The Tear is so outdated, it would be a good time for something new. Why could we put such items into the ammo slot at all ? The ammo slots should be just there for ammuniton and nothing else. There should be added at least three new slots for light sources, quivers and items like the Tears of Alaris where the full stats could take effect.
Question (since I really do have no idea): With current augs now giving 700-1000 HPs, mana, heroics, etc, etc, is putting a +5 defense aug in place of one of those a good move? Ammo slot might be a better option, unless of course you're a ranger.
The tear is still fine for lower level toons and grinding AA points. Twenty minutes will nab you 12 AA from Shard's Landing, Threshold and Heart, which in itself isn't bad, even at 120. Till you find something better for the ammo slot its pretty easy to help bring up alts. Meh. I understand this is ForumQuest and people would complain about being provided free beer and lunch but come on.
The ammo slot doesn't give stats from any item that can go in it that has stats. Magelo thinks the ammo slot gives stats, but that's just for Magelo epeen buffers.
Counterpoint to this is that it's not "fun" to see something so insanely out of reach to the point that it feels like an obvious oversight on the Devs part. Kind of a lose/lose at that point.
I dispute this. I love seeing achievements that require crazy marathons of work in games that are out of reach for me personally. As long as the benefit those achievements are very modest (like the tear), I think it's great and adds depth to the game. The Tear also isn't insanely out of reach. It's arguably more accessible now at 120 than it was when I did it because you can bulldoze those mission ez.
I just put a post up about this. Its not just the Tears of Alaris, though that's the most obvious one. I suggested putting a container similar to the Unattuner on the Overseer/Loyalty vendors. This container just auto-evolves evolving items when you hit combine. Beyond the Tears you've got the Zek earring, the four TBL Drops, and who knows what low level items you'll outlevel before you evolve now. Especially going forward evolving items will be problematic as newer content becomes older content. The Zek earing for example has pre-req's for later quests in the chain that will almost definitely level you out of that expansion by the third or so earring because those pre-req's require acheivs that then give XP (which has to be XP not AA etc) which will then push you out of the xpac into the next one.
Missions are not what you bulldoze for the tear. You go set up shop in the underground cavern and plow alarans under until you've got a bunch of the tablets as drops. One of the other issues not really covered is that the tear is a "freebie" - it may not do much, but its a Type 3, and unlike casters I can't fill my Type 3's. Even with every current Type 3, and two older ones where the line was discontinued but still technically usable because the replacement line either doesn't exist or is on a different timer, I've still got some open slots. That's what I mean by Freebie, I don't have to make a decision about replacing it, because there's nothing to replace it with. Perhaps the real solution is to add some Tear STYLE Type 3's to the vendors each expansion - by style I mean Type 3's that affect tanking but aren't tied to specific skill/spell/disc lines. Probably some that tie into the proficiency buffs - Ignore the numbers its just for example not for game balance discussion - Doubles the effects of Defensive Proficiency (or more accurately does something level scaled like adds X to this stat, Y to that Stat which is that increased 10%, 12% etc by the proficiency so that you have to replace them every xpac)
This doesn't work at level 120. The tablets have a trivial loot code which means they won't drop if the npc cons green or lower. There might be a few Alaran mobs in Heart of Fear that are high enough level to drop the tablets for a level 115 character, but they aren't high enough level for a 120 character.
As someone with all kinds of legacy gear including artisan's prize, tear, ldon shield aug, all four TBL drops, RZ earing etc etc, I'd prefer that they were generally deprecated after a few years of usage. Artisan's prize being an exception because it's not a level-specific piece like the others. This is mostly done (ex: the new phoenix feather replacing the horn of unity, even if they don't share cooldowns for whatever reason...), but there are quite a few standouts. I really don't want to keep lugging my TBL gear, ldon shield etc around just because that +accuracy boost from a type19 aug arguably eclipses the benefit of thousands of HP.
