Rituals

[Cyr]

So we've had this mechanic in the game for a few years now. It really has not gotten any love and kind of is a forgotten mechanic. NOTE: For those forgetting how this mechanic works one ritual replaces the other so you can only have one per item.

Right now there is one option for accessories, shields, and armor. Weapons have two options. All items can get the adamantine ritual instead. There are no more powerful steps on any rituals besides adamantine currently.

So here are my suggestions for making this mechanic more varied and interesting.

*Add a 'metal' ritual for each metal type. Make these rituals grant dr bypass of the appropriate amounts and the armor/shield bonuses of the appropriate type. Make adamantine ritual also do this. Allow a weapon with one metal type to get a different one and keep the old one. If an item already has the metal type applied allow the application, but grant no bonus OR make it function as a tier 2 of that type (TBD). This would add a valuable alternative to the force rituals or AC rituals.

*Add a 'ice' ritual for weapons. Three tiers just like the risia ice games.
*Add an 'ice' ritual for accessories/armors/Shields. Three tiers with the tiers replacing the previous steps with ice guards like the shroud accessories can get.

*Add other elemental rituals if various games allow their addition in a manner similar to the risia games do now and corresponding accessory/shield/armor options like 'ice'.

*Add tiers to existing rituals. Force tier 2 = 2 force damage, Force tier 3 = 3 force damage. Force critical scales in a similar manner. Armor/shield AC rituals add one extra AC per tier upto tier 3. Saves ritual adds one extra to saves per tier.

*Ritual of Sharing. This ritual makes an item Bound to Account. When replaced by another ritual it reverts to bind to character of course.

*Require as components of the ritual of sharing and all tier 2/3 rituals extremly rare drops from chests that do not bind. Increase drop rates the higher the chest level. Things like essence of the ice flenser could be for tier three ice rituals. This creates a more limited pool of materials then the strictly collectible based rituals. Also require collectibles for all tier 2/3 and sharing recipes.

The idea here is to expand this mechanic in a way that tough choices have to be made. More dps for a weapon or more dr bypassing potential? Guards, AC, saves, or ability to throw it into your shared bank and transfer it between toons?

[Bogenbroom]

I really like the idea of expanding the rituals, and some of your thoughts on it. Some additional comments...

- I think if any mech were introduced that allowed the transfer of bound equipment it should just be to change that equipment to bound to account *AND* bound on equip. Basically allowing *1* transfer.
- I don't think I would want to see more rituals that added damage to weapons, but would like to see more that added DR bypassing attributes and/or debuffing enchantments.

[Cyr]

Interesting comments Bogen. I'm kind of inclined to agree with you about the one time transfer idea.

Hmm, debuffs for weapons...

*Befuddling - Each hit with this weapon deals one point of intelligence damage.
*Ritual of Necrosis - Each hit with this weapon reduces incoming positive energy healing, regeneration, and fast healing by 1%. This effect is healed at a rate of 100% per minute if the mob has epic fast healing, 50% per minute if the mob has fast healing or regneration, or 10% minute otherwise.
*Ritual of the Vulnerable - Each hit with this weapon reduces the targets fortification by 1% upto a maxium of 25%. Fortification damage heals fully from a heal effect and regenerates at a rate of 25% per minute.
*Spark of Life - Each hit with this weapon reduces a target undead creatures fortification by 5%. Fortificaiton damage heals fully from a harm effect and regenerates at a rate of 100% per minute.
*Dismantling - Each hit with this weapon reduces a target constructs fortification by 1%. A Reconstruct spell fully removes this effect, a heal spell on a warforg fully removes this effect, and this damage regenerates at a rate of 25% per minute.
*Ritual of Hopelessness - Your target suffers from despair. A crushing despair spell effect is applied to them without saving throw or spell resistance. This effect lasts for 5 seconds.
*Ritual of Empathy - Each time you hit with this weapon an empathatic link forms between you and the creature at a rate of 1% per hit. Everytime you suffer damage the creature suffers a percentage of that damage equal to the empathatic link percentage and vice versa. This empathatic link is fully removed from a restoration spell (cast on either your target or yourself) and fades away at a rate of 10% per minute.
*Ritual of Ill Fortune - Each time this weapon hits Ill Fortune is cast on your target.
Ill Fortune - DC 15, Duration 1 minute, This spell makes you very unlucky in combat. Every time you roll damage roll again if the damage is more then average and take the result of the second roll. Monsters immune to curses are not immune to this effect.
*Ritual of Lost Thoughts - Each time this weapon hits the target loses access to one of their special attacks/spells for 1 minute DC 15 to resist. Only one special ability or spell can be 'lost' at a time.
*Ritual of the Raised Alert - When you hit a target with this weapon they are not counted for purposes of dungeon alert as a cone of silence surrounds them. This effect lasts five minutes.

Some of these are probably on the too strong side, but it's fun to throw out ideas like these to see what sticks. Most of them I crafted in a way where crazy weapon swapping is not super useful (ie not like destruction/improved destruction where it's a hit em once every minute type of thing). Also, probably all of them could use a tweak or two at least.

[cdemeritt]

Interesting comments Bogen. I'm kind of inclined to agree with you about the one time transfer idea.

Hmm, debuffs for weapons...

*Befuddling - Each hit with this weapon deals one point of intelligence damage.
*Ritual of Necrosis - Each hit with this weapon reduces incoming positive energy healing, regeneration, and fast healing by 1%. This effect is healed at a rate of 100% per minute if the mob has epic fast healing, 50% per minute if the mob has fast healing or regneration, or 10% minute otherwise.
*Ritual of the Vulnerable - Each hit with this weapon reduces the targets fortification by 1% upto a maxium of 25%. Fortification damage heals fully from a heal effect and regenerates at a rate of 25% per minute.
*Spark of Life - Each hit with this weapon reduces a target undead creatures fortification by 5%. Fortificaiton damage heals fully from a harm effect and regenerates at a rate of 100% per minute.
*Dismantling - Each hit with this weapon reduces a target constructs fortification by 1%. A Reconstruct spell fully removes this effect, a heal spell on a warforg fully removes this effect, and this damage regenerates at a rate of 25% per minute.
*Ritual of Hopelessness - Your target suffers from despair. A crushing despair spell effect is applied to them without saving throw or spell resistance. This effect lasts for 5 seconds.
*Ritual of Empathy - Each time you hit with this weapon an empathatic link forms between you and the creature at a rate of 1% per hit. Everytime you suffer damage the creature suffers a percentage of that damage equal to the empathatic link percentage and vice versa. This empathatic link is fully removed from a restoration spell (cast on either your target or yourself) and fades away at a rate of 10% per minute.
*Ritual of Ill Fortune - Each time this weapon hits Ill Fortune is cast on your target.
Ill Fortune - DC 15, Duration 1 minute, This spell makes you very unlucky in combat. Every time you roll damage roll again if the damage is more then average and take the result of the second roll. Monsters immune to curses are not immune to this effect.
*Ritual of Lost Thoughts - Each time this weapon hits the target loses access to one of their special attacks/spells for 1 minute DC 15 to resist. Only one special ability or spell can be 'lost' at a time.
*Ritual of the Raised Alert - When you hit a target with this weapon they are not counted for purposes of dungeon alert as a cone of silence surrounds them. This effect lasts five minutes.

Some of these are probably on the too strong side, but it's fun to throw out ideas like these to see what sticks. Most of them I crafted in a way where crazy weapon swapping is not super useful (ie not like destruction/improved destruction where it's a hit em once every minute type of thing). Also, probably all of them could use a tweak or two at least.

Some interesting thoughts... OK, to counter some of the overpowering sides... Add to the above a 1-5% chance of backfire... kinda like the cloak of curses... a chance the effect will be applied to you.....

[Cyr]

Some interesting thoughts... OK, to counter some of the overpowering sides... Add to the above a 1-5% chance of backfire... kinda like the cloak of curses... a chance the effect will be applied to you.....

That could work very well on the anti-fort weapons. Nice idea.

[cdemeritt]

I've been meaning to post this thought for a while now, but have been putting it off.... This seems like a good thread to hijack.....

So Speaking of rituals, I'd like to see an expansion of the crafting system into lesser crafting.

One thing that has bugged me every time I level a new toon, is fitting the gear I want into the slots I have, and how there are always a few slots that just don't seem to have anything useful, at least until you craft greensteel, or get high end raid loot... My last cleric was still using the goggles of insight from korthos until he crafted his SP goggles...

Add to this the fact a 5 year old can figure out that if you put a string though a ring, you can wear it like a necklace... and any semi competent backyard jeweler can mount a stone in a ring or bracelet, or such.... and a cloak could be tied around the waist like a belt....

My thought is: Using collectibles, you craft item blanks... (Belts,Boots, Rings, Necklaces, etc. etc.) These items have no value what so ever... but say you have a Pearl of Power 10, and you'd like to put in a ring... You take your ring blank, and the pearl, and say siberies dragonshard fragments, crunch them, you now have a ring: pearl of power 10. All stats, hardness, damage, Min Lvl remain the same, the only difference is now you can equip it to a ring slot vs trinket and it's now Bound to Character... Raid loot, weapons, shields and armor are all excluded...

Now I'm sure the Rulemasters are all going Horrible, unbalancing, bad idea, yadda, yadda... But, I don't think it would change much, as are you really going to bind you pearl of power 10, after all you'll only use it for a couple levels....

[Kyrn]

The problem with this? There's very high odds it won't apply to handwraps, making monks sad pandas. Rationale for me believing such? Metalline handwraps have much higher ML than (other) weapon types.

Now, if they really made it for handwraps, I think all monks will be happy pandas instead though.