Staff of Elemental Mastery - The Burning Lands Chase Loot

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Benito, Oct 10, 2018.

  1. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    I think it would be cool if the devs reintroduce elemental-specific pet foci (see original Staff of Elemental Mastery: Fire, Water Air, Earth) in the upcoming expansion as tradeable chase loot for magicians. Think collecting Pokémon!

    The pet foci itself would be equivalent to EM27-28 but only restricted to one of the four elementals (e.g. Focus: Mastery of Fire). However, each staff would have a special click buff for each elemental.

    Fire Staff: Spell Damage Increase (Mage), Special Nuke Proc (Pet)
    Water Staff: Heal Increase, Group Heal Proc
    Earth Staff: HP/AC Increase, Additional Prism/Aegis Proc or Root Proc
    Air Staff: Mitigation/Deflection Increase, Group Mitigation Proc

    Given the popularity and rarity of Golden Sage's Earring as chase loot, I think this would be a nice new addition for an Elemental Planes themed expansion.
    xcitng and OldCa61 like this.
  2. Tucoh Augur

    I'm excited to see what cool stuff Ngreth et all cooked up for us in TBL! Personally my favorite parts of RoS were the new breastplates and VP items.

    With regard to your specific suggestion, I think tying a mage specific item to their pet would be pretty cool, since they got the short end of the staff when it came to Dichotomic Companion a few years ago.
    Benito and Sancus like this.
  3. strongbus Augur

    I have no issues with this if they did the same thing for bst and necros. I know at lest necro get 2 types of pets war and rog.
  4. Brohg Augur

    elemental-specific focuses weren't from elemental planes, though. They were from o.g. planar content (Hate, Air(, Kedge boss- still epic1 level boss mob)), and before that from friggin' Najeena. They only existed as precursors to the magician epic, which almost universally superseded them until level 66 pets came out in Omens.

    And which focus do you think would apply to Servants? They're way more important than the summoned elemental these days.

    Necros use two different summonings for their pets, but beastlords just use the one warder then swap his role with their buff. How's this scheme mesh with that?
    Benito likes this.
  5. IblisTheMage Augur

    I fear t would be a nuisance with all the swapping, but the lore/call-back is nice of course. I would probably prefer a mage showel to be part of an epic :)
    Benito likes this.
  6. Benito EQ player since 2001.


    I know that the staves were not part of PoP but mainly part of Plane of Sky quest lines so there is a planar connection. This is a starting point to use lore/roleplaying and creatively expand item lines. Not here to promote mages over other classes as in a zero-sum game (I also play a 110 Beastlord and, on the side, 110 Necromancer). Mages would still have to rely on EM earrings for swarm pets (see trade off for MAG vs. BST/NEC below).

    I am thinking other classes can turn in the "Staff of Elemental Mastery" to a quest NPC that "removes the elemental gem from the staves" from which the gem would provide a fairly powerful buff click that mimics the mage's buff in character (in the spirit of VP quest line mixed with PoWar auras). Beastlords and Necromancers could turn in the one of the gems in a separate quest line (gem to be placed on the cover of a Necromantic Encyclopedia - Earth or Air Gem for Warrior and Water or Fire Gem for Rogue - and one or two eyes of a Beastlord's Totem) or simply exchange for a EM26-27 item (mages' elemental focus would get EM27-28 but no swarm focus as a trade off).
  7. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    It seems a bit silly to make 4 chase items for one class especially when they are pet focus items which means that designers need to make a new pet template for each pet it will focus (or copy from an existing one which would make you wonder about doing it in the first place). It seems like it would be better to make chase items that would work for more people rather then spend the time to make 4 rare items for a single class only.
    snailish likes this.
  8. Benito EQ player since 2001.


    One could argue that many things in an MMORPG - or any game - are silly (redundant). Why did the devs create 16 different class storylines for "Epic Retelling"? Why do trade skill recipes require diverse ingredients? Why does the "Mask of Immortal End" require a "Right Eye of Sul" and a "Left Eye of Sul"? I think you bring a fair point. However, if aspects of the game were made only for economy of labor, then the game would feel homogenized, bland, and pedestrian.

    The EM focus restrictions would force magicians to try to collect all 4 staffs. - which in itself moderates the power and demand of each staff. (Hence, why a higher EM27-28 effect restricted to each elemental type would be used). One should see it more like we've broken the power of 1 omnipotent chase item into 4.

    In a subsequent post, I bring up the possibility of allowing other classes to turn in the "Staff of Elemental Mastery" to a quest NPC that "removes the elemental gem from the stave" which would produce a chase click based on each element.
  9. Sheex Goodnight, Springton. There will be no encores.

    Basing anything on “the popularity and rarity of the Golden Sage’s Earring chase loot” is a pretty poor template to start from. It’s a raid rare item with a standard raid level focus. If you want raid pet focus, go raid, bank that krono to spend an exorbitant amount on it, or roll on the chop shop server.

    Pretty sure the devs have stated in the past that they didn’t want the chase raid rares to be interchangeable by quest or whatever. Its not intended for you to get a warrior weapon and say hey, I’m a knight, I should be able to convert this to what I want! It’s supposed to be random and encourages trading and junk.
  10. Benito EQ player since 2001.


    The remark was in reference to the Krono market where GSE sells for 25 KR.

    GSE's EM24 has already been eclipsed by Prickle's and Summoner's Phlogisten Earring's EM25.

    The model I am proposing would not be merely interchanging items but would be equivalent to chasing the the 3 circle clicks from PoWar. Each element type would produce a corresponding chase click buff after any class has turned in the staff to the quest NPC (who would consume the staff).
  11. Waring_McMarrin Augur


    You are trying to confuse different issues here and a key thing to remember is that the Epic Retelling quests had essentially the same reward for each class even if the work to get it was the same as the final goal was epic ornimations.

    With the suggestion you have you are making it would be more work for the developers (and we already have complaints about not enough content) for the benefit of a single class. In addition to making new pet templates for each focus this expansion they would have to do so for each future expansion where this focus would work on the new pets. Then you will have complaints from Necromancers and Beastlords asking for a special focus for their pets since they are pet classes after all and deserve the same types of pet focus's that Magicans get.

    In the end it should be remembered that the popularity of the Golden Sage's Earring is due to it having the best pet focus at the time it was released and was used by all pet classes rather then a specialty focus used by one class and not all of the different types of pets are used as often.
  12. Warpeace Augur

    Can Paladin have 4 new class weapons also then? Maybe one with a big Slay undead mod, one with a summoned monster mod, Regular mob and idk a PvP one just for giggles.

    Do you really want Dev time eaten up buy things like that?
  13. Waring_McMarrin Augur


    One with an Act of Valor proc!
  14. Warpeace Augur


    Has to be AE though.
    svann likes this.
  15. Benito EQ player since 2001.


    I would have to question your premise on the amount of work that 4 items would take. I am not proposing a new item system in general (i.e. Evolving items, Talking items). Unless you have "behind the scenes" information (specifics), you are making assumptions on dev time and capability. I am making counter assumptions in my own defense. We would need Ngreth or Dzarn to comment on resources in this thread. Otherwise, your point could be totally inaccurate and moot.

    Edit: If I were proposing a new epic quest (or quest in general), with all of the content required, I would most certainly agree with you that it would be a drain on dev resources. However, it is merely 4 items with new focus effects and effects. Was dev time detrimentally affected by the creation of "Worn" effects on trade skill/novel gear (Conflagrant Belts, Temporal Field, Chelsith Rings)?
  16. Waring_McMarrin Augur


    I don't think the question is really about how much total work it would add but the fact that they generally have more work to do than time permits as it is (how many expansions have they ended up fixing or adding things after launch) for a single class. Not to mention that once they start doing class specific chase items for one class you will have all the other classes asking for one which would make even more work for the devs.
  17. Benito EQ player since 2001.


    I almost find your contention to border on the irrational (perhaps conflating my proposal as introducing a new item system akin to Evolving items with more under-the-hood work). Class-specific items are already found in every expansion whether through group, raid, or trade skill access. Class-specific or narrowed Ranger bows (Terebro, Skybarrage), SK/PAL (Percutio, Skybreaker, Skycleaver, Skyreach), and BST/MNK (Crush, Shark Tooth Club) weapons have existed since chase loot/global rares were introduced in CoTF. Was there any outcry then? Perhaps casters are overdue for more specific item lines?

    I've already highlighted a way to involve other classes, Beastlords and Necromancers. I'll repost here since you may have missed it:

    I am thinking other classes can turn in the "Staff of Elemental Mastery" to a quest NPC that "removes the elemental gem from the staves" from which the gem would provide a fairly powerful buff click that mimics the mage's buff in character (in the spirit of VP quest line mixed with PoWar auras). Beastlords and Necromancers could turn in the one of the gems in a separate quest line (gem to be placed on the cover of a Necromantic Encyclopedia - Earth or Air Gem for Warrior and Water or Fire Gem for Rogue - and one or two eyes of a Beastlord's Totem) or simply exchange for a EM26-27 item (mages' elemental focus would get EM27-28 but no swarm focus as a trade off).
  18. Waring_McMarrin Augur


    I am sure that is what other classes would want and not something more tailored to their class. In fact I am sure that other mages (mainly raiders) are excited about the need to farm multiple rare chase items from group content in order to maximize their class instead of being able to pick up a single items for raids to take care of their pet needs.

    Those suggestions also mean more work for the devs as they would need to have a quest made to do the turn in and items/focus effects created to give back to the players.
  19. Benito EQ player since 2001.


    I am glad you are starting to appreciate my idea. Yes, I would support having both a raid version and chase version of the "Staff of Elemental Mastery." :)

    Yes, BST/MNK 1-Hand weapons should drop in pairs. PAL/SK drops must come with Sword and Board with a bow on top.
  20. Benito EQ player since 2001.


    Like I said earlier, unless either of us works or has worked at Daybreak, we are not in a position to assume the developers' capabilities or constraints. I don't think my idea is so left-field (e.g. proposing epic quests) that it can be dismissed outright as a drain on time. We would need Ngreth or Dzarn to chime in - if you want a debate winner....

    Edit: This thread was meant to be fun. Throwing ideas out there. If it helps, great. If it is unfeasible, no foul. On a side note, I was the player who suggested the "name confirmation box" on character deletion - if my ideas need to be deathly serious. ;)