Raid gear set bonus

[Dreggit]

Is it not obvious that sets with a set bonus would outlive their usefulness as any other gear. I don't think it should be complicated and be getting massive stat boosts at all.

Using the i90 example. That gear should, as at whole set, be no better than i115 imo. If nothing else it just adds another level of accessibility to people and options to those that want them

There's merit in making gear statisticly desirable but the set bonus would make that big of a difference.

For another example. Let's say that we have a full set of i230 gear with a set bonus that is statisticly equivalent to I 245 gear bit slightly better stat wise, or i260 being as good as i275 gear and slightly better.

The bonus shouldn't be so crazy that it would be relevant much later in content

I've seen in some mmos that have a set bonus, give the player some kind of cosmetic particle effect that is somewhat unintuitive but noticeable.

[odintius]

Gear in general is a lack luster although 1.0 had its many flaws the one thing I think it did right in a way was the gear and materia it had then back then. What we have now is a joke I'm no longer excited when they show off the new sets it as basic as you can get in a mmo.

[Urthdigger]

Using the i90 example. That gear should, as at whole set, be no better than i115 imo. If nothing else it just adds another level of accessibility to people and options to those that want them

My comment was mostly in regards to having set bonuses that add bonuses to certain abilities. As was pointed out, this can be a NIGHTMARE to balance properly: Certain bonuses can be so beneficial to a job's role in a party that there's no point in equipping a piece that doesn't do that, no matter how many stats they give. Which is probably why those such abilities were taken out of the game in 2.0. I know if my AF body still give +10% healing magic potency, I'd probably STILL be using it 220 item levels later.

[Emerald_Swords]

This would be so cool.

Much more enticing to actually raid if the gear has something special that most gears don't.

[Shougun]

It is unlikely that raid gear has specific job bonus since they're shared, tho they could have effect on shared skill since they will revamp it in SB for all tank, heal and dps to share skill between them

Its not that infeasible, the item's detail would morph depending on the job that uses it - could have the more detail option when inspecting items to show a more default tooltip. WoW does this with some items where it does something special to each different character that uses it, so they have one item that can mean something unique for multiple jobs. Although in a general sense they just have different groupings of stuff, like effects everyone can benefit from in the group that can use it, and then job specific gear with job specific effects.

Ex:

Gear of Wewh Lawd
+200 Vit
+150 Str
+5 Parry
+195 Acc
+1 <job specific>

So as Paladin when examining the item they would actually see:
+200 Vit
+150 Str
+5 Parry
+195 Acc
+Free oGCD instant Clemency every time you take 25% of your health in a single attack, may not activate more than once every 10 seconds.

While a Dark Knight would see something else, the transforming line can have a special icon or color to tell players that its a transforming slot. Could also do this to stats if for whatever reason SE wanted a different stat build.

Would love to see special stuff on items as a whole, not just raid gear. Would like to see it from level 1 all the way to max level, sets, effects, and all of the above. It's true you have to calculate roughly the advantage the item offers but they're not impossible to balance, although I wouldn't recommend making every item have an effect liberal enough people know they exist but conservative enough that its unlikely every single item you own has its own special effect (excluding set items).

At least I really enjoyed the effects in WoW, getting an item with an effect was always really fun. (There are a lot of effects, some are specific to jobs, others are more open).

Random exs:

Gnawed Thumb Ring, if you use it: Have a nibble, increasing your healing and magic damage by 5% for 12 seconds. (lol wtf?)
Empowered Ring of the Kirin Tor: Use, Teleports caster to Dalaran.
Oakheart's Gnarled Root: Ranged attacks have a chance to deal additional damage over 6 seconds and reduce target movement speed by 30%.
Portable Manacracker: Critical strikes have a chance to apply Volatile Magic, at 6 stacks Volatile Magic is converted into Withering Consumption, dealing arcane damage over 12 seconds.
Emalon's Charged Core: If Crash Lightning hits 3 or more targets, you deal 10% increased damage for 10 seconds.


Of course there are set bonuses, which follow a bit of the above ideas (but within sets). And there are legendaries (iirc Legion made it easier to farm them, in that as you fail your chance to get one goes up slowly - but still quite rare lol). Also imo its awesome to have lore thematic item effects, some of them are pretty big names too. Would be like getting Louis's staff with some void time magic ability on it, pretty epic.

Like:

Roots of Shaladrassil: Standing still causes you to send deep roots into the ground, healing 3% of your max health every 1 sec.
Sephuz's Secret: Gain 10% increased movement speed and 2% Haste. Successfully applying a loss of control effect to an enemy, interrupting an enemy, or dispelling any target increases this effect to 70% increased movement speed and 25% Haste for 10 sec. This increase may occur once every 30 sec.
Prydaz, Xaveric's Magnum Opus: Every 30 sec, gain an absorb shield for 25% of your maximum health for 30 sec.
Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish: Use: Launch a vortex of destruction that seeks your current enemy. When it reaches the target, it explodes, dealing a critical strike to all enemies within 10 yds for (317030 * 200 / 100) Fire damage. (1 Min, 15 Sec Cooldown)
Norgannon's Foresight: Standing still for 6 sec grants you Foresight, allowing you to cast while moving for 4 sec. This duration begins when you start moving.
Mantle of the Master Assassin: While Stealth is active and for 6 sec after breaking Stealth, your Critical Strike chance is increased by 100%.
Cinidaria, the Symbiote: Your attacks cause an additional 30% damage to enemies above 90% health and heal you for 100% of the damage done.
Rethu's Incessant Courage: When an enemy is within 8 yards of you, you heal for 2% of your maximum health every 3 sec. When no enemies are within 8 yards of you, your movement speed is increased by 15%.
Ashbringer: Grants you the Wake of Ashes ability, which deals massive damage to enemies in an area.
Warp Slicer: Chance on hit, Increases your movement speed by 50%, and your melee attack speed by 20% for 30 sec.
Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker: Chance on hit: Blasts your enemy with lightning, dealing 209 Nature damage and then jumping to additional nearby enemies. Each jump reduces that victim's Nature resistance by 17. Affects 5 targets. Your primary target is also consumed by a cyclone, slowing its attack speed by 20% for 12 sec. (Sort of a goof weapon, cause it was ridiculously rare at its time, and so very people were able to use it when it wouldn't be that bad lol).

Of course not forgetting they can be fun too:

Underlight Angler (fishing rod): Grants the Undercurrent ability, allowing you to instantly teleport to the nearest fishing node within 100 yards.
Flexweave Underlay (sort of a materia): Permanently attaches a flexweave underlay to a cloak, allowing you to turn the cloak into a parachute and fall slowly for 30 sec.
Kaldorei Wind Chimes: Hold the chimes up to the wind and check the weather. (1 Min Cooldown)
Explosive Sheep: Summons an Explosive Sheep which will charge at a nearby enemy and explode for 122 to 148 damage. Lasts for 3 min or until it explodes. (1 Min Cooldown)

Although for some of the goofy items it is to note that a number are being translated into the "toy box" a place where you can collect goofy/fun things to play around with like shooting rainbows, planting flowers on the dead, summoning a gifting robot (once a day) that will gift players but fight other robots lol, dancing totem girl that turns others into a fiery dancer on interaction, remote control flying stuff, drinking kegs, group mounts (one of the cash shop mounts lets you let other players have a temporary version of it when you drop a totem down), etc, etc. (I like the group ones like everyone dancing or doing the train sound, but that quickly becomes awful in raid scenario XD). Blood orb makes you a hulk sort of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcwZBujDrQA , big list of goofy items: http://www.wowhead.com/forums&topic=169639.1#p2321442

[Kaethra]

This would be so cool.

Much more enticing to actually raid if the gear has something special that most gears don't.

I agree.

Also I wouldn't be opposed to the idea of raid gear set bonuses being independent of item level. So if a raid item was 260, it'd have the same stats as a scripture bought item, but has a set bonus in addition. That way they only need to balance set bonuses against other set bonuses within the same item level.

Upgrading gear would be easy. They simply would retain the same set bonus while upgrading the other stats.

[Talraen]

From a game design standpoint, what's the advantage of having set bonuses? This is a vertical progression game. (If you want that to change, fine, but that's what it is right now so that's the context I'm speaking in.) If you have a set bonus that's better than the next set of gear, it defeats vertical progression; if it isn't, it's a pretty irrelevant bonus. Perhaps every set would have to have bonuses, but all that really does is make it harder to mix and match gear. I've always felt set bonuses just limit gear creativity, not add to it. I mean, look back to sub-50 gear that took up the head and body slots. Even that was frustrating because it forces you to use multiple slots even if there's something in one of those slots you'd rather use.

In short, set bonuses in a vertical progression game limit the number of respectable gear combinations, and I don't see why that's a good thing.

[Ririta]

More evidence on why raiding was the biggest mistake of the genre.

[xbahax92]

Ex:

Gear of Wewh Lawd
+200 Vit
+150 Str
+5 Parry
+195 Acc
+1 <job specific>

So as Paladin when examining the item they would actually see:
+200 Vit
+150 Str
+5 Parry
+195 Acc

I do agree this sort of thing could work, but I also want to mention there could be other stats also such as HP/MP-Reg %+, [Blunt, Slash, Piercing] %+, Effects from Tactics such as MP-Turbo (doubles MP cost, but only 1 cast needed + 50% damage increase)

[ErikMynhier]

I love set bonus just because it does add the slightest bit of choice.

BiS vs Set bonuse. If balanced it would be a good way to bring up crafted or dungeon gear. All pieces equally good on bare stats, but give raid gear set bonuses.