U55 Preview 2: Itemization

[Lynnabel]

Howdy folks. There's a lot of itemization in any expansion, and this one containing a level jump means there's a lot of moving parts.

Isle of Dread Overview

Isle of Dread will contain two major groups of items: Pirate themed standalone items and Dinosaur Bone crafted items. Generally speaking, the pirate stuff will be whole items dropped in dungeons, and dino stuff you'll need to craft and craft upon. This expansion will also contain new Augments, new Sentient Artifacts, and Raid loot.

Item Power Levels

Items follow the CC Curve. CC will also be adjusted so players can craft levels 31 and 32 shards again. This will use existing shard ingredients so if you had some crafted before you'll be able to add them now.

Yes, this means that CC at level 32 will have higher ilevels than level 31 quest items from Isle of Dread. As an item's min level increases, its power level also increases.

Raid items and Minor Artifacts will continue to get a boost in their effective power levels. This means that raid loot at level 31 will be better than CC loot at level 32, with Minor Artifacts being better than raid loot.

Pirate Stuff

These items will drop fully realized in dungeons. This means they'll have a name, a theme, effects, and a specific appearance. Very much standard named loot here.

There will be 5 main sets in Isle of Dread and 1 overall set - think like Ravenloft here. The goal of these sets is to provide meaningful alternatives to Sharn and Ravenloft's 3pc sets. Each 3pc set will contain an Armor (or docent), a helmet, and a cloak - this is partially because this way we can match art assets together. There is also a larger set like the Adherent of the Mists set in Ravenloft, anything else not in the 5 main sets will be here.

In Legendary, each Pirate item will have one Dinosaur Bone augment slot (see below for details).

Augments

Level 32 augments are going to be added to global treasure tables, and a subsection of those will be available for trade with Randall Lyric for Isle of Dread ingredients (Randall will also trade level 8 augments for Isle of Dread ingredients, as some of you may have guessed). There will also be new named augments in Isle of Dread that drop as treasure which will be minimum level 8 or 30.

Distribution of these new augments is a little different than how they normally drop in content. Usually we place them in as Named Loot, but in this expansion, they are all grouped together and have a small chance to drop from any chest in the expansion. This means that if you are looking for a specific augment, the best way to do that is to just play Isle of Dread content at the appropriate level range rather than looking for a specific chest.

Artifacts

Artifacts in this content pack will be level 31 have 4 max Filigree slots, which means if you haven't found a Perfected artifact you'll soon be able to use a variety of alternatives.

Dino Crafting

As you explore Isle of Dread you'll collect Isle of Dread ingredients (such as fossilized dinosaur teeth). You can use these to craft Isle of Dread augments. Isle of Dread augments only go into Isle of Dread augment slots. There are 5 main types of augments: Fang, Scale, Horn, Teeth, and Set Bonus (okay that last one is a little meta but it really is just a set bonus slot).

Blanks consist of all weapon types, all shield types, helmets, cloaks, and all armor types (yes, including docent). Here's how the spread of slots shakes out:



The Set Bonus slot allows you to put that item into one of the 5 Isle of Dread set bonuses. This means that you can theoretically have that set bonus with all 3 of your items being dino bone crafted. Or none, and you just use standalone items, or a mix - totally up to you.

Augments will clearly state which "version" of the slot they're in. For example, this means that yes, there are 3 types of Scale Slot (armor, weapon, and regular) but this denotation will appear in the augment slots display and the augment's description to help prevent confusion.

To craft augments, think like Slavers - you turn many disparate ingredients into a standalone augment and then slot those directly. Unlike Slavers, this will use the new augment system, so there will be both unslotters and destroyers available (unlike previous crafting systems which, once done, were permanent).

The bonuses available are split by slot type - this means that Scale (Weapon) will have a different set of options than Scale (Armor) or Fang (Weapon) and so on.

This crafting system only exists in legendary! At level 7 (the level of heroic isle of dread's items) you'll just be finding the pirate stuff.

There are 6 total ingredients from the Isle of Dread: 4 quest fossils, 1 landscape fossil, and 1 raid ingredient (Black Pearls). There are 5 augment types: Scale, Fang, Claw, Horn, and Set Bonus.

Scale: requires quest ingredients
Fang: requires quest ingredients
Claw: requires landscape ingredients
Horn: requires raid ingredients
Set Bonus: requires raid ingredients

You may barter for the non-raid dinosaur bone crafting blank weapons from the dinosaur bone augment trader (the blue border weapons). The 6 artifacts available (all of which are helmets with a set bonus slot) will drop in any chest in Isle of Dread like all Artifacts tend to do.

The raid will drop the raid tier versions of the weapon blanks, the dinosaur bone armors/helmets/accessory blanks, as well as Black Pearls.

Dino Crafting Flow: TLDR

So, that was a lot. To help with the massive walls of text above, here's a relatively simple 6 step flow of how we intend for players to interact with this crafting system:

1. Players arrive in isle of Dread, collect dino bone bits (ingredients 1-4) from the quests and landscape. They can then trade in those bits for a weapon (assuming they aren't able to randomly stumble upon a blank in their questing).
2. Players can then craft up the Scale and Fang for their weapon using their existing ingredients.
3. Players can do the landscape encounters for the ingredient for their Claw slots
4. Players can do the raid for the ingredient for their Horn slots
5. The raid also drops upgraded weapon blanks so they can get an upgraded weapon with cool funky alternate art
6. The raid also drops dino bone accessories and armor so they can start replacing their Isle of Dread stuff with customized gear if they'd like to do so

Anyway, that's the overview. Please feel free to explore all of the loot available during this preview and let me know what you think!

Known Issues and Important Notes:

• Several items have placeholder icons and descriptions
• Several weapons are missing effects (and also the Runearms!)

[Carpone]

Is the Isle of Dread version of Randall on Lamannia? Couldn't find him.

[Lynnabel]

Is the Isle of Dread version of Randall on Lamannia? Couldn't find him.

He may not be in Isle of Dread itself yet (note that the public area is still a work in progress), but his super-ultra-instinct-all-unlocked version should be in the Test Dojo.

[GramercyRiff]

This stuff seems like a great addition to this game. So far, as I understand it, this is the best itemization this game has ever had.

[QuantumFX]

Hey Lynn,
Will Randall have all the level 32 augments? Or just the level 32 versions of the augments he carries in his heroic augment store? Will we see stuff like level 32 Insightful Stat Augments in U55?

[Unsmitten]

Will you be updating outdated Cannith Crafting values?

Assassination/Insightful
Cannith Crafted(lvl 30):
+6/+2

Items:
+16/+7

10/5 point disparity.

[QuantumFX]

Will you be updating outdated Cannith Crafting values?

Assassination/Insightful
Cannith Crafted(lvl 30):
+6/+2

Items:
+16/+7

10/5 point disparity.

That's been fixed for quite a while.:

ex.

[patang01]

I watched a twitch streamer going over the raid loot. And most of it seemed just like 'attuned' versions of the bone crafted loot. The helmet versions being 1 quality stat plus minor artifact and just like the bone crafted helmets. The weapons were 1 damage point more or something but otherwise the same.

Is that really all there is? I like the bone crafted stuff, but I thought that the raid loot would at least be a little bit more diverse from say regular bone crafted.

[Ganak]

For Dino Crafting Shields, please consider adding Scale/Fang slots specific to Shields, like Scale Slot (Shield), instead of forcing us to choose weapon and armor enhancements.

Shield enhancements:
Impact
Bashing
DR options
vorpal


As it stands, these can make good shields for tanks/defensive characters. For those that see shields as offensive hunks of metal to smash into orc's ears, The Legendary Best Defense will still stand as best in spot shield for offense. We don't want armor enhancements on our offensive weapons (shields). Give vanguards a (dino) bone please?

[Baahb3]

As it stands, these can make good shields for tanks/defensive characters. For those that see shields as offensive hunks of metal to smash into orc's ears, The Legendary Best Defense will still stand as best in spot shield for offense. We don't want armor enhancements on our offensive weapons (shields). Give vanguards a (dino) bone please?

Well said.

It would be nice if they added some CC offense options for shields as well.

[Annex]

Oh. Oh. This is not what I expected. Well... It's fine.

[Lominal]

1. can we change the insightful seeker on dread stalker cloak back to quality deception

2. there's a lack of quality and insightful (non-ability)stats (deadly/deception/seeker/etc) on the gear, could we see more of those put on them?

3. the artis feel kind of lacking, quality stat with what I feel are the weakest 3 dino crafting slots doesn't entice me, my suggestion is to change one of the slots to a scale slot

4. can we get a second insightful Doubleshot item that doesn't lock you into a specific weapon

5. the mat droprate seems VERY low (assuming even chance of 1-4, its 28 chests for a single augment), and needs to be buffed

[Baahb3]

So I have to ask.

Are you really putting in a new crafting system for new sets, where people cannot complete it without running the raid?

This seems very much like Slave lords. Collect ingredients, combine for augment, add to item. Combine items for set bonus. Done.

Yet there, people could run quests, not raids, to complete their items and set.

Seems extremely poor design if this is so.

Seriously, please explain your thought process for this.

[Artos_Fabril]

Are you really putting in a new crafting system for new sets, where people cannot complete it without running the raid?

It seems an even worse idea when you consider that the raid isn't coming out with the rest of the expansion.

[Baahb3]

It seems an even worse idea when you consider that the raid isn't coming out with the rest of the expansion.

Doh! I forgot about that, this is becoming horrifically funny.

[Annex]

If I understand correctly, this represents a hybrid of normal Expansion equipment with set bonuses and crafted pieces with set bonuses.

For example, for a 5 piece set, one could use:

5 pieces of Pirate equipment
4 pieces of Pirate equipment and one crafted piece (with set bonus Augment)
3 pieces of Pirate equipment and two crafted pieces (with set bonus Augment)
2 Pieces of Pirate equipment with three crafted pieces (with set bonus Augment)

People who do not Raid cannot craft Armor/Cloak/Helm pieces to join a set, but can still build a set from the Pirate stuff.

Raiders who drive spreadsheets well will end up with 3, 4, or even 5 set bonuses.

Players who do not raid and do not drive spreadsheets well will do what they were already doing and make due without.

It's fine. I understand it is an MMO for Raiders.

[patang01]

If I understand correctly, this represents a hybrid of normal Expansion equipment with set bonuses and crafted pieces with set bonuses.

For example, for a 5 piece set, one could use:

5 pieces of Pirate equipment
4 pieces of Pirate equipment and one crafted piece (with set bonus Augment)
3 pieces of Pirate equipment and two crafted pieces (with set bonus Augment)
2 Pieces of Pirate equipment with three crafted pieces (with set bonus Augment)

People who do not Raid cannot craft Armor/Cloak/Helm pieces to join a set, but can still build a set from the Pirate stuff.

Raiders who drive spreadsheets well will end up with 3, 4, or even 5 set bonuses.

Players who do not raid and do not drive spreadsheets well will do what they were already doing and make due without.

It's fine. I understand it is an MMO for Raiders.

Given that there are those (me for example) that has little time to raid, but fully support SSG by buying their highest pack. So if the raid is required for people to be able to craft, and not like in the past for raid loot specifically, I think it is in poor taste to exclude a big portion as to why I put down so much money in the first place. I would understand if the raid loot and particularly the minor artifacts were gated behind a greater loot chance in the raid. But I cannot understand and find it extremely frustrating if you need to raid in order to complete crafting the regular bone items and augments. I hope that is not the case. And no, that wouldn't be fine at all.

[enkka1]

Given that there are those (me for example) that has little time to raid, but fully support SSG by buying their highest pack. So if the raid is required for people to be able to craft, and not like in the past for raid loot specifically, I think it is in poor taste to exclude a big portion as to why I put down so much money in the first place. I would understand if the raid loot and particularly the minor artifacts were gated behind a greater loot chance in the raid. But I cannot understand and find it extremely frustrating if you need to raid in order to complete crafting the regular bone items and augments. I hope that is not the case. And no, that wouldn't be fine at all.

I think most of us were, as this new system came out, thinking will they put those in raid and had the awesome thought of ender sets for my tens of toons so billion runs needed on the new raid (that is too scary to think of )

[Carpone]

From Discord:

new augments for armor:
exceptional spellcrit % (scale)
exceptional spellpower (fang)

replaced horn augments for accessories:
Blindness immunity -> profane DC
Fear immunity -> sacred DC

[GeoffWatson]

I'm disappointed that the crafting system requires raiding.

As a non-American, it can be difficult to fill raid groups as there are fewer people on when I can play.