An introduction: you can call me Doctor Loot

[Grecan]

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

Lots of people playing DDO don't have English as their native language (not saying that it's not possible for them to have a better command of the language than native-English-speaking people, but anyway...). So maybe using all those different words to describe basically the same effect in different degrees is not the best way to go. Light I-II-III-IV etc. is simpler imo.


On another note, the items' names should be clear enough that people understand what their effects are without having to read the desriptions.
I noticed Smiting weapons and Improved Smiting have exactly the same suffix (Smiting) - and there are probably more similar examples - that is confusing.
A possible good measure to indicate if some items' suffixes and prefixes are ok or they need to be changed might be the easiness to search for those and compare them with similar ones on the AH.

[daboyz]

I would like to see the loot in chests changed to exclude gems, spell materials, and healer kits and the like. Only poor kobolds and stupid trogs keep loot like that in their treasure chests, and it's only because they can't eat or trade them. I would rather have less junk, and fewer, but better good stuff, especially if I am under the influence of a +2 loot boost that I have purchased from DDO store. I would like to see more good luck items, and healing items, in chests, since these could legitimately be considered treasure by the monsters I am about to slay and skin.

[Singular]

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?

Everyone seems to think named loot should be better than random, but I'd like random to be tiered into something like common, uncommon, rare, extremely rare, etc., so that some amazing random items are worth keeping and keeping an eye out for.

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

1. Random loot:

We're missing everything from previous updates. All the stuff from Menace of the Underdark - that was fun, interesting stuff. The random drops had names and could be pretty powerful. So much more fulfilling that Weapon of Flaming 2 plus Riposte 3 or whatever. Nothing could be less interesting than having chartered accountant named items in a fantasy game.

Why eliminate the previous update's loot? Why not just add to it?

2. Named loot:

I'm not a huge fan of "only one item is best in slot." I like choices. So I'd like to see a variety of "best in slot" items.

Artificers could use a greater variety of crossbows. Currently in Epic we have 3: the Slaver's Hand, Needle and the Trapsmith's (outside of those you can make epic). Once you get Needle, there's no point in using other crossbows. Also, we don't have any named epic Great Crossbows - it would be great if you could come up with a variety of compelling alternatives to Needle.

Arties could also use more rune arms. We only have one epic force rune arm and it's a level 20 one. We need some rune arms from levels 26 and up. It would be nice if they represented all lines of damage, but please make at least another force rune arm.

Khopesh! There are no great named epic khopesh. There are a lot of "oh, I guess it's better than random loot." Currently the highest damage dealing khopesh is the Drow Weapon Master. We need some raid loot named khopeshes. The two-handers have lots of choice (though they could still use more), but twf, not so much.

Additionally, it would be nice if some level 25+ items, named or random, had effects that weren't gimped by having low dc's. You guys made great inroads here, with revamping cursespewing and improved vorpal, improved bannishing, etc. I'm not sure it's enough - there are, for example, no effects that I'd use in EE content for consistent CC output. But in heroic, any paralyzer will do.

3. Item Upgrades:

It would be very, very nice if we could continue to upgrade our "best in slot" items. I'd like to be able to add an augment slot onto any item without one. Allowing players to add augment slots to items would:

- increase personalization of equipment
- extend the life of equipment
- allow older loot to have greater purpose

You could do this in a variety of ways. I'd recommend a tiered, expensive system that required commendations of heroism, but you could also do it with coms of valor. I'd also recommend that only items without slots be allowed to be upgraded thusly, though from a character's perspective, it would be nice to add, say, another red augment slot to Needle (it already has one when fully upgraded; two would be perfect).

For example, some worry that CITW items will be outdated by newer content. Well, if we could add an augment slot to the planar focus trinkets, they'd have greatly renewed life. For my sorc, Twilight and the Planar Focus, erudition is not best in slot, partly b/c the trinket lacks an augment slot, but also b/c Twilight has miserable Lore on it and so cannot compete with random loot.

3a. Upgrading existing items:

It would be nice if we could continue to upgrade our items. As I mentioned above, Twilight just isn't good enough. It needs Lore upgrades and spell power upgrades. Plus, the trinket just isn't great w/out an augment slot. So if we could have one or two more tiers of upgrades, that would be great.

In fact, it would be great on most items - it would keep players running raids, saving up their coms, etc. The flawless dragon armors, for example, only have one blue slot. It would be nice if we could add a colorless, then a yellow, etc. Two augments on this isn't going to make us overpowered, but will give us a bit more to work for.

- 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.)

Let's see...

Sorc: Gogles of Cha +10 (accuracy is the suffix, but I don't use it), Belt of Con:8, False Life: 40. Still looking for better, would like to increase my dodge. I use Twilight and Erudition to bump up my spell points and once I spend it, I swap out to a Magnetism Scepter of Kinetic Lore and a Glaciation Scepter of Cold lore + red augment slot fitted w/impulse (I have electric lore on named bracers).

Artie: Goggles of Deadly 9, Resist 10; Belt of Fortification 120% and dodge 8% w/a colorless augment slot. Everything else is named.

Fighter: Still equipping, but some kind of Deadly item, Fort item, Dodge item. I don't use this toon much, so not a lot of named items.

[Singular]

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 from about level 15 is better than EE Dream Visor, at level 25. Most belts from about level 20 on are better than Arkat's Cord (I recommend adding 120% fortification to it to make it useful).

Any item from pre-19 with Lore on it is basically worthless. Take Flawless Blue Dragonscale and Twilight, for example - each confer Lore of 6%. While they were great when introduced, they are now meaningless because spell criticals were changed and new loot to match. Now any Lore item after about level 12 or so is better.

[Livmo]

Everyone seems to think named loot should be better than random, but I'd like random to be tiered into something like common, uncommon, rare, extremely rare, etc., so that some amazing random items are worth keeping and keeping an eye out for.



1. Random loot:

We're missing everything from previous updates. All the stuff from Menace of the Underdark - that was fun, interesting stuff. The random drops had names and could be pretty powerful. So much more fulfilling that Weapon of Flaming 2 plus Riposte 3 or whatever. Nothing could be less interesting than having chartered accountant named items in a fantasy game.

Why eliminate the previous update's loot? Why not just add to it?

2. Named loot:

I'm not a huge fan of "only one item is best in slot." I like choices. So I'd like to see a variety of "best in slot" items.

Artificers could use a greater variety of crossbows. Currently in Epic we have 3: the Slaver's Hand, Needle and the Trapsmith's (outside of those you can make epic). Once you get Needle, there's no point in using other crossbows. Also, we don't have any named epic Great Crossbows - it would be great if you could come up with a variety of compelling alternatives to Needle.

Arties could also use more rune arms. We only have one epic force rune arm and it's a level 20 one. We need some rune arms from levels 26 and up. It would be nice if they represented all lines of damage, but please make at least another force rune arm.

Khopesh! There are no great named epic khopesh. There are a lot of "oh, I guess it's better than random loot." Currently the highest damage dealing khopesh is the Drow Weapon Master. We need some raid loot named khopeshes. The two-handers have lots of choice (though they could still use more), but twf, not so much.

Additionally, it would be nice if some level 25+ items, named or random, had effects that weren't gimped by having low dc's. You guys made great inroads here, with revamping cursespewing and improved vorpal, improved bannishing, etc. I'm not sure it's enough - there are, for example, no effects that I'd use in EE content for consistent CC output. But in heroic, any paralyzer will do.

3. Item Upgrades:

It would be very, very nice if we could continue to upgrade our "best in slot" items. I'd like to be able to add an augment slot onto any item without one. Allowing players to add augment slots to items would:

- increase personalization of equipment
- extend the life of equipment
- allow older loot to have greater purpose

You could do this in a variety of ways. I'd recommend a tiered, expensive system that required commendations of heroism, but you could also do it with coms of valor. I'd also recommend that only items without slots be allowed to be upgraded thusly, though from a character's perspective, it would be nice to add, say, another red augment slot to Needle (it already has one when fully upgraded; two would be perfect).

For example, some worry that CITW items will be outdated by newer content. Well, if we could add an augment slot to the planar focus trinkets, they'd have greatly renewed life. For my sorc, Twilight and the Planar Focus, erudition is not best in slot, partly b/c the trinket lacks an augment slot, but also b/c Twilight has miserable Lore on it and so cannot compete with random loot.

3a. Upgrading existing items:

It would be nice if we could continue to upgrade our items. As I mentioned above, Twilight just isn't good enough. It needs Lore upgrades and spell power upgrades. Plus, the trinket just isn't great w/out an augment slot. So if we could have one or two more tiers of upgrades, that would be great.

In fact, it would be great on most items - it would keep players running raids, saving up their coms, etc. The flawless dragon armors, for example, only have one blue slot. It would be nice if we could add a colorless, then a yellow, etc. Two augments on this isn't going to make us overpowered, but will give us a bit more to work for.



Let's see...

Sorc: Gogles of Cha +10 (accuracy is the suffix, but I don't use it), Belt of Con:8, False Life: 40. Still looking for better, would like to increase my dodge. I use Twilight and Erudition to bump up my spell points and once I spend it, I swap out to a Magnetism Scepter of Kinetic Lore and a Glaciation Scepter of Cold lore + red augment slot fitted w/impulse (I have electric lore on named bracers).

Artie: Goggles of Deadly 9, Resist 10; Belt of Fortification 120% and dodge 8% w/a colorless augment slot. Everything else is named.

Fighter: Still equipping, but some kind of Deadly item, Fort item, Dodge item. I don't use this toon much, so not a lot of named items.

I agree. I hope there will be some new crossbows and rune arms that are in the L27-30 range. Also, it would be nice if the rune arms had a red/orange/purple augment slot(s) to boost spell power since arties lost some spell power in the Enhancement pass. If you look at the L25 Epic Gianthold rune arms they have 2 slots for auggies, but no place for a red to boost spell power.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Rune_Arm

[DrOctothorpe]

Dear DOCTOR LOOT,

Just wondering if you will be in the DOCTOR WHO Special as his new nemesis?

Otherwise +1 for the initiative.

I have a walk-on cameo, but you do not see my face. That reveal awaits the NEXT Doctor.

:-P

[Leclaire1]

We should never feel like this with our NAMED lootz:

Bilbo: "Sweet! My first named weapon."


YEARS LATER:

Bilbo: "This is STING! Take it, if you like. It glows blue when orcs are about."



Frodo: "Um, yeah, about that. See I pulled this sweet randomgenloot sword from some wight chest recently. And since it's +10 Epic BodyfeederIX CosmicIX FinesseIX Holy BurstIX KeenIX MetallineIX ParalyzingIX ScintillatingIX SolarIX Vorpal IX.....of GhostbaneXX, well, Sting would be a bit of a downgrade dude. Thanks but ...pass."

This is my favorite post so far in my history on the ddo forums. +1 Rep. A great point and made with great humor and wit. Bravo!

[DemonStorm333]

I have a walk-on cameo, but you do not see my face. That reveal awaits the NEXT Doctor.

:-P

hmmmmm Peter Capaldi works for turbine I thought being the next doctor would have paid more :P haha guess steven moffat needs to pay him more monies..... ugh I know your under that zygon mask no wounder they returned lol

[mons]

While I agree with just about everything everyone has said (upto the point that I read) about random loot<named loot<raid loot, I think the fact that the last RAID we received was in February of 2012. With that said, the Updates that we do get on a somewhat consistent basis will be rather meh as far as loot would go. If raids aren't going to be released with every other update or even every xpac then the discussion of random<named<raid is pretty much worthless imo.

[ComicRelief]

Dear DOCTOR LOOT,

Just wondering if you will be in the DOCTOR WHO Special as his new nemesis?

Otherwise +1 for the initiative.

I have a walk-on cameo, but you do not see my face. That reveal awaits the NEXT Doctor.

:-P

Of course, we all know that, according to cannon, there are but (2) Doctors remaining, as a Time Lord can only regenerate 12 times.

...except, The Master managed to find a loop hole...


{PS (Off-Topic) - Thanks Cordovan! I finally have my old (slightly modified) 'face' in the fora (sorry, "forums")! Woot!}

[EllisDee37]

I think the fact that the last RAID we received was in February of 2012.

The last raid we got was February of this year, not last year. February 2012 was before MotU, which was summer 2012.

[redoubt]

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.

To your question: I'm using random gen leve 11-15 deadly items over level 20 epic raid gear.

We used to farm the level 4 market place series and the second lordsmarch series to get good twink gear, but now that stuff drops everywhere.

While not named/raid vs random, the new named but not raid items are more powerful than older raid loot as well. Many of the items from the wheloon prison series are better than similar level loot that is raid loot, i.e. shroud crafted items.

I can see how this new and very powerful and easy to get gear helps new players bridge the gap very quickly, so maybe this is actually what you want, but I thought I through out a couple observations on the loot.

[Loromir]

I loved a lot of the random loot that was brought on for MOTU. There were alot on neat effect on those. Things like, Sun's Fry, 1000 suns, etc. Bring back all the random loot that was created for MOTU and add it to the existing loot table. I'm not concerned if they all have a high drop rate, just the opportunity to see those in the chest made each chest interesting.

Riposte, Retributive, Ghostbane, Rapid Strikes are all fine, but drop way too often.

I Liked the imagination and creativity of random loot post MOTU...but imagination went down the drain post Shadowfell when they eliminated all that MOTU stuff.

[Leclaire1]

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.

Definitely the problem begins with the crappy Sage's, etc. Shadowfell Items and random items similar to them around level 15. Prior to that, I think things are generally speaking in a different place. I've farmed out great HTR gear on my main, and I wouldn't trade almost any of it, esp. weapons, for anything random. Even with the Shadowfail random item bloating from levels 15-20, I still think hard-earned raid gear and other named stuff earned through quests wins out, as it generally should. Its once you get to epic that the wheels fall off, especially with regard to weapons. The CiTW weapons still rule the roost, but random stuff unfortunately destroys other named items, which is really bad. Most of the problem isn't the named items themselves, esp. gear, but that lootgen just destroys them. We need to remember that there are two major goals in building a character other than being social and enjoying content: building a character's nuts and bolts via xp and TRs, and building a character's gearset. When named items aren't worth running a quest for or buying, that part of the game ceases to be fun.

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.

Some useful case studies here. The Hunter's Greatsword has one unique feature, namely that it is a +8 sword with greater keen, which gives it an extra 2.5 damage dice. Yet a random items could presumably have this, which makes the named item somewhat of a joke. No one will ever use it while random items are better, and it doesn't even compete with other named 2H weapons very well despite being very high level. This is true of most of the non-raid weapons since the pass. They shouldn't beat out raid loot for sure, but as they need to be earned and not gained through luck they should be better than 90% of lootgen and not the opposite.

Yes, the Jewelry is where the transgressions are the greatest. Ughh. Please nerf all the random ****, esp. all the super high seeker, deadly, and speedy stuff. If this came on named items also and not just lootgen it would be good, esp. if the named items had better stuff.

As to heal amp, I'm not against it being on lootgen, but it should also be on more named items as it is now considered essential. All melees shouldn't feel compelled to choose the gloves for it, they should be able to wear other gloves without giving up heal amp entirely. This is where named items need some diversity.

Everyone seems to think named loot should be better than random, but I'd like random to be tiered into something like common, uncommon, rare, extremely rare, etc., so that some amazing random items are worth keeping and keeping an eye out for.

Meh, not totally against lootgen having situational value, and there should be enough utility in it for players to use it until they've farmed named. Categorizing it could be a decent idea. Nonetheless, if this is too difficult I'm personally fine with it remaining vendor trash, as the troll suggested. Name items are earned through dedicated questing whereas lootgen is gained through blind luck. I'm most glad to see the acknowledgement that almost everyone seems to think that named should be better in most cases, and that raid items should be best of all.

I'm not a huge fan of "only one item is best in slot." I like choices. So I'd like to see a variety of "best in slot" items.

I agree, which is why we need more named item diversity in Shadowfell and new content. We also need less coveted things like seeker in grossly high values on lootgen so as to make named irrelevant. Through the High Road pack we had some really interesting stuff. I had to make agonizing choices about whether to equip The Nether Grasps for the high seeker bonus (which was rare then, and has been grossly inflated and made common since Shadowfell) and other perks, the PDK gauntlets, which buffed my Con, gave me my STR bonus in the gloves slot, and gave me coveted heal amp, and the Fabricator's Ganutlets, which gave me alacrity and a very unique set bonus with the bracers. In the bracers dept. I had to choose between twisting shade, which have me lots of good things, the fab bracers for the set bonus and unique infusion ability, and the sunsoul bracers which gave me a needed wisdom boost for saves and superior parrying, and lootgen heal amp bracers. Tough choices like this a very good, and guide us in how we build our characters. In the present day endgame, I just where the unique PDK gloves, which are the only choice, and easily pick up all the other stuff on random ****, or the too-easily earned skirmisher's etc. sets. This ruins the loot game very badly.

Deadly from about level 15 is better than EE Dream Visor, at level 25. Most belts from about level 20 on are better than Arkat's Cord (I recommend adding 120% fortification to it to make it useful).

Any item from pre-19 with Lore on it is basically worthless. Take Flawless Blue Dragonscale and Twilight, for example - each confer Lore of 6%. While they were great when introduced, they are now meaningless because spell criticals were changed and new loot to match. Now any Lore item after about level 12 or so is better.

Interesting how often EE Dream Visor comes up. This is because it is the best illustration of the problems in the system.

In fairness, the 6% lore is universal spell lore, which still cannot be found much on lootgen stuff. Most of the lootgen and other items do have high values, but it is to a specific damage type, whereas the 6 is universal. Still, the above items are hard-earned and higher-level, and a base 9% upgradeable to 12% via comms would be better. It would still give the edge to specific damage lores while making the harder to get arcane lore and bit more powerful.


After all those comments, thanks for reading them and welcome to the forums, Doctor. I appreciate your dedication to fixing this problem and your willingness to listen to the community, and hopefully make all the hours we've put into writing this stuff worthwhile. Thanks again.

[Coyopa]

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.)

As far as the biggest problems with random loot today ...
1. GHOSTBANE MUST GO! There is no need for it. It is about as worthless an affix as you can get.

2. Bring back Ghost Touch. Ghost Touch of Disruption weapons were *the best* random generated weapons for this niche. I even prefer Ghost Touch of Undead Bane.

3. Personally, I hate the generic "retributive" type affixes. Go back to Fire Guard, Frost Guard, etc. You can still use your I, II, III, IV, and so on, but those should be in the name. If I find a piece of armor with deathblock and a guard on it (let's say Fire Guard for this example), then it should be named +3 Fire Guard II Outfit of Deathblock III.

4. Deadly, Accuracy, and Speed affixes should be removed. They are too powerful and were previously found only on powerful named loot. They should not be on random generated loot. Period.

When it comes to weapon and equipment being underserved ...
I will have to have a think about that and get back to you. Off the top of my head:
1. longswords worth having and using at epic levels
2. spell power weapons that are not your usual caster weapon, such as the kama - I have a druid that uses kamas and have concluded that a good glaciation kama of ice lore (above 66 spell power) does not exist in random generated loot. "Usual caster weapon" are the ones that casters are most often proficient with: clubs, staves, etc.

Finally, as far as what random loot my characters are wearing ...
My characters only use non-named loot while they are leveling. It would be the usual fare of +stat, blindness immunity, fortification, feather falling, striding, and so on. Once my characters reach 20, they put away all their non-named loot and get out the House C, epic (shard/scroll/seal), and other named gear from MotU. I have yet to see a piece of non-named loot compelling enough to dislodge any of my characters' gear at 20+.

[Raliar]

Everyone seems to think named loot should be better than random, but I'd like random to be tiered into something like common, uncommon, rare, extremely rare, etc., so that some amazing random items are worth keeping and keeping an eye out for.



1. Random loot:

We're missing everything from previous updates. All the stuff from Menace of the Underdark - that was fun, interesting stuff. The random drops had names and could be pretty powerful. So much more fulfilling that Weapon of Flaming 2 plus Riposte 3 or whatever. Nothing could be less interesting than having chartered accountant named items in a fantasy game.

Why eliminate the previous update's loot? Why not just add to it?

2. Named loot:

I'm not a huge fan of "only one item is best in slot." I like choices. So I'd like to see a variety of "best in slot" items.

Artificers could use a greater variety of crossbows. Currently in Epic we have 3: the Slaver's Hand, Needle and the Trapsmith's (outside of those you can make epic). Once you get Needle, there's no point in using other crossbows. Also, we don't have any named epic Great Crossbows - it would be great if you could come up with a variety of compelling alternatives to Needle.

Arties could also use more rune arms. We only have one epic force rune arm and it's a level 20 one. We need some rune arms from levels 26 and up. It would be nice if they represented all lines of damage, but please make at least another force rune arm.

Khopesh! There are no great named epic khopesh. There are a lot of "oh, I guess it's better than random loot." Currently the highest damage dealing khopesh is the Drow Weapon Master. We need some raid loot named khopeshes. The two-handers have lots of choice (though they could still use more), but twf, not so much.

Additionally, it would be nice if some level 25+ items, named or random, had effects that weren't gimped by having low dc's. You guys made great inroads here, with revamping cursespewing and improved vorpal, improved bannishing, etc. I'm not sure it's enough - there are, for example, no effects that I'd use in EE content for consistent CC output. But in heroic, any paralyzer will do.

3. Item Upgrades:

It would be very, very nice if we could continue to upgrade our "best in slot" items. I'd like to be able to add an augment slot onto any item without one. Allowing players to add augment slots to items would:

- increase personalization of equipment
- extend the life of equipment
- allow older loot to have greater purpose

You could do this in a variety of ways. I'd recommend a tiered, expensive system that required commendations of heroism, but you could also do it with coms of valor. I'd also recommend that only items without slots be allowed to be upgraded thusly, though from a character's perspective, it would be nice to add, say, another red augment slot to Needle (it already has one when fully upgraded; two would be perfect).

For example, some worry that CITW items will be outdated by newer content. Well, if we could add an augment slot to the planar focus trinkets, they'd have greatly renewed life. For my sorc, Twilight and the Planar Focus, erudition is not best in slot, partly b/c the trinket lacks an augment slot, but also b/c Twilight has miserable Lore on it and so cannot compete with random loot.

3a. Upgrading existing items:

It would be nice if we could continue to upgrade our items. As I mentioned above, Twilight just isn't good enough. It needs Lore upgrades and spell power upgrades. Plus, the trinket just isn't great w/out an augment slot. So if we could have one or two more tiers of upgrades, that would be great.

In fact, it would be great on most items - it would keep players running raids, saving up their coms, etc. The flawless dragon armors, for example, only have one blue slot. It would be nice if we could add a colorless, then a yellow, etc. Two augments on this isn't going to make us overpowered, but will give us a bit more to work for.



Let's see...

Sorc: Gogles of Cha +10 (accuracy is the suffix, but I don't use it), Belt of Con:8, False Life: 40. Still looking for better, would like to increase my dodge. I use Twilight and Erudition to bump up my spell points and once I spend it, I swap out to a Magnetism Scepter of Kinetic Lore and a Glaciation Scepter of Cold lore + red augment slot fitted w/impulse (I have electric lore on named bracers).

Artie: Goggles of Deadly 9, Resist 10; Belt of Fortification 120% and dodge 8% w/a colorless augment slot. Everything else is named.

Fighter: Still equipping, but some kind of Deadly item, Fort item, Dodge item. I don't use this toon much, so not a lot of named items.

I think this is a brilliant idea and mentioned it in my post before, what is so horrible is you happened to get a perfectly rolled "EPIC" item that you had a .0000029999 chance of rolling and it could possibly be the best item in the game. Why would that be so horrible!

[mons]

The last raid we got was February of this year, not last year. February 2012 was before MotU, which was summer 2012.

haha, yeah ill chalk not knowing what year it is to go along with the not knowing what day it is usually

[Noctus]

yes, everything post MoTU was fail.

I cannot stress this enough . . . out-dating stuff every update just needs to stop. All armors out-dated by GH stuff, Random Gen out-dating all named stuff after one update, needs to stop NOW.

Nobody I run with cares about obtaining any specific items at this point because we all know you're gonna make it garbage next update.

DDO wasn't like this until after MoTU. People still ran Titan and Reaver at level 20 because there was still stuff worth pursuing.

Relevant loot keeps content relevant. This needs to be tatoo'd on the inside of your eyelids.

I have to agree. The much, much too fast obsolescence of items, combined with the randomlootification of named item abilities. For example Seeker or Melee Alacrity (nowadays known as Speed) was only found on a few named items, making it an intersting effect and these items (as well asthe content dropping them) worthy of striving for to acquire them. Or Nightmare on weapons.

Now you can get it everywhere.

[Jasparion]

I'll have to check my character...but by geez i think i pulled a lower than min lvl 11 +6 resistance ring...i will check and get back. Just seems so powerful....

Im pretty sure mine is ML7 - I have a Resist +6 ring which has Curse (-1 Str) and Mastercrafting on it. Depending on my Str at the time its fine for melee/ranged (if I have an odd number I lose nothing when it drops to an even number), and its always good for casters who really dont much care about Str (beyond not dropping to 0 when weakened).

Its unbound so I can swap it between all my toons.

I think others have provided a huge number of examples of issues with loot. Ive also seen a few provide a very simple and easy methodoloy Turbine should follow:

Raid loot > Named loot > Random loot.

I used to love putting on Chrono gear, then swapping to Red Fens gear, then my Sora Kell gear - plus obviously a bunch of Greensteel. Now I used mostly random loot all the way to 20, with maybe 1 or 2 items of crafted stuff, named items, and a couple of Greensteel items (this is partly my fault because I TR before doing 20 runs so cant cleanse my Greensteel items - the irony here is I will have Completionist before I can cleanse, and I wont be needing the gear because I have Completionist).

I think there needs to be a serious review of Raid and Named items with some serious buffs provided - and not just for newly acquired stuff. It should be back-dated. The horse has bolted in terms of Random items, so I dont think a nerf is going to work.

Of course, this then brings us in to power creep issues with the (obvious) solution from Turbine being higher resists for mobs and a truckload more HP. Sadly this seems to be as far as any rework ever goes...

[nibel]

Interesting how often EE Dream Visor comes up. This is because it is the best illustration of the problems in the system.

I think it is because during the period between eGH and SC, it was a unique bonus to damage, and was traded by dozens to otto's boxes. And lots of people are thinking it was unfair to pay $50 for a piece of gear that is currently useless.

Reminds me the guys that buy a lot of stuff on Diablo 3 RMAH before the attack speed nerf.