Epic SoS Nerfed to +10 5d6/x3

[Alanim]

Hmmmm, Possible give the Epic spell storing ring 4 charges now? Still not as good as it used to be, but a bit better then it is currently(as this is quite a huge nerf) that or 2 major mnemonics maybe? whichever works.

[Cetus]

make some real nice videos now of the damage done....so new players in years distant will look back and go 'wow, ddo gods played back then'

won't ever see those numbers again.

Heh I hope some others will, I made a few but now I can't because this **** to hell change has caught me mid TR.

Won't ever see the numbers I have calculated to be able to achieve now.

[Josh]

...Grind? Maybe. That's the game, though.

Focus on adventure, not on grind!

Isn't that what it said on the box?

[eeeeeee]

make some real nice videos now of the damage done....so new players in years distant will look back and go 'wow, ddo gods played back then'

won't ever see those numbers again.

Heh i still remember coming back and seeing my whirlwind nerfed every time i see it in my bank i die a little inside

[Deathseeker]

For me, the issue here is not the nerf, it's that they never should have released the overpowered version to begin with. If it was released this way originally it would have just been another optional nice to have weapon. But by not thinking the first version through, they've disappointed a lot of players.

Nerfing isn't the problem, it's screwing up in the beginning by introducing something that just about everyone recognized was overpowered (and was either thrilled by that or disgusted by it).

I do like some of the other changes however. A few more epic items have become useful...

[Cetus]

For me, the issue here is not the nerf, it's that they never should have released the overpowered version to begin with. If it was released this way originally it would have just been another optional nice to have weapon. But by not thinking the first version through, they've disappointed a lot of players.

Nerfing isn't the problem, it's screwing up in the beginning by introducing something that just about everyone recognized was overpowered (and was either thrilled by that or disgusted by it).

I do like some of the other changes however. A few more epic items have become useful...

Ever notice how most of the people saying its overpowered dont have one?

Once you acquire one, you learn its limitations quite well.


ITS NOT OVERPOWERED

one more time,

ITS NOT OVERPOWERED

[txan]

Not to worry this is to reduce server lag.

[Monkey_Archer]

Epic Chaosblades are overpowered... they now can do more dps than an eSOS AND they have vorpal and vampirism.
NERF THEM NOW!!!

/sarcasm off

... wait no.. i was kidding... oh ****

[Mr_Tank]

Nothing says we care about you like dangling a carrot in front of our nose. Letting us get the carrot. And then taking the carrot and replacing it with a smaller one. Thank you turbine I now have no drive to finish off my esos.

[Garth_of_Sarlona]

Ever notice how most of the people saying its overpowered dont have one?

Once you acquire one, you learn its limitations quite well.


ITS NOT OVERPOWERED

I have one, and I think it's overpowered.

Garth

[Matuse]

In auto crit situations (most of epic) you get x3... exactly what you would get with any old greataxe.

By all means, show me the 5d6+10 "any old" greataxe that makes the ESoS look so ordinary now.

The sword needed nerfing, it needed nerfing every since they leaked the details before VoN went epic. There were long threads about how it was ridiculously over the top. And it was. Now it will be slightly less so, yes...SLIGHTLY less so. It's still a crushingly powerful weapon.

82.5 average damage on a crit. That's just the base weapon. Not even including strength, rage, weapon spec, kensai, seeker, etc. Just adding a Bloodstone and the damage goes to 100.5...and with a threat range of 15-20 with Imp Crit: Slash.

[Solmage]

A pass was made on many epic items. Full release notes will be up tomorrow (I think?), but I figure I'd post this list tonight:

Thanks for the list.

The nerf to SOS one could see a mile away, since it was easier to farm it than greensteel and far more powerful. If I'm not mistaken, it should still remain fairly powerful.

On a related note, I think it still completely obscures xuum, which may benefit from a threat range increase? =)

Seriously, I was very happy to see some items upgraded, but I'm wondering if anything has been done/will be done to make obtaining the desert items a bit easier? The simplest solution would be to compartmentalize the items more, with the raid only dropping raid items stuff, each quest dropping the items and stuff specific to that quest, and perhaps sprinkling 2 GOOD wilderness items into each of the "hard" desert quests (chains, ADQ), with the rest of the "ok" items into the easier quests, or possibly turning one of walkup desert quests into epic to house these.

Also, I have some questions regarding the items:

- The cloak of zephyr: it's currently a better item when not upgraded since blur is worthless to a caster and lightning lore is worthless to a melee. If it IS meant to be a caster item, it needs a lot more to be worth a cloak slot, like for example a +7 int or cha, or spell mastery, or something along those lines, and if it's a melee item add stuff useful for them: air guard, 4 minute haste clicky, striding 30% (Wind walking), whatever.

- Golden Greaves: At the very least, striding 30%. The non-epic item is mildly useful, the epic one is completely useless. Another option: glancing blow -50%. (Glancing blow damage on epic needs to be toned down a bit if you're serious about making AC somewhat useful..)

- Firestorm greaves: Again, this item is far more useful in it's non-epic form because of the low min level. One only puts this on to reduce fire damage. So in order to improve the item, you either help reduce fire damage further, or you change it so it becomes a good item to keep on all the time. For the former, Superior fire resist would be worth something, or a reactive fire shield guard like the one from the VoD bracers that casts fire shield cold when something hits you. For the latter, striding 30% would help us keep these on most of the time.

- Green blade: Very disappointed here, who cares about doing 10% damage on lvl 9 spells? Using superior combustion IX *BARELY* makes meteor swarm worth casting because half the meteors never hit the target to begin with, and the blunt damage does not seem to be affected by combustion enhancements or items. I mean, this was not a bad item to begin with, but it does prevent us from holding some of the other awesome caster items out there, like the staff from the Abbot, so perhaps it could use Efficient Metamagic Maximize II or something along those lines?

- Bramble Casters: These used to be one of the best caster gloves out there. The guard was overall fairly small so barbs were far better off with pos/pos/pos gloves or some other such guard item. Now the epic version is only useful for melees. My suggestion: Add something for casters too, after all even their lore says they were supposedly created by a wizard to aid them. Cheaper metamagics, or a superior spearblock if worn by casters, or ..something.

- Torc: I love my torc, my torc is awesome, etc etc. But.. would it really be too much to ask to add archmagi now that you have basically given it away in ToD belts? (For that matter, any chance those will ever be reworked so the sets are actually useful for casters?)

- On an almost completely unrelated note, any chance we'll see meteor storm strike with all four meteors in update 5? Or chain lightning chain it's lightning without the need for enlarge?

Ugh, this post was long...

[Solmage]

Once you acquire one, you learn its limitations quite well.

Which limitations, exactly? Because in it's current form, unless you're running all raids on elite the SoS was simply tearing through it harder than anything else in the game, including holy silver of greater bane, never mind other "pathetic by comparison" epic weapons and mineral IIs.

(disclaimer: I'll admit to not having done the elite math, so it's even possible that the current SoS still won vs min II there in spite of the fort and high DR)

[Kilarthia]

It does not bypass dr on anything you'd really use it on.

you can't crit golems.

Maybe if it got an extra red augment ..

[maddmatt70]

Nice changes but fairly irrelevant changes unless the desert loot is made more accessible.

[lord_of_rage]

My WF Paladin is still happy with the Esos. Im sure most thf paladins will still be very happy with a +10 5d6 great sword with a x3 crit range. It still hits 5x on a an exalted smite crit. And with the up coming change to twf wf thf paladins become even more viable.

[Zack77]

If you wanna quit, quit. So what if they're changing **** you want, so what if they're nerfing stuff. They admitted that they made a mistake, and they're fixing it. I'm tired of the *****ing that people do when their favorite toy gets altered or changed in the slightest that makes it less than it was originally(of course, you wouldn't complain if they BUFFED it, we all know that.) The ESoS needed a nerf. EVERYONE knows it does(except maybe you people who have one and like playing with it). But for the rest of us, we thought it needed a nerf. Just like TWF needed a nerf. Every melee toon I have at the moment is TWF, so I feel the nerf hard. BUT, I feel that TWF needed a nerf in the first place. All you THF'ers out there felt TWF needed a nerf as well, and made sure to be vocal about it. Now you cry once the ESoS is nerfed? If this is enough to make you quit, you may as well stop playing MMO's in general: **** like this always happens. While it may not happen at first in an MMO, these kinds of things happen all the time. So, if this DOES make you quit, I say good ****ing riddance.


P.S. Neg rep me all you want for this. I'm just speaking the truth. If you can't handle it, too bad. I hate to repeat myself, but if something like this makes you want to quit, I say its in YOUR best interest to quit, and quit MMO's in general. This may be the first time this happens in DDO, but this kind of thing happens in ALL MMO's sooner or later.

[Asketes]

Agreed.

meh..

it's not the worst they could have done..

admit it

I mean i feel for you guys.. but it could have been soo much worse.

[Temko]

ooh... so, a few OP items nerfed. a few useless ones buffed.
Epic still no fun to play.


quiter: bwahahahaha. bye bye.
whiners: greensteel needs a nerf as well. like... greensteel weapons needing cleansing as well

[mudfud]

It does not bypass dr on anything you'd really use it on.

you can't crit golems.

Maybe if it got an extra red augment ..

Add silver paladin capstone for good.
Harry beater, Sully beater