Ossuary: The Altar of Malice Construct of Malice rewards

Speaking about RNG...would love a way to have a alternative for farming gear! long grindz of currency whatever+having require the kill achievement perhaps.

I will assume the dodging of my actual points to be a concession.

Additionally, it was YOUR question about if I felt a lucky drop should get replaced early in subsequent content. IF your going to ask for an opinion you have to acknowledge it. I don't expect you to agree with it, but you are the one that asked.

Yes... Actually I asked a yes or no question and did not get that answer. So yes, I did specifically ignore it. What it comes down to is on one hand we are trying to provide interesting and unique rewards as often as we can. The downside of said rewards is people do not upgrade out of them because they want to keep the interesting and unique rewards. If we simply make a new item with a better effect than the interesting and unique reward it is no longer unique and we start round two about why our game doesn't have any unique effects. You see the problem here?

I definitely like my unique zlandicar quest weapon.... You're right, I don't want to replace it because it still holds effective use in current content.... /shrug

That would be fine if there wasn't the flip side of other people getting 'very lucky.' RNG isn't bad, EQ2's RNG is bad.

I've been playing MMO's for over 15 years. Every one that has been remotely popular, even a lot that weren't and I have never seen such a badly weighted RNG for loot drops than the one in EQ2. I have gone on at great length about how bad it is and suggested several ways to solve it, others have made viable suggestions as well. Any guaranteed 'payment' for our gameplay 'work' has been marginalized to the equivalent of minimum wage while anything interesting is like trying to win a corrupt lottery. We don't need to hear the useless 'well its better than a kick in the nuts' counter arguments either.

PS, I want that mythical ranger shield sooooo bad

Well... it IS better than a kick in the nuts...

I was too slow. Gninja kicked the nuts already.

I would say "Great Minds" but well.. you know.

Give licks, not kicks.
That's my best retort.

Woah...

My take on the RNG and this is from someone who surpassed the Etyma cap before and AFTER it was raised last expansion (ToV) and found the cap for this expansion's (AoM) currency threshold BEFORE they have had to chance to raise it:

It sucks! I never got a weapon last expansion and haven't this one. My luck is beyond band when it comes to RNG

There are a few items I really want this expac, some of the ultra-rare jewelry that I have seen drop but never won. I wish they would put a merchant in for these coveted items, something like last expansion where they put in a merchant for the rarer drops that you spent your currency on, then maybe I would actually never found the currency cap!

I will add also to stay on topic, I have the mythical hat, only because I bought it from a group selling it

I think the thing is that mythicals aren't supposed to be something everyone has. They are supposed to be the item that you weren't really trying to get you just got extra lucky and got something cool. They definitely not required to progress in anything in the expansion in terms of content. They should be in the same category as ancient spells. If anything the mythical rates might be too generous.

Don't think we are asking for mythical's to be bought through merchants however everything else should be obtainable through other means and the best way i can think of it right now is having a merchant with the bosses loot tables that requires the kill achievement of that said boss and require like 3k-5k ferrin per item, how bad can this possibly be for the game?

Most things are, that's why its a metaphor for pointing out redundant and useless arguments. Its in the same realm of 'better than nothing.' How about instead of the skeevy club manager shorting someone on pay saying 'take it or leave it, pal' we talk about things getting adjusted so people are happy.

Probably is too high on 'rod of vengeance', i think i see 1 or 2 messages of people looting that every day. Sucky thing is when we got the dagger off construct, no server wide message.

People don't like these because they are interesting. They like them b/c they kill mobs faster. A charm clicky thats summons cows to fight in an encounter is unique, no one uses that that. They use the wrist of the grand aura, cuz stats.

Gninja, I completely sympathize with what I quoted of yours. I think that is exactly why people complain not only about the progression of itemization, but also the bad RNG. When you put in a "unique" item and no one wants/likes it, it is there to pollute the loot table with a failed RNG generation landmine of disappointment. This makes it seem that the RNG just "isn't on their side." We can go over lists and lists of items which while unique, no one cares about. In complete perfection, people really want different and unique items that are always scaled in power to the difficulty of encounters. I don't think that is possible and if that is your goal, like I said, I sympathize.

What is important to me is the process. You can make 50 different rings effects to choose from that are all unique and 2 of them will still be the only ones I want to wear, cuz killing mobs. With all the diversity, I'm setup to be disappointed 96% of the time.

I believe the most common mythical are the 1-hander and 2-hander, with hats being uncommon, and ranged being rare. Amirite?

It has nothing to do with DPS. The same issues can (and from first hand experience DO) happen in leader-assigned or (especially) in NBG assignment models. You argument there is effectively "the problem is not with the gear, the problem is that you (or your leaders) put the benefit of the raid force ahead of your individual benefit". Yes, that is correct. That is the issue. But is that really a BAD issue? Is that something to discourage? I don't think so.

I'll give you an example from literally yesterday. Avatar died. http://u.eq2wire.com/item/index/746100796 dropped. This is arguably the best in slot wrist for a healer. I EASILY had enough dkp to buy it - as did most healers in the raid. But... it would be simply stupid to take that away from the raid's tank. Even if the guild let me do it (which they may have) I would be effectively sabotaging my own progression.

And that's given the argument that 130 CB for a helaer is just as good as 130 cb for DPS which.. from a raidwide perspective, it's probably not, but that a lesser point in the great scheme of things.

Understood. This has been an issue for ages and while my favoured fix (heal-auto-attack!) is unlikely to ever happen. But.. even accepting the fact taht all we're ever going to get are potency, cb and amod... that still leaves this bigger question... why can't we get them to trigger on all our spellcasts? Not so much "what are we getting", but "how are we getting it".

If you look at an Uplifting potency item for an example... and you give it to a DPS class, your raid (an incremental) gets +100 potency 90-100% of the time from that 1 person. If you give it to a healer (class/encounter-dependant of course), your raid gets +100 potency 40-80% of the time (or some such). So, item is better for anyone but a healer. If the item was flat out +100 potency, it would be the same for both. (given the caveat earlier that healers and non-healers gain equal benefit).

You guys created those heroic "agony" items for AoM that had a different version that triggered on different conditions... that was a step in the right direction i think, i was disappointed that there were no new/bigger/different epic versions.

What exactly is the issue of having stuff like Uplifting/practiced proc on heals (and everything else)? You're afraid that with group heals they'll be "up too much"? Considering these items are up pretty much 100% for non-healers, what's the issue? the worst case scenario is that they'll be up 100% of the time for healers ALSO.

I get this. I'm not looking for complete heals. Honestly, i don't even necessarily need heals anyway (Although heals should be an option)... i'm ok with group buffs or other effects, but the have to be triggerable by a healing playstyle on a healing encounter. (Because on an encounter where i am free to chain-cast nukes, i don't care what i'm wearing, since i probably don't need to be in the raid in the first place).

You guys actually created quite a few good charms this expac - there are like 10 useful HEALER-SPECIFIC charms out there. Very cool. Unfortuantely i can wear only 2 and there is no such variety of usefulness exists for jewelry slots.

I've got pretty much an endless list of suggestions on how to improve things - ranging from simple to very complex to implement... some off the top of my head are:

- Priest only. (easiest to implement, but this addresses the symptom rather than the root cause of the issue).
- "if Priest"
- add an additional effect to certrain items that only triggers if you're a priest. So for example, for that tank wrist, change the existing 50% clicky to be "if non priest" and add another one that "reduces incoming damage to group by 15%, if Priest"). BAM, now that item is good for priests AND tanks.
- For practiced items.. (assuming current proc left as is).. add "on a healing spell improves group mitigation by... X procs of Y (same calculation type as practiced effect)"
- For uplifting items, (assuming current proc left as is).. add "when this effect expires, groups gains 1% damage reduction for each increment at the time of expiry, effect lasts for 1 second for each increment at the time of expiry)" (if priest).
- other effects.. one effect that i think many healers (but not all due to class type) would benefit from would be a priest-only jewelry piece that grants extra dot / hot ticks - basically a "portable UT", the same way that mages get their own through AAs or charms grant EV through a clicky. (please don't make this a charm!), other similar buffs might be useful too - the ones that usually go to DPS classes.
- speaknig of charms.. we have many good ones.. BUT... we're all stuck wearing the +raid HP charms. Make a healer-only jewelry neck slot item that gives +raid HP equivalent to the charm (but doesn't stack with charm)... this would free up one of the charm slots to use one of the already existing useful charms, while also solving one of the jewelry slot issues. (this again is a solution that fixes symptom rather than root cause)
- Anywhere you see +WBD as a major selling point for an "all class" item, add double that amount in +outgoing heals. (not really great tbh, but simple)
- Give us "tied-in" effects to other classes. I'm a huge fan of the way that chanters were "fixed" with mimic - it gave them much needed dps, but without neutering real T1s (who are still needed to base that dps on). It would be cool to get some items that work with other classes.. for example... "every time the priest triggers VC with a nuke or ca, the priest's group gets a 10% heal (can't trigger more than once a second) or a 2 second AE blocker" this way a healer nuking during VC actually protects their group. (It woudl be debatable as to wearing an item that is only useful during VCs is worth it, but maybe combining several such effects in one item would work. This is quite complex to make work though).

I have lots more ideas.. can't spend all night typing though... here's hopin'

This opinion is probably felt by many people, but having to win an item numerous times in order to make it effective is very annoying. If it is applied to a guild of 24-30 people then that is at least 96-120 kills in order for peeps to get the desired effect, as was the case with ill will, the item was beneficial to every class therefore it was like "chum in a water full of sharks." The only way I see an "ill will" type item being effective is if it increments in a useful way so its not hella bad and useless for 3 versions then OMFG badass the final one.

@Arieste

The example, http://u.eq2wire.com/item/index/746100796, is a DPS item with tank stats which is why eq2u shows that Mogrim looted it first and not a tank. It is a 50% DR for 8 seconds with a 10 minute reuse .......................... screw that. DPS peeps won't have to stand still to get max CB or build increments on mobs rather instead they get 130% straight CB bonus. I'd be doing a great injustice to the DPS classes in my guild if I took that item first.

I wouldn't consider that item unless the reuse was extremely reduced which Gninja basically stated in a previous post in this thread that the Dev team is not going back to change any current items.

That item is so OP when you consider how little block it takes for brawlers to cap uncontested block avoidance ... I'm sad that my shield's effect was restricted by the crappy protection when compared to shields this expansion. The uniqueness of the shield did not hold a candle to the shields in AoM, such is life in pixel land.