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More depth and strategy in gear and equipment (pla

AuthorMessage
Survivor
Dec 18, 2008
23
To be breif and to the point i'll list what i mean first. Then explain afterwards.

1. Gear that gives more xp per fight

2. Gear that boost healing spells on players but makes them vulnerable to death spells.

3. Gear that greatly boost attack power to one school, but also weakens the defense to the opposing school's magic.

4. gear that greatly boost defense power to one school, but also weakens the attack power to the opposing school.

5. Gear that gives an insane amount of health like 1,000 or 2,000 or so. But that would be its only benefit, maybe even make it increase weakness to all magic.

6. Complete sets of gear dropped by monsters in a zone. what i mean by that is like rare drops that would have treasure cards with them.

lets say, someone wanted the outfit of the blind or something like that. every piece of gear with it, might come with one or more hex cards. which would be around 6 or more hex cardds if you had the complete set. And if you had the complete set it might allow you to use a rare and powerful spell. Perhaps in this instance. A hex all spell, which would hex the entire enemy team.

My emphasis is on MONSTER DROP, not just a boss drop.

Now these are just examples and there are plenty of more ways to add depth and strategy to the gear. But heres why i think something like this would be good for the game.


As player vs player comes out, there really isnt alot of good gear choices. you have about four or five good selections from the shop while every thing else is junk. This means that most people are wearing almost the same gear.

As a result of this, when players are the same level, there health is just about the same. while if players are a lower level there health will be no where close, thus creating a big disadvantage for the lower level player. which by terms of gear choices, he cant really do anything about.

However, with more unique gear, and good strategy, the lower level player could have a better chance in a duel. For example, Say the lower level player was using some insane health gear while the higher level player was using attack boosting gear.

So lets say the low level has around 6,000 health
while the high level has around 2,000 but can hit 50% more with his schools spells.

I would say that this duel is about to become intresting :P

Having more intresting and strategic duels, is what adding new gear is all about.

Squire
Dec 02, 2008
543
Being too heavily gear-based is a common flaw of a lot of other games. Let's not import it here. Farming for gear is not fun. Being required to farm for gear in order to do later pve or be competitive in pvp is especially egregious.

There is an argument for gear variety, but the problem right now is that the crown gear is far and away stronger than everything else, at least at the lower levels. I'd hope that changes at the high end with the release of Dragonspyre. The solution I'd like is no new higher level crown gear, but other higher level gear added which is comparable in strength to the highest level crown gear to already exist.

Defender
Jul 31, 2008
102

The solution I'd like is no new higher level crown gear, but other higher level gear added which is comparable in strength to the highest level crown gear to already exist.


Wouldnt that take some custumers away from using crowns?
Another thing. Up until now this game is not so much based on PVP, that may change with the new system that's about to be added, but what I mean to say is that I can play this game happily without feeling the need to participate in any PVP tournaments. Why is this important? It's important because adding more monster drops or more strategy based equipment for use of PVP would not necesarily be a mistake. Maybe those types of equipments can be added to the crown shops, so that only those players that are intrested in PVP can buy them. The rest of the players can be very happy ignoring this new equipment and playing this game as if it didnt matter.

I hope I am making myself clear..English is not my first language :-)

Survivor
Dec 18, 2008
23
I will agree that having crown gear unbelivably stronger then normal gear is frustrating. Especially when your a higher level loosing to lower level player just because they can get something you cant.

But this is why farming for gear fits in nicely. And i have to say its not always fun but it's very rewarding.

When you do the vualt of ice seventh times in a row and get that rare pet you want its very exciting and rewarding. I mean just having more excitement in the game is reason enough to have rare drops.

But if everyone could just go and buy a rotting fodder or just buy a mummy these things wouldnt have any hype at all. And would just be another addition to the shop.

Now im not saying every item has to be farmed. Cause quite frankley theres alot of room in the shop. I mean almost everything in every shop is junk, except for the last row.

But farming for gear would bring more life into zones, would make the gear more note worthy, and give players a reason to stay in a certain zone or return to it later just to get that piece of equipment.

And then on the developers side of the things, It doesn't take away to much of the incentive for buying crown gear.

Administrator
I know this doesn't answer your questions, but I wanted to make sure that you know you can purchase Crowns gear with gold in the same city as you find the Crowns items on Zeke. (Zeke in Marleybone sells items for Crowns that can be purchased for gold in Marleybone from the other shopkeepers - etc for other worlds)




community@wizard101.com
Hero
Sep 08, 2008
712
I will agree whole-heartedly on the gear farming. I farm a lot, and I enjoy rpgs more or less depending on how I can farm, or whether I can grind or not.

I could not agree more with gear drops from random, normal monsters. People should be ENCOURAGED to grind and farm monsters.

Farmed equipment of course would not become someone's God-mode suit. And as well, there should be enough variety out there to where pvp teams are not based on what kind of equipment someone is wearing.

That person who mentioned on how games should not be based on gear is 550% correct. That can easily break a game in the end. Then again, strategic gear that usually weakens something in exchange for stengthening something is usually not something that will make EVERYONE want to wear it.

However, the whole prospect of grinding is easily defeated. As this game currently stands, XP points rewarded for random encounters and fights is minute, and not worth any fights, especially if something you are trying to farm requires at least 100+ fights until you actually see the drop.

Even with strategic gear or gear "sets," farming them up would become too much of a chore. Now, in the world of Mooshu, of course, ending gear is farmed. Actually, crown gear is replaced by the gear that is farmed. Except, I would assume, by lazy people who had no interest in putting up with extra fighting.

As for crown gear, especially in the world Dragonspyre, should not completely overpower the farmed up gear, which will end up being farmed up much like the gear in Mooshu.

Squire
Dec 02, 2008
543
Shiningfantasia wrote:
I could not agree more with gear drops from random, normal monsters. People should be ENCOURAGED to grind and farm monsters.


How does a game encourage farming? By making it so that farming makes you stronger, and hence more likely to win battles. Taken to its logical conclusion, it is by making pvp a contest of who has the most free time to spend farming.

In order for pvp to be any good, there has to be a hard cap on how strong you can make your character, and you need to be able to reach that cap pretty quickly. Otherwise, you have to spend absurd amounts of time farming gear in order to be competitive in pvp. I realize that a lot of games do that, but that's why a good pvp system is so rare in online games.

Survivor
Dec 12, 2008
12
I dunno...I'm torn on this topic.

On one side, I come from the MMO's like Runescape that are Very heavily based on farming and equipment making or breaking the system. So when i walk away from that and come over to wizard 101 it's a nice little change in atmosphere.

On the other hand, The author of the first post raised a good point in saying that when it all boils down to it, everyone is going to be wearing, more or less, the same armor. Quite personally, i hate seeing that, and i believe that these new "armor boosts" and "bonus cards" would be a nice addition and create alot of diversity among players, Mainly because different players have different stratigies. And while this game is not meant to revolve completely around PvP, Sometimes it's nice to break away from team work to smack a friend in the face :D :D

Hero
Sep 08, 2008
712
No worries, I am not suggesting character strength in PvP to be based on how much you farm. The gear itself provides minute stat boosts that would be of little significance in a PvP battle.

Lets say, much like 2 Storm wizards in PvP. One will wear the Plague Oni robe, and the other would wear the Crown robe.

Both wizards are basically at the same strength, except perhaps, the one wearing the crown robe would have a smidgen more health, and a more powerful spell. (By more powerful, I mean, doing like.. maybe 100 more damage, and that is only one single card.) So, the difference is not drastic.

However, I suppose, If you have one 40 wizard, vs. a 45 wizard who has farmed up all of his/her gear from Mooshu, it might make a difference. But even then, THAT difference there would still not matter that much, especially if that wizard is in a group PvP supported by other wizard friends.

For example, I have spent a few days in PvP, before having resolved to continue to level Myth and Death wizard. I was accompanied by 2 level 20+ wizards, facing a 40+ death, and Ice wizard. It was because of those 2 level 20+ wizards that I was able to defeat the Death wizard, who was about to one-shot me with his Wraith.

What I was saying is that gear farmed up from Mooshu, the "final sets" should be what the "final sets" in Dragonspyre are. While I am sure a new set of crown gear is added, similiar farmed up sets will prove surprisingly similiar in strength.

A Storm wizard in Mooshu gear, will have a +24% (I think it was around there) damage boost to all his damage spells, and a +13% accuracy boost to all Thunder type spells. In dragonspyre, while crown gear might grant a single card of a more powerful spell, and a bit more health, the farmed up gear would even further boost given stats.

I think you might get my idea I am trying to bring accross. In a nutshell, the "strategic gear" being suggested wouldnt be any more powerful than either crown, or farm gear, it should mererly offer "variety" on how you equip your wizard, and should merely be farmed just like the Mooshu gear is now. This would also simply "merely" offer someone an option of grinding and fighting extra mobs. These options that games make available to players increase the games' fun-factor, keeps players busy, and provides players with goals and a possible purpose other than PvP'ing or questing.

Survivor
Dec 18, 2008
23
Quizzical wrote:
Shiningfantasia wrote:
I could not agree more with gear drops from random, normal monsters. People should be ENCOURAGED to grind and farm monsters.


How does a game encourage farming? By making it so that farming makes you stronger, and hence more likely to win battles. Taken to its logical conclusion, it is by making pvp a contest of who has the most free time to spend farming.

In order for pvp to be any good, there has to be a hard cap on how strong you can make your character, and you need to be able to reach that cap pretty quickly. Otherwise, you have to spend absurd amounts of time farming gear in order to be competitive in pvp. I realize that a lot of games do that, but that's why a good pvp system is so rare in online games.


You have a point there. but at the same time dueling is pretty much already dominated by who has had more free time. or atleast untill they have the new PvP system. Whether or not that fixes the problem remains to be seen.

However, surely there are multiple solutions to this, its just a matter of finding out which one works best.

I mean farming doesnt have to be something that last's weeks or hours. But at the same time, thats the only way to buy something in the game right now. (unless you can afford crowns ofcourse)