[Set Preview] Bloodlord

[wargrimnir]

Editing in the actual preview of stats and procs

https://i.imgur.com/QGCZwHM.png

Spoiler:

As the finishing touches on Bastion Stair are being wrapped up and items are being finalized, I wanted to post some blatant clickbait to remind you all what we're dealing with when it comes to polishing the turds we were left behind.

Behold, the glory that was Bloodlord on the live servers.

Swordmaster

Spoiler:

Swordmaster – Bloodlord’s Defender Kit

(2 Piece Bonus): +62 Initiative
(3 Piece Bonus): +62 Strength
(4 Piece Bonus): +5% Parry
(5 Piece Bonus): +2 Path of Hoeth Abilities

Bloodlord Taen – Rank 36
649 Armor
16 Strength
29 Toughness
12 Wounds
11 Hate

Bloodlord Balancers – Rank 35
636 Armor
28 Toughness
18 Wounds
12 Initiative
2% Reduced Armor Penetration

Bloodlord Platecoat – Rank 36
721 Armor
19 Strength
32 Toughness
14 Wounds
52 Hit Points Every 4 Seconds

Bloodlord Vambraces – Rank 35
565 Armor
16 Strength
8 Toughness
22 Weapon Skill
3% Melee Critical Chance

Bloodlord Solerets – Rank 35
565 Armor
16 Strength
8 Willpower
29 Toughness
12 Wounds

Engineer

Spoiler:

Engineer – Bloodlord Work Kit

(2 Piece Bonus): +62 Ballistic Skill
(3 Piece Bonus): +320 Corporeal Resistance
(4 Piece Bonus): +5% Ranged Critical Chance
(5 Piece Bonus): +2 Path of the Tinkerer Abilities

Bloodlord Hardhat – Rank 36
216 Armor
13 Toughness
16 Wounds
29 Ballistic Skill
2% Disrupt

Bloodlord Sparkplate – Rank 35
211 Armor
12 Willpower
18 Weapon Skill
28 Ballistic Skill
3% Reduction in being Critically Hit

Bloodlord Bulwark – Rank 36
240 Armor
12 Wounds
17 Weapon Skill
32 Ballistic Skill
3 AP Per Second

Bloodlord Work Gloves – Rank 35
188 Armor
29 Toughness
9 Wounds
16 Initiative
11 Ballistic Skill

Bloodlord Steeltoes – Rank 35
188 Armor
10 Wounds
13 Weapon Skill
25 Ballistic Skill
2% Dodge

Not posting any more of that filth. Just a reminder to anyone who wants to remember the old days. Those rose colored glasses can get quite foggy.

The actual sets will be around Item Level 60. Perhaps this post will temper complaints about "muh stats", but probably not.
Some things to note.
- We're not going to be doing the +2 Path bonuses. Relics of an ancient past, and still that annoying bug where changing pieces of gear will reset your mastery tree.
- Still not putting Willpower on non-healer gear.
- Marginal stat increases compared to previous sets. The higher we go in item level, the less the difference in total stats between them.
- Swordmasters definitely get weaponskill, even if it's just a little bit.
- Will likely be reusing some older procs.
- 7pc Set seeing as someone added a 7th piece to Sentinel and the creep demands we stay at least on par.

Feel free to discuss your wanton desires. If I see something interesting, maybe it will get included.

[ajnin420]

Is this bait?

[wargrimnir]

Yes

[Skullgrin]

Ugh, blatant Order bias only teasing us with SM and Engi versions...



- I'm just joking, for those that don't actually get it...

Edit - You NEED to add Willpower for extra disrupt, geez...

[Musica]

Mh, as of now we kinda lack a set that can provide a power spike with only 3 pieces like DP used to do and some classes really can't go for the "whole set" thinghy.
Please, consider "working" the bonuses to provide value in mixing this set with the previous end game sets.
I can't speak for many classes, but i can speak for BW and say that we really have a lackluster gear progression currently.

[wargrimnir]

Mh, as of now we kinda lack a set that can provide a power spike with only 3 pieces like DP used to do and some classes really can't go for the "whole set" thinghy.
Please, consider "working" the bonuses to provide value in mixing this set with the previous end game sets.
I can't speak for many classes, but i can speak for BW and say that we really have a lackluster gear progression currently.

Unfortunately for your wishes, we've taken a design stance to make sets more valuable as you gain pieces to try and mitigate mixing sets as much as possible. If anything I would say BW suffers from a lack of variety in gear because they have no real defensive spec like other classes might, and solely need to stack crit and int to advance. By the time you reach Bloodlord, your Int is likely to be capped, and we're rather conservative with crit. So it will likely be a marginal upgrade, or unexciting side-grade for you.

If you're looking for significant gear progression as we go above RR50ish stuff, I will accept your disappointment in advance.

[Aurandilaz]

Can you actually include some useful 4pc 5pc 6pc bonuses, so we can try something else than the usual 3+3+3 (Vanq/Conq/Domi/Sent/Beastlord) combinations since higher piece bonuses tend to be complete mysteries to various classes and it's better to just stack stats instead.

I have full Sentinel on 4 chars and at most I am using 3pieces for Str+Wounds combos, if not just 2pc. No reason why Bloodlord has to suffer same fate...

[wargrimnir]

Can you actually include some useful 4pc 5pc 6pc bonuses, so we can try something else than the usual 3+3+3 (Vanq/Conq/Domi/Sent/Beastlord) combinations since higher piece bonuses tend to be complete mysteries to various classes and it's better to just stack stats instead.

I have full Sentinel on 4 chars and at most I am using 3pieces for Str+Wounds combos, if not just 2pc. No reason why Bloodlord has to suffer same fate...

Elaborate? Perhaps an example.

[Skullgrin]

Can you actually include some useful 4pc 5pc 6pc bonuses, so we can try something else than the usual 3+3+3 (Vanq/Conq/Domi/Sent/Beastlord) combinations since higher piece bonuses tend to be complete mysteries to various classes and it's better to just stack stats instead.

I have full Sentinel on 4 chars and at most I am using 3pieces for Str+Wounds combos, if not just 2pc. No reason why Bloodlord has to suffer same fate...

Elaborate? Perhaps an example.

The main problem that I notice with set bonuses on Chosen gear is that the 3 piece Wounds bonus tends to trump any of the proc bonuses that come later on in sets (with the one exception being the 5 piece Conqueror bonus for +100 wounds for 20 seconds). That encourages going 3+3 in order to get the maximum amount of wounds that you can.

The only way that I see to encourage people wear full sets would either be to move the wounds further down the bonus list and/or use proc bonuses that are significantly better than the ones we see now. There were some proc abilities on early-game Chosen gear that it would be nice to see added back in. Two of them that I can recall were both on level 17 very rare quest items - the first was Skullcase of the Deathbringer (on being hit: 5% chance for +200 armor for 6 sec) and the second was Nogaz's Shoulderguards (on hit: 5% chance to increase crit hit rate by 6% for 9 sec). Seeing higher level versions of those abilities might make me think twice about wearing a full set for the bonus.

Edit - Thought that I might also mention that you may want to consider adding just a bit more in the way of defensive stats to the DPS geared sets or pumping up the offensive stats. They always seem to be a bit too much glass, and not enough cannon...

[wargrimnir]

Can you actually include some useful 4pc 5pc 6pc bonuses, so we can try something else than the usual 3+3+3 (Vanq/Conq/Domi/Sent/Beastlord) combinations since higher piece bonuses tend to be complete mysteries to various classes and it's better to just stack stats instead.

I have full Sentinel on 4 chars and at most I am using 3pieces for Str+Wounds combos, if not just 2pc. No reason why Bloodlord has to suffer same fate...

Elaborate? Perhaps an example.

The main problem that I notice with set bonuses on Chosen gear is that the 3 piece Wounds bonus tends to trump any of the proc bonuses that come later on in sets (with the one exception being the 5 piece Conqueror bonus for +100 wounds for 20 seconds). That encourages going 3+3 in order to get the maximum amount of wounds that you can.

The only way that I see to encourage people wear full sets would either be to move the wounds further down the bonus list and/or use proc bonuses that are significantly better than the ones we see now. There were some proc abilities on early-game Chosen gear that it would be nice to see added back in. Two of them that I can recall were both on level 17 very rare quest items - the first was Skullcase of the Deathbringer (on being hit: 5% chance for +200 armor for 6 sec) and the second was Nogaz's Shoulderguards (on hit: 5% chance to increase crit hit rate by 6% for 9 sec). Seeing higher level versions of those abilities might make me think twice about wearing a full set for the bonus.

Mixing sets is fine with us, that's why we made lower set bonuses provide lower stats (significantly less efficient than live as you lose considerable stats on your 2pc). You miss out on the procs by stacking raw stats, these are generally tuned to specific playstyles and aren't intended to be a wide flat bonus (although some certainly are).

Wouldn't that basically force you to go deep into a set for the stats you're looking for? If we build this set with stat bonuses deeper in, it wouldn't be stronger compared to stacking 3+3 currently. I think that might make the set even less desirable as prior sets would still be able to stack 3+3 or 3+4 and the latest one wouldn't. At low set pieces we would need to put in relatively weak procs like what you would find on weapons to keep things balanced. Then you might see something like 2+2+3 for a lesser proc and 3 stat bonuses instead.

To make something like that viable, we would need to revisit how stats and procs are allocated across pretty much all of the T4 sets to make it hard set on making stat stacking less viable, and that's not something we really want to entirely discourage to begin with. Also it's a lot of work without some pretty deep advanced planning.