Wheel of Time MUD

Probably a bit too close to a balance discussion. But since ABS uniques/rares change hand so much more often, is there any chance the slightly sub-par ones can be made somewhat better? And perhaps the rares too?

Mauls - OB way too low. Yeah they have wrecking damage and bash, but the balance of the OB loss makes them a bit sucky in my view, especially for a troll. When you compare that to the huge number of herons, shocklances, wicked axes, OCG's etc... that add defence and thus survivability on top of their massive offence, it's a bit out of whack.

Blue Scourge - a bit of everything, but not good at anything. Sure it multihits, but see the list of above rares, and then factor in uniques like Lamans, K-sword, Justice etc.. it doesn't bash well enough, doesn't have high enough ob, doesn't do enough damage. It's a tough one because of warders, but as long as it's got no defence, I think it should still be fine?

Blight Killer - is worse than a bronze axe. Throw in some extra damage maybe?

Cleaver of hundredfold - actually maybe not that bad from what I remember?

Tainted mauls - don't exist anymore as actual items that get played?

Basically there are a huge number of rares and uniques for combo/defence players. Because they add survivability they tend to wash up in hands that keep them for a long period of time. Aside from that there are loads and loads of these rares in game because they tend to be the default load for a nice quest perk/super hard smob. Even if you just up the ABS rares/uniques that are sub-par at the moment, they're still only going to moderately increase people's chances of surviving with them by increasing their offensive power.

Discuss. But try and avoid balance. Make it a casual, anecdotal, conversational style thing. Shutup.

I feel this is a great idea. The more people playing abs the better. I believe most of the weapons are based off the highest common denominator however. So if the weapon will make a warder or fade OP (more then they already are) They tend to not quite get the upping they need. More abs rares/uniques weapons in play would be great.

Agree 100%.

Would love seeing more abs weaponry.

Suggestion, add on % no-rent abs weapons on Random LS/DS patty leaders for trial.

Seconded and thirded.

fourthed and fifthed.

and also, up sword of flame!

I agree, to an extent. I'll bring this upstairs soon and see where it goes, but feel free to continue discussing.

As an aside, I think its important to remember that not all uniques are intended to be amazing, powerful weapons. Also, blight killer is really just someones old master/r8 weapon that someone released as a unique on accident :p

Yeah I agree with the whole 'not all uniques should be super awesome' statement. The problem is, the percentage of uniques versus setup that applies to.

So maybe as many as 50% of ABS uniques are not better than a standard alternative. Some to my eyes seem to be worse. *edit* - it's even worse for pukes, because they can't use Malf.

With defence uniques, which are inherently more powerful gamechangers because they also add defence, how many are sub-par to standard weapons? I'm actually struggling to think of one that I've used.

That's all even aside from the deal with rares. Mauls are the only rare for ABS. They're not great. Just having cool upgrades to aim for would be awesome. You're gonna lose them because you're abs for the most part anyway!

Thanks for swift feedback and taking this up Elodin.

I guess I don't understand what uniques are supposed to be because for how much they cost to rent, or being no rent, a lot of them sure do suck. I guess I've always assumed they were supposed to be good so I'll ask what's the point of a unique if it isn't good?!

lots of people just like cool one off things that don't need to be retooled everytime you log on.
I agree with the above posts regarding the frequent nature of abs weaps changing hands but you don't need to use these uniques and can pass them to someone who maybe is new or someone who doesn't care if they suck but will play it for pimp factor anyway.

A brief thought while we're on abs - shinings got upped awhile back, but coat of ebon plates and the "silver breastplate" that used to be shining equivalent weren't brought up in line. Would be nice to see them brought in line as there's currently no reason to wear them when shinings are significantly more common/available than both.