And the crazy part is the normal runs seem to be dropping the best loot.

Eladiun wrote on Jul 12^th, 2012 at 9:46am:


There's a trick to getting it not to bug that a guildie figured out that I don't really know well enough to explain.  Either that or we just got lucky.

But normal had 3 named items and 1 Commendation (mine!) drop in 6 chests.  Cost maybe 2 SP pots and took about an hour. 

The race for the first elite completion has already been won by RG so no point in chasing that, just grind out the easy loot until the  . . . oh never mind, forgot about fight-club.

Carpone wrote on Jul 12^th, 2012 at 10:27am:


That's the problem when the antagonist is a god.  We simple would never beat a god so you have to cheat like that in the story telling.  I'm sure we will all forget about this shit raid and it's shit loot in 3 months it will be the Titan of Forgotten Realms. 

I'm actually happy most of the loot is shit.  It makes it easier to jump over it.

Not defending, but if you look at the two campaign settings we now have in DDO, there's more lore with FR than with Ebberron.  That's how I justify it to myself, at least.  With Eberron being "new", the players got the chance to be the heros because there are/were none.  With FR and it's years/decades of lore, the heros are already established for the most part, so you get to be one of the side people helping out those heros.

Is it dumb and lame? Yes.  But, in the grand scheme of things, where do you go, storywise, after defeating a god?  This way, there's still more things to achieve.

Again, not saying I like it, but that's how I rationalize it.  I may be giving Turbine too much credit...

Bigjunk wrote on Jul 12^th, 2012 at 10:53am:

I don't understand the mental thought process of adding Greater Dragon Bane raid loot with the content we have today.  Maybe the GxB is randomly generated?

And please, it's not like Velah is hard.  VON6 is a fucking joke of a raid, even on EE.

Bigjunk wrote on Jul 12^th, 2012 at 10:53am:


Some of the items are just plain junk...

The Bow - archers don't have any good epic weapons and the give them this POS.
The Q-Staff - just what an acrobat really needs FoM and Featherfall.
The Longsword - Calomel Scimitar is virtually Identical.
The Wizzy staff - Decent upgrade over Alarphon's Staff for a nuking staff
The Bastard Sword - Awful not that anyone cares
Dagger, SS, Warhammer - who cares

No Repeater, No HW, No Khopesh, No DA...most people will never use the set bonus.

If just shows that Feather has no idea how to create decent items and how classes and build even work.

Carpone wrote on Jul 12^th, 2012 at 11:13am:


I would not be shocked if that GB was random . ..  and Greater Dragon Bane on a Freezing Ice weapon is really retarded.

All three of my melees already have Eberon Red Scale armor so I'm trying to rationalize running this for commendations and it's not working.

Smrti wrote on Jul 12^th, 2012 at 11:25am:

http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p=4581164&postcount=10

Belwaar wrote on Jul 12^th, 2012 at 10:52am:


I think you give more credit than is due...  Here's all it would have taken to keep the players in the spotlight without making them single-handed god-killers that would tie the hands of future plot writers:

1.  Ana bestows upon the PCs the essence of the thread, which allows the PCs' mere mortal weapons to harm the all-powerful deity, Lolth. 

2.  PCs use the essence of the thread to beat the shit out of Lolth.

Eladiun wrote on Jul 12^th, 2012 at 11:17am:


I'll be honest here... my main uses Warhammers, and I'm glad to see that Turbine has spent some time addressing some of the "off" weapons that cookie-cutter builds don't use.  I think the real problem is that the only raid gear is weapons, and people are generally specialized for only one weapon.  For a raid that only drops weapons it means that, unless Turbine has a named version of every weapon in the raid, someone will be unhappy.  Why should it be a different weapon that gets the shaft, instead of khopesh or handwrap users? 

I think there should generally be a top-tier version of every weapon in the game (but see below).  Turbine's hands are tied, though, because they only have one top-tier raid.  I see only three solutions:

1. The raid should drop a named version of every weapon.
2. There should be multiple top-tier raids/quests, the sum of which drop a named version of every weapon.
3. The raid drops ingredients/collectibles that can be converted into a named version of any weapon.

I admit that the plethora of different weapons in DDO makes this more challenging than in other games.  Relaxing some of the weapon-specific abilities would help a little in that Turbine could then focus on weapon styles, instead of specific weapons.  I'm thinking of Weapon Specialization, Kensai weapon mastery, etc, compared to Improved Critical: Pierce. 

Furthermore, why is it that the only raid loot in the expansion is weapons?  Raids have wider appeal if they have a wider variety of loot.  Even if they didn't include khopesh or handwraps, a couple of fancy boots and hats would ensure that those people would still be interested.  In fact, I don't think it's a huge problem if khopesh users have to "suffer" with only their alchemicals for a time while other weapon users enjoy a bit of the spotlight, as long as those whose weapon choices aren't feature have some other target to pursue (such as other raid gear).  The nature of an MMO is that it shifts, and even if your particular build isn't featured at the moment, its time will come around again.

Northwind wrote on Jul 12^th, 2012 at 1:43pm:


It has a nice crit range for a staff, too.

Schmoe wrote on Jul 12^th, 2012 at 1:34pm:


Agreed.  I don't think it's bad that the raid offers some alternative weapon choices to the most popular.  However, i would contend that they have avoided creating named variants of the most popular weapon types like the plague.  My criticism of the weapons is more to your point here.  Motivating people to actually run the raid when they have little to gain from it will kill the raid before it starts.  Once beaten for favor and a couple comms many classes and builds will never run it again.  A raid without a universal appeal becomes the Titan or the Abbot and is a waste of development effort.  I guess the chance of a +5 on EE but at the current cost of 100's of pots it hardly seems worth it. 

It must drop a weapon of each type if the set bonus requires wielding a weapon to complete.  All you accomplish by not doing so is pissing people off.   Which is the whole trinket weapon set bonus is a ridiculous design as weapons should be varied by situation and enemy.

Northwind wrote on Jul 12^th, 2012 at 1:43pm:


Of course, but that is more of a case of a starving man taking food where he finds it.