Update 8 - My Wishlist

[sirgog]

Update 7's about to hit and looks like it'll be a big hit, with lots of long-awaited bug fixes, two new races, and some exciting new quests. Of course, Update 8 will be a smaller one (usually the even updates have few or no systems changes but focus instead on quests). Here's what I'd like to see - and it's a wishlist focused on level 18-20 players, the lowbies/midbies have had enough love lately.



New Adventure Packs:

The Blinding Light (level 18+):
Sometimes, the greatest threat isn't the devil you know.
Journey to Shavarath's Archon areas, and unravel the deadly machinations of a fallen angel.
Discover how a great force of Light was corrupted - and redeem or destroy the Mad Archon before it's too late.

*Explore an expanded Amrath, and travel to all-new areas of the Devil Battlefield.
*Battle Eladrin, Ghaele and other archons - plus the infernal cultists manipulating them
*Defend uncorrupted archon soldiers from a combined demon and archon assault
*Prevent the Archon hordes from corrupting the Silver Flame itself
*Get a glimpse of the cause of the archons' corruption on your lower level characters in Hidden Agendas, an all-new free-to-play level 11 quest that leads into the main storyline of The Blinding Light
*Experience five all-new quests designed to challenge higher level players - three medium-difficulty level 18 quests and two very challenging level 20 quests
*Battle through two new raids - storm the Bastion of Light and assassinate a corrupted Archon commander, in one level 18 raid, then storm the Refuge of the Mad Archon and end to its corruption once and for all in The Devil You Don't, a level 21 raid designed to pit your characters against the most difficult encounters yet in DDO's history, and which the designers don't expect to see beaten on Elite for months.
*Craft amazing armor and weapons (including handwraps) in the Bastion of Light, then unlock their Epic versions in The Devil You Don't.
*Free to VIPs, otherwise 995 TP.

Stormreach's Finest
This adventure pack contains no new quests, but allows players access to the Epic difficulty setting on Tempest's Spine, Stormcleave Outpost, Gwylan's Stand, Xorian Cypher, and Tear of Dhakaan. These quests remain free-to-play on Casual, Normal, Hard and Elite, and their Epic versions are tuned to be somewhat easier than most other Epics (comparable difficulty to The Last Stand).
It also unlocks the Epic mode of the Ataraxia's Haven wilderness area (see below).
This adventure pack is free to VIPs, and 295 TP to other players.


Changes to existing content:

* The Vale of Twilight adventure pack has been split into two packs - the Thirteenth Eclipse (Vale, Shroud, Shroud flagging quests) and the Subterrane. Players that currently own the Vale will automatically own both of the new packs; those that wish to purchase it in future may buy one or both parts.

Design intention: This is really a money-maker for Turbine. The Vale would remain one of the best packs even if it lost the Subterrane and was priced at its present price or just below. The Subterrane is a unique area (just as Devil Assault was a unique quest) and as such should probably be its own pack, and would be a fine buy at ~300 points.

* Mindsunder: A very minor change. Dream Edges (and only Dream Edges) now bind to account upon equipping, rather than binding to account upon acquisition.

Design intention: Farming elite Mindsunder 85 times for a Vorpal Dream Edge isn't fun (if you run 85 elite ones in full groups, an average of one vorpal dream edge will drop, and it probably won't drop for you but instead for someone else in your group). This is even more the case for really 'niche' Dream Edges like Healing Amplification ones that can make or break an odd build. People that like Mindsunder will run it and trade their good Dream Edges for other awesome stuff. Those that hate it can run things they find fun and trade for good DE's or niche ones they want.

* Epic Dungeons: Certain tough-to-acquire chests (such as the Gelatinous Cube chest in Fathom the Depths, the end chests in VON4, VON5, DQ1 and Chains of Flame, and some others) have been given a chance to drop Epic Scrolls in addition to their current loot tables. Chances to get a scroll vary from quite low in VON4 to 100% in VON5. These scrolls cannot be 'ninja-looted' - they drop under a random player's name, just like other chest loot.

Design intention - There's no current reason to run some of these, except once to experience them. This change gives a reason to run these quests/optionals. For optionals, it mimics the way optionals feel from levels 1 to 19 - an extra challenge, always rewarding, and the rewards may or may not be worth the effort.

* Chronoscope and Devil Assault: Mobs in Chronoscope now have an increased chance (2% for easy ones, 4% for the flying Abashai casters) to drop Epic Scrolls. Mobs in Devil Assault Epic now have a 1% chance to drop Epic Scrolls for the Chronoscope items. In addition, if the optionals (the ones that involve killing ungodly numbers of the trash mobs) are all completed in Chronoscope, an additional chest spawns. On Normal through Elite, it offers regular loot with a chance of binds-to-character-on-acquire +2 tomes; on Epic, it offers regular loot plus a 10% chance (per player) for a random Epic Scroll for a Chronoscope item, and a 1% chance at a binds-to-account-on-acquire +3 tome. In addition, the bugged drop rate of the Epic Green Cloak has been fixed - sorry.

Design intention - Currently with shards and seals so easy to get, a guild group of twelve can get a selected member the shard and seal combination for an item in one to three runs - but getting the scroll is ridiculously grindy. This removes the incentive to take 4-5 people into Chronoscope to farm scrolls, and rewards complete clears instead. Plus, Devil Assault epic is probably the most challenging dungeon in the game - it never hurts to give more rewards for difficult dungeons.


New Feature - Epic explorer areas: The following explorer areas can now be entered on Epic difficulty by level 18 and higher characters:

Sands of Menechtarun (tuned to be somewhat challenging to Shroud-geared veterans)
Searing Heights (tuned to be somewhat challenging to fresh level 20s without Shroud gear)
The Red Fens (tuned to be easier than Into the Depths but tougher than the flagging quests)
Ataraxia's Haven (tuned similarly to Searing Heights)

Epic Explorer areas have separate Explorer/Slayer/Rare quests to their non-Epic counterparts, and offer very large amounts of XP for the bravest level 18-19 characters (which is only fair, as the monsters in them are much harder to kill). Monsters in them have a small chance to drop Epic Dungeon Token Fragments and Epic Scrolls. Chests in them have a small chance to drop Epic Scrolls and always drop a small number of Epic Dungeon Token Fragments (this may be as few as 3-4 for easily accessed rares and as many as 30-50 for tough rare encounters).

In addition, each explorer area with an Epic mode has one new Epic-only rare encounter that is designed to be tough and rewarding. A blue dragon (massively tougher that the one in the Tor on elite) in the Sands would be one place to start.

The Sands drops Desert scrolls, Searing Heights drops Sentinels scrolls, The Red Fens drops.... (drumroll please...) Red Fens scrolls, and Ataraxia's Haven drops scrolls for Stormreach's Finest quests. In addition, some of the harder to reach Sands of Menechtarun rare encounters have been tuned to be fiendishly difficult - these rare encounters have a chance to award shards of explorer area items.

Design intention - Scrolls: Currently most players HATE the Epic Scroll mechanic - it discourages grouping, rewards really obnoxious behaviour (ninja-looting) and rewards boring grinding of mobs early in a quest. This change allows players to group up for scroll farming without hurting their rewards. It will have the side effect making certain epic scrolls (particularly Desert ones) more common - this can't hurt IMO.
Design intention - Epic Explorer areas: Some players really like these areas (I'm not really one of them). But at level 18-20, none of them except the Subterrane are even close to difficult enough to challenge these players. Epic-ifying these zones lets those players enjoy high levels more. It also lets people actually be challenged and rewarded by the run out to quests.
Design intention - Desert Shards: Shards for the explorer area items are just too rare - currently the drop rate of the Shard of the Spectral Gloves is about seven times the drop rate of the Shard of Xuum. (This is because there's so many different explorer area shards). These items aren't even more powerful than the other Desert items, they are just rarer. This change adds another source of these Shards to the game - putting them in the hardest rare encounters makes sure that players are earning them, not getting them for free.
Design intention - Level 18s: Level 18 and 19 are hell for multi-TR'ed characters, with players forced to mindlessly grind trivially easy content to eek out XP - this is a source of a LOT of XP that comes from challenging encounters rather than jokes like IQ normal.


New feature - semi-random named loot
In addition to the existing main types of loot (raid loot, quest rewards and random lootgen), new semi-random items (somewhat akin to Dream Edge) can now drop from various treasure chests. These items all bind to character on equipping, just like Greensteel blanks.

Each of these items starts as a named item that is somewhat underpowered for its level (example: Serrated Scimitar - +4 keen scimitar, min level 14). They then receive from one to three (depending upon the item) extra modifiers at random from a list specific to that item.

Some of these items drop only in quests on Elite difficulty.

Note that the example items here are all specific to one drop location - however, there could also be some items like this that drop like the Sunblade or Ioun Stones - they can drop from any chest of a certain level.

Example items:

Serrated Scimitar
+4 Keen scimitar
Min level 14, binds on equip
Has any two (at random) of the following list:
Maiming
Puncturing
Wounding
Seeker +6
Augmented Critical - base crit enhanced to 17-20/x2
Bleed
Sneak Attack +3
Greater Human Bane
Augmented Damage - base damage increased to 2d6
Tendon Slice 6%
+5 enhancement bonus

Drop location: Against the Demon Queen end chest (Elite and Epic difficulty only)


or Flamewarden's Bracers
Bracers
Binds to character on equip
Min level 13
Inherent Fire Resist +10
plus any two, randomly selected, of
Fire Absorption 15%
Inherent Fire Resist +5
Greater Fire Resistance
Dexterity +5
Resistance +4
Minor Evasion: When you are subjected to an attack that allows a Reflex save for half damage, you take no damage if you roll a natural 20 on your Reflex save.
Cold Guard

Drop location: Enter the Kobold end chest (all difficulties)


Artificer's Ruin
Maul
Binds to character upon equip
Binds to character upon modification (such as using the slots)
+6
Augmented base damage: 2d8
Greater Construct Bane
plus any three of:
+7
Red Augment Crystal Socket
Orange Augment Crystal Socket
Violet Augment Crystal Socket
+7 Strength
Adamantine
Epic Construct Bane (replaces Greater Construct Bane)
Anarchic
Augmented base damage: 3d8
Blueshine
Vicious
Smiting
Thundering
Superior Sonic Resistance

Drop location: End chest, VON5 epic



Design Intention: This provides two things. Firstly, it's something to make opening random loot chests exciting again. When they have highly desired combinations of effects upon them, these items are likely to be quite valuable. Secondly, it provides opportunities to add a much-needed incentive to running tougher quests on Elite or Epic. Note that these items may not be particularly balanced at the moment (although none outclass Greensteel for general use), it's more the idea I wanted to float.


New feature - Greensteel Deconstruction

On Hard and Elite, remove Large Splintered Horns from the Shroud loot tables, and add (unbound) Lesser and Greater Deconstruction Essences in their place (Lesser on Hard, Greater on Elite). Also sell these essences in the DDO store (store ones are bound to account).

Add these recipies, all of which adhere to the general rule of DDO crafting altars - no more than five stacks into the altar, no more than one stack out:

Lesser Essence + Non-cleansed Imbued Greensteel item = Greensteel blank, unbound. (Example: Lesser Essence + bound Great Commander Greensteel Maul of Radiance = unbound Greensteel Maul). Probably the best option for tier 1-2 weapons you want to deconstruct.

Lesser Essence + Cleansed Imbued Greensteel Accessory = Essence of Cleansing, bound to character.

Greater Essence + Imbued Greensteel item + Greensteel blank - transfers the properties of the imbued item to the blank. (Example: Cleansed, Supreme Tyrant Greensteel Belt of Earth 10/15/20 hp + Greater Essence + Greensteel Helm = Cleansed, Supreme Tyrant Greensteel Helm of Earth 10/15/20hp)

Greater Essence + Imbued Supreme Tyrant Greensteel item = a stack of 10 (single-shard) or 20 (dualshard) of an item called 'Mysterious Ingredient'. See the next recipe There's a loss of two ingredients here - a tax on deconstruction.

Mysterious Ingredient + Shavarath Energy Cell (of whichever type the Devs feel is appropriate): Roll 1d100, and create the following:
1-21: Large Devil Scale
22-40: Large Sulfurous Stone
41-58: Large Twisted Shrapnel
59-75: Large Glowing Arrowhead
76-89: Large Twisted Chain
90-100: Large Gnawed Bone
These attempt to mirror the rates at which each ingredient is used in crafting, were you to make one of each of the 36 possible shards. The energy cell requirement serves as a platinum sink.

Design Intention: The Shroud was a centerpiece of the level 16 endgame. It shouldn't be the center of the level 20 endgame as well. Adding Deconstruction means that geared level 20s (those that find the Shroud easy and boring) won't need to keep running it as much. It won't have much of an effect on ungeared 17-20s, who will still find it to be the best raid in the game to acquire gear from, but instead of just being carried through every run by geared 20s, they'll be running it with more people of their gear and skill level, making it more of a challenge.
Adding the deconstruction items to Hard and Elite only funnels the veterans into H/E runs, which aren't as dull as Normal runs.

[CrescentCalling_5]

no, mommy and daddy Turbine won't love you until you TR >


skipping the details of how the heck we'd be born asexually like that

/signed

[Esserbe]

They probably have something in the pipeline that expands Shavarath eventually, but -

Stormreach's Finest
This adventure pack contains no new quests, but allows players access to the Epic difficulty setting on Tempest's Spine, Stormcleave Outpost, Gwylan's Stand, Xorian Cypher, and Tear of Dhakaan. These quests remain free-to-play on Casual, Normal, Hard and Elite, and their Epic versions are tuned to be somewhat easier than most other Epics (comparable difficulty to The Last Stand).
It also unlocks the Epic mode of the Ataraxia's Haven wilderness area (see below).
This adventure pack is free to VIPs, and 295 TP to other players.

I would love this. Epic Stormcleave!!

And droppable scrolls! And re-evaluated shard and scroll drops overall!

Very good suggestions.

[sephiroth1084]

Some of that looks good, although I wouldn't be sad if we never returned to Shavarath: I really dislike having to deal with the over-inflated saves out there. Plus, even after several adventure packs without them, I'm still sick of devils.

I want Epic Gianthold already! And, ideally, the entire area will get the epic treatment, and not just the raid and its flagging quests! I want to run Epic Crucible and Tor!!!

The few rather difficult optional chests (Cabal trap, Crucible swim) should have a high return on scrolls/seals. Shards should have a chance to drop from each of the dragons' chests (but not the end chest in Tor), and we should see some new named epic loot, ala the Helm of the Red Dragon!

[articwarrior]

epic tempest spine would be something I could get into, would be quite interesting that is

the archon pack sounds like a great idea! would finally want to know what that archon does in that cave in amrath

/signed

[Symar-FangofLloth]

I doubt we'd be seeing more Epic anything unless they manage to swing the talked about Epic revamp in U8.

[phalaeo]

I'd like to see Epic GH first, please.

[sirgog]

I'd like to see Epic GH first, please.

Epic Gianthold Tor is apparently already quite close to completed (people were able to access it when Lamannia was bugged and letting you into anything on Epic, and unlike other quests that bugged badly on Epic, it was 100% functional from start to the Gatekeeper and from the Gatekeeper to the first dragon that the group attempted (think it was white).

I'd like it added in sooner rather than later - that bug was way back in Update 3.

The rest of Gianthold wasn't close to complete and may not have been intended to be - bosses in the quest were replaced by kobolds on epic, as were random trash mobs.

[ColinQ]

I suspect that turbine would likely continue moving up the level chain for U8, which would be around 14~17 range, so you may finally get the expanded Shavarath quest around U9 (personally, I’d hope for the next end game content to be about the truthful one, but that’s personal preference)

[harold2560]

I would love to see epic giant hold and FVS prestige enhancements, specifically DIVINE AVENGER!!!!!

come one turbine, Divine avenger ftw!!!!!

[Aranticus]

the OP is proof that people who actually play the game make logical game introductions

[Jay203]

...tuned to be somewhat challenging to Shroud-geared veterans...

boooooooo

[Rasczak]

Interesting take.

I would love to see some quest giver outside those slayer areas which allow epic rare bosses dropping epic scrolls, shards and seals.

The chest dropping epic scrolls in certain quests is a good idea as well.

You forgot to add in a tier 1 PrE for Sorc's and FvS as well as a new addition to the store of armour skins (similar to the hats, either wear the armour or make you current armour look like the store armour.)

[sirgog]

Interesting take.
...
You forgot to add in a tier 1 PrE for Sorc's and FvS as well as a new addition to the store of armour skins (similar to the hats, either wear the armour or make you current armour look like the store armour.)

More likely that we'll see that sort of stuff in Update 9 - the even number ones are almost all quests.

[Belwaar]

Some of that looks good, although I wouldn't be sad if we never returned to Shavarath: I really dislike having to deal with the over-inflated saves out there. Plus, even after several adventure packs without them, I'm still sick of devils.

I want Epic Gianthold already! And, ideally, the entire area will get the epic treatment, and not just the raid and its flagging quests! I want to run Epic Crucible and Tor!!!

The few rather difficult optional chests (Cabal trap, Crucible swim) should have a high return on scrolls/seals. Shards should have a chance to drop from each of the dragons' chests (but not the end chest in Tor), and we should see some new named epic loot, ala the Helm of the Red Dragon!

Epic Helm of the White/Blue/Black Dragon FTMFW!!!!

[sirgog]

Epic Helm of the White/Blue/Black Dragon FTMFW!!!!

I'd be really excited to see these.

I can imagine something like:

Epic Helm of the White Dragon
+7 Con (the original white dragon armors were tank-oriented; the helm probably should be as well)
Freezing Ice Guard
Fire Shield - Cold (same as the ability on the Bracers of the Glacier)
Crushing Wave Guard
Clicky - Polar Ray 3/rest

[Samiusbot]

I would like to see a few new spells every mod. Even if it is only one or two. Even if they are just taking current spells and stepping up the level and improving them accordingly. Neg Eng Burst and Death Aura I am looking at you. Make them 7th level and up the damage accordingly. Slap Greater on them and move on.

Also I would like to see some REAL thought on the raid loot system. Once I have the loot I want from a raid I don't bother with that raid any more. And that just seems wrong. Maybe have the 20th loot list be special bound to account versions of the items.

I would like to see a reward other than the completionest feat for TRng beyond 36 point builds. Sure you can stack the free feat 3 times. Whatever. Instead of moving up the build points 4th life grants a stacking +% to xp, 5th takes 24 hours off raid timers and so on. Something that players can really get behind.

Speaking of Trs I would like to see them allowed in to epics at 18. If what xp to award is the issue holding us back. How about just use normal base xp but don't apply the repeat penalty?

That is just a few thoughts for things I would like to see.

[Rasczak]

More likely that we'll see that sort of stuff in Update 9 - the even number ones are almost all quests.

Very True. History dictates that besides a few minor fixes, an adventure pack is released...correct me if I'm wrong, U2 Dreaming dark, U4 Sentinels, U6 Red Fens.....so all we can expect for U8 is a 4-5 quest pack with epic enabled.....bah humbug

[elraido]

My main paladin would be soooooooooo worthless fighting archons.....

[sirgog]

My main paladin would be soooooooooo worthless fighting archons.....

No weaker than they are against mephits, however. And who knows - there could well be some devils and/or demons (probably devils if plans are subtle) manipulating the archons, or working alongside willing corrupt archons.