Weapon Attack Cones and Ranges

Voeltz

I've been thinking about weapons and how I would like to see them impact gameplay. In most games, the weapons available to you are decided by the class you're playing, and even so weapons have virtually no affect on gameplay other than increased/decreased auto attack speed or some defensive stats from a shield. They're basically just stat sticks with unique visuals, but weapons in MMOs have so much more potential in terms of offering unique play styles and builds. For example a fighter with a spear should play and feel a lot different than one duel wielding swords. I would love to see weapons with more traits such as various attack ranges, wider attack cones or more narrow attack cones, in addition to the more common ones like attack speed and damage. Here's some examples of what I mean below:

More linear


Wider


Not only that, your weapon choice should affect your abilities too. So a whirlwind with a 2 handed sword would spin slower with a wider radius and increased damage per spin while a whirlwind with daggers would have less reach but spin faster. Other abilities could have their attack cones change based on the weapon you're using. Here's a breakdown of attributes for each weapon and weapon type and how that would look.

1-Handed Weapons

Daggers: fastest attack speed, shortest range, lowest damage.

Rapiers: fast attack speed, narrow/linear attack cone, lowest damage.

Swords: average attack speed, average range, average damage.

Spears: average attack speed, longer range narrow/linear attack cone, moderate damage.

Axes: slow attack speed, average range, high damage.

Maces: slowest attack speed, average range, highest damage.


2-Handed Weapons

2-Handed Sword: slow attack speed, widest attack cone, high damage.

2-Handed Spear: slow attack speed, longest range narrow/linear attack cone, high damage

2-Handed Axe: slower attack speed, widest attack cone, higher damage

2-Handed Mace: slowest attack speed, widest attack cone, highest damage


Ranged

Wand: fast attack speed, close range, low damage.

Scepter: average attack speed, average range, average damage

Staff: low attack speed, long range, high damage

Shortbow: fast attack speed, short range, low damage

Longbow: slow attack speed, long range, high damage


I believe this would add far more depth and variety to weapons making it an important decision instead of something that is almost entirely cosmetic and has little to no impact on your build.

Individuated Soul

I do think this topic is interesting, and seeing fixed 'coned' skills and 'coned' skills you can move are IMO ingredients to very fun gameplay. Should they be fixed to the weapon type? Probably not. Having the skill and talent selections altering the cone/ability is probably the easier and more practical way. Skill shots and 50/50 skill shots (you have a degree of movement during the animation that alters the cones placement) will raise the skill ceiling and give the ability to outplay others or be outplayed yourself.

I would rather see IAS breakpoints (for physical) or caster FCR breakpoints (for spells) and a built in swing range for the weapon type and weapon class akin to Diablo 2.

Voeltz

I don't see why you can't have both. Not all augments will be focused on increased range or bigger AOEs and theres plenty of other perks they could give. Their wiki says "Choice of weapon type changes the feel, pacing, speed, and other aspects of combat." Why wouldn't attack range be considered? It seems to me that's what they're already implying by "other aspects of combat". We already know basic attacks with melee weapons have forward cones, why not expand on that with increased range for longer weapons and expanded cones for larger weapons? Especially when they're going to have things like spears, polearms, and rapiers. Seems like a no brainer.

Not sure what you mean by the breakpoints and D2, I'm not familiar enough with those systems to see how it relates to this subject.

blat

I like these suggestions but think the damage type should vary based on weapon, rather than just power.
IE: daggers should be very critty, low flat damage but with a high crit rate (precision attacks from close range), Vs say a mace which would have high flat damage instead of crit.

Pyrolol

Love league because of the skill shots
Hope AoC has heaps
Made me prefer it over DOTA and stay playing more than decade

Also “Nerf Aatrox” 😂

Chonkers1

serrated weapons can inflict bleeding damage
works on all physical weapons

sharpened weapons can do extra physical damage
works on non-mace physical weapons

weighted weapons can do extra damage and reduce armor
more effective on maces than other physical weapons

Voeltz

They already have physical damage types including Bludgeoning, Slashing, and Piercing. I'm sure there will be plenty of ways to increase crit chance/damage as well whether it's from the weapon trees, augments, class trees or gear. My post is focused on expanding the characteristics of weapons and the perks they give that aren't currently planned based on the information they've given us.