The power creep is getting silly.

The answer is simply: Stop shoving more and more power into tradeable gear. It would be nice if they expanded the character system so you can customize a bit and up your power to by adding some perks to your character for people who are willing to specialize a bit more. It would also go a really long way to make this game more popular if they made artifacts and crafted gear into separate systems so that you have found rewards that are bound rewards for finishing difficult content that are yours to keep and offer a genuine reward and goal for adventurers, without compromising the crafting system.

 

That first line there is were I see a problem as the game is designed around a player crafted economy. If the gear can't be made better there is no reason to craft. its the same as adventuring. If you are not allowed to level then why adventure?

There are already perks to spec. Almost every skill in each tree when spec gets bonus that set them apart from others. You already have a thread open on that stating you dont want the current specs where they are because you want key skills that you cant have with out going spec. between this and that thread everything in the game would have to change. I do agree that perhaps a system where you can do something to your gear that makes it bound would be an option but then this will cause more issues then you started with in your thread as all gear would go up in cost and force people to have to spend more money on more gear which will get you no further a head imo then it will start a new thread called how people are spending COTOS to get new gear since the changes .... I think the current system works as intended and like all things you can level up yourself and your gear... that is the point. its not a system where you just buy your gear once and use that until the end of time. expect the gear to keep getting better and better which each level put into it. I expect there to be more tiers added to the crafting to compete with the future epic artifacts.

I think perhaps a better solution would be to put level ranges on gear tier 1 , tier 2 , teir 3 etc. this then gives crafters of various levels the ability to feed certain levels. a high level crafter then would automatically be out of the first two tiers.. but at the same time I dislike this as I love how open the system is now for alts, as well there is no restrictions for market. The downside as you mentioned before else where was that finding the good prices becomes a bit of an issue unless your willing to spend the time to find the good trade spots. many of the top traders go pot to pot and check out the vendors to find deal, as well use the trade channel and discord trade channels to do business which works great but still there are always better deals somewhere... just have to find them. The pro to this is that it can make a very competitive market, it also makes some locations more desired for people wanting to sell... getting bad sales? is it your prices or your location? most the time I think its location... look at how healthy a town is by the traffic you see, and or vendors. if vendors are sitting mostly expect that the town is not maintained or as alive. where a town that has many standing means there are merchants and people buying.

just my thoughts

 

I don't see the problem at all, since I'm not saying the game shouldn't have a player economy, just that the player economy should be a smaller part of the overall power of a character so that there is room for other meaningful rewards in the game, and that continuously pumping more power into tradeable goods is starting to exclude players who just aren't into crafting and trading to the detriment of the game.

 

I would suggest that people that do not want to craft or trade, consider lobbying for better unique loot drops that they can use, not for dumbing down or nerfing crafting and trading that others are passionate about. I imagine artifacts were once crafted as far as ancient lore goes...

I vote for making it fun...for all of us.

 

Small follow up thought here.

Since there is a natural tendency in fantasy MMOs for a power creep in both gear (slot items) and buffs (consumables, devotionals, etc), then it follows naturally that when that happens one could simply adjust skill effectiveness to kinda match and slightly toughen mob health to remain.
Then the relative % between Skills/Gear/Buffs would stay more the same while there would be no specific need to micro-balance everything.

PS
should be noted that the same type of power creep appears in pen-and-paper RPGs as well, so not a unique thing for MMOs.
It is simply that with more and more different items the very differentiation will through player deduction and inventiveness in combinations lead to more powerful builds.

 

Int is what's used for magic critical chance, not attunement. See this thread for high damage examples.

 

Introducing found gear that competes with crafted gear for slots does nerf crafting and trading though. This is exactly why power creep is bad, if they want to adjust the power balance in characters now without nerfing anything they have to make other stuff more powerful just so they don't have to cut down what they already have. It's an endless power spiral which really should be avoided unless you have very specific plans to introduce a new power level to the game and then you should do it across the board and not so completely lopsidedly.

 

Int is Crit chance with magic, spell power, focus pool, and focus regen. not sure about crit dmg for magic.

that is exactly why there is artifacts in the game its an alternative loot drop for some crafted items not all. they usually are hoods/helms and weapon/hand slots, rings, and necklace. They are working already on a bunch of new artifacts every release. these artifacts are usually best in slot gear and has the highest attunement. That said they usually do not boost specific skills like some of the enchants or masterworks which is that balances between the two. The game design was around the premise of player economy and players making the best gear in game. This does not hold true for the current artifacts or the new combine system making the drops still better with no compare to top crafted.

Almost everything in game was to be crafted which is why crafting is still required even on the best in slot you will want a GM+ masterworker or enchanter to get your gear maxed out. This is the same as all games that have been sucessful like wow etc...

There is nothing stopping any other player from having the GM + abilities in crafting so you can make your own legendary gear / artifacts... its all time... What you are purposing is breaking the system completely so that crafters are not required to get gear. I can tell you as a crafter I pumped in over 48 million gold into other players pockets for materials... those players are every day players that are like you that just adventure and have no care to craft. They in return get more then enough coin to buy any gear they like. Some have to save to get some of the top stuff that is true, but they get there. I honestly hope they extend crafting further so we can compete with artifacts for some of the slots. but that is my view as I feel they strayed from crafting with the new combine system, well yes you still need us to add to them the base states still destroy what can be made.

If you really need coin to buy gear then seek artifacts like the rest of the adventures which has a min 5k+ value just for the essence it holds. that is where I see it.

 

Artifacts that compete with crafted gear aren't the answer, those systems need to be separated out, allow people to find bound items that account for a portion of their power and allow people to craft and sell items that account for another portion of a character's power. That way if you're not deep into either one of those systems your loss of power isn't too extreme, but neither is completely neglected and pointless.

 

that is what they are doing constantly introducing new power levels to the game. there has been at least 4 major passes in the last year to content making it much harder. As well with continued leveling in the new lands the new power is only the tip. Look at the new dungeons and scenes the mobs are much harder. With the new changes going in for resistances to various magics on different creatures, the whole power side of thing will be more balanced where some classes can't kill everything requiring alts and or friends/party to help.

Like every game this will spiral forever ... all 5+ episodes

 

Sure, as you introduce new content you have to give people better stuff every so often so that the feeling of getting something useful for your adventures remains, but there is a big difference between a well planned content expansion that ups the power level in the game in general and a continuous slide toward more and more power coming from a single system that some people love but many people can't stand.

 

But wouldn't that make the most powerful players even more powerful?

 

If they just added it without any other changes, yes, but I'm not talking about kneejerk changes here like they seem to be making to crafted gear all the time, I'm talking about a well thought out adjustments that go along with new content that requires them.

 

At least you get noticable dmg boosts when leveling your adventuring skills ...for each level you get something . We , crafters , have been waiting for years to get the same treatment .... you think you dont get enough power from leveling skills ? Try putting 70-100 mil craft xp into 6-7 levels just to get 0.1 more Strength on your enchant .

Any respectable adventurer runs around with 300 - 400 + int or str .

From crafted gear ( weapons and armor ) comes about 100 -120 stat ( str.. int..) ...the rest up to 300 - 400 comes from skills ..artifacts potions so on...

Crafted Gear - 100 stat
Skills + others - 300 + stat sometimes 400 +

Theres nothing wrong with gear as it is if anything crafters need more control over their skills and a better leveling progression .

I think the answer is to spend more time leveling your craft skills and less in the forums ... the stuff you talk about in most of your posts is just sheer fantasy . Ive seen people trying to debate / explain to you that its not at all as you describe it but you seem to be only focused on making your weekly thread and 50 daily posts in it .

 

This right here betrays your bias. Most people I play with don't have stats anywhere near that high.

Artifacts are included in the gear that causes power creep. The distinction you make between them and crafted gear is relevant to you, but completely irrelevant to people who just have to fill slots and grind to be able to trade for the pieces. Gear is also a major component in achieving those +100 point buffs. Unsupported by equipment those buffs are maybe 30-40 points.

Well, no actually. Asking for the change you want to see in the game is a lot more reasonable than spending your free time doing things you don't enjoy. You're just not used to someone actually sticking around to speak their mind instead of simply abandoning the game the second the knights of the holy cow ride out to chastise the wrongthinker.

 

So, the one thing that you suggested that could somewhat make your system resemble the current system is to have attunement come from the amount of glyphs in a specific school vs another school. How would you balance that, considering Fire has at least 5 offensive spells, compared to Moon or Chaos that have only one? You are saying as someone who wants to focus on Chaos Bolt as his main damage system, I will be forced to jump around, and use skills that have 0 efficiency in PvE, just so that I can have somewhat reasonable power with my spell? You are saying that someone who wants a somewhat offensive build in Water or Sun will be forced to do Utility 80% of the time just to cast some somewhat stronger spells? Man, I can already count 4 types of mages that are being thrown under the bus in your suggested system, and sorry not sorry but that would COMPLETLY turn me off of the game. I just found a nice balance to make a water mage work, and honestly my magic finaly deals a reasonable amount, with that suggestion, I would end up forced to cast soothing rain/Douse and Ice fist for no reason other than to increase my Ice Arrow's power, this doesn't make for fun gameplay...

For me, that ain't it chief... I'm all in for giving more power from skills and innates, but not at the cost of what gear brings to the table...

Ohh and on a side note, the Gear from the crown store IS cosmetics. It can still be used in it's purchased form, but in no way, shape or form should it compete with crafted gear... Have you heard of P2W? Because having gear that competes with crafted gear in the crown store is P2W... The Crown store is supposed to be cosmetics, so yes, Crown Store gear doesn't offer much because it is supposed to be salvaged for it's pattern, or placed in your house for deco, not to go kill dragons...

 

If you find the bulk of the water tree so lackluster that you don't want it in your deck, isn't it just as big a problem that your water attunement gear only supports one single spell you actually want, while fire gear supports a whole arsenal? The problem here is magic trees can't field a cohesive deck by themselves, which is an issue that needs to be addressed separately from how attunement is calculated. The devs are also aware of that, which is why new spells are being added, or have been added recently, like Solar Flare. Not being able to get decent damage out of any spell without massive attunement numbers again is a problem with the way the game currently is, not an argument for why it can't be any other way.

 

Dude ; you are still ranting ? Get over it already. This game is what it is and subtle changes here and there may happen from time to time. So players can exceed 300 Str, Dex, or Int, big deal. I can exceed 300 and if I buy the proper gear 400 strength. I will reach 160 bladed soon too, so what?

Once you get to the pinnacle then what? Kill the next mob until you get bored of killing it and selling the latest drop, then what?

This conversation though entertaining here and there misses the big point. Without an end game it all becomes redundant. So @Elrond, @Xee , and many other exceptional crafters can make some badass gear, props to them for their efforts and tenacity to deal with a crafting system with diminishing returns.

I would rather see them be able to build placeable battle forts, catapults and trebuchets so we can have some large wars against Portalarium or designated GM mob raids and against each other’s in guild/raid party wars.

I would prefer @Elrond to build a catapult + 16 and a trebuchet + 17 so House Serenite can demolish some other guild on a battlefield. Sound a bit bellicose and drastic? Nah, just need some real fun and adrenaline shot in the arm stuff to make this game feel more alive. My apologies if I derailed the diatribe which caused some of the readers to fall into a self induced coma “Grins”.

R/Boris/El Pirata From House Serenite/Black Sails Forever

 

hmm almost all the peoples I group with are all over 300-400+ for int or str. But we are all around 120+ Adv Level. We get this high because we have a lot of points pumped into our skills. Its not all gear 1/4 of our stats are.

as @Elrond stated we spend millions of xp on 1 skill just to get a .x return which goes back to my original post that crafters should level up like that of adventure by having what they added which is tier 3 mw / enchants. This helped create a whole new tier of playing as will the future epics and higher.

 

The 'powercreep' some players are experiencing (lots of players see higher dmg then they can do and call it OP/powercreep btw.) is not only comming from skills or gear. It also comes from a 'proper' deck. (same goes for allot of other schools, not just magic)

Having a proper fire deck for example makes you do very good fire dmg, even at 'normal skill levels' and so-so gear. (not gonna lie, normal fire levels i mean 10x gm at least and so-so gear at least decent 2x2, thats peanuts compared to 130+ base attu which is the very reasonable norm now)

The DECK does that in combination with skills and gear.

You can strap yourself with all fire-gear, arties and proper INT. Run a 'garbage deck' and be out DPS'd by lower skill/geared players in said school by somebody running a DECK focussed on proper resist debuffing (stacking all max debuff effects to proper heights, enabling shredding even high end dragons with fire) just an example of what i see when i help players with their fire build.

Hope that does not mean we need a rework on skills/gear/attu and all. It means some players need a rework on their deck more then anything else.
This is just an example on fire.

I do aggree with @Aetrion that getting all gear best in slot/best ench/mw on them will give allot of extra power. Damn glad it does! you know how long our crafters have worked to reach that and that with sicko diminishing returns on ench/mw .

Good topic btw, lovely read.

Let's not forget that all in this topic has best in heart for the game