Martial Arts Rebalance for Eskrima

[Hymore246]

Summary

SUMMARY: Balance "Martial arts rebalance for Eskrima"

Purpose of change

Partially implements #32422
Update for the martial art: Eskrima

Describe the solution

Eskrima, also known as Kali, is a Filipino martial art. It emphasizes rapid strikes with knife and baton weapons, along with a variety of improvised substitutes.

Current Buffs, Techniques, and Special Abilities

Name	Level Available	Type	Effect
Eskrima Bashing	Melee 1	Static Buff	+20% Bash damage
Eskrima Combination	Melee 2	Onhit Buff	+10% all damage for 3 turns
Snap strike	Unarmed 0	Melee Tech	80% move cost
Round strike	Melee 4	Melee Tech	60% move cost
Fan strike	Melee 2	Melee Tech	75% move cost
Combination strike	Melee 2	Melee Tech	Requires "Eskrima Combination", 80% move cost, +50% all damage
Puño strike	Melee 3	Melee Crit Tech	60% move cost. 70% Bash damage. Cut and Stab damage reduced to 0%, Stun Duration: 1
knee strike	Melee 3	Melee Crit Tech	Down duration: 2

Weapons: bee sting, bowling pin, combat knife, copper knife, copper tubing, cudgel, dive knife, fungal fighter string, heavy stick, expandable baton (extended), glass shiv, hammer, hunting knife, kukri, L-stick*, monomolecular blade, No. 9*, machete, makeshift knife, makeshift machete, pair of scissors, pipe, plank, pocket knife, pool cue, PR-24 baton (extended), punch dagger, RM42 fighting knife, screwdriver, sharpened toothbrush, shishkebab*, stone hammer, stone knife, suvival knife, survivor machete, switchblade, tactical tonfa*, tanto*, tonfa, wooden tonfa, trench knife, umbrella, walking cane, wasp sting, wrench
*Includes a variations.

Eskrima is quick style. It is best used for taking out groups of foes fast. That said, it does suffer a late game when monsters with a lot of armor show up.

Problems and issues

• Style favors bashing damage.
  Even after Puno Strike got nerfed in Adjust Puño to be representative of the technique #30858 (partly my fault, sorry!), Eskrima still favors bashing damage too much with Eskrima Bashing. Granted, the style does use sticks as it's primary weapon but it also uses knifes and improvised weapons. All weapons should be equally desirable use.

• Knee Strike doesn't make sense in a weapon style.
  Kneeing IS part of Eskrima but that isn't the issue here. What is the problem is that Knee Strike is technically an unarmed attack but due to the way the game calculates damage for weapon styles, it will always include your weapon damage. This is a game flaw that is kinda hard to fix. Removing "melee_allowed" isn't going to work and neither will reducing damage like Puno Strike does. The solution here is to just change the name and description to something else.

Rebalance Goal
Eskrima's gameplay is fine. It's a style that favors speed over damage. It only needs a few tweaks to adjust to the Puno Strike nerf.

New Buffs, Techniques, and Special Abilities

Name	Level Available	Type	Effect
Eskrima Stance	Melee 0	Static Buff	+2 Accuracy
Snap Strike	Unarmed 0	Melee Tech	80% move cost
Eskrima Combination	Melee 2	Onhit Buff	+15% bonus damage. Lasts 3 turns. Stacks 3 times.
Fan Strike	Melee 2	Melee Tech	75% move cost
Combination Strike	Melee 2	Melee Tech	Requires "Eskrima Combination", 80% move cost, +50% bonus damage
Puño Strike	Melee 3	Melee Crit Tech	60% move cost. 70% Bash damage. Cut and Stab damage reduced to 0%, Stun Duration: 1
Round Strike	Melee 4	Melee Tech	60% move cost
Low Strike	Melee 4	Melee Crit Tech	Down duration:1

Weapons: bagh_nakha, bee sting, bowling pin, combat knife, copper knife, copper tubing, cudgel, dive knife, fungal fighter string, heavy stick, expandable baton (extended), glass shiv, hammer, hunting knife, kukri, No. 9*, machete, makeshift knife, makeshift machete, pair of scissors, pipe, plank, pocket knife, PR-24 baton (extended), punch dagger, RM42 fighting knife, screwdriver, sharpened toothbrush, shishkebab*, stone hammer, stone knife, suvival knife, survivor machete, switchblade, tactical tonfa*, tanto*, tonfa, wooden tonfa, trench knife, umbrella, walking cane, wasp sting, wrench
*Includes a variations.

Important Changes

• Static Buff gives Accuracy instead of Bash damage.
  A big issue with a lot of the improvised weapons in Eskrima is they uaually have a negative To-hit value which makes them very hard to fight with. Eskrima Bashing was bias toward bashing weapons and should be something that helps all the weapons instead. So, I changed the static buff to increase Accuracy which all weapons benefit from.

• Eskrima Combination damage increased from 10% to 15% and stacks 3 times.
  The loss of Puno Strike's damage and my removal of the Bash damage from the Static Buff lowered Eskrima's overall damage by too much. I'm fine with the style focusing on speed but if the damage is so low that it can't hurt most of the enemies in the game, then the style isn't worth using. To counteract this, I increased Eskrima Combination's damage slightly and allowed it to stack. As a fast style, Eskrima has more chances to crit to stack the buff than other styles but it does rely on getting multiple crits in a row to work.

• Changed Knee Strike to Low Strike.
  As mentioned above, I changed this to avoid weird problems having an unarmed attack in a weapon focused style would cause. The technique works the exact same way as before.

• Additional style weapons.
  Tiger Claw - This weapon is used roughly the same way as the punch dagger and should be included.

• Removed style weapons.
  L-stick - Despite the name, this is actually staff and is too large to used with the style.
  Monomolecular Blade - Even if this weapon was the correct size, Eskrima was never exposed to it and wouldn't know how to use it with the style.
  Pool Cue - A full sized pool cue is too large to use with Eskrima. A broken one or the butt of the pool cue would be the appropriate size but these do not exist in-game.

Advantages

• Eskriama is the fastest of all weapon styles. You have a lot of chances to attack which allows you to fight off multiple opponents to an extent.
• Eskrima crits can knockdown or stun an opponent.
• It's easier to use than most styles because of the large amount of improvised weapons.

Disadvantages

• Eskrima lacks damage due to it's weapon selection. Late game enemies like Zombie Hulks and Skeletal Juggarnauts are going to be a problem. If you can't damage something with Combination Strike, you are not going to be able to win.

Describe alternatives you've considered

If the style is too strong...

• Reduce the damage, duration, or max stacks of Eskrima Combindation.
• Reduce the Accuracy from Eskrima Stance from 2 to 1.
• Remove Puno Strike or Low Strike.

If the style is too weak...

• Increase the damage, duration, or max stacks of Eskrima Combindation.
• Increase stun duration of Puno Strike.

Additional context

References:
Arnis (Eskrima) wikipedia page

[blot-runner]

Not a practicioner myself, but the wiki link you quote also states Eskrima weapons include staffs (bankaw) and spears (sibat). So, shouldn't those be in the list of compatible weapons, as well as their reasonably close improvised counterparts, like pool cue - at least from fluff perspective? Don't know about balance, though (e.g. it might make Silat less useful in comparison).
Disclaimer: not complaining and not really critisizing. Just a thought.