U42 Preview 2: Named Loot

[Zites]

I'm not asking you to give us both top tier dps and mitigation. I'm asking you to give us viable survivability for all build archetypes within the game you are designing.

Actually that's exactly what your asking and furthermore (I'll use your choice of words here) they should give viable and by viable you must mean optimal dps for all build archetypes within the game design. So now we can all play monk

[majikpaul]

Please say something about this. Are there any plans to get throwing daggers buffed up so that a throwing dagger build is competitive with a shuriken build? Currently, they aren't even close because of the monk ability to throw extra shuriken based on dex. Even with the bonuses from the Vistani tree throwing dagger builds do not even come close. I've been waiting for a throwing dagger to come out with a higher base damage to close this gap, but even with this expansion (still can not buy "The Wide Open Sky" from The Loot Guy) there is no improvement. I'd like some info so I know if I should just abandon any hope of ever rolling up a competitive throwing dagger build.

[cru121]

Do we need another two fire rune arms? (Or 4, considering 2 heroic and 2 legendary)
For some reason, Ravenloft also had two fire rune arms.

I propose to change one of the rune arms to melee or ranged DPS.

[Jetrule]

Do we need another two fire rune arms? (Or 4, considering 2 heroic and 2 legendary)
For some reason, Ravenloft also had two fire rune arms.

I propose to change one of the rune arms to melee or ranged DPS.

Spot on. The damage types are the same but with some new effects. I like the sound of the effects. D.O.T. and rapid fire and fire is the type of damage that makes sense for molten metal and burning garbage. Maybe a new rune arm with acid damage and a debuff? There hasn't been a acid rune arm since the druid chain in eveningstar. Or a sonic runearm with deafening. That is steampunk.

[Lokeal_The_Flame]

Belts:

Bronze Dragonscale Belt Belt
Minimum Level: 15/29

• Constitution +8/+21
• Healing Amplification +30/+85
• False Life +29/+81
• Lifesealed +24%/+50%

Black Satin Waist Belt
Minimum Level: 15/29

• (QUALITY INT WIS CHA +1/+5)
• Spell Penetration +3/+9
• Spell Focus Mastery +3/+7
• Insightful Will Saves +2/+8

Glittering Waistwrap Belt
Minimum Level: 15/29

• Charisma +8/+21
• Bluff +16/+22
• Anthem
• Anthem Resonance: If you have equipped 3 or more copies of anthem, your inspire courage has +1 more attack and damage

The Cornerstone Champion Raid Belt
Minimum Level: 29

• (QUALITY STR, DEX, WIS +5)
• Reinforced Fists/Higher Tier Reinforced Fists
• Melee Alacrity +15%
• Accuracy +34

Need I really be the one to point this out?

Please don't make the stat upgrades for these quality........... if you make them Insightful instead they will have much better synergy with builds!

[Corion]

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 Penetration +2/+5
• 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 - Embolden
• Enhanced Metamagic - Heighten

Many thanks for all of your hard work and for listening to much of the constructive feedback that has been coming your way.

Putting aside the concern with no armour option other than robes (for non-WF) - and I understand the intended design limitation so I'm not going to gripe about that - the gear slots in this set are hugely problematic.

First, this set requires the bracers and the only Int focused minor artifact that an Int-based caster is going to want to wear (the necklace doesn't really count as all of the other effects are of no real use to a caster) also occupies the bracers slot.

Second, this is the only set that requires the goggles slot, and the community designed item Collective Sight are goggles. This is a great item that provides a lot of flexibility for builds and it would be nice if DC casters could both wear the set designed for them and make use of this item.

To address this, I would humbly request that you move both the Aetherband from the bracers slot and the Dusk Lenses / Attunement's Gaze from the goggles slot. I think there are a number of other places these could go without conflicting too badly with other new items. Boots and gloves for sure, and even belt and ring. So perhaps Aetherband becomes a ring (wouldn't even need to change the name) and the Dusk Lenses / Attunement's Gaze move to gloves - could rename as Hands of Dusk / Attunement's Grasp.

Alternatively the Aetherband issue could be addressed by relocating the Band of Diani ir'Wynarn to another slot - again ring would work and would not require a name change.

Regarding the items themselves, I still think they need some help:

Aetherband Bracers
Insightful Spell Penetration +2/+5
Spell Cost Reduction +5%/+10%
Reduced Spell Threat +25%/+62%
Shield Bonus to Armor Class +8/+21

Dusk Lenses Goggles
Potency +60/+154
Insightful Potency +30/+77
Enhanced Metamagic - Empower
Enhanced Metamagic - Maximize

Attunement's Gaze
Spell Focus Mastery +7
Insightful Spell Focus Mastery +4
Enhanced Metamagic - Embolden
Enhanced Metamagic - Heighten

For the Aetherband, I echo one of the other posts that I saw about the Shield bonus to AC - unless you increase the bonus to +150 or so it's not going to be enough to matter. So I would love to see this changed to dodge or parrying, both of which can be challenging to work into a build and are pretty necessary in today's game. I think dodge would be best and is thematically very close to a shield bonus to AC.

The Dusk Lenses are pretty good as is (other than being goggles - see above) and compare fairly well to something like the Pansophic Circlet, although you could consider adding in a little Quality Potency which the circlet has.

Attunement's Gaze feels underwhelming - it's a raid item with basically half of the effects you get off of a Nightmother's Scepter which can be pretty easily acquired in RL. Enhanced Metamagics are of limited utility given the number of lost souls that generally drop in Reaper quests. Feels like a raid item should have a little more pop. Maybe something like the Deific Focus effect from the Epic Deific Diadem, but make it Deific Focus III or IV. Or add a LGS proc effect - Salt is fantastic on a caster and would make this item coveted by all. Ash is also pretty good but would fit more thematically with the Dusk Lenses as they are clearly focused on spell DPS.

Finally, I also think the Black Satin Waist could use some help:

Black Satin Waist Belt
(QUALITY INT WIS CHA +1/+5)
Spell Penetration +3/+9
Spell Focus Mastery +3/+7
Insightful Will Saves +2/+8

The quality stat is helpful, although largely redundant for any Int based caster as they are likely already wearing the Black Velvet Cloak. Maybe consider adding Quality Con as an option as that is scarce and is very helpful for all, including casters.

Spell Pen 9 is good, as it will help to get the aforementioned Nightmother's Scepter out of every casters main hand.

SFM seems a waste. Every DC caster is already going to be using the Nightmother's, and really their not going to put it down until they have both SFM and Insighful SFM covered. The only place to get Insightful SFM seems to be Attunement's Gaze, which also has SFM. So by the time you might need the SFM on Black Satin Waist, you will already have it from Attunement's Gaze. I would prefer to drop SFM and upgrade the Insightful Will Saves to Parrying to cover all saves. If you take my suggestion above and swap in dodge on the Aetherband, then we would be able to include both dodge and parrying which would be awesome. With these changes the Black Satin Waist would be:

Black Satin Waist Belt
(QUALITY CON INT WIS CHA +1/+5)
Spell Penetration +3/+9
Parrying 10

I think this is an item that most people would be excited about farming for.

Many thanks in advance for your consideration.

[Lokeal_The_Flame]

This set is giving me gyp. Still.

Get rid of the Blur, and take Spell Focus Mastery off the helmet since the casting gloves have evocation 9 on them! It's just CRUEL to have MANDATORY SET PIECES that OVERLAP like this! That might also make it possible to use some of the newer runearms.

The Melee Alacrity is also worthless for the only class that would ever use this set (artificer) because WE GET ARMOR OF SPEED AS A SPELL. We have all the alacrity we could ever possibly need. It can't be dispelled, either, unlike Haste.

Instead of Blur, put Insightful Evocation Focus on the non-raid gloves. For the helm, do Quality Int 5 instead of Spell Focus Mastery.

For the raid gloves, do Deadly and Accuracy instead of Blur and Melee Alacrity.

It might help a little.

I agree with this assessment!

[Ladywolf]

That's a good question. I think you and I see armor types that could be supported by each archetype/class very differently. For me, classes like Warlock and Sorcerer fight in no armor as a default, and can opt to buy in to higher defensive measures at a cost. Classes like Paladin and Fighter - who are simply proficient by default - do not spend part of their build sacrificing DPS for the ability to wear armor. When building the itemization suite for Sharn, we targeted specific caster archetypes for our set exceptions that crossed class lines but remained somewhat limited.

Divine Healers (Cleric/FVS) are simply proficient in armor and therefore are not sacrificing efficiency for mitigation. Druid Casters are simply proficient in armor and therefore are not sacrificing efficiency for mitigation. Artificer Arcanotechnics are simply proficient in armor and therefore are not sacrificing efficiency for mitigation.

You can contrast that with Warlock, who can quite effectively make use of the Spell DPS set for efficiency in the same way they can currently use the Beacon of Magic set, but whose usage of any other casting set would require build sacrifice to efficiency for mitigation, and Sorcerers/Wizards, who can also quite effectively make use of the spell DPS set for efficiency, but whose usage of any other casting set would also require build sacrifice.

DDO is about choice, and opening up hard restrictions like this actually removes choice from the game.

For Bards specifically, I envisioned them making a choice - either focus their main set on melee DPS in light, or focus their main set on CC in robes, or focus their main set on healing in medium armor. You can't have it all - or, rather, you can't make your main item set bonus encompass all three distinct playstyles, in the same way you can't take the T5 of all of your enhancement trees. If I missed that mark, please feel free to suggest how I can better reach it, but I'm not aiming for an itemization solution that leaves no choices at all. There is no one best bard build that can do everything a bard can do at peak efficiency, in the same way there is no one best bard itemization suite that does everything a bard could want at peak efficiency.

Bringing it all together, my major goals are beyond making "the perfect item set for a bard" possible - I want there to be "the perfect set for my mDPS swashie" and "the perfect set for my healing/enchantment defensive healer" and any number of other options so entire archetypes don't get wedged together into one single series of items. Ideally, itemization is never solved, it is worked towards and improved upon so there can always be some way to consider something new.

Tldr: variety is the spice of life

Higher types of armor above robes are penalized in spell failure, not to mention feats... For those that can use enhancements, it is a large sacrifice to allocate 20 points (1/4 of the points) just to wear the armor, when you consider that the enlightened spirit tree is not the primary tree for a dc warlock, nor is the ek tree for dc sorcs, and requires much weighing of pros and cons. I suggest to you that, contrary to your concern that the "itemization solution (of offering another armor type) leaves no choice at all", in fact quite the opposite is true. There is a lot of choice to be made, based on enhancements, feats, spell failure, without you choosing it for the casters

[janave]

Aetherband Bracers
Minimum Level: 15/29
Insightful Spell Penetration +2/+5
Spell Cost Reduction +5%/+10%
Reduced Spell Threat +25%/+62%
Shield Bonus to Armor Class +8/+21

This is a really bad awful caster item. I would not want to wear it as a primarily nuker type caster player.

Let me Explain.

1) Spell pen: Good in selected content, situational = 0 effect lot of the time

2) Spell cost reduction: This is always nice, but old numbers, havent improved over the years, ignorable amount, now that reaper dropping us mana bubbles.

3) Reduced Spell Threat: In a good party we dont need it, tank, melees will get stuff of us, in bad parties we can manually manage how much aggro we get.

4) Shield AC: With or without this I will not be able to get a meaningful AC on a Cloth Sorcerer. In fact a stacking +1 maxdodge/dodge is superior to this stat.

Aside completing the set, this item has insanely low gameplay value. This is approximately a level 20 item in value, and even there it isnt all that good for most casters, especially not for nukers.

In my opinion this is a nuker caster bracers: (29)

* Insightful spell crit damage 10% (or smaller amount stacking with LGS , 5% exceptional maybe)
* Legendary Power Store: 20% spell cost reduction
* Spell Lore XVIII
* Missile deflection: 15% / or 3-5 dodge cap / or 10-20 MRR cap

V2

* Arcane Augmentation +3
* Legendary Power Store: 20% spell cost reduction
* Insightful Spell Lore +5
* Mesmerizing Reflexes (1/4 of cha modifier to reflex saves)



Numbers are approximate, but the idea is that it worth wearing and we wouldnt hate to look at a "wasted" item slot .

[MasterAO]

The Ethereal Gaze goggles seems a good place to put ghostly on, replacing Ethereality.

[DeltaBravo]

Even though not the two last stats on this item is teh best.- This item is imo by far the best becourse of the vesitality. Ty for makeeing this irtem and i hope you will make more items with more cusmomale stats. Its teh wya forward and is also the reason why slavelords items was such a succes.

Cheers Deltabravo
Collective Sight Goggles
Minimum Level: 15/29

• (STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA +5/21)
• (INSIGHT STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA +3/10)
• Quality Resistance+1/+4
• Temperance of Belief: +1 Insightful MRR per Religious Lore

[QuantumFX]

So, Lynnabel, what do you have against light armor wearing casters? Not all Warlocks, Spellswords and Bards wear medium armor! And there is no good excuse to force them into robes to keep up with everyone else. The last time light armor casters got something specific to them was Legendary Tempest Spine.

[lyrecono]

That's a good question. I think you and I see armor types that could be supported by each archetype/class very differently. For me, classes like Warlock and Sorcerer fight in no armor as a default, and can opt to buy in to higher defensive measures at a cost. Classes like Paladin and Fighter - who are simply proficient by default - do not spend part of their build sacrificing DPS for the ability to wear armor. When building the itemization suite for Sharn, we targeted specific caster archetypes for our set exceptions that crossed class lines but remained somewhat limited.

Divine Healers (Cleric/FVS) are simply proficient in armor and therefore are not sacrificing efficiency for mitigation. Druid Casters are simply proficient in armor and therefore are not sacrificing efficiency for mitigation. Artificer Arcanotechnics are simply proficient in armor and therefore are not sacrificing efficiency for mitigation.

You can contrast that with Warlock, who can quite effectively make use of the Spell DPS set for efficiency in the same way they can currently use the Beacon of Magic set, but whose usage of any other casting set would require build sacrifice to efficiency for mitigation, and Sorcerers/Wizards, who can also quite effectively make use of the spell DPS set for efficiency, but whose usage of any other casting set would also require build sacrifice.

DDO is about choice, and opening up hard restrictions like this actually removes choice from the game.

For Bards specifically, I envisioned them making a choice - either focus their main set on melee DPS in light, or focus their main set on CC in robes, or focus their main set on healing in medium armor. You can't have it all - or, rather, you can't make your main item set bonus encompass all three distinct playstyles, in the same way you can't take the T5 of all of your enhancement trees. If I missed that mark, please feel free to suggest how I can better reach it, but I'm not aiming for an itemization solution that leaves no choices at all. There is no one best bard build that can do everything a bard can do at peak efficiency, in the same way there is no one best bard itemization suite that does everything a bard could want at peak efficiency.

Bringing it all together, my major goals are beyond making "the perfect item set for a bard" possible - I want there to be "the perfect set for my mDPS swashie" and "the perfect set for my healing/enchantment defensive healer" and any number of other options so entire archetypes don't get wedged together into one single series of items. Ideally, itemization is never solved, it is worked towards and improved upon so there can always be some way to consider something new.

Tldr: variety is the spice of life

Isn't that the problem the devs created by adding melee trees to traditional caster classes that make it to easy for them to gain mittigation and the ability to cast in armor through enh?

And why do melee tanky dps builds have to suffer though bad gear sets?
Why all this harsh seperation between tanks and dps melees?
What about the 2hf crowd that is stuck with sub par doublestrike on gear that doesn't work?
If you don't want to fix things for the few classes that were designed around melee only (no skill/spellcasting) thats fine but why don't you create gear for those playstyles?

There are such a thing as frontline dps melee, you can't always get a 6k hp tank to take the hits, nor should you for quest trash, leave the tanking for raids please, not every mob is supposed to be a 3 min beatdown if the party doesn't have instakillers.
People like to play different playstyles than you seem to envission.

But i'll bet this gets dumped on the ignore pile, like all the other posts about this.

It would be nice if you guys officially say something positive about this.
(And fix it the same year)

[btolson]

That's a good question. I think you and I see armor types that could be supported by each archetype/class very differently....
Tldr: variety is the spice of life

Personally, I think you guys are better off incentivizing robes through stronger/meaningful "Traditionalist Caster" enhancements or a new (free?) feat or item effects than trying to effectively remove class/enhancement features and associated opportunity costs baked into them.

Maybe configure your set bonuses to give +X in robes, vs +Y in not. That way we are actually given a meaningful choice to make:
stronger set bonus for weaker defense
or
weaker set bonus for stronger defense
instead of just
better defense for no set bonus at all

Set bonuses are the major draw here right? Itemization cornerstone? Setting things up in such a binary fashion (full set vs none) doesn't seem conducive.

And notably, when we are talking defense, we are really just talking MRR cap. BAB doesn't go high enough on these classes for the PRR diff to matter, and AC is a joke. And consequently, you still have to actually slot the actual MRR itself, that isn't given to you for free just for slapping on non-robes either. Dodge trade-offs are involved as well, which are non-trivial.

[slarden]

That's a good question. I think you and I see armor types that could be supported by each archetype/class very differently. For me, classes like Warlock and Sorcerer fight in no armor as a default, and can opt to buy in to higher defensive measures at a cost. Classes like Paladin and Fighter - who are simply proficient by default - do not spend part of their build sacrificing DPS for the ability to wear armor. When building the itemization suite for Sharn, we targeted specific caster archetypes for our set exceptions that crossed class lines but remained somewhat limited.

I like the choices and trade offs in this set. One light armored option would be nice, but no matter what set you choose for light armor some percentage of people will want it in another set.

To me it's fairly simple math - if you are a light armor class like bard or warlock you either burn a feat to upgrade to medium, use a robe or go machine for docent. Both warlock and bard are feat-starved classes so burning that feat is tough, but effectively that feat is buying alot of MRR with it so it's not without benefit.

Casting warlocks and bards don't have great reflex saves without investment so I am not bringing a robed warlock or bard to mid skull+ reaper with a 70 MRR. You can probably get away with it in a 6-person party or on lower reaper, but with a 70 MRR you either need alot of hp or you need to do a really good job of not getting targeted which is tougher with fewer people in the party. If light armor was in the Esotreric set there is no question I am sticking with light armor and 120 MRR cap rather than burning a feat on either warlock or bard.

Ultimately with current gear I am thinking I would always opt to upgrade to medium armor proficiency on a casting bard or warlock because their reflex saves suck to begin with. That 1 DC or 4 spell pen a casting feat gets you doesn't matter if your character is dead.

Overall I loved Ravenloft gear, but I think the team managed to exceed the Ravenloft success with Sharn gear which goes against a really tough comparison. Well done.

[Iriale]

That's a good question. I think you and I see armor types that could be supported by each archetype/class very differently. For me, classes like Warlock and Sorcerer fight in no armor as a default, and can opt to buy in to higher defensive measures at a cost. Classes like Paladin and Fighter - who are simply proficient by default - do not spend part of their build sacrificing DPS for the ability to wear armor. When building the itemization suite for Sharn, we targeted specific caster archetypes for our set exceptions that crossed class lines but remained somewhat limited.

Divine Healers (Cleric/FVS) are simply proficient in armor and therefore are not sacrificing efficiency for mitigation. Druid Casters are simply proficient in armor and therefore are not sacrificing efficiency for mitigation. Artificer Arcanotechnics are simply proficient in armor and therefore are not sacrificing efficiency for mitigation.

You can contrast that with Warlock, who can quite effectively make use of the Spell DPS set for efficiency in the same way they can currently use the Beacon of Magic set, but whose usage of any other casting set would require build sacrifice to efficiency for mitigation, and Sorcerers/Wizards, who can also quite effectively make use of the spell DPS set for efficiency, but whose usage of any other casting set would also require build sacrifice.

DDO is about choice, and opening up hard restrictions like this actually removes choice from the game.

For Bards specifically, I envisioned them making a choice - either focus their main set on melee DPS in light, or focus their main set on CC in robes, or focus their main set on healing in medium armor. You can't have it all - or, rather, you can't make your main item set bonus encompass all three distinct playstyles, in the same way you can't take the T5 of all of your enhancement trees. If I missed that mark, please feel free to suggest how I can better reach it, but I'm not aiming for an itemization solution that leaves no choices at all. There is no one best bard build that can do everything a bard can do at peak efficiency, in the same way there is no one best bard itemization suite that does everything a bard could want at peak efficiency.

Bringing it all together, my major goals are beyond making "the perfect item set for a bard" possible - I want there to be "the perfect set for my mDPS swashie" and "the perfect set for my healing/enchantment defensive healer" and any number of other options so entire archetypes don't get wedged together into one single series of items. Ideally, itemization is never solved, it is worked towards and improved upon so there can always be some way to consider something new.

Tldr: variety is the spice of life

I have to say that warlock, by default, play in light armor, not cloth. It is the proficiency that the class gives to warlock. The same as the bards. And not supporting the light armor with these sets is denying a basic feature of the class

I am worried that even a pale master wizzie in the set cloth is losing too much with this equipment. I've been trying to make a gearset with the set of sharn and sharn non-set objects, and supplementing with items from previous packs / expansions, and I can not fit the gear, even though I'm trying to square it. It does not work. Today, I will not buy the expansion, I do not gain anything with it.

I do not expect a caster to have great defensive options, but I do hope that a caster can cover basic defensive options. A soulstone is useless, period. I think you have to start to differentiate what it is to do tank set with great defensive options (perfect, only the tanks should have the largest numbers) and what it is to give the rest of the archetypes adequate defenses.

That is the big mistake you make when you create equipment and do not provide access to resistance or mrr items, for example. There is not a single resistance item in the whole pack for a cloth caster. And that you give higher saves to the tanks (that is right done) does not deny that the rest of the archetypes also need some items in this sense. For now, the caster set implies that I can not find mrr either. There is not a single item in the expansion that gives you a basal level of mrr (out of the other sets). Wow Lynn, this is a no-no. Not only the cloth does limit to 50 mrr, you do not even give me that 50 mrr in the pack! What good is that the set expands this cap a bit, which is really very restrictive (in killing time my wizzie had a very bad time!), if you do not give anything of mrr?

But it is more serious than that. With ravenloft I already lost ghostly on the gearset. Now I also lose dodge. Why do you give AC shield bonus on the caster set, when the casters have useless AC, and you do not give dodge or parrying on the set? The casters do not have a dodge as effective as the rogues and other melees, but a basal dodge helps to survive. And now you take away from pale master wizzies mrr, ghostly, resistance and dodge. Wow. This is the whole asset of basic defenses of a caster!

And it's more serious than that, even. The only item of constitution that I see usable on the pack has lifesealed. That limits the negative healing, with what is another no-no. Seriously. Where I find as pale master constitution and false life, in the gear of sharn?

The only insightful intelligence item that there is usable for pale master is an orb. The glasses of the community come into conflict with the set. The others are melees items. This orb has repeated stats with the only item that has negative amplification (both items have negative spellpower and lore). I can not use the previous insightful int item (from lost of sea) because this item is a pair of glasses, and the glasses are in conflict with the set. Sorry, this is not usable.

The only source of quality spell focus mastery is in the artifacts. At first I thought it did not matter, but then I saw that the artifact came into conflict with the set. Wow Everything I can use conflicts with other thing o.o

I also lose the universal lore of spinneret. It can not be, this is too big a loss for a generalist caster who already does not have good dps.

When using the orb of sharn, which is the only available item of insightful int for caster having cancelled the set the only previous item (and even the cannith crafting!), I am losing the values of the greensteel: an exceptional +2 to int, enhanced negative spellpower that is stacked with traditional spellpower, and concordant opp. That implies that I am losing spell points, healing and DC. Bad thing. The healing could try to recover it in a belt with the ravenloft belt, but just as I am seeing the evolution of the gear, I am afraid that I will have to reserve the belt for constitution. We'll see, but the thing does not look good. I also lose the concordant opp, which is much better than the spell points that the new sharn orb gives me.

And I'm also losing specific spellpowers. I had impulse, acid and electricity on the set of slavers. Here I lose them completely.

In conclusion with these set: I do not win any DC (the small gain with sharn is cancelled with the loss of the greensteel), I lose defenses, I lose healing, I lose spellpower and lore (aka, I lose a dps that is no great anyways in a wizzie)

Today, the expansion gear does not work for me. I will wait to see if it improves and I can take advantage of it, but today I will not buy the expansion. I do not know if my alts will be more fortunate than my wizzie with the equipment of this expansion, but what I have seen has overwhelmed me greatly. I hate gear tetris, and what I'm seeing here is an irresoluble tetris. And considering that there is not a set of light armor for caster, I know that my warlock will not take advantage of this expansion either. There are already two characters who do not benefit.

I've been saying it for a long time, but you need to change a bit the way you design the gear. If you create exclusive sets based on archetypes, you need the items in those sets to occupy the same slots. That allows you to design some basic defense items (tanks have to have increased defenses in their set) that are common to all the archetypes. And it allows you to design in the remaining slots the items with special characteristics of each archetype, such as negative healing or repair, the particular rogue stuff (sneak attack, stealth, assesinate, etc), the goodies of fighter, turn undead stuff, etc. That would avoid many of the current problems of overlapping items with necessary stats, and it would be easier for you not to design items with redundant stats

Sorry Sharn gear really need improvements

For me, there is no variety here. Not when it is impossible for me to fit the basic defensive and offensive stats that an archetype needs.

I do not expect bigger numbers. In fact, I think it's a mistake that sharn will increase the numbers again. But I hope I can have a complete basic gear. And since sharn's gear does not provide many stats and conflicts with previous gear slots ... it does not work.

[Innokentiy]

i'll copy my post from preview 1 about Repair Amp on docents:


No they shouldn't. WF have enough problems with healing on Reaper (end game) difficulty, as game build around fleshy characters and Positive healing, and searching specifically for person able to repair your characer when doing quests\raids is just waste of party slot, so replacing Healing amp on ALL Sharn docents (if i understand you correctly) won't make any good, it'll just force WF to slot Healing amp elsewhere. Repair amp should be on particular items, that's more than enough, not on mandatory set items where you have no other option to choose from. At least let us have 2 versions, 1 with Healing and other with Repair amp, or crafting option to put any of those on docent.

+100 to this. Even nothing to discuss.

[Xyfiel]

Lynn I need you to know my perfect gear set for every build I will make in the future and have it available in Sharn. K thx. It is the only way.

No build gets left behind.




PS: As the person who requested a Holy "Cross" bow, Leg Radiance is more appropriate to my original request but likely less powerful.

[TheMaxpower]

That's a good question. I think you and I see armor types that could be supported by each archetype/class very differently. For me, classes like Warlock and Sorcerer fight in no armor as a default, and can opt to buy in to higher defensive measures at a cost. Classes like Paladin and Fighter - who are simply proficient by default - do not spend part of their build sacrificing DPS for the ability to wear armor. When building the itemization suite for Sharn, we targeted specific caster archetypes for our set exceptions that crossed class lines but remained somewhat limited.

Divine Healers (Cleric/FVS) are simply proficient in armor and therefore are not sacrificing efficiency for mitigation. Druid Casters are simply proficient in armor and therefore are not sacrificing efficiency for mitigation. Artificer Arcanotechnics are simply proficient in armor and therefore are not sacrificing efficiency for mitigation.

You can contrast that with Warlock, who can quite effectively make use of the Spell DPS set for efficiency in the same way they can currently use the Beacon of Magic set, but whose usage of any other casting set would require build sacrifice to efficiency for mitigation, and Sorcerers/Wizards, who can also quite effectively make use of the spell DPS set for efficiency, but whose usage of any other casting set would also require build sacrifice.

DDO is about choice, and opening up hard restrictions like this actually removes choice from the game.

For Bards specifically, I envisioned them making a choice - either focus their main set on melee DPS in light, or focus their main set on CC in robes, or focus their main set on healing in medium armor. You can't have it all - or, rather, you can't make your main item set bonus encompass all three distinct playstyles, in the same way you can't take the T5 of all of your enhancement trees. If I missed that mark, please feel free to suggest how I can better reach it, but I'm not aiming for an itemization solution that leaves no choices at all. There is no one best bard build that can do everything a bard can do at peak efficiency, in the same way there is no one best bard itemization suite that does everything a bard could want at peak efficiency.

Bringing it all together, my major goals are beyond making "the perfect item set for a bard" possible - I want there to be "the perfect set for my mDPS swashie" and "the perfect set for my healing/enchantment defensive healer" and any number of other options so entire archetypes don't get wedged together into one single series of items. Ideally, itemization is never solved, it is worked towards and improved upon so there can always be some way to consider something new.

Tldr: variety is the spice of life

Just to set the record straight, Warlocks are proficient with light armor, contrary to what is stated in the third sentence above . The caster sets should have a light armor option. Other sets seem to have more options. Also, I recall reading an earlier comment about the difficulties in designing so many different armors. To that I would say …. the type of armor and the attributes of the armor are more important than what it looks like, as most players I know glamor their armor anyway. Just keep the designs simple

[Strimtom]

All of the shields do 1/8th or less damage than the ravenloft shields. As a result, vanguard players can't use any of the shields in this expansion. Please update the shields to ravenloft damage numbers. Ravenloft shields aren't insane, they don't make vanguard OP. Please consider.