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Artifact set updates/reworks
turtlemanjay
Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 10 Arc User
A copy of a message I threw towards the devs:
Ok here we go, artifact sets, 20 min read:
I will talk about Identity, Accessability and Impact.
Identity: What is the character supposed to do? Which class and which playstyle did the player decide for? The set should contribute to that in a meaningful way.
Accessability: It feels bad as a player if the set of your choice is too diffcult to obtain that so you have to go for a mediocre alternative. It creates frustration. You guys actually did a lot already for this recently. A few points remain.
Impact: How strong is a set and how strong does it feel? On the one side the power power level but also on the other hand: "How noticeable is the set's effect?" Balance in pure strength between the sets must be restored while sets should have indicators on how strong they are or how to use them.
I will go through the sets and mention what playstyle will use them (targeted classes) and how they need to be changed. Just for an orientation: The dps sets will be slightly stronger than the current LM set.
1. AP gen during combat halfed to 2% on legendary (too much AP for classes that don't need them/should not have their daily available so often).
2. New setbonus: "After 5 critical strikes, deal 500% WD+1000 physical damage on your next power. Gain up to 2.5% more critical chance for every stack missing." Why is that better? It is more effective for people with lower crit/classes with lower weapon damage since there is a base value in it.
New setbonus is way more interesting than damage on every crit. More damage ---> more noticeable. Additionally Missing stacks (greyed out) and charged stacks are displayed around the player's head (red, diamond shape). Increase in intensity upon max stacks, therefore "feels better".
1. AP gen during combat stays. CW have more focuse on daily (direct competitor to LM set).
2. Cloak substitutes arpen for recovery.
3. New setbonus: "Deal 10% more damage to movement-impaired units. Gain +15% control bonus." Controlled targets are marked with slight blue arrows on the ground centering from the character.
This enforces the CW's identity as a CC/DPS and rewards him for CCing targets.
1. Artifact may drop in ESOT. Not enough people farm the cult dragons. If we make the set stronger, demand will go up.
2. AP gen during combat halfed to 2% on legendary (too much AP for classes that don't need them/should not have their daily available so often).
3. Substitute defense for recovery in the belt.
4. New setbonus: "Your powers ignite your foes dealing 5% of your WD per second for 3 seconds. This may stack up to 5 times. If a target reaches max stacks you and your allies (group) deal 10% more damage to that target/ignore 10% of its damage resistance in PVP. Only one target may be marked for bonus damage." Enemies have the "burning" visuals and foe with damage mark wil have a high reaching flame above him.
"A chance to deal 25% WD." Come on. Even if that chance is 100% the LM set will easily outdps it. Therefore the identity change. It deals a substantial amount of damage per second (aggro gen) and the second part will help your group.
1. AP gen during combat stays. Reason same as valindra set.
2. New setbonus: "All your dot effects on your foe are combined to "Black Ice Corruption". It does the same damage as your dots would + 25% of your WD as necrotic damage every second. Every individual dot on the target increases total damage by 1%."
3. Visual effect is small black ice splinters periodically hitting hitting target.
Idk how difficult this is to code. If too difficult then just increase dot damage by 10% and deal 25% WD per second while a dot is active.
Also no idea how the future SW will look like. I imagined he would still use dot effects.
1. Might need increase in droprate and then decrease once there will be less demand.
2. New setbonus: "Deal up to 10% more damage as the target's health diminishes (max already reached at 50% target's health) and gain 5% deflection chance and 5% lifesteal chance as your health diminishes (0% for HP>75% and 5% for HP
1. New setbonus: "Tiamat's encouragement". Gain 15% more outgoing healing. Your healing powers on allies may now "overheal" your targets creating a temporary shield (blue hp) at 50% effectiveness (only the part that goes above the max HP has halfed effectiveness). This shield decays at 7% of the target's max HP and has a max size of 35% target's max health. Only effects group.
If you have "Taimat's encouragement" active on 4 targets for 3 consecutive seconds activate "Tiamat's surge": Allies effected instantly gain 5% of their AP and 400 + 5% of your power for 3 seconds. This has a 30 sec cooldown."
2. Visual effect: This blue lines connecting the player and the target he heals. Upon Surge activation a "rush" of light going through the players affected.
This will feel like a "STRIKE NOW" moment, therefore the AP gain to activate dailies. It gives healing chars a "minigame" (keep shield up) in groups that don't lose much hp. And if they do get hit the damage is reduced slightly.
1. New setbonus: "Shields on you are 10% stronger. Generate 15% of the damage you would take (calculated before all resistances) as a shield (double the amount for PVP since damage is way lower there). This shield decays with 5% of your max HP per second.
2. Visual effect is the shield. And maybe a light blue shimmer on your armor.
Tying the setbonus to "at least lose 10% of your max hp" on a single hit is bad. Also making it a sustain defies the tank's needed synergy with a support class. This way it will make you more tanky and create awesome synergy with healing classes (new Tiamat set).
1. Artifact drops unbound.
2. New setbonus: "Generate stacks when you take damage or deal damage (max 15 stacks per second). Upon reaching 100 stacks activate "Lathander's rush": You and your allies gain 40% movement speed when facing towards enemies for 3 seconds. After that time or upon melee contact with an enemy release "lathander's shockwave":
You release a shockwave that slows enemies hit by 30% for 3 seconds and decreases their damage resistance by 20% (PVP only), allies hit deal 10% more damage."
3. Visual effect is a shockwave. You choose the color.
Tying this setbonus to a revive situation is bad, you don't want to die as a tank. This setbonus will probably be used by tanks who don't need the Seldarine bonus to tank and PVP tanks.
Also some people will complain that they will have to change sets. But for most players the new and improved sets will totally make up for that.
Cheers, Jay
Ok here we go, artifact sets, 20 min read:
Why is the current situation bad?
A vast majority of item sets is rarely used at all because of pure power level reasons. The sets that are used for dps (LM and orcus) offer little depth. Overall all artifact sets could be way more interesting and offer more engaging combat patterns. Current sets are just boring.In what areas could they be improved?
An artifact set feels like it should replace the setbonuses the old pre mod 6 armors had. It should add to the character's playstyle in a noticable way. Also it should not just offer flat stats (boring).I will talk about Identity, Accessability and Impact.
Identity: What is the character supposed to do? Which class and which playstyle did the player decide for? The set should contribute to that in a meaningful way.
Accessability: It feels bad as a player if the set of your choice is too diffcult to obtain that so you have to go for a mediocre alternative. It creates frustration. You guys actually did a lot already for this recently. A few points remain.
Impact: How strong is a set and how strong does it feel? On the one side the power power level but also on the other hand: "How noticeable is the set's effect?" Balance in pure strength between the sets must be restored while sets should have indicators on how strong they are or how to use them.
Why visual effects?
Artifact sets should be an impactful addition to a character's arsenal and therefore clearly noticeable. Will it clutter visuals even more? Perhaps. Set visuals will not be too spectacular though. The good "feel" of a set will outweigh any downsides of the vfx.I will go through the sets and mention what playstyle will use them (targeted classes) and how they need to be changed. Just for an orientation: The dps sets will be slightly stronger than the current LM set.
Specific changes
Lostmauth:
Identity is deal more damage for crit based high direct hit count DPS classes (HR, GWF, TR). Accessability is good. Changes:1. AP gen during combat halfed to 2% on legendary (too much AP for classes that don't need them/should not have their daily available so often).
2. New setbonus: "After 5 critical strikes, deal 500% WD+1000 physical damage on your next power. Gain up to 2.5% more critical chance for every stack missing." Why is that better? It is more effective for people with lower crit/classes with lower weapon damage since there is a base value in it.
New setbonus is way more interesting than damage on every crit. More damage ---> more noticeable. Additionally Missing stacks (greyed out) and charged stacks are displayed around the player's head (red, diamond shape). Increase in intensity upon max stacks, therefore "feels better".
Valindra:
Identity is deal damage while controlling (CC/DPS classes, mostly CW). Accessability is good. Changes:1. AP gen during combat stays. CW have more focuse on daily (direct competitor to LM set).
2. Cloak substitutes arpen for recovery.
3. New setbonus: "Deal 10% more damage to movement-impaired units. Gain +15% control bonus." Controlled targets are marked with slight blue arrows on the ground centering from the character.
This enforces the CW's identity as a CC/DPS and rewards him for CCing targets.
Impreial dragon set:
Identity is deal more damage for Offtanky classes (Tanky GWF and conqueror GF). Accessability is bad. Changes:1. Artifact may drop in ESOT. Not enough people farm the cult dragons. If we make the set stronger, demand will go up.
2. AP gen during combat halfed to 2% on legendary (too much AP for classes that don't need them/should not have their daily available so often).
3. Substitute defense for recovery in the belt.
4. New setbonus: "Your powers ignite your foes dealing 5% of your WD per second for 3 seconds. This may stack up to 5 times. If a target reaches max stacks you and your allies (group) deal 10% more damage to that target/ignore 10% of its damage resistance in PVP. Only one target may be marked for bonus damage." Enemies have the "burning" visuals and foe with damage mark wil have a high reaching flame above him.
"A chance to deal 25% WD." Come on. Even if that chance is 100% the LM set will easily outdps it. Therefore the identity change. It deals a substantial amount of damage per second (aggro gen) and the second part will help your group.
Black Ice:
Identity is deal more damage with dots and necrotic damage (SW). Accessability is ok after cost reductions (gj guys). Changes:1. AP gen during combat stays. Reason same as valindra set.
2. New setbonus: "All your dot effects on your foe are combined to "Black Ice Corruption". It does the same damage as your dots would + 25% of your WD as necrotic damage every second. Every individual dot on the target increases total damage by 1%."
3. Visual effect is small black ice splinters periodically hitting hitting target.
Idk how difficult this is to code. If too difficult then just increase dot damage by 10% and deal 25% WD per second while a dot is active.
Also no idea how the future SW will look like. I imagined he would still use dot effects.
Orcus:
Identity is deal more damage as the target's health diminishes and sustain yourself the lower your health drops (GWF/GF maybe). Accessability is bad. It drops only since recently. Changes:1. Might need increase in droprate and then decrease once there will be less demand.
2. New setbonus: "Deal up to 10% more damage as the target's health diminishes (max already reached at 50% target's health) and gain 5% deflection chance and 5% lifesteal chance as your health diminishes (0% for HP>75% and 5% for HP
Tiamat:
Identity is heal more and amplify allies. Accessability is great. Changes:1. New setbonus: "Tiamat's encouragement". Gain 15% more outgoing healing. Your healing powers on allies may now "overheal" your targets creating a temporary shield (blue hp) at 50% effectiveness (only the part that goes above the max HP has halfed effectiveness). This shield decays at 7% of the target's max HP and has a max size of 35% target's max health. Only effects group.
If you have "Taimat's encouragement" active on 4 targets for 3 consecutive seconds activate "Tiamat's surge": Allies effected instantly gain 5% of their AP and 400 + 5% of your power for 3 seconds. This has a 30 sec cooldown."
2. Visual effect: This blue lines connecting the player and the target he heals. Upon Surge activation a "rush" of light going through the players affected.
This will feel like a "STRIKE NOW" moment, therefore the AP gain to activate dailies. It gives healing chars a "minigame" (keep shield up) in groups that don't lose much hp. And if they do get hit the damage is reduced slightly.
Seldarine:
Identity is "be more tanky" (GF/OP). Acccessability is good. Changes:1. New setbonus: "Shields on you are 10% stronger. Generate 15% of the damage you would take (calculated before all resistances) as a shield (double the amount for PVP since damage is way lower there). This shield decays with 5% of your max HP per second.
2. Visual effect is the shield. And maybe a light blue shimmer on your armor.
Tying the setbonus to "at least lose 10% of your max hp" on a single hit is bad. Also making it a sustain defies the tank's needed synergy with a support class. This way it will make you more tanky and create awesome synergy with healing classes (new Tiamat set).
Lathander:
Identity is be a tank who buffs allies (GF/OP). Accessability is meh. Changes:1. Artifact drops unbound.
2. New setbonus: "Generate stacks when you take damage or deal damage (max 15 stacks per second). Upon reaching 100 stacks activate "Lathander's rush": You and your allies gain 40% movement speed when facing towards enemies for 3 seconds. After that time or upon melee contact with an enemy release "lathander's shockwave":
You release a shockwave that slows enemies hit by 30% for 3 seconds and decreases their damage resistance by 20% (PVP only), allies hit deal 10% more damage."
3. Visual effect is a shockwave. You choose the color.
Tying this setbonus to a revive situation is bad, you don't want to die as a tank. This setbonus will probably be used by tanks who don't need the Seldarine bonus to tank and PVP tanks.
That was it!
I realise that this will probably never be implemented. But I hope that I could maybe open up a perspective for more creative design?Also some people will complain that they will have to change sets. But for most players the new and improved sets will totally make up for that.
Cheers, Jay
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