Three tiny changes.

[Waaye]

I agree that some of the Paragon level name weapons need to be updated to have 1.5[w]

Look up Silver Bow and Bow of Sinew. There crit profile is what makes them great.

Dragontouched armor has some very good options for L16 Healing amp 10%, Healing amp 20%, and Devotion 82 is a good armor and works very well on a Ranger, So is Protection +5, Resistance +5, Dodge 6%. There are options just farm casual Pray on the hunter a until you get what you want. (every 3 runs is a sovereign rune which you can shatter down and get eldritch runs from).

Thanks for making an on-topic post, Grailhawk.

The specifications of a bow are important but since the target is part of the calculation I always do extensive empirical testing before adding it to the list of bows I carry. The Earth bow did not perform as well as my current bows so I parked it in the bank until it is fixed or I reach L20 and can get the 2 [1d8] version. Correcting the Earth bow should not take much effort since 1.50 [1d8] is a standard type. Changing the protection to DR X /- like an Earth Elemental should be simple too. Everyone would benefit from these tiny changes.

My Ranger has a healing sceptre since the other prizes for completing "Invaders!" made no sense at all for a Ranger. The way my character has evolved proteciton from death effects needs to be on the armour.

My old Feycraft armour had Deathblock III but its AC protection was not the best in L16 quests. Dragontouched offered better protection and Deathward instead of Deathblock. So I bought the pack to get the armour and obtain a Deathward rune. After spending a great many hours obtaining the items imagine my shock and dismay when the "Deathward" rune applied Deathblock [0] to the armour instead of Deathward as indicated. At that point I fully understood why so few people buy that pack anymore.

Now I have L16 Spriticraft that matches the base specifications of Dragontouched and came with Deathblock III. The Dragontouched is parked in the bank until I decide what to do with it.

Deathward is a standard spell and can easily be added to the armour. It is just a matter of editing the armour object, selecting the correct spell, and making it continuous, constant effect, or whatever the case might be. If that makes the item too powerful then it would be a simple to add back a 50% vulnerability to negative spell power. A tiny change to the armour would dramatically improve its utility. Everyone would benefit from this tiny change.

[Grailhawk]

Thanks for making an on-topic post, Grailhawk.

The specifications of a bow are important but since the target is part of the calculation I always do extensive empirical testing before adding it to the list of bows I carry. The Earth bow did not perform as well as my current bows so I parked it in the bank until it is fixed or I reach L20 and can get the 2 [1d8] version. Correcting the Earth bow should not take much effort since 1.50 [1d8] is a standard type. Changing the protection to DR X /- like an Earth Elemental should be simple too. Everyone would benefit from these tiny changes.

Unfortunately I think you're wrong about the amount of effort it would take to update the Earth Bow to 1.5[w] the fact that the weapons can have crafted effects added to them makes them hard to work with (I do agree it should be done though).

As for changing the Elemental Resistance to DR even if I agreed with that idea, I doubt they would ever even consider it the design of those weapons is for each to have a elemental protection not DR.

My Ranger has a healing sceptre since the other prizes for completing "Invaders!" made no sense at all for a Ranger. The way my character has evolved proteciton from death effects needs to be on the armour.

Visor of the Flesh Render easy enough to farm up 3-5 of them and then you have opened up a gear slot to a better effect. The spell also protects you from neg levels unlike the items and there really isn't that many negative energy attacks to warrant having a full time gear slot for it.

Scepter of Healing
Min: 43.44 = 1.81(24)
Low: 49.52 = 1.81*1.14(24)
Avg: 65.00 = 1.81*1.14(31.5)
High: 80.47 = 1.81*1.14*(39)
Max: 141.18 = 1.81*2*(39)

DT Amp + Devotion
Min: 57.66 = 1.82*1.1*1.2(24)
Avg: 75.68 = 1.82*1.1*1.2(31.5)
Max: 93.69 = 1.82*1.1*1.2(39)

Personally I like my healing less spiky and more consistent which is what the DT armor offers, along with about 10 more HP per cast on average. Also means you don't have to swap your weapon, add in Quicken spell feat and you can now heal in combat with out loosing a beat.

One last thing for some reason (even though ddo wiki says there BTC) I'm under the impression you can buy Stonedust Handwraps off the AH (maybe its the ASAH) have you checked?

[Ungood]

Well you are 100% correct that Turbine dropped the ball on the upgrading of the Damage Step of Named Weapons. This was an effect that happened with the Ghostbaning, where Developer Feather of Sun explained that they opted to make Loot gen better to make the game easier for new players and this added in paragon and epic damage steps to all Loot gen, in effect making them better then a lot of existing Named and Raid gear that exist in the lower levels.

Many Packs, like Reavers Refugee, Lord of Blades, well, pretty much all the packs took a beating to how named and raid gear currently stacks up against Loot Gen gear. In fact as the game gets even higher in level, loot gen starts to take best in slot.

The advantage to this however, is as you level up your character, you will never need to do a quest or quest arc to get some named gear that will make your character better, as you will be able to get the best gear you need for your character from loot gen alone.

While I think this bad form on Turbines part, that is what they have opted to do with their game.

[Waaye]

Unfortunately I think you're wrong about the amount of effort it would take to update the Earth Bow to 1.5[w] the fact that the weapons can have crafted effects added to them makes them hard to work with (I do agree it should be done though).
As for changing the Elemental Resistance to DR even if I agreed with that idea, I doubt they would ever even consider it the design of those weapons is for each to have a elemental protection not DR.
Visor of the Flesh Render easy enough to farm up 3-5 of them and then you have opened up a gear slot to a better effect. The spell also protects you from neg levels unlike the items and there really isn't that many negative energy attacks to warrant having a full time gear slot for it.
[...]
Personally I like my healing less spiky and more consistent which is what the DT armor offers, along with about 10 more HP per cast on average. Also means you don't have to swap your weapon, add in Quicken spell feat and you can now heal in combat with out loosing a beat.
One last thing for some reason (even though ddo wiki says there BTC) I'm under the impression you can buy Stonedust Handwraps off the AH (maybe its the ASAH) have you checked?

Well, if I am wrong then it is the first time in history because I never make misteaks!

If DDO is similar to games I have worked with in the past then it should just be a matter of loading the item with an editor, changing the fields and saving it. They might even have a drop down menu for the different standard damage choices.

Any weapon that has an elemental theme and provides protection should have the same protections as the elemental. The way the Earth bow is now makes the enchanter that created it seem kind of crazy because most Earth Elementals do not have protection from acid. The obvious choice for protection on this bow is the one thing that most Earth Elementals have in common, DR /-. Changing the protection on the bow to DR 15 /- like a Greater Earth Elemental works for me. An alternative would be to delete the protection completely and add more enchantment points to allow the player to have more options for enchanting the Tier 3 version of the bow.

Before I had armour with Deathblock I used to take a healer that could cast Deathblock or Mass Deathblock. That did not work well against the Beholders in "Invaders!". They just dispelled the Deatblock and then coloured my Ranger dead. After I started wearing Deathblock armour they never dispelled the protection again. Healing was never a problem since my character has always carried a wand, potions, and can cast healing spells. By using all three healing is fairly rapid but it does cost some platinum.

The Visor of the Flesh Render Guards seems to only cast the spell which should be dispellable. That would not be nearly as effective as having continuous non-dispellable Deathward on the armour. The Visor is not something I can "farm" for anyway since I do not own the pack and won't be buying any new ones for a while.

One possible problem with continuous Deathward is that it would be too powerful and some vulnerability to negative energy might have to be added to restore balance. They should change the spell on Dragontouched anyway because the rune has always been labelled "Deathward" and most people know what that means.

About the Handwraps. I checked both auctions and all pawn shops for them over about a week. The only similar item was Vampiric Handwraps on the shard exchange. I thought about buying them to see if they would work for the bow but chose not to because they were expensive. Decided to cut my losses and go for the Earth bow instead.

Well you are 100% correct that Turbine dropped the ball on the upgrading of the Damage Step of Named Weapons. This was an effect that happened with the Ghostbaning, where Developer Feather of Sun explained that they opted to make Loot gen better to make the game easier for new players and this added in paragon and epic damage steps to all Loot gen, in effect making them better then a lot of existing Named and Raid gear that exist in the lower levels.

Well said, Ungood, but it exposes a logical error on their part. One of the main reasons for questing in DDO is to obtain improved gear. It makes no sense for a player to purchase a pack and quest for the items when the items are inferior to what the character already has.

Many Packs, like Reavers Refugee, Lord of Blades, well, pretty much all the packs took a beating to how named and raid gear currently stacks up against Loot Gen gear. In fact as the game gets even higher in level, loot gen starts to take best in slot.

Yes, I know the gear from some packs does not stack up since I got some of the gear and tested it. Still, a few quick changes to the gear would change all that. Changing the base damage of the bows I metioned to 1.50 [1d8] would put them in the same league as random bows and the named bow's enchantments might even make them slightly better. One tiny change would make the bows worth the effort to get them. My L16 Earth bow does work but it takes two or three more hits on average than my L10 and L12 bows and they are taking more hits than they used to.

Imagine if Dragontouched armour could actually be enchanted with continuous Deathward as the rune indicates. That would make it better than any L16 random armour I have ever seen. A tiny change would make a large difference. It would also be a correcion since it is a "Deathward" rune, not a "Deathblock" one.

The advantage to this however, is as you level up your character, you will never need to do a quest or quest arc to get some named gear that will make your character better, as you will be able to get the best gear you need for your character from loot gen alone..

But the players lose one of the main reasons for doing the quests in the first place.

While I think this bad form on Turbines part, that is what they have opted to do with their game.

Perhaps some people at Turbine do want to make improvements but are having trouble figuring out what players actually want. What players say they want is often a different thing from what they really want. Suggestion threads are of little help since posts usually go off on tangents. When the posts stay on-topic they often wind up expanding into complete quest revisions instead of converging on simple solutions that are quick and easy to implement. Even simple improvements to a few pieces of loot could make the rewards from more packs worth the TP and time needed to complete the quests. Everybody wins.

[Douglas21]

Well, if I am wrong then it is the first time in history because I never make misteaks!

If DDO is similar to games I have worked with in the past then it should just be a matter of loading the item with an editor, changing the fields and saving it. They might even have a drop down menu for the different standard damage choices.

There might be unintended interactions with the code that automatically sets damage dice for Cannith Crafted weapons based on their enhancement value, and getting that interaction right would be extra work requiring programming, not merely item editing. Whether that is actually the case is just speculation on our part, however.

Any weapon that has an elemental theme and provides protection should have the same protections as the elemental. The way the Earth bow is now makes the enchanter that created it seem kind of crazy because most Earth Elementals do not have protection from acid. The obvious choice for protection on this bow is the one thing that most Earth Elementals have in common, DR /-. Changing the protection on the bow to DR 15 /- like a Greater Earth Elemental works for me. An alternative would be to delete the protection completely and add more enchantment points to allow the player to have more options for enchanting the Tier 3 version of the bow.

DR/- is common to all elementals, not just earth elementals, so that would be a "generic elemental" bonus rather than a "specific element" bonus. In any case, the theme is about elements, not about elementals. The word "elemental" in the item name is used as an adjective meaning "related to an element", not as a reference to elemental creatures.

Before I had armour with Deathblock I used to take a healer that could cast Deathblock or Mass Deathblock. That did not work well against the Beholders in "Invaders!". They just dispelled the Deatblock and then coloured my Ranger dead. After I started wearing Deathblock armour they never dispelled the protection again. Healing was never a problem since my character has always carried a wand, potions, and can cast healing spells. By using all three healing is fairly rapid but it does cost some platinum.

The Visor of the Flesh Render Guards seems to only cast the spell which should be dispellable. That would not be nearly as effective as having continuous non-dispellable Deathward on the armour. The Visor is not something I can "farm" for anyway since I do not own the pack and won't be buying any new ones for a while.

One possible problem with continuous Deathward is that it would be too powerful and some vulnerability to negative energy might have to be added to restore balance. They should change the spell on Dragontouched anyway because the rune has always been labelled "Deathward" and most people know what that means.

Imagine if Dragontouched armour could actually be enchanted with continuous Deathward as the rune indicates. That would make it better than any L16 random armour I have ever seen. A tiny change would make a large difference. It would also be a correcion since it is a "Deathward" rune, not a "Deathblock" one.

The Deathward rune on Dragontouched probably did give actual continuous death ward when it first came out, but back then deathblock did not exist and continuous death ward on items was (I think, I hadn't actually started playing back then myself) common. The developers decided that undispellable death ward on items was in general too powerful, and replaced it game-wide with deathblock. There is not and never will be a continuous death ward item of any kind in the game until and unless they reverse that decision. It is far more likely that they would relabel the rune than that they would restore its effect to full death ward.

About the Handwraps. I checked both auctions and all pawn shops for them over about a week. The only similar item was Vampiric Handwraps on the shard exchange. I thought about buying them to see if they would work for the bow but chose not to because they were expensive. Decided to cut my losses and go for the Earth bow instead.

They would not have worked, good thing you saved your money. To make the upgraded items yourself, you have to have both base unupgraded items, and all the base items bind to account on acquire. Once upgraded, they become bind to character on equip instead, and are initially unbound. You could potentially find the finished product on auction, but otherwise you have to do the quests yourself.

Your options for acquiring the Petrifying War Bow are:
a) buy it already completed
b) run all the quests yourself on your current character
c) run some of the quests on other characters on the same account and transfer the items through the shared account bank
d) run Eyes of Stone in a group with someone else who has flagged for it. Once another member of your group enters the quest, you should also be able to enter despite not having done its prerequisites. Doing it this way you will not get an end reward or credit for story arc progression, but the Stonedust Wraps come from a chest inside the quest so that doesn't matter for what you want.

Anyway, how named items in heroic levels stack up against lootgen is a systemic problem. The items were introduced a long time ago, the game moved on, and developer attention is focused primarily on new content, with old items getting updated usually only when an automatic system-wide change is made, such as the recent doubling of all item dodge bonuses when those bonuses were made non-stacking. We are unlikely to get item-by-item updating by anything short of a "return to the classics" style release, where an entire major game Update (capital U) is focused on updating old content. If you want to push for that, go for it and I'd be happy to see it happen, but Turbine will likely need some serious convincing that the return on their effort would be worth it.

[Scrabbler]

The Deathward rune on Dragontouched probably did give actual continuous death ward when it first came out, but back then deathblock did not exist and continuous death ward on items was (I think, I hadn't actually started playing back then myself) common. The developers decided that undispellable death ward on items was in general too powerful, and replaced it game-wide with deathblock.

Those guesses are basically all incorrect. (Well, they do think undispellable Deathward is too strong, but that was a choice made 7+ years before coding on DDO even started).

The items were introduced a long time ago, the game moved on, and developer attention is focused primarily on new content, with old items getting updated usually only when an automatic

What's funny is that there was a manual update of named loot that looked at each item and adjusted it by hand (2 or 2.5 years ago), and then 4-6 months later they globally changed random weapons and armor, making all that named loot effort obsolete and incorrect.

[Scrabbler]

Before I had armour with Deathblock I used to take a healer that could cast Deathblock or Mass Deathblock.

It has never been possible to cast a Deathblock spell in this game.

After I started wearing Deathblock armour they never dispelled the protection again.

Deathblock items give no protection against negative levels, which is the key threat from Beholders. It will stop Finger of Death, but that's a minimal threat to people with regular Fortitude.

They should change the spell on Dragontouched anyway because the rune has always been labelled "Deathward" and most people know what that means.

The dragontouched rune was not originally labelled "Deathward". It was labelled "Eldritch".

[Ungood]

Well said, Ungood, but it exposes a logical error on their part. One of the main reasons for questing in DDO is to obtain improved gear. It makes no sense for a player to purchase a pack and quest for the items when the items are inferior to what the character already has.

Yah I know, and what is even more disheartening about this, is that many named items got a revamp with the whole "Slot" craze that hit the game, and many named items were given slots and had levels added to them, which was not what I would have called an improvement, in fact many items became worse.

However, even with this messing around with loot, weapons did not get a realistic revamp to keep them inline with Loot Gen increments.

Many things that were at one time top tier, like Dragontouched, have been left to rot and feel behind with all the changes the loot in this game has had done, which is quite sad.

However, the Com Gear that you can get once you get to Evening star pretty much out strips anything you could have gotten in Heroic Content, and then the loot gen takes over after that.

Perhaps some people at Turbine do want to make improvements but are having trouble figuring out what players actually want. What players say they want is often a different thing from what they really want. Suggestion threads are of little help since posts usually go off on tangents. When the posts stay on-topic they often wind up expanding into complete quest revisions instead of converging on simple solutions that are quick and easy to implement. Even simple improvements to a few pieces of loot could make the rewards from more packs worth the TP and time needed to complete the quests. Everybody wins.

Yup.

But that's Turbine for you, not to be dismissive, but get used this kind of mentality from them.

[BDog77]

Well, if I am wrong then it is the first time in history because I never make misteaks!

This was a joke, right? Cause it's funny, right here.

[Waaye]

There might be unintended interactions with the code that automatically sets damage dice for Cannith Crafted weapons based on their enhancement value,[...]

It is possible to use an algorithm to generate a series of weapons but if they did that for the Earthbows then the L16 version shouldn't be 1d8 when the L20 version is 2 [1d8]. It is the 1d8 on the L12 and L16 Earth bows that is out of place.

[,,,] the theme is about elements, not about elementals. The word "elemental" in the item name is used as an adjective meaning "related to an element", not as a reference to elemental creatures.

The flavour text at the bottom of the bow sheet states, "This longbow is part of a mass-produced line of House Cannith weapons with elementals bound to them."

Earth Elementals usually don't have protection from acid but they do generally have DR /-.

Someone chose to use a bound elemental theme but then added a protection that Earth Elementals generally don't have. That seems odd and the protection from acid is not all that useful when questing in the field and especially in combat.

The developers decided that undispellable death ward on items was in general too powerful, and replaced it game-wide with deathblock.

How do you know that?

Your options for acquiring the Petrifying War Bow are:

The option I chose was to abandon the plan and move on to other things.

[...]Turbine will likely need some serious convincing that the return on their effort would be worth it.

Perhaps they are already convinced since the company did ask for player feedback on how to improve the game.

It has never been possible to cast a Deathblock spell in this game.

Of course you are right and thanks for the correction, Scrabbler. What I meant to write was that the Beholders rapidly dispelled the Deathward protection on my character and then proceeded to kill him to pieces. After getting the Deathblock armour my character stopped dying instantly even after the Deathward protection was dispelled.

Deathblock items give no protection against negative levels, which is the key threat from Beholders. It will stop Finger of Death, but that's a minimal threat to people with regular Fortitude.

That is why continuous Deathward on the Dragontouched armour would be the cat's pajamas.

The dragontouched rune was not originally labelled "Deathward". It was labelled "Eldritch".

Okay, but even if that is true it does not change the fact it was "Deathward" when I bought the pack. They owe me the armour with Deathward that I paid for and not the zeroth level Deathblock armour I received.

Many things that were at one time top tier, like Dragontouched, have been left to rot and feel behind with all the changes the loot in this game has had done, which is quite sad.

However, the Com Gear that you can get once you get to Evening star pretty much out strips anything you could have gotten in Heroic Content, and then the loot gen takes over after that.

Well, I got to Eveningstar at level 14 but I found my Deatblock Feycraft leather in a chest in Eberron. My L16 Deathblock III Spiritcraft leather, however, was purchased at the pawn in Eveningstar.

Sadly, the weapon pawn there rarely has bows at my level and when he does they are generally too weak to use. My armour is okay for L16 but my old bows only work properly in at-level quests when the difficulty is set to casual.

But that's Turbine for you[...]

The company has asked for suggestions and our obligation ends when the suggestions are given. What they do after that is on them and they will be the ones to suffer if they don't find some way to attract and retain new players.
It is not hard to see why so many newcomers leave DDO before reaching the end game. The quests become much harder in the mid-teens and substandard gear for those levels is a big part of the problem. Forcing subsonic newcomers to group with meta-gamers, travelling at point five past lightspeed, in order to get better gear isn't helping much. By the time a newcomer's character's level reaches the middle teens most need good gear that can be obtained solo. Without that gear the quests are much more difficult to complete and many newcomers give up. The solution to most of these problems lies with the developers and not other players.

This was a joke, right? Cause it's funny, right here.

No, I never make jokes about personel perfecshon and any one that says different is likely to be a practicing philatelist or, possibly even a prestidigitator. Now stop with these comments before I resemble your remarks, and I am unanimous in that!

[Ungood]

It is not hard to see why so many newcomers leave DDO before reaching the end game. The quests become much harder in the mid-teens and substandard gear for those levels is a big part of the problem. Forcing subsonic newcomers to group with meta-gamers, travelling at point five past lightspeed, in order to get better gear isn't helping much. By the time a newcomer's character's level reaches the middle teens most need good gear that can be obtained solo. Without that gear the quests are much more difficult to complete and many newcomers give up. The solution to most of these problems lies with the developers and not other players.

Their solution was "better loot gen". I mean overall it did put better gear in the hands of newer players, after all, your loot gen bow and armor are better then the 'best' named gear I had to play with when I was leveling.

But I still think it was poor forum to just leave the old gear abandoned, it reduces the motive for newer players to want to buy content packs to get the 'better' gear and makes it so that older players have no urge to run the content unless it is high in exp.

Sorry you had to go and do the whole quest arch's to discover that little skeleton in the closet here at DDO.

[Lonnbeimnech]

Deathblock items give no protection against negative levels, which is the key threat from Beholders. It will stop Finger of Death, but that's a minimal threat to people with regular Fortitude.

Except when you pass your save and take 900+ points of negative energy damage...

[Waaye]

Their solution was "better loot gen". I mean overall it did put better gear in the hands of newer players, after all, your loot gen bow and armor are better then the 'best' named gear I had to play with when I was leveling..

Thanks for sharing your hands-on experiences, Ungood, that information is golden.

My Spiritcraft amour is excellent L16 armour and my loot gen bow is a terrific L12 bow. Sadly, the bow now often takes three or more hits to kill something like a rat in L16 quests at level and I can't seem to find a better bow. I was saddened to discover that the L16 Earth bow that took so long to get was taking a couple more hits to kill mobs than even my L10 Bow of the Elements (Air). If the Earth bow was tweaked to 1.50 [1d8] it should hit as hard at the L10 bow and if I can then figure out how to craft the Tier 3 version it might even become better than my L12 bow.

But I still think it was poor forum to just leave the old gear abandoned, it reduces the motive for newer players to want to buy content packs to get the 'better' gear and makes it so that older players have no urge to run the content unless it is high in exp.

The company is trying to do more with less people and they still need to provide a constant supply of new content to please subscribers. Altering old content has to be a lower priority but it still might be possible for a few small changes to be made to existing items. Perhaps suggesting what tiny changes should be made to which individual items to motivate players will help. It couldn't hurt.

Sorry you had to go and do the whole quest arch's to discover that little skeleton in the closet here at DDO.

No need to apologize because it is not your fault and It probably is not the developer's fault either. Assigning blame is not a constructive use of time anyway but tweaking a few items could be. Imagine Dragontouched armour with constant effect Deathward. Would that be worth getting, or what? For me, that one tiny change would make the entire quest arch worth the trouble and expense of doing it. As is, my Dragontouched leather is an ornament I keep in the bank until I need the space and have to get rid of it.

[Ungood]

No need to apologize because it is not your fault and It probably is not the developer's fault either.

Actually it is, they made a very conscious decision to revamp Loot Gen and many in game effects, it was a large scale project to make it happen. When they added in Scaling Deathblock, it was a deliberate move to make the DT rune DB-0, as opposed to making it DB-10 to show that it was a named item, and thus should have a better ability to it. While I am aware that DB-10 is not death ward, it is still far better then DB-0, which is what can be found on lower level loot gen.

This was directly the fault in the way the developer that handled the loot revision and how it would affect the rest of the game, mainly named gear and items.

Truth is, they could and should have revamped the DT runes when they revised how effects worked in the game, but they directly opted not to. This was not an oversight, this was them deliberately ignoring an entire pack and gear series, as you will note that other packs like say Orchard,Sands, the named gear has slots, this was yet another gear revamp done directly to named items, which Dragon Touched was again ignored during, and IMHO was in the most need.

So no, it was directly the fault of whoever was in charge of dealing with the many loot changes. And while your suggestion is a decent one, it won't happen. Not because of you, or the quality of your idea, but because what you have put out has been suggested many times before, and they chose to ignore it then.

[harry-pancreas]

Thanks for making an on-topic post, Grailhawk.

The specifications of a bow are important but since the target is part of the calculation I always do extensive empirical testing before adding it to the list of bows I carry. The Earth bow did not perform as well as my current bows so I parked it in the bank until it is fixed or I reach L20 and can get the 2 [1d8] version. Correcting the Earth bow should not take much effort since 1.50 [1d8] is a standard type. Changing the protection to DR X /- like an Earth Elemental should be simple too. Everyone would benefit from these tiny changes.

My Ranger has a healing sceptre since the other prizes for completing "Invaders!" made no sense at all for a Ranger. The way my character has evolved proteciton from death effects needs to be on the armour.

My old Feycraft armour had Deathblock III but its AC protection was not the best in L16 quests. Dragontouched offered better protection and Deathward instead of Deathblock. So I bought the pack to get the armour and obtain a Deathward rune. After spending a great many hours obtaining the items imagine my shock and dismay when the "Deathward" rune applied Deathblock [0] to the armour instead of Deathward as indicated. At that point I fully understood why so few people buy that pack anymore.

Now I have L16 Spriticraft that matches the base specifications of Dragontouched and came with Deathblock III. The Dragontouched is parked in the bank until I decide what to do with it.

Deathward is a standard spell and can easily be added to the armour. It is just a matter of editing the armour object, selecting the correct spell, and making it continuous, constant effect, or whatever the case might be. If that makes the item too powerful then it would be a simple to add back a 50% vulnerability to negative spell power. A tiny change to the armour would dramatically improve its utility. Everyone would benefit from this tiny change.

as someone said, do your homework, no ugly susprises.
http://ddowiki.com/page/Dragontouched_Armor
Rune of DW = DB


my suggestion: if you want to play this game as you did PnP with a "fleshie" DM, you will be dissapointed.

[Thrudh]

My solution to the problem was to abandon the quest but why is almost every poster talking about the morality of the quest when the thread is about suggested ways to improve gear?

Your "solution" didn't get you a bow.

And stating that anyone who completed that quest should immediately become "chaotic evil" means you really don't understand D&D alignment as well as you think you do.

[Waaye]

Actually it is, they made a very conscious decision to revamp Loot Gen and many in game effects.

It is great that you care enough about this game to stick around and try to fix it. The ultimate responsibility for how DDO evolved lies with the developers and they will be the ones to suffer for their mistakes. All that players can do is suggest improvements and hope the better ones are adopted. If good suggestions are ignored then we will have done all we can and can do no more. Most of your posts seem to be about improving the game and that is the best you can do too.

While I am aware that DB-10 is not death ward, it is still far better then DB-0, which is what can be found on lower level loot gen.

Even DB-3 would work better for me making the Dragontouched as good as my random armour. Continuous Deathward would make it better as long as they don't gimp it too much.

[...] what you have put out has been suggested many times before, and they chose to ignore it then.

The gaming industy has been in decline for quite some time. As an owner of the original "horse armor" I know that some companies institutionalized customer abuse several years ago. Despite almost universal condemnation of the armour and the term appearing in several urban dictionaries the horse armor remained a necessity that cost real money. Suggestions to make the armour available for game currency were ignored as I expect suggestions to improve Dragontouched in DDO will be. As the old saying goes "Hwa is thet mei thet hors wettrien the him self nule drinken [who can give water to the horse that will not drink of its own accord?]" See http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/y...-to-water.html

[bsquishwizzy]

Named gear should be better than random gear. It should be and needs to be but often it is not.

I stopped reading this at this point.

The VAST majority of named gear is FAR more powerful than random stuff. Your premise is all wrong. Unless you just happened to be lucky enough to get a couple pieces of specialized random gear before they hosed the random loot system in U20 (?), your average pull from a chest is going straight to a vendor.

Plus, they are slowly upgrading named loot in the quests, adding augments, and so on. You just don’t hear much about it.

[Asurax2001]

Waaye,

I agree with you that some of the named items seem a little "tame," but I can see the point of people who claim that some of them are being revamped as specific quests are updated. (Personally I would love to see Cannith Crafting get an overhaul even more than named loot in general.)


However, I'd like to offer you a "plot recommendation" with respect to your strict alignment role-playing, which is something I do as well (to some extent anyway). I avoid "Purge the Heretics" because its storyline doesn't fit with what I want to think of my character; it would be nice if that quest gave you the option to join with the "cult," and help them repel an attack by Gnomon instead. (In which case maybe you would get favor from a different patron with friends in the cult -- maybe The Free Agents -- instead of The Silver Flame.)

I think you're missing an opportunity with Attack on Stormreach, especially since you've already spent money on it. Remember, turning someone to stone is not killing them; otherwise "Stone to Flesh" would always have to be followed by "Resurrection." Which means those statues you leave behind aren't simply evidence -- they are *witnesses*.


Here is the "internal" storyline I made up for my own character, after playing through "Frame Work" as a Bladeforged Paladin.

"I don't know what Dorris was thinking ... nobody is going to mistake a walking wall of Adamantine swinging a greatsword for a medusa, even in the heat of battle. The only way this would work is if I snuck around and did everything in secret, so that even the stoned minotaurs never knew what hit them. But I'm no spineless assassin ... for one thing I look horrible in black. So I fixed one of those convenient ballistae they left lying around, launched myself into the middle of their 'fortress' (was gonna be a tomb soon if they weren't careful), roared my allegiance to my God into the sky, and declared my intent to protect Stormreach before their temporarily surprised faces.

"They had the opportunity to flee. Or to forswear their alliance to that medusa scum. Instead they chose to doubt my faith and challenge my strength, and thus the blood began flowing. (Sure, a little of my oil flowed too ... I am my God's champion, but not immortal, and it makes him more proud if I fight on even against enemies that can injure me.)

"But I had to send a message as well. If I simply left the entire population dead, then there would be minimal benefit to the citizens in Stormreach praying for my assistance. So I walked right up to one of the minotaurs and, even as he tried to cut me down himself, leveled the wand at his face and turned him to stone. Then I did it to a second one right beside him -- so that he would have seen exactly what happened to the first just before it happened to him. That was my message; your alliance to that wicked medusa, and your plans to help her invade our city, are what brought this divine wrath down on your horny heads.

"After it was over, the only minotaurs I left alive were the ones I had turned to stone; I even rang every bell in that fortress, just to make sure every warrior there had an opportunity to repent or be judged. I knew that the first of the medusa's other allies to come upon this slaughter would immediately bring in someone with 'Stone to Flesh' to find out what had happened. And then they would know exactly who did this, and the meaning of turning just a few of them to stone as witnesses would not be lost on them. It would then be up to them to continue with their plans, or pay better heed to my warning than the minotaurs did.

"Back at Stormreach, the general consensus was that the medusa had lost her allies because they blamed her for the attack. Rumors are free and easily spread, and good news travels particularly fast when everyone is in fear. But that was ok, let them think the worst of those monsters; it's not as though distrust and backstabbing is rare among their kind. But I knew the truth. The medusa lost her allies because they have learned to fear my righteous blade. As they should."

(Edit: Sorry, bad memory ... this was in his Warforged incarnation, before I resurrected into a Bladeforged. I think I was still lvl 13 or 14 when I ran this quest, although doing it solo I was definitely over the quest level. But the idea behind not acting like an assassin or framing someone else for your actions is still equally valid.)

[Ungood]

I stopped reading this at this point.

The VAST majority of named gear is FAR more powerful than random stuff.

You are incorrect Sir.

Loot Gen currently has the best numbers in the game, and since worn slots have have dual colors, that means you have 4 ability Loot-gen, still dropping today, which makes it better then pretty much all your named gear in the epic game, and, even level 16 Loot Gen weapons have a better damage profile then Heroic Level Raid gear.

Sure, a lot of loot-gen goes to the vendor, not because it is worse then named, but because there are better loot-gen combos that are more sought after.