New Items - Progressive or Regressive?

For month after month, year after year, event after event, the community asked for less vanities and more game-changing rewards for events. And yet, the main course of this latest Winter event is vanity again with some eggs and jewels on the side! The irony of this is baffling.

So the legendary gear inside the chests, again, very predictably, has worse stats than the Icescale sets and similar stats as that of the recently held older event gear. Why must we use older obsolete gear? Why is the newer gear not better ? Is this progressive itemization?

The Enchanted Eye of Syrillax did not return. Its a huge disappointment. As it gives the player some good crit and combined stats, it is needed to be at par with older players who played in last years Winter event. No, jewels with their level limit and single stat boost cannot make up for it, whatever you say. But alright fine it did not return.

So what is sts doing to phase out the event special Eye which it has decided not to bring back because a phasing out is apparently required? What will close the gap between the ones who had the good fortune to play last year and those who did not? For phasing out the old event special gear and eye jewels in those gear, may we ask what is being done? Ok fine dont phase it out. Atleast bring back items that are equal to the older event-special items. Progression cannot occur if we have to keep using older gear.

The stats of the new gear are not something that will phase out the old stuff. Why is it not? Is a full long year not enough?

Just as an exampl, the new mythic weapon gives a good 100 damage less then the garretta gun, and the procs weigh in the guns favor. Why did they release that item at all...

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Originally Posted by Safiras

I'm not disappointed the Eyes did not return. Making them come back would truly make the game regress and invalidate the jewels system they introduced. What I was hoping for like some others was the introduction of combination jewels. In the end all we got was Chaos jewels rewards for leaderboard winners. If you want to give out jewel prizes for LB, why not make them class specific, e.g. Finesse jewels for rogue LB winners?

It's a little too soon to say if the new Mythic weapons are a regression from the previous ones. Obviously the stats of the daggers and staff are inferior to their bow and gun counterparts but this has always been the case for the types of weapons that can be wielded by rogue and mage. The new maul is inferior in display damage compared to the Maul of Ollerus, but people forget that it's a lvl46 Mythic weapon. It's been proven before that the level of the weapon contributes to its SKILL damage which is often more important that the damage seen on the stats screen. I'll list the comparison between the lvl31 Maul of Ollerus and the lvl41 Bonesaw as a good example. On first glance the proc of the new daggers seems disappointing. However the staff proc seems similar to the annoying damage and slow pools generated by the mage mobs in Shuyal and Planar Tombs. If the damage and slow are significant then they could be useful in both PvE and PvP.

What I personally was looking forward to more than new Mythic Weapons was a new mythic belt. Thus far the best belt is lvl43 and the other item classes have already had their lvl46 Mythic versions released. I was hoping for a lvl46 Mythic Glintstone belt of some kind. This for me was my main disappointment.

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Sadly the winter winter belt song didn't happen lol maybe in the new expa.

There is a very simple way that STS can phase out gems. Make it so that gems cannot be used to upgrade any item higher than level 46. Then when the next expansion comes during 2016, they will be phased out as players will only be able to use jewels on the new level 51 items.

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Originally Posted by Energizeric

There is a very simple way that STS can phase out gems. Make it so that gems cannot be used to upgrade any item higher than level 46. Then when the next expansion comes during 2016, they will be phased out as players will only be able to use jewels on the new level 51 items.

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Will there be a Level 51? There were rumors that L46 would be the last level in AL.

If i may add my opinion, I've always been against releasing the "best" gear on events because the "best" gear should always be available to attain or otherwise be replaced by a new available and better item. If STS released an OP item during the event and then to reproducing the item afterwards, then how is it fair to those who couldn't at the time partake in the event?

I think event rewards should be focused on vanities and other *little* things.

As for the eyes, i dont think they should ever have been released, as they have been offsetting gear balance for over a year now.

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Originally Posted by Energizeric

There is a very simple way that STS can phase out gems. Make it so that gems cannot be used to upgrade any item higher than level 46. Then when the next expansion comes during 2016, they will be phased out as players will only be able to use jewels on the new level 51 items.

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This was what i was pushing for recently.

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Originally Posted by Zylx

If i may add my opinion, I've always been against releasing the "best" gear on events because the "best" gear should always be available to attain or otherwise be replaced by a new available and better item. If STS released an OP item during the event and then to reproducing the item afterwards, then how is it fair to those who couldn't at the time partake in the event?

I think event rewards should be focused on vanities and other *little* things.

As for the eyes, i dont think they should ever have been released, as they have been offsetting gear balance for over a year now.



This was what i was pushing for recently.

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Actually, that makes sense. Since a very decent number of players have 60% crit, it just kills the pvp.

Pve as well, everyone complained about the new expansion and how easy it is.

IMHO as item progression observer - I think now the high damage / stats is not the only significant factor when playing endgame; the procs now synergizes with your skills as a player, your char, your chosen style of playing and your character mastery. Unless of course if were going to base all new and upcoming items based on the damage and dps they give then we are expecting something else.

my opinion.

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Originally Posted by Caabatric

Just as an exampl, the new mythic weapon gives a good 100 damage less then the garretta gun, and the procs weigh in the guns favor. Why did they release that item at all...

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Because staffs always have less damage than guns just like the daggers have less damage than bows and a shield weapon has less damage than maul.

I kind of agree with the Op. But there is an another BUT.
If the best items, which release in an event, do not come back yearly I better not have them at events atall. Best items should be available to be farmed by hardworks to all players through out the time not only by some specific players who plays some specific events.
Just look at para and eye gem rewards. They came for one time and brought the gear gaps.

Releasing best items in events just create gear gaps.
If sts were consistent on keeping the best item as event reward every year it would have been different but untill then Vanities, same old pets, plats jewels are warmly welcomed by me.
Atleast by that someone who misses the event won't have to feel like he has missed everything and has no chance to farm them again anymore.

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Originally Posted by Dex Scene

Because staffs always have less damage than guns just like the daggers have less damage than bows and a shield weapon has less damage than maul.

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Yes, staves, daggers, and shields have less damage then their counterparts... But they are supposed to have higher DPS as a tradeoff. Stat-wise, they don't look that impressive.

Their only saving graces are in the procs if they are effective at all.

Thank you for the responses. This also leads us to the question of what do we want for items to be progressive? Is it only damage/dps we want in order to call an item progressive? Not really. Needs differ according to classes and levels.

At twink levels, Icescale sets from last year are still preferred. The sets cannot be looted anymore. (Why did you not bring it back?) That set is not worn only because of the damage number on the stat page. It is about how that set buffed the player. It gave +10 primary stat bonus when the full set is worn. But the gear is obsolete now and the new gear is not as good as last year's winter gear.

So sts what you are doing here is that you are discouraging new players from twink pvp. If that is intentional for whatever reasons despite the twink community being very active, let us accept your choice for a moment and move on to the topic of endgame.

Suppose a new player wants to level up and go endgame, what can he max his stats with? Lets say go farm and use jewels. He si ready to farm his jewels but... combined stats eyes are better than single stat boosting jewels.

A new player can never ever loot the Enchanted Eye. The eye is not about damage only, para gem was about damage. The Eye gives combined stats and could have provided an alternative to players who do not possess the para gem. So when an older player uses eyes on his gear, what is the alternative to that for newer players? Sts what you are doing is that you are again discouraging players from endgame because some of us if we know that we cannot maximize our stats at that level will not play that level at all.

I see new players being discouraged from twinking and also from endgame. No wonder our towns are so crowded. The game should be inviting not closing the door shut on their face and showing them a sign of 'Oh too bad you missed the event years ago, you are not allowed to maximize your stats.'

Lets say we want to love the new jewel system and want it to work for us. But how will it work if sts has blatantly ignored some very good feedback from the forum community regarding the need for a combined stat jewel for this year's Winter Event?

My suggestion for future jewel rewards:

Create two versions, a jewel that is always available and an event jewel that has aesthetic appeal. STG can add in special particle/ground effects for these event jewels (just no blinding ones) Players can still craft the regular ones and obtain the same stats.