Some questions:
1.) Decoupling free hp from strength seems like an easier solution to this whole affair if your primary aim was to balance strength builds with everyone else. Is there a reason you didn't just go with that?
2.) Can you post the old wpf cost formula as well for the sake of comparison?
3.) Are you preemptively tweaking any weapon speeds in the same patch that this goes live? A server that's 30-50% 180+ wpf longsworders or 180+ wpf awlpikers is going to be even more of a plague than a team of archers and throwers is now.
4.) Are you going to adjust the amount of damage you get from wpf? I was under the impression that every 50 wpf past 100 is about equal to 1 power strike in terms of damage, so someone who gets 180-220 effective wpf is going to be getting the equivalent of ~2 PS on top of much faster swings.
5.) What's the problem with offering full respecs, exactly? If you're going to be making sweeping changes that affect the entire game (as opposed to just one playstyle or one weapon class), why would that not be something on the table? If you're going to say "that would set an unhealthy precedent", it most certainly would not be an issue. It's not like game-wide changes on the level of this one happen with any regularity or frequency.
Finally, I just want to say that it makes little sense to penalize people who have evenly split wpfs when you are already greatly increasing the value of having your wpf in one weapon class. There will be little reason for any pure melee to opt for an even split when it will disadvantage you by 80-110 wpf points (ie the current difference between an archer in melee against a melee in melee) compared to someone who has correctly assessed the new meta and adjusted his build accordingly to have tons of WM. It will be only worthwhile for melee/ranged hybrids.
"
Correctly assessed the new meta and adjusted his build accordingly to have
tons of WM." I can't say I agree with that assessment at all, actually.
1. It's not just to address the Str v Agi problem, although that is the focus. HP can be addressed at another time if that's the issue. The main problem is that WM isn't rewarding for melee and free wpf creates undesirable situations. Both of those two things are key.
2. The old(what is currently used) formula is represented in the graph, for specific splits of wpf, just use your STF character.
3. Yes.
4.Not at this time.
5. I'm going to stick with the generic "No to Min/Maxers" reply, here. I'm not sure full respecs are entirely off the table, but they're certainly not desirable. If possible, we'd really like to not do that. You see, balance is a fickle thing. It can be something like a self fulfilling prophecy. Kneejerk reactions will cause players to respec into what they think will be most effective. Thus you end up with reduced variety and an abundance of certain playstyles which will likely be considered "OP" due to popularity, but would otherwise have not been considered so after the first month.
For example, lets say STR currently was twice as effective as it is now. Literally every player would
know that str is op and agi is almost entirely worthless. Then, a patch came out which brought us to the current mechanics we have now. Most people say Str is better than agility still, although there is at least some debate over the subject. People would see the massive change and say "wow, str is now entirely worthless, there's literally no reason to get str anymore". From their perspective, that's what it would seem like, objectively though, that simply wouldn't be the case at all.
