The "New" Holy Burst

[TheDearLeader]

21 G. Good
192 L. Good
1 Purified Ebb. Dragonshard
2 Lodestones
1 Mark of the Silver Flame (Base Price : 400 Plat)

Mark of the Silver Flame Info:

Two new items can now be purchased from Silver Flame and Yugoloth patron vendors called "Mark of the Silver Flame" and "Mark of the Yugoloth" that can be used for high-level Cannith crafting recipes. These items can also be found randomly in chests and end rewards. Randomly-acquired marks are unbound, while vendor-purchased marks are Bound to Account.

Purified Dragonshard Info:

Purified Eberron Dragonshard Fragments can now appear in chests and end rewards.

I have not gone adventuring to see just how often they pop in chests, or if there is a min level of quest to find these items, etc.

So, under the assumption they drop somewhere semi-reasonable... thoughts on this change?

[RandomKeypress]

It looks reasonable to me. If the mark of the silver flame are as common as greater hearts of wood +3 then I have a problem with it, but if they're only semi-rare then I think it's a great move.

[Thrudh]

It looks reasonable to me. If the mark of the silver flame are as common as greater hearts of wood +3 then I have a problem with it, but if they're only semi-rare then I think it's a great move.

Mark of the Silver Flame can also be purchased from the Silver Flame Vendor if ONE of your characters has 400 silver flame favor.

It's a very good change.

[Thrudh]

Purified Dragonshard Info:


I have not gone adventuring to see just how often they pop in chests, or if there is a min level of quest to find these items, etc.

You can get 4 of them from one +1 tome I believe.

[TheDearLeader]

You can get 4 of them from one +1 tome I believe.

This is true, yes. I was merely illustrating the fact that is someone didn't necessarily *want* to burn a +1 Tome for them, they may end up seeing the item in a chest somewhere.

[Gkar]

It's a reasonable change, assuming a not completely horrible drop rate for the random ones. (If you see it as often as +2 tomes, for example, that might not be a bad rate)

I actually think they struck a good compromise with this approach.

1) Get a rare random item
OR
2) Get crappy favor on one character on your account (Sadly i just TR'd the one guy with SF favor I had, but I imagine I'll just stock up on 10 or 20 if I get someone there again)

I like choice.

I would't mind if this was offered as a DDO Store item either (if it isn't already)

And the dragon shard... in chests or burn a +1 tome... that's not an unreasonable cost. I imagine +1 tome value will increase now, but they aren't all that pricey right now.

[TheDearLeader]

It's a reasonable change, assuming a not completely horrible drop rate for the random ones. (If you see it as often as +2 tomes, for example, that might not be a bad rate)

I actually think they struck a good compromise with this approach.

1) Get a rare random item
OR
2) Get crappy favor on one character on your account (Sadly i just TR'd the one guy with SF favor I had, but I imagine I'll just stock up on 10 or 20 if I get someone there again)

I like choice.

I would't mind if this was offered as a DDO Store item either (if it isn't already)

And the dragon shard... in chests or burn a +1 tome... that's not an unreasonable cost. I imagine +1 tome value will increase now, but they aren't all that pricey right now.

It does not seem to be in the Lammania DDO Store.

As for the Shard.. it's also able to be traded in for Small Ebb. Dragonshards, and apparently their "drop rate" from collectables has been upped.

[Chette]

I believe MacFloyd rationalized the use of astral diamonds in crafting by saying that they also drop in chests...I play a good 30+ hours a week and I've looted a grand total of one AD (and I think 4 is the minimum turn in).

As such, I wouldn't expect to see these crafting items dropping with any frequency.

[ArkoHighStar]

I believe MacFloyd rationalized the use of astral diamonds in crafting by saying that they also drop in chests...I play a good 30+ hours a week and I've looted a grand total of one AD (and I think 4 is the minimum turn in).

As such, I wouldn't expect to see these crafting items dropping with any frequency.

he has also indicated they are upping the drop rates on astral diamonds

[Cyr]

he has also indicated they are upping the drop rates on astral diamonds

Even at a 10 times rate they would still be so rare as to make them essentially not make a dent in how people purchased purified shards.

[Khurse]

Even at a 10 times rate they would still be so rare as to make them essentially not make a dent in how people purchased purified shards.

Fortunately there remain a number of ways to purchase the shards aside from Astral Diamonds,

[lugoman]

Will be interesting to see how often the unbound marks drop. I wont buy the silver flame packs needed for favor unless I need them when I tr, so if I cant reasonably get the marks then I have no real reason to craft.

[Zerkul]

This change seems resonable to me. Not bad.

Got a question though. Since some recipes are now harder to make, why not reduce the shard of potential costs? I mean, weren't these shards introduced to make crafting 'uber' items more 'difficult'? Don't know if you get the drift ...

[ShortRanger]

Well, I still will not purchase any more Necro packs.

It is just sad how they are using crafting to drive sales of unwanted packs this hard.

I was looking at crafting as a way to get into epics with semi-epic gear. These changes make it so I will do the run to 20 and TR after the green steel is made for the next life

On the good side I can most likely stop leveling crafting at either 50 or 60. I need to check what the crafting level of shards I care about.

Just to confirm I no longer care about Holy burst shards because of the ingredients changes and associated pack requirements.

[waterboytkd]

Mark of the Silver Flame can also be purchased from the Silver Flame Vendor if ONE of your characters has 400 silver flame favor.

It's a very good change.

Only one character needs the favor, huh? That's pretty sweet. Now, do you know what happens if that one character you have that has that favor TRs? Would love to know the answer to that.

NOTE: Or did you mean if you have a character with that favor that you can buy the Marks and then transfer them to your crafter? Which would make more sense...

[altrocks]

Only one character needs the favor, huh? That's pretty sweet. Now, do you know what happens if that one character you have that has that favor TRs? Would love to know the answer to that.

NOTE: Or did you mean if you have a character with that favor that you can buy the Marks and then transfer them to your crafter? Which would make more sense...

The second one. They're BTA, so any one toon could purchase them and swap them to any other toon on the same account.

Personally, with all these changes, I can see serious crafters making one single combined crafting/haggle/favor toon just to simplify things. Sadly, however, it's starting to look like you'll need an uber toon just to be able to craft the gear you need to be an uber toon. Running amrath and necropolis constantly for high level crafting materials means you'll already have to be able to farm amrath reliably. And if you're talking about getting Yugo favor, well... that requires running some of the hardest quests in the game on hard/elite difficulties to accomplish. As it is now, Elite Amrath is tougher than most epics.

So, really, you'd still be better off making your GS equipment, running epics and just getting the epic gear. If you're truly a casual player who doesn't raid (or doesn't raid much), then it's not going to make these things any more accessible to you. You'll still be stuck with the low level crafted stuff you can pick up from quests easily enough already until you get your greensteel or rare drop.

The focus has switch from letting casual players get more into high-end content, to trying to keep the power gamers from dominating the game. This is impossible unless you implement some sort of arbitrary turn-based system or action points where you can only perform a certain number of actions in a given time period. Otherwise, it will continue to be the case that those with the time and money to pour into the game will be dominating it while those who don't are going to struggle.

I'm not really sure where this is going to end up, but from the last couple of crafting modifications, I can tell you I don't like where it's going. And at this point, it's looking like it would have been better just to implement a crafting class like Artificer instead of allowing all classes to craft equally. Many other games have done it that way and it can work out nicely. The current path of crafting development, however, does not seem to be going to a place that will be useful, practical or meaningful to DDO as a whole.

Just my 2 copper.

[FrozenNova]

Only one character needs the favor, huh? That's pretty sweet. Now, do you know what happens if that one character you have that has that favor TRs? Would love to know the answer to that.

NOTE: Or did you mean if you have a character with that favor that you can buy the Marks and then transfer them to your crafter? Which would make more sense...

The latter is correct - the marks are in the favor shop as normal, they're just bta rather than btc.
If you're planning to TR..
I imagine the idea would be to buy 500 of them and stash them in a bank.

[Shade]

Essentially what I suggested, still use the favor, but let it be BTA.

Works for me. Seems like a rather low cost imo, especially compared to the greater baens.. Considering its the best all around dps prefix, the cost could be higher, tho i dont care either way.. I have like 10 HB shards already crafted.

[TheDearLeader]

Mark of the Silver Flame is 400 plat base.

Edited Op to reflect this.

[Tsuarok]

well... I like the change to a BTA item, but the problem I had had with using the silver flame pots was that a +1 Holy Burst weapon should be a min. level 6 item. So I think it should reasonably be able to be crafted by a first time character within a few levels of that. I think requiring favor that is not achievable by a level appropriate character should be excluded from crafting. Save these extreme requirements for the shards of potential.

Unless they're dropping with high rates in catacombs and necro I & II. But the rate needs to be high enough that a character farming them doesn't level past the content.