Item upgrade boost (?)

General Discussion
1

Most low level unique items are beyond useless once you hit a certain level. I have a suggestion to increase item usability and longevity, allowing for more flexibility for players with their gear, and I don’t think it would be that difficult to implement overall.

I think the rules I put in here kinda maintain some semblance of balance considering things like skills and global stats like IAS,FCR,FHR,MF,GF.

Thoughts?

Basic Fundamentals:
Normal to Elite stats effectively triple on unique and rare items
Increased Attack Speed, Faster Hit Recovery, Faster Cast Rate, Magic Find, Gold Find Skills*, Deadly Strike, Crushing Blow, Open Wounds, Increased Chance of Blocking, +max resist* and select stats of similar ilk are omitted from this tripling due to obvious balance concerns with a caveat.
Stats like enhanced damage, enhanced defense, are actually a base premise for this idea to further improve upgraded items from normal to elite.

If a stat that can be tripled and be above 70%, it is omitted.
If an attribute stat can be tripled and be above 60, it is omitted.
Bloodfist gloves for example: faster hit recovery is 30%, but tripled would be 90%, which would make it BiS for some builds with 30% increased attack speed, so FHR would not be allowed to increase with upgrades. Attack speed would gain a range increase from just 10% IAS to 10-20% IAS.
Frostburns would have 15% enhanced damage, 3-18 cold damage duration 2 seconds, and maintain 40% max mana as a triple would mean 120% max mana.
Dimoak's Hew would go fro 100% Enhance damage to a range of 100-300% with 15-45 dex and -8-24 defense, and IAS of 60.

*+Skills for normal items would be omitted by default, since as exceptional items after an upgrade they could potentially double again.
*+Max Resists are omitted if tripled they are higher than +15%

+Defense, +Life (not %), +Resist and similar skills that are < 30 double from normal to exceptional, exceptional to elite.

A normal and exceptional Arm of King Leoric example:
+2 To Terror (Necromancer Only)
+2 To Raise Skeletal Mage (Necromancer Only)
+3 To Skeleton Mastery (Necromancer Only)
+3 To Raise Skeleton (Necromancer Only)
+2 To Summoning Skills (Necromancer Only)
+2 To Poison And Bone Skills (Necromancer Only)

Upgraded to an exceptional this would stay the same, but an elite could look like this:
+2-4 To Terror (Necromancer Only)
+2-4 To Raise Skeletal Mage (Necromancer Only)
+3-6 To Skeleton Mastery (Necromancer Only)
+3-6 To Raise Skeleton (Necromancer Only)
+2-4 To Summoning Skills (Necromancer Only)
+2-4 To Poison And Bone Skills (Necromancer Only)

The trigger for a skill double would be "exceptional conversion to elite"
Most class specific uniques are already exceptional items or better

Examples:
Biggin’s Bonnet
Defense: 17-19 (varies)(Base Defense: 3-5)
Required Level: 3
Durability: 12
+30% Enhanced Damage
+14 Defense
+30 To Attack Rating
+15 To Mana
+15 To Life
(Spawns In Any Patch)

Apply:
1x Normal Unique Armor + 1 Tal rune + 1 Shael rune + 1x Perfect Diamond

Base item changes from Cap to War Hat
Defense: 59-81 (varies)(Base Defense: 45-53)
Required Level: 22
Durability: 12
+30%-60% Enhanced Damage
+14-28 Defense
+30-60 To Attack Rating
+15-30 To Mana
+15-30 To Life
+chance for all res or single sockets(?)

Now, this isn’t what you would call “insanely good” but it opens up some possibilities for some builds as a potential BiS because of the enhanced damage.

Convert from Exceptional to Elite:
1x Exceptional Unique Armor + 1 Ko rune + 1 Lem rune + 1x Perfect Diamond
Same general premise, except for the increase is 4/3 over normal for max roll instead of double. (3/6/9 format)

Base item changes from War Hat to Shako
Defense: 112-183 (varies)(Base Defense: 98-141)
Required Level: 43
Durability: 12
+30%-90% Enhanced Damage
+14-42 Defense
+30-90 To Attack Rating
+15-45 To Mana
+15-45 To Life
+chance for all res or max sockets(?)

With the jump to elite, this “low level trash” now has the potential capacity with even one socket (which would likely be from the socket quest anyway) to be a max of 130% enhanced damage from a helm, which would compliment a fortitude armor well for instance.

A normal Swordback Hold:
Defense: 43-51 (varies)(Base Defense: 15-25)
Required Level: 15
Required Strength: 30
Durability: 40
Chance to Block: Pal: 60%, Ama/Asn/Bar: 55%, Dru/Nec/Sor: 50%
Paladin Smite Damage: 5 To 9
+30-60% Enhance Defense (varies)
+10 Defense
20% Increased Chance of Blocking
50% Chance of Open Wounds*
Attacker Takes Damage of 10

An exeptional Swordback Hold:
Defense: 113-191 (varies)(Base Defense: 58-78)
Durability: 40
Paladin Smite Damage: 18 To 35
+60-120% Enhance Defense (varies)
+10-20 Defense
20-40% Increased Chance of Blocking
50% Chance of Open Wounds* [omitted from growth]
Attacker Takes Damage of 10-20

An Elite Swordback Hold:
Defense: 279-456 (varies)(Base Defense: 147-163)
Durability: 40
Paladin Smite Damage: 26 To 40
+90-180% Enhance Defense (varies)
+10-30 Defense
20-60% Increased Chance of Blocking
50% Chance of Open Wounds* [omitted from growth]
Attacker Takes Damage of 10-30

Is this “AMAZING FANTASTIC?!”

Nah. But—it can improve the lifetime of even low level

Rattlecage Normal
+200 Defense
25% Chance of Crushing Blow
Hit Causes Monster To Flee 40%
+45 To Attack Rating
Rattlecage Exceptional
+200-400 Defense
+45-90 AR
Rattlecage Elite
+200-600 Defense
+45-135 AR

Heavenly Garb Normal
+100% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana 25%
All Resistances +10
+15 To Energy
+50% Damage To Undead
+100 To Attack Rating Against Undead
Heavenly Garb Exceptional
+100-200% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana 25%
All Resistances +10-20
+15-30 To Energy
+50%-100% Damage To Undead
+100-200 To Attack Rating Against Undead
Heavenly Garb Elite
+100%-300% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana 25%
All Resistances +10-30
+15-45 To Energy
+50%-150% Damage To Undead
+100-300 To Attack Rating Against Undead

3 Likes
2

I think someone else suggested something similar somewhere already.

3

There is already someone that has been doing an item a day pretty much in the same format. While the idea itself is…ok, and the sentiment is mutual that some unique and set items could use a balance pass, I’m not a big fan of that whole upgrade = more stats shenanigans. Not all items need to be good, and the whole thing is just…messy, adding new stats with upgrades. Could you have imagined the organizational nightmare this would have been on the Arreat Summit?

2 Likes
4

That’s why I put in the limits, otherwise yes. It gets stupid messy fast, particularly with skills. I think Arreat Summit could be resolved with a scroll bar that shows normal except elite left to right.

5

It’s still too messy, hundreds of items that most still will not be used, and ignores improving anything for Classic D2R due to no runes to use for ugrades, as well as no elite items, and if you changed the recipes to include Classic, since Classic has no unique Exceptional items, you could throw the balance all out of whack.

2 Likes
6

We have the ability to upgrade the item base. Beyond that, low level items are meant to be stepping stones to better items later on.

4 Likes
7

Right, and many of these items are there in LoD, because they were there in Classic, where they had more use. If the devs decide to do a balance pass on uniques, I would prefer that they look at under-utilized ones that are in Classic (the normal uniques), and then the Elite and Class Specific Uniques for LoD. The Exceptional basic uniques are in a good spot, outside of maybe anything that utilizes charges or old, unsynergized skills.

It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to up the drop rate of the normal uniques and sets in Normal difficulty, so folks have better chances of finding them when they are useful, but not necessary.

1 Like
8

I’ve thought this for a while. I mean, by the time you complete any low level set, you’re already at least level 60+ anyway. Yeah sure you can use it on another character, but that just compounds the stash space problem.

I’m actually using Cathans on my level 13 barbarian right now. He bash spanked Andy. :stuck_out_tongue:
If I need to spam howl/bash, I’ll just switch to the staff, otherwise I have a rare morning star+shield for higher damage. (going mace mastery)

2 Likes
9

Yeah, I was originally against this due to really most people not spending enough time in normal for the most part, but have thought better of the idea now.

10

It’s also hard to really have an unbiased opinion on the early game, and how useful things can be, since we’re familiar with the itemization and know what to look for. It’ll be interesting, since I just got someone else I work with into the game, downloading it now. He started with Immortal and enjoyed playing it casually and just picked up a PC. Dunno if I want to drip him hints, or let him sink or swim for awhile once it finishes downloading, muaahahahaha!

1 Like
11

Eh, IMO the best thing he could do starting out would be to play through normal solo for the story line.

1 Like
12

I had thought about creating a Summon Druid (with my last character slot Blizz, c’mon, patch 2.5 “and then we doubled it!” ) and starting with him tonight, but I’ll probably be in bed by the time it finishes downloading.

13

Weee, just bashspanked Radament with Cathans. Surrounded by howl feared skellies. :smiley:

2 Likes
14

Yeah. I find more normal level items in hell than I ever did in normal, which is aggravating to say the least.

Nokozan Relic from Hell Baal. WOOOOooooo! Totally needed another one ah doze rite?

But that’s the source of my idea. Put a way in the game to make better use of the level junk.

15

A for effort.
Heart for A.

:+1: