Epic Augments Re-Vamp

[Maugrim101]

I'll avoid the wall of text and try and keep this as simple as possible.

With new gear being added on a fairly regular basis (And some of this gear being end game gear), it's about time they took a look at adding more options to epic augments.

I'm not asking for anything that's OP, just maybe remove the stuff that no one is ever going to waste 20-30 epic tokens on and add in a few abilities that justify that particular grind.

When all is said and done, Epic items should be the pinnacle of Gear and a lot of it is utter trash even when slotted.

Just some examples below of what I'd personally like to see, but at this point in time all I'm really after is that they review the whole system and bring it up to date with what's going on now.

Remove things like +1 to spell focus of a specific school. Does anyone ever use those?

Add options for Striding. Doesn't have to be the full 30%.

Add in a healing amp option (Even 10% would be more usefull than some of the junk that's already there).

These are just basic ideas and I'm sure other people would have a more extensive list. As said earlier, all I'm interested in at this time is that it's looked at and put under review for improvment.

[-Zephyr-]

I agree with you, just a few points :

Remove things like +1 to spell focus of a specific school. Does anyone ever use those?

Add options for Striding. Doesn't have to be the full 30%.

I'm not fond of removing things. Usefulness is subjective, why not just let those we already have and add others ?
And if they add striding, I hope it would be at least 30%. Those are epic items ! Supposed to be the best of the best ! They should have the best abilities availible. The current protection +4 and resistance +4 already bother me, those should be at least +5, if not +6.

[Maugrim101]

Fair points.

With regard to the spell focuses, I guess I would hope that they would replace them with Greater spell focus options. This is now available in Canith Crafting at a fairly low level and minimum level to use.

As an example, I recently made a Greater Evocation focus Ring of Persusasion with a Large guild slot (160sp) for my Fvs.

I don't think it would be that unreasonable to upgrade the epic augments to equal the +2 bonus.

[sweez]

Yes, the epic augments, AND the upgrade system (great, I've spent two months grinding out an epic item, now just 90 more BigTop runs so I can shuffle toughness/GFL/heavy fort slots and I can actually wear it!) need a complete revamp. It's an old clunky system in dire need of streamlining (although you could say that for very many things in this game lol).

However, in the light of Turbine introducing effects like the Spell Focus Mastery +1 on new end-game raid loot (so that's basically an effect that can be found on a ML14 Reaver's Fate item, competing with for example Greater Spell Pen 9, which eclipses any epic loot spell pen currently in the game), I'd give up any hope of augment types ever being balanced in power/usefulness.

For what it's worth, some random ideas:

• Spell foci should be changed from +1 to +2. These are ML 20 items, +2 spell focus effects can be found on ML 10 (Scepter of the Fleshweaver), ML 14 (Dreamspitter, Scepter of Mad Trickery, Staff of the Petitioner, Black Dragonscale Robe), ML 15 (Shard of Xoriat) ML 16 (Belashyrra's Scepter), ML 18 (Eardweller, Death's Touch, Regalia of the Phoenix) loot. +1 on a ML 20 item is just sad.
• Resistance +4 should be changed to +5. Boots of the innocent have +5, and are ML 11. It's also an option on DT armors, which are ML 16.
• Protection +4 should be changed to +5. +5 already comes on Min2 GS accessories, which are ML 11. It can also be found on random lootgen items of a mid-teen ML if I'm not mistaken.
• Natural armor +4. Eh... this one is *kinda* ok, considering that if you're not a ranger, the highest natural armor bonus you can sustain is +3 from bark pots (not counting the ones you can't buy in mass quantities), or +6 if you have an epic Seal of the Earth (which isn't trivial to acquire and prevents wearing two ToD sets). But still, with the alternatives on blue slot being toughness, good luck, heavy fort... I don't think making it +5 would really be overpowering. But compared to the 3 examples above, it's not really that much of an issue.
• Wizardry VI - should be changed to Archmagi, which is generally an issue with epic caster items. Swapping out a ToD archmagi belt and losing SP because *no* epic item has archmagi is just... funny. Again, archmagi comes on ML 13 (Bracers of the Glacier), ML 14 (Skiver) and ML 18 (ToD belts) loot. You can even theoretically get a lootgen ML 17 ring with it (if I'm not mistaken).

Not really on-topic, but still relevant to the big picture: revamp the augment upgrade costs. No single upgrade should cost 30 tokens (most epic items, no matter how good they are, are usually very hard to fit in without sticking at least one augment in them), the most expensive ones should be 25 at most, while most should be at 15-20, and there should be at least 25% chance of getting augments back if you reset them (since you're wasting another 3 tokens to be able to reset an item in the first place).

And *most importantly* - get rid of the epic token/epic raid token distinction. All this does is create a timesink called "sitting next to a stone of change and clicking on a single button repeatedly for five minutes". This game has enough mind-numbing timesinks even without that one.

[Sarisa]

I would not slot +1 non-stacking DC's. I would slot a +2 non-stacking DC. I would slot a +1 stacking DC.

Epic Augments were added when the Desert was the only epic pack, and the game has evolved greatly since then. It's time that they have a re-evaluation of their value. It's sad when barely any yellow or blue augments are used except for Heavy Fortification, Toughness, Greater False Life, and occasionally Resistance.

[mystafyi]

I agree some should be upgraded, but just slightly to avoid becoming op. like +4 resistance to +5, gfl to sfl, ect

[Maugrim101]

I would not slot +1 non-stacking DC's. I would slot a +2 non-stacking DC. I would slot a +1 stacking DC.

Epic Augments were added when the Desert was the only epic pack, and the game has evolved greatly since then. It's time that they have a re-evaluation of their value. It's sad when barely any yellow or blue augments are used except for Heavy Fortification, Toughness, Greater False Life, and occasionally Resistance.

Yes I agree. I think the system is so old now that it's just been bypassed by newer content.

I like the ideas put forward by sweez also, but I'm sure there's even more room for improvment, possible adding extra weapon options also.

[scoobmx]

*no* epic item has archmagi

Epic Dragon's Eye. It's a pretty good item too.