Lutieus
01-25-2004, 09:40 PM
Okay, so when arcs were put in, they were said to mimic arrow motion. Aside from the obvious curved flight path, they also follow a trajectory based on where the target stands, rather than how the target is moving. This is good.
Thing is, though, regular missile attacks don't actually fire like that. They do follow a curved trajectory, but fire in the direction the target is moving. The effect on PvM is negligible, since MOBs generally run in straight lines, aside from errata such as running around trees or rubber-banding backwards. Overall this amounts to players needing to make arrows slightly more often.
For PvP, however, it heavily limits the effectiveness of missile skills. Anyone can dodge the majority of an archer's attacks, whether they have missile d or not, by simply wiggling back and forth. Players who wiggle well and have missile d can be amazingly difficult to hit. Players who wiggle well, have missile d, and use Blood Loather can be virtually impossible to kill. What results is that archers are often at a strong disadvantage to opponents they should outshine, enough so that they are only rarely used for PvP now.
Naturally, making arrows and such land more frequently would have considerable balance implications. In archer vs. meleer combat, not much would change, since meleers already have to stand in one spot to attack anyway (or resort to using wands or drain spells). So archer vs. mage fights are the primary concern. Mages could still evade a fair number of shots by sliding back and forth, similar to how arcs are dodged now. People wearing decent armor would still take maybe 30-35 damage per shot, which could easily be cut down to 20ish with Blood Loather. Mages would still be quite capable of fighting archers effectively; it simply would take more than pounding Z and C as quickly as possible. Archers, on the other hand, would find themselves FAR more effective outside of group fights, while not becoming overpowered in the process.
So since arcs move like arrows, will arrows ever move like arrows?
Thing is, though, regular missile attacks don't actually fire like that. They do follow a curved trajectory, but fire in the direction the target is moving. The effect on PvM is negligible, since MOBs generally run in straight lines, aside from errata such as running around trees or rubber-banding backwards. Overall this amounts to players needing to make arrows slightly more often.
For PvP, however, it heavily limits the effectiveness of missile skills. Anyone can dodge the majority of an archer's attacks, whether they have missile d or not, by simply wiggling back and forth. Players who wiggle well and have missile d can be amazingly difficult to hit. Players who wiggle well, have missile d, and use Blood Loather can be virtually impossible to kill. What results is that archers are often at a strong disadvantage to opponents they should outshine, enough so that they are only rarely used for PvP now.
Naturally, making arrows and such land more frequently would have considerable balance implications. In archer vs. meleer combat, not much would change, since meleers already have to stand in one spot to attack anyway (or resort to using wands or drain spells). So archer vs. mage fights are the primary concern. Mages could still evade a fair number of shots by sliding back and forth, similar to how arcs are dodged now. People wearing decent armor would still take maybe 30-35 damage per shot, which could easily be cut down to 20ish with Blood Loather. Mages would still be quite capable of fighting archers effectively; it simply would take more than pounding Z and C as quickly as possible. Archers, on the other hand, would find themselves FAR more effective outside of group fights, while not becoming overpowered in the process.
So since arcs move like arrows, will arrows ever move like arrows?