U48 Preview 2: Augment Revamp

[Carpone]

Sapphire of Defense +16 scaling to +32 is pretty damned sweet. Much easier for light armor toons to hit the 100 MRR cap now, without having to slot Magical Sheltering.

Also, +19 skill diamonds are useful. Heal and Spellcraft come to mind.

The ML24 Insightful stat augments didn't change though...? They are still +2 Insightful stat. According to Cannith Crafting, they should be +5 at level 24.

[Edwinge]

Just checking out a bunch of old basic augments and have a few observations and questions.

Elemental resistance augments have not changed to Cannith crafting scaling. I hope they get re-scaled as well.

Proof against Poison/Disease have not changed their scaling. Re-scaling would actually be a nerf to these. Will they be staying as they are?

The fortification augments are unchanged. This will probably make most people happy. Will they stay this way?

The insightful ability augments are still just +2 at level 24. Will these get re-scaled? +2 at 24 is way below Cannith crafting. Maybe we can get a full suite of them instead of just at this one level?

As others have noted, spell dc augments have been re-scaled. Will we see these at more levels or will they still just be at the same 2 level points?

Sapphires of Defense are re-scaled and instead of just being PRR they now also have MRR. Great change!

Barterers for Augments need the text descriptions updated to the new values. For example: Ruskin Blackboot <Augment Vendor (Level 12)> in Gianthold has his first entry saying Diamond of Strength +4 but it gives a +6 Strength Augment now.

I didn't check all of the collectible turn-in people, but the ones I did check don't seem to have any of the new basic augments.

Nothing new has been added to the Gianthold Augment barterers. I had hoped the new basic augments of the appropriate levels would be here.

Nothing new has been added to the Mysterious Remnants guy. Would be nice if he had more types of augments for barter and higher min level versions as well.

Nothing new has been added to the tokens of the twelve augment barterer.

There is still no barterer in game for any min level 28 basic augments. Is there any chance we will see one? I feel like all basic augments should have some way to be acquired in game without having to rely on random loot luck.

[Delosari]

Where does this new augment leveling put the ML 24 +2 Insightful *Ability* Augments?

Since ML 24 +2 insightful augments were 1/4 of the original ML 28 +8 augments and now we would have ML 28 +14 *Ability* Augments;

It stands to reason (ML 24 / 2) / 4 = 3.

Should we expect ML 24 +3 Insightful *Ability* Augments?

Or would it be more proportioned to CC crafting level of +5 Insightful *Ability*

Surely not +7? lol

Thanks

Is it confirmed the new augments will include the option to have insightful bonuses as in the cannith crafting?

[WiseFreelancer]

This makes me and all other casters very very sad. While I agree in someway, a nerf to dcs just makes the game less fun and not more fun. Why not just leave them aone and add the non stacking ones as separate augments. The stacking ones do require raid ingredients. Easy raids by today standards but raids ingredients none the less.

Casters will rage about this. Look how quickly people spotted it. Its a straight up nerf for no reason. It'll be exactly like the Improved Precise Shot Nerf: it will come to be synonymous with the augment re-vamp and taint the whole thing with the player base for months if not years.

And the fury will be heightened because these can be shop-bought. Taking away in-game power leaves a bad taste. Taking away things people could have paid for leads to cancelled subs.

[Lynnabel]

Elemental resistance augments have not changed to Cannith crafting scaling. I hope they get re-scaled as well.

Proof against Poison/Disease have not changed their scaling. Re-scaling would actually be a nerf to these. Will they be staying as they are?

The fortification augments are unchanged. This will probably make most people happy. Will they stay this way?

These I can answer right now, and yes, I am intentionally not re-scaling the ones that would end up being a direct, numerical downgrade. The Elemental Resistance ones were not scaled because at some levels, they were numerically lower - and at all levels, the numbers were far uglier. I didn't want to turn everyone's ML1 +5 resist augments into ML1 +4 resist augments, I hope you understand

[Carpone]

Ouch, that means an across the board nerf by 2 to every single DC at cap for casters. That is a pretty serious nerf considering many casters were already struggling to meat DCs in Sharn. That hurts.

It's only a nerf if you don't have them slotted prior to U48. Since they're getting changed to something useless in U48, no reason not to slot all the ones you have into caster gear you already own "just in case".

[QuantumFX]

If you’d like to nerf the Spell Focus augments, but not in as drastic way, make them Quality bonuses.

Also, will there be an ongoing effort to add more generic augments? (ex. Insightful Shelterings, Heal amp, Spell Lore)

[WiseFreelancer]

It's only a nerf if you don't have them slotted prior to U48. Since they're getting changed to something useless in U48, no reason not to slot all the ones you have into caster gear you already own "just in case".

Oh that makes it 10 times worse - good point.

[Carpone]

Essence of Constellation, Broken and Reforged

• Ingredients Required to Craft: 50 Threads of Fate, 1 Empty Soul Vessel, 1 The Broken Blade of Constellation, 1 The Shattered Hilt of Constellation, 1 Constellation Cursed Blade
• Minimum Level: 30
• Binding: Bound to Account
• Color: Orange
• Effect Granted: Improved Destruction: On Hit: Your target gains a stack of Armor Destruction. (-1 penalty to Armor Class, -1% of its Fortification. 20 second duration. Stacks up to 15 times.) This effect may trigger once every second.

Are all three weapons required to craft, or is it just one of the weapons? If the former, that seems a bit steep for the effect.

[deconedi]

I don't understand what you do sometimes. Great job in Augment Revamp, at same time regressing removing bonuses that were applied, penalizing players who used the greater focus topaz. I tested now in lamannia, i've lost +2 DC, nice. But we will have the argument that the bonus was something that shouldn't exist. Disappointed.

[mikarddo]

It's only a nerf if you don't have them slotted prior to U48. Since they're getting changed to something useless in U48, no reason not to slot all the ones you have into caster gear you already own "just in case".

Hmm, a fair point. Not that it is pretty at all but I am not above taking what I can get even if its silly.

[Duhboy]

Dusk Raider

• Ingredients Required to Craft: 50 Threads of Fate, 1 Empty Soul Vessel, 1 Coat of Van Richten
• Minimum Level: 30
• Binding: Bound to Account
• 3-Piece Set Bonus: +20 Artifact Bonus to Melee and Ranged Power

Shouldn't this bonus be +25 instead of +20?

[Amoneth]

This could result in an interesting situation where DC casters don't upgrade their spell focus augments or make any attempt to get the new U48 gear because sharn gear + the old style augments are a better option.

Yep, that's exactly what I will do, or rather not do, if that option moves over to live. Why on earth would I regear to Fey gear when it's around the same power levels and I have to lose +2 stacking DCs to all my important spells? Even with 150+ past lives, the best gear and 92 reaper points, Sharn is still a bit of a struggle because of the insane power creep.

[mikarddo]

This could result in an interesting situation where DC casters don't upgrade their spell focus augments or make any attempt to get the new U48 gear because sharn gear + the old style augments are a better option.

Lol, yeah. What a sad day.

[Cernunan]

how about augments of Light damage resistance?

They don't even have to be as high as the energy resist augs.

I find it very hard to itemize light damage into any workable gearing

[Malex]

About the DC topaz.. aside from the fact you actually removed one of the few augments people actually used in the old system
you do realize we invested resources (nine relics of each type, and a raid reward, the commendation of heroism) and we would now have an useless +5 DC?? Yes, useless, because we wont skip the actual better +X from named loot. DCs isnt like damage or PRR where "well a little less still works", DC is all or nothing.
Also, really? That cost for a non-stacking bonus?


You guys did really bad this time.. Well jokes on me, I am the one already bought the expansion out of trust of your previous work..

But after having seen the named items, the feydark illusionist, and this move, now I am sure: none of you realize how pure casters work

[Gralhota]

Topaz of Augmented Summoning

• Minimum Level: 28
• Binding: Bound to Account
• Color: Yellow
• Effect Granted: Augment Summoning Feat: Your summoned creatures, charmed minions, and hirelings have +4 to all ability scores, increased health, and increased fortification.

Is it a joke? There is no way to take this seriously.

You don't even give us a position on summons.

Summons are horrible, you guys can improve but what do you do?
An augmment that for builds aimed at summons is useless since it does not accumulate.
For those who do not have a build summon it is also useless. All the possibilities in the game do not make summons even mediocre, why would +4 attributes help someone without a focus on summons?

You don't bury the summons, you don't even take a position on it, but you make items like this and the many others that come with the same effect.
From what looks like summons to you, they only serve to trick newbies, make them up to disappoint and try another meta build.

Additional strategy for the hamster wheel?

[Rhegnok]

Visions of the Future

• Ingredients Required to Craft: 50 Threads of Fate, 1 Empty Soul Vessel, 1 Crystalline Gauntlets
• Minimum Level: 30
• Binding: Bound to Account
• 3-Piece Set Bonus: +4 Artifact bonus to Wisdom

So the idea with this augment set bonus system is to make three of these augments, and place them in three different pieces of gear to obtain these set bonuses. So why is an exclusive raid item being used in this system? Why an exclusive raid item from the raid with the lowest average completion difficulty? Why an exclusive raid item with spell absorption that every character should have anyway? Is the idea for us to farm out the item on three alts, feed them to obtain the augments for our main, then farm out another on our main so we have another spell absorption item on our main? Or would it be better to farm out the item four times on our main, feeding the item immediately after each of the first three pulls in case we pull another the next run? What about the players that like to run more than one character, like myself and many others? Are we expected to farm out at least 8, 12, 16, 20, or more?

I get that this system gives a new twist to gearing out our characters and filling in missing stats for multi-function builds, and I agree with the previous comments of this system giving people who run raids way too often, like myself, a major advantage over those that don't, but even for those of us who have run Too Hot Too Handle enough times to purchase three of these augments on launch day, this is way too steep of a cost for such minimal benefit. I also know that there are supposedly augments that are not going to be based on raid items, but because we haven't been able to preview any of those, I can't comment on those. Assuming those non-raid item based augments are significantly more balanced than the raid item based augments, please at least consider removing exclusive items from the set bonus augments, especially ones as useful as the Crystalline Gauntlets. This particular set bonus is not reasonable for anyone that raids frequently, and not obtainable by those that don't.

[Seph1roth5]

Looks very interesting/nice. I didn't even know that topaz of spell dc existed so...not a big deal lol but I can see how people are upset.

Also, still hoping you guys scale back the 3x raid item requirement for set augments. Would love 1 item + 1000 runes or something.

[Caarb]

These I can answer right now, and yes, I am intentionally not re-scaling the ones that would end up being a direct, numerical downgrade. The Elemental Resistance ones were not scaled because at some levels, they were numerically lower - and at all levels, the numbers were far uglier. I didn't want to turn everyone's ML1 +5 resist augments into ML1 +4 resist augments, I hope you understand

How about rescaling cannith crafted instead. Exceptions to the rule are always ugly - not sure why its ok in this case but not for spell DCs