Itemization Magna Carta

Hey all, we've got some exciting new changes coming to items!

Distribution

There are two different ways to look at loot - as a great gift or as a satisfying paycheck. Great gifts have to be something that you actually want - and hopefully a surprise. Paychecks are satisfying because you really earned it.

Generally speaking, raiders prefer the latter model, so we've made the raid item distribution more reliable and less random. Armor will drop in patterns to lower the chance of constantly getting an item your raid does not want. Additionally, when there are multiple drops for the same archetype, those items will often be on patterns as well.

With that said, group and solo content will have plenty of rare, special, powerful items distributed in a less predictable way.

Jewelry


Jewelry (excluding cloaks and belts) doesn't have stats that grow and instead focuses on the effects. We want you guys to be able to pick and chose which effects are good and exciting for you in specific, taking into consideration your playstyle, class and preferences. These effects are tailored towards the playstyle from which they came - an item you find during solo should help you solo more effectively while an item found on a raid will help your raid.

Earrings, Rings and Wrist items have unique proc effects, which are built to provide some excitement and choice when gearing your character. You can select the items based on their effects, including some high-risk, high-reward effects like Blooded Blade as seen with the Prelude Ethereal items.



As you've been able to see on beta, all charms have clicky effects. The reuse on these charms are also linked to the equipment slot they were used from - so using a charm from the left charm slot will prevent that slot from being able to use other effects until the reuse has finished.

Cloaks, Belts and Weapons do not have effects and instead have the new Purple War Runes. These war runes are passive instead of active.



Armor


Armor is built with a few different stat layouts. There are armor pieces focused towards Ability damage, with stats like Reuse Speed, Casting Speed, Potency and Ability Modifier. There are armor pieces focused towards Auto-Attack damage, with Weapon Damage Bonus, Attack Speed, Multi-Attack Chance, Damage Per Second and AE Auto-Attack Chance. There are armor pieces focused towards defense, with a Health set and, for plate and leather users, sets that include Block Chance and Armor Mitigation.

Also, stat amounts are different by slot, which allows us to give varying rewards based on difficulty, time spent and other factors. Forearms have less sets, and the lowest stats. They are followed by shoulders, gloves and boots. Helmets and legs come next, with chest armor pieces having the highest stat values.

There has also been some changes to the reforging system. At SOE Live, we originally stated that Spell Weapon Damage Bonus would be a reforge-able stat. Also at SOE Live, we stated that things are subject to change! This is one of such things and we have decided not to allow reforging with Spell Weapon Damage Bonus. The good news? You can now reforge without a 'stat tax' - you no longer lose a percentage of the stats when you do your conversion. Along with the stat tax being removed, we have changed the costing of stats via reforging to more closely match the stat values on items. Specifically, the costs of Ability Modifier and Casting Speed are more in line with the effectiveness of the stats.

Questions and Answers from Beta

These specific divides are to focus the gear by “style.” There are a few sets of “Ability Focused” gear which use Potency, Ability Modifier, Reuse Speed and Casting Speed as the option. There are a few sets of “Auto-Attack Focused” gear which use Weapon Damage Bonus to replace potency, and then have Attack Speed, Multi-Attack Chance or AE Auto-Attack Chance as the extra stat. There are also “Defense Focused” armor sets which include a health set for each armor type, while leather and plate get block and mitigation to go along with their health sets.

The “lost potency” can be picked up somewhat by using specific cloaks and belts, and many of the effects grant high amounts of potency as well. You can mix and match the gear to your choosing – as this is all based on preference. If mages prefer to stick with the Potency set, that’s fine. If they would like to try to min-max in some of the Auto-Attack or Health sets, that’s fine as well. These changes are there to promote choice – players have the choice to use them (or transmute them) if they want. Raiders get their items in patterns and can select whichever piece desired and groupers get their armor from the Mission Completion Reward Crates, which will always be the correct armor type. Soloers can select whichever piece they want from the quest – and they can trade it in if they feel they made the wrong choice – for any other piece at a merchant. Soloers also get their Zone Completion Reward Crates, which also will always be the correct armor type.

In the future they may be different stat layouts.

Auto-Attack gear for enchanters will let them make use of their wands (or melee weapons) more efficiently – some Attack Speed armor will increase their chances at triggering procs, for example. Please keep in mind that Spell Weapon Auto-Attack triggers while you are doing other things – including casting both beneficial and hostile spells, allowing enchanters to keep doing damage while performing other duties for the raid. Also, nobody is forcing you to use any specific armor piece – we have no issues if your preference is to stick to the sets that have potency! It is all about preference, play style and choice.

Leather and Plate Armor Sets have two extra choices – they still keep all of the choices that Chain and Cloth have, so there is no lost option. The options are for mixing and matching armor sets – not looking at each individual piece in a vacuum. You can make up for the potency via effects, cloaks and belts.

Yes, with the difference made up by toughness and lethality for the PVP gear.

For information regarding Multi-Attack and Damage Per Second Adjustments, please follow this link: https://forums.station.sony.com/eq2...r-second-and-multi-attack-adjustments.542076/