Complete make-over of Epic items

[yerkyerk]

Yes, pet boosts could be very welcome, but perhaps we should simply add some new content aimed at pet boosting, as that is sorely missing on unique items.

[1nosed1]

Hi people.

This may just partly fit here, but here it is:
Is there some way to make the "easter egg" sets - those that can be spawned with a code - valuable? Maybe this could be part of this item changing movement also. Some of them - the ninja set to me - look so awesome, but unfortunately there's absolutely no point wearing them on any level ):

Update: The monster set items mentioned below is also a great idea.

[RBradleyM]

I agree with changing the easter egg items I find it rediculous that any of them are yellow items they should be at minimum green. Also some of the regular and more crappy epic items could be changed to rare items to allow for the addition of charms this would improve these items without the hassle of re balancing them all should only apply to one off items though not set items. I also wouldn't mind seeing Monster Infrequents have set bonuses apply for collecting and using the complete set. IE Satyr Mage set wearing all three pieces could grant a bonus to fire damage. MI set bonus should only apply when the complete set is used and to same level MI's.

[convoi]

Some MI sets give the same bonus on every item. Wearing them as a set makes no sense at all. Who needs 200% cold resist..

For me, the question with epics is: Do you want your toon to be able to wear it in legendary? Or in epic? Imo the worst thing with epics is their level requirement. When I equip a level 36 axe "Lypikouri" I'm only one or two levels away from using a legendary axe with way better attributes.
True, if I was playing untwinked, I might not have found a better weapon...
Still I think level requirements for epics should be lower, especially as there are so many green weapons I can import from later difficulties with extremely low requirements. If you want epics to compete with legendaries, the level requirements are ok, but then they should give better bonuses.

[yerkyerk]

Well, I haven't experienced much problems with that; if I find weapons, I can usually equip them.
I think we should keep the untwinked player in mind at any rate. If you want to twink, that's fine, but it will unbalance the game in more than one aspect, something we're not going to balance against.

MI as sets is a different subject, discussed elsewhere.

[Felipe]

I think that adding some passive skills, maybe even a good active one on set item completion bonus would be an awesome idea.

[yerkyerk]

It would be, but apparantly that was tried but was not possible to implement. Still, different topic.

[Effovex]

Wow has this ever gone anywhere?

Here are a few guidelines I think are worth following:

1) low level epics should help specific builds that have a hard time at lower levels, but get better later on, or be generally good but not excellent - it's okay if there are better greens commonly available for specific characters, because people are going to collect their epics and use the low-level ones on most of their starting characters. I think the game does this fairly well.

2) mid-game items should be quite powerful for broad spectrums of characters; melee, ranged, spellcasting, physical, piercing, elemental, specific masteries but not specific builds, etc. You should be pretty happy about getting them, because they're likely going to help at least one of your characters unless you play only a very specific type. Greens should be potentially more powerful for specific builds when they just have the right mods for your character and are slotted just right, but epics should be generally useful in a certain level range and something you'll feel good for keeping around for your characters, but will somethings eschew for an item more appropriate to your exact build. This is one of the sore points of the game - a lot of mid-level epics are extremely disappointing. I just found Armor of the Tempest and Armor of Khepuris in a row and I was so disappointing I felt the need to come onto the forum and see if anyone had modded the epics. Caster items with 400 required strength, really? Khepuris isn't just for a specific build, it looks tailor made for a terrible build that casts lightning spells with barely any intelligence. Why would you create items for build no one is going to want to play?


3) End-game items should make you want to try that strategy or even make it good. Make the armor of khepuris a lvl 60 items with good armor and bonuses good enough to make people want to build that defender/storm caster. The reason this is alright on end-game items is that you are more likely to want to try a specific build for an end-game item than for a mid-game item.

The basic principle is that epics should become more specific and more powerful as you get closer to the end of the game, so that you're always happy about getting them.

I also think some work needs to be done on set items' drops. I don't know but I always get the same fricking pieces of set items: I have a billion obsidian helms and greaves, a dozen imperial bracers (and one yang), 3 warrior's bracers, but I've never seen the rest of the sets. I've a dozen of mid-level characters (in act IV or in early epic) and have never found a full set of anything. Maybe I'm just unlucky but it's pretty frustrating.

[Violos]

This is not limited to epic items, but there are a few types of weapons that could really encourage more variety in builds if they existed. I'm talking about special purpose / utility items that do little to no physical damage, but instead give other effects.


In particular:

- Weapons that do mainly cold/lightning/fire or vitality damage, for intelligent melee fighters, as was basically agreed on here.

- Weapons that mainly add buffs/res/skills/recharge/castspeed, for casters who don't need a staff. (Like Phorkos' Trident or Soulflay Fork can do, just more specialized.)

- Weapons that add attack effects like splash damage, confusion, DA reduction, stun etc. For knife throwers or a dual wielders' off-hand. (Like Folg or Mbutis Advocate's granted skills, but with higher chance and less strength req.)



For example...

- Something like Soul Feast could become a 1h wand for mages. In this case, one could add +skills to Spirit and some -recharge. Then also change the damage to vitality in case a hybrid wants to hit stuff with it.

- Remove physical damage from Teslos, but in turn give its stun/shock a close to 100% chance to proc (off-hand or int weapon).
Or better yet, make every hit trigger a mini-thunderclap (for knife Sorcerers - they only get the %boni and granted skills from weapons).

- Make a dagger that has below-average damage, but very high pierce conversion.

- Make a whip or hook (for warrior's off-hand) that mainly serves to reduce enemy's chance to block, DA and run speed.

- ...



And on the already "element"-themed weapons, I would always change the damage type to the instant version of that damage. E.g. make Icefire Pike do direct cold and fire damage instead of physical + long burns.
Also, lower str reqs on those items, or replace with int reqs.