Tower of Despair Rings

[Kintro]

Tower of Despair is fast becoming my least favourite raid due to the number and specificity of the rings. The result is:

1) A high proportion of raid loot going to the vendor, either directly or "when I get the one I really want".
2) Players getting to 20 completions with nothing to show for it.

My suggestion is to stop treating the rings as raid loot and instead treat them as ingredients: Make them bound to account initially and bind to character after crafting. The 20th reward list could then be changed to be similar to Shroud: +2 and +3 tomes with a small chance at a +4.

This would make it easier to form groups (ala Shroud) and reduce the number of rings which go to waste because noone in the group is the right build for one that drops. I don't think this would make it too easy to acquire rings as more people in the group would be interested in each one that drops.

This suggestion is based purely on my own observations so I'm interested in any and all feedback!

[woundweaver]

the idea isnt bad. i would mind BTA rings, then BTC after crafting the upgrade. ive got a barb that cant pull the encrusted for anything in the world, but my fvs and monk has pulled em, and put em for roll several times. a couple time they did go to a vendor upon exiting because no one wanted it. my barb could of used just 1....it was so close. it was in my hand, but so far away. anyways, great idea

[Kintro]

Had a reply via PM basically saying the problems with ToD aren't the rings but:

1) Banishment/boot mechanic.
2) Rarity of boot ingredients.
3) Lag.
4) Resource consumption (healers particularly).

These may all be problems (not going to get into that here) but they really compound the problems I see with ring drops. Any difficulties flagging and completing make it all the more frustrating to vendor something your alt wants then get nothing in 20 runs.

It may just be that I'm very unlucky with the drops so I'm interested in how other peoples experiences vary.

[r3dl4nce]

1) Banishment/boot mechanic.

farm for boots

2) Rarity of boot ingredients.

They raised the drop % for boots ingredients, now it's easy to do them

3) Lag.

Yeah, this is true. Learn to do dps pause every 5-6 seconds and you can survive

4) Resource consumption (healers particularly).

Our healers in hard finish even the horoth fight with half sp.... Have better party/dps/healers

[Dieseltrain]

Not a bad idea but then you will run into wizards that would say "oh I need the encrusted ring for my barbarian" which unless you know the person you cannot validate it.

For example, last night the encrusted ring dropped. I have the belt, the trophies and my shard to upgrade it and a wizard took it. However it was his pull so he could have done what he wanted. But whatever, my point is that you will see more of this BS happening.

[Angelus_dead]

I previously made a big suggestion to improve the TOD loot, by going through the ring sets and specifically fixing the ones with problems:
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?p=2669407

This would make it easier to form groups (ala Shroud) and reduce the number of rings which go to waste because noone in the group is the right build for one that drops.

It rarely happens that a good ring drops and "goes to waste", because with 12 players you usually have someone to cover all the possibilities.

The main source for player dissatisfaction when opening the final TOD chest is because they get rings that are useful to no one. Stuff like Mechanic and Warpriest ring just aren't much good for any build.

[Kintro]

The main source for player dissatisfaction when opening the final TOD chest is because they get rings that are useful to no one. Stuff like Mechanic and Warpriest ring just aren't much good for any build.

True enough, though just because they aren't good now doesn't mean they aren't worth getting if you have the correct build. Once the PrE aspects are added they should all be worth having.

It may only be a small benefit but getting a potentially useful ring for the future is better than nothing!

[Angelus_dead]

True enough, though just because they aren't good now doesn't mean they aren't worth getting if you have the correct build. Once the PrE aspects are added they should all be worth having.

For a ring set to be good it should have useful bonuses both with and without you having the specialty.

Good rings like FB and Shintao are good for anyone who fights with a weapon.
Poor rings like Assassin and Kensei are undesired even if you have the tier3 specialty.

[freelove]

farm for boots
They raised the drop % for boots ingredients, now it's easy to do them

Yeah, this is true. Learn to do dps pause every 5-6 seconds and you can survive

Our healers in hard finish even the horoth fight with half sp.... Have better party/dps/healers

This a joke post right? DPS pause, huh? So you stop swinging but others need to run with better dps?

Run on hard with half sp bars ????

My guild runs 2-3 epic dragon and 1 epic queen a day with two other of the better guilds on server and our casters do not have half sp left on normal, unless bauble and scroll come into play. One of our melee always has epic SoS also rolling one KoTC pally in the party for damage and AC for Suulo (73 target), monk for stun, blah blah blah.

Of course we always go for suulo for the tome chance so that add a bit to the time and heals but come on mate - you realize this is in print for all times right? Hard half sp bars, please. You give newer players a bad name.

It is hard to read posts on the forums when so many do so little but pretend to do so much. Like the cat that complains epic is so easy and puts his toons on the bottom and you look them up and guess what? No epic gear. No wonder most of the better players I know on server have like 20 posts in 4 years, of course they are too busy playing to post - lol. But I can get the forums at work and not the game which is probably a good thing.

To the rest of you that know what you are talking about, please keep posting you were a great help when I started and even use your references today (even if sometimes they are wrong through application).

Summary to lag: one slow machine in the party that dc's or lags slows the whole party down especially on mass heals, etc. We have tested this in shroud once someone disconnects we all pause (try it in part1 in guild with people you know have good computers/connections have someone spam mass then have one person unplug modem). Same thing when one of us jumped on a laptop and restricted the wifi to his machine to 256/128 we all lagged. So supposebly we all exchange and share information and the way turbine handles it is sending multiple packets instead of one which gets bogged down on their side I am sure and on ours. All I know is now running all raids in guild very little lag - before I signed on and pug'd alot more - much more lag. Still turbine farm servers are no help but lag is a larger portion on the users side, in general.

Lets hope Turbine gets off the new player spend 20 bucks addiction and uses some of that money to address the white elepant in the room - standing right over ... wait were did he go .. oh **** lag - he attacked me and I am dead. Cuz everquest/DAoC/KoTR/WoW were not this bad - I do love the quest mechanic in this game it is a nice change of pace from all other games out there.

[redraider]

Bound to Account FTW!!!!!

Kintro is GOD!