U75 Preview 2: Chill of Ravenloft Loot

[Venatori d' Argonnessen]

It feels like there is a lot of item bloat

There are *many* helmets and cloaks that are functionally equivalent outside of shifting which insightful stat or absorb on them. Which is very strange given that this is an expansion with a crafting system. Why are the items not allowed to just craft the insightful / quality absorption

Reiterating what other people have said, the skill augments and spell dc augments feel very lack luster. Even the skills combined into one augment for all skills and/or increased in value... Im not sure I would use them ever outside of maybe on a swap. The spell dcs would need to be 1 higher than the spell focus mastery augment available elsewhere, but Id much rather see those slots spent elsewhere.

That being said, there are some cool things here!
Spell point % aug, force absorb, warlock love, dodge cap! Crafting quality stats! All things Im glad to see

Here are some other augments Id like to see or think are interesting in one form or another

Solar
Elemental Absorb, from guardian of the gates
Attack / damage, from ravens / vulkoors might / wrath of sora kell
Flat armor class, from sirens ward / wayward warrior
Flat hp, from white dragonscale set
Rune arm dcs, from renegade champion

Lamordia crafted augs
Individual Spell lore for weapons

Items!
Some cool, some strong, some very strong, some that are unfinished
Overlooking ones that seem to have the wrong values (heroic on legendary or vice versa), here are the ones that I think need to be changed and why

Heartshard is very very very strong. This should probably be 10% leg bonus to hp, *maybe* 15%. The only non shield that has this bonus is a cloak that is otherwise very bad for anything that wants to damage mobs. This item would be significantly better since its both 5% more, and has 3 more powerful effects. At 10% it would still save a legendary feat or an augment set for anyone that wants the bonus

There are a large number of helmets and cloaks that are functionally equivalent outside of there being 6x for each stat / element. Feels like this should just be (re)craftable in some form. These effects are quite good and I would like to see them kept, I just think its a bit much to have all these items that are nearly the same

Competence 15 elemental resistance on the armors is quite lackluster at level 34. Id be more interested in something a bit more potent. FoM, wind through the trees, elusive target, block elements (absorb while blocking) all come to mind if you want a 'unique' affix. A bit more mundane would be quality fort, parrying, spell saves or similar

There are a lot of items that seem to be missing their static effects. Here are some I would be interested in (mostly have to be not enhancement since the crafting exists)
Insightful combat mastery
Quality deadly
Parrying
Insightful amplifications
Insightful false life
Legendary armor piercing

Cheers! Thank you!

 

[mikarddo]

Lamordia Crafted Augments
The Augments for the above slots are all crafted. Check the Test Dojo for the full list, but as a guideline:

• Almost all recipes that existed in Dino Bone have an analogue here.
  • Most of those analogues have higher numbers than the Dino Bone version. Some remain the same.
  • Ingredient costs are 1:1 what they cost in Isle of Dread, just with Lamordia ingredients.
  • There's a fair few new recipes that weren't present in Dino Bone. We may have room for more, so let us know what you'd like to see!
  • Some recipes are modified for Heroic for balance, or do not exist in Heroic (because the thing they did just does not have a balanced way to exist at this level).

Wrt. "room for more." If you have the tech for it I would suggest you add some very strong effects that work ONLY in raids.

a) 50% spell cost reduction for offensive spells (raids only)
b) +100% spell crit damage modifier for <elemental type> (raids only).

At cap we are a huge issue where offensive (dps) casters are neither desired in quests nor raids.
In quests you just need to add the same R7+ reaper modier to martial dps.
In raids casters need to last longer AND pack a bigger punch. The two suggested augments may help with that without even remotely making casters great in raids.

c) +3 insightful spell focus mastery
Simply to help casters more as they are in a very bad spot at cap (not for leveling, just at cap).


Wrt. the loot you have posted - its rather boring to be honest.
The level 8 propulsion boots may be a nice swap in for someone without the Chaoasmancer past lives just for the 1 "jump".
The level 34 trinket with +20% hp offers some new options which I like. I do understand why others may see them as a bad idea though as that means there is little tradeoff to get the highest bonus unlike using the Tower Shield.

 

[Lotoc]

On one side, really glad artifacts aren't rare drop table this time around and glad that when it comes to rare drops quests have at most two rare pieces of equipment rather than the situation in Myth Drannor where quests had 4 or 5 rare items specific to them.
However, no direct weapon suite drops (akin to RL, FW, MD etc.) puts the quest lows on potential sentient xp and reaper shard output especially with augments competing to drop with equipment and is putting a very heavy burden on the regular drop odds to feel rewarding.
Please consider putting the Augments (both rare drop and regular) on a separate drop channel from the named equipment so the drop tables are less congested.

 

[seph1roth5]

I'd like to see more unique effects, instead of the same old same old being jumbled around again. Like people have pointed out, the skill augments aren't exciting or wanted at all. And many of the numbers, even legendary, are just too low to care about because of the way effects are forced to scale at level.

Like 15 competence bonus to fire/acid/cold/electric resist. That would be halfway decent at level...6? Yeah it stacks, but once you get to to mid heroics and higher stuff is doing much much more than that. Hell I died at lv 4 to a fire champ whose dot was ticking off on me for 50 and there was nothing I could do about it lol. Not sure if a resist energy 10 spell would've even saved me.

I think you can take a lot of the effects that are lower level stuff and bundle them together, without making an item OP. Same with effects that are easily slotted like FF or feat immunity.

Some ideas:

Slipstream: Featherfall, speed, tumble recharges 0.5sec faster

Potionmaster: Ranged alacrity, When you drink a potion, gain a bonus to movement and attack speed

Mechanical Heart: Repair amp, repair spellpower, auto-repair

Houndmaster: Boost to pets/summons/etc.. While your companion is nearby, gain a stacking buff to some defenses (prr, mrr, saves?)

Faithful Hound (collar): On-hit, has a chance to heal the player

Battlearm: some Melee and Ranged power, runearm charging speed

Unquenchable Rage: Rages last 25% longer, relentless fury

Derring-Do: elusive target, tumble, +1 tumble charge,

Dervish: doublestrike, speed, dodge

Lullaby: Spells have a ~5% chance to put enemies to sleep

Stormrider: Electric resist/electric absorption, lightning strike on hit

Ballad of Heroes: Inspire Courage also gives a bonus to healing amp, movement speed (action bonus)

Chosen: Counts as a favored weapon, HP.

Dark Tendrils: Spells and attacks have a chance to curse/no save

Packleader: Whenever you summon a summon/pet/hireling/whatever, they gain a big buff to their damage/attack speed/dr/etc.

Monstrous: When in a major form, gain a (some kind of stacking) bonus to str and con, penalty to dex/something else?

Iron Lungs: Bonus to breath DCs, waterbreathing, some kind of HP

Phalanx: Aura that increases AC, PRR, MRR DR, higher the more people w/ the effect are nearby

Swaying: Wind through the trees, quality dodge, uncanny dodge recharges 25% faster

Threshing: 10/20/30% Strikethrough, bigger maiming

Shining Beacon: Light spellpower/crit, healing amp

Ascetic: Ki on hit, passive ki regen, resting is 2x as fast

Whirling Staff: Deflect arrows, deflection AC, balance

Precise Strike: Armor piercing, paralyzing (like the heroic one, on-hit instead of just a chance on hit with a DC. Maybe while centered?)

Angelic Shroud: MRR Cap, regeneration (but a non-suck one, at least 10/6 sec?)

Heaven's Wrath: Bonus to hit/damage vs demons and devils, banishing (with a good threshold)

Fortress: Sheltering+Resistance

Sharpshooter: bonus to crit confirmation/dam = archer's focus stack

Pincer: Offhand +W, offhand hit chance

Skulking: hide+move silently, sneaking speed, assassinate

Umbral: Lesser displacement+ghostly (enhanced?)

Mutilating: Cha-damage on hit, extra cha damage on crit. On vorpal cast crushing despair, no save

Elemental Prowess: While in an elemental form: Fire/acid/cold/electric absorption and spellpower

Chaostream: On-spell hit chance to confuse, chaos spellpower+crit

Death Rattle: Whenever you kill a monster with a spell, cast negative energy burst at that spot (1s icd, using your SP if that's possible?)

Spellmaster: 10% faster cooldown on SLAs (that possible?), exceptional potency (not some crap number though)

Covenant: Eldritch blast fires 10% faster (again, possible?), bonus based on pact ala jidz
- Fey: (stacking?)Sonic SP, exceptional bonus to enchantment DC
- Fiend: Fire SP, fire absorption+resist
- GOO: Acid SP, immune to mind-affect/compulsion
- Celestial: Electric SP,
- Abyss: Negative SP, warlock negative stuff won't heal undead
- Carceri: Cold SP, chance to freeze on spell-hit

Twisted Shield: Alignment resist+absorption

Cavalry: big DR while mounted (50? Something to just make it so you don't get plinked off your mount as easy)

Kaleodoscopic: On-vorpal blind/no save, immune to blind, true seeing

 

[Eme]

it strikes me as such a fragmented chore and unreachable for the more casual player

 

[zandoe]

I'd like to see more unique effects, instead of the same old same old being jumbled around again. Like people have pointed out, the skill augments aren't exciting or wanted at all. And many of the numbers, even legendary, are just too low to care about because of the way effects are forced to scale at level.

Like 15 competence bonus to fire/acid/cold/electric resist. That would be halfway decent at level...6? Yeah it stacks, but once you get to to mid heroics and higher stuff is doing much much more than that. Hell I died at lv 4 to a fire champ whose dot was ticking off on me for 50 and there was nothing I could do about it lol. Not sure if a resist energy 10 spell would've even saved me.

I think you can take a lot of the effects that are lower level stuff and bundle them together, without making an item OP. Same with effects that are easily slotted like FF or feat immunity.

Some ideas:

Slipstream: Featherfall, speed, tumble recharges 0.5sec faster

Potionmaster: Ranged alacrity, When you drink a potion, gain a bonus to movement and attack speed

Mechanical Heart: Repair amp, repair spellpower, auto-repair

Houndmaster: Boost to pets/summons/etc.. While your companion is nearby, gain a stacking buff to some defenses (prr, mrr, saves?)

Faithful Hound (collar): On-hit, has a chance to heal the player

Battlearm: some Melee and Ranged power, runearm charging speed

Unquenchable Rage: Rages last 25% longer, relentless fury

Derring-Do: elusive target, tumble, +1 tumble charge,

Dervish: doublestrike, speed, dodge

Lullaby: Spells have a ~5% chance to put enemies to sleep

Stormrider: Electric resist/electric absorption, lightning strike on hit

Ballad of Heroes: Inspire Courage also gives a bonus to healing amp, movement speed (action bonus)

Chosen: Counts as a favored weapon, HP.

Dark Tendrils: Spells and attacks have a chance to curse/no save

Packleader: Whenever you summon a summon/pet/hireling/whatever, they gain a big buff to their damage/attack speed/dr/etc.

Monstrous: When in a major form, gain a (some kind of stacking) bonus to str and con, penalty to dex/something else?

Nice list. This issue, as many things with our game, is beyond my comprehension. If all SSG has zero imagination thats fine. AI helps even here.
Here is a list of 100 ideas I got, well, when I bothered to ask.



1. Arcane Surge: After casting a spell, gain +75 Universal Spell Power and +10% spell critical chance, stacking up to 5 times for 30 seconds.

2. Shadow Veil: Provides 25% concealment and +15 bonus to Hide; on critical hit, blinds nearby enemies for 10 seconds (no save, DC 80).

3. Vitality Drain: On hit, siphons 50 health from the enemy to heal the wielder; double effect against undead.

4. Thunderclap: 20% chance to stun enemies on hit for 6 seconds with +100 sonic damage in a small area.

5. Elemental Harmony: While attuned to an element, gain 50% resistance and +200 spell power to that element.

6. Berserker's Fury: Increases doublestrike by 15% during rage, but reduces dodge by 5%.

7. Mystic Ward: Boosts MRR by +75 and 10% chance to reflect spells back at casters.

8. Agile Leap: Enhances jump by +50 and grants permanent feather fall; tumble recharges 50% faster.

9. Poison Master's Touch: Applies stacking poison (10d6 per stack, up to 5) on hit, with 15% chance to reduce enemy Constitution by -10.

10. Holy Radiance: Deals +10d6 light damage to evil creatures and provides +75 healing amplification.

11. Rune Binder: Bind runes for temporary buffs like +15 Strength or +30% movement speed for 1 minute.

12. Echoing Strike: Melee attacks have 25% chance to echo, hitting an additional nearby target for full damage.

13. Frostbite: Slows enemy movement by 20% on hit with +8d6 cold damage, stacking up to 5 times to freeze for 6 seconds.

14. Summoner's Bond: Increases pet/summon health by 50% and damage by 30%; gain +50 PRR when pet is active.

15. Deflective Aura: Grants +15 deflection bonus to AC and 50% chance to deflect arrows.

16. Chaos Weaver: Spells have 15% chance for random additional effect like confusion (DC 80) or +100 extra damage.

17. Iron Will: Boosts Will saves by +15 and grants immunity to fear effects.

18. Flame Warden: 50% fire absorption and 20% chance to ignite enemies on spell hit for 10d6 fire over time.

19. Stealthy Step: +20 to Move Silently and +30% sneaking speed; turn invisible for 10 seconds every minute.

20. Divine Favor: +10 to hit/damage vs. undead/outsiders; +50 HP.

21. Kinetic Charge: Builds charges on movement (up to 10), release for +50% speed or +200 damage burst.

22. Necrotic Touch: +8d6 negative energy damage on hit, heals wielder by 50 if undead.

23. Wind Dancer: +15 dodge bonus and +20% movement speed; +10% evasion chance.

24. Beast Tamer: 25% chance to charm animals on hit for 30 seconds; +30% animal companion stats.

25. Arcane Reservoir: Stores up to 500 spell points, release for instant spell cast up to level 9.

26. Crushing Wave: Water-based attacks knock down enemies (Fort DC 80); permanent water breathing and +50 swim.

27. Thorn Shield: Returns 50% damage to melee attackers; +15 natural armor.

28. Spectral Sight: Permanent see invisible; +20 to Spot and Search.

29. Rage Extender: Prolongs barbarian rage by 50%; reduces cooldown by 30%.

30. Melody of War: Bard songs grant +20% attack speed to allies in aura.

31. Earthshaker: 20% chance to trip enemies on hit (Reflex DC 80); 50% earth resistance.

32. Void Caller: Spells pull enemies closer (Will DC 80); +8d6 void damage on crit.

33. Healing Echo: Healing spells affect an additional target at 50% power.

34. Precision Aim: +75 ranged power and +2 critical multiplier.

35. Dragon's Breath: 15% chance to breathe fire/cold/acid in cone for 20d6 damage (Reflex half DC 80).

36. Guardian Spirit: Summons a spirit that absorbs 500 damage over 30 seconds.

37. Lightning Reflex: Boosts Reflex saves by +15 and +15% evasion chance.

38. Bloodthirst: Gain 100 temporary HP on kill, stacking up to 500.

39. Illusionist's Gambit: Creates 3 decoys on dodge; +20 to Bluff.

40. Stone Skin: Grants DR 50/adamantine for 1 minute, usable 3/rest; -10% speed.

41. Soul Binder: Captures enemy souls for +50 spell power per soul (up to 5) for 1 minute.

42. Swift Blade: +20% attack speed; +15 to Tumble.

43. Toxic Cloud: On hit, releases poison cloud dealing 10d6 poison in area, lasting 10 seconds.

44. Celestial Grace: Grants flight for 1 minute, 3/rest; +200 light spell power.

45. Demonic Pact: +50 damage but drains 10 HP per second; toggleable.

46. Forest Whisper: +50% camouflage in wilderness; +20 animal empathy.

47. Arcane Echo: Spells have 10% chance to recast at 75% power.

48. Iron Fist: Unarmed strikes gain +15 enhancement; +10 Stunning Fist DC.

49. Shadow Step: Teleport 30 feet in shadows every 10 seconds.

50. Heroic Inspiration: After kill, +10 to all saves and skills for 30 seconds, stacking up to 3.

51. Frost Ward: 50% cold absorption; slows attackers by 20% for 6 seconds.

52. Battle Chant: War cry intimidates enemies, reducing their attack by -10 for 20 seconds (Will DC 80).

53. Mana Shield: Converts up to 500 damage to spell point loss (1:1 ratio).

54. Primal Roar: Frightens beasts (Will DC 80); +20 to Intimidate.

55. Ethereal Form: 50% incorporeal for 20 seconds, 3/rest.

56. Rune Explosion: On crit, explodes for 15d6 area damage.

57. Divine Wrath: +15 hit/damage vs. evil; smite evil +10 uses per rest.

58. Agile Defender: +10 dodge cap; +15 parry bonus.

59. Venomous Bite: Adds 8d6 poison to natural weapons; stacking -10 Con debuff.

60. Star Gazer: +10 to divination spell DCs; foresee attacks for +10 AC vs. next hit.

61. Storm Caller: Summons lightning on spell cast for +10d6 electric; +200 electric spell power.

62. Life Stealer: Drains 2 levels on vorpal (Fort DC 80); gain 2 temp levels for 1 minute.

63. Wind Shield: 50% deflect ranged attacks; 50% air resistance.

64. Beast Form: +15 Str/Con in wild shape; -5 Dex penalty removed.

65. Spell Weaver: Reduces metamagic costs by 2; +10% spell crit chance.

66. Iron Body: Transform to iron golem for 1 minute (immunities, +100 PRR), 1/rest.

67. Shadow Bind: Roots enemies in shadows on hit for 10 seconds (Reflex DC 80).

68. Holy Avenger: +10d6 damage vs. evil; paladin smite +50 power.

69. Arcane Armor: Mage armor with +15 AC, +50 elemental resistances.

70. Fury of the Wild: Druid spells gain 20% wild surge chance for extra effects.

71. Silent Killer: +10 assassinate DC; quiet kills prevent alerts.

72. Flame Blade: Weapon deals +8d6 fire; 25% chance to ignite for 10d6 over time.

73. Mind Flayer: Psionic blast on crit confuses for 10 seconds (Will DC 80).

74. Dragon Scale: +20 AC; 50% elemental resist based on dragon type.

75. Time Bender: Slows enemies by 50% for 10 seconds (Will DC 80); self-haste +30% speed.

76. Undead Bane: +10d6 damage to undead; +10 turn undead level.

77. Elemental Fury: Cycles elements on attacks; 30% absorption to current element.

78. Battle Master: +10 to combat feats DCs (disarm/trip/sunder).

79. Mystic Eye: Permanent true seeing; +10 illusion DC.

80. Rage of the Beast: Animal rage grants +15 Str/Con for 30 seconds.

81. Arcane Bolt: Fires bolts automatically every 5 seconds for 10d6 damage; +200 spell power.

82. Thorn Mail: Thorns deal 50 damage to attackers; +5d6 bleed.

83. Divine Light: Blinds evil for 10 seconds on hit (Fort DC 80); healing burst +500 HP on crit.

84. Shadow Dancer: +20 bonuses in dim light; 50% concealment.

85. Storm Surge: Electric chain on hit to 3 targets; +30% speed in storms.

86. Life Force: +10 HP regeneration per second; +200 max HP.

87. Poison Ward: Immunity to poison; cure poison on allies in aura every 10 seconds.

88. Warrior's Spirit: +10 to fighter feats; stance buffs +50 PRR.

89. Spell Guard: Absorbs one spell per minute; 20% counterspell chance.

90. Beast Master: Commands animals (charm DC 80); pet +50% loyalty and stats.

91. Frost Nova: Area freeze for 10 seconds on command (Reflex DC 80); +200 cold spell power.

92. Holy Shield: Blocks evil attacks (+50 AC vs. evil); +75 MRR.

93. Arcane Tempest: Spells create storms for 10d6 area damage over time.

94. Iron Defender: Summons construct pet with 2000 HP; +100 repair amp.

95. Shadow Blade: 25% incorporeal chance; +8d6 negative energy.

96. Divine Intervention: Auto-resurrect once per quest with full HP/SP.

97. Elemental Mastery: +100 spell power to all elements; control elements for effects like summon elemental.

98. Battle Rage: Taunts enemies (Will DC 80); +100 PRR while taunting.

99. Mystic Veil: 50% illusion concealment; permanent displacement.

100. Eternal Flame: +8d6 fire damage; self-heal 50 HP per second over time.

 

[Ratman]

A few things… a bit of a mixed bag of commentary, so bear with me, but there are some things I really like and some things that seem like they may be continuing the trend of “incredibly frustrating.”

So first, really like the semi-transparency of loot chance…however, as someone who has farmed for the MD Goranthanil artblade cloak at least 400x and used all rerolls on nearly every single chest, I am feeling sort of drained & cheated — and if this is even harder I think I will have to call it quits on spending on shards to attempt anything “rare.” It’s just WAAAAY too hard. Rare should not be that kind of impossible. If this is harder (while very much appreciating the honesty) you will have to count me out for re-rolling chests any longer because there is just no way to actually get any of these items.

I don’t any longer believe that “treasure based on class” settings in the UI actually work either. I have it set specifically to get treasure based on class. Yet… I’ve received ONLY the cloaks for other classes — and add to this that it was all while running greater TF pots, sovereign discoveries and even running discoveries specifically during Treasure boost weekends & you have a person here (me, lol) who normally has no problem spending on the game (which I don’t normally mind because it supports the game directly) but who is now seeing that spend as no more than a cash grab where no real boost exists.

That is, as I mentioned, incredibly frustrating. That really should be looked at for a change. If I am spending shards — and spending that kind of time — I absolutely expect a payoff in a somewhat reasonable amount of grind.

So, maybe on the rare loot chests you can consider going back to a raid mechanic where every 20th (or 25th) chest you get either an automatic rare roll to pop or 10x the chance. At the very least, you need to consider changing ransack rules on chests with the rare loot. Maybe don’t allow the ones with rare loot to ransack at all? At the very least, it allows players a more efficient use of time. If you can remove ransack with new pots, you can likely remove it on specific chests.

Also, at this level, it’s perhaps a good time to bring back the Ravenloft belt effect out of the basement and return their spell power effects to the customizable items. Would also be pretty poetic to do that in a new Ravenloft! That would make for a really good effect people will be happy about and more incentivized to grind for.

Adding something like 3 Spellpower and exactly the same artifact or profane bonuses you can already get is really not an incentive for a re-grind for that boring of a change and is frankly somewhat underwhelming. +7 stats could be in some sort of augments or in crafting (haven’t seen if it’s in the crafting yet, full disclosure).

As an aside I’d say with 4 new levels (which is how Augs and effects usually jump in power) isn’t it also time to hop all stats by 1? Additionally, Festive augs should perhaps be upgraded at future events to +3.

The dual skill bonus augments bonuses should probably be somewhat higher. 1 blast die? Not spending a slot for that. +3 to a skill? The same spell pen? These Augs don’t seem like too many are going to be strong enough to spend a precious slot on. Give me +5 spellcraft and perform together — or +3 spellpen that stacks? That’s worth it.

Another example is something like Haggle which has zero real use for a character other than to be used as a swap item for more plat. That’s fine of course but if a haggle roll was worked into chest tables… and that gave me a chance to either get better loot or knock an astral shard or two off a reroll? Then that’s something worth farming. So unless it’s going to also get me a higher loot chance, it’ll have little to no use to any of my characters. A rare treasure boost Aug? Count me in.

So also some positive things:

Some of the best communication I’ve ever seen on treasure was this post. That transparency is very welcome. Please though, continue that trend & tell us the actual rare chance. If it’s less than 1% that’s probably why it’s not being communicated. If there is a fear of backlash from the community by disclosing it, maybe that’s an obvious answer on what needs some changing.

I also think the customization of more gear is very apropos and is a great step forward. Pleasantly surprised. Haven’t delved into the effects that are available yet, but having Dino effects on more gear is a REALLY good incentive to go after that gear, since there is no current alternative to giving up Dino weapons, armors, orbs/shields, helms & cloaks. Really good and player friendly move.

I like you’re recognizing that new augment effects are welcome additions.

As a last suggestion (for future content)… please bring on Planescape & the Gith!!

 

[SquireZed]

Loot rate transparency does make it feel better, but there are some pain points. Obviously rares are going to still be polarizing- "higher than past content" can do a lot of heavy lifting when it could be anything from "increased by 1/1000 chances per chest" to "you might actually see this without no-life grinding Lamordia" so that is a sticking point I would like to see clarified but perhaps it's just not ready for announcement yet. I do think it feels bad to have more chances for a rare augment than for a rare item, though, even though it sounds like that's a quest-by-quest thing. Even though augments are more versatile, it feels like it's easier to slot a mediocre augment and accept the hit to BiS than it is to try to juggle loot tetris when the holy grail drop is missing. I don't personally care about grinding out every BiS item in DDO, but I know some people will care a lot.

I think this concern also does apply to augments more generally, even outside of rare loot- if I have a 33% chance to pull an item, but 3/7 of those are augments, well, I have a stock of sun/moon augments already, so until I actually pull enough loot to slot all those (which I haven't done in MD either) those are basically either just more variety of choices (some of which is just going to be worse than what I have for my use cases, though some will be better) or redundancy. There has to be a better way to do augment drops than effectively dropping the named item drop rate to 20% for the loot people actually think of as named items. While I don't care about farming out named loot, to be honest- I enjoy having good loot, and while I can't be bothered to no-life to farm rares I don't think running a saga with an average drop rate of 2.4 named items from primary chests is going to feel good. Depending on the number and accessibility of optionals, and the dramatically lower chances of pulling a named item per open from them since the tables are 1/4 (unless they're weighted, in which case the information is basically useless), you might not pull a single optional named item per saga at a roughly 8% drop rate if you get one optional chest per quest (which to be fair could be a low estimate).

I am glad to see a crafting system in heroics though. It often feels like heroics get less love than epics and legendary given the number of chains that have mechanics and content like raids locked behind higher levels. While I get it makes sense from a narrative perspective, mechanically it has made heroic feel a lot more like a life treadmill than a game to actually play- which is hard when you try to introduce new players to the game. I don't have the opportunity to hop into Lamannia right now (computer issues- RIP my two week old 5070) but it sounds like a promising system to make that level range more interesting. Don't know if it will change the whole "speedrun 20" heroic experience, but I sure hope it will at least add some more variety. It looks interesting and I think it could feel great if done well. In legendary (and if not balanced carefully in heroics too I guess) it does sound maybe like a bit of powercreep but to be honest complaining about powercreep in 2025 DDO is a bit like complaining that your stock market portfolio went up- as long as we don't get any weird balances spikes (looking at you Heroic Tethyamar) I'm fine with 2025 DDO being a bit splashier with damage than older content.

Anyway, long rambling aside, I'm definitely excited to see how this all works out. I do think it's kind of bad practice to dilute the named item tables with augments, though. Even if the augments were always good (and, to be honest, sometimes they just aren't useful for you even if they are technically good... or you already have that one in spades because in the grand scheme of the universe RNG averages out but it hates you in particular...) it makes a 33% chance of named items which is encouraging (one in three isn't bad, that's a passing grade... I think. I may have failed math) actually feel like a 19% chance of named items (excluding augments) appearing. And if anyone gets as excited seeing an augment appear as a new named item, let me know, but even augments I want to use don't evoke the same feeling as named items- especially if you can't find the items you want to put the augments into in the first place.

 

[SquireZed]

I don’t any longer believe that “treasure based on class” settings in the UI actually work either. I have it set specifically to get treasure based on class. Yet… I’ve received ONLY the cloaks for other classes — and add to this that it was all while running greater TF pots, sovereign discoveries and even running discoveries specifically during Treasure boost weekends & you have a person here (me, lol) who normally has no problem spending on the game (which I don’t normally mind because it supports the game directly) but who is now seeing that spend as no more than a cash grab where no real boost exists.

Treasure based on class has never worked on named loot to my knowledge, it's just for the random gen loot you find and even then it's based more or less on items that your class typically has proficiency with (so, if you're playing any build that adds a heavier armor proficiency or more exotic weapon type, it won't factor that in I believe). You'll only get the named loot based on table rolls, which are as far as I'm aware agnostic of any character specifics (but, of course, RNG will decide that while statistics dictate that probability will even out as sample sizes increase it would be *really funny* to give you everything *except* the one thing you're looking for.)

 

[Spyderwolf]

Oooooor maybe they're gonna make TS (etc) able to autofind doors with a search check based on your DC!

I doubt it but it's possible XD


Not to disagree with your overall argument, but going from 5% to 6% is a 20% increase in drop rate even if it's just +1% directly. Presented as above can be confusing for the less math-inclined among us.

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I feel like it should be well over 10% for the Rare Table personally though, I completely wrote off everything "rare" in MD from use in any gearset I'll consider.

Will likely do the same with Chill if it goes live as-is. I don't play the same build twice, and grinding out something I'll use at most for a few weeks for push raids just isn't worth it to me.

Like a 50/35/15% split would make each common item 12.5% of the time, an augment ~1/3 of the time, and each of the Rare items/augs 5% (so 2.5x as rare as the base items). Enough you'd feel the grind vs a common item, but an average of 1/20 of pulls, or ~1/60 on E/R1.

I totally get the 20% increase. I’m more coning at it from the average player thinking 20% more of nothing is still nothing. I also agree the rare table should be 10% minimum. 20 would be where id put it personally.

 

[J1NG]

I thought that Y1NG posted some datamined examples of why the numbers are the way they are: It's on purpose; different items on the "named list" have very different drop rates. SSG does not use fair, player-focused design.

I'm sure @Ying is actually chuckling at this as much as I am. But @Ying is not the same as @J1NG (the player who's main on every server is named Yijing which is a romanization of the Chinese characters 昜經). I have no idea who this @Y1NG is supposed to be...

But agree that the drop rate is different as posted by @Ying earlier in this thread. And as my own testing in various threads have shown (or maybe I haven't posted as much of those yet) you can have RNG favored characters or accounts even which is outside of what statistics can show.

J1NG

 

[waxinglyrical]

"(The odds of reaching this table are higher than in past content)."

What are the odds please?

Even if on parity with the other items it's 1 in 24. Which is OK, but I suspect it's a lot less than parity.

You have dared to ask for the unknowable. I get the sense that the contents of Pandora's box will remain a closely guarded secret.

 

[Epicsoul]

The Light and Alignment spell critical damage augment values are incorrect. Instead of 23/12/6, it matches dread values at 20/10/5. I did not test other augments.

 

[Rull]

• Once you have reached the Rare Item Table, you have a chance to get one of the following:
  • Rare Named Item A
  • Rare Sun/Moon Augment 1 (In a few dungeons, this may be Rare Named Item B)
  • Rare Sun/Moon

Are you kidding? three rare items in the same table? making the items 3 times as rare as the already ultrarare items we know...

We're going to need new terminology for this.

I thought you were going to fix the extreme rarity, not double down (or triple down) on it...

 

[Triaxx2]

I wonder if there's a possibility to have a 'roll on the rare table' as a potential loot option out of the saga. Doesn't have to be a high chance, but the same way you can randomly get an artifact. And even then it shouldn't be just 'item' but an actual 'random item generator'. So instead of just deciding not to get it you're taking a risk instead of the other sure items.

 

[Ying]

Where are the minor artifacts? The only minor artifact I found is the Experimental Rocket Boots, and it doesn't have the correct number of chromatic augment slots.

 

[Zvdegor]

Warforged-friendly itemization has been woefully lacking for years, so please make an effort to support effects like Greater Auto-Repair, Repair Systems, Insightful/Quality Reconstruction, Insightful Repair Lore, Epic/Legendary Nimbleness (on a docent only to give better parity), etc.

This! Make Warforged like item support equal to fleshy items. Gear tetris is much harder for a WF because there is no repair amp items out there and if there is it is a bracer or a boot. Hopefully the Lamordia aug system will turn this a bit easier but would like to see more WF specific named items and augments!!!

 

[Cowzrul]

I thought that Y1NG posted some datamined examples of why the numbers are the way they are: It's on purpose; different items on the "named list" have very different drop rates. SSG does not use fair, player-focused design.

My data shows that at least for my set of 4 mains across all of the expansions Ravenloft and newer, the named item drop rate chance is significantly lower than the 33% rate. I haven't done enough data collection to determine if it's specific to character or expansion within that dataset. From what I recall, J1NG's data shows that some accounts/characters seem to be "luckier" than others in a statistically significant way, and that at least for some of the quests that he's gathered data on the drop rate does appear to be 10/16/33% (or close to it). The devs simply will not comment on this at all which I find incredibly disappointing and cowardly.

 

[Grymli]

You had it right, bone weapons are the way to go. Take the luck/powerlessness/frustration out of the game.

Ingredients, in EVERY chest, and NOT bound, are the way to go. It turns the grind from an oft-frustrating roll of the dice to something we can plan and control. I know how long I have to grind IoD to finish a weapon because I can see the ingredients trickling in. With every chest I get closer. It's exciting, and, more importantly, not frustrating. I'm in control, and don't feel cheated by poor luck. This is basic token economy, Psych 101.

Yes, the augments should be craft-able/tradable for ingredients... yes, the Solar and Lunar augments should be craft-able/tradable for ingredients... and yes, named gear, which should still fall normally, should also be tradable for ingredients. It can be A LOT of ingredients for the named gear, as long as there's an alternate to 'keep ransacking the chest until your luck changes, sucker.'

 

[Eme]

I'd like to see more unique effects

they forgot to add the fun and excitement