Feldon One of the most intriguing things about the recent Tears of Veeshan expansion is, there are at least seven different “Stat Packages” for quested and dropped gear. Not only are these items intended to have their stats fiddled with through Reforging, but most restrictions on equipping items have been dropped, save for the armor’s material (Cloth, Leather, Chain, Plate). This plethora of choice has been a blessing for most, but a curse for some with unlucky dice.
When an Advanced Solo or Heroic mission is completed, each player receives an Ornate Chest with an item having one of the following “stat packages”:
DPS with AoE Spec, DPS with MA Spec, DPS with Haste Spec, Main Tank Spec, Off Tank Spec, Potency/Reuse (Caster), Potency/Ability Mod/Health (Melee Caster)
Depending on your luck with the magical dice, some players are positively swimming in gear that does not fit their stat and growth needs, especially tank/mitigation items for Clerics and Druids, caster items for Scouts, and, melee battle priest type gear for healers who prefer to go the spell route.
This has been a frequent topic of discussion on the EQ2 Forums, with a chorus of players asking for a Heroic Equipment Exchange Merchant. Great idea, but putting in one-for-one exchange merchant would completely short circuit the progression of the expansion and let players run just 7 zones to get a full set of Arcane or Potent gear.
A New Vendor on Test
On Test, which is of course subject to change between now and when said feature goes live, is a new exchange merchant named Zaszea who sells a item to convert Cryptic, Arcane, and Potent items into tokens which can then be used to buy the exact Crytic, Arcane, or Potent item you want.
Note that you must convert 7 Arcane gloves to get an Arcane Glove Token. You cannot mix and match different tiers or different types of items. I absolutely like the idea of this merchant, but given this restrictions, the cost seems a tad high. Scouts can comfortably improve their characters with 3 of the stat packages, while pure casters only benefit from one, so needing to fail 7 times on the dice before receiving one item seems a bit much.
I suppose if someone really likes grinding zones they could, at an snail’s pace, gear up an alt that wears a different armor type.
We’ll be watching out for any announcements on this feature, as well as any tweaks or adjustments on Test!
Interesting. I wonder, since the gear is Heirloom, could you transfer 7 pairs of chain gloves to an alt, or a mix of chain and something else, and convert them to tokens and then get cloth gloves? This would be a avenue to gear up alts which is almost completely lacking unless the alt wears the same type of armor.
Gearing up alts was my first thought. Still think 7 is too high.
I don’t know if 7 is to high are not. It is right on the fence with me. If you’re super unlucky as I am, that would be 7 days it would take you get half the armor set you want and another 7 days to get the other half. 14 days of grinding isn’t that bad to get the set you want exactly.
Really it only boils down to doing this for the Potent set because unless you’re just annul you can get by with what you get with the other set types.
Ok my misunderstanding… You have to have 7 of the same type slots to trade in for that slot. In that case, 7 is a bit to high.
I’ve been hoping to have something like this for sometime now since I’ve been unlucky on most of my toons. However, I think its to high because the rewards are of 2 possible outcomes and if you keep getting 1 instead of the other it would take forever to have the 7.
Perhaps keep it with the 7 tokens but not for each slot. Change it to Potent Tokens, Cryptic Tokens, etc.. etc.. That way you still have to have “7 Tokens” and it would keep the time frame on getting a full suit to a extent. But I get why they probably won’t do that.
Don’t know. I have 5 plate wearing toons, so I could easily swap out a piece every other day, getting what I wanted.Granted I would have to be willing to play that much, so it is hard to say. Still if I only did it on 1 toon, 7 pieces would really only take a week to get a full set since each instance gives you a different piece. Most of the zones don’t take that long either, so 7 is not really that big a deal to me.
I understand the reasoning behind the 7 item requirement, but in reality, its possible to run Labs 14 times and get 14 shoulders, not 7 shoulders, 7 helms (or whatever the other slot is). Worst case scenario is you get shafted 7 times on the same slot to get what you want, but that could be way more than 7 runs per slot in reality.
Either way, whatever the number, it’s a welcome change. I have now 3.5 bags full of Arcane and Potent leather tank gear that will at least get me a slot or two upgraded from the quested on my Channeler.
So I would have to rack up and store seven pieces of useless gear in order to get one I need?
Color me unimpressed, at least at this exchange rate.
OK, useful and constructive, fine.
Trade one piece of gear for one token…but require x tokens to get the piece you want.
At least this way I don’t have boxes of crap gear waiting to be traded in.
…and I see that’s how it works. Carry on… 😉
Think back to COE and the greater spirits…initial drop rate on those were atrocious…I could do ten heroics and get one greater spirit…I thought that was too much. Then they increased the drop rate by too much in my opinion …you could almost completely gear a new alt in one day… I remember 4 spirits in HE fairly often…I just hope they don’t make it too easy…then I will have to look at crafting and decorating in a few months just to stay excited about the game…we are already up to 500-600 etymas a week…easy with just like three alts and gold membership. Heck…half our guild already has badges of the stonehive…riftblade is like 1 mil+ dps for our raid parse…a month in and our dps is already tremendously better than it was in Beta…bottomline…I am ok with slow and steady.
Sadly, the boost in drop rates didn’t help me. I went from having no Greater Spirits to having two per week (regardless of how many zones I ran that week). The rest of my guild has hundreds of Greater Spirits that they couldn’t use or give to me.
I think 7 would have been a good number if it had been implemented at the start of the xpac. We all would have traded in for what we wanted at this point. But now it feels like too much. Though I will be grinding through those zones anyways and at least now there is an end in sight.
I can understand them making it so you have to trade in x amount of the same slot… they don’t want people farming the easiest zones to get the armor slots from the harder zones. On the other hand, I agree 7 seems a bit high.. 5 would be a better number, in my opinion.
if their intentions is to reduce how completely random getting armor is, then their method is meh at best.
considering you are not guaranteed an armor piece in every box or that there are multiple armor slots in a box, it still has a completely random chance aspect to it. you can run a zone (that has 2 different armor slots in a box) 7 times and not get 7 tokens for the slot you want. you could very easily run that same zone 14 times not get 7 tokens for the slot you want.
if the box let you pick which slot you wanted then randomly gave you one, it might be ok to require that many of a specific slot. but the current system of good luck getting the slot you want tied to a restricted slot token – the price is a bit too high.
i am in no way saying gear should be easy to get. just not completely fu***ng random. my leather healer has almost 4 full sets of leather tank gear. and only 3 leather healer pieces a month in. while my ranger alt was completely geared within 2 runs of each zone.
I’m sure I’ve squished at least 7 arcane hats….
Pretty much exactly what was needed from the start (and something many of us have been suggesting on the forums).
I have no problem with it being 7 per se. As it is now, if it’s not the set you want the item is essentially worthless, so being 1/7th of the item you want is still an improvement. What it fails to address is the discrepancy in the number of sets for a given slot available like the post mentions. That is an issue with the itemization itself in part (why so many mediocre or similar sets?) and poor (well, zero) filtering of inapropriate sets in other cases (leather/plate tank gear on priests).
It’s so much simpler in raid with patterns that it’s not even funny. Now patterns are not appropriate in heroic content where you can run it every day for a guaranteed piece (from the missions) and every 90 minutes for a chance at a drop you want. The shift to 90 minute zone timers forces them to throw itemization a more difficult way and was a mistake from the start in my mind. They needed to encourage people to run more distinct zones (and some of the weird jewelery itemization actually does that in ToV) not just run the same zone over and over.
I had a bank full of unused potent pieces hoping they’d put in just such a merchant. A few days ago I decided it wasn’t likely to happen anyway and transmuted all of it. 🙁
That sounds really promising!
And 7 is fine.. at least then you know, if I run this zone 7 times, I get the item I want (not entirely true as you wont always get ie. gloves, but still close enough). 1 to 1 would be too simple. You will have to do a fair amount of farming to get the required 2k-ish etymas to upgrade armor anway..
The idea that you can potentially fail for an eternity is rather depressing. If I can see light at the end of the tunnel, at least that would be enough for me to keep doing the zone..
I think 7 is fine. I’ve got bags full of the Potent gear. I don’t want it to become too easy for people. It isn’t THAT hard to get, really.
Seeing as how you can potentially get 1 every day, I dont think 7 is too many at all. I’d even be okay with 10.
Everyone shouldn’t have every exact armor piece they want within a week or two, or it will become much harder to find PuGs.
So, there are 3 plate types I can say I’ve definitely noticed. Let’s call them offensive, defensive and healer. Do I need 7 healer to buy 1 token or can I do 3 healer and 4 offensive?
A very bad idea, all this for solve a problem it will lead to more problem.
With this kind of thing, everyone will need on everything, because it could be usefull in other form.
Even if you need this healer chest, a scout see he can turn it in something more need will need too, and so much. Already saw that happen when they used armor as material in drunder, was very lame to see pick up group need on everything…. And was also time to stop group, when everyone become a jackass. Because he neeeed. (or even for alt)
Only stuff from closed box, quest reward should use this, because it cant be used with NBG system. As it’s it will be Need Befor Need.
Better to put pattern like the Rune box, where you can pick up one from
5 choice.
Dont like this unless they totaly remove armor from drop table. And it s not what i want. I love to see my armor drop from a normal chest not be a quest reward with no personality.
It would be a problem if everyone needed on everything, but I don’t think that will happen. Cryptic, Arcane, and Potent gear can’t be looted through NBG. Those pieces only come from the Mystery Crates from the daily missions.
If a scout hits Need on priest gear, they’re going to get a wonderful reputation on their server and people won’t group with them anymore. SOE shouldn’t have to totally compromise the game because of some possible bad player behavior. In fact, I have repeatedly rallied against SOE doing so.
This is going to annoy me to heck if I can’t trade in 1h weapons for a wand. Apart from that at least I’ll have legs in a day after this.
I’d have been happy with this if it was included at launch. Now that I’ve already gemmed and adorned “meh” gear as a caster assuming that it would be a while before I got the good caster gear, I feel as if I’ve wasted a lot of time and etyma. I think that you should be able to use it on an item with gems in it, and that any gems on an item should simply be returned to you after using Zaszae’s Armor Exchange on a piece of gear.
Seems high to me, granted I only have one character doing the instances and I haven’t done anything heroic yet
I think 7 is a bit high as think about all the bank slot space or bag space this is taking up. I have kept most of the stuff I can’t use but I am only at 3 or 4 of each slot… I could see 4 or 5 maybe or lifting the slot requirement…. none of the instances are that much harder than the others where these drop.
I am assuming this doesnt apply to the weapons, ranged or secondary slots? I havent been on test. I have a two hander I do not want, I would rather have a one handed weapon.
I think it would work a little better if it was generic tokens like Gar was saying. However, to make it so that people don’t get the best gear from doing the easiest zone have flags on being able to buy pieces based on achievements. SOE already has a mechanic like this in the game on the gear that drops form the Djinn Master. You must have the achievement from killing him to be able to trade the pattern in to the merchant.
It seems crazy to me how cup cake this game has come over the years. It used to be a game we invested our time in to see greater rewards, now we are given raid loot GUARANTEED at the end of heroic zones. Not only that but gear that can easily be upgraded beyond the strength of the easy mode raid gear, and we are complaining we don’t have every piece we want in every slot after a month of play.
Daily missions giving 2x the chances at the loot, double tokens for months, gear reforging, mercinaries, exchange merchants, solo instances giving raid loot/adorns……All this crap just makes this game more cookie cutter cute mode than the previous xpack, and it happens every xpack.
For those of you who haven’t been playing since release there were days you were not guaranteed loot from a zone, and heroic mobs didn’t always drop fabled or legendary loot, hell there was a time raid mobs dropped ornate chests. Now every item is fabled, most have not seen common or uncommon gear.
I remember days, weeks, months running Halls of Fate because I wanted the fabled 2 hander, and still never saw it. But it kept me in game searching for it. Now I gear out my main and log out til raid time, that is one less tank for the server to play with, but I got all I wanted in a week or 2 so why waste my time out of raid zones?
I understand the frustration, I have run labs daily for a helmet and 2 handed hammer and after a month finally got the helm. But the truth is I am lucky I got it at all because as rare as it is I would never know where it came from, except that upon picking up a quest I can see a mobs loot table!!!
Guess I just long for the old day of less bitching and more action, it made better players back then.
Uphill both ways in the snow, right?
For some reason people always look back and think everything was great in the past. People were still bitching, just about different things.
And I very much doubt you ran Halls of Fate for days/weeks/months for the Fabled 2 hander without ever seeing it and never complained about it. Nobody could do that without complaining about it.
Let us turn them into tokens… and then charge 7 tokens for a piece of gear.
The current “solution” is silly.
And yes they should definitely use a “killed the boss” system to unlock the different pieces.
They could even make each type of armor have its own token… as long as they are stackable.
If you have a fully gemmed piece you should be allowed to swap it one for one. Given that full price of green gems means that you have completed zones many many times over already, that would be fair if the idea of progression in the expac is to stop you gearing up in the first week.
After this length of time I would still only have two pieces that I could swap!
Does anyone know when this is supposed to go live ?
Tomorrow and it looks like they decided to go with 7 without any real regard for most people thinking it ‘s a bit much.
yes i think it should be broken down by archtype Cryptic 7 , arcane 5, potent 3 maybe if enough people keep complaining something will happen. I get one fabled chest and/ or legs a week hard to get groups in dominions. Will take awhile to get 14 pieces.
cool now we have stats for all the gear and compare to make a set providing the best possible setup.
id imagine very shortly there will be a gear builder website for each archetype of gear.
Maybe even have a reforger tool on it so we can see how much return we get before actually reforging would be awesome.
That would become the most used gamer website, bigger than the adornment tool.
You want feedback? Apparently you haven’t been reading your Twitter, Holly, or listening to people standing right in front of you at the live forums:
1. NO PLAYER instructions for the ridiculousness of converting BG gear. THE SINGLE MOST FRUSTRATING thing about the latest release, followed immediately by:
2. ONE-SHOT kills for scouts, but not for Leather toons.
3. PROCs work for scouts but not for Leather toons.
4. Immune to stuns and poisons (arcane, elemental, etc.) work for scouts, but not leather toons. THE IMMUNITY NEVER WORKS, and there are multiple spells and potions, but again, the scouts rule.
How about this: Just remove the Leather toons from the game. When is EQN coming out? Please hurry!
5. NO NOTIFICATION about NON transfer of old coin to new. No way to convert the old BG coin to the new. That is like the tax man (or woman in the case) taking away your bank account and telling you to start all over. Again, NO NOTIFICATION this was going to happen. Had we known that we would’ve worked on something else.
Reply
Such caps. So intense. Wow.