I will have to agree on items available for bards at 20th level or so. I
would love to get rid of my Barbed Leather Whip, but to replace it with
what? If I could dual wield PGTs, that would be good, but they are still
relatively slow, heavy, and only do 6 damage. The only viable replacements
that I know of are way too expensive/hard to get. (Kilij, Crystalline Blade,
Runed Falchion, etc.
The same goes for armor. I have been wearing bronze for quite awhile, and it
is a strain for this little wood elf, but to upgrade to steel is cost
prohibitive, and lambent is way too hard for me, yet.
So, I have had basically the same equipment for months, and with nothing to
look forward to for another few months. *sigh*
If I am overlooking something, I would love to hear about it. I would dearly
love a quest that was long and arduous but possible for me to accomplish,
that would result in a nice weapon or magic instrument.
And speaking of instruments, if there were some better instruments around,
maybe I wouldn't have to rely on my poor melee skills so much. I would love
to sit back and play songs during melee, as I don't have the HPs to really
mix it up anymore anyway, but it's just not quite enough for me as I don't
seem to be able to weave 4 songs at once.
And all these balance issues, while significant, don't take into account
twinking, which is the biggest unbalancing factor, I think. Of course, with
the scarcity of attainable items and the game bias against those of us who
prefer to solo, I can see why eBay sales are so brisk.
Aranlas Starchaser
Master Bard
-----Original Message-----
From: Kimes, Dean W.
To: '
eqbards@onelist.com'
Sent: 11/29/99 7:54 PM
Subject: RE: [eqbards] Great post on item balancing (Long)
From: "Kimes, Dean W." <
Dean_Kimes@...>
Brian's post is interesting, but I'm not sure it is all that accurate.
Perhaps this is accurately what Verant wants to be true, but it is not
what
is true. Monks out damage warriors only until the warrior gains some
good
weapons around 15th level or so. After that the warrior often out
damages
the monk, but the monk takes less damage. The reason for this? The
monk
having no offensive items to spend money on is free to spend all his
funds
to acquire better defensive items. The two do seem to balance out with
the
warrior doing more damage but the monk taking less. Despite not being
able
to wear heavy armor our group monk who is 2 levels lower than me has
nearly
the same ac I do, and I have only one piece of armor with an AC below
banded
and several at plate or higher. He takes way less damage than I do and
until he is 35th level will probably never die again except in very rare
circumstances.
My biggest laugh was at Brian's mention of Bard only items. That's a
good
one. Excepting the quest armor, there are what, two bard only items
that
you can get without taking on a dragon or going to the planes? A Shawl
of
the Wind Spirit and Mistmoore Battle Drums, that's it as far as I know.
A
piece of armor equal to cloth and a drum on a 35+ mob. To even mention
bard
only items was in my opinion a slap in the face. Considering one is
useless
after 3rd level and the other sells for 500pp+ that's a joke. What
other
class has so little equipment dedicated to it? There must be one but I
don't know what it would be. Are there even any other items on mobs
below
30th that are bard plus a few others? Shimmering Orb, great for looks
but
with dual wield is it useful? Anyone know of anything else?
My next point regards weapons. If they are trying to balance the items,
why
is it I am still using the same weapons at 21st level I used at 12th
level?
There really isn't anything much better than my dragoon dirk and
screaming
mace available for bards at my level. The only 1HS weapons available
are a
Polished Granite Tomahawk and a Barbed Leather Whip. They don't even
begin
to compare to our Shadowknight's Dark Reaver. The primary weapons
carried
by every member of our group is better than either the PGT or the BLW.
Why?
That's a good question. Since we don't have anybody near my level who
is a
melee class (or hybrid other than the SK) its really puzzling. Our
mages
carry Glowing Wooden Crooks or better, at 150pp not hard to see why.
The
shadowknight has a dark Reaver and I'm using the same primary as the 7th
level ranger, a dragoon dirk. At 25pp who would blame him? A good 1HS
weapon on the other hand cost 400pp+.
Why does this inequity exist? Because in truth their are far more good
piercing weapons per piercing user than 1HS per 1HS user. All the good
1HS
weapons at the mid-levels are either warrior or paladin or ranger only.
I
could currently get thru quests at least 6 weapons I cannot use. The
quests
are easily doable for a group of my level or close (21st). I can get no
decent weapons via quest that I can use except the Screaming Mace that I
did
9 levels ago.
Believe me if anyone can refute this and offer me a solution to where I
might find a better weapon obtainable I'd be glad to hear it. I get
really
tired of having my own guild members laugh, "you still using that little
sticker?" I suppose I could buy a PGT, but at the 250pp they go for on
E'ci
it hardly seems justifiable. Any suggestions out there? I currently
own 4
magical piercing weapons (don't ask), and 2 magical 1HB, but only a
combine
Scimitar for 1HS.
Kitasi Ireallyshouldthinkupalastname of E'ci
"materialistically inclined? not usually, but all those guild
posts,
sheesh!"
From: Ryan Honeyman <
honeyman@...>
> CONCLUSION
>
> Hopefully this gives you some insight into how tricky designing some
items
> can be. It's both an art and a science -- you have to have an
intuitive
feel
> for the interactions between everything (race, procs, stat bonuses,
classes,
> skill caps, etc.) and then you have to back up your gut instincts by
running
> simulations so that the numbers do, in fact, add up to what you
expect.
Then
> you have to see how it all fits into the world with regards to real
world
> usefulness (is that proc really relevant? Do these races really use
this?
Is
> there another weapon that's similar and easier to get?) and hope you
made
> the right decision.
This guy is like a god. When I read his stuff, I get more
insight, more information, and more chuckles than anything
else Verant releases. I especially enjoyed reading his story
about the GM event he ran a long time ago. I wish there were
more of him running around at Verant. The game would
probably be a lot more interesting.
Harmonic.
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