How to Rank All Non-Support Weapons

For today’s topic, I’d like to put the emphasis on how to ranking all non-support weapons. Here we go:

how-to-rank-all-non-support-weapons

Swords:

  • Broadsword: 3/10
  • Only saving grace is the double interrupt. But Damage is awful even for a tank weapon, and with no other CC, you will rarely be able to get close to those you need to interrupt.
  • Claymore: 4/10
    Both E’s give a moderate amount of damage, but still suffer from the lack of mobility.
  • Glaive: 6/10
    Same damage as rest of Sword line, but Fling is both and interrupt, peel, and offensive pull. Started off weak, but due to a damage and distance buff on E, it is much better.

Axes:

  • Battleaxe: 2/10
    Offers up no utility or damage. Among the worst weapons in the game. Part of the problem is the weapon itself, the other part is the horribleness that is offhands.
  • Greataxe: 7/10
    Offers best AoE melee damage, second best AoE damage next to Glacial, but it is harder to avoid the Whirlwind.
  • Scythe: 7/10
    Where Greataxe has AoE, Scythe has single target. Part of its problem is that the healing reduction seems to be bugged.

Maces:

  • Mace: 5/10
    Great single target CC but is outshined by the Heavy Mace who gives up a damage for a better CC.
  • Heavy Mace: 7/10
    Tied for second for best tank and control weapon. The AoE Silence can turn fights.
  • Flail: 2/10
    This is one of those items that is basically another item but worse. It provides the same thing that Mace does, single target CC, but worse.

Hammers:

  • Hammer: 5/10
    Radius of E is a bit too small, and is handicapped by offhands, but overall it is a great control weapon.
  • Polehammer: 6/10
    Basically the same as Hammer but with a bit more reach.
  • Great Hammer:7/10
    Used to be really bad, but now it very good. Basically turns area around him into slush.

Crossbows:

  • Crossbow: 4/10
    Outshined in every way by Heavy and Repeating Crossbow.
  • Heavy Crossbow: 5/10
    Outshined by Repeating.
  • Repeating Crossbow: 9/10
    A powerhouse weapon, instant AoE that deals damage comparable to most single target abilities, is ranged, has self peels, and an insane Q.

Bows:

  • Bows: 4/10
    Decent single target damage, but brings nothing to the table.
  • Warbow: 5/10
    Used to be great, but now the E is easily dodge-able and only AoE if all enemies collectively decide to stand ontop of each other. Great Choice in Qs, and a good W.
  • Longbow: 6/10
    Can be devestating in certain comps, but overall it will be akin to a non-moving blizzard once blizzard is no longer bugged.

Spears:

  • Spear: 7/10
    It is good, even with the bad offhands. It is basically a Ranged Weapon with great AoE, decent CC, and good burst.
  • Pike: 6/10
    A one trick pony that has a huge CD on its one trick.
  • Halberd: 9/10
    Insane and instant burst, great AoE, great CC.

Daggers:

  • Dagger: 1/10
    Worst Weapon in the Game. Zero redeeming qualities.
  • Dagger Pair: 3/10
    Good burst that is impossible to actually use. With no other utility to speak of.
  • Claw: 5/10
    Similar to Pike, it is a one trick pony with a long CD, but unlike Pike, Claws are easily countered by almost every weapon/armor.

Quarterstaff:

  • Quarterstaff: 4/10
    Great weapon but, the Iron-Clad does everything it does but better.
  • Iron-Clad: 10/10
    Best tanking/CC item in the game, hands down, zero competition. Good Q, great choices in W, and an insane and annoying E.
  • Double-Bladed: 7/10
    All the awesomeness that is Quarterstaves, but it more tuned to open world and solo fun.

Fire Staff:

  • Fire Staff: 4/10
    Great single target damage and utility but suffers from a long cast time that are easily avoided given its range.
  • Great Fire Staff: 5/10
    Huge AoE, a bit more utility, but suffers from avoidability due to cast time and telegraph.
  • Infernal: 6/10
    Awesome open world damage, less useful the smaller the group gets.

Frost Staff:

  • Frost Staff: 5/10
    Go Glacial or Go home. Short Range, limited zoning potential and CC.
  • Great Frost Staff: 6/10
    Good Zoning, Good CC, Good AoE.
  • Glacial: 10/10
    Best AoE in the Game, due to a bug, if the bug is fixed it would be more of a 8/10 weapon.

Curse Staff:

  • Curse Staff: 8/10
    Best single target in the game. Iceblock, Invisibility, or Cleanse needs to be burned or you die.
  • Great Curse Staff: 6/10
    Decent AoE and Utility, outshined on all accounts by Demonic.
  • Demonic Staff: 8:10
    Awesome AoE, Awesome Single Target, Awesome Utility

how-to-rank-all-non-support-weapons

Conclusion:

There are clearly standout items, the problem with these standout items is that they totally eclipse all other times. It would be one thing if they were 10-15% better than the average item, but they are 50-100% better. This creates two problems, firstly, the run of the mill item is now relative garbage, the second problem is the below average item might as well not be in the game.

Right now the (Bugged) Glacial, Iron-Clad, Halberd, Repeating Crossbow are all too good. With all of this overpoweredness coming from their E’s.

Curse Staves on the other hand are powerful mostly because of their Armor Piercer and Curse Beam Ws.

The Dagger Branch is all just bad; Bad Q, Bad W, Bad Es.

Sword Branch is similarly bad, but for different reasons, where Daggers have problems with the way abilities function, Swords just have problem with Damage Numbers.

Battleaxe, Frost Staff, Fire Staff, Quarterstaff, Bow, Crossbow, and Mace all suffer from their only real utility being mimicked and outmatched by weapons further down their line or in another tree altogether.

Many One-Handed Weapons suffer from weaknesses from offhands, though the shield change might address some of these problems.

Overall, any melee weapon without a sprint, charge, or movement based damage ability is bad. Part of this problem is the fact that for every auto-attack and ability cast, the melee have to stop and then resume the chase after losing ground from stopping. Melee either need to not root themselves for abilities, or autoattacks, or have a movement speed passive on the base weapons similar to the health and health regen they already have.

Design Direction for New Hunter Weapons

Today I’m going to try and focus these weapons around combos/skill-shots as I feel those are the direction PVP needs to go.

albion-online-weapons

Here is the design direction for each specific weapon!

Double Pistols – Single Target sustained DPS, tank destroyer
Shotgun – AoE sustained DPS, very in your face back line destroyer, high risk high reward
Sniper – Single Target Burst, long range, weak up close

design-direction-for-new-hunter-weapons
-SHARED ABILITIES-

PASSIVE 1 – Haste: 20% Chance to increase move speed by 15% on attack. (Same as torch)
PASSIVE 2 – Aggression: Auto attacks deal 10% more damage. (Same as daggers)

Q1- Incendiary shot: Load and fire an explosive bullet in the targeted direction, damaging and igniting the first enemy hit, dealing magic damage overtime. 7s CD

Q2- Frost shot: Load and fire a cryogenic bullet in the targeted direction, damaging and slowing the first enemy hit. 5s CD

Q3- Charged shot: Load and fire an electrically charged bullet in the targeted direction, damaging and silencing the first enemy hit for 2s. 7s CD
W1- Smoke grenade: Lob a smoke grenade at the targeted area, enemies inside the smoke cannot see outside and vice versa. 4 second duration. 20 second CD. This ability interacts with each of the Q’s.
–Q1: The smoke ignites and explodes, dealing damage and igniting all enemies within.
–Q2: The smoke condenses and slows all enemies who stay within the field by 60%.
–Q3: The electric charge leaks into the smoke, damaging and silencing everyone inside.

W2- Quickdraw: Dash forward while shooting a bullet in a target direction, if the bullet hits, the cooldown of Quickdraw is reduced to one second and the cooldowns of all other abilities are reduced by 1 second. 7s CD.

1.Double Pistols

Attack Damage: 75 (This is arbitrary, but imagine Bows at 100 as a baseline)
Attack Speed: 1.5 (Once again, bows baseline at 1)
DPS: 112.5 (Bows baseline 100)
Range: 9 (Bows being 11)

Armour Piercing Rounds: For the next 8s, increase your attack speed by 50% and your autos deal and additional 7.5% of your targets max health as magic damage. 30s CD.

2.Shotgun

Attack Damage: 180 (This is arbitrary, but imagine Bows at 100 as a baseline)
Attack Speed: 0.8 (Once again, bows baseline at 1)
DPS: 144 (Bows baseline 100)
Range: 5 (Bows being 11)

Blunderbuss: A large explosion erupts from your shotgun, damaging and pushing back all enemies in a cone in front of you, the damage and knock back is greater the closer they are to you. 30s CD.

3.Sniper

Attack Damage: 220 (This is arbitrary, but imagine Bows at 100 as a baseline)
Attack Speed: 0.5 (Once again, bows baseline at 1)
DPS: 110 (Bows baseline 100)
Range: 13 (Bows being 11)

Hunker Down: Become rooted, and for 6 seconds your range is increased to 16 your attack speed by 100% and your auto attacks deal additional damage based on the distance of the target (up to 200%). 30s CD.

Conflicting PvP and PvE in the New Death Mechanic

With the new changes to the recent Death Mechanic there are 3 main issues that initially come to mind and have already proven to be an issue after the first couple days.

Albion-Online-conflicting-PvP

  • PvE is pathetic now and super easy when youre in a sizable group.
  • Winning when outnumbered in PvP by more than 2 or 3 is now nearly impossible.
  • The kill fame for kills is no longer going to the correct people.

I’ll begin with the topic of PvE being too easy when in sizable groups. In the past the raid dungeons in black zones were difficult and very punishing if you were to go in there with unexperienced or unskilled players due to gear loss upon death. With the new death mechanic this is no longer the case. The deaths should feel punishing instead of players just accepting death and not trying to survive because meh who cares. Especially since your gear only breaks 10% per death now and we have repair kits. If you are going through PvE content with a group now there is literally no worry if you die.

Now I will speak upon the idea that small groups are having a much harder time fighting groups with more people than them. Outnumbered PvP has always been something I have enjoyed greatly and is something I used to really love about Albion. I can remember many times pre cador me and my stardust squad would be on a map where there would be a zerg v zerg happening for a castle, and we would play gorilla warfare hit and run tactics. Quickly killing and looting people who were caught just slightly out from their group.

With the new execute mechanic this is now nearly impossible as you are literally stuck there on there body for a long enough period of time for the player’s team that you killed to respond. Another situation is when we straight clash with a group that has more members than us. We use kiting mechanics with all of our range to kite back while dealing damage and constantly getting heals from our nature staff. This being said we are very mobile moving very far away from where the fight began and the fights last a long time, but we have always been victorious. Now with the new death mechanic this is no longer possible because we have to stop kiting to execute players giving the enemy a very easy and high chance of catching us, and if we were to decide to not execute and wait till the end to execute players the fights last so long that the players who were downed first would have gotten up and escaped by then.

My last and final point is that the kill fame is no longer going onto the correct players. Many many times now I have killed someone or I have seen somebody else kill someone and then a different player that had nothing to do with the death execute and get the kill fame for it. I understand the developers want killing other players to be a “conscious” choice but in all reality there is no negative effect from killing someone and unless that negative effect is very negative in the future nobody will care anyways.

I will now speak on what changes I think can be made to both implementing the developers idea of being knocked before death to create exciting gameplay and keeping the players happy. If we are going to have a down state before death that gives people a chance to revive that is fine, but lets do it right. Look at other games for example call of duty nazi zombies or gw2. Both different style games but they implement the same idea. You go down before death but are only in the down state for roughly 10 seconds (I do not know the exact time i apologize). To implement this idea into albion lets give players who are downed an amount of time to resurected by a .3 holy staff ONLY. I think a down state of 6 seconds is perfect (the cast on the res spell is 2 seconds). If the downed player is not revived in the alloted time then they die. There is no execute needed and the kill fame can be distributed in one of two ways. Either give the kill fame out like they used to (the player who gets the last hit), or give it out evenly to all of the people who assisted in the kill (like kills and assists in league of legends).

I love this game and will probably continue to play it no matter what the developers decide to do to it, but the current events are driving away many players who wish to help us all with the beta testing. If anyone has anything to add to what i have said I would love to hear all comments. Again this post is meant to give the developers feedback about current changes to the death mechanic, and not just rant. I know Im not the only person who would like to see this fixed.

New Weapons and Armor Skills in Albion Online

This is a compilation of the new weapon/armor skills that are currently on the staging server. I’m just adding stuff to the lists as I look them over for my own interest.If they change the skills again on the staging server, I probably won’t see it. This thread was last edited this week.

albion-online-weapona-and-skill

Quick reference for armor skills:

Helmet
Heavy
Shared abilities
D1: Emergency Heal – Instantly heals yourself, and allies within 3m, for X
D2: Stoneskin – Increases Armor and Magic Resist by X and healing recieved, for 10s
Soldier line (.1)
D3: Energy Shield – Applies an energy shield on yourself for 10s. Every time you take damage, you restore energy.
Knight line (.2)
D3: Block – Blocks all incoming damage for 2s.
Guardian line (.3)
D3: Sacrifice – Restores 20% health of an ally, and reduces your health by 15%. Can also be cast on yourself.
Medium
Shared abilities
D1: Meditation – Cooldown reduction
D2: Cleanse – Removes CC from you
Mercenary line (.1)
D3: Howl – Slow enemies in a cone in front of you by 30% for Xs, and deal Y magic damage.
Hunter line (.2)
D3: Bear Trap – Places a trap under your feet. First enemy to walk over it is slowed by (90%) and takes (71) damage per second for 4 seconds.
Assassin line (.3)
D3: Smokebomb – Place a smokebomb under your feet. You are invisile inside the smokebomb, and all targets (you, allies, enemies) inside the smoke are silenced. Lasts 5s, 6m radius.
Light
Shared abilities
D1: Energy Regain –
D2: Force Field – Knocks all enemies around you away, damaging them.
Scholar line (.1)
D3: Disruption immunity – Immune to spell pushback for 10s, but can still be hard interrupted.
Cleric line (.2)
D3: Ice Block –
Mage line (.3)
D3: Poison – Coat your weapon with poison. Your next auto attack will poison the enemy, dealing (86) damage per second for 5 seconds.

Armor
Heavy
Shared abilities
R1: Mend Woulds – As long as you are not in combat, You can use this spell to mend wounds.
R2: Inferno Shield – You will be covered by a flaming shield, which will increase your resistances by X, and reflect 50% of incoming damage back to the attacker for 8s.
Soldier line (.1)
R3: Bloodlust – Every time you damage an enemy, you heal yourself for X. Lasts for 10s or 15 hits.
Knight line (.2)
R3: Mind Wall – Casts a lasting wind wall in front of you, lasting 4s, which knocks back all enemies hit by it.
Guardian line (.3)
R3: Enfeeble Aura – Reduces all damage done by all enemies within 7m of you by 60%. This aura lasts for 5 seconds.
Medium
Shared abilities
R1: Mend Woulds – As long as you are not in combat, You can use this spell to mend wounds.
R2: Fury – 10% damage bonus every time you get damaged (stacks up to 8 times). The buff lasts for 10s.
Mercenary line (.1)
R3: Electric Field – Unleashes an electric field around you, dealing (63) damage twice per second to everu enemy around you. The field lasts 8s.
Hunter line (.2)
R3: Haste – Increases your movement speed by 35% and attack speed by 60%, for 8s.
Assassin line (.3)
R3: Ambush – Turn invisible for 5s, with a 20% reduced move speed. Attacking or casting a spell breaks the invisibility, but that attack or spell willl have increased damage. The longer you were invisible, the stronger the damage buff, up to 50%.
Light
Shared Abilities
R1: Mend Woulds – As long as you are not in combat, You can use this spell to mend wounds.
R2: Frost Shield – Your armor and magic resist are increased by (167) for 8s. Enemies that attack you are slowed by 20% for (5) seconds. 10% of incoming damage is reflected back to the attacker.
Scholar line (.1)
D3: Speed Caster – Doubles your cast speed by 8s, but reduces the power of your spells by X.
Cleric line (.2)
D3: Everlasting Spirit – If you get damaged during Everlasting Spirit and your hp drops below 30%, you become invulnerable for 3s, and your damage is increased by 30%.
Mage line (.3)
D3: Berserker – Your damage is increased by 5%. The less health you have upon activation, the larger the increase. Ranges from 5% increase to 100% increase.

1495402_225432014294259_1611878070_o

Boots
Heavy
Shared abilities
F1: Flee
F2:Rejuvenating Sprint
Soldier line (.1)
F3: Sprint Shield –
Knight line (.2)
F3: Shield Charge – Charge towards an ally or enemy. After the charge, you apply a shield to yourself and allies in close proximity. Shield lasts 10s.
Guardian line (.3)
F3: Giant – Temporarily increase your max and current hitpoints by 50% for 8s.
Medium
Shared abilities
F1: Flee
F2: Refreshing Sprint
Mercenary line (.1)
F3: Invisibility – Turn invisible, and reveal all invisible targets in a 15m radius around you. You stay invisible for as long as you keep channelling, for up to 20s. Not useable in combat.
Hunter line (.2)
F3: Rush – 120% move speed for 3s.
Assassin line (.3)
F3: Dodge – Dodge roll to the cursor’s position. You are invincible during the roll, and after the roll, your move speed incraeses by 40% for 4s.
Light
Shared Abilities
F1: Flee
F2: Energetic Sprint
Scholar line (.1)
F3: Run – 50% move speed for 7s
Cleric line (.2)
F3: Blink –
Mage line (.3)
F3: Delayed Teleport – Choose a ground target within 15m. 2s after activation, you will be teleported to the desired position

Ideas for Guild vs Guild Warfare in Albion Online

Albion Online is a very great game.Today I will share some ideas for Guild Vs Guild Warfare.

Guild Size
How guild size impacts how you play should be scalable. This means a larger guild just has more of the same thing, not access to more content. This scaling can be introduced in the form of Influence.

Influence
Guilds gain 1 Influence per member. Multiple members from the same account (alts) do not increase Influence.

Influence is used to attack and hold territory. You need the available influence to initiate an attack, at which point that influence is locked until the attack is finished.This means how many simultaneous attacks you can perform are limited by your influence.

Territory
These can vary in size and efficiency. Larger Territory requires more influence and the zone determines the efficiency. Red Zone territories are less efficient than their Black Zone counterparts, meaning they cost more influence for what they are.

For example, a Red Zone Small Territory might require 20 Influence; however, the same Territory in a Black Zone would only require 10. This makes Red Zone territory less desirable to larger guilds looking to maximize their Territory capacity, but a 20-man guild might find this ideal.

Territory can be used as Influence when declaring an attack on another Territory. This allows a guild to fight for an “Upgrade”. If you own a 20-Influence Territory and have 10 Influence remaining, you can attack a 30-Influence Territory by using both the available 10 and the 20 Influence Territory. If you claim the new Territory, the 20-Influence Territory is lost and up for grabs by other guilds.

Attacking
As described in the possible new system there will be Nodes with structures that can be captured. The size of the Territory will determine how many of these structures are available for capture and the Influence of the Territory will determine the diminishing returns of attacking forces.While attacking or defending a Territory the zone grants a combat buff to both sides granting 100% combat effectiveness against the enemy. However, for each additional guild member in the combat zone above the Influence Value of the territory, this buff loses 10% effectiveness.

e.g. A 30-Influence Territory:
1-30 members – 100% Combat Effectiveness
31 members – 90% Combat Effectiveness
32 members – 81% Combat Effectiveness
33 members – 73% Combat Effectiveness
50 members – 12% Combat Effectiveness

This means it becomes very detrimental to commit more combatants than the Territory Influence suggests. Combat Influence directly impacts your damage and your capture time for Nodes. Alliance members will not incur the combat penalty, but will count towards the buff values. This means Alliance members, while remaining competent fighters, will seriously slow any capture attempt while being unable to aid in capture themselves. A guild can only attempt to capture one Node in a Territory every 24 hours. Once captured, it cannot be re-taken by the defenders for 48 hours. This presents the following combat scenarios:

Small Territory – 2 Nodes
Node 1 is Captured by the Attackers – Protected for 48 Hours
Node 2 is attacked 24 Hours later by Attackers – Successfully Defended
Node 2 is attacked again 24 Hours later – Successfully Defended
Node 1 is also Re-Captured by Defenders
OR
Node 1 is Captured by the Attackers – Protected for 48 Hours
Node 2 is Captured 24 Hours later by Attackers – Protected 48 Hours
Attackers own all Nodes and can attack the Territory – Total time of initial attack, 48 Hours

Medium Territory – 3 Nodes
Node 1 is Captured by the Attackers – Protected for 48 Hours
Node 2 is Captured 24 Hours later by Attackers – Protected 48 Hours
Node 1 is Attacked by Defenders 24 Hours later – Successfully Defended by Attackers
Node 3 is Captured by the Attackers – Protected 48 Hours
Attackers own all Nodes and can attack the Territory – Total time of initial attack, 72 Hours

Multiple parties who have declared war can attempt to take Nodes, but must own all the Nodes to attack the Territory. Defenders can also only Attack one Node in the Territory every 24 hours, the same as the Attackers. The 48 Hour protection allows for an initial advance with larger territories being harder to maintain Node control of during an attack. The defenders would then have the added advantage of simply winning the Territory 5v5 while an Attacker controls all Nodes and wasting their opportunity.

Larger Black Zone Territories could cost upwards of 200 Influence to encourage large-scale PvP. These larger Territories could even use smaller surrounding Territories as their “Nodes”, making their Attack and Defence more intricate.

If you own a Territory and your guild loses members to the point where you cannot afford the territory, you will not lose the territory, but any defending members class as 2 members when it comes to the Combat Effectiveness buff, essentially crippling your defence until your Influence is balanced (either by gaining members or losing territory).