Successor gear bonuses

adinosii · June 2019

The bonuses of the Successor gear were discussed on the Reddit AMA, and @ctatumdev#6113 said "We've definitely got feedback on the bonuses on Successor; we want this set to feel valuable, so we are looking into this."

So, just to make sure we are on the same page, here is why the bonuses are generally bad:

Head piece: Executioner's focus. When you kill an enemy, your Critical Strike increases by 5% for 10 seconds. This us a "seriously useless" bonus. First, Critical Strike is very easy to max. Anyone who is able to run LoMM will probably have it well above cap. In fact, it is quite difficult to push Critical strike down to cap, so a temporary bonus to that stat is basically useless. Second, a bonus that activates "on kill" is pretty bad - it is only relevant when fighting multiple enemies - in most cases that means "trash" mobs, and then you really have no need for any bonuses. Third, this bonus is pretty much only relevant for DPSers - it does nothing for healers or tanks. For this reason, players will much rather use something like the Protegé piece with a 5% flat bonus in Undermountain.
Armor piece: Gladiator's Guard. For every second you are in combat, you gain 125 Defense. Again, an end-game character will probably have Defense capped. This would be useful, if it allowed Defense to exceed the regular cap, but for example the Gladiator's Might bonus from the IL 950 ME drop is far superior, as it increases Power in the same way, but that is an uncapped stat.
Arm piece: Call of the Undermountain. Summons creatures to "help". While some of the bonuses are useless, this one is worse than useless. The reason is that those summoned creatures have the nasty habit of positioning themselves right between the player and the target, Now, as they can be targeted by players' offensive powers, it means that you may get "... is not a valid target" over and over, as you accidentally target those creatures instead of the enemy and that can really mess up a power rotation. Now, we know you can make creatures non-targetable by offensive powers - you don't target companions, for example, but as it is, the arm pieces are basically "avoid at all cost". Something like the Leader's Might bonus from the other sets is more useful by far.
Foot piece: Sniper's Advantage. When you are 50' or further way from the target, your Combat Advantage is increased by 1500. This is situationally useful. It is useless in solo play, useless for tanks and useless for melee classes. Once again, the bonus of the corresponding piece in the other sets (+250 Combat Advantage per enemy) is slightly superior. Something like a bonus when fighting just a single enemy would be much better, though.

And yes, on an unrelated subject - if I managed to get the attention of @ctatumdev#6113 - there was one comment in the AMA: "For the epic companion gear, the bigger concern about them being only given in the intro expeditions had been changed; they are now also rewards in the MEs." I am not convinced this is accurate. One of the pieces that used to drop at random (and the issue was that if playing in a group, only one person would get it) is now a quest reward. This solves the problem for new players, but not for those that missed out on the item in the first place. I have not seen anyone report actually getting companion gear from MEs - can this be double-checked, please?

vorphied · June 2019

I appreciate that they are acknowledging that they are hearing our feedback. Now I would really appreciate seeing that feedback acted upon.

We told them Gallant was bad, and apparently no one listened.

We warned them Successor was going to be bad, and no one listened.

We've been telling them since launch that Successor IS bad, and it's taken until just about now to get any sort of acknowledgement.

Whoever is in charge of designing this equipment, please take a hard look. I do believe that there is a happy medium to be found between "everything +% damage" and "no useful bonus at all."

pitshade · June 2019

"Sniper's Advantage. When you are 50' or further way from the target, your Combat Advantage is increased by 1500"

At that range, it impossible to get positional CA... Unless you have Nightmare Wizardry or some other means of forcing CA, these are useless.

majorcharvenak · June 2019

Sounds like sticking with the sets that drop from the MEs are the wise choice for now.

vorphied · June 2019

pitshade said:
"Sniper's Advantage. When you are 50' or further way from the target, your Combat Advantage is increased by 1500"

At that range, it impossible to get positional CA... Unless you have Nightmare Wizardry or some other means of forcing CA, these are useless.

I feel like, following M14, they throw darts or have a grab bag of set bonus ideas from which they hold a blind drawing in the office while having design sessions around new equipment.

I try to keep my feedback on the constructive side and am aware that a lot of hours go into the content that's released, but right now I think pointed honesty is most productive. Any player who knows something about game mechanics could have informed the team that these bonuses were not going to work. I'm sure they did, and obviously no action was taken.

It's incredibly frustrating to see development team members designing equipment through the lens of the brand-new player who thinks high stats are always better and doesn't know how bonuses work or don't work in actual gameplay when what we expect from them is a high-level understanding of these interactions. While it's okay to have some choices that are more niche or not indisputably superior to every other option, it is not okay when so many of the alleged choices are just awful (and that an entire top tier of equipment is made trash as a result).

pitshade · June 2019

It was in the m16 release blog that higher IL wouod be better. That was clearly the intent.

nitocris83 · June 2019

I'll make sure this thread gets passed on/seen. Thanks for the follow up!

Successor gear bonuses

Comments