Some feedback regarding the weapons.

[Amane]

Hello Blade & Soul community, 

 

I think this topic should've been brought to light for quite some time now. 

It is regarding the current weapon path for Blade & Soul. 

 

Nothing should obviously change within the best tier now (Upsurge & True Upsurge tier), but I think something needs to be done at the start and also some cost reductions for the Shadow Fury weapon tier. 

Right now for a fresh character or new player, these people start at Grand Celestial - Stage 6. Throughout doing the Daily challenge, they can acquire Grand Celestial and Thornbreaker Forgestones to go all the way to Thornbreaker - Stage 9. This is quite good... atleast for the standard we had six months ago. 

 

With the current rotation of dungeons in the game (especially the new Demonsbane stage balance), a Thornbreaker 9 weapon is simply not good enough, however upgrading until Upsurge is quite a lot of time to sink in, to the point people won't be able to even get the weapon until new tiers have been released. 

This is not about grind, it's just very badly handled in terms of progression. It locks out quite the player numbers from doing endgame content... not the hardest, but basic endgame content.

 

So... what could be done?

 

- A new item called Steelbreaker Forgestone, acquired through the Dragon Express for 12 Solar Pearls per Forgestone. These allow you to freely upgrade ONE Silversteel Weapon stage, starting from Thornbreaker Weapon - Stage 9 and ending at Silversteel Weapon - Stage 9. 

(Between Silversteel Weapon - Stage 6 to 9, you could also make it so 2 Forgestones are required to upgrade to the next stage if some people deem it as "too easy".)

The Silversteel Weapon tier is quite the weird one... while it is a good weapon and definitely helps the lower players to push into more advanced Demonsbane stage and other content, it is only the 3rd best tier in the game now. This should be a very reasonable catchup for players without making the game basically no grind at all. 

 

- Shadow Fury is the tier between Silversteel and Upsurge. Some minor cost reductions should be considered (less Twisted Hearts for example), but to a point where people obviously still have to do something and invest quite some time to get to Shadow Fury - Stage 9. 

 

- Also consider to offer a Shadow Fury weapon material in the last stage of the next Soul Boost and onwards. This would effectively put people to Shadow Fury - Stage 3 if they afford the remaining costs and materials for the upgrade. 

 

It does help when newer players as well as mid-geared players have some sort of progression without pushing them straight up to veteran players and whales without basically any effort. It makes sure more people can do the new good content, which also results in more active dungeon numbers and playercount. The difference between a free-to-play player and a veteran/whale would still be massive. That won't change but atleast make it better for other players so they will stay in the game and also might spend money on it. 

 

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by Amane

[Green Storm]

Thanks for this thoughtful feedback @Amane I passed it to our teams. There's no guarantee that we can do any of this, but we appreciate you sharing your suggestions.

[MishaJ]

2 hours ago, Amane said:

Hello Blade & Soul community, 

 

I think this topic should've been brought to light for quite some time now. 

It is regarding the current weapon path for Blade & Soul. 

 

Nothing should obviously change within the best tier now (Upsurge & True Upsurge tier), but I think something needs to be done at the start and also some cost reductions for the Shadow Fury weapon tier. 

Right now for a fresh character or new player, these people start at Grand Celestial - Stage 6. Throughout doing the Daily challenge, they can acquire Grand Celestial and Thornbreaker Forgestones to go all the way to Thornbreaker - Stage 9. This is quite good... atleast for the standard we had six months ago. 

 

With the current rotation of dungeons in the game (especially the new Demonsbane stage balance), a Thornbreaker 9 weapon is simply not good enough, however upgrading until Upsurge is quite a lot of time to sink in, to the point people won't be able to even get the weapon until new tiers have been released. 

This is not about grind, it's just very badly handled in terms of progression. It locks out quite the player numbers from doing endgame content... not the hardest, but basic endgame content.

 

So... what could be done?

 

- A new item called Steelbreaker Forgestone, acquired through the Dragon Express for 12 Solar Pearls per Forgestone. These allow you to freely upgrade ONE Silversteel Weapon stage, starting from Thornbreaker Weapon - Stage 9 and ending at Silversteel Weapon - Stage 9. 

(Between Silversteel Weapon - Stage 6 to 9, you could also make it so 2 Forgestones are required to upgrade to the next stage if some people deem it as "too easy".)

The Silversteel Weapon tier is quite the weird one... while it is a good weapon and definitely helps the lower players to push into more advanced Demonsbane stage and other content, it is only the 3rd best tier in the game now. This should be a very reasonable catchup for players without making the game basically no grind at all. 

 

- Shadow Fury is the tier between Silversteel and Upsurge. Some minor cost reductions should be considered (less Twisted Hearts for example), but to a point where people obviously still have to do something and invest quite some time to get to Shadow Fury - Stage 9. 

 

- Also consider to offer a Shadow Fury weapon material in the last stage of the next Soul Boost and onwards. This would effectively put people to Shadow Fury - Stage 3 if they afford the remaining costs and materials for the upgrade. 

 

It does help when newer players as well as mid-geared players have some sort of progression without pushing them straight up to veteran players and whales without basically any effort. It makes sure more people can do the new good content, which also results in more active dungeon numbers and playercount. The difference between a free-to-play player and a veteran/whale would still be massive. That won't change but atleast make it better for other players so they will stay in the game and also might spend money on it. 

 

 

Finally someone else who thinks we should have a cost adjustment to SF9. My main still isn;t SF9 because I don;t raid and I can only rely on Weekly challenge/Stronghold/Daily dash for twisted hearts. Many are like me who rely on those 3 sources to try and get twisted hearts as they don't raid. I think they should also consider more events with raid catalyst selection boxes. Like the previous event that allowed you to get 10 free twisted hearts per character, we need this in a lot more events. I'd rather have loot like that then gem hammers or fortune potions etc. Give us loot that actually helps us progress our weapon.

[Walex]

19 hours ago, Amane said:

 

Nothing should obviously change within the best tier now (Upsurge & True Upsurge tier)

 

 

 

Let's see...
+11 SF 9 weapon is 890 AP, 156 BAP, 2.1% CDMG

+11 Upsurge weapon is 894 AP, 160 BAP, 1.2% CDMG

One gains +4 AP, +4 BAP (+8 total), but you LOSE 0.9% CDMG

So basically you spend tons of time to farm and eventually get the brand new tier weapon... and you LOSE stats.
Yep, totally nothing should change!

[Walex]

1.2% recovery (Demonsbane only), and only from stages 41 and higher, don't be silly.

[Draknalor]

4 hours ago, Walex said:

So basically you spend tons of time to farm and eventually get the brand new tier weapon... and you LOSE stats.

You are not meant to keep it at +11 tho.

 

The Weapon gains more Boss attack power as you level it up, Which is the stat that matters.

 

Also, these weapons has always almost been about the 5 stack effect only and not the raw stat on the weapon.

 

Weapon has always been the worst thing to upgrade for DmG increase tho, ever since the stopped giving Ability dmg increases and just has the same as the previous tier.

 

 

Edited June 15, 2022 by Draknalor

[Rhiakath]

46 minutes ago, Draknalor said:

Weapon has always been the worst thing to upgrade for DmG increase tho, ever since the stopped giving Ability dmg increases and just has the same as the previous tier.

 

Yes. And this is not normal.

[ShiroArcher]

4 hours ago, Walex said:

 

Let's see...
+11 SF 9 weapon is 890 AP, 156 BAP, 2.1% CDMG

+11 Upsurge weapon is 894 AP, 160 BAP, 1.2% CDMG

One gains +4 AP, +4 BAP (+8 total), but you LOSE 0.9% CDMG

So basically you spend tons of time to farm and eventually get the brand new tier weapon... and you LOSE stats.
Yep, totally nothing should change!

This statement is wrong.

You forgot that you'll gain an extra stat can be 900+ Mystic. So technically u dont lose stats you exchange it for a little increase. 

[Walex]

1 hour ago, Draknalor said:

You are not meant to keep it at +11 tho.

 

The Weapon gains more Boss attack power as you level it up, Which is the stat that matters.

 

That's not the point.

  

12 minutes ago, ShiroArcher said:

 

You forgot that you'll gain an extra stat can be 900+ Mystic. So technically u dont lose stats you exchange it for a little increase. 

 

Yes (and I did not forget about that) but that's not the point.

[Rhiakath]

The 950+ Mystic is a gamble stat, and you might be stuck with some extra HP instead, for several thousands of gold worth of rerolls

 

[ShiroArcher]

 

2 minutes ago, Rhiakath said:

The 950+ Mystic is a gamble stat, and you might be stuck with some extra HP instead, for several thousands of gold worth of rerolls

 

Its literally a 1/3 chance to get a mystic stat other decisions belongs to you and how far you want to go on weapon.

[Rhiakath]

1 minute ago, ShiroArcher said:

Its literally a 1/3 chance to get a mystic stat other decisions belongs to you and how far you want to go on weapon.

 

the advertised "900+" specifically is 1/12. Mystic can go as low as 487 on a +11 weapon. Using "900+ mystic" as a justification why this upgrade is allegedly good is a bit like "just win the lottery" on top of already scuffed RNG of obtaining one in the first place (especially the first month we've had it, it's not as horrible anymore although it can still take a loooong time to drop your box)

[Draknalor]

3 hours ago, Rhiakath said:

the advertised "900+" specifically is 1/12. Mystic can go as low as 487 on a +11 weapon. Using "900+ mystic" as a justification why this upgrade is allegedly good is a bit like "just win the lottery" on top of already scuffed RNG of obtaining one in the first place (especially the first month we've had it, it's not as horrible anymore although it can still take a loooong time to drop your box)

I'm sure i am extremly lucky with this.

 

But all the starcross stuff and upsurge weapon got mystic on them within 1-3 rerolls for me.

 

I think earring even had Mystic as first stat, no reroll needed

 

 

[wardenlynftw]

33 minutes ago, Draknalor said:

I'm sure i am extremly lucky with this.

 

But all the starcross stuff and upsurge weapon got mystic on them within 1-3 rerolls for me.

 

I think earring even had Mystic as first stat, no reroll needed

 

 

ring and earring was relatively fine for me, however gloves took around 30 trys to get the stat I wanted and necklace 20 or so, I wouldn't call this a good system regardless if I was lucky or not, because anyway can be the non-lucky person one day