Expand Gear Options? Gear Levels and Jewelry

MrTarkanian48

I thought I saw a post that said the developers were working on bringing some former sets up to VR 16 level. Can anyone confirm this? If so, have they mentioned any particular sets?

Which brings me to a point of discussion:
I find that itemization in this game is a double edged sword.

On one hand, the ability to choose between different gear and build your character the way that you want is one of its best qualities, probably 2nd best behind the combat system (minus lag issues and minor bugs). Theory crafting builds with different gear, skills, and attributes keeps the game interesting and allow you to be unique in many ways.

On the other hand, looking at the HUGE POTENTIAL for itemization that the game falls short on is probably one of the most frustrating issues I can see. With ALL these choices and different gear sets it still seems like most people run very similar gear due to limitations of jewelry options and/or gear level limitations.

Looking at http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Sets, you can scroll through page after page of sets that sound intriguing, only to see that the vast majority of them cannot be utilized for 1 of 2 reasons or a combination of both.

1) They include jewelry but do not scale to VR 16. So many of the sets only drop at particular levels, whether it’s VR 12, VR 14, or even select non vet levels. Even if these seem interesting, they just aren’t practical options at end game since the enchantment levels and armor levels just will not compete against other options. Shadow Walker, Morag Tong, Hawk Eye, Healer, Footman’s, Adroitness and many others all suffer from this problem.

2) They do not include jewelry, and aren’t competitive against other not jewelry options. Example here would be the Sentry Set. Its available at V16, it “increases stealth detection radius by 50% and damage to stealthed opponents by 20%”. It sounds interesting, but is just too situational. Would I people use it if it had jewelry, and you could achieve a 5-piece bonus on top of Hundings Rage 5 piece? I know that I would in PVP. Will people use it instead of Hundings Rage? No chance.

The game has the potential to have an almost mind blowing degree of itemization and build diversity if the devs could:

1) Scale all available sets to VR 16. Why even have a set like “Fiord’s Legacy” in the game if not just to annoy people? Adds Weapon Damage, Weapon Crit, Stam Recovery, Reduce Sprint Cost 15%, Increase Movement Speed 15%! Sounds great to me, except you can only get it at levels 15-23…. Seriously? Who spends more than 1 week between level 15 and 23? Would I put in on a Orc Stam build if it were available at VR16? Absolutely.

2) Add jewelry to existing sets. How about a Werewolf Build with V16 Saviors Hide reducing werewolf ultimate 33% on top of 5 piece Hundings Rage or Morkuldin? Sounds like an interesting combo, but the set doesn’t have jewelry and is only available in V12. Maybe making improvements to the set might attract more potential werewolves which seem to be a rarity these days.

3)Implement jewelry crafting. I know the developers stomped alot of hopes and dreams by saying this won't happen. But maybe just maybe?

The sets mentioned are just a few examples out of many different sets that could be used if these changes were implemented. I understand that giving people the ability to have multiple 5-piece bonuses will make builds more powerful, however it would benefit all classes. It would bring so much more to the game in terms of build diversity, and keep many players coming back to build new characters with unique gear sets. It just gets old talking to almost every stam DPS build and finding that they run Hundings w/ Night Mothers or Ashen Grip and Agility Jewelry. Or every Magicka build using Julianos or Kagrenacs with Willpower Jewelry.

Maybe with enough interest we could see some of these changes in an upcoming patch? How would you feel about changes like this?

Arciris

Other (Explain)

I vote for other because the first option includes too many things.
I don't think we will ever see jewelry crafting as the devs suffer from the "one ring to rule them all" syndrome.
However, I'm all for updating all gear to max level and, in some cases, add jewelry or other parts of the set, to make them more "usable".
They actually did that before, although partially. When vet cap went from v10 to v12, a lot of sets that were only available at lower levels (but not v10) became v12 sets, with more gear (but no jewelry). Example: Warlock - was only available at v1 with jewelry, head, robes and shoulders but the v12 version had all body covered.

I'm hoping that when they remove vet ranks and need to revisit how gear scaling works, they will free up all the amazing sets (or not that amazing lol) to all levels... If you find it, you should be able to use it at your current level

Darkonflare15

Make all former sets available at V16 / Add Jewelry to existing sets /Add Jewelry Crafting

Yeah I think they need to revamp how Stats, Gear, Champions points, and Skills/Passives work together. It seems that every new content comes with sets that every body wants because it boosts more damage ,increase healing, regen, and tanking capabilities. Then there is some rejects. Older gear that was once good gets left behind and gear that never gets a chance to be good never gets an updated higher level version of it. Most of all the sets in this game are very situation or niche gear. I just think if they can make combat more niche friendly and not just the standard boost damage or boost healing wins concept then gear would be more useful.

Arciris

Other (Explain)

I wasn't clear: sets that were updated to v12 that already had jewelry kept it, but sets that didn't have jewelry were not added jewlery. Only body pieces were added in some cases.