Thanks, as always, to everyone for your questions! You can submit any questions relating to current development plans, to request clarification on basic game mechanic questions, or questions on community issues through the Grab Bag Submission form. For any other feedback or suggestions please use our feedback form.

Continue reading for the questions :)
 

How much does weaponskill impact a fight both offense and defensive wise? Does my weaponskill affect my chances of bypassing their defenses i.e. if I have 2k ws do I have more chance to hit a 1.5k ws person or the reverse, 2k ws defending versus a 1.5k ws . If it has a defensive impact, which one is taken into account (take dual wield classes having a hidden ws number for dw styles, if the base weapon one would be used for the calc or the hidden one)?

Weaponskill values are not directly used in any combat calculations or formulas. However, because your character’s weaponskill is a reflection of the myriad stats and +skills, it’s a good indicator of how a given character would stack up against another. So yes, a 2,000 weaponskill melee character is generally going to land more of their attacks and successfully block, parry, or evade more against a 1,500 weaponskill character; but again – not directly because of the weaponskill values. And since WS not used in calculations directly, the 2nd portion of the question is not applicable.

Is there any plans to adjust the bd/ani 10 minute duration ABS buff to make it group only and/or have a range similar to skald/bard/pally resist buffs? With the addition of ports directly to folley/moy/trelle we are seeing more and more people use "abs bots" for 12.5 minutes and then porting back, getting the buff again, repeat. This really causes an imbalance in the playing field and only benefits "duelers" who port to the "solo spots" and is a huge disadvantage for people who don't use this type of bot because they may not only RvR at those. Wouldn't it make sense to adjust it to group/range requirement like resists?

Yes, we’ll likely be adding a range check and/or limiting these to group-only buffs in the near future.

Does Protect help generate aggro vs Bonedancer subpets which are split assisting, and presumably working off of an aggro table?

Yes, protecting a character will generate aggression from the Bonedancer subpets, just like normal attacks against them or healing your group can generate aggro from them. 
 

What are your thoughts on the mechanics of Throw Weapon (Battlemaster ML6). I'm mostly referring to the fact that you don't get disarmed if you hit a bladeturn or brittle guard and can keep throwing as your swing speed dictates, at times to great continuous interrupting effect if you face players with pbt. Whilst the way the ability works might not be intuitive due to this, it has worked this way since day one. Would you consider the usage of this ability for this purpose to be 'working as intended', or an oversight in its design that you might look into changing?

This is working as intended. There is a similar mechanic to how instant-snare abilities work where if they are resisted they can be immediately used again, which is also working as intended. The cooldowns on these abilities are only meant to fire if the ability lands on its intended target.

What item type(s) is your current focus in terms of additions to the mithril shop? I know I'd personally like to see more unique weapons added to the game, of which the egg shield was a good start. Based on the last Grab Bag answer on weapon and new skins, do you mean entirely new item models, or things like Frozen weapons which are reused models with some alterations?

We mean a little of each! :D

Enjoy the weekend all :)

See you in the frontier!