Hey everyone i decided to be creative a bit recently and go out and make the kind of mythic item i want to see in ESO, so i created it's item set bonus, intentions for said bonus, as well as lore and antiqutities information about it.
Lariat of the Long Winter (Mythic Neckpiece)
Design Intentions:
This mythic is intented to be
THE mythic item for frost dps characters. Though it includes a bonus on it while using an ice staff, that bonus is merely there to allow ice staves to swap their tanking based block bonuses on ancient knowledge for roughly 6% critical chance, creating a true damage benefit for using the ice staff on a frost based damage dealing character.
i decided that granting both a damage done bonus as well as cost reduction was important since this mythic is supposed to be used on builds that want to stack frost damage, so making those spells cheaper makes it much easier to use more of them, as well as increasing the duration of frost damage skills like Boneyard to 15 seconds, winter's revenge to 17 seconds, and frost blockade to 20 seconds. This would also make frost damage ultimates a lot stronger on frost damage builds too, since you would have a lot more power coming from northern storm, icy rage and ice comet. if this is too strong, an easy condition can be added such as "non ultimate frost damage abilities" could easily fix that.
Frost damage builds have an inherent disadvantage compared with more traditional settups, so making the mythic genuinely powerful felt necessary. At the same time, i felt like it was also necessary to include a significant drawback as well so you can't just slap this on any old build, so by reducing the damage of the most popular magical damage type while using this mythic (flame) by 10%, it not only means you should build for frost damage, but you should also avoid building for flame damage, frost's counterpart. as there's no way to actually test this item in-game it's hard to tell how strong it would actually be. so my hope is that you focus moreso on the ideas than the balancing.
Antiquities Lead Locations:
Refined Moonstone Setting: The Reach (Dailies)
Flawless Cut Stahlrim: Bleakrock Isle (Fishing)
Frosted Malachite Hoop: Greymoor Caverns (Random Mob - Falmer)
Delicate Quicksilver chains: Fort Greenwall Delve (The Rift) Uggurek the Vile (Delve Boss)
Empowered Dekeipa: Icereach Dungeon (Containers)
Antiquities Codex Entries:
Refined Moonstone Setting
Reginus Buca: Well, this is something you don't see too often. this is no doubt a setting for some kind of pendant. But moonstone is an interesting choice. Very hard to work with.
Ugron Gro-Thumog: You're right about not seeing this often. Moonstone isn't commonly used for jewelery settings, it's more likely for moonstone to be set into silver or gold. Considering where this was found, i find it unlikely that the Reachfolk made this.
Amalien: That's because you're not thinking far enough back in time. this has to have been made by the snow elves!
Flawless Cut Stahlrim
Verita Numida: Incredible. As you know, Stalhrim is incredibly rare outside the island of Solstheim, but the part that is confusing me has to be the size and shape of it. This is tiny, yet it's not as though its a fragment, as it's far too round and smooth for that.
Ugron Gro-Thumog: This stalhrim ball is too small to be a pommel for something like a dagger. It's possible that it could have been part of a piece of jewelery? It clearly slotted into something given these deliberate carved lines
Amalien: While it does seem like something the nords could have made, the metal is notoriously difficult to shape properly and it usually ends up jagged and uneven. We know elven jewelery crafters were among the best during the merethic era. Considering they were being hunted to extinction, perhaps the snow elves thought using the nord's own captured materials against them could have been a good idea.
Frosted Malachite Hoop
Reginus Buca: I have never seen malachite used like this for jewelery before. It's stunning to look at, it's so blue it's hard to tell what metal it even is. This is probably of elven make but i've never seen malachite like this before.
Amalien: I have heard of a malachite sword that glows blue with frost magic, but i've never actually seen the imbued metal before! The method for creating it has been lost. The more important question i have is, why would a necklace include a frost imbued malachite hoop? seems a bit much doesn't it?
Ugron Gro-Thumog: No mistake can be made here. this is definitely Elven. you see similar types of carvings in ancient ayleid jewelery, but i've never seen it in Malachite either, let alone this unique frosted type. This seems like the kind of hoop you'd see on a lariat necklace. i'd love to see what it looks like when complete. As for your question Amalien, I'm at a loss as well. Maybe it was a ceremonial war necklace or perhaps it was for royalty.
Delicate Quicksilver Chains:
Ugron Gro-Thumog: Quicksilver Necklace Chains. Given the area, these could be Nordic or Snow Elven. While these might be delecate, they have seen some wear which makes me think these were worn often through harsh conditions. Some kind of warrior owned these.
Reginus Buca: I'd be more inclined to say it's Snow Elven. Ancient nords used quicksilver as an alloy. Where as elves used pure quicksilver when crafting jewelery.
Verita Numida: If a warrior was wearing jewellery like this, they must have been important. pure quicksilver like this has always been quite valuable. perhaps this belonged to a high ranking military officer. I wonder if the necklace was a sentimental piece or had more practical applications.
Empowered Dekeipa
Amalien: Wow. This is an incredible find. it's a "Dekeipa" rune used for inscribing frost enchantments. but it's incredibly powerful. just being in the same room as it is freezing my breath and turning my fingers numb.
Reginus Buca: I wonder how this was created. there are many Dekeipa runes in use today for various frost enchantments, but this goes above and beyond most runes i've ever seen. This stone needs to be handled carefully, Imagine the outrageous power of an enchantment created if this was inscribed into a weapon or piece of armor
Ugron Gro-Thumog: I've heard tales of reach witches empowering runes but there's never been any evidence i've seen to prove anything like that. well, until now. This should be studied at length.
I hope you guys found the lore segment interesting, i'm sure i created some sort of plot hole with it, but i decided to have a go. let me know what you think.