New concept is for damage that hits multiple damage types (ice,holy,slash,etc.).
Disclaimer (I am aware that no one is a real fan of this word) :
Some weapons may become slightly weaker from this, while others slightly greater. Vuln(resist) bonus(penalty) damage percentages are easily changeable as well. Alliance weapons that are affected by this would be handled however Jaggus would decide to allow, but he has always been fair in the past so I wouldn't be too concerned with this as an alliance player. Overall, I'd like responses to be based on the concept more than the specific numbers, as those would change based on testing anyways.
Concept:
A weapon that hits multiple damage types *could* only get a partial vuln/resist modifier. An example would be a weapon such as Glamdring that has a material of mithril (hits silver vuln) and damage noun of divine power (hits holy vuln). If used against a mobile with no resists and only vulnerable to holy damage, than Glamdring's vuln bonus would be cut in half. Against a target that was vulnerable to both silver and holy, it would get the full vuln bonus. (Note: The vuln bonus I'm talking of is not necessarily the +50% we currently have. We can change this number, based on testing, so that hitting the maximum number of vulns is actually more damage than currently.)
Basic formula:
The total number of vulns hit by a weapon minus the number of resists hit = m.
The total number of damage types on a weapon = n.
Vuln bonus modifier = m/n.
Bigger example:
Super-Omega-Sword does ice, shock, holy, slash, and silver damage.
Weirdo-Mob is resist silver, vulnerable to ice, holy, slash, silver and fire.
The Super-Omega-Sword would hit 4 of the vulns and 1 of the resist (m=3), and has a total of 5 damage types (n=5). Therefore, *if* the vuln bonus damage was considered to have a base of +100%, then this would do 3/5*100% bonus damage, so +60%.
Reasoning for this idea:
It seems to make sense that if you hit 2 vulns and 1 resist, they shouldn't cancel out (the way the current system has it) but rather it should be a partial vuln hit. Also, it allows for a lot more creativity when creating weapons (for both builders and leaders), and realistically (
) limits weapons with too many damage types (like a lot of current weapons, which are light+slash+holy for example).
So why would we ever get a weapon with more than 1 damage type?
We could offer small bonuses on weapons with multiple damage types, so that against a mob that is vulnerable to cold and holy damage, a weapon that hits both the cold and holy vulnerabilities could get some bonus damage compared to a weapon that hits just 1 of the vulns. (Maybe each vuln you hit gives an automatic +5% damage, so a specialized weapon to target 1 areas mobs that have 3 vulns could get a bonus +15% damage. -5% for each resist.)
Ideally, this would be more congruent with what one would expect from vulns/resists, make damage a little less linear against a vast range of targets, allow more customization for weapon construction (from a building point of view), and allow more differences between areas/weapons.
Opinions, questions, concerns? Remember, this isn't a nerf, but rather a new spin on the combat system. Certain items will change (if the builder wishes them to change) so that weapons that hit 3+ vulns currently don't become less valuable.
P.S. I'd obviously fix the system flaw that only takes into account the first two materials listed on a weapon, so a weapon could have more materials that actually work.