Guild Slots on select named items!

[knightgf]

As I walk around Stormreach and look at the many unique treasures and powerful weapons, I realized something. At high levels, you are usually going to be STUFFED with all sorts of items and weapons, most of which are not random loot items, but rather, named items. Granted, named items are usually better than their normal counterpart items, but the weakness they have is they don't have guild slots on them.

And you might be asking yourself, "Why is it such a disappointment? Why are players upset that select raid and greensteel Gear have no guild augment slots?" Well, the main complaint is that since raid and greensteel gear do not have any type of guild augment slots, they basically do not allow you to benefit from your guild level, and thus you lose out on benefits. Do not get me wrong, the guild augment augment crystals need more work in themselves*, but there are still some useful crystal augments that players could potentially equip to their gear, such as guild bonuses to SP and HP. While it is not game-breaking that players do not have augment crystals on raid gear and greensteel, it certainly does make the guild update less useful since players equipped with named gear cannot or are severely limited in benefiting from guild augment crystals.

There are two solutions I propose that could be used to solve the problem, but others may be able to come up with potentially better solutions . I shall detail them below:

A: Introduce "Adjustable" guild slots into the game. What are adjustable guild slots? Well, adjustable guild slots allow you to slot any guild gem up to the size specified in the description. I.E.: A medium adjustable augment slot will accept all guild slot crystals up to medium in size. For raid loot, it can be predetermined^, but for crafting greensteel and other items, the max size will start as a small size at creation, and increase in size as it gains power. I.E.: For Greensteel, tiny at creation, small at Tier I, Medium at Tier II and Large at Tier III.

B: Allow guild members to rent a crew member on-board that will allow you to trade her a guild gem to have the effect bestowed upon you. The effect lasts only 2 hours, and like a guild slotted item, cannot be dispelled or removed on rest, but it can be lost on death. Not as good as idea A, but its still acceptable.

Ignoring all the many negative bugs of Update 5, this update was meant to make guilds a better place for players by offering in-game benefits for guilds. Turbine intended to give players discount NPC'S, Airships, bonuses to certain items for being in a certain level guild, and other benefits. While many players, including myself, could criticize how off-target Turbine was with these benefits, I'm only focusing on one target they intended to hit but missed somewhat: Guild-Slotted items. It's great that you made it so players can at least wear items that have a guild level, but lets go for the next level of correction by fixing the limitations of guild-slotted items at high levels.

Discuss? Comments? Questions?

*(They REALLY need to remove item-based requirements and make the saves general, not situational based.)

^(Varies in size, usually a large slot, but depending on the named item that is dropped in a quest/raid, it can vary. Not all named items will have guild augment slots.)

[AyumiAmakusa]

Already a lot of players do not like guild slotted weapons. Introducing guild slots in named weapons may be pushing things a bit too far. Personally I don't care (I have a guild) but you won't get the same sentiments from other people.

[knightgf]

Already a lot of players do not like guild slotted weapons. Introducing guild slots in named weapons may be pushing things a bit too far. Personally I don't care (I have a guild) but you won't get the same sentiments from other people.

And why exactly do players not like guild slotted weapons?

[khaldan]

First off, large slots are absurdly hard to obtain. guild level 75 is going to have a heck of a high decay, so until they allow you to put a tiny/small/medium in a large slot, this might be a bad idea.

Second, people hate guild slots because it 'forces' you to join a guild. I could care less, but appearently forcing people to do anything in this guild makes the 'casual YOU CAN'T CHANGE HOW I PLAY' crowd scream at the top of their lungs.

[PopeJual]

First off, large slots are absurdly hard to obtain. guild level 75 is going to have a heck of a high decay, so until they allow you to put a tiny/small/medium in a large slot, this might be a bad idea.

Second, people hate guild slots because it 'forces' you to join a guild. I could care less, but appearently forcing people to do anything in this guild makes the 'casual YOU CAN'T CHANGE HOW I PLAY' crowd scream at the top of their lungs.

Just go to Argo or Khyber. There's a prominent guild with no standards on each of those servers.

I'm sure that there is a similar guild on other servers as well.

[knightgf]

First off, large slots are absurdly hard to obtain. guild level 75 is going to have a heck of a high decay, so until they allow you to put a tiny/small/medium in a large slot, this might be a bad idea.

Second, people hate guild slots because it 'forces' you to join a guild. I could care less, but appearently forcing people to do anything in this guild makes the 'casual YOU CAN'T CHANGE HOW I PLAY' crowd scream at the top of their lungs.

Which is why I suggested there be "Adjustable" guild slots so that you don't have to join a large guild to gain the benefits to the raid item. You can fit a tiny, small, medium or large guild augment gem in there depending on the max size of the adjustable guild slot. Also remember: You still do not need to even be in a guild to wear guild level items, if I recall correctly, provided there is no gem inside the item. You can still equip the raid loot item and still gain its base benefits. Yeah, its sad that you might miss out on guild benefits if your not in a guild, and I understand, not everyone wants to be in a guild. I wouldn't even think of suggesting this idea if Turbine did not change items with guild levels to be worn by all players, provided its blank.

But remember: If you believe you NEED to have items filled with the largest guild level gem out there for endgame or whatever, you are clearly mistaken. It's still very, very possible to do raids and quests at high level without them. Even before Update 5, players were still managing quite well without them.