Drathas
01-15-2011, 01:49 AM
So I'm sure you're getting a lot of feedback on the recent addition of the AO3 elite dungeons, and more specifically the items dropped therein, and the changes in drop rates. I think as it currently stands, very few people would continue running the shadow caves as they take a long time, generally several deaths, and usually several thousand gold in elixirs to usually end up with a white or orange item you could much more easily get out of plasma pyramids. The market is also flooded with the initial wave of pinks when the drop rate was 100%. Basically, if these items remain best in game, the people who got their stuff and saved it early make a huge profit, and the people that didn't have to either fork out insane amounts of gold or spent a huge amount of time trying to farm with almost no hope of getting what they need. So to fix this imbalance and make shadow caves worthwhile, here's what I suggest.
1. Don't give the existing items set bonuses. I hear there is already talk of this, and given the way these items were initially rolled out, and what was stated above, I think it would ruin the economy and make shadow caves a dead zone.
2. Create new sets for shadow caves with new items that do give set bonuses. The hardest content should give the best gear, and this would solidify that, and would make shadow caves worth running despite the time, difficulty and cost.
3. Make the boss drops in shadow caves roughly equivalent to regular AO3. Almost guaranteed purple, decent chance of a non-set pink, very low chance of a set pink.
With these changes, the current gear that exists is good, but not the best, so the distribution imbalance and its effect on the game economy is minimized, and the best gear does still drop from the new content, and it is still worth farming in hopes of that one really lucky drop, but without it being such a long shot as to not be worth even trying.
In short, the new content gets played, the gear that flooded the game is still good but not so good as to ruin the economy, and the best gear is still worth spending the time to farm.
1. Don't give the existing items set bonuses. I hear there is already talk of this, and given the way these items were initially rolled out, and what was stated above, I think it would ruin the economy and make shadow caves a dead zone.
2. Create new sets for shadow caves with new items that do give set bonuses. The hardest content should give the best gear, and this would solidify that, and would make shadow caves worth running despite the time, difficulty and cost.
3. Make the boss drops in shadow caves roughly equivalent to regular AO3. Almost guaranteed purple, decent chance of a non-set pink, very low chance of a set pink.
With these changes, the current gear that exists is good, but not the best, so the distribution imbalance and its effect on the game economy is minimized, and the best gear does still drop from the new content, and it is still worth farming in hopes of that one really lucky drop, but without it being such a long shot as to not be worth even trying.
In short, the new content gets played, the gear that flooded the game is still good but not so good as to ruin the economy, and the best gear is still worth spending the time to farm.