PGL/LNC/MRD 1.18a WS adjustments

[Almalexia]

Report and discuss changes to weapon skills in the 1.18a patch here.

Preliminary testing: fucking around in Cactus Basin.
No buffs (except Featherfoot to trigger counters), no debuffs, no food.
Pikemanship, Axemanship
STR170, VIT119, DEX106
Peiste Cesti+2

R57 Roadrunner
Your Simian Thrash hits the roadrunner for 174 points of damage. (3000TP)
Your Simian Thrash hits the roadrunner for 167 points of damage.
Your Simian Thrash hits the roadrunner for 175 points of damage.
Your Simian Thrash hits the roadrunner for 177 points of damage.
Your Simian Thrash hits the roadrunner for 176 points of damage.
Your Simian Thrash hits the roadrunner for 177 points of damage.
Your Simian Thrash hits the roadrunner for 162 points of damage.
Your Simian Thrash hits the roadrunner for 169 points of damage.
Your Simian Thrash hits the roadrunner for 165 points of damage.

Your Jarring Strike II hits the roadrunner for 422 points of damage.
Your Jarring Strike II inflicts the roadrunner with the effect of Stun.
Your Haymaker II hits the roadrunner for 506 points of damage.

Your Moonrise II hits the roadrunner for 401 points of damage.
Your Follow Through hits the roadrunner from the rear for 600 points of damage.

Your Skull Sunder II hits the roadrunner from the rear for 450 points of damage.
Your Heavy Trammel hits the roadrunner for 337 points of damage.

R69 Sabotender
Your Jarring Strike II hits the sabotender for 193 points of damage.
Your Jarring Strike II inflicts the sabotender with the effect of Stun.
Your Haymaker II hits the sabotender for 203 points of damage.

Your Simian Thrash misses the sabotender. (3000TP)
Your Simian Thrash hits the sabotender for 56 points of damage.
Your Simian Thrash hits the sabotender for 59 points of damage.
Your Simian Thrash hits the sabotender for 57 points of damage.
Your Simian Thrash hits the sabotender for 60 points of damage.
Your Simian Thrash hits the sabotender for 56 points of damage.
Your Simian Thrash misses the sabotender.
Your Simian Thrash hits the sabotender for 56 points of damage.
Your Simian Thrash hits the sabotender for 57 points of damage.

Your Victimize II hits the sabotender for 486 points of damage. (3000TP)
Your Victimize II hits the sabotender for 327 points of damage. (~2000TP)

Your Skull Sunder II hits the sabotender for 178 points of damage.
Your Skull Sunder II hits the sabotender for 178 points of damage.

Your Heavy Trammel hits the sabotender for 139 points of damage.
Your Heavy Trammel hits the sabotender for 136 points of damage.

Your Follow Through hits the sabotender from the rear for 256 points of damage.
Your Moonrise II hits the sabotender for 191 points of damage.

R59 Roadrunner
Your Victimize II hits the roadrunner for 1053 points of damage. (3000TP)

R56 Laughing Mongrel
Your Victimize II hits the laughing mongrel for 852 points of damage. (~2000TP)

Quickie analysis:
Simian Thrash, as before, shines against targets close to player rank. The R57 roadrunner ate 1542 damage from Simian, with Haymaker/Jarring reaching only 928 combined. With an additional cross-class 500TP WS dealing 300-400, Hay/Jar falls short still. A third 500TP WS finally overtakes Simian.

However, on the R69 sabotender, the results are much closer. Even if every hit were to connect, the approximate 515 damage (adding a reasonable 57x2 for the missing hits) is ahead of the combined 396 of Hay/Jar. A 500TP WS would need only 120 damage to close the gap. Skull Sunder II and Heavy Trammel appear to do so easily, while both of them together overtake Simian.

A greater problem for Simian Thrash is how it consumes all TP 1500+. Mob TP attacks, hate loss, casting and paralysis will thwart efficient TP use of this ability, since it depends on evade and you'll be gaining more TP through auto-attack. The TP-to-damage doesn't scale well enough to sacrifice the combined damage potential of several on-command WSs.

Note to SE: Drop the evade condition.

Follow Through damage has noticeably improved over Moonrise II, a favored 1000TP WS, on both R57 and R69 targets.

Victimize base damage has been enhanced, with 852 damage (R56) and 327 damage (R69) at ~2000TP. Testing on big mobs with big debuffs will tell whether splurging 2000TP+ is better than managing several, more conservative WSs. Unimpressive results on Deepvoid Slave. Nine debuffs plus DEF down regimen hit ~240-250. I could do the same damage with a Raging Strike+Ferocity Follow Through. Seems odd. Did they forget to add the +ATK effect?

[Corrderio]

I'll try to get some LNC data in about an hour or so on the same mobs. Not in much of a leve mood tonight.

EDIT: Data is ready

Base Stats
STR: 139
DEX: 115
ATK: 188
ACC: 145
*NOTE: These were without buffs, so no Ferocity/etc.

Laughing Mongrel (Rank 58 )
Reg. Attack: 243 - 261
Skewer II: 558
Moonrise II: 592
Chaos Thrust (3000 TP, mob not under 20%): 143 - 156

Roadrunner (Rank 59)
Reg. Attack: 285 - 309
Skewer II: 561 - 621
Moonrise II: 642
Feint: 452 - 464
Chaos Thrust (2000 TP with mob under 20%): 235 - 238 per hit

Laughing Mongrel (Rank 56)
Reg. Attack: 256 - 267
Skewer II: 558
Moonrise II: 560
Feint: 426
Doomspike II (Nearly 3000 TP): 1010


All I got so far, just not feeling it tonight.

[miokomioko]

In a solo situation, I'm already noticing a hefty bump in damage from Concussive Blow for sure... which is probably my most-used weaponskill. The game got a little bit easier for me.

Note to SE: Drop the evade condition.

Fuck that. Evasion is what makes tanking on Pugilist fun. I end up spamming so many Haymakers/Jarring Strikes back-to-back because of how cheap they are + having shit like Absorb EVA/Featherfoot/Light Strike/Blind/Concussive Blow/etc. up while tanking NMs. I think it's pretty well balanced as it is for PGL being a hybrid tank/DD. If you're having problems evading something, you need a Gladiator. If you have a gladiator, you can often survive pulling hate with Featherfoot + Jarring Strike. If you're not tanking at all... enjoy your Pounce/Blindside/Victimize bonuses.