Arcane Gems and Related Equipment

[alk760]

The stats are great. some like Lower mana cost have hit 30% on 1 item to where the hard cap is 40%
SDI i've seen a 10% bonus
regens +2
INT +10
This is all great but i'm having trouble seeing it as usefull with only 25 charges.
only tailor created gear can be turned into Arcane so any other item of the same type will not be eligible.

25 casts will get used up with in a minute. I have not tested in combat but will once I get a few more arcane gems to play with.
everything looks and feels great except for the use of charges.
I will dive deeper into it after i've used it a bit.
It's just my first impression on the subject.

[Crossbreed]

I agree that the number of charges seems small, but I like the idea. I've rolled 15% sdi on a pair of gloves and thigh boots, but the low charge count makes me hesitant to use it. The "mini-game" of refilling equipped items so you can keep using them is also not terribly exciting, to be honest. Here's some random ideas and thoughts:

Things that can be done to keep it balanced if arcane items are buffed or are made to require less maintenance:

- Remove the 100% lrc aspect of arcane clothing completely.

- Even if other crafting classes could use arcane gems, maintain the same equip slots across all classes (Cloak/Gloves/Robe/Boots) or give each class one unique slot (Tailors can do super cool boots/cloaks, Tinkers can make super cool necklace slot items, blacksmiths can make super cool chest armor, etc) so that not every slot is replaced by these new arcane items if they're made more useable, but each crafting class has a specialty.


Interesting ideas:

Small Scope Changes
- Add a spell to one of the special magic books that recharges arcane items.

- Add a quest for greatly improving the arcane charge count on specific items that you're fond of.


Large Scope Changes
- Could look at requiring 50/100/100+ arcane gems for legendary tailors to craft each arcane item, but remove the charge/reroll mechanic. Lets crafters make truly unique items and adds more reason to keep crafting to make these awesome, unique items.

- Maybe this could be expanded upon for other trades like blacksmithing or other kinds of gems for other class bonuses. (Mundane Gems for warrior stat bonuses, etc).



These are all various ideas on how the system around arcane gems could be improved in different ways depending on the ultimate end-goal that is desired for arcane items. It's also possible none of these ideas fit the desired goal, and that's fine too of course. There are a lot of possibilities and I'm excited to see what ends up happening.

[alk760]

Keep it simple just remove the required charges
there is no need for a balance and it's not breaking any scales in SDI damage.

were talking a total of 20 to 30 SDI increase

Only Boots and Cloak will be increasing the soft cap of SDI.

Gloves and Robe we already have 15 SDI Items but they are heavily restricted Quest items that do not accept spellcrafts well.

This new system gives us a little more control as to what bonuses can now be applied to these gear slots.

The only stat getting an increase will be SDI everything else has been able to achieve the Hard Cap with the gear that's been available.

I liked Crossbreed's idea to require more gems in creating the items.
Something like 5 to 10 arcane gems to roll the stat dice would be fine.
just remove required charges. having to refill in order to maintain the available bonuses does not seem appealing one bit

[Amairgen]

I really like the comments so far and I can see that this can evolve in some fun and useful directions.

I will definitely look at all of this . . sorry but I am currently restricted to only having one eye to work with so it might be a while before I can really get at it.

Meanwhile . . just some FYI:
1) Cloaks, Robes Thigh Boots, Leather Gloves and Leaf Gloves are the current Arcane Items (I can probably make more for variety but for actual use in game . . layers are a limiting factor)
2) For some reason Cloaks refuse to accept the SDI property (still trying to understand why).
3) SDI (atm) can be added for 20% if your random luck is good. This is something that could change provided the result is not too Uber.
4) Legendary Tailors (atm) should be able to add 24 charges (can change as the system evolves) while none Tailors can add 10 charges.
5) If you have filled all four layers with charged Arcane items then you 'could' have a cumulative 96 charges.
6) When you cast a spell one of the Arcane items begins losing charges. When it has depleted charges then the next item takes over until all items worn are depleted and need to be recharged (by a legendary Tailor for max charges or anyone else for fewer charges).

I look forward to more feed back and promise . . the way it is now is not the way it will be when we are finished with it. The ideas so fare are great and I will work on them provided they do not through us out of balance.

Cheers

[Amairgen]

Okay . . today (Aug 19th) the Arcane Gems will have a chance to drop in larger amounts (up to 10 at a time on harder mobs).

They can drop in T-Map Chests, Jukas (Mages Lords and Warriors) and on Exodus Overseers, Controllers and Minions as well as Golem Controllers.

There will likely be other changes to Arcane Gems as we observe how these changes are implemented.

Cheers

[Amairgen]

Okay . . some more changes to Arcane Gems:

See the UPDATE added to the related post on the News board

[Bran]

Nice update. Oh and i picked up over 200 arcane gems on a run through the controller tower and the exodus dungeon. way better than before.

[alk760]

The good: This set gives 15 SDI more than any other pieces. I was able to reach 234 SDI.
The bad: Using 3 pieces I had 285 charges. When an item looses all it's charges it will need to be enhanced all over.
The ugly: You will need to keep spare equipment with you or stop and recharge with a tailor.

Overall the initial 60 SDI is noticed and greatly helps earlier on.
But ultimately I would opt for the 15 SDI pieces over the Arcane 20 SDI pieces just for the fact you don't need to maintain it.

[Amairgen]

Aug 24, 2021 21:05:18 GMT -8 alk760 said:

The good: This set gives 15 SDI more than any other pieces. I was able to reach 234 SDI.
The bad: Using 3 pieces I had 285 charges. When an item looses all it's charges it will need to be enhanced all over.
The ugly: You will need to keep spare equipment with you or stop and recharge with a tailor.

Overall the initial 60 SDI is noticed and greatly helps earlier on.
But ultimately I would opt for the 15 SDI pieces over the Arcane 20 SDI pieces just for the fact you don't need to maintain it.

1) SDI at 234 might be good on heavy monsters but probably a waste of charges on middle of the road and lighter creatures. You maybe want to save a good set for the bigger battles.
2) When these items lose all charges they are no longer 'Arcane Items' and become like they were . . normal crafter made Cloak, Robe etc.
3) Yep . . nothing is perfect but at least non-tailors can add up to 30 charges and still have the same chance for SDI props that a Tailor has.

Note: While casting spells with these items equipped the charges get depleted from one item before tapping into the next item. I am not sure if this process follows the same order each time or if it is dependent on which item is equipped first. This might take some exploring. It could be that you only need to keep an eye on the charges of one piece and have a spare of that one to equip before it runs out.

Also . . I can look into allowing warriors etc to apply a full recharge on an item before the item completely runs out of charges. ATM . . if a warrior tries to recharge an item the max charges change down to 30 from 100.

[alk760]

The Charge uses can be managed. when 1 item gets low un-equip it than re-equip it. The charges will start to take away from a different piece.

[Amairgen]

Another change has been made to Arcane Gems which should make them more valuable.

See the UPDATE added to the related post on the News board

[Amairgen]

Another reboot/change has been made to Arcane Gems to fix a 'bug' thanks to Bran Stark.

If you dye the Arcane items they will no longer retain their charges.

As a plus . . the Arcane Cloaks will now accept the Spell Damage property.

[alk760]

arcane gems are not being used when recharging with my mage.

the cast counter is still a major issue if not an unintended nerf to mages.
* here you go some decent Spell Power at the cost of your sanity *
The nerf is we have no other options for SDI gear. this stuff at 20 SDI makes it too good while the cast counter makes it very undesirable.

The only other options in gear for casters is a 5 SDI belt a 5 SDI sandals a 15 SDI shroud and 15 SDI quest gloves.
A whole 40 SDI lower and way way harder to obtain.

All in all yes it's usable but not on anything that actually matters because you will burn threw 1000+ casts during a quest or just basic farming.
Even with being able to recharge on the fly was little help because when things get thick you don't have time to do a gear swap recharge.
Spellweaving,Ancient Necromancy and Chivalry will benefit from the SDI and not use charges.
only Magery and Basic Necromancy use charges.

80 SDI is enough to force any player to have to use this gear and suffer the lost time and frustration.
also you have no control over the look of your character and a robe/cape is the newbie look you are stuck with.

 20 SDI is too much on this gear for what it requires it should only be a 5 SDI bonus
Players can live being 20 SDI low to have a unique look but not 80 SDI low.
you upped the anti on mages but condemned them into a less than ideal gearing system.

[Amairgen]

Sorry to cause such a concern as the intent was to give Arcane Gems a purpose because that value had been removed by all the LRC items in the realm.

When it comes to SDI, that property is found on Mage themed pieces of artifact gear (plus a bonus by adding an ancient Gem). SDI can also be applied to jewelry and hats (up to +25 each item). The Arcane Gem change simply added other clothing (robes, cloaks, leather/leaf gloves and thigh boots) to that list.

So to recap (if I understand) what are you suggesting?
- revert the Arcane Gems and Items back to the way they used to be? or
- remove SDI from Arcane items? or
- reduce the SDI increase on Arcane items from max 20 to max 5?
- remove SDI from Cloaks because you do not like to wear a cloak? or maybe
- reduce the SDI bonus from Spellcrafting from max 25 to max 5.

As it is . . Mages currently have a chance to load up to +250% spell damage increase in spite of the 100% cap that the [mystats gump shows. In addition to that they have the ability to summon powerful creatures.

Personally I lean to imposing a true cap on SDI to 100% as I worry about template balance (are warriors becoming less valued). Mages were always my personal favorite when I used to play because they could stand back and cast without risking the head clubbing that warriors took. Mages were great hunting companions to warriors where they kept the group healed and cured while lending damage support from the edge of the battle. I have never wanted Tamers or Mages to out weigh Warriors when it came to choosing a template. I do not want to force people who prefer being a warrior (by nature) to forget it and become a mage or a tamer in order to succeed.

No matter what we do we must work at achieving a template balance. That work is far from over.

*Open to ideas that balance the templates*

[alk760]

Before we get carried away I'm only pushing for a SDI cap of 5% per Arcane piece and removal of charges.

The 5% cap is so other more valuable gear that's much harder to acquire remains the best available.

The charges are an unnecessary feature and the upkeep of recharging even with everything done to keep the cast counters manageable still does not work for me.

100% against an SDI cap. we still have not been able to break 300 with the gear available. and even then most mobs I fight will only take 100 to 150 damage from a slayer book.

Warrior can deal 120x2 with double strike plus all the hit spell effects can make it a 300+ damage hit. * damage x2 with Chivalry enemy of one.*

will not go into taming because all yall know balance was thrown out the window with the Worg and upgraded Drow.