ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

...at least in my humble opinion.

Mummy wrappings: -50% fire resistance is too big of a penalty for questionable gains. My suggestion would be to cut this down to -20%. I still don't think there will be lots of people rushing to use them.

Burning star: In practice the value of the ability is not great. By the time you find this you have almost certainly found something more useful. My suggestion would be to give it a boost: 15% darkness resistance.

Silk Robe of Spydre: The armor hardiness on this thing is just ridiculous. I know there will be people shooting me down for asking to nerf their favorite item, but 40%? That needs to be cut in half. I feel it will still be too good, but it's a start. And10 def and 15 armor? This needs to be cut as well. It's more than Scale Mail of Kroltar, a t5 heavy armor has!

This robe needs to be either hit heavily with a nerfbat or upped to t5 and put in one of the Prides as a boss drop. For a late game item it's really good. For a mid game item, it's broken.

I'm going to hold off commenting on the svn stuff until I test it more but I see a few candidates already (wrap of stone and wanderer's rest, I'm looking at you).

I... don't think spyder's that out of line, honestly. It doesn't work with armor training, or, so far as I'm aware, the leather armor boosting passive, either. It's a nice gimmick, but its defense and armor isn't going to help much at all, really. Moreso than other robes in that area, sure, but it's still pretty puny past the late early to mid game. Even the hardiness isn't much of a boost when you consider its the only boost you can get (so far as I can remember; there might be an ego or artifact or whatev' that boosts it in a different slot) if you're wearing the robe, and it's still less than a few (E: Okay, maybe more than a few; it's 5*tlvl, so it'd be 8/10 at 1.0 mastery to match the hardiness boost. Less with the 1.3 mastery that's fairly ubiquitous among the melee classes. And that's just re: hardiness, of course...) points of armor training.

Spyder's good later in the game due to the resists/saves, the mindpower/crit boost, and the slime retaliation, not its armor related stuff. So, if DG feels like nerfing the defense, I won't really care. My mooks don't wear it for the defense

I would definitely like to see Mummy Wraps drop down to -20% instead of -50% Fire res. (And Eternal Night drop to -10% Light/Fire. It's weird niche armor that is heavily set reliant-and you can only find the other set piece in the same dungeon, if ever-as it is. It should be better.)

Burning Star is basically there to swap to it, wait for a bit, use it for free Vision, then swap back. If you think of it as an inventory tool like the various rods, it's basically good. Then again, maybe it should just be changed to an inventory tool that does the same thing.

Spydre works with Mobility's bonus to Hardiness, which can lead to 100% armor hardiness. However, 100% Armor Hardiness vs 70% isn't that different, either-especially not for a Marauder, the main class that reliably gets Mobility for most of the game, as they have one of the best Defense tanking games in existence.

There's not really anything wrong with Spydre's armor benefits. It grants extremely poor resistances and some flaky bonuses that are mostly Mindpower niche-and Mindpower has few really good options, which makes this weirder.

Maybe there should be a better Mindpower robe and it should have less or no mindpower benefits...but that requires making another artifact, and part of the issue there is that Mindpower is scaled to a lower scale, making large Mindpower robes at tier 5 unreasonable. In many ways, just leaving the mindpower as a sidegrade to an otherwise good armor-like Spydre-works the best.

You don't get heavy armor benefits with Spydre, which means that most armor tanks at best sidegrade to it, gaining in armor hardiness from it but losing in armor(since, any armor tank has at least 4 Armor Training, meaning they're losing 6-8 armor from not having the skill's benefit. It's even worse if you're investing more than 4.). Considering that a Dragon or Hardened plate has better resistances and effects, and can show up at the same tier, that's not all that special for them.

Kroltar is a piece of tier 5 armor...with much better resists, a huge life bonus, and a great set bonus that makes it even better. And it's arguably the worst piece of tier 5 armor(depends a lot on if you get that set, mostly). That comparison isn't really great.

Don't get me wrong, Spydre's great, but it's a very niche equip-not a lot of light armor characters want-or can-armor tank, and it's not an upgrade on armor for those with heavy armor training, who do want to tank. It mostly rewards Solipsists and...mostly Solipsists. Even then, I question a Solipsist that thinks that armor tanking is their best long term answer-they have range issues and being able to survive mages is more important to me generally, anyhow.

And the niche isn't that dominating in this case. It's a very good mid-tier armor, but it rarely is going to be the only armor someone wants. And with the new tier 5 light armors-one of which provides more offensive benefits, better resists, and still provides some level of Armor Hardiness, and the other of which is a Mindpower boosting AM sidegrade armor with huge resistances-I don't think it dominates the armor spectrum for light anymore.

The short version; with strongly niche equipment, I have no problem with it being stronger than you strictly need it to be, because otherwise it'll never see use outside of the niche. Spydre, before getting the Armor Hardiness and Mindpower bonuses, was probably the worst artifact in the game. I'd rather not see that return-it's a neat armor.

For the SVN stuff (both of which I have actually used, now)...Wanderer's Rest provides a hilarious set of bonuses that do not synergize at all-it is crazily all over the place. It's a good pair of boots, but it really does not need a nerf.

Wrap of Stone is quite interesting, because it provides entirely different bonuses from any other cloak-I consider it quite good, but I'll note that, say, Vargh Redemption provides a similarly unique/huge spectrum of bonuses relative to its tier, but isn't overpowered. The good cloaks later on provide extremely large save bonuses, and Serpentine, which is only one tier higher, provides multiple item-based(so not Confusion/Stun interruptable) Phase Doors as well as good stats. (Stone Wall's kinda useful, but it will not stop that enemy that just pointblank Confused you from killing you.)

Having said that, I wouldn't object to it becoming tier 3 instead of 2, and losing the spellpower bonus. That way, it competes with Serpentine's general utility, instead of being earlier, and becomes a clearer niche equip-entirely about physical attack defenses.

Off the top of my head, I think the SVN artifact I'd complain most about is Hydra's Bite. 50ish damage and requires Exotic, for a tier 4 weapon, and the only thing it does that can't be reproduced on a (much stronger) ego weapon is hit extra adjacent foes. The only time it seems like it's worth anything is if you're running really strong on-hit effects(Arcane Combat, Shattering Impact), and considering how narrow of a niche that is, it really should be stronger.

Maybe it should give some special effects as well-I'd love to see it firing off one of Numbing Poison/Lightning Daze/Disarming Acid randomly, given its tri-element theme-but before anything else, it really needs a standard Tier 4 weapon's power, if not higher.

But yeah, take SVN comments with a grain of salt-I've only cleared one character in SVN.

Agreed with mummy wrappings. No one uses them, and even if they were only -20% fire res I still probably wouldn't use them most of the time.

The problem with Burning Star is that it's purely for swapping, which is awkward, and the cooldown was lowered in an attempt to fix it but that really doesn't change anything. If it's not meant to be worn, then just turn it into a rod. If it *is* meant to be worn, make it worth wearing. And I wouldn't say that a mere +15% darkness resistance would be enough.

Spider is really good and maybe slightly OP for mindpower classes, but really I think heavy armors just need to be better. All the artifact robes knock the socks off of every artifact heavy armor except Chromatic Harness.

Wrap of Stone is ridiculous and the only cloak you should really ever wear, if you ever find it. The passive bonuses are nice, but the super low cooldown Stone Wall activate is what makes it broken. That's less than half the cooldown of the actual Archmage talent, which is a tier 4 talent to begin with, and this is on a tier 2 cloak.

All exotic weapons are terrible by virtue of being exotic and thus losing out on Weapon/Dagger Mastery. It's just really hard to justify losing out on 65 weapon power and like 57% more damage or however much 5/5 mastery gets you. You could take that Slasul prodigy but then you're wasting a prodigy slot just to use a weapon type that's not even strictly better than normal weapons. Water breathing is useless at that stage because once you qualify, there are no more underwater dungeons, and poison spit is cool but not worth a prodigy slot.

I have an idea for a complete rework of mummy wrappings. Allow any piece to be worn on body, head, hands, or feet. This would go along with brand new egos unique to wrappings and possibly set bonuses in a similar manner as mindstars. Bonuses to undead races would also be a natural fit. Needless to say for this idea they couldn't have resistance penalties as they are now.

Spider is really good and maybe slightly OP for mindpower classes, but really I think heavy armors just need to be better. All the artifact robes knock the socks off of every artifact heavy armor except Chromatic Harness.

I don't really feel that. They function totally differently-heavy armors give huge resistances and status resists, while robes give huge offense(Except Spydre, which is closer to light armor than a robe for gameplay reasons.). They feel more different than better/worse.

Wrap of Stone is ridiculous and the only cloak you should really ever wear, if you ever find it. The passive bonuses are nice, but the super low cooldown Stone Wall activate is what makes it broken. That's less than half the cooldown of the actual Archmage talent, which is a tier 4 talent to begin with, and this is on a tier 2 cloak.

Oh, I noticed that the recharge on that is kinda low too. I don't agree that it's that busted-almost no one learns Stone Wall on Archmage, and while it's a pretty elaborate and neat defensive skill, the ultimate impact is somewhat limited by the fact that it only works if you can get away from an enemy to start with, else your wall has a hole in it. But the recharge time going up on it would certainly be fine for me.

SageAcrin wrote: Spydre works with Mobility's bonus to Hardiness, which can lead to 100% armor hardiness. However, 100% Armor Hardiness vs 70% isn't that different, either-especially not for a Marauder, the main class that reliably gets Mobility for most of the game, as they have one of the best Defense tanking games in existence.

You can get mobility outside of Marauder in the svn as long as you betray the right escort. You can't be arcane and you might have to delay runes, but I've done it. The issue here is not 100% vs 70% hardiness (and that is not a minor one) , it's 70% vs. 30%, which is a different thing entirely.

Don't get me wrong, Spydre's great, but it's a very niche equip-not a lot of light armor characters want-or can-armor tank, and it's not an upgrade on armor for those with heavy armor training, who do want to tank. It mostly rewards Solipsists and...mostly Solipsists. Even then, I question a Solipsist that thinks that armor tanking is their best long term answer-they have range issues and being able to survive mages is more important to me generally, anyhow.

And doomed. I'm not sure whether it would work for mindslayers as well, since I haven't played one.

The short version; with strongly niche equipment, I have no problem with it being stronger than you strictly need it to be, because otherwise it'll never see use outside of the niche. Spydre, before getting the Armor Hardiness and Mindpower bonuses, was probably the worst artifact in the game. I'd rather not see that return-it's a neat armor.

Fair enough. I still think it's too good for solipsists and doomed. Boost forge armor on solipsists, get mobility, and you're more armored than a bulwark. Yes, you still have to worry about casters, but that's the only thing you'll be worrying about. As for doomed, we had that discussion before, but with armor, deflection, resistances and gesture of guarding they start taking ridiculously low damage in melee.

For the SVN stuff (both of which I have actually used, now)...Wanderer's Rest provides a hilarious set of bonuses that do not synergize at all-it is crazily all over the place. It's a good pair of boots, but it really does not need a nerf.

What? It's boots of speed +25% with -10 fatigue% and a phase door like ability which doesn't take a turn (I think) AND pin immunity AND 5% physical resistance. I would find it hard to think of any boots I would rather use.

Wrap of Stone is quite interesting, because it provides entirely different bonuses from any other cloak-I consider it quite good, but I'll note that, say, Vargh Redemption provides a similarly unique/huge spectrum of bonuses relative to its tier, but isn't overpowered. The good cloaks later on provide extremely large save bonuses, and Serpentine, which is only one tier higher, provides multiple item-based(so not Confusion/Stun interruptable) Phase Doors as well as good stats. (Stone Wall's kinda useful, but it will not stop that enemy that just pointblank Confused you from killing you.)

Stone wall is more than 'kinda' useful. And it will stop that enemy that just confused you from killing you, because confusion doesn't last all that long. It's more useful than phase door in such situations because it protects you from all sort of things phase door won't. It is best, however, when you have both. Phase dooring away from rushing enemies is dangerous. Stone wall helps against casters, especially in open spaces like the Prides . It's more useful against both adventurers and orc patrols. It is basically an infinite point damage shield that you can enact for a few turns until something else comes off cooldown. You should be using it more.

Having said that, I wouldn't object to it becoming tier 3 instead of 2, and losing the spellpower bonus. That way, it competes with Serpentine's general utility, instead of being earlier, and becomes a clearer niche equip-entirely about physical attack defenses.

I think the idea is that it's best for arcane blades, can you get more niche than that? The stone wall ability on it is what is too good.

Off the top of my head, I think the SVN artifact I'd complain most about is Hydra's Bite. 50ish damage and requires Exotic, for a tier 4 weapon, and the only thing it does that can't be reproduced on a (much stronger) ego weapon is hit extra adjacent foes. The only time it seems like it's worth anything is if you're running really strong on-hit effects(Arcane Combat, Shattering Impact), and considering how narrow of a niche that is, it really should be stronger.

Maybe it should give some special effects as well-I'd love to see it firing off one of Numbing Poison/Lightning Daze/Disarming Acid randomly, given its tri-element theme-but before anything else, it really needs a standard Tier 4 weapon's power, if not higher.

I have to try an exotic weapon build (with that new prodigy) one of these days. Hydra's bite doesn't look all that impressive, but who knows?

I'm not sure whether it would work for mindslayers as well, since I haven't played one.

It's okay enough for them, but Finer Energy means that it's no big deal to run Mail on them, in practice. I ran Chromatic Harness instead.

What? It's boots of speed +25% with -10 fatigue% and a phase door like ability which doesn't take a turn (I think) AND pin immunity AND 5% physical resistance. I would find it hard to think of any boots I would rather use.

Boots +20% speed with good secondary bonuses exist as ego boots, as do boots with rather hefty damage bonuses and various mobility skills(and spell cooldown bonuses!). It's hardly unreasonable to find a niche ego combo that fits your particular class more than the all-over-the-place-but-good bonuses that Rest provides. Basically, Rest does a lot of different things, but the only things it does really well are all hugely mobility.

Which is fine, if you like that in a boots, but movement boosts get undervalued so much that I've had people argue with me that Surge's 100%+ potential movement bonus isn't that special, and the rest is definitely replaceable in ego form outside of the pinres(which...well, I've heard people say they need a lot of resists, in this game. I've never heard someone say "I need Pin resistance to survive this" though.). Basically, subjective value boots.

It's pretty good relative to the time, but so are Frost Treads. Aetherwalk's pretty good too. Don't get me wrong, I think they might be my favorite boots right now, but they didn't feel overpowered.

Stone wall is more than 'kinda' useful. And it will stop that enemy that just confused you from killing you, because confusion doesn't last all that long.

That requires that you actually can get that enemy that confused you-and all other enemies-to be not adjacent to you. Or else you're just doing some terrain control. Which is nice, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't block things off.

If I get what you're saying in short with the rest of it: A: It works well in combo, B: It works well against casters, and C: It functions like a damage shield.

For A, yes, it does. But so do a lot of things. You can combine a randomized Phase Door and a Movement infusion and usually end up out of an enemy's sight by the end of a turn and a half or so.

For B, it works increasingly less well as casters themselves get more and more tools-Orcs in the prides, for instance, all have healing and I would definitely not want to drop out of Stone Wall if I had any other option in sight of Corruptor types, as it gives them another chance to just open up on you with all their cooled down spells. (I know this because I in fact, just today, did not have a better option when dealing with some. Believe me, it's not a big help in that case.) This isn't to say that it's bad, of course.

For C...it's not a damage shield. Damage shields let you actually do damage to people. This makes them far better. (Of course, a few DoT classes/builds and pet classes sorta belie this statement. But generally, the risks to such classes is falling out of control of a situation, and they have class-based options to stay in control of where enemies are. The term "win more" comes to mind.) It's more like a teleport to nowhere for a few turns, then you come back.

Basically, it's sorta a complicated skill. You can't pigeonhole it easily, and its worth varies a lot on the class. I'm not knocking it or anything, it is useful no matter what, but it does not prevent me from getting my face smashed in by an adjacent enemy without doing something else first...which probably keeps me from getting my face smashed in by that enemy anyways. I'm not saying I find Serpentine necessarily better, but I think I would depending on the class and how important it is to get away from that enemy bashing my face right now.

Having said all that; It really should have the same cooldown that the actual spell has, or more, if nothing else. Just to be consistent with itemcasts generally, which usually do not cooldown faster than the base spell without a good reason. Said CD being... 50? hum, that's kinda high, but questions about if Stone Wall should have a lower cooldown are another subject...Regardless, it probably ought to take 50/50 energy to use.

Hydra's bite doesn't look all that impressive, but who knows?

Oh, if you build specifically for it and manage to get lucky enough to get it, it's probably really good. Arcane Combat/Arcane Destruction is definitely a brutal trick with it. (Thinking on it, Arcane Blades ended up liking Exotic Weapons the most of any class, the way they are now. I kinda like that, considering their no-particular-weapon focus.) Shattering Impacts works, and there's probably some other on-hit tricks you can pull with it.

But, really, none of that makes me want to go out into the open to fight enemies when I don't have to, anyhow-at least, with a melee fighter, anyways. Too risky. So it's sorta limited anyhow.