Jewel System: Rage of Renege

[Niixed]

renege (v.) - go back on a promise, undertaking, or contract.

When Jewels were first announced it gave me very high hopes, but after seeing the, frankly, insulting stats of some of the jewels on the test server I am deeply concerned about the new Jewel system. I was in disbelief and denial until I started doing more research and number comparisons. I hope the devs are listening because if they keep those numbers many hopeful players are in for a very harsh, rude awakening and the negative impact on Arcane Legends and its profitability could be quite significant.

The most glaring example is the damage, or chaos, jewel. After spending great effort in gathering or purchasing 2,187 cracked chaos jewels (worth +.25 damage each) what do you have to look forward to? A whopping +.6 damage increase! Yes, it seems impossible, yet devs have declared the Jewel system numbers seen on the test server "final but certainly subject to change."

At the MINIMUM a Noble damage jewel should be worth 2.0 damage, but 2.66 would be more in line with the expectations set by the jewel system announcement. Teasing us with +8 dex/int/str noble jewels, giving the unmistakable impression that other jewels would also supercede existing gems and then releasing a damage jewel that falls 70% short of the minimum you get from a para gem (without the bonus)? That's just not cool, STS. Not cool at all.

The justification for the Jewel system focused mainly on phasing out the para gem, but a Noble chaos jewel with a laughably pathetic +0.6 damage is going to be ignored with a collective eyeroll. In what universe would a jewel like that phase out the para gem??? Instead, it would guarantee para gems become a permanent fixture in Arcane Legends, hyperinflating their value until it is on par with shards and fossils.

I made a rough comparison chart to illustrate my point. At level 41, with the exception of the base stat jewels, the Jewel system falls disappointingly short of expectations.

Grand Fire	Noble Finesse	Percent Gain	Expectation
+6 dex	+8 dex	+133%	+8 dex
Grand Glacial	Noble Mind	Percent Gain	Expectation
+6 int	+8 int	+133%	+8 int
Grand Blood	Noble Fury	Percent Gain	Expectation
+6 str	+8 str	+133%	+8 str
Enchanted Eye	Noble Lightning	Percent Loss	Expectation
+0.97% crit	+0.60% crit	-38%	+1.29% crit
Para Soul Stone	Noble Chaos	Percent Loss	Expectation
+2.00 dmg	+0.60 dmg	-70%	+2.66 dmg
Grand Reinforced	Noble Diamond	Percent Loss	Expectation
+25 armor	+13.5 armor	-46%	+33 armor
Grand Elon Shard	Noble Nature	Percent Loss	Expectation
+113 health	+96 health	-15%	+151 health
Grand Nec Skull	Noble Water	Percent Loss	Expectation
+101 mana	+96 mana	-5%	+134 mana

The percent loss or gain is in comparison to the *minimum.* If these really are the final stats, most of the Jewels are an inexplicable regression of the current system. If they want the Jewel system to be a success, STS would be very smart to meet all of the expectations set by the original announcement, even if it meant obtaining Noble jewels had to be more difficult. If you can't meet them, at least don't go backwards; don't give us noble jewels worse than we had in the old gem system.

Update:

I found this post from Fibus. There may be hope that the Jewel system is not yet in its final state.

Glad to see everyone is excited for the expansion! Just a word of caution though, remember this is a TEST SERVER. Number values, art, etc. are all subject to change. And very likely WILL change. And just to avoid any confusion, those tokens are NOT story tokens. It's just placeholder art.