Patch Notes: Martial Specialisations

Fighters get specialisations

• Master any two weapon skills (Long Blade, Short Blade, Axe, Blunt Weapon, Archery, Hand-to-Hand) and you can choose one of fifteen martial paths, such as the Blademaster, Ranger, Juggernaut, Assassin or Brawler. The choice is permanent, like a mastery.
• Each path has a passive of its own (for example the Vanguard's foes hit 10% lighter, and the Woodsman gets fatigue back on every kill) and a signature technique.
• The signature technique uses your Weapon Technique key whenever you wield one of the path's two weapons and that weapon has no technique of its own. A path with Archery has a bow form and a melee form, and the two share one cooldown. It works with the loot ladder off, and with the ladder off a looted weapon's own technique sleeps, so the signature takes the key.
• Techniques that give you a timed effect (Rallying Cleave, Cyclone, Phantom Strike, Earthsplitter, Savage Whirl) start it as you use them, so every foe the sweep reaches gets it.
• You can hold an arcane path and a martial path at once if you master two schools and two weapons.
• You choose on the skill screen: W on the classic sheet, or the Martial Specialisation card under Master Skills on the enhanced skin. The game also asks once, the first time a path opens.

Weapons past 100 (online)

• A mastered weapon skill past 100 now pays in its own way. Until now it only raised your to-hit, which is capped at 97%.
  • Long Blade and Archery: every blow lands up to 40% harder at 200.
  • Axe: up to 80% harder against wounded foes (under half health).
  • Blunt Weapon: up to 80% harder against fresh foes (half health or more).
  • Against the Oblivion Gate's court, the Elite Gates, the Remnant and the sea serpent, whose health the server keeps, the Axe and the Blunt Weapon each land up to 40% harder on every blow.
  • Short Blade: swings up to 40% faster.
  • Hand-to-Hand: its damage already grew with the skill, and still does.

Balance

• Fists now benefit from your bonuses. Firmament fist stars, sets and loot powers never applied to bare-handed blows; now they do. Werewolf claws are unchanged.
• Every short blade swings like a dagger. Tanto, Shortsword and Wakizashi were swinging at long-blade speed.
• Firmament: every weapon family now has two notables that raise its skill, and Axe and Blunt get a third. Blade Dancer, Iron Knuckles, Headsman and Bonebreaker keep every stat they had and gain the skill on top. The Ritual's Battlemage's Focus is now Templar's Mace, a mace notable. No star moved, so shared build codes still load.

Fixes

• Opening the Stats page no longer changes your next blows. It used to spend a set's Riposte or Battlemage's Discipline and nudge the rounding of your damage bonuses.
• Choosing a specialisation (arcane or martial) now says so in one line that fits the classic screen.

What's Changed

• MARTIAL + BAL10 + AUDIT MARTIAL: a fighter is the weapons they master - fifteen martial paths, every weapon past 100, the weapons' own balance, audited by @Lattymoy in #990

Full Changelog: app-v0.1.9462...app-v0.1.9472