<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Forum poster Exodeus has made a suggestion that I heartily endorse: abandon the weapon skill mechanic for a universal weapon mastery system. It's not just for the reasons he suggests that I'm on board. His examples (of a hunter having to go AFK on Dr. Boom after getting a new gun drop because he's always used bows, or a rogue having to mindlessly slaughter low level mobs to get that dagger skill up) resonate for sure... we have a talented DPS warrior in my guild who had to go buy a green 2h axe because he hadn't used one since the old Arcanite Reaper days and he was supposed to be using the 2h legendary in the Kael fight, so I know how ridiculous the skilling up process can be... but because his suggestion makes sense in light of all the other ways the folks at Blizzard are unifying things like spell power, hit rating, crit rating and so on. His point about how the introduction of Expertise effectively made the whole system obsolete is dead on in my eyes.I personally even like his proposed mechanic, but adopting it wouldn't be necessary: I'd be fine if they simply abandoned weapon skill entirely and just based everything on your character level to start with (so that if you were a level 80 paladin and you got a new hammer, you'd automatically hit with it as if you had a 400 weapon skill, no muss, no fuss) if you're dead set on keeping things simple. No matter how they go about it, since training dummies still don't provide weapon skill on use, I'd have to believe that some change or revamp of the system would be a very nice improvement to the gameplay. Getting a nice drop shouldn't send you into the Blasted Lands to find Servants of Razelikh. Those poor guys -- not only are they cursed to be unable to die, but they get smacked in the head by guys way higher level then they are all day. It's a hard life being an unkillable mob.If Blizzard was a pixie one could make wishes to, this would definitely be one of mine. Also, I'd try and keep them safe from Captain Hook."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/04/weapon-mastery/>