Perma-saving items

[sylphan]

I fear people have gotten so used to this, and subsequently become so "imbue and gear fat" I find it hard to believe they will find motivation to continue being "worse off".

I've only been around the game a couple of years, so I guess I'm still pretty new. I'd be fine going back to the way things were. That's the version I fell in love with, after all.

[Quantum]

Hi there,

I like Shesara's idea of everyone getting their items degraded in combat. As a tank it's disheartening to see people wearing 8 pieces of imbued armour, while tanks can't really use any since they break very fast. It would balance the mud significantly.

As for items not saving, I'm not sure I would like to go back to the old system, of items on a shelf, in a chest etc just vainishing because of armageddon. But maybe a system where all weapons would start to degrade in combat could solve that issue.

I never hear people complaining about permanent armours, if only the ironstone imbued ones were actually removed, so this seems to be weapon focussed. Now being a monk, I don't use weapons, so it's easy for me to say that we should get rid of them. But looking at it objectively, it would be the equivalent of a monk attaining max karma forever. Something that seems completely unbalanced. Just the azure sword itself seems to be a huge imbalance. Haste, hits hard, never dulls. Such items should not exist. Having the item break normally would solve this quickly.

Step one, all weapons dull. Armours as well but I haven't seen any that are permanently prime condition.

Step two, Shesara idea with all people in groups loosing durability on their items. Do wands ever loose durability or do you get one and keep it forever? Chanelling power through wands should degrade them, slowly.

Step three, differentiated armour/weapon degradation based on "stance".

This will make the mud more balanced in my opinion, but will the offensive fighters/mages who get hit the hardest, also see it as fair?

Best regards,
Brother Quantum

[Alisa]

I like the ability to not rely on having 10+ hours play to gear up.

I'm not sure why it appeals so much.

[Tarlok]

I think the simplistic solutions are poor fixes. Everything lasting a single or two Renewals does not promote diversity in equipment as the artifacts will quickly be consumed by Armageddon. Players who rarely have the opportunity to hunt will extract very limited use from these items. Instead a system that tracks the used time per item would the most fair... and use being time in combat with the item, not simply donning it and strutting around Sparkle. Perhaps this is a more challenging fix, but this promotes creating powerful imbued items that are only used for extreme situations which adds a more interesting dynamic to game play.

Please consider the complex fix.

[Anfalas]

Why not simply remove the no dull/no break properties of all weapons? Also, remove all ironstone imbued armours as well. People have greatly benefited from the ironstoned items just as much as the no dull/no break weapons.

If you were to change it so these items only lasted an Armageddon or two, then we have two different systems for gear.

I realize that ogre items are that way currently where they never save/glow. I think they should be put on the same system. Make their items degrade, and look at possibly increasing the costs to purchase them.

[Cherek]

I must say I too like Shesara's idea of EQ degrading in combat whether you tank or not. It makes sense that non-tanks could suffer a "stray hit" now and then and get their stuff damaged too. And no unbreakable stuff of course. Not sure we need the whole guild classification part (I am not saying it's a a bad idea, but the idea could work fine without it too, at least to begin with).

The main issue with this idea would be that imbues will definitely be nerfed, since nothing is unbreakable and you'll never know how long an imbued item will last. But perhaps that is something that could be looked at down the line... Perhaps it could be a good money sink, where you pay to make an item, any item, unbreakable for a set amount of time?

As for ironstones, I definitely agree, all ironstone imbued items have to be removed. Whatever suggestion we end up doing, I think an announced Armageddon where _nothing_ saves is the way to go. Just to clean up the game and start fresh. I really do think most players will understand, as they have enjoyed this "abnormally good" state of the world for a longer time than expected anyway.

[Syrk]

I like Shesara's idea of everyone getting their items degraded in combat.

Imbued items degrade when in combat
but
imbued items do not degrade when not in combat.

So imbued items used to cast spells outside combat, or heal, or regenerate mana, or increase abilities like hide and sneak etc. would not degrade?

This would be unbalanced.

[Makfly]

It may be a bit left field, but another option would be to change how or rather what you can imbue...

Let the drop of imbues stay like it is, and you can transmogrify items and get stones just like you can now.
But instead of being able to imbue armours and weapons like now, you can only activate the power of the stones with a special trinket (amulet perhaps) that you can get from Karkadelt.
You can put a stone into the amulet and when you wear the amulet, you will benefit from the stones power.
Then set a time limit on the stones before their power expires. Lets say a faint stone only works a couple of weeks of game time, while a more powerful stone will also last longer before it's power is sapped.

If you want to change the stone, you will break the current stone in the amulet.
Then you can perhaps buy/do a task/reach a certain level or whatever to upgrade your amulet to one that can hold two stones, and again to one that can hold three stones at a maximum.

That way all guilds, solo vs teams etc. are treated equally, and the game keeps people from becoming too powerful by walking around in completely decked out imbued gear and "twinking".

Couple this change with the removal of the ability to "non-dull" from gear, and it'd great.


Oh and if we could couple this change with a hard cap, we'd be a good bit closer to a more well-balanced game, but that is of course another discussion.

[Kvator]

I like the ability to not rely on having 10+ hours play to gear up.

I'm not sure why it appeals so much.

This.

I never understood these 'splendid sword enthusiasts' lol

Btw - any nerf to current eq system will indirectly buff magic-users. Since they're already extremely strong option in the game is there any will to prevent further inbalance?
Maybe make spells 'dull' as well? So if you use it for x times you'll have to grind the scroll again. Lesser spells should be easily available ofc (magic shops etc), but why not treat all the crazy ones like artifacts - with decreasing drop rate if there're to many in the world (seeing WOHS wizard casting fireball would be a thing!)?

[Jar]

I never understood these 'splendid sword enthusiasts' lol

Wrong topic. This one here is about making vast number of good/great weapons count again, not about supporting Sparkle newbie bin