More rune/infusion drops

[Grey]

Am I the only one that finds these a bit too rare? Finding a decent shield rune on a skeleton can be desperate for instance, and the ones that are found tend to be horribly weak. Many creatures and bosses drop items they're equipped with, but they never seem to drop runes and infusions. Would be nice if bosses in particular drop the inscriptions they are using against you.

Same goes for light sources to a certain extent - more enemies should be equipped with them, and thus be more likely to drop them.

[bricks]

Agreed. One part of the problem is that we have the four attack runes that players rarely if ever take (though they are great on some of the mid-game melee enemies), which I would haphazardly guess interferes with getting more useful drops, like shielding runes. (and I think shielding runes are the real issue, whether we are talking about skeletons/ghouls or the ineffectiveness of healing and regeneration for Cursed) Teleportation and phase door also get a little excessive, considering 1) I've more or less stopped using phase door due to its utter unreliability, and 2) once you have a teleportation rune with a minimum range, anything else is gravy. Dropping inscribed runes seems a little odd, but I would gladly look it over in return for more reliable runes.

Shops could also use some retooling. It's not uncommon to see three phase door and eight manasurge runes in the rune shops. Enforcing a diversity of item spawns is a little hard to define, but I think something as simple as a hard limit of three on any type of rune would solve the issue. Part of the issue, as pointed out elsewhere, is spawning shop items when the player enters the level. Instead I think a fixed level of 10 to 15 should be chosen for these shops, especially for runes/infusions since they have no stat requirements. Angolwen/Zigur could have a slightly higher item level.

Light sources seem less urgent, since you are more or less guaranteed at least Summertide or Wintertide Phial if you clear out the starter bosses. That said, some of those lantern egos are fantastic.

[Aquillion]

I'd say just increase the chance of finding shield runes a bit, since they're both important to a lot of characters, and have a lot of variables to them so you're likely to benefit from having a lot to choose from -- shield-rune users generally want to keep finding better and better ones as they go, as opposed to teleport / phase door runes, which have fewer variables and are likely to just be trash most of the time if you already have a decent one.

Additionally, vision / teleport / phase door / light are all available from equipment and/or escort talents, and nobody really needs damaging runes (while those who really want one are likely to have the Rune of the Rift.) Shielding isn't generally available anyplace else outside of class-specific talents, yet it's vital to the success of many builds.

[Asmageddon]

Perhaps it's just my luck, but I see literally hundreds of runes lying around everywhere. That really could use some nerfing in favor of dropping them.

[edge2054]

Shielding runes in particular seem hard to come by and when you're playing an undead you really feel it.

[tiger_eye]

nah, shielding runes are pretty common. Good shielding runes, though, are a little harder to come by. A specific type of object (such as an artifact, a good combination of greater egos, or a great shielding rune that scales off one of your primary stats) shouldn't be absolutely guaranteed in every game, which I think is how DarkGod likes it to be.

[Grey]

Well, the problem is that non-undead are fairly well guaranteed of finding a good healing or regen infusion. Undead *only* have shielding runes, and so many of them are poor, so it hits them especially hard. Not impossible mind, especially with the racial abilities, but since the shops have changed I've yet to play an undead where I've gotten a shield rune I'm really happy with.

[edge2054]

Aside from one that spawned in a shop my skeleton mage found one shielding rune before doing Dreadfell (and I cleared pretty much every dungeon before that point).

I think the issue is there material level. It's 3, regen infusiosn are a 1. Meaning (if I'm right anyway) you won't see a shielding rune until the same time you start seeing dwarven steel, in shops or in dungeons.

Which I wouldn't mind so much if undead could use infusions (shielding runes are nice and all and maybe deserve to be rarer then regen infusions, but it really cripples undead players).

[TheRani]

Maybe shielding runes should be changed to material level 2 or something?