Incoming Nerf to Elegant and Last Blood?

[Zopharr]

Some vociferous folks on the SOE forums have been complaining about the new cultural armors plus Last Bloods, and it seems as though Maddoc and others have decided to listen to them:

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/po...opic_id=124557

In brief, the concept apparently is to move some of the stats from the Last Bloods (and Serpents) seals to the base armor and slot 11 augment, to tune down the effect of putting older slot 12s (Last Bloods and Serpents Seals) into the newer Elegant Armor with Sublime or Exalted augs.

The Elaborate Armor plus Eminent Augs should " be equivalent to level 70 group armor from TBS when we are done," which may indicate how much of the 'stats' (AC + HP) will be moved from the Last Bloods.

Of course, with Faycite Seals being 45 AC, the same issue will exist when they push the next set of cultural armor out at 85 or 90, but ... nevermind.

Color me less than thrilled.

Garshok

[melkorr]

Didn't we just have this topic. Look in Primal Scream. Specifically, the one posted as "cultural nerf! (unsubstantiated rumor)" The title is a hint, by the way...

[Kemie Dreamshadow]

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

A handful of folks have complained about the lack of level requirements on dwerium jewelry, so it's scheduled to get "nerfed."

A handful of folks have complained about disparities in cultural drops THEY need for THEIR armor, so drop rates get "nerfed." (I'm a wood elf, I wear leather - there are always porous loams for sale in the bazaar but I have yet to see any exquisite marrow. I imagine they must be getting destroyed as useless because I sure don't get to see them.)

I've enjoyed the albeit brief span of time when products I could make with my tradeskilling were actually in demand. Kind of made me feel like all those years of hard work and drudgery were finally paying off and getting some recognition.

Sigh...

And yeah, this probably belongs in "Primal Scream."

[melkorr]

Porous Loam got upped because over twice the classes need it compared to marrow/spinnerets. It's math, not "because they only wanted THEIR" drops.

[Kemie Dreamshadow]

Porous Loam got upped because over twice the classes need it compared to marrow/spinnerets. It's math, not "because they only wanted THEIR" drops.

Hehe I know. Note "nerfed" is in quotation marks in both references. However, I will note that as a result of the complaints the powers that be also decided the level 75 drops (alkalai loam included) were coming into the game too fast. So changes had consequences not necessarily foreseen by those complaining.

[Zopharr]

Didn't we just have this topic. Look in Primal Scream. Specifically, the one posted as "cultural nerf! (unsubstantiated rumor)" The title is a hint, by the way...

Please check the link I provided - which starts off with a post by Ngreth.

I wish it was a rumor.

Apparently those complaining about the armor and last bloods got through to Maddoc.

Garshok

[Gillette]

I'm fairly sure this nerf is a result of the squeeky wheel gets the grease.

Now with that said, I'm fairly sure the number of tradeskillers and groupers out there is significantly higher then the number of "elite raiders" out there.

Let's make our voices heard on SoE's forums like none other.

[Deviator]

so lets say elegant chest + sublime + last blood is currently (gonna go with plate) ~175 AC, 620h/m/e....

what are we looking at with the new elegant + sublime + last blood?

from what i understand the last blood will go down but elegant and sublime will stay put and elaborate and emenint will go up. all this is would do is anger the people who spent millions of plat on a full set of elegant+sublime who's guilds are only up to last blood.

[Kemie Dreamshadow]

I'm fairly sure this nerf is a result of the squeeky wheel gets the grease.

Now with that said, I'm fairly sure the number of tradeskillers and groupers out there is significantly higher then the number of "elite raiders" out there.

Let's make our voices heard on SoE's forums like none other.

I've been thinking about this a lot since I posted earlier, and have realized it isn't truly the case. Tradeskillers were quite vocal about the fact that the new cultural drops have no vendor value, causing quite a lot of it to disappear without ever making it to the tradeskillers.

"The numbers" evidently indicate to SoE that too many of these items are already making it "into the game," so some have been adjusted down. Now, it's impossible for most of us to understand which numbers they are using to make this decision - is this number of drops (i.e. drop rate), number looted, number appearing in bazaar, number actually used in making armor, number of armors actually appearing in the market, or ?????

If "complaints" have the keyword "overpowered" then the devs sit up and take notice. For the most part tradeskillers complaining of not enough of something, or that an item is underpowered, the powers that be always have a rationale in mind to explain why they won't change it.

I've tried very hard over the years not to be a whiner and complainer about changes in this game, but basically to play the hand I'm dealt the best way I can. I do notice myself whining and complaining lately. So many changes on so many fronts leave me with a sense of being caught up in a whirlwind I guess.

[Aaneras]

We really need to know where their balance point is, and they need to dispense with the silliness about armor sets. They're leaving the level 80 armor alone and trimming the slot 12 raid augments. There is an enormous installed base of these, and substantial odds of enormous ill-will. And it's a stone cold done deal, not a rumor. The only question is how far and how much.

Rule#1 is that they should quantify this and get it out now. If it's a modest adjustment the impact will obvious decrease.
However, it won't be modest. This leads to Rule#2:

Get some feedback from people at different levels of the game on whatever solution you adopt. In particular, serious consideration is warranted for boosting the (relatively rare) higher end raid visible armor as opposed to crippling the (relatively common) slot 12 raid augs.

We should have a discussion here, and in this forum (not primal scream). It impacts virtually all tradeskills. FYI the net impact for groupers will be nil to positive...but raiders will be FURIOUS. At a level that you simply haven't seen.

[dendail]

cultral drops

at the rate these new stuff for cultral is dropping now and the price for exquished should have just stayed with mds 300k in bazaar for spineret fluid 250k for marrow in barter people buy the same for 135k on luclin mds never cost that much to get every time something goods comes out sony nerves it to hell should just leave well enough alone should have just left the silk, pelt, spineret fluid, and marrow at thier prenerf drop rate and just increase the drop rate of porous loam

[Leonis]

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

A handful of folks have complained about the lack of level requirements on dwerium jewelry, so it's scheduled to get "nerfed."

Actually, a LOT of us have thought that "no level requirement" on ALL of that new JC stuff was overpowered. I was betting a nerf would happen eventually no matter what, and trying to steer SoE to a "recommended level" nerf rather than having them put required levels on any of it and making it TOTALLY worthless for a ton of the characters it's currently on.

[Emelyn]

This seems very out of touch with the mid end guilds.

Please do the following (at least for silk):

Take a look at Anguish gear + Anguish augs (OOW era).

Then look at Elaborate Armor + Eminent Symbol + Last Blood. There's honestly not that much of a upgrade there. And Last Bloods are coming from a NEWER expansion (Demiplane = DoDh).

The only reason I was even considering cultural again on my main who is in a non-high end guild that raids (because I do have a RL and can't raid every day), is that I could use the Last Bloods from the raid content we are doing now, in the higher armor or with the higher symbols, since I am 80.

My whole guild is 75+ with a growing number of 80s, but we are still raiding Demi. That shouldn't be penalized.

If you nerf Last Bloods, or make them less effective in Elegant gear or with Exalted symbols, you are making them not much of an upgrade. That is totally backwards.

Especially considering the costs involved in turning the last blood's into an actual aug. (whether you farm it yourself and use your own tinker, or pay the bazaar prices, its still a huge cost)

[Aaneras]

This seems very out of touch with the mid end guilds.

Please do the following (at least for silk):

Take a look at Anguish gear + Anguish augs (OOW era).

Then look at Elaborate Armor + Eminent Symbol + Last Blood. There's honestly not that much of a upgrade there. And Last Bloods are coming from a NEWER expansion (Demiplane = DoDh).

The only reason I was even considering cultural again on my main who is in a non-high end guild that raids (because I do have a RL and can't raid every day), is that I could use the Last Bloods from the raid content we are doing now, in the higher armor or with the higher symbols, since I am 80.

My whole guild is 75+ with a growing number of 80s, but we are still raiding Demi. That shouldn't be penalized.

If you nerf Last Bloods, or make them less effective in Elegant gear or with Exalted symbols, you are making them not much of an upgrade. That is totally backwards.

Especially considering the costs involved in turning the last blood's into an actual aug. (whether you farm it yourself and use your own tinker, or pay the bazaar prices, its still a huge cost)

Our Demiplane raid force will probably shut down; the tanks who are heavily invested in last bloods are on record that they leave EQ if this goes live.
No tanks, no raids.

Yea, it's gonna hurt.

[Gaell Stormracer]

We really need to know where their balance point is, and they need to dispense with the silliness about armor sets. They're leaving the level 80 armor alone and trimming the slot 12 raid augments.

Well, if the baseline is that Elaborate + Eminent + Last Blood stays the same with more of the stats moving to the Elaborate and Eminent, and they ALSO intend to keep the same gap between Bazu and Last Bloods, and the lower Seals, then the recent work on adding cheaper AAAA is completely wasted -- and there's very little room for manouver.

For example, the Discordant seals, the ones below Bazu are 10AC/120HP, and the Bazu Seals are 30AC/180HP. So, if they move say 20 AC and 50 HP from Seal to the Armour, the Discordant and Chronal stones are obsolete (AC-wise) and will possibly need a HP boost to make up for that, and the Bazus are down to 10AC/70HP.

This will definitely hurt the "early adopters" of the new armour and symbols -- which is to say, mid-tier raid guilds, and mostly the Tanks within those.

On the other hand, it means that the basic armour + symbol, which is what non-raiders will have access to, will be a lot more viable....