Myth Drannor --- And the Question of Loot...

[Mordenkainen]

I predict, the level 34 loot that will be in Myth Drannor will be incredibly OP (over-powered) relative to anything we had before. My reasoning:

1.) The current endgame gear of 29-32 which can be had by playing most or all of the legendary raids and quests are fairly ubiqutous and attained by most everyone.

2.) They need to make a clear-cut distinction between the loot now and the level 34 gear in order for people to consider buying the new expansion. Mainly because DDO has a "secondary advancement" process of TRing which requires none of the new endgame content. Basically, who cares? I don't need anything that drops from it.

3.) Albeit many play for the new content itself (true) but judging by how SSG structures their sales and pricepoints and what is included in said pricepoints it feels like power gain and character advancement is the main focal point for purchase.

4.) Myth Drannor's lore is conducive to truly mind-blowing loot. FR is probably the most OP campaign setting, with magic up the gills and "mundane magic items" that can be found in any simple traveling "magic shoppe" that'll make Strahd pee a little on himself. The creme de la creme of places that stores the most powerful of said magic items (stuff from literally the fallen Netherese Empire) is all in Myth Drannor. It's like the Walmart of "come on DM where's the good stuff?"

5.) I think the Devs want a clear distinction between "Epic vs. Legendary" . Like I said there hasn't been any clear "jump" from high Epics (level 29 gear) and level 32 gear per se. Really, a Tail of Suulo is really not much more DPS than my Attune dino falch (as long as someone in the group has fetters or whatever being applied) . I think 34 gear is going to clear away any doubts, pretty much put the foot down and say "yeah, it's hands-down better than anything you got right now."

With these new changes and the coming power upgrade do you believe it's warranted? and do you want to see a clear jump/demarcation in power from "what we got now" to the "new stuff"?

 

[rabidfox]

They literally redid endgame gear a while back with stat squish where they setup the itemization curve to be consistent and smooth to prevent power jumps. I see zero reason why they'd suddenly change their minds now because of another 2 level bump (just like they didn't change the curve for the level 32 bump). And those who do endgame content will very much tetris their gear for the slight gains that ML34 gear will offer.

 

[DBZ]

If it aint why bother still have to sell it

 

[Lazuli]

They literally redid endgame gear a while back with stat squish where they setup the itemization curve to be consistent and smooth to prevent power jumps. I see zero reason why they'd suddenly change their minds now because of another 2 level bump (just like they didn't change the curve for the level 32 bump). And those who do endgame content will very much tetris their gear for the slight gains that ML34 gear will offer.

This. I expect changes in line we had with Dread.

 

[Matuse]

Drannor gear will be slightly better than what we've already seen, but nothing ridiculously better. Except weapons. They won't do better than Dino Bone. Dino Bone weapons will stay best in slot until the level cap gets to 40.

I completely expect that the Drannor gear will supplant a lot of what we've already seen, but some Vecna/IoD gear will remain usable. I don't think it will be possible to build a complete gearset out of Drannor items - there will probably be 1-3 slots that have no Drannor drops of any kind, and you will need to fill that out with other expansion drops.

Being completely uninterested in chasing the uber zomgwtfpwnbbq best endgame stuff evar, I consider everything after Saltmarsh to be sentient food. I'm building gearsets of 28-30 gear to level from 30+ as the level cap goes up and we eventually get legendary past lives. Once the cap is 40 and 40 gear starts being the norm, I'll build gearsets out of that. Everything between 30 and 40? Not going to bother with it at all. So I view all of the 31-39 expansions in the terms of what do they offer for levels 1-29.

 

[DBZ]

Except mythic reaper gear bonuses add up to more power then gear effects on there own so are you upgrading or downgrading

at that point since the reaper systems are the worst to work with 50 frags max should be it

 

[Nickodeamous]

I didn't re-gear with Vecna (even though I farmed the gear). Not only is it farming gear, its using sentience tools and jewelers toolkits which for me was not worth it for an extra +1 here and there. Unless Myth Drannor gear makes it worth my while, I'll most likely stick with what I have until a higher legendary level comes available.

Same with weapons. I didn't switch out IOD Attuned for 0.2 more W. For me personally, It's immaterial.

I also have not used my reaper frags. 75 is too much. 50 is where it should be. (max)

I'm of the mindset that I enjoy this game enough to play with friends and maximize my player experience, but for me, I'm a bit of "saver" when it comes to waiting for the next best thing. But I certainly see the excitement of getting that extra +1!

So, for me, if it makes sense, I'll farm, tetris, etc...if not, I'll just keep playing and enjoying the game!

 

[Sophie The Cat Burglar]

I also predict that tomorrow morning I will wake up, look at the clock, look out the window, look at the clock again, pull the covers over my head, and go back to sleep.

 

[Dandonk]

I didn't re-gear with Vecna (even though I farmed the gear). Not only is it farming gear, its using sentience tools and jewelers toolkits which for me was not worth it for an extra +1 here and there. Unless Myth Drannor gear makes it worth my while, I'll most likely stick with what I have until a higher legendary level comes available.

Same with weapons. I didn't switch out IOD Attuned for 0.2 more W. For me personally, It's immaterial.

I also have not used my reaper frags. 75 is too much. 50 is where it should be. (max)

I'm of the mindset that I enjoy this game enough to play with friends and maximize my player experience, but for me, I'm a bit of "saver" when it comes to waiting for the next best thing. But I certainly see the excitement of getting that extra +1!

So, for me, if it makes sense, I'll farm, tetris, etc...if not, I'll just keep playing and enjoying the game!

So much all this. It's a huge cost as well as grind and time to work out the tetris to regear. And the benefits are not that great since the stat squish.

I'll get the new stuff, and have fun playing the new quests, no doubt. But the regearing is just an annoyance at this point, and with the benefits as small as they are... well, personally I'm still using feywild sets. It works fine, even in r10 questing*.

* I don't do high skulls raiding, so things might be different there.

 

[Mordenkainen]

Interesting.

So, the gear doesn't interest anyone here, "unless it's a significant jump in power".

What's fascinating is that perhaps there is too much horizontal progression with gear (curse cards, mythic, reaper) and all that entails in terms of grind (and grind and grind) and that actually puts a dampener on elevating (at least incrementally) one's gear power (unless of course it's a sizeable jump.)

 

[Wini]

So, the gear doesn't interest anyone here, "unless it's a significant jump in power".

Sure

Moving 14 filigrees + 16 augments and solving a new tetris to get +2 DC seems kinda unenticing, don't you think?

I think that's the reason some pals are still using Sharn or Feywild as main gear...

 

[PraetorPlato]

I'll regear, but I have 31/32 raid-gear-level stuff on the stats I care most about, so there are very specific things that would need to be offered.

 

[FuzzyDuck81]

Part of the big thing with Myth Drannor is wild magic, so I predict items with shifting effects similar to how the playing card throwing dagger works, or wild magic surges that put one of a selection of effects like the polycurse dagger or a potion/wand of wonder.

A few more items that have more interesting special effects rather than just outright numerical benefits would be nice too.

 

[Dandonk]

Sure

Moving 14 filigrees + 16 augments and solving a new tetris to get +2 DC seems kinda unenticing, don't you think?

I think that's the reason some pals are still using Sharn or Feywild as main gear...

It is a huge cost, for sure.

And grinding enough to get mythic and reaper on all that new stuff... it'll take a long, hard, nasty grind to get something better than what I have, since the stat squish made the difference so small. It just doesn't feel worth it to me.

 

[DilemmaEnder]

4.) Myth Drannor's lore is conducive to truly mind-blowing loot. FR is probably the most OP campaign setting, with magic up the gills and "mundane magic items" that can be found in any simple traveling "magic shoppe" that'll make Strahd pee a little on himself. The creme de la creme of places that stores the most powerful of said magic items (stuff from literally the fallen Netherese Empire) is all in Myth Drannor. It's like the Walmart of "come on DM where's the good stuff?"

A small quirk with what you present about "places that stores the most powerful of said magic items (stuff from literally the fallen Netherese Empire)" - Netheril was not the most powerful empire of magic ever in the history of Toril or even Faerun proper. Much argument could be had about what Kingdom/Empire was/is the holder of that title but we can be clear that it isn't Netheril.

Netheril holds the title of most powerful HUMAN empire of magic - to great excess and eventual detriment to the whole world. Even during Netheril's time they could only begin to compete with the Evermeet and the other great Elven Lands. That was their greatest gripe, that the Elves wouldn't recognize their parity. Netheril couldn't command the learnings of High Magic the way the Elves did except with their most powerful of mages (approximately numbering less than 100 throughout its history and less than 24 at any one point in time). What made them powerful was their refusal to give in and eventual adaptation of High Magic principals into something of a system they could teach to more humans. They also extrapolated how to utilize the ideas of a Mythal (which they could not make) into Mythallar that they then went on to create all of their civilization upon.

Mythallar are the problem: among other benefits they allowed magic items to be created without many of the normal inconveniences (no XP expenditure) so nearly anyone could create basic items and even low level arcanists could make a living doing so. The catch was that these items relied on being within range of the Mythallar. Outside of the City's Mythallar's reach the item became an inert piece of regular material.

This isn't to say that Netheril didn't contribute to magic or wasn't a force to be reckoned with but that what they did was study magic without inhibition and to excess until it broke them. They exhibited the greatest hubris of any Human kingdom before or since and are often pointed to as the reason the greatest of elven secrets (knowledge) can never be put in other hands again.

So to your point - The Nether Scrolls and Karsus Stone being the exception, you can't expect to find very many functional magical artifacts from Netheril's time. Now knowledge and writings from those times, even the now inert and shattered pieces of Mythallar are still highly sought after much like we study egypt or dinosaurs today. They have value but not daily usefulness.

 

[DilemmaEnder]

Now if you really want to see what they could possibly do in the future to keep us entertained and enthralled with powerful enemies and mystical magic items, just pray that they do introduce EVERMEET.

That is what I hope the Expansion right that brings us to 38 is based upon.

If you know, you know. If not, maybe I'll do a lore dump some other time.

Also, for what it's worth, I want Planescape (Sigil) to be our Level 40 Expansion. From there it is easy to go sideways with Mini-expansions that specialize in different planes without requiring more POWAH. Instead it could focus on environmental detriments that require specialized gearsets. Think gearset for this plane or similar environments (or enemies) but not best in slot in all areas.

 

[Jack Jarvis Esquire]

No chance of a jump imo. SSG's strategy has been clear on power creep since they planned to go to 40 and stat squished and rebalanced at 30 accordingly.

What makes anyone think they will abandon that now 40% of the way in?

 

[DBZ]

Money make it happen and take it

Marketing 101

 

[Jack Jarvis Esquire]

Sure

Moving 14 filigrees + 16 augments and solving a new tetris to get +2 DC seems kinda unenticing, don't you think?

I think that's the reason some pals are still using Sharn or Feywild as main gear...

Personally I find the incremental gear Tetris to be one of the most intriguing challenges in the game.

YMMV, of course, but am I initced? You betcha!

 

[popejubal]

Thank you for posting a poll with two real options that don't insult the people who would choose the one that you disagree with. That's good progress.