing related skills.
- To adjust for excessive healing from [Binding of Grace] combos, we're nerfing some of the effect modifiers.
We've adjusted the effects of some skills to make them more useful.
- Changed the Heroic effect of [Curse Blast] from "Base Damage" to "Damage Over Time" amplification.
- Reduced the cooldown of [Miasma of Malice] to make the skill more useful.
Thank you.