U42 Preview 3: Loot

[Lokeal_The_Flame]

The Shattered Onyx Ring
Minimum Level: 15/29

• Intelligence +8/+21
• Nullification +94/+214
• Void Lore +14%/+31%
• Negative Healing Amplification +30/+85

Black Velvet Cloak Cloak
Minimum Level: 15/29

• Insightful Negative Amplification +15/+43
• Profane Attributes +1/+2
• Insightful Intelligence +3/+10
• Boon of Undeath/Greater Boon of Undeath
• Taint of Evil

Black Satin Waist Belt
Minimum Level: 15/29

• Nearly Finished (QUALITY INT, WIS, or CHA +1/+5)
• Spell Penetration +3/+9
• Quality Spell Focus Mastery +1/+2
• Spell Resistance +17/+47

Please keep these as is, please cancel plans to change these!

If you must change these, please consider doing the following:

Black Velvet Cloak Cloak
Minimum Level: 15/29

• Insightful Negative Amplification +15/+43
• Negative Healing Amplification +30/+85
• Nullification +94/+214
• Boon of Undeath/Greater Boon of Undeath
• Taint of Evil

Brainmeats Necklace/bracer
Minimum Level: 15/29

• Intelligence +8/+21
• Profane Attributes +1/+2
• Insightful Intelligence +3/+10
• Quality Intelligence +1/+5
• Empty Yellow Augment Slot
• Empty Colorless Augment Slot

Stygian Wrath Orb
Minimum Level: 15/29

• Void Lore +14%/+31%
• Insightful Nullification +47/+106
• Insightful Negative Lore +6%/+14%
• Sinister Chill Whenever you cast a Negative or Cold spell, you gain +50 Temporary Spell Points that last for 30 seconds. This can only trigger once every 45 seconds.

By creating set piece items that require a headslot piece you are displacing the use of Pansophic Circlet and the replacement you provided for such takes up the goggles slot in which then displaces the use of Acolytes lenses. This then caused the build to lean towards using the pieces as designed above as to replace the acolytes lenses effectively while also replacing the usage of Legendary Festering Mummy Wrappings, Legendary Cursed Skull, and Legendary Cursekeeper with superior options. Both the Legendary Shattered Onyx Ring and the Legendary Black Satin Waist started out as choice pick items for a pale master to use, by taking those out of the equation as pale master friendly Items, sorry I'm just not seeing any possible equipment sets that would use the cloak as is without any proper companion pieces.

I have a feeling that you are being trolled Lynnabel as the changes you are making to the above pieces don't make them more balanced, more desirable, nor better in general.... they make them more all over the place, less synergistic, and overall less exciting by far. I can understand wanting to keep Pale Master themed pieces to a minimum, but if you really wanted to do that, you'd cram all of the palemaster specific effects needed for an effective pale master build into two items as I demonstrated above and then proceed to cram all of the intelligence stats onto a single item preferably a Trinket, Bracers, or Necklace (But not a trinket since trinkets aren't being covered now), after all what good is a wizard build without intelligence.... then again same for artificer and a few other classes, am I right? I'm a gear oriented gamer on DDO, good gear is the best way to convince me to run content. Please roll back to the designed shown above, or at least perhaps create an additional ring for the non pale master players out there?

[Mellkor]

The changes to the above mentioned items works very well for a Palmaster, IMO. (I play one).

I like the changes a lot better than they were.

The only thing I would like to see is Neg Amp, but that is easily overcome, even with these changes.

[Lokeal_The_Flame]

My understanding of gear design is this:

Items are intentionally inefficient, so that an updated build is always required to buy content for access to gear affixes, and to limit hybrid performance of characters. For example, if the items were:

Armor
Sheltering
Fort
HAMP
Resistance

Helm
Deadly
Accuracy
Seeker
Doubleshot

Gloves
Insightful Deadly
Insightful Accuracy
Insightful Seeker
Insightful Doubleshot

Then such a geared character wouldn't need to buy content or gear for years until measurable direct stat upgrades to those items became available, and could use the other slots to become hybrid in some unpredictable and broken way that is $ efficient to whatever the player has available. This is less of a concern for melee builds which needs tankyness to survive, so they are allowed higher slot efficiency.

When people made their own highly efficient gear with Slaver's, it ended up being so powerful that people still use it over current gear in many slots years later, and in heroics for many levels later, diminishing the value of newer content and gear. On top of that, when hybrids and ranged had access to high efficiency (Slavers, and Cannith Crafting in heroic) gear they demolish content at a level that is detrimental to other players. Therefore, they aren't going to make the mistake ever again of allowing such efficiency or high level hybrid gameplay through a small amount of itemization alone, and instead it is going to be quad-pay-to-win case such as Falconry Aasimar Monk w/ Duality where they can cash in on it and limit it to their exact design.

You are right aside for one thing........

If loot was made as to intentionally lack non stacking attributes, then flavor effects would fill in the rest.

4 effect limit per item, 14 item slots

4X14=56

56 attributes is more than enough to fill in for all of a build's needs, in fact 14 of those effects could easily be flavor effects and the build would still have a good amount of power so long as nothing was non-stacking.

Adventure pack after adventure pack released, eventually it becomes inevitable that the loot either has to include power creep or the loot ends up offering means to equip pieces from multiple adventure packs and end up with no non-stacking effects at the cost of possibly opting out of set bonuses.... in other words intentionally making loot like this is a bad idea and will demand power creep. If SSG accepts now that intentionally making a bunch of items with non-stacking effects on them will only lead to some very hard to keep track of possibilities or downright unpredictable ones later down the line, then power creep won't be necessary to entice players to get new loot. If you don't think flavor effects are enough to drive the crowd, look at Final Fantasy 14 online........... most of the event items are nothing more than cosmetics, DDO is better than that as it has flavorful effects that FF14 will never introduce anything like. If you think an effect is overpowered just by the description, try playing Diablo 3, experience the greater rifts and know that the enemies can always be scaled up and if it is done right, there is no longer any such thing as overpowered. My wife is an MMO hopper, I prefer to stick to DDO but I see signs like this and can't help but to worry it will collapse.

[mikarddo]

What a mess

You should probably consider this:
- Having armor as part of the sets with no way to avoid is a very bad idea as armor is the one item slot with very different types (docent, cloth, light, medium, heavy, metal/non metal).
- Having the sets use different slots was a bad idea as that makes it very hard to slot in other good items across sets, most noteable with the minor artifacts.

Redesign:
- Sets have items in 4 slots but only need 3 of those, preferably none of which is the armor slot but I expect that is too late to change.
- Sets use the same 4 slots across all sets
- No Minor artifacts use those 4 slots.
Much cleaner implementation.

Please make it so

[Tilomere]

56 attributes is more than enough to fill in for all of a build's needs, in fact 14 of those effects could easily be flavor effects and the build would still have a good amount of power so long as nothing was non-stacking.

It depends on the build and level you are playing. For example, a pure warpriest cleric that needs DC casting to not die, healing, tankyness, melee or ranged capability to kill things... needs much higher efficiency than a crit stacked great crossbow build.

In fact, since clerics all end up as 0 dps supports in end-game, it's already been proven that it is mathematically impossible to make an end-game warpriest.

[Elearim]

Thanks for providing feedback! As a quick reminder, your feedback is infinitely more likely to be acted upon if they're posted as concrete, constructive suggestions. "This is bad" is way less easily worked with than "replace X with Y"

[*]Twisted Willow Longbow

• Keen I/V
• Elasticity This bow is strung with special fibers that cause it to occasionally launch arrows with shocking force. When rolling a 19 or 20 on a ranged attack, your critical multiplier is increased by +1.
• Poisonous 4d6/9d6
• Armor piercing +12/+33

Please change the Armor Piercing for Vorpal (so we have one named heroic Vorpal Bow) and maybe (if it fits thematically) the Poisonous for Heartseeker.

tyvm

[DeltaBravo]

Actually, yes, I did just do that. Onyx Ring got a full redesign as of... an hour ago?

(INSIGHTFUL INT WIS CHA)
Profane DC +1/Profane DC +2
Insightful Dodge
Insightful Resistance

I hope this fits a little better

this is a very very nice change!

But could you perhaps changethe insightfull resistence to ghostly ? Insightfull resistence is on so many items (parry) And the gostly on this item will make this not only a caster item. i reccon you will see quite a few monks useing this item aswell or melee cleric/fvs. if that is done.

[janave]

rm

[noinfo]

Please keep these as is, please cancel plans to change these!

If you must change these, please consider doing the following:

Black Velvet Cloak Cloak
Minimum Level: 15/29

• Insightful Negative Amplification +15/+43
• Negative Healing Amplification +30/+85
• Nullification +94/+214
• Boon of Undeath/Greater Boon of Undeath
• Taint of Evil

Brainmeats Necklace/bracer
Minimum Level: 15/29

• Intelligence +8/+21
• Profane Attributes +1/+2
• Insightful Intelligence +3/+10
• Quality Intelligence +1/+5

Stygian Wrath Orb
Minimum Level: 15/29

• Void Lore +14%/+31%
• Insightful Nullification +47/+106
• Insightful Negative Lore +6%/+14%
• Sinister Chill Whenever you cast a Negative or Cold spell, you gain +50 Temporary Spell Points that last for 30 seconds. This can only trigger once every 45 seconds.

By creating set piece items that require a headslot piece you are displacing the use of Pansophic Circlet and the replacement you provided for such takes up the goggles slot in which then displaces the use of Acolytes lenses. This then caused the build to lean towards using the pieces as designed above as to replace the acolytes lenses effectively while also replacing the usage of Legendary Festering Mummy Wrappings, Legendary Cursed Skull, and Legendary Cursekeeper with superior options. Both the Legendary Shattered Onyx Ring and the Legendary Black Satin Waist started out as choice pick items for a pale master to use, by taking those out of the equation as pale master friendly Items, sorry I'm just not seeing any possible equipment sets that would use the cloak as is without any proper companion pieces.

I have a feeling that you are being trolled Lynnabel as the changes you are making to the above pieces don't make them more balanced, more desirable, nor better in general.... they make them more all over the place, less synergistic, and overall less exciting by far. I can understand wanting to keep Pale Master themed pieces to a minimum, but if you really wanted to do that, you'd cram all of the palemaster specific effects needed for an effective pale master build into two items as I demonstrated above and then proceed to cram all of the intelligence stats onto a single item preferably a Trinket, Bracers, or Necklace (But not a trinket since trinkets aren't being covered now), after all what good is a wizard build without intelligence.... then again same for artificer and a few other classes, am I right? I'm a gear oriented gamer on DDO, good gear is the best way to convince me to run content. Please roll back to the designed shown above, or at least perhaps create an additional ring for the non pale master players out there?

The changes to the ring is the best change from the entire pack.

It actually gives people an option to replace their shadow scale armour and slavers sets, something that many would not do prior to this. My PM would not have wasted a slot on that ring before hand. I was against the change for the cloak from insight to quality but with the change to the ring it addresses pretty much all of the issues.

[noinfo]

Actually, yes, I did just do that. Onyx Ring got a full redesign as of... an hour ago?

(INSIGHTFUL INT WIS CHA)
Profane DC +1/Profane DC +2
Insightful Dodge
Insightful Resistance

I hope this fits a little better

Fits and solves so many issues for not only wizards but multiple other dc casters. Went from being sentient food to something that will redesign my gear layout.

[noinfo]

---

Generic Weapon Suite:



[LIST][*]Creeping Dust Conduit Quarterstaff

• Creeping Dust Lore Your Cold and Acid spells gain a +14%/+31% Equipment Bonus to their chance to Critical Hit.
• Power of Creeping Dust +94/+214 Equipment Bonus to Cold and Acid Spell Power
• Conjuration Focus +3/+9
• Evocation Focus +3/+9
• Arcane Augmentation IX This item increases your caster level when casting first through ninth level sorcerer or wizard spells by two.
• Quality Spell Focus Mastery +3/+2

[*]Firestorm Conduit Quarterstaff

• Firestorm Lore Your Fire and Lightning spells gain a +14%/+31% Equipment Bonus to their chance to Critical Hit.
• Power of the Firestorm+94/+214 Equipment Bonus to Fire and Lightning Spell Power
• Conjuration Focus +3/+9
• Evocation Focus +3/+9
• Arcane Augmentation IX This item increases your caster level when casting first through ninth level sorcerer or wizard spells by two.
• Quality Spell Focus Mastery +3/+2

[*]The Eclipse Itself Quarterstaff

• Spellcasting Implement +29
• Upgrade Effect: (Fire, Cold, Electric, Acid, Positive, Negative, Force, OR Sonic: +219 SpellPower and +32 Spell Lore)
• Upgrade Effect 2 (In Lieu of +0.5[W]): (Abjuration, Conjuration, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, OR Transmutation: +9 Spell DC's)
• Quality Potency +39
• Quality Spell Lore +19%
• Quality Spell Focus Mastery +2
• Arcane Augmentation IX

Can we get confirmation on whether the other staff are +2 or 3 quality?

Rest of gear is now coming together thanks to the revised ring however, looking at the staffs it looks like for full dcs offhand may go from either orb/lgs +2 item. The staff with necro upgrade is 1 above the +8 ring. the +2 gives more flexibility with twists or a full+1 to all.

[Syrence]

Would it be possible to add a light armor option to Hruit's Influence?

Currently there is no way to achieve artifact wisdom with any Sharn casting set while taking advantage of the t6 Primal Avatar for Evasion. The primal casting destiny and primal casting set are conflicting in this way, specifically for Druids.

Thanks for consideration!

[LightBear]

Did you happen to notice, those gloves are part of the MELEE DPS armor set?

Hence that is why I made a case for the Cannith Combat Infusion to be updated. I have nothing against the item or the set. Also its an old affix, so not suitable for todays end game standards.

Edit:
Isn't artefact bonus also competing with Set and/or Sentient bonuses?

Just went through it again, its alchemical bonus, will update my suggestions for the item to correspond this.

[Zites]

You're exactly right about this. As is the poster above complaining about stat damage effects on weapons. The people designing this gear are blind gearing characters at cap is well beyond tough choices. Tne thing that also bothers me about these discussion threads is there's superficial willingness to make changes to loot, but some of the more serious problems just remain ignored or brushed off with some very weak justifications. For that reason I've largely given up on providing feedback. I'm also at the point where instead of being excited about getting new loot, I'm having to wait several updates to make worthwhile changes to my gear. Regearing produces a long-term headache now rather than a sense of pleasure from making progress.

Thanks.

Dysfunctional, ill-conceived, or preconceived bias? From the repetitive overlapping of stats and abilities, to the sheer amount of named Items that are not part of any set. To the boring attempt at fun with weak procs and out dated effects. Raven Loft will never be rivaled it remains your best work to date, a closer case study of its success would have greatly benefited this expansion.

[Cantor]

Can we get confirmation on whether the other staff are +2 or 3 quality?

Rest of gear is now coming together thanks to the revised ring however, looking at the staffs it looks like for full dcs offhand may go from either orb/lgs +2 item. The staff with necro upgrade is 1 above the +8 ring. the +2 gives more flexibility with twists or a full+1 to all.

my read on that as insight +3 heroic and quality +2 legendary... but only Lyn could know.

[Amoneth]

There's a time and a place for niche Palemaster items, and the time and place might be somewhere very soon. Who knows. Unrelated, but I've gotta get back to working on some other stuff... some other very fun stuff...

As much as I LOVE the new Profane +2 DCs, by removing the PM aspects of that ring, it's kinda stuffed us up on options, particularly for the Standard Negative Amp, which is only available on items in slots that people really won't want to drop other items for. Unless the PM rework is very soon, we will struggle to re-gear with Sharn stuff and it's already really painful to do reaper with PMs unless you have a super duper healer that's awesome at casting harm on nutter wizzies bouncing around all over the place (ok that might be just me).

We can haz some Pale Master gloves maybe? Pretty please?

[LargoKeyWest]

It depends on the build and level you are playing. For example, a pure warpriest cleric that needs DC casting to not die, healing, tankyness, melee or ranged capability to kill things... needs much higher efficiency than a crit stacked great crossbow build.

In fact, since clerics all end up as 0 dps supports in end-game, it's already been proven that it is mathematically impossible to make an end-game warpriest.

... except that I run with them every day.. so there's that..

too many people running around stating absolutes as if it were an accepted fact, not just a disguised opinion. LOTS of posts crying about how 'this or that makes such & such unplayable....'.. wut?

[Inigo Montoya voice /ON]"You keep using that word... I don't think it means what you think it means..."[Inigo Montoya voice /OFF]

[Lokeal_The_Flame]

The changes to the ring is the best change from the entire pack.

It actually gives people an option to replace their shadow scale armour and slavers sets, something that many would not do prior to this. My PM would not have wasted a slot on that ring before hand. I was against the change for the cloak from insight to quality but with the change to the ring it addresses pretty much all of the issues.

Are you sure about that? Pretty sure the +2 necromancy DCs gained from the inevitable grave filigree set are themselves profane and thus non-stacking to that ring, could be wrong there, but pretty sure. The clouded dreams ring grants insightful +4 DCs, so from there all you'd need is the quality and the base if the above is correct.

[Lynnabel]

my read on that as insight +3 heroic and quality +2 legendary... but only Lyn could know.

These scale based off ilevel/min level, it's likely the numbers got shuffled if it makes no sense. Just assume that higher ML > lower ML, and that raid > non-raid. If you guys are dead set on needing numbers I can hop into an internal build but it'll need to be tonight, as I'm pretty deep into something else right now.

[Lokeal_The_Flame]

The Curse Maelstrom does... a lot. Honestly, too much. I don't want to fully spoil it, but it does exactly what you need, plus a little extra.

Curious, does Cursed Maelstrom contain a legendary version of the Soul Eating proc found on the non legendary Grave Wrappings?

It would be nice to occasionally land an infliction of 2D6 negative levels onto an enemy while I would be bolstered with 1000 temporary hitpoints......... as that is how a truly legendary version of the Soul Eating proc would translate.

If the Cursed Maelstrom does not contain that.... I honestly don't know if I can agree that it contains all we need.

Also, legendary curse-spewing should be made as to be truly legendary

Legendary Curse Spewing: On a natural 20 attack roll, this weapon lashes out with a vengeful curse that confers a -10 morale penalty on attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, and skill checks. This agonizing curse also causes the victim to take 20 to 60 damage every two seconds for a duration of twelve seconds. Additional vorpal strikes while the curse is still active will extend the duration by another twelve seconds. Note: This curse's penalties stack with the Bestow Curse spell.

anyhow, that's just my opinion there....