The Announcement You Have Waited For

[Wizza]

They shouldn't be mixed ever? Your ramblings are starting to get more and more nonsensical.

Yeah, with the few exceptions of items like ToR helms and goggles If you like lottery, grind random generated loot.

You include Raid loot in your named loot category??

Talk about a category killer.

Raid loot is Named loot from a Raid..don't see your point.

[Soulfurnace]

The announcement we were waiting for was a raid to be released - give us a surprise raid (or better yet, two) with good loot, none of this random effect nonsense.
Dear god, the nerd love you'd get would be absurd!

[Therigar]

Aaaand noone gives a **** about how DnD designed Excalibur.

This is DDO, get your facts straight. There are 2 kinds of loot here: Named loot and Random generated loot. They shouldn't be mixed, ever.

Absolutely correct. In fact, even the minimalist approach to random effects on named loot that we've seen lately is, IMO, simply laziness on the part of the developers.

IMO there is entirely too much named loot in DDO as it is. If we were honest, 99% of named loot is vendor trash before we even see what effects are on the items. But, I digress....

Although, the digression is pertinent to this discussion.

So what if there are 12 new named items coming? Even before seeing the items the greatest probability is that they will be vendor trash too. And that is because most characters have gear set ups that don't easily allow for replacements.

I've talked in the Lamannia forums about my first life monk. He wears gear sets. Most characters wear gear sets of some type. They do that because of the built-in synergy of those items.

The developers could create the Awesome Helm of Godmode and it still might just be vendor trash if it breaks the set. Back to my monk, he still wears the Sun Soul outfit because getting favor and commendations to replace with the (theoretically) superior Spider-spun Caparison is more difficult to achieve than the value added by upgrading.

Design a new outfit and it could be +12 to every stat, deathblock, heavy fortification, +100 HP, +40 AC, +20 Rough Hide, DR 50/-, Spell Resistance 100, Perma Haste, Good Luck +4, Dodge +20, Ghostly 30%, Blur 50%, autogrant 1000 HP if below 50% health -- alright, I'm just being ridiculous, I get it -- but the point is, it would have to be so great that it makes breaking the set worthwhile because the benefits are so great that it cannot be passed up.

If the new loot does not do that, if a new MAUL isn't so great that I am willing to throw away my eSoS (not that I have one, but you understand the point) -- if it isn't that great then it isn't worth wasting coding time on it. Why? Because it is just vendor trash.

New shuriken, really? Why? It isn't like monks are so underpowered that they need to become a ranged combat threat. Yes, all the shuriken in the game suck. No debate. But, monks need more love? Same for handwraps. I say this and my ONLY epic character is a monk (I'm too busy reincarnating the others and, with the latest changes to the game, I'm no longer sure why I've been reincarnating since the advantages I thought I'd gain by multiple lives have been blown out of the water with the power creep in the game).

I agree with the poster, there are 2 types of loot in DDO -- random and named. But, the complete lack of coherent thought and planning that goes with named loot means that it is just vendor trash from the moment it appears in the game.

It should not be that way. It should not be 12 or 16 or 18 new named items that have no connection other than a tenuous tie to a story line. There are 15 character classes, there are 11 epic destinies, there are 30+ prestige classes -- the named loot should intentionally develop the strength and power of these pathways and come together over time and across multiple adventures to create whole sets.

The entire mindset regarding named loot is presently flawed. And, for as long as the flaw remains, your developers are just wasting time making named vendor trash items. They could save you and us a lot of work and just let the random loot tables handle things.

It is past time for DDO to develop a coherent, long-range storyline that involves the 50+ character pathways in such a way that people are encouraged to explore and play them all.

It could start with developers not spending their development time on making vendor trash for us.

[Melange]

The announcement we were waiting for was a raid to be released - give us a surprise raid (or better yet, two) with good loot, none of this random effect nonsense.
Dear god, the nerd love you'd get would be absurd!

Very well, the announcement you were waiting for on the Items forum. If the announcement you were waiting for was a Raid, you are probably on the wrong subforum for it.

[Soulfurnace]

Very well, the announcement you were waiting for on the Items forum. If the announcement you were waiting for was a Raid, you are probably on the wrong subforum for it.

Raid items though.
Think of the children!

[Teh_Troll]

Very well, the announcement you were waiting for on the Items forum. If the announcement you were waiting for was a Raid, you are probably on the wrong subforum for it.

/pwned!

Can we haz more loot details?

[ArcaneArcher52689]

Any and all random effects that are in U19 are following your former example - a small number related mutations that may have different value to different players. They are tradable and sellable until equipped.

I will admit that 2 of my 12 items have a single random mutation on them. One has a random spell resistance element. One has a random spell focus. Have lots of fire resist but lacking acid resist, you will prefer one version of the item over another. Feel free to trade for the element you need most. Cast lots of evocation but no conjuring? Trade your conjuring focus item for an evocation focus one. These items are meant to give players a way to customize their gear to their play style, but without bogging the item down with mutations that you will never use, requiring us to remove other mutations to keep that item balance stat-wise.

I think the issue here is that when squeak posted the loot, she said "random effect", and people just assumed it was completely random. If you want to quell a lot of the rage, perhaps we could see the list of possible effects for each item? That way we could have an idea of the value of the loot. Because most of the people here seem to count *random effect* as nothing.

[Drwaz99]

Very well, the announcement you were waiting for on the Items forum. If the announcement you were waiting for was a Raid, you are probably in the wrong game forums.

ftfy

[Drwaz99]

And another side note I just thought of.

Quality over quantity when I comes to loot please. I am certainly not the first to say but when I read about more loot being released, the emphasis seemed to be simply on the quantity. "You guys are getting what you ask for! TWELVE new items!"

But I couldn't go back and find a single post that only stated "We want more loot!" just about every post was "We want Named Loot that's useful and isn't going to immediately be passed over by loot we already have."

At least for me, most of the loot I have seen will not be useful for me as I level. eGH items and their augment slots are more valuable to me than 99% of what I see here. Now granted I will have to work in the stat increase somewhere and the DC boosters. But that's it for me. Your experience may vary.

[Therigar]

At least for me, most of the loot I have seen will not be useful for me as I level. eGH items and their augment slots are more valuable to me than 99% of what I see here. Now granted I will have to work in the stat increase somewhere and the DC boosters. But that's it for me. Your experience may vary.

No, my experience is the same. Which is why I wrote that 99% of all named loot is just vendor trash -- although in my case this includes eGH loot as well.

When I compare my live monk to my Lamannia monk the gear difference is trivial -- a couple of pieces from Wheloon, an existing handwrap and a different (but still currently existing) outfit.

The direction in loot development and generation is incoherent and wrong. But, that could be said about the entire DDO storyline that has us battling interplanar creatures of near demi-god status at mid levels, a true diety at present epic levels and power hungry mortals at end game. Makes complete sense.... OK, no it doesn't.

[LightBear]

Nice to see the update on items, but as the Spider Queen says: "I want more, more, more!".

Wondering what the stats and such are.

[FlaviusMaximus]

I'm excited to hear about the maul and shuriken.

[kierg10]

The Morning Star - a returning Shuriken (not to be confused with a morningstar)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[slarden]

Looking forward to seeing the heavy repeating crossbow. I acquired my 25 coms and have been waiting for U19 to figure out if I should upgrade needle or get something newer/better if it exists.

Thank you for the preview!

[LightBear]

Snip

Ok, first of: Even if the new maul is so much better then the ESoS it will not replace it.
The new items will most probably be level 28, ESoS is level 20.
That's a huge gab to overcome in which the bestamestestish weapon is still the ESoS.

2th: The same could be said the other way around.
People have grinded their teethes off just to be able to acquire that elusive ESoS only to see it being replace by new gear.
That would make every existing item in the game VendorTrash™.
As soon as that happens we'll have a greater riot on our hands.

3th: It all ready has been stated by an employee that Turbine made a mistake by releasing the ESoS as it's way to powerful for it's level.

4th: You say that you wish for named items to follow some theme that runs in parallel with classes, epic destinies and such while at the same time trowing out that epic shuriken. (pun intended)
There is a whole niche set of players that like to use throwing weapons, hence the "Gloves of the forgotten craft", hence the "feats granted to some races", hence the "etc etc".

Point: That you don't see it doesn't mean others don't or that you would not use it does not mean others won't.

[Grizzt14]

Ok, first of: Even if the new maul is so much better then the ESoS it will not replace it.
The new items will most probably be level 28, ESoS is level 20.
That's a huge gab to overcome in which the bestamestestish weapon is still the ESoS.

2th: The same could be said the other way around.
People have grinded their teethes off just to be able to acquire that elusive ESoS only to see it being replace by new gear.
That would make every existing item in the game VendorTrash™.
As soon as that happens we'll have a greater riot on our hands.

Your first point makes no sense, if the maul is the best weapon for a level 28 (including eSoS) it will be used by 28s in endgame content over eSoS. Because a weapon is best at X level or X level range doesn't mean much, leveling is not endgame and characters spend far more time at endgame than leveling. As soon as a character hit 28, out eSoS would go to be replaced by the maul.

Second point, players grind for gear all the time for various purposes, all of it gets replaced sometime. Why should eSoS be any different? Does it suck, sure, but that's the reality of most gear in MMOs, all of it gets replaced by something better eventually.


Melange, can we expect to see the information on these new weapons today or tomorrow?

[Melange]

From my sources, all the new items should be available on Lama tomorrow. While part of me wants to quickly put screen shots up now, another part of me doesn't want to steal that chance to be "first" from you lucky folks.

[danotmano1998]

While part of me wants to quickly put screen shots up now, another part of me doesn't want to steal that chance to be "first" from you lucky folks.

Drat!
and..
Hurrah!

On one hand, that's maliciously evil of you, on the other, it's amazingly cool.
Rock on good developer, rock on.

[Masadique]

Melange,

I love what you're doing with the randomization of items. It will allow me to jump into a raid and not know what everyone is wearing. More importantly, though in the same vein, they certainly won't be wearing identical gear. This means that characters are going to be unique for the first time in a very long time.

Now that I've boosted your ego, please stop increasing numbers which only lead to the obsolescence of past gear without actually generating new stuff. That is to say replacing a +8 str item with a +10 str item. It doesn't actually do anything in the end. I know it's too late to change now, but can we leave bad enough alone?

Amazing name by the way, assuming Dune.

V

[Wizza]

Melange,

I love what you're doing with the randomization of items. It will allow me to jump into a raid and not know what everyone is wearing. More importantly, though in the same vein, they certainly won't be wearing identical gear. This means that characters are going to be unique for the first time in a very long time.

The most nonsense reply ever. Randomization of items allow you to jump into a raid and not know what everyone is wearing? Why in the hell do you even care what other people are wearing?