Epic Handwraps

[crisalis]

Man all I want to see are a few more handwraps that can go epic. Seriously you all complain about monks this monks that, but how much gear of yours can you go epic with. Monks have only a few true "monk" gear that can go epic. lets count them off. One the bracers of Jidz Tetka can go epic,......hmm untill the challenges that was it. NO wraps no armor nothing. Now they came out with the new challenge gear, but thats only two handwraps in the whole game that can go epic. The Calomel and the endless night, both of these are crafted. Why not make the vampiric stonedust handwraps go epic, or say the devotion, or eternal rest. Give us monks a few more weapons that can do the epic dmg needed. On a side note the Challenge wraps suck monkey butt. Fix them pls. I ran tempest spine three times strait and never saw a single tidal burst why?

[Firewall]

/signed

[TheDearLeader]

Tier 3 Alchemical Handwraps are also an "Epic" set of wraps.

I think you also gloss over the fact that the Enhanced Ki +1, Freezing Ice, Dodge +3, Air Guard, Insight +4 to AC, and various other effects of the challenge accessories are highly beneficial to Monks.

Pretty sure I could gear a monk almost exclusively with challenge/Cannith crafted items, and he'd turn out well.

[crisalis]

Tier 3 Alchemical Handwraps are also an "Epic" set of wraps.

I think you also gloss over the fact that the Enhanced Ki +1, Freezing Ice, Dodge +3, Air Guard, Insight +4 to AC, and various other effects of the challenge accessories are highly beneficial to Monks.

Pretty sure I could gear a monk almost exclusively with challenge/Cannith crafted items, and he'd turn out well.

still you are forgetting there are oh now three epic handwraps if you include the alchemical ones...woot what a bargain!!!

[TheDearLeader]

still you are forgetting there are oh now three epic handwraps if you include the alchemical ones...woot what a bargain!!!

Do I really need to go over comparatively how many DPS-oriented Epic Weapons there are by weapon type? Three is probably somewhere middle of the pack, and considering their variety, I can't really see a reason for complaint. These + appropriate Cannith Crafted wraps of various types would be plenty.

Did I say I opposed the notion of more wraps, or high-level gear in general? No, I did not say that. But I'd say that in personal experience with players who complain about a lack of gear, they have not considered or efficiently used all gear options available to them.

Although personally, if I were a monk, I do think I'd much rather Dev hours went to making sure Handwraps were 100% fixed of all these little bugs that keep cropping up, rather than arbitrarily creating new (bugged) ones.

[Redicular]

Do I really need to go over comparatively how many DPS-oriented Epic Weapons there are by weapon type?

I'm bored, I'll do it.

The Big Boys
Khopesh--3
Falchion--2
Scimitar--4
Rapier--3
Dwarven Axe--0
Handwraps--2
Greatsword--2
GreatAxe--4
Heavy Repeating crossbow--2

It'll Do
Shortsword--5
Battleaxe--1
Longbow--5
Kukri--2
Light Repeating Crossbow--0
Warhammer--1
Maul--3
Quarterstaff--5
Heavy Pick--0
Bastard Sword--1
Longsword--3

Yuck
Club--0
Heavy Mace--0
Morningstar--0
Light hammer--0
Greatclub--1
Light Mace--1
Dagger--5
Light Pick--0
Handaxe--0
Sickle--0
Great crossbow--0
Heavy crossbow--1
Light crossbow--0
Shortbow--1

Throwing Weapons
Dart--0
Throwing Axe--0
Throwing Dagger--1
Throwing Hammer--0

Kama
Kama--0

Shuriken
Shuriken--0 ---not even worth making red

some notes:
Paid no attention at all to quality. didn't even look at the weapon's effects, so there are mage weapons throwing off some counts(q-staff, looking at you). Included crystal cove/mabar epics. Ignored alchemical

daggers and q-staff lead the way, but that's mage gear inflating the numbers. shortswords and longbows on the other hand are legit. by far the most glaring omission is the lack of ANY dwarven axe. other than that and maybe heavy pick, the devs have done a decent job of ensuring there is at least SOME epic form of the weapons people actually use(again, not commenting on quality, just that it exists).

the ratings are my personal opinion, though i do feel "the big boys" category doesn't have any posers except possibly scimitar. I consider it a top option, 2nd best no-feat 1hand to rapier, racial weapon bonus(though the races suck)

[TheDearLeader]

*snip*

Yes, exactly my point, thank you.

And technically, we can remove 1 of the Khopeshes, and 1 of the Rapiers. Dynastic Falcata is absolutely atrocious, and Epic Elyd Edge is a Caster-Bard item. Slotted with good, it *could* be a Devil Beater, but even without running the numbers I'm fairly confident most Rapier Rogues would benefit more against those particular Targets using +5 HBSoGLOB Cannith-Crafted.

Nonetheless, you've put the numbers out there quite well. Handwraps "only" have 2 Epics - but most other weapon types have 0-3 DPS-Oriented Epic Items, as well. This is well within the "norm" currently. Could we see more? Sure. But let's not base it on the fact that monks are currently "without" gear.

Edit : Greatclub - Epic Greatclub of the Scraag. So, 1 instead of 0.

[oradafu]

I'm bored, I'll do it.

The Big Boys
Khopesh--3
Falchion--2
Scimitar--4
Rapier--3
Dwarven Axe--0
Handwraps--2
Greatsword--2
GreatAxe--4
Heavy Repeating crossbow--2

It'll Do
Shortsword--5
Battleaxe--1
Longbow--5
Kukri--2
Light Repeating Crossbow--0
Warhammer--1
Maul--3
Quarterstaff--5
Heavy Pick--0
Bastard Sword--1
Longsword--3

Yuck
Club--0
Greatclub--0
Heavy Mace--0
Morningstar--0
Light hammer--0
Light Mace--1
Dagger--5
Light Pick--0
Handaxe--0
Sickle--0
Great crossbow--0
Heavy crossbow--1
Light crossbow--0
Shortbow--1

Throwing Weapons
Dart--0
Throwing Axe--0
Throwing Dagger--1
Throwing Hammer--0

Kama
Kama--0

Shuriken
Shuriken--0 ---not even worth making red

some notes:
Paid no attention at all to quality. didn't even look at the weapon's effects, so there are mage weapons throwing off some counts(q-staff, looking at you). Included crystal cove/mabar epics. Ignored alchemical

daggers and q-staff lead the way, but that's mage gear inflating the numbers. shortswords and longbows on the other hand are legit. by far the most glaring omission is the lack of ANY dwarven axe. other than that and maybe heavy pick, the devs have done a decent job of ensuring there is at least SOME epic form of the weapons people actually use(again, not commenting on quality, just that it exists).

the ratings are my personal opinion, though i do feel "the big boys" category doesn't have any posers except possibly scimitar. I consider it a top option, 2nd best no-feat 1hand to rapier, racial weapon bonus(though the races suck)

I think you pretty much covered how the weapons stand right now. You did miss one thing, there is the Epic Greatclub of the Scrag. I'm also glad you pointed out the inflated numbers for quarterstaves and daggers since most of those epic items are non-melee weapons, for example only 2 of the 5 quarterstaves are melee weapons.

[MsEricka]

I'd love me some more epic wraps, but I also know that other weapon types are lacking as well.

[thandros]

1 Great Club
http://ddowiki.com/page/Epic_Greatclub_of_the_Scrag

[Redicular]

added greatclub of the scrag

now to defend the OP:

1) lack of named handwraps in general-- while in terms of total number of named items handwraps are in a decent spot, when you start looking at end-game ready wraps, there is a serious lack of options. alchemical, unstable, calomel(16 tier2 or better), and stonedust(upgraded) are the only wraps I know of that are named and +5. If you re-think "we need epic handwraps" more as "we need engame handwrap options" its a decent point

This point still puts it WAY behind dwarven axes in terms of developer focus(2 named dwarven axes period)


2) availability-- there are 3 sets of epic handwraps. one is the calomel set, a challenge item and arguably easier to attain than most epics. another is the epic wraps of endless light, available once a year for a couple weeks. miss that chance, you wait a year no alternative. other is alchemical, easy enough to get to T2, quite a bit harder to finish

Its actually a weird situation, both primary epic handwraps are easier to get than standard epic weapons besides mabar only being available around halloween. So people who want them, by and large, have them. This can't be said for something like xuum or eSOS, where you could be farming them for years to come. This makes it SEEM like there are fewer handwrap options because there are fewer monks looking for epic wraps and worse they're all looking for the same ones(alchemical)