One handed weapon+empty slot= 40% chance of unarmed attack

[Davion Fuxa]

The idea looks interesting. While none of the current classes can probably make use of leaving their Off Handed empty, it can open up room for new classes that can make use of the mechanic or new categories/existing categories being added to existing classes.

As an example of what we could do to an existing class, maybe we could give Wyrmics Grappling as an unlocked category - thus adding One Handed Weapons and Empty Off Hand to weapon combinations they may want to use.

[Red]

Cursed could as well, since none of their abilities are weapon specific.
Melee Doomed builds would be nice to have this with, since they already have Cunning. Might be cool if they got a Gesture tree for combination with empty off-hand.
Mindslayers have basically no weapon specific abilities, not even to the specilization extent Cursed do, and since they can pop a telekinetic two handed weapon for extra damage, they'd benefit a lot fomr Juggernaut or GWF glove procs.

All of these would benefit a lot more if they had more trees with this in mind, but even without it'd be a viable part of a build.

[Faeryan]

Faeryan, it's only if you leave a hand empty. So you can't dual-wield, use shields, or use two-handed weapons with it. Flexible Combat is a 60% chance every time you hit in melee, regardless of what you're holding.

Yes, I've actually read the thread and also I've played the game to know the prodigy I was referring to, even though one might not be able to tell it from the way I said that.

Flexible Combat is a great prodigy, one of the two chat endorsed ones actually.
I was just trying to simplify the debate by bringing a known in-game effect into comparison.


I am currently running a staff wielding Arcane Blade with Telos Bottom as my offhand. My current glove department consists of Hand of the World Shaper, Will of Ulgr-Gruth (spelling?) and a nice pair of Dispersion gloves. Once I get my crit rate high enough without Telos Bottom I could very well imagine enjoying some added unarmed hit effects from those gloves.

Just saying for me it would be a God sent. Not sure on the 40% proc rate though. Would have to experience it for real.

[Doctornull]

Did I understand this correctly? Suggestion is about giving everyone Flexible Combat prodigy for just keeping one hand empty?

Yep, that's the suggestion.

Seems interesting IMHO, specifically because it prohibits most of the stuff that makes Flexible Combat so awesome (e.g. no Flurry for you).

[Nagyhal]

I like the idea, but I prefer the notion of melee characters having access to solid, basic 1h weapon fighting trees with some funky combat manoeuvres centred on a "duelist" style of play.

There's this thread which develops the idea nicely. edit: I just realized it doesn't have anything to do with having an empty offhand. The tree in question however makes much more sense if you imagine it were written that way!.

Also the Commando has some good ideas in this way and I think the excellent Battle Hobo captures some of the "feel" of this kind of fighting if not having the precise weapon set-up.

That said, having passive unarmed attacks for all would only compliment new trees!