An introduction: you can call me Doctor Loot

[bsquishwizzy]

- Aside from the diversity issue, what are the biggest problems with random loot, today?

As a guy whose toons use a lot of random loot (I don’t farm), the problem is that you have random loot, or named items. Random loot, the way it used to spawn, sucked.

Then – maybe it was post U15? – I stared seeing some specialized BtCoE items that were actually useful: Lacerating, Sun’s Fury, Pandemonium, Tyrant, Rebel. Loot pulls were actually something I looked at closely, and also showed off to other members in the party.

Then came U19, most of that got pulled away, and Ghostbane was now the standard. Now, random loot gets de-constructed for the essences, or sold off at a vendor if I don’t have time to hit the crafting hall.

The U15 special attributes were way-frickin’-cool. They gave my toons an intermediate step between pure random loot and named items – cripes I still use some of those items in epic levels. My pally has a scimitar with two poison attributes that works well from lvl 16 well into King’s forest. All I could ask for is an augment slot, and it’d be a great weapon.

So, whatever got pulled out of U19, please put it back.

- What weapon and equipment types do you feel are underserved in named and in random loot?

There are only two underserved equipment types I see in the game, and that is trinkets and quivers. I realize trinkets are something you can make from Shroud crystals, or purchased from the DDO store, but quivers and arrow / bolt management is a total frickin’ mess. It would be nice to have maybe some quivers with attributes? Not sure.
Also, what I do see is a lack of usability of prefixes and suffixes. In that regards, what I dislike about the current system is that deathblock is only an armor-based attribute.

One attribute that is HIGHLY underserved is stuff that resists negative levels. Yes, I know this goes along with the new deathblock attribute, but again: that only comes on armor. Deathblock is something that most people normally carry around as part of their standard equipment line-up. It would be nice if it appeared on other items. Or, along those lines, if you had stuff that offered neg level immunity and/or resistence apart from deathblock.

- I’d love to hear about some of the non-named loot your character’s are currently wearing.

I have a wizzy with bracers that have Enchantment and Necromancy focus on them, with a guild crystal slot – very nice. I also have some robes with Deathblock on them for one wizzy, that I found useful (thought these were pulled pre-U15). However, everything now I tend to craft with my crafting toon so as to avoid redundancy (and wasted attributes) with random loot. However, I DID purposely set up my equipment plan on that specific wizzy to work around those bracers. These I pulled maybe post U14 or U15. They were very helpful.

The rest is usually weapons, and of those I have quite a few that are from random loot. My wizzies regularly use scepters of things like Acid Mastery and so on (random loot). My paladin has a number of weapons that are random loot, aside from weapons like Truthblade and the blade from VoD (Divine Vengance?). I have a Poison Scimitar with Virulent CON Poison (very nice weapon, and I used it a lot), a Paralyzing long sword of Lacerating, a Solar long sword of Disruption, and a Holy Vorpal blade. My rogue has dual randomgen weapons sets coming out of his ears including a Tyrant rapier and a Rebel dagger, a smiter set of dagger and rapier, a dagger and rapier for banishers. I have dual Envenomed Blades for paralyzers, so I don’t use random loot for those. But for the most, I’m random loot for all of my banisher / disruptor / paralyzer / vorpal needs. The rogue also has an Acid dagger of (Greater?)Giant Bane that I used with Toothpick as my giant killers. Again, random loot.

My ranger had a Sun’s Fury bow, along with another BtCoE bow that I used a lot in Sands. This is where I caught on to the usefulness of the new random loot attributes. They have been especially useful with my ranger. I think it was the Sun’s Fury bow that just about made my jaw drop in Sands as I was one- and two-shotting gnolls all over the place. I think I used that weapon from about lvl 10 to lvl 16 where it started to show some weaknesses with mobs. But it was a HIGHLY useful weapon that was my go-to bow.

As far as crafting goes, dual-augment items are preferred blanks. If I am going to twink and use augments, I’d rather have a dual-slot item where I take a single penalty for minimum level. Therefore, this is a good thing for me as far as pulling one of these from a chest as random loot.

[Nibor]

If you want random loot to work, you really, really need to improve the Auction House. It's extremely difficult to use now, which means it's just not worth my time most of the time.

We need to be able to narrow things down to the features we're really looking for. Maybe I want to make sure the weapon has a red slot. Maybe I want to make sure there is *no* slot on the item. Maybe I want Sunder, but I want minimum Sunder VI. Maybe I want Flaming V, or Improved Banishing, or whatever. It's completely impossible to search now, which means most of the time people won't search, which means a lot of gear goes unsold, or eventually even unlisted.

Random loot is much better when the entire server can share in it.

[Livmo]

Wow, now this is an outpouring. While I'm (ahem) poring over all twelve pages (and counting!) of nutrient-rich feedback, there's some news over on the Lamannia threads regarding our first steps towards fixing loot diversity. If you have access, check it out here.

Thanks! I like the ghostbane, just not so much of it. I read the other post you linked and it sounds promising

[RapkintheRanger]

A: about roman numerals:

1. I find them very helpful. blah blah IV is not as good as blah blah VII
2. I find it a little boring to just number them that way....

I don't have any idea what a solution would be.

B: What would be helpful would be a way to search for gear of a certain level range within backpacks or bank spaces... It would help with organizing and finding look fro secondary characters.

C: I wish i knew exactly what stacked with what... Striding, speed, alacrity, haste, haste boost... (without having to buy it and try it on)

[PookaWitch]

I think that everything I really liked has already been named. I've always been a fan of varying bane weapons, pure good, holy burst etc, and really loved the newer elemental types that had come out with the first FR expansion like tidal and such. I really liked the armor effect that did trap the soul, it was super handy for trying to get soul gems for crafting.

For a suggestion, there is something that I have really wanted to see in here ever since the older visual version of the Celestia weapon (when it was all rainbow coloured). This was a weapon enhancement from the tabletop Minatures Handbook, prismatic. Basically on a natural 20 (or vorpal in DDO terms) it would do a prismatic spray effect. It could be a good way to bring in the rainbow effect for weapons that had been worked on for the Celestia sword.

[BoBoDaClown]

Bring back all the old prefixes and suffixes.

[Thar]

QUOTE Happy Friday, everyone. I’d like to introduce myself as a bit of a new dev face on the forums. First, it’s about time I quit lurking, and second, I’m putting on an additional hat on the DDO team. What hat is that? In a word: loot. I’m here to listen to you and to keep my eyes on the big picture. Yes, that includes avoiding Ghostbane-situations.

So in the name of listening rather than blathering on and on, I’d like to ask you all a few questions as a sort of pulse-check on the state of loot. Go on and fill up the thread – I’ll check back in after the weekend (and a bit today, as schedule permits), with head-nods, follow-up questions, and answers where necessary.

- Aside from the diversity issue, what are the biggest problems with random loot, today?
1) Change - stop making changes to loot. make smarter quests or npcs. did wounding of puncturing have to be nerf'd years ago? it is useless now even at it's former ability as epic mobs regen stat damage faster than you can apply it. Same now with changes to the level drain items which were only marginably useful since the epic mobs regen level drain too. Changes to level zero gear or something "special" that you found years ago are suddenly a lvl 13 item makes you sad and mad at the same time for a change that really didn't impact the game. does it really matter if you had a +6 item at lvl 1? it was limited and not in game anymore. you are only within range of not using like items for a week of real play time if not less. The biggest change was to end game stat loot. Gianthold made special loot that people wanted. then in months it was worthless compared to random loot. the same with the various named loot at lower level that just went through a redesign to add power but some items were skipped because they were already too good. is bloodstone too good now? I pulled the same effect multiple times since the last update in other more useful slots. named items should be more powerful than higher level loot to encourage farming and value. deadly at lvl 9 is now more powerful than epic elite dream visor?? the same with gianthold, lost almost all value and therefore interest in quests since it was no longer good loot compared with other items the same level. Did the gear need to be redesigned to give more power to lower level gear? no. the wheel doesn't need to be redesigned, only refitted with new tires for the continued journey. make new gear with special effects. ie torc so people have something special. fyi temporary spellpoints are bleh since they don't stack and the timer is too short.

otherwise, the problems with random loot are this. its not useful most of the time. a combustion scepter of ice lore... vendor... opposite spell effects. Even those that are useful are not up to par with green steel, lob weapons, web weapons with rare exceptions. So unless you get lucky with a rare combo that might be useful in 1% of the mobs you encounter, its to the vendor you go. and back to looking for named gear that wasn't under powered by the loot change.

Besides some equipment stat items (ie plus 10 con, dex etc), none of the weapons are useful compared to web/fot options most of the time. most of the random equipment is useless due to non maxed stat or other effect. banishing, disruption, vorpal are not that useful as they are. it was much better when it was on crit and you would see the effects. 5% of the time is not worth it vs another effect coupled with the 1000 hp cap when trash mobs have 10000 hps or more.

the double effects for prefix and suffix were a great idea to expand the usefulness of named loot and for some good combos were almost up to par with good named items. this should have been expanded on for armor/shield instead of removed for weapons. it also allowed for quick identification vs today's holy i, ii, iii, iv..etc.

- What weapon and equipment types do you feel are underserved in named and in random loot?

All armor is almost always useless. There are no good options with very rare exceptions (dragon armor or spidersilk robes) and most of the time it is either ok for effects to stats or ok for armor but not for both.

khopesh's are almost nonexistant in a good option. very few dwarven axes that are end game. exotics that you spend a feat on should make an appearance once in a while. There should be all options of weapons available at end game even if there is a reforging option to change it to another type. ie short bows that compare to pinion do not exist at end game.

desert items are almost all useless and too hard to epic.


- I’d love to hear about some of the non-named loot your character’s are currently wearing.

just stat items for the most part. ie con 8 hp 40. or a dodge item depending on slot/character.

fyi ghostbane was a good idea, just not on every other item...

[DrOctothorpe]

Regarding random loot that is more powerful than named / raid items: what are the level ranges you guys are seeing this on? There's a bit of a difference between a level 27 random sword vs a level 21 named one... and when those items when found in the same level range content.

[Livmo]

QUOTE Happy Friday, everyone. I’d like to introduce myself as a bit of a new dev face on the forums. First, it’s about time I quit lurking, and second, I’m putting on an additional hat on the DDO team. What hat is that? In a word: loot. I’m here to listen to you and to keep my eyes on the big picture. Yes, that includes avoiding Ghostbane-situations.

So in the name of listening rather than blathering on and on, I’d like to ask you all a few questions as a sort of pulse-check on the state of loot. Go on and fill up the thread – I’ll check back in after the weekend (and a bit today, as schedule permits), with head-nods, follow-up questions, and answers where necessary.

- Aside from the diversity issue, what are the biggest problems with random loot, today?
1) Change - stop making changes to loot. make smarter quests or npcs. .

To add onto your thought, I always thought it would be cool if randomly the raid boss, or quest boss, was played by a live employee from Turbine. This would make the AI less predictable. Of course it would have to be anyomous so you don't know if you are playing against another live person(s). Just an idea to get around predicable AI.

[Vellrad]

Regarding random loot that is more powerful than named / raid items: what are the level ranges you guys are seeing this on? There's a bit of a difference between a level 27 random sword vs a level 21 named one... and when those items when found in the same level range content.

deadly on heroic items beats deadly on EE dreamvisors.
Don't mention accuracy and spot, noone cares about them.

[RedOrm]

A: about roman numerals:

1. I find them very helpful. blah blah IV is not as good as blah blah VII
2. I find it a little boring to just number them that way....

I don't have any idea what a solution would be.

I would think a good naming system would go a long way here?
Fictional example:
Light I (1d6 light damage) would become Iridicent
Light II -> Glowing
Light III -> Shining
Light IV -> Starry
Light V -> Lunar
Light VI -> Solar
Light VII -> Luminescent
Light VIII -> Brilliant
Light IX -> Incadescent
Light X -> Termic Lance

While not as straightforward, it sure would be more evocative, and most people should be able to figure out that Shining is better than Iridicent, and not as good as incandescent.
(and yes these particular names sound better as prefixes, but how else could you find a Brilliant Longsword of Greater Ghostbane? :P )

Greetz,
Red Orm

[patang01]

Regarding random loot that is more powerful than named / raid items: what are the level ranges you guys are seeing this on? There's a bit of a difference between a level 27 random sword vs a level 21 named one... and when those items when found in the same level range content.

Level range is irrelevant when the cap is 28 and it's way easier and cheaper to find a random item

Take dreamvisor and deadly and accurate. Dreamvisor is level 25 (EE) with 5 in damage and to hit.

At that level you can find 7-8 of 7-8. Sure you don't get some of the other features like a yellow slot and the ghost touch but that has very little value at those levels.

Plus named items with random permutations are awful. Especially since they're terrible to begin with. Like the longsword and the morningstar from the xpack. Terrible loot. Or the latest greatsword. What's the point of trying to get a EE item when it either has a random feature on it or it's subpar to other standard loots (like ESoS).

Take a look at lordmarch and those items. They're special. They're unique.

[sirgog]

Regarding random loot that is more powerful than named / raid items: what are the level ranges you guys are seeing this on? There's a bit of a difference between a level 27 random sword vs a level 21 named one... and when those items when found in the same level range content.

Weapons - Named weapons and raid weapons are a very mixed bunch. Most random lootgen is better than that Study in Sable greatsword, but no random loot comes close to even the classic Sword of Shadow (much less the Epic one).

Jewellery - Deadly and Resistance on jewellery are better than 90% of raid loot at pretty much all levels.

Bracers - Random loot is the ONLY place to get healing amp in this slot. (Edit: I stand corrected, there's a totally obsolete HOX bracer set that can fill this role, but legacy lootgen items are the only place for 10% (for characters wearing a TOD ring for 20% and PDK/Claw for 30%) or 30% (unquestioned best-in-slot for every melee toon not wearing PDK gloves). Also the legacy lootgen is better than any alternative for 20% in this slot.

Armor - Nothing in present random loot is even remotely useful; in MOTU there were some great situational armors, however.

[myliftkk_v2]

Happy Friday, everyone. I’d like to introduce myself as a bit of a new dev face on the forums. First, it’s about time I quit lurking, and second, I’m putting on an additional hat on the DDO team. What hat is that? In a word: loot. I’m here to listen to you and to keep my eyes on the big picture. Yes, that includes avoiding Ghostbane-situations.

So in the name of listening rather than blathering on and on, I’d like to ask you all a few questions as a sort of pulse-check on the state of loot. Go on and fill up the thread – I’ll check back in after the weekend (and a bit today, as schedule permits), with head-nods, follow-up questions, and answers where necessary.

- Aside from the diversity issue, what are the biggest problems with random loot, today?
- What weapon and equipment types do you feel are underserved in named and in random loot?
- I’d love to hear about some of the non-named loot your character’s are currently wearing.

(In the future, I’m planning some similar question sessions about named loot and named loot systems, BTW.)

Lack of diversity is my big issue atm. There were a bunch of interesting affixes that got whacked in the recent updates and those should be returned. All affixes should be added to Cannith crafting as that would cause an absolute reniassance in crafting in DDO.

It always stuck in my craw that the CL of clickies doesn't increase as the loot gets more powerful. It was ridiculous to pull a ML20+ item that had a clicky on it that was CL1-5. Really, what value was that to anyone, anywhere? Now, you risk sunsetting the Shroud clickies at some point, but I'd like to see higher level Epic content drop clickies that actually belong in Epic content.

As regards whether random loot should be powerful, yes, when stars align and you make a great roll on the loot tables, you should get something to be envious of even amongst the most well geared toons. Otherwise why bother looting a chest in the first place, for the plat? People ran the Shroud incessantly and the pack doesn't drop a single piece of rare raid loot. It's the customization they're after, something I think is a much better design than eGH or any of the comm upgrade business. Again, part of the value there was consistency. You knew what you're getting using Shroud crafting versus trying to gain loot through rare drops. That to me is the trade off. Raid loot should be consistently good, though preferrably customizable like Shroud, but not universally awe-inspiring. I do agree that the commonality of the current random loot, both giant pools of useless ghostbance, and deadly or accuracy x are problematic just because of the frequency of the drops. Dramatically increase the affixes choices and the % of random loot which overpowers raid loot will decrease.

Trinkets, by an large are completely neglected as are many other types mentioned. Armor is way over-representing in every pull and reward list. Amazingly, turning on or off class based rewards seemingly has no impact of the types of weapons or equipment dropping ime.

I use things like the following:

Health +10 Belt of Dodge 10%
Health +9 Belt of False Life +40

[Scraap]

Regarding random loot that is more powerful than named / raid items: what are the level ranges you guys are seeing this on? There's a bit of a difference between a level 27 random sword vs a level 21 named one... and when those items when found in the same level range content.

Shroud, LoB, and Dragontouched spellpower spring to mind as prime examples of effects that are outdated before completion that I don't even have to check my inventory for, which to my mind at least is the real question that needs answering. (The less said about the canith crafted hatchet job, the lower my blood pressure.). Same vein, see seal/scroll/shard itemization.

Might help focus the feedback if you specified how many levels you expected us to hold on to something named, and how many levels you anticipated us being by the time we got the items if we were say... TR3 to give the most time spent farming, in terms of what the definition of "same level range" is, exactly.

If you actively want us throwing out loot after 2-4 levels regardless of how long it takes to acquire... well, at least we'd know enough to better judge the intent, regardless of agreement.

[rapter3]

Let me welcome you to the forums! We as the players enjoy having honest and open communication with the Devs,and would love to more often. I don’t post to the forums often but couldn’t help myself when I saw this topic. I hope some of the information from the players is taken to heart.

Aside from the diversity issue, what are the biggest problems with random loot, today?

Retributive Armor! Absolutely, and incredibly pointless and irritating to deal with. Personally, my characters like to wear specific guards, and it is highly annoying to search the AH and have to hover over every piece of armor just to find the guard I want.
And I would really like to see “burst” items make a comeback. I miss Flaming Burst, and Icy Burst, and I REALLY miss Force Burst.
As has been stated already, random loot making named loot pointless but also, Named loot making other named loot pointless. As newer content is released there is the issue of newer loot, making older loot obsolete. Although I understand waning to make new loot “bigger and better” this also means that older content will be run less often, which in turns means that content will be purchased less often as well. There needs to be some system of updating old named loot, to make it keep up with new loot.
Now what I think has to be balanced though is not making named loot so powerful that it becomes the “you have to have this item or you aren’t a viable character” item. I am all for having some awesome items, but it’s hard enough to PUG with the HP/SP requirements that are imposed sometimes.
Also to echo some of the other posts, the inefficiency of searching the AH/choosing lot rewards. I rather enjoyed potency I,II,III, etc. It made it searching much easier. Now I understand that not having such a naming system allows for greater flexibility in random loot, so I'm not saying we need to go back to the roman numerals, but an easier way to search would be appreciated.
I know I have a lot for this section, but please bear with me. Another issue I see, is a lack of damage suffixes. My DPS toons(not saying that others don’t), really don’t care much about having parrying or vertigo on my swords/handwraps/other weapons. For the most part, if I want a damage suffix, I’m basically stuck with either Pure Good or Lacerating/bleeding. I would really like to see more damage suffixes instead of utility.
And as one more side note, I would love to see Night’s Grasp on more items. I really like the effect, but rarely see it.

- What weapon and equipment types do you feel are underserved in named and in random loot?

My rant in this part is not shared by a lot of players, but please hear me out. Handwraps are underserved in the game, and here is my reason why. Arti’s and druids have destroyed the handwrap market. For a long time now, it has been rather difficult to find decent random handwraps, and then with addition of the Arti dog, good handwraps disappeared rather quickly to become collars. Then once again with druids, handwraps disappeared even faster for more collars. Now the only real solutions to this problem are more random collars, allow other weapons to also be crafted to collars, or do away with collars all together and simply allow handwraps to be equipped as –is. It makes sense to me to be able to simply tie the handwraps around the dog’s neck. The latter would allow resale instead of simply taking said handwraps completely off the market.
As far as named loot, there is not near enough named Scimitars in game currently. There are several at lvl 15-17, but that is a long time to wait for a decent named sword. With the new enhancements for elves and rangers, scimitars are incredibly useful, but irritatingly rare.


- I’d love to hear about some of the non-named loot your character’s are currently wearing.

I wear deadly of accuracy items a lot. I have to disagree with the opponents of the items. The items “helps” to make up the increasing difference in damage between melee and ranged/caster. Melee has largely become cannon fodder for the ranged/casters. Seriously, when a caster can deal in the 10’s of thousands of damage with a single spell, the difference is a bit too disparing. The items also allow some of us who play less than “normal” builds to help keep up in damage while playing with some of the other options available.
Also wear a lot of Speed items. Yet another item that needs a way to distinguishing them apart from each other.

[Livmo]

Regarding random loot that is more powerful than named / raid items: what are the level ranges you guys are seeing this on? There's a bit of a difference between a level 27 random sword vs a level 21 named one... and when those items when found in the same level range content.

I like to compare similar items of similar level. In my world I would expect a L27 random to be more powerful than a L20 named. You ask a very valid question. Are people comparing apples to oranges?

I see less variety in loot drops, but have not encountered random loot being more powerful than named per se. However, I've noticed there are some raid items that could use a refresh to compete with the deadly/seeker randoms. And in general. Perhaps I see it as the raid loot has not kept up with the times.

[voodoogroves]

Regarding random loot that is more powerful than named / raid items: what are the level ranges you guys are seeing this on? There's a bit of a difference between a level 27 random sword vs a level 21 named one... and when those items when found in the same level range content.

Some are just bad, and out of scale with what lootgen can provide ...

Dreamvisor

Anything with spell focus. Used to be +2 was about the best you could get; +3 by 24 or 25 was rare. Wearables or holdables.

Many epic weapons are plain flat-out not as good as lootgen.

HoX / VoD ML18+ loot. The bracelet is fun - but the SP revamp (that dropped potency) essentially made it irrelevant. Now it's an ML 20 that if the stars align, might be as good as ML 16 or so lootgen.

Anything with Nightmare, that was once balanced by only coming on named items, may be suck but the lootgen is probably better than the named items. Same with Lifestealing - as the original items seemed to be balanced based on rarity and crit profile. Staff with life stealing? Sure, drain away. Keen Rapier with Lifestealing? ****, have to change lifestealing now!

*************** when changes are made to lootgen, not doing a full enough pass on the named items leaves them lagging. You guys managed to update some of the named items, but left many of the raid items un-updated. Luckblade got a pass, but the Helm of the Moranon did not. Is it better than a tapestry turn in now?


You also have left-hand/right-hand situations with new named loot and loot changes ...

Spell focus again ... now +4 drops in heroic loot (named items you get from running a chain on normal). The important thing here is that you may say "but it only does that, takes a slot" but many builds really are built to do ONE THING REALLY WELL, and that makes these the item to snag. It would be nice if raid gear from heroic raids was as relevant as those easily farmable heroic items.

When the last item update was going on, several items were skipped because they were used by some players. The thought was to leave them, as maybe they were blananced. Within one more update (essentially), they were leapfrogged. Bloodstone? Hell it wasn't prime for a long time, now it's replaced by random loot that comes on just about any slot - and you can get it at a higher ML with augment slots. Necklace of Contemplation ... accuracy when it was rare was neat - but everyone is rocking deadly now. Gloves of Ogre power ... are worse than lootgen, and certainly worse than mastercrafted lootgen.



Plenty are bad because "lots of stuff on one item" is only useful if one of them is "reason enough to slot it" ....

Most of the Fens epics/related. They suffer from the thought that stacking lots of stuff on something makes it awesome. It doesn't, if it doesn't do one "thing" well enough to slot. INT 6 ML20? Not worth wearing for a fly-by level. Wear your heroic INT 6. INT 6 + concentration plus a +1 DC to a school doesn't make that INT 6 at ML20 or the +1 to a school (which lootgen has at +3) worth it for the consolidation.

Most spell power items that are unfocused. Iron Beads = good. Shamanic Fetish ... not enough in that slot.




Serous players itemize for
(a) key abilities / benchmarks - heavy fort, key stats, saves
(b) best adders for their core abilities - DC boosters, stat boosters that drive important stats, etc. ... they will seek the best in slot. One small step down with extra stuff may be a consideration, but big steps down are noise, regardless of what is added. 90 radiance spell power at level 28 is not something anyone who wants to zap things is going to aim for. It may be useful on some build where that's way down the priority line, but they wouldn't build for it.
- damage (deadly, artifact, seeker, etc.)
- DCs (spells, tactics, etc.)
- attack speed
- spell lore on key elements

Then players ....
(c) fill out utility - resistances, immunities, true seeing
(d) secondary abilities - SP for secondary elements

No one builds just for C and D. Too many named items look like they are aimed for that. Compare to a CHA 10 of Resistance 10 item. Freaking laser focused, with a best- or near-best casting stat and resistance. That's better than any CHA 8 of resistance 6 with two open slots for anyone who wants their CHA to be high. That evocation focus (4 or 5) is much more useful than the enchant 2, necro 2, INT 6, 3 slot item ... for the evoker. The savant doesn't build for generic spell lore 6% - he builds for element lore 16%. If he's got 6% in the off element, bonus - but his first priority is being good at the thing he wants to be good at.

It's ok that random loot can scale to this. It's lame that named loot doesn't, or is junked up with things that make it not really useful to anyone trying to be really good at something.

And not all named loot has to be good. Hell the VON necklaces have sucked for years ... but right now so many of the named items are in those categories.


Random thought:

Give the proposal FoS posted about tying some abilities to the ML of the item (XdWhatever based on ML of the item) ... any thought to an update on many abilities of items and tie them back to ML? That would allow them to scale, and maybe solve some of your junk-item problems ...

[RedOrm]

Might help focus the feedback if you specified how many levels you expected us to hold on to something named

This. My Gloves of the Master Illusionist are ML26, and while I love the +10 Int they give, they are BTC, which I hate, and more importantly they are decidedly weaker than the random ML28 +10 Int +10 Resistance goggles I also have. Was it really the intent to use these gloves for only TWO levels??
Yes the gloves also have an augment slot and some sort of other boost, but even then they simply don't compare. Had they been BTA I at least could have passed them to an alt after hitting 28, but no such luck, so they are doomed to languish in the bank or get vendored (and yes there's a +11 version. There's also +11/+9 versions of the random goggles, and once the cap goes to 30 I'm sure we'll be seeing +11/+10 or even +11/+11 random stuff).
These gloves would have been absolutely BRILLIANT if Turbine had NOT included +10's in random loot, but... They did.

Giving them a second augment slot might save them, especially if you also add a +10 resistance augment to slot in there (to be found in chests, not already in there!): this would make them slightly more powerfull that the random goggles, while also being slightly lower level -and thus more desirable and worth farming for.

Greetz,
Red Orm

[Livmo]

When the last item update was going on, several items were skipped because they were used by some players. The thought was to leave them, as maybe they were blananced. Within one more update (essentially), they were leapfrogged. Bloodstone? Hell it wasn't prime for a long time, now it's replaced by random loot that comes on just about any slot - and you can get it at a higher ML with augment slots. Necklace of Contemplation ... accuracy when it was rare was neat - but everyone is rocking deadly now. Gloves of Ogre power ... are worse than lootgen, and certainly worse than mastercrafted lootgen..

So true on those Gloves of Ogre Power! I get a chuckle every time I pull a pair. These need some love badly!