I just wanna say that there's no reason to get ticked-off at the devs or anything - I'm sure everyone's doing their best and you can't expect everything to go right the first time.
I would like to thank them for even reading this thread and participating!
This thread's probably gone on long enough and the next patch is so near, that I bet there's no point to my posting - but I just wanted to say a few things to close on.
The WPF-nerf halves my PT. If that weren't the case there'd be a lot less to worry about.
Gorath, when was the last time you played a full throwing build? I'm just curious because the last time I know of was before I started Artie, and the patches have changed a lot about throwing since then. Back when I started Artie, full throwing was like having a really really short-range gun - now it just feels like stunted archery. I can see the point that hybrid throwers were too overpowered compared to full melee builds, but the changes are really bad for a 39/42 STR build because it makes a ton of wasted points for existing characters. There's nothing I can do but start over.
Also, consider the throwing lance. With a requirement of 7 PT, there's just no way most builds get to use it unless they're seriously invested in throwing. But the thing takes 2 slots for just one, requires so much wpf invested now, and does only as much damage as an upper-mid Xbow - it's all pointless. What is it any good for anymore? It used to be the reason a full-throwing build worked because you could keep one in one slot, in reserve, and know that if the enemy closed to melee distance, you had a way to kill in one hit if you aimed just right. I think it should remain relatively hard to aim, but with all the other nerfs, that tool is gone for full-throwers and at melee range we're helpless. That would be fine - if things weren't so bad at throwing-range now, too.
The settings for some of these throwing weapons are so strange, too. Jarids aren't enough of an improvement over throwing spears to justify the loss of one in a pack, and throwing spears are so near to throwing lances in effective damage that there's no reason to take a throwing lance instead of throwing spears. It just seems like a mess.
Throwing was getting to be way too much in earlier versions though, I agree - it used to be that there was no reason NOT to hybrid throwing if you were melee. Seems like an over-nerf and it shouldn't be a bother to just cut the wpf-nerfing, tweak some weapon stats and make everything pretty nearly balanced.