Not going to waste time with fluff here, just raw numbers and ideas. FAO
@ZOS_RichLambert @Wrobel @ZOS_BrianWheeler
Feel free to debate or pick flaw with anything below.
Formatting Information.
I have tried to emulate how developers on another MMO show changes to items here to help players see what I have done. When looking at stat blocks for existing items I have put any changes in
bold and notations in
italic.TraitsArmour
Armour traits have needed some love for a long time, there are those which see high demand in use because they offer direct benefits to power and resources whilst others fall into the pointless category because they don't offer anything which is considered useful by a player. The general idea for my improvements is to give back players options which were taken away in balance changes. The ability to perma-block, roll-dodge etc. would become more viable again but at the costs of the more powerful trait bonuses.
- Exploration - Increase exploration experience by: 6%/7%/8%/9%/10%
I'm somewhat at a loss on what would work as an added bonus for this one. On the theme of exploration I was thinking passive movement speed increase, elemental damage resistance.
- Sturdy - Item takes [x] less durability damage: 22%/24%/26%/28%/30% and reduce the cost of blocking by 6%/7%/8%/9%/10%
The idea here is to add something on which would give players the chance to regain the perma-block ability. I don't feel the block cost reduction alone will really be enough to make this trait desirable however, there might be a need to add more effects here for blocking mitigation or stamina regeneration while blocking.
- Well-Fitted - Reduces the cost of Roll-Dodge, Sneaking and Sprinting by: 6%/7%/8%/9%/10%
The idea here is to add more options/effects to this trait which follow the same theme, depending on stacking mechanics this value may be too high for roll-dodge. Offering such a large increase in sneak reduction would invalidate some skills such as Improved Hiding, however this could be part of the benefit of this trait in that you can save investing skillpoints in those skills.
Item Set Levels
Please consider bringing all sets up to the highest levels.
I understand the want (and need) to have new DLC packs offer better items and exclusive materials so people will purchase it and chase them, however it's really sad that so many interesting builds are limited by the fact these items are simply not available at the best level (which in competitive gameplay does matter).
This could be done by having chests function like they do in Cyrodiil and always drop an item of your level as well as zone level.
For example a VR16 EP player in Stonefalls opening chests would get 1x VR16 item (set item if RNG allows) and the rest as zone level loot/gold.
The pros of this would be making chest hunting worth while again, make treasure maps desirable, bring life back to old zones
Zone Boss Sets
Bring in new sets tied to the world bosses of each zone. Boss loot would have to function in a way where's if you qualify for loot then named set items always drop at your character level. This would mean that max level items would only be available in VR zones and would need to be BoE in order to let players access max level sets from their own zones.
For example an EP player farming in a VR4 DC zone would kill a world boss and get a VR16 set item, they could then sell this to DC players as they wouldn't have access to their own boss sets at max level.
This like the chests brings some life back into the older zones and gives old content a new lease of life, it might also be a good time to look at how difficulty the world bosses are and buff them a little to once again require either very high player skill or a group to complete.
Item Set Bonuses
Within the current build of the game we don't have hard or soft caps on most numbers, this has lead to the current meta being to stack as much damage as possible in order to empower skills to the highest levels. Due to this item sets are only considered desirable (in most cases) if they include a damage bonus pushing everyone into using four or five armour sets only.
Going on the assumption that ZOS doesn't want to change the game to bring in softcaps, stacking penalties or any other kind of mitigation, I would propose changes to item sets to make them more in line with one another and giving all armour sets a damage type bonus at five parts and five parts only.
Then we could have all sets function like Kagranac's Hope where's you have you damage bonus and an interesting effect to augment it as well.
There will obviously still be "best" sets however it would at least give players the chance to play competitive damage dealing whilst making five set bonus effects return to use.
Item Drop Rates & Binds
Take the time to look over the items in the game and how they're obtained.
Generally it seems most of the community here are fine with sets which come as final rewards from dungeons or trials being bound rewards, these are items such as boss helms, shoulders, master weapons, maelstrom weapons etc.
However consider having all other sets (such as those in WGT, ICP, Orsinium chests etc.) become BoE and let the community trade and sell these with one another, this gives players who have bad luck with RNG the chance to get items from friends or buy them, gives players who might be poor gold wise but have stacks of gear they don't want the chance to sell them and make gold.
Additionally the rates of some items such as Warlock Ring's are so low and so exclusive it really doesn't make it a used item. These items might become more common if changes to gear level suggested above with chests was to happen however.