Old school Epic items crafting system desperately needs to be made more practical.

[Wierdattacx]

Ok, before you get the wrong idea, the point of this thread is NOT to buff the original epic items themselves (although a few of them could use it). Here's the problem that I think really needs to be fixed:

You hit lvl 20, now able to do epic content. You have lots of choices, and there are some cool epic items out there to be obtained too. So tell me, does anyone grind for scrolls/shards/seals to get the old school ML 20 epic items from say, Chrono, Carnival, Sentinels, Sands, etc. anymore? Only a few dedicated souls, bless their hearts. Why is this?

In my opinion, the reason for this shift isn't because players are too lazy. People are willing to farm for a good item. I think the biggest reason is this: It takes so long to get all the ingredients for these items that, to be quite honest, by the time you've managed to get everything and put the whole thing together, you've leveled past its usefulness! The +7 Con on the Epic Envenomed Cloak is awesome to have at level 20. No, really. It is. +7 stat items, if I recall correctly, are ML 22 or 23. The only ones that are ML 20 are the named ones, so they have their place. However, these items are meaningless if by the time you manage to get them, you're level 22 and can use random generated items with +7 stats anyway. Except for grinding them out to have on your next life, why bother?

The problem with this crafting system is that it's STILL set up as something to be done at endgame. Let's not forget this system came before the level cap increase and before epic destinies. It was designed to give epic characters something to do for a good long time when they hit the level cap of 20. The level cap is 28 now. Level 20 is not endgame, and ML 20 items, with very few exceptions, are not endgame gear. This system desperately needs to be changed to make it more practical. These items can still be special for their level range, but players don't bother right now because they are unreasonably difficult to get. My own suggestions are these: First, increase the drop rate of seals and shards especially. In some packs, it's only 4-5%! No wonder no one ever goes there! Second, and I think this is what especially would bring life back to these packs/items, add a selection of seals and shards to the quest end reward list for every third completion of the end quest of the chain (Big Top, Tide Turns, Chrono, etc.). This way, people don't get a free ride. They still have to farm a little and put some work into getting these items, but they'll get them before they've outlived their usefulness.

[andy310]

You hit lvl 20, now able to do epic content. You have lots of choices, and there are some cool epic items out there to be obtained too. So tell me, does anyone grind for scrolls/shards/seals to get the old school ML 20 epic items from say, Chrono, Carnival, Sentinels, Sands, etc. anymore? Only a few dedicated souls, bless their hearts. Why is this?

because P2W, that's why.
and no. the system works just fine. The actual problem is that the items aren't THAT good anymore. They were once End Game gear. they are now level 20 gear which is 10 levels short of end game, and still require a bit of dedication to farm out.
That said, usually you farm on an alt for your toon that will wear it by 20. And being as it's not really oriented towards F2P players as a system (you have to buy the pack), it's pretty much fine as it is. I would however like to see the seals and shards pop more often then they do....

[Zzevel]

Is Ghostbane even a crafting option? The Humanity..

And since this is the FIRST time a thread like this has EVER been created, I should probably agree... no?

[Satyriasys]

The problem is the system is set up for 20 being cap giving capped toons something to do. Now that it has raised to 28 people go on to continue leveling. It is an outdated obsolete system that no longer has a place in the game. They need to make these drop as complete items like other epic items. The scroll/seal/shard system could be changed to upgrade the items to higher level versions.

[Wierdattacx]

That would be great too Satyr, but I'm pretty sure it won't happen. It's too much work for devs that are busy with the Forgotten Realms stuff. The changes I proposed could be done in a matter of weeks with some data entry into the loot tables/end rewards. If I thought there was a chance they would change things so complete items dropped, I'd like that, but I seriously doubt it. I have to disagree that these packs aren't geared to F2P players. They're among the least expensive epic content in the game, easily bought with favor-earned TP, especially on sale. They're ideal for F2P players who want to keep going with a game they like, are bored with the 5 (?) F2P epic quests currently in existence, and have a few hundred points. Depending on the player, these F2P players may or may not have shared bank space so they can share shards/seals earned on another toon. However, that's not the discussion topic on this thread. We're talking about what should be done, if anything, to make the older epic crafting system viable.