To offset the removal of skills, we introduce Attack Power, which will replace Weapon Attack and Skills So armors, weapons, cosmetics and everything that before gave weapon attack skills, will now give Attack Power .
It may seem redundant to remove something and replace with another, but we are not replacing formulas directly, but rather unifying Weapon Attack with Skills and renaming it to Attack Power, just so only one variable is used, to ease balancement and control of it.
Currently it's hard to balance because we have many different damage modifiers based off an internal formula, if we can simplify most of them and add a base value, we'll not only make balancement easier for us, but more intuitive and understandable for players, making them more able to come up with the builds they really want to.
Attack Power's formula will have the same structure than Weapon Attack currently has.
We will need to do the math regarding how much damage 1 skill yields and transfer that directly to Attack Power. Example:
Through XML, we'll be able to define a base damage for each spell , Currently, the “base damage” for every spell is a formula on which we can't really tell without doing the math how much it is. It's not intuitive at all and has already jumbled us too many times. This way, we'd set a number as the base damage for every spell, making balancement much easier.
This base damage is what a level 1500 player would deal. That is, if we set the spell Quick Draw to deal 1000 damage, a level 1500 player without any other modifiers will do exactly 1000 damage, whereas a level 150 player will deal only 100 damage. This will make players feel the progression and makes balancement easier on our end.
Also through XML, we'll be able to define which Primary Stat the spell will benefit from , using Monk as an example, spells like 1000 Fists could benefit from Strength while Fire Kick can benefit from Intelligence, so players can choose their build.
The damage formula would consist in: