strength requirements?!

[northwoodschopper]

so what was the reasoning behind the strength requirements on weapons and armor since AOS? was there something more planned that never was implemented?

for example, looking at swordsmanship weapons...most have requirements of between 20-45, then you have the large battle axe with 80 strength required, and then the halberd with 95(?!) required strength...what was the reasoning for such high requirements on these weapons? there's nothing unique suggesting that these weapons should require so much strength. they don't do more damage than the others, or swing faster...now if the large battle axe was as fast as the regular axe for instance, the strength requirement would make some sense. the halberd makes no sense at all, the ornate axe does more damage and swings faster even!

the same can be said of plate armor...is there really any reason platemail requires so much strength, when it's base resists are worse than studded and bone armor, and the same as leather armor, but non-meddable? again, it seems to suggest there was to be more with metal armor, but it was never implemented.

was there any explaination to this at all?

 

[Coppelia]

Actually, Platemail armor has the same resists as studded leather, meaning 1 more resist than leather armor per piece.
But otherwise I agree, the strength requirements have no logic.

 

[Stupid Miner]

Because the devs at that time really didn't have a clue what they were doing.

 

[Ni-]

Actually, Platemail armor has the same resists as studded leather, meaning 1 more resist than leather armor per piece.
But otherwise I agree, the strength requirements have no logic.

Base Resists:

Leather: 2+4+3+3+3=15
Studded: 2+4+3+3+4=16
Platemail: 5+3+2+3+2=15

 

[Cogniac]

Post-SA, they need to make a big balance pass across all weapons and balance their DPS based on hit chance, speed, and damage, and also balance Strength Requirements, etc. I'm of the opinion that you should be able to choose any weapon and have as close to the same overall DPS as possible. There should be only three things that decide which weapon you wish to use:

1. Do you want to wield a shield, or not? (1-handed vs. 2-handed weapons)
2. Which special moves do you want to use in a given situation?
3. Do you like the visual affect of a particular weapon's art?

They also need to do something about armor types, but I don't even know where to begin on that topic.

 

[Ni-]

Platemail, Halberds and Large Battle Axes were all either original items or at least from the T2A era. Back then there was a different system for damage and protection from damage. Halberds and Large Battle Axes could be used to do more damage than some other weapons. Platemail used to offer the best base resists. AoS messed up both of those logics, however, the STR requirement was never adjusted.

The Ornate Axe was created much more recently for the Mondain's Legacy expansion. The Ornate Axes was probably created to be better than previous weapons so that people would use it.

 

[northwoodschopper]

if strength requirements and base resists were scaled together for armor, and strength requirements were scaled with higher damage per second for weapons, then we would have a reasonable system in regards to strength requirements. right now it just seems like there was either a conflict in interest implementing strength requirements, or that there was really no thought into that particular property when coming up with values.

 

[Quenchant]

While the resist difference isn't that much, it seems that the durability was far better on crafted plate vs crafted leather (no runic).

This goes back to the days before POF for durability. I remember asking a smithy to craft me a couple dull copper plate suits so I could train parry. Also back then, stats weren't as easy to gain as they are now. I spent 3 days fising to raise my strength, and I had no intention of being a fisherman. It was just something I could do, as a new char, to get my strength up.

So instead of resist being tied to str think of it in durabilty terms. Heaver built items lasted longer.

Q