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Alright, so now that some people have a vague idea of who I am and what I’ve been working on, I figure it’s a decent time to try to address some of the questions/concerns/complaints (…overwhelming joy?) that some of you have regarding what I talked about on the livestream last week. For those of you that didn’t watch, well, I’m one of the itemization devs, and I’ve got some things planned.
To keep things relatively simple starting out, I’m just gonna go point by point detailing some of the major intended changes for adventure/dungeon/raid loot. I worry that I may not have done the best job conveying some of the finer details during the stream, so I will also do my best to expand upon each bullet as I get to it. (As I reread this post, I realize that it gets pretty wordy. So umm…sorry.)
- Gear Progression
- With these changes, we want to create a more solidly structured gear progression for players at end-game. That is, we don’t want pieces of adventure gear being BiS until Datascape, or blue crafted gear to be on par with Genetic Archives drops in terms of effectiveness. Although we do have a tiered structure in place currently, we are looking to reinforce this a bit more through stat and item level adjustments to create a more noticeable transition from adventures into dungeons, and dungeons into raids. As I mentioned during the livestream, we will also be displaying item level in tooltips in the future, allowing for a much more definite indication of an item’s power level.
- I should also note that, with these changes, the intent is not to phase out crafting. If a tie-in is made with dungeons and raids, requiring participation in order to craft certain items, then yes, these should certainly be just as powerful as the items that drop alongside said ingredients or schematics. For the crafted items that do not require any sort of group coordination or gameplay, however, then it should be expected that they are less potent than what can be obtained in some of the game’s hardest content.
- Stats
- Although not the case with every piece of gear, we have noticed a large number of items that are either split in their class prioritization, or contain stats that just aren’t all that beneficial to the intended roles (yes, we realize that brutality and strikethrough are not all that attractive to healers). Our intent here is to go through every drop and ensure that it is geared towards a specific class and role (there may still be some generalities – heavy tank armor, melee dps accessories, healing accessories, etc), and that all stats present are useful. Players will also start to notice more of a Grit presence in order to better prepare them for future challenges.
- Given the number of changes that are required here, the most efficient solution is likely going to be that we release brand new gear into these spaces. We are retiring a large number of items as it is, and worry that making adjustments to existing gear could end up nerfing/buffing too many players too randomly and unpredictably, due to changes in item level and class/role intention. We do not want you to feel as though time in the spaces has been wasted, however, so we are also looking into viable means of compensating players that have already dedicated a fair amount of time here.
- Loot Tables
- Table Size: As a player, I hate the idea of going into a fight knowing that I have a 1 in 24 chance of seeing the item I want, noticing that I have a few other players in the raid to roll against, and then realizing that if I don’t get it, I have to wait another week to try again. Some RNG is good. This RNG is bad. I would much rather see each boss in our game with a much smaller, more specific loot pool, than go into a space knowing that there is a lot more gear variety, but having it be due to the fact that 5 bosses drop boots for an Assault Warrior that are just as good for an Assault Engineer. These giant tables are most prevalent in our raids, but I will be making some adjustments in adventures and dungeons as well.
- Shared Tables: Although not quite as prevalent, there are a number of points where some of you may have noticed shared loot across minibosses. Although I can see some merit (an individual table for every miniboss inDatascape is a bit much), I am still looking to mix the loot up a bit more than what we have now, as well as offer some other non-equippable item incentives to keep the tables fresh.
- Class Piece Tokens (Raid Only)
- This is a point that I want to clarify a bit more, as I feel that a lot of you are slightly confused as to what exactly I was referring to with these. With the new layout, I am looking to make class-specific items the most potent, desirable items in the raids. As such, I want to make them difficult to acquire, but not impossible. The intent with these tokens is to have a set number (1-2) of them drop from raid bosses specifically (not minibosses). Upon receiving these tokens, players be able to turn them in directly for a piece of gear relevant to their class. Alongside these tokens, players will still be obtaining less potent gear directly from the bosses they kill, as to not completely remove the element of surprise/RNG. Right now the intended breakdown is as follows:
- Heavy (Warrior/Engineer)
- Head
- Shoulders
- Chest
- Legs
- Hands
- Feet
- Medium (Medic/Stalker)
- Head
- Shoulders
- Chest
- Legs
- Hands
- Feet
- Light (Spellslinger/Esper)
- Head
- Shoulders
- Chest
- Legs
- Hands
- Feet
- This change will also help to cut down on clutter considerably (we’re effectively condensing 72 items into 18), and will increase the likelihood of raids being able to consistently see usable drops.
- Class-Specific Pieces (Raid Only)
- As it stands, we have class-specific raid drops with their own unique appearances, which are otherwise no better than a majority of the other gear that is dropping in the same space. Therefore, we thought it would be nice to make these pieces stand out to players a bit more, and give you a little something extra to strive for. So, aside from their new token association, these pieces will be bumped up to become the most powerful tiers of gear in their respective raids, and will also be modified to provide a number of guaranteed Omni slots.
Phew. Alright, well with all that said, I do just want to say that all of these changes are being done with you, the players, in mind. As such, I am hoping for a lot of feedback, and will do my best to check back periodically to respond where I can.
