My thoughts on Update 32 - Cannith and all.

[Ziindarax]

I will begin my review by discussing the Slave Lords:

1) The quests had a nice length to them, but not too long. The mobs hit hard like bricks, as is normal for Legendary Elite, but not so hard that you're one-shotted, and the mobs compensated by not being giant bags of hp.

2) The presence, and placement, of traps in the first quest discourages zerging, which is nice, that and the mobs were in large enough numbers to kill you if you weren't careful. You made team work important again, which is great.

3) Fire Puzzle was a nice touch, and the presence of puzzles through out (I think) all of the quests were a nice change from the straight-up "beat-'em-up" formula that we had been getting.

4) A point unto itself, the DM narration by Willam from Critical Role was SPOT-ON. I loved the way he narrated the quests, and he may even rival the DM from old that did the narration for many quests (you guys know who I am talking about, the guy that narrated the OLD Gianthold, Shroud, and more), as he was my other favorite. It is my hope that he's here to stay for a while (don't get me wrong, his immediate predecessor wasn't too shabby either). My only comment on this front is I hope you guys can get Chris Perkins to do some of the DM'ing as well.

5) At first, I was going to complain that the massive grind for reagents was too much until I realized how powerful the loot is, and the fact that the ingredients themselves are unbound so they create a market.

6) About the only negative review of the Slave Lords that I have, really, is the loot. The loot is amazing, phenomenal even, and the devs did a great job with it. So what's my problem? The fact is, the loot is simply superior to EVERYTHING ELSE you can use at level 28 (with exception to a few items, and Legendary Greensteel since they can be used at level 26). My concern is that you're obsoleting your new content with every update, and while the craftable loot will take a considerable amount of time to craft and max (potentially, but maybe not if you have a whole guild pitching in and farming this stuff out), and this does more to harm prior content than help it (just like Restless Isles isn't ran for much of anything other than nostalgia, and other older quest packs are unpopular due to weak loot) - Epic Abbot is already obsolete on it's level 28 loot (27 is still "safe", but I digress).

The other thing is, the power level of this loot EXCEEDS even Raid loot, and it does leave me wondering how you are going to enable future content loot to compete without continuing the spiraling arms race of player power. I would like to suggest curbing the power a bit now and in the future.


Now as for Cannith Crafting (with some feedback/suggestions for improvement):

1 ) A major complaint shared by many (including myself) is the cost of raw materials required in order to craft much of anything - namely collectibles. The Purified eberron shards are not conventionally obtainable outside of favor tomes and epic token turn ins (and this for sub-level 20 loot). The costs do not vary, and while I can understand wanting a lot of materials for an epic-level power (especially ML 30-34), it is not justifiable when the ML of the item you're putting the effect on is beneath epics. This is something I've seen another Crafter on Lamannia complain about - there's more to the game than just the end-game, and not everyone wants to play the end-game.

With the way obtaining collectibles is currently implemented, it will take time to accrue many of these reagents because not all of the ones that you need can be obtained from dead mobs who occasionally drop a bag. The number of collectibles dropped (and found at stations and interactive objects) needs to be increased. I would also like to suggest offering these collectibles as end-quest, end-chain (in larger quantities), Wilderness quest objectives, and random loot chests. Another big issue is that you require many different varieties of collectibles, which may pressure a newer player into trying to research the wiki just to figure out where everything drops. For some (like myself), this isn't such an issue, but for those who baulk at the idea of needing to do research for a game (that they may only have limited game time for due to real life obligations), this would be a deal breaker.

What also needs to happen in my opinion is the weaker versions of effects should have a lesser cost associated with the lower ML of a given item while the higher level effects for a higher level item should be a little bit greater toward end-game. I am looking at the options for Kamgar (one of my alts that I brought along with me to test the power of cannith crafting since my main, Ziind, has many many levels into crafting) for his very first level of cannith crafting, and they're not terribly promising - prayer beads you can get a million of, and the wooden idols that are semi-rare you can get quite a few of. The problem, however, is that the OTHER ingredients are not quite so common, and you're wanting 15/5 for first level Cannith effects? The benefit for cost ratio is much too low for a new player stepping out of Korthos to justify asking for so many collectibles, especially since they can pick up random gen for no effort what-so-ever (which is what new players will do). Looking at this from the perspective of a new player, if the tutorials get updated, and I find I have sour luck with the random loot-gen draws (and tbh, in my first one or two years of playing DDO, I had AWFUL luck with getting ANY Named loot to show up in my name), cannith might be an attractive draw to work toward if I find I just can't ever seem to get anything more powerful to drop for me. Beyond that, it wouldn't be worth it until I've become much more wealthy (and powerful).

2) The Power level is passable for leveling, and equipping new alts you intend to create and play. When I brought kamgar along, he wasn't doing so great with his standard PDK starter loot. After cladding him in Cannith loot on all but two slots, I had Kamgar solo Missing on Elite, and he only died because the end-boss' prismatic ray procced an insta-death effect (which can bypass deathblock/ward anyways - TOEE taught me that the hard way with one of the optional bosses). However, the craftable spell-resistance effects stopped most of the mindflayers' mental attacks, the thaarak hound's phantasmal killer effects, and even the beholderling's many rays including ennervation. ML 15 for a total of 11 to any given stat is a nice touch, and the weapon damage was nice enough to enable the character to quickly dispatch mobs [I had two weapons, one with force, and the other light, and both had the slashing suffix]. [BUG BUG BUG] The only issue was that the stat damage effects were mislabled - instead of draining charisma and constitution as the shard claimed, it was draining strength and dexterity instead for some reason.

The system is not too bad if you're already an established player looking to "seed" a newly created alt. However, the problem is just that, you basically have to be an established player in order to craft some of the better effects, and with so many of the more powerful loot you keep bringing out every update being BTA, it would be so much easier for me to obtain those items and pass them down through the Shared bank, and my only incentive for fiddling with cannith would be to produce Stat items that cannot be reliably sourced anywhere else at that level range (one of the reasons I am cautioning against boosting the power of items every single update as you have been - because you are at risk of rendering an already shaky Cannith useless).

My overall thoughts on New Cannith is that it is in some ways weaker than the Cannith that is currently live (because you can currently craft an elemental of pure good with the current old system, but the new does not allow this, which I think is a bad idea). As effects go, Metalline should be restricted to the extra-slot so as to enable players to create their own boss beaters (ideal for new players who have not yet looted a named boss-beater, nor created one via Greensteel). It has potential to be useful situationally, but the costs have been laid out in such a way that you get more bang for your buck going for epic/end-game crafting rather than heroic crafting.

[Dreppo]

6) About the only negative review of the Slave Lords that I have, really, is the loot. The loot is amazing, phenomenal even, and the devs did a great job with it. So what's my problem? The fact is, the loot is simply superior to EVERYTHING ELSE you can use at level 28 (with exception to a few items, and Legendary Greensteel since they can be used at level 26). My concern is that you're obsoleting your new content with every update

You lost me here. If the U32 named loot listed on the wiki is accurate, then I find it extremely underwhelming. I don't want to call it outright garbage (that would be insulting to the devs), it's just that this is the first update I can remember where there literally isn't a single named item I'm interested in. I suppose that's OK, not everyone will find something useful in every update. But what am I missing? Which items specifically do you consider so over the top? I do like that they are updating Cannith crafting though. I think that will be U32's legacy.

[Ziindarax]

You lost me here. If the U32 named loot listed on the wiki is accurate, then I find it extremely underwhelming. I don't want to call it outright garbage (that would be insulting to the devs), it's just that this is the first update I can remember where there literally isn't a single named item I'm interested in. I suppose that's OK, not everyone will find something useful in every update. But what am I missing? Which items specifically do you consider so over the top? I do like that they are updating Cannith crafting though. I think that will be U32's legacy.

Although I was more specifically referring to the crafted loot, there were some items that were over-the-top. Consider the Executioner's Plate Mail/Docent - It has the +2 profane bonus to all stats like the Litany without the negative level penalty (so Epic Litany is somewhat redundant). http://ddowiki.com/page/Update_32_named_items

Next, we have the trinket which gives +8 insightful bonus to your constitution. For most builds, that might seem trivial, but for any build using the Warlock's Enlightened Spirit tree granting temporary hit points, this is a HUGE buff. With a high enough constitution, you can get over 100 temporary hit points on just the t4 Brilliance. With Shining through, it becomes possible to sustainably maintain a thousand (yes, a thousand) extra temporary hit points every thirty seconds. Legendary Elite (and normal, even) mobs would have that torn through in no time, but it would take them longer to do so.

Next up, Seeker. The seeker helm is a big deal because on a critical it adds to your critical confirmation, as well as damage BEFORE MULTIPLIERS. On a Paladin using a Khopesh with the Holy Sword, or a fighter/ranger with their critical expansions, that's a x4 multiplier that multiplies that 17 points of damage. That's 68 extra points of damage (not counting the Overwhelming critical that most melee builds take, and an additional multiplier from legendary dreadnought if a player is using that) - so that's 68 points of damage on a "normal crit", while 19-20 would give you 17 x 6 for a critical of 102 points of damage per crit. Greataxes on a raging barbarian in legendary dreadnought stand to inflict even MORE damage because they can either double their critical range in Ravager, or their multiplier in Frenzied Berserker. With the latter and using Dreadnought modified, you'd have an extra x4 multiplier going on to your greataxe for a total of x7 on most axes, or x8 if using the axe out of Epic Shavarath. 17 x 8 = 136 points of damage per qualifying critical. That's a lot of damage, but the best use of this helm would actually go to bards and shuriken throwers who can hit fast enough and crit often enough to get the best possible mileage. If I recall correctly, Sireth has a critical threat range of 25% before applying Keen - on an acrobat or monk build with the appropriate critical feat, you're critting on 50% of your attacks. A minimum of 34 points of additional damage per critical, and using dreadnought, mountain stance, overwhelming, and acrobat/monk staff critical abilities, you're looking at an additional x4 multiplier for a total of 102 points of damage per crit as established above when using a khopesh with the two extra modifiers.

The other thing to consider is that the legendary items (which is what I am looking at) also offer up to 20 additional points to your saves, which is always good.

You are welcome to disagree, but personally, I think the devs did well on the loot (especially the crafted loot), if not a little too well. In the hands of the right builds, you can get some really good mileage out of these items. I've also noticed that the devs have reduced the saves of some mobs as I had warlocks reliably landing mass holds on the enemy - so the devs are trying to get back to encouraging crowd control, which one of the items in this pack helps with.

[Krelar]

You lost me here. If the U32 named loot listed on the wiki is accurate, then I find it extremely underwhelming. I don't want to call it outright garbage (that would be insulting to the devs), it's just that this is the first update I can remember where there literally isn't a single named item I'm interested in. I suppose that's OK, not everyone will find something useful in every update. But what am I missing? Which items specifically do you consider so over the top? I do like that they are updating Cannith crafting though. I think that will be U32's legacy.

Did you look at the craftable (not cannith) loot options? +17 stat (other options available as well), +4 quality stat (or another option), 2 other effects, an augment slot and a possible set bonus with several different equipment slot options doesn't interest you at all?

[Dreppo]

Did you look at the craftable (not cannith) loot options? +17 stat (other options available as well), +4 quality stat (or another option), 2 other effects, an augment slot and a possible set bonus with several different equipment slot options doesn't interest you at all?

It's the named items specifically that I'm underwhelmed with. The craftable loot looks like it has potential. The wiki is light on details of the various effects right now, and it's also not clear how grindy they will be. I could see DC-based builds working in one piece to maximize a key stat. I can't see many going for the entire 3 or 5 piece set though unless they buff up the set bonuses.

[Ziindarax]

It's the named items specifically that I'm underwhelmed with. The craftable loot looks like it has potential. The wiki is light on details of the various effects right now, and it's also not clear how grindy they will be. I could see DC-based builds working in one piece to maximize a key stat. I can't see many going for the entire 3 or 5 piece set though unless they buff up the set bonuses.

So you are still underwhelmed despite my response?

[RobbinB]

Next, we have the trinket which gives +8 insightful bonus to your constitution. For most builds, that might seem trivial, but for any build using the Warlock's Enlightened Spirit tree granting temporary hit points, this is a HUGE buff. With a high enough constitution, you can get over 100 temporary hit points on just the t4 Brilliance. With Shining through, it becomes possible to sustainably maintain a thousand (yes, a thousand) extra temporary hit points every thirty seconds. Legendary Elite (and normal, even) mobs would have that torn through in no time, but it would take them longer to do so.

I haven't personally decided whether the slavers named loot is underwhelming/overwhelming, I'll base that on my experience over time. However, I'd just like to address the item above through the eyes of my warlock (and warlock is the example you use to say the item is overpowered).

Basically the trinket has 2 desirable properties: insightful con +8, lesser displacement. My warlock has displacement by spell, so lesser displacement is of marginal value (although not worthless).

Currently I wear either lion's mane or HH item in the necklace spot which I believe is +4 insightful con, correct? That means the +8 insightful is only +4 improvement over what most peeps already have. Right there the empowered dragonscale with qual +4 con is a better choice for my warlock due to the other properties on that item.

What do I actually wear on my warlock? Memoriam. Basically an awesome utility/defense item, an item I feel is far superior to this one and one I will likely still be wearing at endgame even if I pull this new item.

What do I like about this item, design-wise? It basically has one property. Best insightful con out there. But not much else. They didn't load it up with dodge 15 and resistance 13 and deathblock and Good Luck +5, and spell lore XXX. They just put the con on it basically. That's what will make the item an interesting swap in or selective item for some peeps, but not a clear "best-in-show" item. I'd say that makes it good loot design, not bad design. (Granted it could have been insightful con +6 or +7 and it would still be ok.)

[icekinslayer]

a couple points, because some people are apparently confused about the new cannith crafting. The ML shards are going to cost a set amount of essences to craft. This is going to be the best and cheapest and quickest way to gain crafting levels...the other shards, IE strength are going to have power levels based on the ML shard that's applied to the item. The ML shard goes on first, this dictates the power level of any scalable shard that come onto the item afterwards. These other shards have the same crafting cost because they have no ML attached to them, they're just a shard. The 15/5 cost for those scalable shards is totally acceptable, imo

[Dreppo]

So you are still underwhelmed despite my response?

I am, but I wasn't sure I wanted to continue a back-and-forth. Like you said, people are entitled to disagree.

But briefly: You've pointed out a few nice individual *effects*, rather than pointing out very strong *items*.

1) Profane Well Rounded +2. A nice effect. But look at the items they are on. The rest of the effects on those items are mediocre, and the items are a heavy armor and a docent. I can't see a lot of builds using these items. If they were on cloth armor I could see use (casters, monks) or even light armor (assassins). I can't see a DPS or tank melee preferring this over Thunderforged or the Tempest Spine armor. ELitany is a much stronger item.

2) Insightful Con +8. This is great and all, but +7 insightful abilities on LGS not to mention the craftable drops from U32. So this is only +1 con over what is available now. The only other effect of note on the item is Lesser Displacement which is nice but can be had in various other slots by now. I think it's one of the better designed items in U32 (I like simple and clean). I don't think it really raises the power bar noticeably. Your warlock example doesn't really change much whether the warlock has +7 insightful con or +8 insightful con. People won't be going from 0 insightful to 8 insightful with the release of this item. I'll also point out that as far as DC abilities, there are precious few that are con-based, so this is mainly giving HP to most builds.

3) Seeker +17. Sure seeker is nice but from a quick glance at the auction house we certainly already have +16 seeker at least (+17 is probably possible) in lootgen. So I'm not really seeing the power bump you're talking about. Your examples are exaggerated because you seem to imply people are going from naked to putting on these items, e.g. they're going from 0 seeker to 17 seeker. They're not. Looking at the item, a helm, it has a couple other potentially useful effects on it, but nothing over the top.

[Elfishski]

I am, but I wasn't sure I wanted to continue a back-and-forth. Like you said, people are entitled to disagree.

But briefly: You've pointed out a few nice individual *effects*, rather than pointing out very strong *items*.

1) Profane Well Rounded +2. A nice effect. But look at the items they are on. The rest of the effects on those items are mediocre, and the items are a heavy armor and a docent. I can't see a lot of builds using these items. If they were on cloth armor I could see use (casters, monks) or even light armor (assassins). I can't see a DPS or tank melee preferring this over Thunderforged or the Tempest Spine armor. ELitany is a much stronger item.

2) Insightful Con +8. This is great and all, but +7 insightful abilities on LGS not to mention the craftable drops from U32. So this is only +1 con over what is available now. The only other effect of note on the item is Lesser Displacement which is nice but can be had in various other slots by now. I think it's one of the better designed items in U32 (I like simple and clean). I don't think it really raises the power bar noticeably. Your warlock example doesn't really change much whether the warlock has +7 insightful con or +8 insightful con. People won't be going from 0 insightful to 8 insightful with the release of this item. I'll also point out that as far as DC abilities, there are precious few that are con-based, so this is mainly giving HP to most builds.

3) Seeker +17. Sure seeker is nice but from a quick glance at the auction house we certainly already have +16 seeker at least (+17 is probably possible) in lootgen. So I'm not really seeing the power bump you're talking about. Your examples are exaggerated because you seem to imply people are going from naked to putting on these items, e.g. they're going from 0 seeker to 17 seeker. They're not. Looking at the item, a helm, it has a couple other potentially useful effects on it, but nothing over the top.

We're in a state of the game now where every new item has to have a noticeable individual effect on power. When you equip two or three such items every update (because every item has to be be best in slot for half the classes), the amount of power increase is substantial, not marginal.

Devs are doing a hopeless job of balancing new loot, and obsoleting new systems every single update. Makes me feel pretty uninspired. I don't know what the point of updating random loot was, and while I already think Cannith Crafting is terribly overpowered, I probably won't bother using it other than a test or two because in the next update there will just be something that gives all the same things but bigger numbers.

They need to rethink these. Put a static cap of +15 as the highest any named item ever goes, leaving a niche for random loot. Put static caps on all the effects, in fact, and make them lower than the max from random loot. Like at level 20, there was a fixed +6 (maybe +7 on a few very rare items), with then interesting choices for trying to get unique effects to go with those.

[Ziindarax]

We're in a state of the game now where every new item has to have a noticeable individual effect on power. When you equip two or three such items every update (because every item has to be be best in slot for half the classes), the amount of power increase is substantial, not marginal.

Devs are doing a hopeless job of balancing new loot, and obsoleting new systems every single update. Makes me feel pretty uninspired. I don't know what the point of updating random loot was, and while I already think Cannith Crafting is terribly overpowered, I probably won't bother using it other than a test or two because in the next update there will just be something that gives all the same things but bigger numbers.

They need to rethink these. Put a static cap of +15 as the highest any named item ever goes, leaving a niche for random loot. Put static caps on all the effects, in fact, and make them lower than the max from random loot. Like at level 20, there was a fixed +6 (maybe +7 on a few very rare items), with then interesting choices for trying to get unique effects to go with those.

This is where I stand with regards to loot. Legendary Greensteel is only still relevant because of the fact that it can be used at level 26, and Thunderforged has ranges from 20-ish (blanks, 24 (with 1st tier), 26 (second) and then finally 28 (third). A major problem the devs are going to have is when they want to do another expansion - they're going to probably feel honor bound to make the expansion loot really, really good because loot is part of what defines an expansion. I think the devs should slow down on the loot buffing, and perhaps work on offering scaled up versions of old effects (like slow). Bring in mind-control, bring in effects we're not going to see better versions of so that the loot in each update TRULY stands out.

For example, a future expansion pack could, in my mind, offer a piece of loot that offers a summon guard that stacks with existing summons (much like ooze and ooze guard), which has a fair chance of proccing (up to 4 summons), that would benefit from summoner abilities.

Glad to see that one of my threads is getting a healthy amount of debate.

[Requiro]

<snip> The 15/5 cost for those scalable shards is totally acceptable, imo

Yes, for end game (26-32 lv). No for Mid game (20-25 lv). Ridiculous for low game (1-19 lv).

[AMADHA]

I decided not actually quote. I ran the slavers solo at level 8 Normal heroic. I really like the trap/puzzles especially the stuffed bear next to the pit room that was a surprise. I also like the "do you pull the rope or don't you?" pit. I new if I pulled it something bad would happen... but.... I did not have time to regrind through it to see if a 'search' would reveal the secret door or not... but even if it did, I think I would still pull the rope. :-) I found absolutely no use for the Chains with weird sayings on them (what is with those things?) that cluttered up my inventory even after successfully ending the quest line and I didn't get any quest completion rewards worth anything actually. Plus, the exchange rate to received rate to 'create' something from junk found or dropped was ridiculous! I would NOT do that quest 50 times to get enough to create something. BTW I didn't actually get an end of quest reward, nor anything that would make rerunning this quest worth the trouble and time. So bottom line, my experience was exactly the opposite of this one. From my perspective Slavers is an attempt to introduce a method to monetize quests. Me no like. Quest: Two Thumbs up, Rewards: Two Thumbs Down. Over all impression: Two Thumbs Down

Crafting... All your essences should just automatically be converted, the new recipes are puzzling, and it really seems that I can't craft half the useful stuff I can in the old system and the XP granted is really weird... Zero for almost everything and then suddenly 120. Plus, all the 'extra' ingredients seems more to get me to buy them than find them, because I'm not running quest after quest hoping to get a drop of 300 of some stupid extra ingredient just so I can craft something useful. While I like the change to just a few essences from all that lesser/greater bunk, that's all I like. Overall all impression: Two Thumbs Down.

Is this game in trouble? Because almost every one of the recent 'updates' seems to be an attempt to monetize the game like a phone app and, well, to be blunt if this continues I'll just run a greedy app and switch every couple of days rather than pay a monthly fee which is giving me nothing valuable in return.

In summary, I'm not a power player, I play to relax and have some fun. DDO is getting less fun with every update plus it is amazing how absolutely terrible the Ranger class is and the Elf race to boot. Yes, my main toon is, in fact, a ranger elf thank-you and yes, he does blow so badly he sucks. Meanwhile, I watch the hack and slashers and MUs dealing massive death and destruction. As a tempest, you would think it could do some serious damage... not really. Ranged attacks? MUs are much more effective. I have a warlock who just kills it! It can almost always play a quest solo on hard where my ranger struggles on normal. So maybe reworking some of the old quests to freshen them up would be a better use of resources than trying to monetize everything. It's like the post office, how high does the price to mail a letter need to be before people just stop using regular mail? At what point do I just say this game is getting too expensive and walk? If you build it they will come, if you build it to make them pay to play will they go? Sorry, I seem to be stuck on a "theme" here. TTFN

[Ziindarax]

I respect your opinions, but I must ask: Can you tell us more about your build and what you're gearing your elf with?

Ranger is iffy, but I have made a multi-class using ranger tempest with barbarian and warlock (a really odd mix of classes, I know, but it was for weapon imbuement), and it is capable of kicking a lot of butt. You mentioned you only played casually and that it had trouble with (heroic or epic?) Normal, and again, I think it comes down to build (and perhaps, whether or not you have access to Epic Destinies). Can we help?

I decided not actually quote. I ran the slavers solo at level 8 Normal heroic. I really like the trap/puzzles especially the stuffed bear next to the pit room that was a surprise. I also like the "do you pull the rope or don't you?" pit. I new if I pulled it something bad would happen... but.... I did not have time to regrind through it to see if a 'search' would reveal the secret door or not... but even if it did, I think I would still pull the rope. :-) I found absolutely no use for the Chains with weird sayings on them (what is with those things?) that cluttered up my inventory even after successfully ending the quest line and I didn't get any quest completion rewards worth anything actually. Plus, the exchange rate to received rate to 'create' something from junk found or dropped was ridiculous! I would NOT do that quest 50 times to get enough to create something. BTW I didn't actually get an end of quest reward, nor anything that would make rerunning this quest worth the trouble and time. So bottom line, my experience was exactly the opposite of this one. From my perspective Slavers is an attempt to introduce a method to monetize quests. Me no like. Quest: Two Thumbs up, Rewards: Two Thumbs Down. Over all impression: Two Thumbs Down

Crafting... All your essences should just automatically be converted, the new recipes are puzzling, and it really seems that I can't craft half the useful stuff I can in the old system and the XP granted is really weird... Zero for almost everything and then suddenly 120. Plus, all the 'extra' ingredients seems more to get me to buy them than find them, because I'm not running quest after quest hoping to get a drop of 300 of some stupid extra ingredient just so I can craft something useful. While I like the change to just a few essences from all that lesser/greater bunk, that's all I like. Overall all impression: Two Thumbs Down.

Is this game in trouble? Because almost every one of the recent 'updates' seems to be an attempt to monetize the game like a phone app and, well, to be blunt if this continues I'll just run a greedy app and switch every couple of days rather than pay a monthly fee which is giving me nothing valuable in return.

In summary, I'm not a power player, I play to relax and have some fun. DDO is getting less fun with every update plus it is amazing how absolutely terrible the Ranger class is and the Elf race to boot. Yes, my main toon is, in fact, a ranger elf thank-you and yes, he does blow so badly he sucks. Meanwhile, I watch the hack and slashers and MUs dealing massive death and destruction. As a tempest, you would think it could do some serious damage... not really. Ranged attacks? MUs are much more effective. I have a warlock who just kills it! It can almost always play a quest solo on hard where my ranger struggles on normal. So maybe reworking some of the old quests to freshen them up would be a better use of resources than trying to monetize everything. It's like the post office, how high does the price to mail a letter need to be before people just stop using regular mail? At what point do I just say this game is getting too expensive and walk? If you build it they will come, if you build it to make them pay to play will they go? Sorry, I seem to be stuck on a "theme" here. TTFN

[goodspeed]

So you are still underwhelmed despite my response?

eh its not that its not good its just other loot eclipses it. Like the docent, an extra 2to stats. Ok ya an extra +1 to whatever is always good but hell compared to the heartwood jamming all ur defense right in there or the wide array of stuff from the legendary raids.. well it blows lol.

Same goes for anything there to do with spell power. The be all end all spell power item is being farmed for constantly in memoir. Its what? 210 potency? That is THE hat for any caster.

Id say the trinket, the spinneret, maybe the ring of power for doing away with dragons edge, and mayhaps the staff. Depends since you can beef up your mage using some pally and a shield. But for a full nuke especially whippn hellball out there I can see its use. So bout 4 things in varied cases.