Question for devs about gearing.

[keir86200]

Hey all, I have a little question about HL gearing.

From all the hours i've played, i've noticed how much getting Sovereign set is a real pain for quite a few people. Having to get invader stuff, then doing cities. Unfortunatly doing forts and cities aren't that easy.

So here's my question, did you planned adding to the game the real good idea that existed back then in live : the used sovereign set.

It was a weaker version of the sovereign, rr70 , that could be purchased with gold and not tokens ( which are great ideas, having a weaker sovereign possibility without farmin months of token would let a bunch of people breathe easier ).

It could make the game more smooth and enjoyable for normal players, not the "casuals" but not yet elite gamers spending hours and hours each day in the game.

I do really think you should think about this feature, or at least consider to think on it.

Thx for the hard work and keep this game alive,
hug from a mostly silent player

[wargrimnir]

Worn sov was introduced under a much different context. Very late in the live game cycle the itemization was designed to expand the power scaling drastically with the introduction of doomflayer/warpforged. Worn sov was added for accessibility because players simply weren't competitive in the gear that existed before.

We took an early design position of reducing and flattening this power curve, and never introducing doom/warp, so more of the early sets would be viable. You don't need sov to be competitive. Dominator/Oppressor gear from RvR/Scens is generally where your big spike in stats will come from, and PvE dungeon gear is available if you want to grind to an Invader-level of gear. We don't need to introduce worn sov because there are many other accessible options to choose from and earn.

[pvprangergod]

i think you do need to be fully geared to be competitive

[Sinisterror]

What WarG said is right it was super fast to get rr 70 at that point and worn sovereign was kind of minumum needed with rr 100, and there was 100 % exp stopper so T3 lived because alot of r39 rr 50-70 sometimes even rr 100 i quess : D Imo 39 lvl and 3 tactics was very much easier to find balanced fights compared to r40 so many enjoyed playing game fully in lvl 39 and probably everyone had at least 1 char just dedicated to never dinging 40 : D

[keir86200]

Worn sov was introduced under a much different context. Very late in the live game cycle the itemization was designed to expand the power scaling drastically with the introduction of doomflayer/warpforged. Worn sov was added for accessibility because players simply weren't competitive in the gear that existed before.

We took an early design position of reducing and flattening this power curve, and never introducing doom/warp, so more of the early sets would be viable. You don't need sov to be competitive. Dominator/Oppressor gear from RvR/Scens is generally where your big spike in stats will come from, and PvE dungeon gear is available if you want to grind to an Invader-level of gear. We don't need to introduce worn sov because there are many other accessible options to choose from and earn.

First of all, thanks for the clear response I understand your point of view, so do you consider Conqueror and Vanquisher as competitive as Dominator/Oppressor ? Just a question, because oppressor's set needs a tons of grinding time of tokens , as well as anathema weapons. I totally agree there's plenty of options, I was just thinking about the expensiveness of their emblem's price for a medium player who stills like having good gear ( Not raging or criticize here, I'm just curious about your vision of gearing, always hard when writing and not discussing face to face ^^ )

Thx again warG, I appreciate it.

[TreefAM]

Oppressor and Dominator are garbage even when mixing with other sets, don't bother with the gear.
You can go for the weapons, but mostly they are outclassed as well, the only class that actually goes for an Anathema weapon, are tanks who take the shield and even they can replace it with the fort one.

[BluIzLucky]

Oppressor (and even more so ranked version) mix is really nice for off spec healers.. every single item is good, the set bonus not beyond 3p is a bit meh but still not bad, if you like SC it's solid.

Conq (for some DPS)/Vanq (for all classes) are and on same level as Dom/Opp and will be a big boost over T3 gear.

...

Do you have the Warpforged / Doomflayer assets? If so any plans for them?
Would be nice if you released them on Warlord/Sov power level but with different stat and bonuses and costing Royals.

I totally agree with the plateauing power curve approach, but 2 more sets would be nice for different play styles

Then you could also slightly reduce the Royal cost on all sets so the total Royal cost for all sets only increase a little, this would give new players a faster catch up for their first Sov level set, while not increasing the overall completion rate by much.

[wargrimnir]

...

Do you have the Warpforged / Doomflayer assets? If so any plans for them?
Would be nice if you released them on Warlord/Sov power level but with different stat and bonuses and costing Royals.

I totally agree with the plateauing power curve approach, but 2 more sets would be nice for different play styles

Then you could also slightly reduce the Royal cost on all sets so the total Royal cost for all sets only increase a little, this would give new players a faster catch up for their first Sov level set, while not increasing the overall completion rate by much.

The appearances are already on warlord/alt sov. We have no plans to release a higher tier of gear over Sov, it's the end-tier of gear and should be an appropriate grind to fully acquire. It's not a set to catch-up to, and there are plenty of lower sets that you can play competitively in. Whether we release future sets that are acquired through RvR or Scens really depends on how that gear is attained. We're not going to release a new set of gear without some appropriate content to go along with it.

First of all, thanks for the clear response I understand your point of view, so do you consider Conqueror and Vanquisher as competitive as Dominator/Oppressor ? Just a question, because oppressor's set needs a tons of grinding time of tokens , as well as anathema weapons. I totally agree there's plenty of options, I was just thinking about the expensiveness of their emblem's price for a medium player who stills like having good gear ( Not raging or criticize here, I'm just curious about your vision of gearing, always hard when writing and not discussing face to face ^^ )

Conq and Vanq were designed for your classes intended primary spec since live, and we stayed with that design option for most sets. Compared to higher level sets, they typically have some of the better stat distributions which makes them valuable while being technically lower statted overall, that's why they're pointed at as a good starting point for competitive play. Scenario gear is typically designed for off-specs, and the completion rate is not 1:1 with RvR. Where RvR is an individual effort for your bag score each zone flip, Scenarios are highly dependent on winning outright with your team. It's going to take ages longer if you play solo in scenarios winning less than half your matches, than it will to play with a coordinated group and win significantly more often. Scenarios also have a more drawn out timeline for completion as they're considered a highly accessible game mode. Click button, get instanced. RvR as a realm effort can take hours for a zone flip, and multiple zone flips for a gold bag with a chance to earn your next piece of gear. The only acceleration for RvR comes from running with a coordinated group as well and having currency funneled to characters that need it.

[Deathsaw]

I still think the conqueror is a totally lost set where people prefer to ignore it and jump to the vanquisher. I think maybe it could become an entry set for the newly 40/40 sold for gold and the ones before it would have a lvl and RR reduction to be equipped.

[Tyrex2017]

Leveling a Chosen actually (my main is WP 88) and I've noticed that i'm having a lot of trouble getting vanquisher medallions. It's easier for me to equip invader than vanquisher. At RR60, I've already 4 inv pc, but having trouble to get 4 vanq pc! Regularly, i get 1 vanq medaillon for zone flip, when I ve partipated for running boxes, taking BO, taking keep, killed orders.
Something is broken in my opinion about the drop rate of vanquisher medallions, the contribution for zone flip or the cost of vanq gear.