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A suggestion in the right direction: buff old and unloved gear sets? (plus wacky Onslaught hijinks!)
thisiscraftaaa
Posts: 185 Arc User
So, I was running some lairs and talking to someone on Steam about their gear choices. They had mentioned using "the blue gloves from the AH" and it took a bit of me wondering what they ment before they clarified "energy back on kill, HP back on kill" and I realized they were talking about a Fortuitous set. But, settling down on that, I couldn't help but think. For a brief moment, my brain went "wait, I put some Vikorin and Bronze King gear pieces up on there but took them back down, did he buy one of mine and I just didn't notice?" It didn't take much thought to correct myself and realize that wasn't the case, but the deed was done, and I had just had a different thought. See, gear like what I just named is a rare drop from Lairs, which are a pain to get through, and only have a low chance of dropping anything better than some throwaway mods and SCR. Costumes aside, the other big draw is gear drops. These used to be better than Mercenary but not as good as Heroic, back before things like Fortuitous existed, but now, if you stop and look at it, Fortuitous has the same exact stats but also has a set bonus, despite dropping VERY commonly from lockboxes! Mercenary has only slightly poorer stats but provides a bonus to resource and questionite gain, which is HUGE for newer or grind-heavy players! Same for Remarkable gear! So what purpose is there, really, to trying to grind for these rare gear drops, when they're literally just weaker, very-hard-to-get Fortuitous? They're so much rarer than Fortuitous, and for even rarer lockbox gear drops we do technically have Legion from the old boxes that people can still very rarely get ahold of, as well as from the drifter store. And so, with that in mind, I'd like to propose set bonuses for these rare gear drops that can be rarely obtained from lairs, Qliphoth OMs, and the final nemesis mission.
Vikorin's 2-piece: 15% magic resist and additional 15% paranormal resist.
Vikorin's 3-piece: a smaller/weaker version of the AoED magical crit damage spike, scaling with whichever superstat is highest.
That adds up to a 30% total for mystical/sorc damage (stronger than a stack of defiance but not quite two,) and a +15% against telekinesis, celestial, darkness and supernatural (one weak stack of defiance.) It also provides a minor damage boost.
Bronze King's 2-piece: 15% physical resist and an additional 15% all-damage-resist.
Bronze King's 3-piece: +10 to all superstats and +5 to all non-superstats.
That's a pleasant stat boost for wiggle-room with all sorts of builds, and weak stack of defiance equivalent for every damage type and another additional for physical damage.
If it matters since they don't drop any more:
Therakiel's 2-piece: +10 to all superstats and 15% all-damage resist.
Therakiel's 3-piece: +8% defense/armor penetration, and summons a low-damage indestructible disembodied sword pet that uses slow, sweeping AoE attacks that deal dimensional damage. This pet can't go further than 10 feet away from its user, thus ensuring it doesn't ruin Cosmics by attacking Hearts, Dogs, etcetera.
The defense penetration isn't nearly as strong as a DUC but is notably an extra source of armor penetration without it. A reward for tangling with the biggest threat in the game. The all-damage reist is like a weak stack of defiance.
Qliphoth's 2-piece: +15% toxic resist and 15% paranormal resist.
Qliphoth's 3-piece: applies a Pestilence-like effect to enemies. The pestilence-like effect won't proc on proximity (that'd be bad for Cosmics if it did) but WOULD proc on targets hit by any single-target or AoE attack, whether melee or ranged, ticking every two seconds and lasting four total seconds before going away, being refreshed to 4 seconds every hit.
Nemesis's 2-piece: +20 max energy, +10 equilibrium.
Nemesis's 3-piece: +300HP, and +5 to all superstats and 5% all-damage resist.
This is very self-explanatory.
In addition, all pieces should have full stat variance (so no more "Bronze King's defensive piece is only ever a CC resist piece, or Qliphoth's a... something else trashy I forget. Pieces can randomly have any of the extra-stat mixtures normal to their gear type. So, say, Vikorin's offensive/gauntlets could have Growth/extra PSS, extra crit strike, extra crit sev, or just extra offense like usual, for example.)
Now, having thought on that, my brain went off on a tangent for the possibility of buffing other gear that doesn't quite adhere to the "unique bonus or set bonus" meta that everything in recent years seems to go for! For one, it's apparent that Onslaught secondaries are meant to be the best in the game. Outside of some of the finest intricacies of character building that people tend not to bother with, they're better than Cosmic secondaries in every way, shape and form. Noticeably, there's especially no reason /not/ to take Onslaught Offensive secondaries at the very least, with Slicer being arguably overpowered, Sniper being far weaker but a pleasant DPS boost, Defender being a strong survivability boost and strong source of aggro, and Savior being a good substitute for (or ESPECIALLY addition to) AoPM or AoAC when around builds that lack energy and cost reduction. But it seems strange that only the gloves would have these special little quirks to them. So with that said...
(Def+HP) Onslaught Tights of Fitness: "Sealing Wounds" provides a regeneration rate of 1% per second that's active in battle. For a 6,000 health character, this would be 60 health a second. For a 10,000 health character, 100. For a 20,000 health character, 200. Not overpowered by any means, but a nice little extra to reward the grind.
(Dodge+Avoidance) Onslaught Tights of Agility: "Cascading Reflexes" provides an increasing dodge chance + avoidance buff for every successful dodge in a row, stacking up to a flat 10% of each for ten successful dodges. These stacks take 10 seconds to wear off, and are refreshed on a successful dodge. However, if a dodge is missed, they immediately reset.
(CCresist) Onslaught Tights of Freedom: "Oppressive Aura" applies a debuff to each enemy that attacks you that decreases the damage and defenses of that enemy by 5% each for 8 seconds, refreshing when that enemy next hits you. This is, in essence, a weaker and combined version of Arbiter Tree's "Concussion" and Overseer Tree's "Impact."
(Energy) Onslaught Mask of Energy: "Overflowing" gives an extra 20% energy on top of any energy received from energy builders, toggle-forms (like Concentrate or Enraged,) slotted passives, energy unlocks, energy boost orbs, Onslaught Gloves of the Savior, and all other energy sources.
(Costreduc) Onslaught Mask of Efficiency: "Optimized" removes the energy cost penalty of travel powers, toggle-forms, and other self-inflicted energy penalties. Energy-draining effects such as those that Master Villain Destroids, Master Villain Horrors, Ego Weaponry's "Siphoning Strikes" advantage and the likes use will be 50% resisted as well.
(CDreduc) Onslaught Mask of Speed: "Rapid Recharge" deducts 10% of the base cooldown of a power that's currently cooling down when another power finishes cooling down. Example: if you have 150 seconds left on your 200 second self-rez, and your active offense comes off cooldown, your self-rez jumps from 150 seconds to 130 seconds. Meanwhile, your ult, that had a 60 second cooldown and was at 20 seconds left, jumps down to 14 seconds left. However, if your CDreduction bumps your 200-second self rez down to a "base" of, say, 140 to start with, it'd still have 20 seconds taken off of it.
With this suggestion made, a change should be made to the Onslaught Vendor allowing OV gear to be sold back for 4000 OV Tokens, removing most of the obnoxious grind that changing to a more fitting OV secondary set for one's build would bring.
Additionally, it's worth noting that Legion gear, which comes from old lockboxes and from the Drifter store for 300 Drifter Salvage each primary piece and 200 each secondary, seems left behind in today's day and age, where set bonuses dominate gear, all the way from heirloom gear for leveling to lockbox gear and even endgame gear such as Justice. Honestly, I'm of the personal inclination that Heroic gear on par with it, even, despite the lack of fourth slots! So I'd like to propose the possibility of it being a six-piece set with bonuses to squarely put it in its own bubble of "great, but you'd do better with Justice/Distinguished/Virtuous and Onslaught."
2-piece: +5 max energy and +30 offense.
3-piece: +200 hp and +10 defense.
4-piece: +5 to all superstats and +5 to all non-superstats.
5-piece: +5% all-damage-resist and an additional +5 to all non-superstats.
6-piece: an additional +5% all-damage-resist and an additional +5 to all superstats.
Of course, this would all do some funky things to Cosmic secondaries, honestly. So to ensure they still stay up to snuff, perhaps giving them set bonuses as well to keep them relevant would be helpful. Small bonuses, but bonuses nonetheless.
2-piece: +10 to all superstats, +5 to all non-superstats.
3-piece: an additional +5 to all superstats, and +5% all-damage-resist.
Of course, I understand these aren't perfectly balanced. These were numbers I thought up on the fly over the course of two or three hours of casual thinking and doing other things. This is just a suggestion for possible directions to make old and/or unloved gear pieces worthwhile again... and Onslaught more consistent in its gimmicky inconsistence. Feedback is welcome, I'm sure someone out there with a head for the numbers of the game could come up with something better.
Vikorin's 2-piece: 15% magic resist and additional 15% paranormal resist.
Vikorin's 3-piece: a smaller/weaker version of the AoED magical crit damage spike, scaling with whichever superstat is highest.
That adds up to a 30% total for mystical/sorc damage (stronger than a stack of defiance but not quite two,) and a +15% against telekinesis, celestial, darkness and supernatural (one weak stack of defiance.) It also provides a minor damage boost.
Bronze King's 2-piece: 15% physical resist and an additional 15% all-damage-resist.
Bronze King's 3-piece: +10 to all superstats and +5 to all non-superstats.
That's a pleasant stat boost for wiggle-room with all sorts of builds, and weak stack of defiance equivalent for every damage type and another additional for physical damage.
If it matters since they don't drop any more:
Therakiel's 2-piece: +10 to all superstats and 15% all-damage resist.
Therakiel's 3-piece: +8% defense/armor penetration, and summons a low-damage indestructible disembodied sword pet that uses slow, sweeping AoE attacks that deal dimensional damage. This pet can't go further than 10 feet away from its user, thus ensuring it doesn't ruin Cosmics by attacking Hearts, Dogs, etcetera.
The defense penetration isn't nearly as strong as a DUC but is notably an extra source of armor penetration without it. A reward for tangling with the biggest threat in the game. The all-damage reist is like a weak stack of defiance.
Qliphoth's 2-piece: +15% toxic resist and 15% paranormal resist.
Qliphoth's 3-piece: applies a Pestilence-like effect to enemies. The pestilence-like effect won't proc on proximity (that'd be bad for Cosmics if it did) but WOULD proc on targets hit by any single-target or AoE attack, whether melee or ranged, ticking every two seconds and lasting four total seconds before going away, being refreshed to 4 seconds every hit.
Nemesis's 2-piece: +20 max energy, +10 equilibrium.
Nemesis's 3-piece: +300HP, and +5 to all superstats and 5% all-damage resist.
This is very self-explanatory.
In addition, all pieces should have full stat variance (so no more "Bronze King's defensive piece is only ever a CC resist piece, or Qliphoth's a... something else trashy I forget. Pieces can randomly have any of the extra-stat mixtures normal to their gear type. So, say, Vikorin's offensive/gauntlets could have Growth/extra PSS, extra crit strike, extra crit sev, or just extra offense like usual, for example.)
Now, having thought on that, my brain went off on a tangent for the possibility of buffing other gear that doesn't quite adhere to the "unique bonus or set bonus" meta that everything in recent years seems to go for! For one, it's apparent that Onslaught secondaries are meant to be the best in the game. Outside of some of the finest intricacies of character building that people tend not to bother with, they're better than Cosmic secondaries in every way, shape and form. Noticeably, there's especially no reason /not/ to take Onslaught Offensive secondaries at the very least, with Slicer being arguably overpowered, Sniper being far weaker but a pleasant DPS boost, Defender being a strong survivability boost and strong source of aggro, and Savior being a good substitute for (or ESPECIALLY addition to) AoPM or AoAC when around builds that lack energy and cost reduction. But it seems strange that only the gloves would have these special little quirks to them. So with that said...
(Def+HP) Onslaught Tights of Fitness: "Sealing Wounds" provides a regeneration rate of 1% per second that's active in battle. For a 6,000 health character, this would be 60 health a second. For a 10,000 health character, 100. For a 20,000 health character, 200. Not overpowered by any means, but a nice little extra to reward the grind.
(Dodge+Avoidance) Onslaught Tights of Agility: "Cascading Reflexes" provides an increasing dodge chance + avoidance buff for every successful dodge in a row, stacking up to a flat 10% of each for ten successful dodges. These stacks take 10 seconds to wear off, and are refreshed on a successful dodge. However, if a dodge is missed, they immediately reset.
(CCresist) Onslaught Tights of Freedom: "Oppressive Aura" applies a debuff to each enemy that attacks you that decreases the damage and defenses of that enemy by 5% each for 8 seconds, refreshing when that enemy next hits you. This is, in essence, a weaker and combined version of Arbiter Tree's "Concussion" and Overseer Tree's "Impact."
(Energy) Onslaught Mask of Energy: "Overflowing" gives an extra 20% energy on top of any energy received from energy builders, toggle-forms (like Concentrate or Enraged,) slotted passives, energy unlocks, energy boost orbs, Onslaught Gloves of the Savior, and all other energy sources.
(Costreduc) Onslaught Mask of Efficiency: "Optimized" removes the energy cost penalty of travel powers, toggle-forms, and other self-inflicted energy penalties. Energy-draining effects such as those that Master Villain Destroids, Master Villain Horrors, Ego Weaponry's "Siphoning Strikes" advantage and the likes use will be 50% resisted as well.
(CDreduc) Onslaught Mask of Speed: "Rapid Recharge" deducts 10% of the base cooldown of a power that's currently cooling down when another power finishes cooling down. Example: if you have 150 seconds left on your 200 second self-rez, and your active offense comes off cooldown, your self-rez jumps from 150 seconds to 130 seconds. Meanwhile, your ult, that had a 60 second cooldown and was at 20 seconds left, jumps down to 14 seconds left. However, if your CDreduction bumps your 200-second self rez down to a "base" of, say, 140 to start with, it'd still have 20 seconds taken off of it.
With this suggestion made, a change should be made to the Onslaught Vendor allowing OV gear to be sold back for 4000 OV Tokens, removing most of the obnoxious grind that changing to a more fitting OV secondary set for one's build would bring.
Additionally, it's worth noting that Legion gear, which comes from old lockboxes and from the Drifter store for 300 Drifter Salvage each primary piece and 200 each secondary, seems left behind in today's day and age, where set bonuses dominate gear, all the way from heirloom gear for leveling to lockbox gear and even endgame gear such as Justice. Honestly, I'm of the personal inclination that Heroic gear on par with it, even, despite the lack of fourth slots! So I'd like to propose the possibility of it being a six-piece set with bonuses to squarely put it in its own bubble of "great, but you'd do better with Justice/Distinguished/Virtuous and Onslaught."
2-piece: +5 max energy and +30 offense.
3-piece: +200 hp and +10 defense.
4-piece: +5 to all superstats and +5 to all non-superstats.
5-piece: +5% all-damage-resist and an additional +5 to all non-superstats.
6-piece: an additional +5% all-damage-resist and an additional +5 to all superstats.
Of course, this would all do some funky things to Cosmic secondaries, honestly. So to ensure they still stay up to snuff, perhaps giving them set bonuses as well to keep them relevant would be helpful. Small bonuses, but bonuses nonetheless.
2-piece: +10 to all superstats, +5 to all non-superstats.
3-piece: an additional +5 to all superstats, and +5% all-damage-resist.
Of course, I understand these aren't perfectly balanced. These were numbers I thought up on the fly over the course of two or three hours of casual thinking and doing other things. This is just a suggestion for possible directions to make old and/or unloved gear pieces worthwhile again... and Onslaught more consistent in its gimmicky inconsistence. Feedback is welcome, I'm sure someone out there with a head for the numbers of the game could come up with something better.
Defender save my soul, for I have sinned...
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Also, iirc all of the defense pieces have the worthless cc resist mod. (Well, i haven't seen a nephilim one, but the rest all seem to be cc resist). That makes these actively bad, because its the most useless primary defense stat. +defense or +hp or no one is ever going to bother. The random blue crap is easier to get and *better*.
Most people don't bother with heroic now. I don't see any reason why yet another intermediate grade of gear would get people to do anything they weren't already doing anyway.
Depends on if they're farming for themselves, or someone else. Lair/QWZ/Nemesis gear pieces used to be worth a lot more because they were distinctly better than the other "starter 40" options, back when Heroic was "that waste of space between your hold-over set and Justice/Distinguished/etcetera" and there was no Fortuitous; only Mercenary then Heroic then Legion then the good stuff folks actually care about end-game. As they are, random blue primaries are perfectly fine, but a lot of people, myself included depending on the build, were willing to pay more for something better that wasn't ultra-expensive for being replaceable either. I remember pre-Fortuitous and pre-Vikorin-buff, when it was "oh, do I want to pay 5g-15g for each random blue and a random green utility? Or 40g-70g for each piece of Mercenary, which is slightly better but costs more off the AH and needs more mods to slot up? Or do I wanna go more 60g-120g a piece for a lair gear piece that's even better by another small margin but costs more since it doesn't drop often at all?" I know I personally bought /and/ sold a lot of those pieces years ago. Though you're definitely right, not everybody would bother to buy those pieces. Some would though, and thus some would farm for them.
Now, the Vikorin defense piece does have +43 def instead of something icky like CC resist. It'd be nice to see a rework so ALL the pieces could have random chance for defense, extra HP, dodge, so on and so forth. In the case of Vikorin's defense piece, while more expensive it's objectively better than random/stock blues; it's as good as Fortuitous stat-wise but lacks the set bonus that puts Fortuitous ahead.
People not bothering with Heroic is understandable, given there are options that are VASTLY cheaper than 150SCR per piece (or usually twice that much Gs bare minimum off the AH) when they'll be replaced with Justice/Distinguished/Virtuous eventually, and those alternate options are almost as good. Honestly, as it is, I personally have no reason to bother with Heroic since Fortuitous is dirt cheap and Heroic's stats actually aren't meaningfully higher aside from a better set bonus. I get it. Thing is, this whole thing isn't to get people to suddenly farm up dozens of sets of lair or nem or QWZ gear for their myriad of alts: it's to make /rare/ drops from high-end and/or low-chance content at LEAST on par with decently-common lockbox drops that go for 10-15G a pop on the AH of which the market is absolutely flooded with, if not hopefully a little better. And it's meant to do it in a way that makes those gear sets a bit more unique. Unique enough that people would actually be interested in them as alternatives to "oh boy, my 15th set of Fortuitous!" or "aww yeah, my 30th set of random blues and a green primary!"
The Legion gear bit is meant to be something similar. While I have no interest in Legion gear myself (for obvious reasons,) I do know people who use Legion because they hate the Justice/Distinguished/Virtuous grind. It's essentially worthless for its high drifter salvage price, though, and all the lockboxes it used to come out of are old and don't drop any more so one would have to dredge up lockboxes from years long past for a chance of getting them. There's just no incentive to spend to get them unless you're /really/ desperate to avoid the endgame grind and are willing to play second fiddle with your gear-set. Goodness knows PWE/Cryptic is money-hungry to the point of soullessness, and I'd honestly like to see CO stay afloat as long as possible, so it seems fair more on principle to give the Legion set its own set bonuses to make it more competent as well, when /HEROIC/ got a set bonus already such a long time back.
The Cosmic bit is just meant to make it to where they aren't fully overshadowed to the point of worthlessness by the Onslaught pieces, since the Onslaught pieces were a different track my brain went on at the thought of "some gear pieces of a tier having a gimmick that others don't" which was why I wrote up the Lair+QWZ+Nem part, the first part I wrote up, in the first place. Entirely unnecessary, sure, but it sounded fun enough to just throw at the wall as a wild what-if.