In SOE's advertising for the Chains of Eternity Expansion, Spirit Stones are listed as a "Feature" of the expansion: In reality, however, Spirit Stones in their current state offer very little to players than was already there (and maybe less). As an example, let's compare a set of rings from the DoV expansion with a set from Chains of Eternity. First, the DoV set: This set, when combined, gives the wearer 5% CB, 675 Ability Mod, 3% Flurry, 3% Parry, and 15% MA. Now, let's look at a set of CoE rings with Spirit Stones: This set, when combined, gives 54 to a primary stat, 54 Sta, 4.4% CB, 4.4% Potency, 264 Ability Mod, 22 DPS, and 22 MA. While the addition of green stats and Potency are nice on the Spirit Stones, they do not compare with the 3% flurry or 3% Parry chance of the DoV set, not to mention the net loss of 400 Ability Mod. While you can argue that there are better Spirit Stones than the ones on these CoE rings, none of them offer Parry or Flurry. Or Riposte. Or Ae auto-attack. Or Spell Double-Attack. Or any other really desirable stat. Instead, the new spirit stones offer negligible amounts of ability mod, hate gain, mitigation increase, max health, DPS, MA, Weapon damage bonus, Strikethrough, Ability reuse, casting speed, spell reuse, and spell wep stats that nobody ever uses. Every single one of these stats can already be pretty easily capped through AA's and creative reforging. The worst part of the Spirit Stones is that even the few nice ones that do actually have a useful combination of stats are so difficult to level as to never be able to be utilized by a player within a reasonable timeframe. (There are a half-dozen posts on the first page of the Items section of the forum about the slow leveling of Spirit Stones.) Summary: While Spirit Stones were an interesting idea to add even further customization of items, they really give us very little that is desirable with which to work, and that which they do give that is worth it is next to impossible to level in the way they were intended (e.g. by taking damage, using combat arts, gaining adventure experience). In reality, they seem a step back from the gains offered by the set bonuses from the previous expansion and less of a feature than a poorly implemented notion.
So .. you're comparing HM Drunder x4 Raid set jewelry to something that people can get from a solo quest and picking up shinnies, and before you go all those are COE x4 raid rings. The ones you can get from the Drinal faction merchant from the solo quest line are 99% as good. And then you continue with dual Nebulous Reality Anchor when those are freely given out on the 5th quest of the solo line while there are actually x4 Green stones that can make a much larger difference. POW is still top tier and solo gear won't just yet over take it thank goodness.
Actually, I was saying that Spirit Stones as a "Feature" (or selling point) is weak sauce, when they're not really all that. And if you read closely, I qualified using Nebulous Reality Anchors, since leveling any others to 10 for the basis of comparison would take ~2 years of playing in their current state. (Also, you can just as easily take the very best Spirit Stones and they still don't even come close to the Drunder/PoW set bonuses.) So, a player is supposed to raid CoE zones to acquire the best spirit stone, then grind and grind for hours and hours to level it, when they could just as easily go to the Kael and Drunder zones and get more desirable bonuses? Seems legit. When I re-subbed, part of my decision was based on the idea that these spirit stones would be a cool new way of making my character more powerful than he was before this expansion. Apparently, I need to wait another expansion or two for the Spirit Stones or set bonuses to catch up with DoV. Edit: Here, take a look: http://advancedmod.com/EQ2/GreenAdorns.html Which of these fully leveled would you rather use than the DoV sets?
Well lets see... http://u.eq2wire.com/item/index/3728824456 \aITEM -566142840 -1842888567:Shiverback King Signet Ring\/a http://u.eq2wire.com/item/index/2449134784 \aITEM -1845832512 -1453798444:Band of Planar Scrutiny\/a I dunno, I think I would rather those rings myself and hey I even use one of them. Those are far superiror to PoW rings and their set bonus. Challenge-Mode upgrades to Challenge-Mod in CoE. You are comparing EM-CoE to HM-Drunder/PoW. In other-words you are saying EM != HM.
I normally run the POW Wrist set for the bonus and the COE greens below for the other stuffz... I don't need the Parry or MA from the Drunder set and as much as I agree that you can never have enough ABMod and Flurry the CB is nearly a wash 5 to 3.7. I enjoy the Mitigation and Max Health from the greens and the Potency and raw Str/Sta is just a bonus on top. Mote of Deathly Screams :http://u.eq2wire.com/item/index/2173013638 +38 int +38 wis +38 str +38 agi +48 sta +0.8% Mitigation Increase +1.7% Potency +1.7% Crit Bonus +0.9% Max Health +1.5% Hate Gain Nexus of the Bastion: http://u.eq2wire.com/item/index/3027595695 +45 int +45 wis +45 str +45 agi +57 sta +0.9% Mitigation Increase +2% Potency +2% Crit Bonus +1% Max Health +1.8% Hate Gain And BTW, FWIW, those two didn't take 2 yrs to level up, in fact they took less than one month. I'm in the middle of leveling this one on my Beastlord for the Weapon Damage Bonus and I "think" it is going to actually make a difference. It "Feels" like it is hitting harder now at level 6, but I have more testing to do before Im convinced. Orb of Crippling Fear +38 str +38 agi +33 sta +38 int +38 wis +14% Attack Speed +18 Damage Per Second +0.7 Weapon Damage Bonus +2.6% Crit Bonus +2.2% Potency
You're talking about the quality of the ring, however, and not the spirit stones. (And while Scrutiny of the Hounds is nice, No Quarter is an example of itemization redundancy, when so many people were already capped on Ae-auto at the start of CoE.) In either case, neither effect is better--for fighters, anyway--than the static set bonuses from DoV. Also, your character profile seems to be set to private at EQ2U, so I can't check to see what Spirit Stones you are using or their level. Are you using Prime or raid-dropped stones? If so, at what level are they currently? Is this reasonable considering your playtime? Was it reasonable for SOE to advertise Spirit Stones as a selling point, when they're really a non-factor, or only useful for min-maxing at best? This is the point of the OP. I'm underwhelmed at the "Feature" they call Spirit Stones.
This one is crafted ... using 2 of them you end up with 600 AB Mod, 7.6% CB/Pot, 32% MA, 32% Haste (Which is 1.5% Flurry), and 66 Str/Sta... Prime Consecrated Soul Trap +33 str +33 agi +33 sta +33 int +33 wis +17% Attack Speed +17% Multi Attack Chance +3.8% Crit Bonus +3.8% Potency +300 Ability Modifier And this isn't even one of the good ones...
I'm actually using three of these on a BL alt, as well. They seems to be leveling fairly quickly, which I attribute to BLs having only Combat Arts and no spells. The weapon damage bonus enticed me at first. But on my paladin, one AA give me 25.o weapon bonus when using a shield, and another prestige gives me 5.0 weapon bonus for every divine spell I cast. So, I was wondering after that additional bonus 46 weapon dmg from AA's how much more 2.1 from three Orbs would matter. I'd be interested in seeing the differences in your auto-attack damage once they're maxed.
You are correct that I keep myself hidden. I do so because I do not like being used as a "template" for AA specs. However you are free to ask me in-game or even via PM and I will unblock it for 10-20 minutes for your referencing. I used the rings not the stones because you are comparing a "set bonus" which is indicative of the Quality of the Ring and not of the Green Adornement itself. Set Bonus items are always "harder" to replace. However if you had say, EM-Skyrhine or EM-DoV rings these CoE ones with Stones would be upgrades. There also are no "raid" Spirit Stones even Will of the Shiverback King has dropped outside of Altar of Abhorrence for me. I happen to use; Orb of Crippling Fear X2 +38 str +38 agi +33 sta +38 int +38 wis +14% Attack Speed +18 Damage Per Second +0.7 Weapon Damage Bonus +2.6% Crit Bonus +2.2% Potency Will of the Shiverback King +46 str +46 agi +41 sta +46 int +46 wis +15% Attack Speed +18 Damage Per Second +2.7% Crit Bonus +2.4% Potency +0.6% Max Health +0.9% Mitigation Increase +1.2% Strikethrough. Also No Quarter III is the equivilant of the Greater Wild Swings I adornment. It would be assumed you have Teku's shield with this ring. So you only have 1 AE-Auto proc as No Quarter is not a Red Rune. Only Berserkers are truly capped on AE-Auto other classes must reforge for it. I as a Guardian have 60% AE auto attack as a base... and a Wild Swings I Rune so I have 100% AE Auto without hardly reforging for it.
Actually that is one of the "the best" overall DPS stat adornments even over the Orb of Crippling Fear.
They're a bit one dimensional and I've yet to see a green adorn under level 90. I think it would be good to get them at each tier and upgrade them every new tier, so they level over your 10 levels then better ones drop that you replace with. Instead we have a bucketload of level 90 ones that no one wants selling for 10cp on the broker, and none that you can wear before L90.
No. You have 60% AE auto-attack chance (with procs that will get you to 100%). Whether you believe it or not, there is a difference. I have a static 100% AE auto-attack without runes, meaning it is not reliant on proc percentages or the RNG. This is also something I haven't been able to understand. If these Spirit Stones were meant to grow in power along with the adventurer, you'd think you could an adorn an item with them early in your adventuring career and it be at max level by the time you reached cap. As you point out, that's not the case. I've seen quite a few lvl 80 necklaces with green slots, but never a single lvl 80 spirit stone with which to socket it. How's this explained? Bottom line is that the Spirit Stones--kind of like the CoE "Elite" werewolf mercs--seem sort of like a bait and switch that didn't quite deliver what they indicated or hinted at prior to launch of the expansion.
Yes, there IS a difference between 60% with a 40% proc and 100% however the issue to me is negligible because my job as a Guardian is Single-Target dps and Hate-Control; and not dying. I need enough AE-Auto however to reasonably off-tank. A Berserker has me beat when it comes to AE-Hate... hm isn't that why there are multiple classes? Though really, I must admit that now we are getting further and further off topic with regards to Set Bonus versus Green Adornments. My point was that HM-Rings with Green Adornments are better than Drunder/PoW rings. All necks got green adornments they begin at level 1 to my knowledge and level up from there. The Level 10 version is equivalent to CoE stats while level 1 is equivalent to Shattered Lands. I however may be wrong, I have not tried to adorn a Green into a <92-95 item.
Point taken. Didn't mean to get off-topic with the Ae auto-attack discussion. As far as adorning low-level necks, I'm pretty sure I checked when my BL was lvl 20 and there were no Spirit Stones available with which to adorn his necklace. Maybe they're only crafted and people aren't making them or whatever. I do know that I couldn't put a lvl 90 Spirit Stone into a lvl 20 necklace. It's the same deal as with red runes to where the item has to be of equal level with the adornment.
That is odd, next time I am on my new lowbie Warden I will check it out. Can't promise I will remember to post back my findings but at least you have given me pause enough to contemplate this; thank you.
They need to add green slots to all rings, not just COE ones. Like they did with all necklaces in the game.
If they did that then PoW > all but Avatar Rings because of the Set Bonus. This is why PoW rings do not have Green Slots. As per regular rings... probably just extra time.
