Open Beta Test 2 Preload is Live! (And also how Decos work and a couple things on Weapons)
Expect some big new stuff soon.
In the meantime, I will use this to say a few interesting tidbits we've gotten while we work on assessing anything new in OBT2 and wrapping up a thorough look at the benchmark;
Crit Meta is dead lmao
To be more clear;
Decorations work like this;
Armor: Exact same as World/Rise, a deco being Lv1, 2, or 3 in size gives 1 point. Armor decorations can only be put on armor, not weapons. Armor decos are primarily QoL, Defensive, Utility, Resistance, and Conditional damage skills. These decos are craftable/meldable, I believe but we are not certain.
Weapons: Lv1 decos give 1 point, Lv2-3 decos can have 2 or 3 points of skills, either mixed together or multiple points of the same skill, like Iceborne's mixed Lv4 decos. Weapon decos can only be put on weapons. Weapon Skills are primarily universal attack increases, Weapon Tax (eg Guard, Focus, Rapid Morph), and elemental skills. We're also not sure exactly which are meldable/craftable but we know mixed decos are RNG.
Charms are Craftable, work like World's.
As for why Crit meta is dead;
What we FIRMLY BELIEVE is Weakness Exploit is an armor only skill now - not on weapons. It has been split into 5 tiers - the max tier giving 30% affinity and 20% on wounded parts (it is unknown if this is just WHILE a wound is active or persits after destruction). 5 points for it is already a decent nerf, and it being its Iceborne version is also a decent nerf, but it's now also armor only, not able to put put on weapons, and is a LEVEL 3 decoration now, not a Lv2, and the charm maxes only at 2 points. It will still be a strong skill but nowhere near as centralizing.
Crit Boost now is also 5 tiers to reach its previous maximum value.
Attack Boost has been nerfed, at its maximum level (5) it gives 1.04x raw + 9, which is less than MHRise's Lv4 attack boost. (1.05x + 7)
Crit Eye is also nerfed, it now maxes at 20% affinity at Lv5.
Element Attack, however, has been buffed. It only has 3 levels now instead of 5, but gives MORE element, 1.2x + 6, instead of 1.2x + 4, minor increase but at 2 levels less worth of investment.
A few other additional interesting notes:
- The lower ceiling for weapon attack seems to be around 200 at endgame, and up to 250.
- EVERY WEAPON HAS AT MINIMUM Lv3 Lv2 Lv1 SLOTS WHEN FULLY UPGRADED (looks like O o . ), some have 3 3 1 instead
- The "expected Raw values" from my summary of the progression in pictures from a few days ago lines up PERFECTLY exactly.
- Gravios weapons are blast, not sleep or poison, with very high raw and a defense bonus but not much sharpness.
- Blangonga's weps have basically the stats one would expect on Gammoth weps (RIP), high raw, negative affinity, moderate ice.
- FW Arkveld's weps have stats most comparable to Alatreon's, high sharpness, high dragon, average raw.
- Guardian Doshaguma weps basically fill the role of Diablos weps, very high raw with negative affinity and can reach good sharpness with high handicraft investment.
- Resentment, Agitator, Weakness Exploit, Heroics, and possibly Counterstrike are armor skills, as they are conditional on specific requirements to be active, while skills such as Crit Eye and Attack Boost are weapon only due to being universal attack increases.
I'll answer any questions anyone has in this thread about specific skills or weapon stats etc. Before anyone asks, we don't know what's "Meta" or best in slot, as now we have skills on weps to consider, and we also have quite a few weapon skills that seem like they might be placeholders.
Since I've been asked this quite a bit already, we don't know new skills yet, we're just matching numbers pretty much and have to use old skills as reference.
Looking forward to sharing more soon.
