Three ways to make DT crafting less frustrating

[moshptato]

Stealer of Souls is a great quest. It is well designed and challenging. But few things are as frustrating as spending an hour putting together a group and running this quest (which may also require another hour or so to flag for), only to pull a useless rune. It is frustrating to put in all of that effort and end up absolutely no closer to getting the armor you want. I say “no closer” because in any other raid, even if you don’t pull the item you want, at least you are one run closer to a “20th run” end reward list. With that said, here are some possible methods of reducing the frustration associated with this quest:

1. Make rune properties visible while they are still in the chest, but still bind on acquire. Runes would essentially become like other raid loot. If you don’t need it or can’t use it, you put it up for roll or give it away. You’re still going to have to farm a bit, but on each run you would have (up to) a six times greater chance of getting the rune you want. This idea is, of course, nothing but wishful thinking. A slightly watered down version of this idea would be to divide runes up into categories (stat buffs, spellcasting buffs, guards, etc.) and give each category a color. So at least when your barbarian opens the last chest in SOS and sees a rune with the color of a spellcasting buff, he can hand it over to the caster or what have you.

2. Add a “20th run” mechanism for SOS. This would probably be very hard to implement because of the unique nature of the quest (the fact that Sor’jek is optional and that the sovereign rune is in the quest rather than given as an end reward). Ideally, Thear (the NPC who bestows the quest) could keep track of how many times a character has successfully defeated Sor’jek and after 20 wins he could give them a list of sovereign runes to choose from (with the properties visible instead) instead of a stack of draconics. Alternately, you could set a ridiculously high price (say 1000 draconics) and offer the option of a list of runes with the properties visible.

3. Give us another way to finish off a Subterrane set. A lot of the people farming SOS are trying to get the third tier of glacial assault, Lorrik’s champion or Levik’s defender (incidentally, absolutely no one is farming SOS for their third tier of Tharne’s wrath. No one. That might be worth looking in to…). Why not make the third tier of a Subterrane set an option in epic crafting? It still requires a great deal of effort, but at least it is a finite amount of effort.

I’m sure I’m not the first to suggest any of these ideas, so I’d like to apologize to anyone who has posted them before. I’m far too lazy to look. Happy Gaming!

[hydra_ex]

I really like your first 2 suggestions, and think that since the mechanic is seen elsewhere, a precedent is set, which makes it easier.

The 3rd one not so much; for lorrik's especially, it represent hours of grinding. DT should be made easier, but I don't think that those abilities should be available elsewhere.

[Epitome]

I’m sure I’m not the first to suggest any of these ideas, so I’d like to apologize to anyone who has posted them before. I’m far too lazy to look. Happy Gaming!

Although a multitude of similar ideas have been posted it still doesn't hurt to drive this one home with a fresh post.

[Bradik_Losdar]

I much prefer the 'discovery' fix that has been mentioned several times before.

Once your character discovers a rune, it is visable from then on. Even though you may pull a Feather Fall rune a dozen times (making the devs happy with a bunch of grinding) at least you are working towards something. Eventually you'll discover all the runes this way.

This method gives everyone a little bit of what they want - the devs get their 'grind' and we get more and more identfied runes.

[rezo]

/ NEVER!!!!!!!!.............. j/k hehehe

[moshptato]

I've seen the "discovery" idea posted a couple of times but I'm not sure I understand it. Would you be able to see the properties of only your own rune in a chest, or would you be able to see other people's if they were on your list of discovered runes?

[RATRACE931]

I'd much rather see DT crafting emulate Epic Crafting, say get 10 eldritch runes and u can choose what effect you want, get 15 tempest u can choose and 20 sov runes. I think it would be simple and worth the grind.

[sirgog]

I'd much rather see DT crafting emulate Epic Crafting, say get 10 eldritch runes and u can choose what effect you want, get 15 tempest u can choose and 20 sov runes. I think it would be simple and worth the grind.

That's actually a really, really good idea.

You can still get your reasonable set quickly (1st or 2nd rune in each slot usually makes an armor set that is somewhat worthwhile), then you can save up for the perfect set.