An introduction: you can call me Doctor Loot

[Satyriasys]

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

Random loot has been totally destroyed in every way imaginable. Where do I start? It's too powerful, the new names are bland and boring, several pre/suffixes are missing. What happened to clickies? How about some spell power or spell DC items? I loved the combined affixes what happened to those? Why was the loot system butchered?

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

-RUNEARMS, how about some random ones? We also need more runearm looks, they're ugly and theres only like 4 different models.

-I would love to see some named rogue cloth armors.

-We could really use some named scepters for casters. Belashyrra's cleansed scepter is really nice for it's level but it's not even a scepter (please fix) we could use some higher level items like that.

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

Deadly, Necro focus 5 scepter, +10 stat, saves etc.

[BDog77]

Biggest problem with loot today:

Someone mentioned paralyzing, and I agree with them, but it's really just the tip of the iceberg. Making ANY epic weapon with a heroic DC is just a waste. Paralyzing is a good example. How is a dc of 17 worth anything at all in epics, and it just adds to the min level of the weapon with a useless effect. It's not the only effect like this, though. Just makes sure the DCs are relevant for the content that the weapon will be used for, or make sure those effects don't appear if they are not relevant.

As far as random lootgen I wear, I really like things like Acid Torrent, Lightning Storm, I think Freezing Gale was another one. Effects that let my melees do some AOE, even if the DCs are kinda low, at least those do half damage. Oh, and I know it's not lootgen, but I love the Calomel and Epic Greataxe of Fire's DOTs. Maybe DOTs should be left as a way to keep Named items better, but that is certainly something you could think about adding to some existing Named items to upgrade them, or something to put on new Named items.

Thanks for asking for our input!

[Violith]

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

the lack of items most sought after such as healing amp, and basic +6-+10 items (meaning only having a +6-10 stat, etc, and nothing else except maybe wonderour/cursed/masterful and possibly augment slots) as well as the undocumented increase of chest level to tome drops (which has yet to be officially mentioned on), lack of assassination DC items (having them to have similiar DC's to quivering palm would be nice)

stumbling and dazing have their effects revesed (as of u19, not sure if it was fixed in u20 but didnt see a mention of it)

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

random
orbs (and they should be coded as shields to qualify for S&B playstyle, and work with enhancements that require shields), and should give spellcasters who are proficient in staves use staves and orbs together (perhaps have the orb float around the character/staff when swinging)

non metal shields, druids currently have very few choices to use sheilds. think there is only 3 named shields that can be used by druids.

shield bonuses on items (such as white dragonscale) should count as wearing a shield and thus effects that require it should be activated.

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

health +9 ring of false life 45 (on my main drunk, wouldnt mind getting a health +10 of false life 50 eventually to replace it)
clever +8 cursed ring of accuracy (on rogue)
impulse ring of power (wouldnt mind finding an impuse of kinetic lore ring to replace it with, hopefully prior to lvl 25)

[Shagarot]

Dwarven Axe.. Dwarven Axes everywhere! No really, right now Dwarven Axes are like a 50% of all random weapons I loot from chests. It's getting just a little bit iritating.

And a word or two about two-handed swords. We have now feats for paladin/cleric/favored soul "Follower of the Lord of Blades", and also we have Iconic Bladeforged that is sugessted to be paladin. In list of named two-handed swords there is only one suitable for a paladin - "Atonement" only named two-handed sword with holy. We don't even have any two-handed sword with a pure or greater good [and most of those named are so-so anyways].
We could use an upgrade to Necropolia IV - add some Two-handed weapons to the list in exchange for Tome of Untold Legends.

Another issue is that, the named weapons for lvl's 10-19 lost they value after U19. Now random weapons for lvl 10+ [or 8+ if master craftsmanship is on a board] have 1.50[W] dmg. And thaks to that, a lot of random weapons is far more greater than named weapons for the same lvl. Wepons that I used in past life, now are useless to me. Imho most named weapons [if not all] for levels 10-19 should have been upgraded by additional 0.5[W] dmg.

One last info is about NPC's end rewards for an artificer. My Warforged artificer always see list full of docents and repeating crossbows... but he's using Bastard Sword. This list should be upgraded. Random Dwarven Axes and Bastard Swords should be added.

[voodoogroves]

Named loot should be better than or contain unique abilities as opposed to random loot.
- Even classical D&D items (Frostbrand, etc.) should be a choice. Maybe not between perfect-crafted loot, but should beat most random gen.
- Gauntlets of Ogre Power need to be as good as loot gen, not worse.
- etc.

There should be some small chance that random loot is awesome.
- The old holy-burst-silver-of-greater-evil-outsider-bane, stars-align kind of loot. That makes looting interesting. I also like non-quest-specific named items dropping - the old D&D core ones.


Aside from the diversity issue, what are the biggest problems with random loot, today?
Random loot (deadly, etc.) now outpaces most actual named items.

Putting special effects (nightmare) on random loot makes it so that you have to eventually nerf the named items. Back when that was on one sword and one set of handwraps, that wasn't an issue. Back when level drain / life stealing was on just a few items, you didn't need to nerf it either.

Regeneration is neat, but isn't fast or useful (and never has been).

What weapon and equipment types do you feel are underserved in named and in random loot?
You have enhancements that seem to indicate non-repeating crossbows should be used - but there are essentially none. If you're going to have enhancements that work better with X, put some freaking X in the game.

Heavier armors need some sort of boost.

Ghostbane fixes a ranged-ghost-touch problem; be nice if others did.

I’d love to hear about some of the non-named loot your character’s are currently wearing.
Low level characters I nearly always wear the chrono set, cove trinkets ... and then crafted items. I switch around mid-levels to BTA items (Claw, maybe Sora Kell set) and whatever TR twink gear I may have (or Sands/Orchard/GH named items) ... + GS.
Melee/ranged DPS now I nearly always keep the best "deadly" item on. I usually also prioritize one of the sneak-wearables (Goggles of Intuition, Bracers of Hunter) and a ghost-touch item (Spectrals, Ethereal Bracers).
I keep deathblock on swap, and carry UA / FF / etc. as well.
Nearly always wear a solid resist item.
Depending on the character, I have 100% by 8 or 11 (fleshies) or mod. fort (giving 100% on WF) by level 3 on.

[voodoogroves]

And there should be a feat that lets you get a glancing blow w/ Warhammers in addition to d-axe, b-sword.

Also, I like the thought of more scaling abilities on items that increase based on the ML (which you adjust w/ an augment)

[Backley]

Put in a fix for most of the early Festival Frost/Icy Burst weapons that were destroyed by the automatic ML calculation:
Database search for any random-gem weapon with Frost or Icy Burst and another prefix effect. Convert those Frost or Icy Burst effects to Festival Frost or Festival Icy Burst. Earn some good will with the player base.

Also: Keep in mind that the ML of an item is often the best thing about it. A +6 Stat item is probably garbage if the ML is greater than 9, and definitely is garbage if the ML is greater than 11 and there aren't other great effects on it as well.

This was the entire appear of the old chain-reward random gen BTA items: their ML was lower than normal. The new automatic ML system destroyed all of those items people worked hard to find. Maybe do a query and find any random-gen BTA items and shove Masterful Craftmanship or Wonderous Craftmanship onto them to try to repair that damage. And definitely make sure that the chain end rewards now include Masterful/Wonderous on random gem BTA now.

[nibel]

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

There are random loot that is strictly better than named items of the same or higher level. This should never happens for any reason. Sure, a good random item might be comparable to the best named items, but never best in slot. Before they were wiped from the loot tables, this was a problem with Convalescent Bracers of Superior Parrying. Currently, the problem is seem easily on stat items (Best named is +10, random goes up to +11) and AC buffs (Natural armor, Protection).

Just giving an example, when the level cap was 20, the absolutelly best random item you could find was +6. A few selected named items had +7 stats. So, if you wanted to be "properly equipped", the +6 was good enough, but you still desired that +7 to finish your gearing. We lack that desire with current loot tables.

Also, Cannith crafting needs an update to get the new effects. The roman numerals loot seems MADE to fit cannith crafting better, and yet we are still bound with effects from pre-motu tables.

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

DDO currently have a bunch of weapon types that are just strictly inferior to other weapons in the same category. Eg, no one will ever equip a Greatclub when they have the option to equip a Maul. Both are martial weapons, and there isn't a single class that is proficient with Greatclubs that is also not proficient with Mauls.

Most underrepresented weapons are from those category. Light pick, shortbow, light hammer, all non-repeating crossbows, sickle, handaxe, throwers in general, kama, clubs, and greatclubs.

Outside the weapon category, we are missing non-fullplate heavy armor (Something with a Maximum Dexterity Bonus higher than 1. Old heavy armors with a higher MDB had mithral and are currently medium), Tower shield, specialized docents (like, good "melee docents" and "caster docents", instead of generic docents "average for everyone"), belts, and trinkets.

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

Most of my alts got parked around the time eGianthold was released. Almost all of them are using Convalescent bracers of Superior Parrying, and I got on the AH at least a Deadly VIII or IX item for everyone that is not a spellcaster. My main is on a TR train and I don't have been seeking loot for her to keep, so mostly I use whatever I pull during her current life (sans a few key named items, like her greensteels).

[katz]

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.

hi there! and welcome to the insanity! (and no, that wasn't a "hi welcome" crack... it was sincere :-P )

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?
it's TOO good. random loot should not be trumping raid/named-quest loot of equal level. even if it's somewhat higher level. random junk should never have been better than a Twilight or an alchemical shield, or what-have-you, etc. (note: for the shield, i can see random loot EVENTUALLY trumping it, seeing as how we go up to 28 now and 30 soon, but at the time it first got showed up, 25 was the max, and LoB/MA was still new. this was a HUGE kick in the teeth to all the people who farmed for it, only to have random quarterstaves only a level or 2 higher be better... with no real work to get them.) some effects are pretty darn cool, i'll give ya... but go way too far. deadly, for example. very cool, but the fact that it goes all the way to 10 or 11 or whatever totally makes dream visor worthless, right after it's introduction... yet again effectively neutering brand new content. capping it at 3 or 4 would still make it handy and powerful, without overshadowing a very nice and originally highly sought after named item... and these are only a couple of examples.


- What weapon and equipment types do you feel are underserved in named and in random loot?
dunno. what do you mean by this?


- I’d love to hear about some of the non-named loot your character’s are currently wearing.
heh. on who? most of my favored characters are kitted out in named... force of habit.

for example: Pointless swings a Cleaver or an eAGA usually...wears cormyrian red dragonscale, con-op HP goggles, bracers and boots from the harper chain, level 24 mabar cloak, and a tier 2 cove spyglass trinket (i know... i know... i should have gone to tier 3... i'm a lazy turd) - but i recently bought random loot +7 charisma of +15 performing necklace and a dual-slot +8 str belt to round her out.

that's typical for all my serious characters. however... i have a hagglebard alt on a separate premium account who is outfitted almost fully in random. she uses a red-slotted metalline rapier of lacerating (slotted with devotion 78, to be replaced with 90 when i hit 20), blue-slotted buckler of vitality 15 (empty), a random (ugly) spell pen II outfit of heavy fort, deadly 4 goggles of natural armor, armored bracers of false life (25), colorless slotted (empty) helm of wizardry (175sp), 6 con belt, 5 charisma ring (makes it even), 15 perform ring (altho i could get rid of this now, as a friend just gave me a nightsinger mantle, one of my few named items), 13 haggle gloves, and 30 striding boots.

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

i look forward to interacting with you more regarding these subjects. ^_^ thanks for being brave enough to stop by!

[Golddragon87]

First off welcome Dr. Loot! I hope you enjoy your position as a loot Developer and hopefully we do not scare you off too soon. I am a bit curious if Feather of Sun is working with you or if you are replacing him/her? Anyway here are some suggestions.

GIVE US BACK OUR SCROLLS - There is no reason to not have every scroll available for sell. At the very least every scroll up to level 7 or so. Think of it as giving players another platinum sink to empty all those bloated bank accounts.

GIVE US BACK OUR WANDS - For the same reasoning as the scrolls. Wands are almost exclusively vendor trash. Give us some variety to purchase at vendors. If we want a spell on a wand that is level 4 or below then let us buy it. Caster level 7 of any level 4 or below spell is hardly game-breaking.

GIVE US SCROLL CASES/POTION BANDOLEERS/WAND BRACELETS - Players carry a lot of these items. We need a way to store them in our bags with out eating up our entire inventory spaces.

LOWER DC'S ON UMD - It should not be as hard as it is to make a character self sustainable in DDO. The UMD DC's are way WAY too high for a lot of scrolls and abilities. A player should not have to pause and equip completely different gear in the middle of a fight to heal himself or resurrect a party member. If you raise the skill UMD you should be able to use the skill UMD without having to rely solely on rare items increasing it to a usable level.

BOUND TO CHARACTER IS A BAD IDEA - If it is not coming out of a raid then there is no reason to have it bind to character. It just adds to the massive storage problem that is plaguing our servers. Bound to account is fine.

BRING BACK GUILD AUGMENTS - Guild augments are a great idea and should be brought back in addition to the current augment system. Having both types on a single randomly generated item should be perfectly acceptable (Albeit rare). Just get rid of the countdown timer on the Guild augments and keep the non-guild augments more desirable in general. It should be a bonus for social play not an essential facet of game play.

CANNITH CRAFTING NEEDS AN UPDATE - If it drops on random loot it should be craftable. No exceptions.

CHALLENGE INGREDIENTS NEED TO BE TRADEABLE- Epic characters should be able to farm non-epic challenge items.

BRING BACK ALL LEGACY ENCHANTMENTS - If an effect has ever dropped in the game it should still be able to drop. I do not care how big the loot tables have to be to support this. Updated versions of old effects are acceptable replacements. Nerf bats are frowned upon severely.

PREFIX ITEM OF SUFFIX IS AN OUTDATED IDEA - Instead of Prefix of Suffix make it so that an Affix can be in either slot. As an example Disruption can be a prefix as well as a suffix. Do not allow it to repeat on both affixes however (no disruption of disruption items).

DEADLY IS HERE TO STAY - Unfortunately now that every character on every server has deadly slotted we are now stuck with it. Any nerfs to it would likely be met with a huge backlash from the players. My recommendation is to make it standard fare for a good deal of raid loot. Just throw it on in addition to whatever else you decide to put on them. Also make it an augment we can slot. We are stuck with it now so may as well make the effect more accessible. Any other item with a competence bonus to damage needs to be switched to another bonus type (ie. Dream Visor) and make the airship buff a different bonus type as well.

FUTURE RAIDS NEED ITEM CRAFTING SYSTEMS - The Shroud and Lord of Blades are extremely popular because of the customization available. Add similar mechanics to future raids and you will revitalize the raiding scene. You will also sell whatever pack it is in a heartbeat and sell a lot of bypass timers.

HEALING AMPLIFICATION - Essential for high hit-point characters. The community is mystified why it was ever taken away. Teh_Troll has it right on the money when he says it should be an augment.

HEAL OVER TIME ITEMS NEED AN OVERHAUL - Regeneration I am looking at you. The effect is just far too weak to be usable. With mobs hitting for 100+ a swing the 2 hp you get every 30 seconds from the most powerful regeneration effect is a laughing matter. An easy fix I recommend is have the effect scale based on the level of the wearer. 2 Hp every 30 seconds is a joke. 2 Hp per character level every 30 seconds is less so. Maybe eventually we will have a Barbarian that is able to solo something?

VAMPIRISM NEEDS TO BE MORE PREVALENT - The best potion we have in the game is Cure Serious Wounds. On a melee with 2000 Hit points you have to drink a stack of about 66 of them to heal. Making Vampirism style effects more prevalent will allow many more character types to not only solo but be able to join the dreaded BYOH PUGs you always see up.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE - I would LOVE to see an endgame named Khopesh. Preferably with Planar Conflux much like the many Caught in the Web items. If you want to get on my ultra good side give it Vampirsim and Bodyfeeding, lol. Many weapon types like my beloved Khopeshs have not been getting adequate love. Some far worse then the Khopesh. Also Double weapons are far over due. Just code them similar to Handwraps so that dual wielding feats effect them and PRESTO! A new and interesting weapon that many will base builds off of. Thank you for taking the time to sort through all of this. Good luck on the monumental task ahead of you!

[Ungood]

Greetings: DrOctothorpe, love the tag line DrLoot and the Avatar.

Strangely, I wonder if that means we will be getting Tridents in the game sometime in the future, LOL.

I would like to start off by saying I am sorry for the wall of text I am about to hit you with. Hopefully you will read some of it.

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

This is a fair question, and forgive me if my answer comes in several parts:

I would like to start off by explaining somethings about what I loved about this game, and one of things that truly made the game endearing to me was the fact that I did not have to change my gear every few levels, I did not have run this every 3 levels gear treadmill, and always looking to replace what I had for some new best in slot item. The one thing that really sold me on this game was that there were people at level 20 (cap when I started) that were using level 10 gear, because, it had this eternal quality to it, it may not have been the best item, but it was the best item.

Like for example, Kundark Delving Boots, or Madstone Boots, each was in it's own way, a great item, and each was special, even if not the best item in the game, they had properties about them that made them worthy to grind for, special stats, abilities, or just a uniqueness that set them apart.

I loved that!

I loved the very idea that even low level gear had this endurance to it, this special property that made it something you would cherish, you would be thankful to get, because it would serve you well for the rest of your adventure in the game world, you would in fact not be throwing them away in 3 levels or so was very unique to me when I came to DDO, and thus it was suddenly worth running the same quest 20+ times to get it, because, it was 'it'.

Which brings me to my feelings on the current loot system: All of this is just my personal feelings on the matter. So, take that as you will.

First: Random Loot, or Loot Gen holds a special place in DDO as "Foundation" equipment for most players, this is what a player typically starts their adventure with, this is what they build up with, and what they use to get into the, well a ways back we called them the "Big boy raids" where the loot mattered.

You start with finding Loot-gen with desirable qualities that will get the job done, and then as you quest, grow, and level up, you replace your loot gen with rare and powerful named items as befitting a hero of renown.

Second: Loot gen should also serve as back-up loot. Like for example, lets say you normally use a 2H weapon, so you get a top tier named great ax or sword (Cleaver/eSoS/etc), but now you are in the market for a good blunt weapon because, the mobs you are facing are resistant to slashing or something along those lines, but you don't want to have grind to death for it, settle for second best and go with loot-gen.

Third: Ok, opening boxes should be fun, and it always was in it's own way, even when I first started playing there were those stars aligned combos that everyone wanted to pull, and sometimes very handy lesser combos, like a good Frost weapon of Dragonbane for example. But really at no time should opening a 'quest box' hold more hope to player then opening a 'raid box'. Raids have in DDO always been the source of the best loot in the game, they hold a special place in the loot hierarchy, because they take more team-work, time, and effort then a typical quest.

So what are the problems?

Loot-Gen is quickly becoming more powerful then Raid gear. As I see it, this problem stems from Raid gear not having unique, special, or ultra-rare abilities that are limited to the raid loot itself. The current switch in loot pretty much made Raid gear out of Loot-Gen abilities, but just added more loot-gen effects and called it Raid Gear. While in some cases if the effects were handled right, this could work, the problem is, if the effects were not, it lends itself to the raid item having nothing special about it, and thus at some point quickly becoming surpassed by loot-gen, or even is worse then loot-gen right out the starting gate. Neither of these situations are good for something that is supposed to be "raid" gear, after all, you are not going to stay at that level forever.

A prime example of how this can hold: Take Carnifex (I know, it's not a raid item), it is a keen Great Ax with an improved crit profile, this makes it special, it makes it unique, it's not going to get tossed to the wayside by a loot-gen axe that happens to be a few levels higher, because of that special combination of properties unique to it. So the only way this axe gets passed is either by a whole lot of levels and even old cap jumps, or, it gets replaced by other named items.

The issue here is that the only way to really fix this is either have all raids go to max level, and then drop max level loot that can't be surpassed by Loot-gen (Like the way the old Epic items were done) or the Raid gear needs to stand out, and be it's own thing, with effects and abilities to make it special.

For example:The Sets from ToD, they were made special, because they were special, unique even. (I think they need to be revamped thanks to the new Enhancement pass, which could be a great thing really, to revisit things like that)

For me, I believe that the Fix lies in Making Named Gear be "Worthy" of having a name and making Raid loot worth running raid for.

Sorry for that Long winded response, and I bet there is more I want to say, and a lot I am over looking, but that is what I can put to words for now.

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

Throwing Weapons, just all of them, Darts, Hammers, Axes, Daggers, Shurikens, just really, all of them, there is very few of them in the game at all. If you beefed them up, that would bring a new style of ranged to the game."Thrown Weapon" ranged is really lacking because the options are lacking.

As it stands, most other stuff seems well stocked, I am sure others could give a better list of things.

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

When I TR, a put a lot of effort into getting decent twink items for my main, this includes looking for Loot gen with a single effect to keep the ML down, IE: Bracers of Speed 30/6, @ ML9, Ring of Fortitude 100% @ ML9.

In most cases single stat loot-gen is the best because it offers a high number boon at a lower ML, so it excels at the lower levels, until raid/named gear starts to come into it's own and then I swap to that, as the life needs, the typical GS @ 11 & 12, etc.

Side Note and Random Thoughts:

Old Loot Revamp: A major grip of mine with the change to loot when I came back after a long break, the "old" named loot got changed, but there was no means by which players could just swap our older stuff in for the newer stuff, not to mention the new loot with it's BtCoE, was not as desired, from what I heard many people (myself included) would move the loot to my main to TR, and then swap it back to a mule once I out leveled it to save bank space. The new binding method really ruined that, and now the new stuff while stronger is less appealing to me for Twink gear (and lets be real here, most of it is never anything more then decent twink gear)

Augment Slots: Personally, I am not a fan of the new augment system, (I may very well be alone on this) but the whole system seemed to be a cop-out of trying to design fascinating and dynamic gear. It just felt, I don't know how to explain it, it felt rather "I give up, make what you want" kind of system, and then loot-gen having dual slots, with masterful craftsman ship, it really felt like the whole plan was to phase out named gear overall, but the biggest problem with that is that, raid and named gear really are what make DDO's gear system special, that enduring aspect of it, that a 10th level item is still kept and used by a 28th level toon is testament to a designer that knows what makes their players tick.

I would love to see that intimate knowledge and appreciation for fine loot and knowing what makes players tick returned to the quest tables.

I wish you look and good fortune wearing your new hat, I hope that it fits well and that you fill it with grace, for what it's worth, I like you already.

[DemonStorm333]

id love to see an old epic revamp even if it comes in the form of legendary upgrades when lvl 30 comes around and u make us run these epic quests on legend mode or something cool like that but I would also love to see more bastard swrods not just any but good ones as there only like 3 in game that are good and would love to see chain weapons and can u get an eta on when they are actually going to make celestia have the light weapon effect??

o0o and welcome to the community glad you have steped from the shadows of earth and taken that doozy of a step into hell

[Hafeal]

Dr. Loot -

Welcome to the forums. Most don't bite but make sure you are vaccinated. I will echo many you have previously posted by answering your questions with my list addressing them:

1. Take those who complain about random loot with a grain of salt. While Named Loot should be as good or better than random loot - as good means you know what you are grinding for, while random means, nice lucky roll. All players, but the casual player in particular, likes to win the loot lottery every once in a while and I like that random loot now has relevance in the game. And think about the posters response to your query how many in this thread are loaded up more on random loot items than named/raid items? Not many, not many - ok, none.

2. Gonna have to fully agree with Zirun and brian14 regarding too many similar featured items and removal of old names and part of the 'fun'. Why couldn't there just have been "in addition to":

Affixes with multiple functions, such as Lacerating, Rebel, Night's Grasp, "of the Sun", etc. were fun. They made the game more interesting. Removing them was a huge mistake. I really miss Banes and Greater Banes. Yes, they can be crafted, but when combined with synergistic U14 affix, they were truly amazing. I would say the most treasured random lootgen item I have is Night's Grasp longbow of Greater Aberration Bane. My level 23 AA still uses it against epic illithids and such.

3. Raids have pretty much gone the way of the DoDo bird and I agree with RavenStormclaw that Cannith crafting is boring and especially tedious and time consuming - particularly if your game time is limited. To me, Cannith crafting is for the mega gamer as they are using it to power through lives anyway or the rarer soul who enjoyes their game time in this manner.

4. Augments are good, now keep working on them - don't abandon the system just as it seems to be getting understood and used. Of course, this should be a big money maker as well, so I am thinking this will continue to happen. I would suggest cutting the prices in the DDO Store and making more available. If you make the augments particularly inexpensive under level 16 or so, I think people don't mind buying them and destroying them but you have to price them as consumables and not as hardware.

5. All flavor weapons need love - blunts and light weapons (outside of short swords) in particular. Shields and Armor need a lot of help. Look, it is nice having finding certain features on equipment we historically could not do - but, it devalued some named loot in the process, leading to some of the problems in 1 and 3 above.

6. Many of my characters are using random loot of all natures, depending on level and class. My closer to end game characters tend to be using named items or raid loot with a piece of random loot mixed in; particularly casters as they are using Spellcraft items and other spell bonus loot more often than not.

Hope this helps and thanks for coming of lurk mode.


P.S. I want to throw in a request: please, for Eberron's sake, remove BtC from loot outside of raids. Please. BtA I can live with, BtC blows.

[dlsidhe]

Alright, without going into huge detail (which would involve asking, to begin with, what happened to the fun things like "Dynamo" and "Steam" as random weapon affixes?), here's my loot issue:

I have no issue with the power of random loot; named loot should be stronger, but by having more stats, not better stats necessarily; or by being an efficient way to have several needed stats/skills for a particular playstyle/build on one item - prime example, Leaves of the Forest is a BRILLIANT armor for druids. Introducing a sword/shield that had a set bonus that granted orb bonuses to the shield (if you had magical training) would be something that would benefit eldritch knights; add an outfit that grants +3 exceptional wis/str with reinforced fists; etc., those would be neat named items that have a clear intent. Most named items I look at and have no clue who they'd benefit directly.

My problem with random loot is it went from having neat things that were unexpected and encouraged creative slotting - like having spell lore on medium armor, leading to my FvS sporting the same two breastplates for large chunks of two lives - to every armor is Retributive Armor of Hammerblock, Retributive Armor of Deathblock, etc. Every weapon is Flaming of Ghostbane, Shocking of Ghostbane, Smiting of Ghostbane, etc., and you rarely see a caster stat on a martial weapon (at least in my experience).

I want to search the AH and find new and fun ways to gear my toons; not repetitive combinations of affixes.

As far as the gear I sport: melee toons have Deadly slotted somewhere, and my casters have appropriate DC boosts where ever I can fit them.

[toaftoaf]

steaming mad at loot.

[Shindoku]

The loot that drops now is really just too bland. We no longer have the effects that would occasionally drop together under a combined name (such as Pandemonium), augment slots are FAR too common now and make the random items you do get with decent effects feel worse because it doesn't have the almost expected coloured slot. Deadly seems to be the ghostbane of goggles as it appears in every reward list (but, I imagine that is because there are so few random effects that can now take place on an item). As for named gear, higher numbers don't make it feel like better gear. Adding items that are targeted toward a set of classes or directly at a class would be nice. Maybe an item extending the duration of a classes unique spell (eg. adds 10 seconds to a clerics aura) this does not just add to diversity of gear, but also avoids power creep. The idea of a random set of effects can drop on a piece of gear is not a good idea. For certain items, like Dream Edge, its acceptable. But remember, there's nothing worse than finally getting the item you wanted only to find out it doesn't have the effects you want on it. An example of Non named loot my main character wears is a nice Wise +7 Necklace of Major Luck, it has Wisdom +7, Resistance +6, and +2 Good Luck. For a weapon I have a +5 Pandemonium Longbow of Heartseeking, it has Screaming, Thundering, Roaring, and Heartseeking VI. I hope this helps and I look forward to seeing what loot looks like in the future because honestly, at this point in time, the new loot is worse than most of the random loot I overlook.

[LrdSlvrhnd]

As others have said, put the various numbers in the name of the item itself. Or add them to the searchable bit. I don't care if you do Roman numerals or Arabic (and really, people, is +7 really all that different from VII?) but make 'em so we can search 'em. Do this for Improved Banishing/Disruption/Smiting/Vorpal/Whatever. Oh, and don't change the numbers to Improved/Greater/etc., please. Numerals - Arabic or Roman - are far easier to figure out what's better than trying to figure out if Greater > Major or Major > Greater.

Also, welcome!

[fourrumtest]

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.)

i gave up on loot years ago. short of a time machine to take me and the the loot back to pre meme status, i have no helpful suggestions. after years of adjective of bannings, **** loot i have no faith left. thanks for trying. even after i gave up because you guys sacked the d and d, you sacked loot, you made the money grab more blatant than my nearest panhandler.
so good luck undoing what he did. i already spent my ddo budget on something else thanks for pretending to care years to late.

why the hell can we not have docents(named or random)? where did heal amp go? can you prove you are not a renamed trasher of loot?

so you feel you can inspire me to spend money on your greedy company again? because i have years of unresolved issues/ disdain built up.

ps thanks for trying i guess, try not to suck as much as the last guy.

[sephiroth1084]

Oh and a BIG problem with named loot is the retroactive change to caster abilities (potency, spell penetration, spell lore) to sync up with the new system where these effects are tied to ML. A lot of named gear got completely trashed when it went from having stats that were a little ahead of the leveling curve, or that were near the top of a small set of possibilities (Greater Arcane Lore vs. Major <element> Lore), to now be on even footing with random junk at the same level, or even worse than that. Notably, virtually all of the caster-related early epic items became junk in an instant.

Then, after the first culling, we got the u19 changes, which included seriously nerfing Arcane Lore items, in part by adding the ability for things like 11% <element> Lore items to be dropping as ML 2 gear, which overshadows stuff all the way up to Epic Gianthold. It used to be that Greater Arcane Lore could stand in for your specific element Lore if you couldn't find somewhere to fit the latter, or could be used for your secondary/tertiary spells while wielding a higher bonus for your primary, but it worked because it wasn't that far behind. That's no longer the case.

Similarly, Great <school> Focus was considered a pretty solid ability for a few levels into epic, then we got a +3 version, which was the pinnacle of loot abilities, and was almost exclusively found on named gear, and then we got even random stuff up to +5, which, in a game where the highest content requires every single tiny bonus you can cobble together in order to be effective, meant that all of the old caster DC items became junk. It also meant that Spell Focus II (see Stormreaver's Tablecloth, Adamantine Cloak of the Dragon), also becomes worthless due to being so far behind the other bonuses available. It was a good bug when this was stacking with specific school spell focus.

[jakeelala]

The biggest issue is the whole concept just sucks. Random just SUCKS. The game was better when my level 20s didn't have a single piece of radom kit on them. Random should remain vendor trash . . . let us kit our toons how how WE want them to be.

Cannith crafting was the best thing ever to happen in DDO regarding trash loot. Being able to craft WHAT YOU WANTED was a zillion time better than having to rely on dumb luck.

Random loot over-shadowing named loot, even if a few levels higher, is friggin ******** as well.

Seriously, as long as you're on this "random" kick your loot/game will all be a bucket of fail.

This is not the opinion of many players. Having one best in slot item that requires a raid grinch and ends up in everyone having the same stupid items is awful. Random gen loot that is powerful is awesome. Loot weekends, chest blessing, all are fun. More of the fun exciting ultra rare prefixes for weapons, so I want the opposite of teh_troll. I want to see high loot table rolls in chests result in more than just suffix and prefix, like weapons that get augments, but on armor and accessories. Can you imagine pulling an armor that spawns with enough effects to be competitive with raid loot? That would be fun. I do think EE Raid loot should probably always be better than any loot gen since that's the highest level we get. Then again, I like the idea that loot gen while it might not be the BEST numbers for attributes, it might reflect some unique combinations that for the 1,000,000,000,000,000 or so different build possibilities in DDO represent a best or as good in slot item compared to the much more limited selection of raid loot options. THe problem with Raid loot being the absolute best is that once you grind and get it...then what? Opening chests isn't even fun anymore. You'll never need what you pull. That's a bad mechanic. Keeping the absolute best random gen loot pulls competitive with raid loot keeps your best players running high level content at high difficulty to to get it. That's also true of course of making EE loot THAT much better than EH that it makes it worth it. General rule of thumb: EE takes about 3x longer than EH for anything. The EE raid loot should be at least 50% better than the EH.

This could in large part be mitigated by updating ALL RAID AND EPIC LOOT IN THE GAME.

This is the single most important change you could make. You could change NOTHING about loot gen and just give us epic Greensteel, Epic VOD/TOD/Titan loot, and updates of all epic items to make them competitive. Like every piece of raid loot in VON, right now there is ONLY eSoS, and to a lesser extent for some builds Belt of Morons is ok. Other than that? Useless. We have +10 Stats now. There are so many that this would make the gear situation much more interesting in DDO.

Most importantly non-loot change: STOP MAKING THINGS USELESS EVERY UPDATE. There were what, 9 updates before Shroud gear started getting even sort of outdated? That was awesome, and made the grind worth it to make it. eSoS on the other hand has been hands down the best THF weapon in the game since VoN went Epic. That's REALLY REALLY bad too, and makes for very little variety, say if you want to roll a dwarf to use axes or an Elf to use a Falchion.

Expanding on that point, why would anyone EVER use a light pick? It's terrible. Ditto a great club, heavy pick, long sword, battle axe, heavy mace, light mace, etc. These weapons have unfavorable crit range and modifers, and are pretty much NEVER used by characters. One way to solve this would be to bake in certain enahcnements found only on certain weapon types, like the old banishing not on slashing, or puncturing only on peircing. SOme people didnt like that, but done correctly it could actually give MORE build choices. Picks for exmaple, should have a rare high level mod that give it an increased crit mult (x5). Maces should get special versions of Fracturing or a Bone Breaking suffix that can weaken undead or do special bone crunching damage. Whatever. The point is, there might be a reason to use one of the currently really lame weapon types.

Where are all the good returning weapons? Haven't had a high level one of those in a raid in a long time. The Corm ones are really cool, but they're random and you have to turn in a lot of mats and carry a bunch around. Plus, they are have the same crit threat/multi. Thrower builds are totally viable now, which is awesome. SO lets see some more interesting options. Also, increase the damage on a great crossbow by about 250% if you ever want anyone to do anything but vendor them.

Overall the take away message is:

VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF DDO. DO NOT MAKE 1 RAIDS ITEMS THE BEST ITEMS. The rising tide of level increases in content should RAISE ALL LOOT BOATS.

The secret to this is creating new effects, not just making things more powerful, when updates come.

You literally can save this game if you do this right. But it has to involve cleaning up all the old raids and epic gear to make them worth playing. Because right now DDO is only about TR'ing.

End Game is Dead.

Also: where are the loot gen trinkets?