Ishbu

I was thinking of PMing this to Archonix but then I felt that other people could probably expand on this more so I decided to post it publicly.

With the release of EoF there were 2 major things added to the game as far as raiders were concerned: cloaks and adornments. I for one was sure that these would become a mainstay of the loot tables of the various EoF raids. I couldnt have been more wrong. There is not a single dropped adornment that I am aware of in game at all, and as far as cloaks go I would say about 80% of the raiding player base still use one of the various quested cloaks. Why were these obvious chances to include some seriously useful, yet not overpowering loot overlooked?

Speaking as a caster, I would have loved to have seen a 1% spell crit adornment that is adornable to the forearm slot drop from a raid. It doesnt sound like much at first glance, but the choices for a caster for the forearm slot adornment pretty much boils down to 14 agility or 14 wisdom. In comparison, 1% spell crits is a major upgrade, its useful, and I dont think there is a caster in their right mind that wouldnt want it.

This of course is just one of a million examples I could throw out. Archonix seems like a bright enough guy and I am sure he can fill in the gaping holes (or of course Im available to help free of charge as always if he actually needs it). The last thing about raid dropped adornments that I really like is the "replay" value. I would not be happy with just 1 forearm 1% spell crit adornment. I would overtime want to accumulate 2 or 3 of them if possible, to adorn my future upgrades to that slot. In essence, its a drop that people can actually make multiple uses out of, and that is something I consider to be a good thing.

Now cloaks saw a bit more play, although not nearly enough imo. Off the top of my head there are dropped cloaks from clockwork menace, Malkonis in FTH, shared loot in IS, one from instanced mayong, and a trash dropped "fun" cloak in EH. I may be missing one, but thats about the gist of it. The clockwork and shared IS one are basically your standard cloak. There are quested cloaks that do the same thing and more. The cloak off of Malkonis in FTH is a heal crit away from being the tunare cloak, and the only truly good one is the one from instanced Mayong. This expansions major selling point was the inclusion of cloaks and the fae, why the hell isnt there more of a selection for wich cloak a class should wear?

First off, people who know me know that I feel very strongly that the best items should ALWAYS come from raids. That sadly is not the case with cloaks at all. Now I dont want to do a nights worth of raiding and end up with 4-6 cloaks. I just feel that most mobs could benefit from a larger loot table and cloaks would be a nice addition in some cases.

For example, instanced Mayong drops one of his items in addition to an altar and 2 set breastplates. His loot table for this extra item consists of a hammer, an earring, a cloak, a ring, and a bow. That is a paltry 5 items. Now obviously this guy is one of the few mobs that actually has a cloak on his loot table, but 5 items off a mob that is going to die multiple times on a server per week is a bit low wouldnt you say? Take a look at the avatars. There is not a guild alive that is regularily killing them that isnt looking forward to their next spawn. Why is that? Because they have a massive loot table full of items people actually stronly desire to see drop. Items for all classes that are simply put, great. I would love to see more mobs, even the bosses of instances with much larger loot tables full of good items and there should definitly be cloaks among them.

Finally, while I am on the topic of raid drops that could stand to see a bit more play, what about charm items? Why has this slot been all but forgotten for so long now? I would guess that about 1 out of 3 players still uses the music box from the quest in shimmering citadel from t6. That alone should be proof enough that this slot has amazing potential.

It is true that there was finally some love thrown the charm slots way this expansion. There is a raid dropped quest reward from malkonis, wuoshi, and contested mayong for melee, priests, and casters respectively. Personally I feel its a great start, but thats just it, a start. We all have 2 charm slots, more of the items mentioned above would be great, or something similar.

The severed werewolves paw in addition to adding to the melee skills also has an activatable dps mod buff. I for one would not be opposed to, for example, a charm item that is nothing but a 2 minute duration, 10dps mod buff that must be equipped when used to receive the benefit. Sure a character would only equip this for the 2 minutes that the buff will be active, and say it has a 10minute recast, so be it, its just another item that can be swapped in as needed and made use of. I love items you can make use of like that, and wish there were more.

Anyways, this was just something that was bothering me and my real question that I was going to send to Archonix was this: Are there plans in the future to include raid dropped adornments, more raid dropped cloaks, and more raid dropped charm items? I hope the answers are yes, yes and yes.

Oh and let me add, I have this sinking feeling in my gut that the rewards for the end of this epic questline, when we get to it, were going to be an adornment or something else I mentioned in this post. Please I beg for that not to happen because since there is absolutely nothing else like it, its one of those things that are just simply too good for a quest that everyone and their mother has access to and can get, not to mention there is no choice in the matter, everyone would simply use it. Remember, if everyone has it, it may as well not exsist because it gives nobody an edge and the only solution then is to balance encounters around players having it in the future.

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Aralas

pretty decent healer cloak off the x2 unicorn thing near OOB. 10 wis and int 50 power symetry 4 (+ 20 heal and damage).

Like the post and agree with it, most common players will inspect a raider and admire most of the gear when it comes down to cloak/charm its just a common thing that anyone can get.

Pinski

That's not off a current tier raid mob now is it?

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Wozamil

I could have sworn that I read somewhere before EoF was released that there were going to be raid dropped adornments. Either that, or someone suggested it, but I thought it was stated by a dev. I agree completely, that there should be raid dropped adornments. I would be happy with one in each raid zone, less CMF, off the end mob.

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Milaga

I do recall reading a post by a dev when they were making some changes to adornments in a LU saying the same thing. It was something like "If a wrist-only adornment is put on a neck/wrist item, that item will become wrist-only. The same holds true for class-specific adornments." There are no class specific adornments in the game, but the matter-of-fact way it was stated implied that in the dev's world, there was.

I can see how the addition of class and diety specific adornments and a few more novel ideas (Master III spells from rare recipes, raid dropped AAs, fabled altars that provide buffs or additional special god abilities, more dropped mounts) they could hold off on the level cap increase again. But that's a different argument altogether.

Thelounge

I agree with Ishbu's post on a few things (at work cannot elaborate).

I thought with adornments, it would be like LDoN all over again. Instead it just made the casual TS'ers rich, and made everything for my alts more expensive.

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Drodin

Not a big thing, but there isnt a 14 agi forearm adorn, just 14 wis for stats, or else its parry, mitigation, or cheesy resists.

Also, including other types of crit such as ranged, heal, and melee could be good to cover all the bases, and make everyone happy.

As for cloaks, the current ones dont deserve to take up the spot of a real item, they are just fluff items in their current state. Deity cloaks are superior to pretty much any raid cloak, Save maybe 1 or 2. I could possibly like the Mayong cloak, but they forgot the ranged crit on it...

Anywho, I'm all for better stuff to come from raiding, and adornments like these would be a great thing to work into the Inner Sanctum trash and on the EH as well. They cant make enough stuff drop from that EH trash

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Niber

I don't think its reasonable to start adding more damage modifiers this late in the expansion the content is already near trivial. Although, I do like the suggestions for the next tier increase.

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Snark

adornments were done VERY poorly.

it was supposed to add diversity to the game, and specialization.

Instead, there are very limited choices for each slot, and generally a very obvious choice for the slot.

This means everyone is still exactly the same.

Very, very, very poorly implemented.

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Rhaz

Snark, you do realize no matter what they do everyone is gonna min/max out and be the exact same, right? Don't be dumb.