Greetings, glorious adventurers! If you're joining in our Alpha One spot testing, please follow the steps here to see all the latest test info on our forums and Discord!
Options
The option NOT to dual wield one-handed weapons
Marzzo
Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One
In many MMO:s one-handed weapons are exclusivly balanced to only work with another paired option. For example a shield, tome, wand or another one-handed weapon.
I would like to see this changed so that we atleast have the option not to do this without getting hurt by doing so.
Having a single one-handed weapon with no offhand offers great fantasy options for those who love this style. It is also appreciated by players who like a more realistic approach to bladed combat.
Gameplay wise a free hand offers many advantages. You open up the ability to use quick one-handed spells. You also have a free hand for martial moves like grabbing and punching. You could also use your second hand to use special potions or tools like granades or grappling hooks etc. These are just random suggestions but you get my point.
A character only using a single one handed sword has a completly different feel and fantasy in contrast to a dual-wielding character. And this is important to some people.
How can this be implemented smoothly?
If a selected few classes (for example rogue+warrior) get designed around this gear setup, the problem is solved.
Are there any problems with this?
At first glance, yes. Items in MMO grants stats. That means that a character wearing 2 items as weapons
(sword+sword, sword+shield etc) will have a stat advantage.
To counter this, classes that specialize in this path could get buffs or bonuses for not wearing an offhand or two-hand.
What do you think? Would you like to see, or have the option for a few classes, or a single one, to be able to only weild one-handeds without an offhand?
I would like to see this changed so that we atleast have the option not to do this without getting hurt by doing so.
Having a single one-handed weapon with no offhand offers great fantasy options for those who love this style. It is also appreciated by players who like a more realistic approach to bladed combat.
Gameplay wise a free hand offers many advantages. You open up the ability to use quick one-handed spells. You also have a free hand for martial moves like grabbing and punching. You could also use your second hand to use special potions or tools like granades or grappling hooks etc. These are just random suggestions but you get my point.
A character only using a single one handed sword has a completly different feel and fantasy in contrast to a dual-wielding character. And this is important to some people.
How can this be implemented smoothly?
If a selected few classes (for example rogue+warrior) get designed around this gear setup, the problem is solved.
Are there any problems with this?
At first glance, yes. Items in MMO grants stats. That means that a character wearing 2 items as weapons
(sword+sword, sword+shield etc) will have a stat advantage.
To counter this, classes that specialize in this path could get buffs or bonuses for not wearing an offhand or two-hand.
What do you think? Would you like to see, or have the option for a few classes, or a single one, to be able to only weild one-handeds without an offhand?
1
Comments
I’d lean more toward an augment style since weapon types aren’t class locked.
There's virtually no tactical advantage you'd gain by purposely keeping one hand unarmed. Even duelists would rather have a buckler or dirk in the off-hand rather than go completely unarmed. Hell even a coat or cloak to tangle your opponent's sword with was preferable to unarmed.
If you needed to strike your opponent, stabby with a dirk or smashy with the guard works better than your bare fist, and if you needed to grapple or grab, drop the weapon in your off hand.
That being said, yes there were HEMA dueling styles that focused on one handed swords and unarmed off hand. It was more or less a given that you'd either lose your off hand weapon, or sometimes duels just required one weapon for the sake of etiquette.
For spells... I'm not sure that's how AoC will be doing those types of things.
Rapiers and light swords were a renaissance weapon. That period doesnt fit well with fantasy.
Anyways, nothing should be impossible, but a 1 sword fighter would have to drain ideas from other melee classes.
Maybe the best way would be a 1 sword fighter with magical powers (no orb, no tome, no second weapon).
Melee ranged with a tiny bit reach.
In more brawling/hooliganism type situations - as well as any kind of situation where you wish to conceal the fact that you are prepared for a fight - a single smaller weapon has always been (and remains today) the weapon of choice.
I'd be all for a class having the option to equip a single one handed weapon. It isn't hard to compensate the character for the stats, and as a playstyle it is somewhat more realistic than many of the melee playstyles that most MMORPG's make use of.
Oh and on a side note if you wanted realistic combat you'd need to take out dodgerolling and swinging 2-handed weapons around like they are made of paper....
Q: Will there be advantages to using a one hander without a shield?
A: That will be something you build towards, there will be passives and stuff that will promote certain fighting styles.
Source: Sept. 27th, 2019 livestream https://ashespost.com/9-27-19-livestream-transcript/
Edit: Link with the time stamp to the question
having a onehanded weapon build sounds great but also being able to punch sounds amazing with the open hand sounds great to:3
Regarding the spells, do you think the "one handed user" can move while casting ? Some spells require a casting time that immobilizes you, or some are instantaneous. Wouldn't it limit the player in terms of the range of spells he can use since he needs to be mobile and in melee range to hit ? I can't think of any strengths in it except "magical/elements buffs" maybe.
Well. The buckler is a good choice. But some duelists do choose not to use a dirk or buckler. I hope they offer us some of the things you recommended.
Indeed. I imagine the spells would complement this kind of fantasy good. My inspiration would be fiora from league of legends if you know who that is.
Realism was one point i made. I made several for all different kinds of people. I personally love the fantasy about focusing on 1 single light blade and leaving my other arm open for spells or martial arts. I dont really care about realism, but some do.
If we dont care about realism, we would not be against insanely large weapons that are 3-4x the size of your character. But the reason that would look stupid is becuase it deters to much from realism.
I imagine some spells require you to be stationary and focus, while other are more of a rutine move, maybe it slows u down for half a sec or something.
Maybe in witcher style like geralt uses.
Ye.
I did 7-2 against morde only to lose because of bad team last night xDD
I'd like to see a real sword fighter mage like the Witcher.
No mmorpg has done it correctly
Yeah... the thing is that before rapiers were used in the fencing SPORT, their handlers used a secondary blade called a parrying dagger...
It fell out of use, after nbility started using rapiers mostly for fencing, no one would use only a rapier in actual life or death combat.
I hope so because they show dual dagger not to long ago and as a future shadow guardian I planned to go for dagger and shield ^^".
It could be that daggers will always be dual daggers visually, until you equip a secondary weapon.
Thats literally exactly what I want haha
Can't beat a good old witch hunter
DID SOMEBODY SAY... BARD ASSASSIN?!?
I now have the urge to sing toss a coin to your witcher
1). When using one-handed weapons and leaving the off-hand free in the MMO, typically requires a small to medium weapon where the hilt is compact enough to be wielded by just one hand with balance intact. For example a longsword is wielded with two hands if there is nothing placed in the off-hand slot. This is because the hilt of the sword is long enough for both hands. A rapier or saber, however, is wielded with just one hand when no weapon is placed in the off-hand because the hilt is made only for one-hand, and the crossguard is called a "handguard," instead. Small weapons such as maces, kukris, daggers, etc., can be used with only one hand while leaving the other hand free. In most instances a scimitar is in the same classification as a saber and can be wielded with just one hand leaving the other one empty. If you wish to wield a scimitar with two hands, there is the option of a falchion. In AoC you can wield single-handed weapons such as axes and swords with just one hand without using a shield in the off-hand, but I am predicting the algorithm for to-hit ratio and damage output would be affected considerably given various factors, including class and race.
2). In real life the best option is to have a katana with a bo-hi (blood groove), or double bo-hi (two blood grooves), along the blade for a lighter sword in the main hand. The bo-hi is just an indentation within the blade itself that runs along the entire length from habuki to tip. This makes the blade lighter. A double bo-hi is "two" indentations along the blade, one directly perpendicular to the other. Once this is established, use brass knuckles in the off-hand. Or if you want to get really creative, lexan knuckles or spiked lexan knuckles (since brass knuckles are illegal in some states).
Edit: Fighter/Ranger -> Hunter would be the best choice for dual-wielding or wielding one weapon only, in my opinion.
To be fair...
In real life, a katana was wielded one/two handed like a bastardsword. The weapon that you are looking for in real life, if you think about only using one hand in a real life or death fight would be a scimitar used from horseback, or a cutlass used on the high sea.
The only real advantage of keeping one of your hand unoccupied would be for Grabbing, ramming, gouging, throwing sand etc. Use one sword in your right hadn and equip a heavy gauntlet on the other (like a cestus).
For example: classes that could use a free hand during combat in the mmorpg:
-> Rogue
-> Bard
-> Fighter
A rogue could use the open hand to steal things from his enemy or to grab onto him to ram his dagger into him multiple times in quick succession, a fighter could use the free hand to grab onto his opponent or to give him a quick jab here and there and a bard could use the open hand to throw distractions at the enemy.