Weaponskills

Unique and enhanced weaponskills with additional effects like en-spells, refresh and regen, and elemental debuffs on the target. We also unlock relic, mythic, empyrean, merit, and quested weaponskills as you level.

Unlocking Weapon Skills

Quested/WSNM Weapon Skills : All quested/NM-related weapon skills unlock when you reach skill level 230 or 250 (varies by weapon, based on the level you could acquire the quest).

Relic Weapon Skills : All relic weaponskills unlock when you reach skill level 280 of the appropriate weapon type.

Mythic Weapon Skills : All mythic weaponskills unlock when you reach skill level 320 of the appropriate weapon type.

Merit Weapon Skills : All merit weapon skills unlock when you reach skill level 357 of the appropriate weapon type.

Empyrean Weapon Skills : All empyrean weapon skills unlock when you reach skill level 380 of the appropriate weapon type.

Campaign Weapon Skills: All campaign weapon skills unlock when you reach skill level 400 of the appropriate weapon type (this may require merits to achieve for some classes).

Weaponskill Status Effects

We’ve added “status effect” messages for when a weaponskill lands its additional effect. This is a non-retail behavior and added as a qualify of life enhancement for the community.

This update applies to the following weaponskills:

  • Great Katana: Tachi: Ageha, Tachi: Gekko, Tachi: Hobaku, Tachi: Kasha, Tachi: Yukikaze
  • Katana: Blade: Kamu, Blade: Metsu, Blade: Retsu, Blade: Yu
  • Great Axe: Armor Break, Shield Break, Ukko’s Fury, Metatron Torment, Weapon Break
  • Great Sword: Herculean Slash
  • Axe: Bora Axe, Onslaught, Smash Axe
  • Club: Brainshaker, Randgrith, Skullbreaker, Flash Nova
  • Sword: Death Blossom, Flat Blade
  • Marksmanship: Sniper Shot, Numbing Shot
  • Scythe: Guillotine, Infernal Scythe, Nightmare Scythe
  • Polearm: Leg Sweep
  • Staff: Omniscience, Shattersoul, Vidohunir, Gate of Tartarus, Garland of Bliss
  • Dagger: Pyrrhic Kleos, Rudra’s Storm, Shadowstitch, Exenterator, Mordent Rime, Viper Bite, Wasp Sting
  • Hand-to-Hand: Shijin Spiral, Shoulder Tackle

The following weaponskills did NOT get their status effect messages because they’re either AOE (and it would be log spammy) or they apply multiple effects:

  • Shockwave
  • Full Break
  • Tartarus Torpor
  • Uriel Blade
  • Glory Slash
Note

We’re aware that some say “{mob} is afflicted by {effect}” and others “{mob} is {effect}”. We’re looking into this and, at this time, figured being informed of the effect was more important than the exact wording.

Merit Weaponskills Enhancements

Players who are level 99 and have completed a full run of New Game+ at least once (so New Game +2 when using the !ngpstatus command) can speak to the Nomad Moogle in Ru’Lude Gardens for a short cutscene and gain the Heart of the Bushin key item.

This key item unlocks the Merit Weaponskill merit trees. As players already have access to these weaponskills at their normal “maximum” capacity, the merits will now increase the WSC of the weaponskills by 0.03 (3%) from 85% to up to 100% at 5/5.

Players get 15 merits total (and 14 weaponskills), so you can mix and match which weaponskills you want to provide bonuses towards.

The biggest damage change players will notice with these is that most of them pass their fTP along to each hit (since almost all are multi-hit); for many weaponskills, this will be a damage improvement and increase the potency of fTP gear, such as elemental gorgets and belts.

Affected Weaponskills:

  • Apex Arrow
  • Blade: Shun
  • Entropy
  • Exenterator
  • Last Stand
  • Realmrazer
  • Requiescat
  • Resolution
  • Ruinator
  • Shattersoul
  • Shijin Spiral
  • Stardiver
  • Tachi: Shoha
  • Upheaval

Weaponskill Enhancements

Sword

Chant du Cygne

Requires Almace i119 III

  • Increases 1000 TP critical hit chance from 15% to 20%
  • Increases 2000 TP critical hit chance from 25% to 35%
  • Increases 3000 TP critical hit chance from 40% to 65%

Uriel Blade

  • Previously a campaign-only WS requiring a specific weapon.
  • Unlocked at skill level 400 (can be unlocked using Sword skill merits to get more than 400 skill.)
  • Magic-based weaponskill does AOE damage, inflicts Flash, and increases enmity to affected enemies.

Glory Slash

  • Previously a campaign-only WS requiring a specific weapon.
  • Unlocked at skill level 400 (can be unlocked using Sword skill merits to get more than 400 skill.)
  • Physical-based weaponskill does AOE damage and inflicts a short duration Stun.

Hand-to-Hand

Victory Smite

Requires Verethragna i119 III

  • Updates Stat Modifier from 80% STR to 80% STR/40% VIT

Dagger

Rudra’s Storm

Requires Twashtar i119 III

  • Applies a potent 500 HP/tick Choke effect to the target on use.

Great Sword

Torcleaver

Requires Caladbolg i119 III

  • Increases 1000 TP fTP from 4.75 to 6.75
  • Increases 2000 TP fTP from 7.0 to 9.50
  • Increases 3000 TP fTP from 10 to 12.00

Axe

Cloudsplitter

Requires Farsha i119 III

  • Updates Stat Modifier from 40% STR/40% MND to 40% STR/80% MND

Club

Dagan

Requires Gambanteinn i119 III

  • HP restoration amount doubled.
  • Removes up to 3 negative status effects on the player, including Doom (like Myrkr).

Marksmanship

Wildfire

Requires Armageddon i119 III

  • Applies a potent 500 HP/tick Burn effect to the target on use.
  • Increase fTP from 4.5 to 4.75 / 5.00 / 5.25.

Archery

Jishnu’s Radiance

Requires Gandiva i119 III

  • Updates Stat Modifier from 80% DEX to 80% DEX/10% STR
  • Increases 1000 TP critical hit chance from 15% to 25%
  • Increases 2000 TP critical hit chance from 20% to 35%
  • Increases 3000 TP critical hit chance from 25% to 50%
  • Increase fTP from 1.75 to 1.75 / 2.25 / 2.75.

Great Axe

Ukko’s Fury

Requires Ukonvasara i119 III

  • Update Stat Modifier from 80% STR to 80% STR/45% VIT
  • Increases 1000 TP critical hit chance from 20% to 25%
  • Increases 2000 TP critical hit chance from 35% to 45%
  • Increases 3000 TP critical hit chance from 55% to 65%
  • Increase fTP from 2.0 to 3.5 / 4.5 / 5.5.

Scythe

Quietus

Requires Redemption i119 III

  • Increases fTP from 3.0 to 3.5 / 4.5 / 5.5.
  • Increases 1000 TP Defense Ignored from 10% to 25%
  • Increases 2000 TP Defense Ignored from 30% to 45%
  • Increases 3000 TP Defense Ignored from 50% to 75%

Polearm

Camlann’s Torment

Requires Rhongomiant i119 III

  • Increases 1000 TP Defense Ignored from 15.0% to 25%
  • Increases 2000 TP Defense Ignored from 37.5% to 45%
  • Increases 3000 TP Defense Ignored from 62.5% to 75%
  • Increase fTP from 3.0 to 3.5 / 4.5 / 5.5.

Katana

Blade: Hi

Requires Kannagi i119 III

  • Updates Stat Modifier from 80% AGI to 80% AGI/70% STR
  • Increases 1000 TP critical hit chance from 15% to 25%
  • Increases 2000 TP critical hit chance from 20% to 35%
  • Increases 3000 TP critical hit chance from 25% to 50%

Great Katana

Tachi: Enpi

  • Adds a single blink/shadow effect to the player.

Tachi: Fudo

Requires Masamune i119 III

  • Updates Stat Modifier from 80% STR to 80% STR/25% DEX
  • Increases 1000 TP fTP from 3.75 to 5.75
  • Increases 2000 TP fTP from 5.75 to 8.75
  • Increases 3000 TP fTP from 8.00 to 12.00

Staff

Omniscience

  • Monster’s Magic Attack Bonus reduction increased from -10 to -50

Tartarus Torpor

  • Previously a campaign-only WS requiring a specific weapon.
  • Unlocked at skill level 400 (can be unlocked using Staff skill merits to get more than 400 skill.)
  • Magic-based weaponskill does AOE damage and inflicts a short duration Sleep and Plague.

Garland of Bliss

  • Provides a 5% max HP heal to a summoner’s avatar (if an avatar is active).

Myrkr

Requires Hvergelmir i119 III

  • Removes all negative status effects on the player, including Doom (extends the normal 3 effect removal limit)

Magic-based Weaponskill Formula Fix

Change Date: 2022 June 21

It was brought to our attention by a very passionate member (and to most server owners, it seems) that we were calculating magical weaponskills incorrectly. The joys of PEMDAS. The updated data is based on BG-Wiki and Studio Gobli and recent retail testing during Welcome Home campaigns.

Previously, the magic WS base damage formula included adding the dSTAT (INT, in magic’s case) into the base damage calculation. The formula matched how physical weaponskills were calculated:

dmg = 
  (152 + (iLVL - Player Lvl) * 2.45) 
  + dSTAT) 
  * fTP

Instead, the proper formula for magic WS base damage is unique to magical weaponskills adding dSTAT outside of the base damage that is then used by the fTP multiplier and including MDMG or Magic Damage (found on many magical weapons/REMAs).

dmg = 
 (152 + (iLVL - Player Lvl) * 2.45) 
 * fTP) 
 + dSTAT 
 + MDMG

So why are we using dSTAT instead of dINT? It was found that not all magical weaponskills have the same dSTAT formula, which is 8 + ((Attacker INT - Target INT) / 2) clamped at +/- 32 and, in fact, not all weaponskills even use an INT comparison which, in hindsight, makes a lot of sense for the SMN, SCH, BST, and ranged weaponskills.

  • Garland of Bliss compares MND to MND, multiplied by 2, and caps at +/- 1276.
  • Omniscience compares MND to MND, multiplied by 2, and caps at +/- 651.
  • Primal Rend compares CHR to INT, multiplied by 1.5, and caps at +/- 651.
  • Leaden Salude compares AGI to INT, multiplied by 2, and caps at +/- 1276.
  • Trueflight compares AGI to INT, multiplied by 2, and caps at +/- 1276.
  • Wildfire compares AGI to INT, multiplied by 2, and caps at +/- 1276.
  • Sanguine Blade compares INT to INT, multiplied by 2, and has a higher cap at +/- 651.
  • Vidohunir compares INT to INT, multiplied by 2, and has a higher cap at +/- 651.

Not all magical weaponskills are even affected by dSTAT. With the stat comparison exclused from the damage formula, these weaponskills have the unique benefit that while their damage can be lower, it’s more consistent against higher INT targets focusing more on Magic Accuracy and Magic Attack Bonus than dSTAT.

  • Blade: Yu
  • Cloudsplitter
  • Herculean Slash
  • Infernal Scythe
  • Seraph Blade
  • Seraph Stirke
  • Shining Blade
  • Shining Strike
  • Tartarus Torpor
  • Uriel Blade

In addition to this formula change, we’ve addressed the long-standing issue where hybrid WS were missing their MAB bonus hit component. These weaponskills now properly provide an additional magic component to their overall damage based on the initial physical damage hit.

  • Blade: Chi
  • Blade: Teki
  • Blade: To
  • Flaming Arrow
  • Hot Shot
  • Tachi: Goten
  • Tachi: Jinpu
  • Tachi: Kagero
  • Tachi: Koki

So that’s the baseline, where did we go from there?

  • With our higher stats, the +/- 32 cap didn’t align to our stats. We have updated this to +/- 128 for all weaponskills that do not have a specified, higher cap.
  • Rather than bumping up the arbitary 152 base damage or the 2.45 multiplier, we opted to remove the negative side of the level difference check and grant a bonus to players using item level gear. Rather than level 119 weapons adding +20 base damage, they now add +100 (a 5x gain). The importance of jumping from 99 to item level weapons will now have a much more noticable jump using these weaponskills!

That means our base formula is now:

dmg = 
 (152 + ((MAX(iLvl - Player Level),0) * 5) * 2.45) 
 * fTP) 
 + dSTAT 
 + MDMG

A player with a level 119 weapon equipped would see a consistent base damage of 397. This is then multiplied by the weaponskills fTP with the dSTAT and MDMG added to it for the final result. This creates the intended consistent damage output that magic weaponskills should have.

= (152 + ((MAX(119 - 99),0) * 5) * 2.45)
= (152 + (20 * 5) * 2.45)
= (152 + (100) * 2.45)
= (152 + 245)
= 397
Tip

While we removed the level difference check for base damage, it’s still there for the magic hit rate, which, similar to all magic, determines if the ability hits for full power, half, quarter, eighth, or a sixteenth. Ensuring proper magic accuracy is critical to ensure consistent damage values.

Examples

Here are a few examples with the base stats provided to give an average example of the damage provided by those weaponskills. To perform these tests, we used MAB+ focused gearsets (with sufficient MACC to hit the target) without food or player/group buffs. Weaponskills were tested at 1000 TP, 2000 TP, and 3000 TP to 5 times each to provide an average. All tests were performed against the Level 150 training dummy (Reisenjima tier) on non-elemental favor days.

Weaponskill Job MAB MACC Old Average New Average Caveat
Sanguine Blade PLD/BLU 529 186 ~8828 ~8019 Uses increased dSTAT range.
Uriel Blade RDM/BLU 529 186 ~9901 ~6623 No longer includes dSTAT.
Aeolian Edge THF/RDM 555 253 ~9614 ~4798 Uses ‘default’ dSTAT calc.
Wildfire COR/BLU 1210 775 ~35230 ~19500 Uses AGI/INT dSTAT calc.
Leaden Salute COR/BLU 1210 775 ~26400 ~16800 Uses AGI/INT dSTAT calc.
Blade: Ei NIN/RDM 585 328 ~13759 ~11319 Uses ‘default’ dSTAT calc.
Tachi: Koki SAM/RDM 390 279 ~2470 ~3056 Now includes hybrid hit.

Q&A

  • With this change, how will it affect my gear?

    • For most players, it won’t. Magic Attack Bonus remains the primary way users who are performing magical weaponskills should ramp up their damage. Some players, who have focused primarily on Magic Attack Bonus though will need to re-evaluate their Magic Accuracy as the excessive amounts of base damage over compensated for a difference in Magic Accuracy vs. Magic Evasion on some encounters, especially those Lv150 and higher. At most, players who are at 99 and stil using non-item level weapons are encouraged to upgrade to take advantage of the item level bonus.
  • What can I do to increase my numbers?

    • If you see consistent damage, but it’s low, you can increase your attributes (INT/AGI/CHR) if the weaponskill is modified by a dSTAT to pump up your base damage. You can also use Absorb-{Stat} and Impact to reduce the target’s attributes.
    • If you see consistent damage, but it’s low and your dSTAT is fine, increase your magic attack bonus for a better multiplier. You can also reduce the target’s magic defense using spells like Acrid Stream and Benthic Typhoon, weaponskills like Shattersoul and Vidohunir, and ready abilities like Pestilent Plume and Swooping Frenzy.
    • If the weaponskill you’re using is tied to a REMA, be sure to check out that REMA. The +WSD on those weapons can provide a tremendous enhancement to base damage.
    • If the weaponskill does not have a dSTAT component and has a low fTP, consider testing out if Fotia gear provides a better advantage by increasing the fTP by 0.20 (with both pieces).
    • If you see a lot of varience in your damage, you’re likely low on accuracy. Look at increasing your magic accuracy with gear and augments for a more consistent damage rate. You can also reduce the target’s magic evasion with spells like Frazzle II or the Death Blossom weaponskill.
  • I don’t see a big change in the hybrid weaponskills. Should I?

    • It depends. The hybrid weaponskills are hard to perfect because you want a heavy hitting physical hit to base your magical counterpart hit off of. It’s hard to gear/augment for BOTH at the same time. You can account for this by gearing for one and using party buffs to boost the other making these shine in balanced groups more than solo. However, overall, these each gained a damage component that should add something to the overall damage.
  • I can do {x} damage with {x} physical weaponskill. Why isn’t my {x} magical weaponskill stronger?

    • It depends. Most magical weaponskills have a lower fTP compared to physical weaponskills. They also cannot crit, cannot multistrike, and cannot miss. They’re a melee player’s token against physical resistant mobs without being sidelined. They also benefit from the same things that benefit casters–Frazzle, Impact, Absorb-INT, and other Magic Defense Down effects (for you BLUs out there, Tearing Gust’s debuff is -30 MDB, so 30 less MAB that you need).
  • OMG, Corsair is still so powerful, even though theirs went down!?!

    • Yeah, and we’re always evaluating weaponskills. Corsair simply has access to so much MAB that most have 2-4x what any mob in the game has for MDEF. In addition, Corsair is one of the few, if only classes, that the magic WS is also their Aftermath WS on their primary weapon and they can equip both a ranged weapon and an ammo (Living Bullets have +25 MACC and +35 MAB on them) and the weaponskill self-chains and, for Wildfire at least, the fTP is the same at 1K as it is at 3K.
    • Wildfire and Leaden Salute are also the bread and butter of a COR with these WS being their REMA weaponskills, where as the other WS are all just part of the kit. The damage output is fairly aligned to a) being a ranged weaponskill and b) other REMA weaponskills like Ukko’s Fury and Jishnu’s Radiance (which is physical, for whatever reason).