U42 Preview 1: Loot

[Kilgrave]

I'm comparing what is optimal for each if I slot their tank sets. I have to then tie in con and ins initim since they are not in the new set which limits space and options to pull in adherent with the new set. Even if I could pull it in it wouldn't address the MRR issues. I'm sure as I look longer I can find small tweaks to bring it closer but the item slots and omissions that were in prior set make getting everything to fit more difficult without doing substantial doubling or tripling up redundancies.

In either case I would expect my tank with a minor artifact and new tier of sharn gear to not only break even but eclipse a toon in all RL gear...irrespective of where the bonuses come from

+1

[Nickodeamous]

It feels like the platnum wraps will either flop spectacularly or be so useful/powerful that they would soon be nerfed into pointlessness.

Lyn seems very tight liped about the effects, and given it is already an equipment nerf to even wear them...

*edit - corrected raid wraps to plat wraps

Agreed. How about they let us actually glamour our wraps. it would be cool to see glowing hands (or fiery hands!) Anyway, still waiting to see what the effects are and then I'll guess the over under on nerfdom.

[whoolsey]

This made up my mind for me. Not buying this expansion

With lynabell's reply and 3/5 quests bugging out on lamania i can hardly blame you.

My wife and i are considering the same, her favorite 2 toons (assasin rogue and barb) are unplayeble, the gear issues from ravenloft made things worse for us, we were hoping this expansion would set things right after the player backlash.

[Ovrad]

Platinum Knuckles?

There are a lot of Handwraps - including a super spicy pair of Raid Wraps that will get a pretty significant facelife from their appearance in the notes in this Preview - in Sharn. These are a pretty tight niche, I admit it, but the idea is too good to lose. If these aren't worth it, I'll make em worth it! :P

While you have the Platinum Knuckles in your main hand slot, you can not have Gloves equipped. If you equip Gloves, your Handwraps will become unequipped. If they are currently not strong enough to mitigate that loss of an item slot, we will swing upwards to get them closer to parity I want them to be niche and interesting mechanically, not useless, and there's still time to make sure of it.

They aren't. At all. What were you thinking?

If one item prevents you from using another item slot, it should have twice the modifier on them as others items do. That's not even considering the time it takes to swap items in DDO, let alone having to unequip gloves manually before using them because you can't hotbar an empty slot.
These wraps are useless and I can't wrap (get it?) my head around the fact that you think they have any use.

I know monks are the dead horse of DDO, and that every update must kick their rotting corpse, but this is going above and beyond.

Why is monk the only class that get "Anti-items"? Like Bloodrage Chrism, Epic quiver of Alacrity, and now this abomination.
And every other class can bypass the MRR cap of 50 and get rid of the penalties pretty easily. How about making a light armor that keeps you balanced for a new twist on an item?
How about finally making weapon auras apply to fists so we can also have some customization?

Sorry, I could go on, but this is super infuriating.

-Monk player that's sick of getting the stick, and boy am I hungry for a few crumbs of carrots.

[Lynnabel]

They aren't. At all. What were you thinking?

That there is a pair of heroic and epic Syranian (suite) Handwraps and a pair of Raid Handwraps already in Sharn and I wanted to see if I could make something fun and flavorful given that if someone was looking for high power and utility they'd just use the Raid Handwraps anyway? That this is a Lamannia preview so there's still a lot of time to change things and make thing better, so if players don't think they're fun I can make them more exciting? That in large item suites sometimes it's more important to try fun things, especially in previews, just because having items being all stats all the time doesn't lend a lot of creativity to the playerbase?

I mean, it's the first preview. Things are always rough in the first preview. That's why we do them. If you have any constructive criticism and would like to contribute, please feel free - I've been able to make a ton of great changes from this thread already and I'm excited to listen

[banjo174]

given that if someone was looking for high power and utility they'd just use the Raid Handwraps anyway

Not everyone likes to raid. Creating joke items for people not fond of the raiding scene isn't cool.

[Lynnabel]

Not everyone likes to raid. Creating joke items for people not fond of the raiding scene isn't cool.

Well, ideally, these aren't a joke, they're just weird and niche. There are both raid and non-raid alternatives, so worst case scenario you aren't actually penalized at all for not using them.

[Ovrad]

Well, ideally, these aren't a joke, they're just weird and niche. There are both raid and non-raid alternatives, so worst case scenario you aren't actually penalized at all for not using them.

What would be the non-raid alternative in this case? The generic weapon?

[voxson5]

Agreed. How about they let us actually glamour our wraps. it would be cool to see glowing hands (or fiery hands!) Anyway, still waiting to see what the effects are and then I'll guess the over under on nerfdom.

EK's spellsword is almost perfect for effects for wraps - definitely has the Dr Strange feel

[korgzz_bloodaxe]

With lynabell's reply and 3/5 quests bugging out on lamania i can hardly blame you.

My wife and i are considering the same, her favorite 2 toons (assasin rogue and barb) are unplayeble, the gear issues from ravenloft made things worse for us, we were hoping this expansion would set things right after the player backlash.

Unplayable? I would suggest that is a user problem, nothing to do with "gear issues" from Ravenloft. My barbarians gear is built around Ravenloft and with minimal past lives I can solo r3+ content across the board. I find Ravenloft gear very complimentary with other gear from other packs i.e. WPM and slavers.

5 Heroic lives.
4 Racial lives.
15 Epic lives.

Using the following Ravenloft gear (6 pieces): Bloodrage Chism, Legendary Ward-Inscribed Pendant, Legendary Bracers of the Fallen Hero, Molten Silver Gauntlets, Legendary Coat of the Traveler and Torn. Googles from WPM and 5 pieces slavers with a free cloak slot which I swap based on quests. I also switch out Molten gloves for some CC gloves when I need to boost my tactics with insightful tactics.

Full list of gear:
Trinket
Bloodrage Chism Healing Amp +83 Calamitous Blows Bloodrage Defense Rune-Fueled Warding Green - Good luck +2 Blue - True Blood +1
Necklace
Legendary Ward-Inscribed Pendant Constitution +19 Natural Armor +19 Deadly +16 Quality Curse Resistance +3 Yellow - Draconic Soul Gem
Head
Legendary Executioner's Helm Insightful Deception +7 Relentless Fury Seeker 17 Quality Combat Mastery +4 Green - Topaz of Power +250
Googles
Legendary Precision Lenses Manslayer Insightful Strength +7 Melee Alacrity 15% Action Boost Enhancement +2 Blue
Cloak
Cloak of Night Invisibility Guard Ghostly Deathblock Nightmare Guard Dodge +18% DR15/Good
Gloves
Molten Silver Gauntlets Feat: Pierce Silver Deadly +16 Doublestrike 23% Armor-Piercing - 32% Green Blue
Bracer
Legendary Bracers of the Fallen Hero Strength +19 Insightful Constitution +9 Stunning +22 Quality Physical Sheltering +12 Green - Topaz of Striding 30%
Armour
Legendary Coat of the Traveler Fortification +202% Parrying +9 Physical Sheltering +50 Profane Well Rounded +2 Blue - MDB +2
Belt
Slavers Sheltering +45 Accuracy +28 Vertigo +20 Quality?*Strength +4 Green - Protection +8
Ring 1
Slavers Dexterity +17 Deception +14 Tendon Slice +14 Quality Dexterity +4 Green
Ring 2
Slavers False Life +68 Resistance +14 UMD +7 Quality?*Constitution +4 Green - Vitality +20
Boots
Slavers Wisdom + 17 Armor-Piercing - 28% Heal +22 Quality Magical Sheltering +11 Green - Festival Wisdom +2

[LavidDynch]

Is it just me or has anyone found the latest updates to suffer from a lack of decent items with Insightful Dex or Wis on them?

Legendary Crumbling Gloves (dex) - they are great ... ... til you get the baba ones....
nothing...

[noinfo]

Set 7 (Spell DPS) - Esoteric Influence:

Set Bonus: +2/4 Artifact to Spell Focus Mastery, +20/50 Universal Spell Power, +2/3 to INT/WIS/CHA, +10/20 MRR Cap

Order's Garb Outfit
Minimum Level: 15/29

• Fortification +94%/+214%
• Physical Sheltering +19/+54
• Exceptional Spell Power +10/+30
• Exceptional Spell Lore +3%/+10%

Enigma Core Docent
Minimum Level: 15/29

• Fortification +94%/+214%
• Physical Sheltering +19/+54
• Exceptional Spell Power +10/+20
• Exceptional Spell Lore +3%/+10%

Aetherband Bracers
Minimum Level: 15/29

• Insightful Spell Focus Mastery +2/+4
• Spell Cost Reduction +5%/+10%
• Reduced Spell Threat +25%/+62%
• Shield Bonus to Armor Class +8/+21

Dusk Lenses Goggles
Minimum Level: 15/29

• Potency +60/+154
• Insightful Potency +30/+77
• Enhanced Metamagic - Empower
• Enhanced Metamagic - Maximize

Attunement's Gaze Raid Goggles
Minimum Level: 29

• Spell Focus Mastery +7
• Insightful Spell Focus Mastery +4
• Enhanced Metamagic - Empower
• Enhanced Metamagic - Maximize

Am seeing 0 here for a DC caster overall
am guessing the notes have it wrong and its +4 to stat +3 artifact bonus as per other sets

Currently most DC casters (specifically wizards though others may be similar)

Armour Shadow Scale- stacking +1 due to profane (RL sets are good for dps not dc)
5 piece slavers for +4 artifact and +2 stat
Other pieces can be LGS or items for specific bonuses
Weapons Strahd book/LGS int +2 and Nightmothers

New gear is actually a loss, don't get me wrong I don't think it needs to be better but not inferior

New goggles < nightmothers and they are a raid item from a new pack
DC from new gear requires giving up armour that puts it 1 dc behind current set up though it may reduce the number of slots needed

Currently only things really standing out is
a minor artifact somewhere for 22 int
somewhere to slot +10 insight int
enhanced metamagic even if they are a different type are not really going to save the goggles as they are 2 very weak effects for dc casters unless there is a really compelling reason for losing the sceptre and I may have missed something but so far there is not.
There seems to be a couple of orbs

Archon's Resplendent Fury Orb
Minimum Level: 15/29

(INSIGHT INT, WIS, CHA +3/10)
Insightful Light Spell Lore +6%/+14%
Insightful Light Spell Power +47/+106
Thunderforged Eternal fire/light SP proc

Stygian Wrath Orb
Minimum Level: 15/29

(INSIGHT INT, WIS, CHA +3/10)
Insightful Negative Spell Lore +6%/+14%
Insightful Negative Spell Power +47/+106
Thunderforged Negative / Cold Spell Damage temp SP

Some good effects but they are not a replacement for nightmothers, The abilities on the orbs should be options to unlock on the new raid staves instead of just spell power but I have sort of given up on any real staff options due to multiple disappointments since TF was no longer a thing.

Quarterstaff - Creeping Dust Conduit - cold/acid spell power, cold/acid spell crit, conjuration DCs, evocation DCs, Arcane Augmentation, quality spell focus mastery
Quarterstaff - Firestorm Conduit - fire/lightning spell power, fire/lightning spell crit, conjuration DCs, evocation DCs, Arcane Augmentation, quality spell focus mastery
Attempts at DPS sticks again but without numbers not sure where they sit

Which lays hopes on

Quarterstaff: The Eclipse Itself - Implement, Quality Potency, Quality Spell Lore, Quality Spell Focus Mastery, Arcane Augmentation - Upgrades to pick an element a la Twilight from Citw

The only real hope here for a DC caster is quality spell focus, but unless its higher than easy to obtain +2 everywhere else why would you bother with this item? Some extra spell power? A bit of variety over the classic Citw by instead also allowing the effects of the above orbs would be a good start to unlock.

[whoolsey]

Unplayable? I would suggest that is a user problem, nothing to do with "gear issues" from Ravenloft. My barbarians gear is built around Ravenloft and with minimal past lives I can solo r3+ content across the board. I find Ravenloft gear very complimentary with other gear from other packs i.e. WPM and slavers.
2

Thanks but her barb and rogue are triple everything (and decked out in gear with 50 and 61 reaper points) and we run or try ro run r8+ quests mostly at cap if we can get a decent group, otherwise we duo/ shortman up to r4/5.
Stuff seems to agro straight to her for some reason, even when i am tanking(148 intim without special buffs vs trash that can be intimidated) and she comes in a minute later, trash breaks loose before she swung her weapon, like she has some kind of powerfull invissible agro aura on both toons.

She constantly get held, tripped, knocked down etc and subsequently die before she can get her cc off (wich barely seem to land)
She rarely can make any of her saves even when fully buffed.
Even on just r2 her 2900 hp get chomped down in 2-3 hits. (243 prr pre blitz)

[blerkington]

Is it just me or has anyone found the latest updates to suffer from a lack of decent items with Insightful Dex or Wis on them?

No, it's not just you. I can't speak for Ins Wis, but a BiS Ins Dex bonus has been very difficult to include at cap on my build for a while now. And mine is a very run of the mill dex based assassin, not some weird and wonderful multiclass creation.

During RL those gloves you linked competed with the BiS assassination boost item and the Molten Silver Gauntlets. Whichever of the three gloves we chose caused problems gearing effects from the list Ins Dex, Doublestrike, Armour Piercing and Heal Amp which are all important for dex based melees, let alone assassination which is niche.

And the gear in updates both before and after RL all seems to assume that people wanting Ins Dex are all running ranged builds so a significant portion of their four effects (such a bad gear building limitation, BTW) are taken up with effects not useful for melees. Whoever is building those items doesn't seem to understand that there are also dex based melees that don't want doubleshot, distant diversion, or even shattering. Stop pairing up this general stat bonus used by a variety of builds with such specific combat style effects for pity's sake.

To be fair there does seem to be a small minority of people who love the gear tetris minigame the current approach to item building makes for us, but to me it's well beyond tough choices and firmly into unbearable headache territory. And that's just getting to the point where main gearing requirements are covered, not having the best effects in the most important stats and/or every single effect we could want.

So I end up collecting all this gear, looking over it time and time again to try to get it to fit in a decent configuration, look at what other people are doing in case I've missed the solution, and then just say 'screw it, it's not worth the trouble'. Then I think about the other games I could be playing that are made by people who do give us good gear sets that let our classes perform at full potential without so much tedious swapping so gearing up is something to look forward to rather than being so punitive and hard to enjoy.

Thanks.

[Skavenaps]

Can somehow persuade you to change the heavy crossbows?

With the introduction of inquisitor seems that whoever use this item, will dip in this enhancement tree (others like arties and rogues with deep investment on their enhancement tress will still use repeating xbows and great xbows).

The heavy crossbows that grants RP on prayers seems really niche (as is a cleric/fvs spell with really hard access for other classes). Maybe change it with "While under the effects of shield of faith, this items grants x RP). This way the item will have a broad approach and more use (as is easy to just scroll this spell and arties have it native).

Also I don’t think Sovereign Disrupting is a great upgrade or something I will be motivate to chase. If wanna turn this into a undead kill I will prefer it be replaced with blunted ammunition and ghostly. Or maybe, just if your alignment is lawful add law dmg and if you are chaotic add chaos damage. Or if this weapon is a faith weapon for you, do something extra.

Thanks

[korgzz_bloodaxe]

She rarely can make any of her saves even when fully buffed.
Even on just r2 her 2900 hp get chomped down in 2-3 hits. (243 prr pre blitz)

First, you state her barbarian is unplayable and then you state you are playing r8+....really? I can only think your definition of unplayable is much different than most people

Secondly, if she has 2900hp and is dying in 2-3 hits on r2 as a barb then something is seriously bugged out with her character. With triple everything and over 50+ reaper points you should be well over 3k hp in reaper and mobs should be doing minimal damage in r3. And she is dying in 2-3 hits on r2?!?! That is nonsense. You should be getting hit for around 300-400 tops per hit if you are duoing except on certain quests maybe 600 a hit. I facetank groups of 10+ mobs on r3 with my barb who only has a fraction of the past lives and reaper points as you. In a full group of 6 mobs start to do solid damage in r3 but as a duo with your HP/PPR I truely cannot understand why you would be having problems.

She constantly get held, tripped, knocked down etc and subsequently die before she can get her cc off (wich barely seem to land)

Barbs are immune to most knockdowns and why no freedom of movement? The only thing that occasionally catches me is stuns. Maybe 1-2 times a week I would get held and then would only be if I haven't prepped right. I also can't understand why she would be having trouble landing DC with the stats you are talking about having.

[janave]

And mine is a very run of the mill dex based assassin, not some weird and wonderful multiclass creation.

Thanks.

Builds i could not realize a fully functional gearsetup include:

Pure Fighter Defender Tank
Pure Wizard Evocation Archmage
Pure CHA Blaster Favored Soul
and somewhat niche Pure Monk AA

I did not expect to gear up the last one being MAD in some extreme ways. I would expect to gear out a Pure build with large focus on its major enhacement tree.

Now If we want to include a 2/+ SET LGS (fairly good idea for reapers) that really starts complicating things.

[pjw]

Sure, sounds good to me. Changed

How about changing it back? I liked the bracers and spell pen is situational at best.

Making the raid loot slightly better than normal gear would make sense: higher spell mastery and insightful spell pen.

[blerkington]

I would expect to gear out a Pure build with large focus on its major enhacement tree.

It's been interesting reading these threads and seeing people make complaints that are similar to mine but for so many such different builds.

It reinforces my belief that there is a widespread problem with gear building for characters at cap, rather than it just being due to a bit of bad luck for the one build I mostly play.

Thanks for your comments.

[LavidDynch]

No, it's not just you. I can't speak for Ins Wis, but a BiS Ins Dex bonus has been very difficult to include at cap on my build for a while now. And mine is a very run of the mill dex based assassin, not some weird and wonderful multiclass creation.

During RL those gloves you linked competed with the BiS assassination boost item and the Molten Silver Gauntlets. Whichever of the three gloves we chose caused problems gearing effects from the list Ins Dex, Doublestrike, Armour Piercing and Heal Amp which are all important for dex based melees, let alone assassination which is niche.

And the gear in updates both before and after RL all seems to assume that people wanting Ins Dex are all running ranged builds so a significant portion of their four effects (such a bad gear building limitation, BTW) are taken up with effects not useful for melees. Whoever is building those items doesn't seem to understand that there are also dex based melees that don't want doubleshot, distant diversion, or even shattering. Stop pairing up this general stat bonus used by a variety of builds with such specific combat style effects for pity's sake.

To be fair there does seem to be a small minority of people who love the gear tetris minigame the current approach to item building makes for us, but to me it's well beyond tough choices and firmly into unbearable headache territory. And that's just getting to the point where main gearing requirements are covered, not having the best effects in the most important stats and/or every single effect we could want.

So I end up collecting all this gear, looking over it time and time again to try to get it to fit in a decent configuration, look at what other people are doing in case I've missed the solution, and then just say 'screw it, it's not worth the trouble'. Then I think about the other games I could be playing that are made by people who do give us good gear sets that let our classes perform at full potential without so much tedious swapping so gearing up is something to look forward to rather than being so punitive and hard to enjoy.

Thanks.

Ye, when I played dex/int monk I just simply did not have an ins-dex item, and dex was the primary stat -- and stats controls the universe as we all know... On a wisdom monk I could at least work around it a bit with CC-crafting some goggles. but it would be nice to see named items that doesn´t compete with "given" slots... I can surely see other builds suffering the same issues.

edit. and for the love of Thor not having ghostly-items in a world of reapers is like sellling trucks without motors.