On Max’s stream today he interviewed Morgan Day where it was revealed that there will be a reduction in required crests that is required to upgrade gear on alts. I want to preface this with a statement that this is a great step forward and I want to encourage it, however, I think the value of 30% should be reconsidered.
In DF, myth track gear has 4 upgrade tiers unless it’s “very rare” loot. In TWW, there are 6 upgrade tiers. We’re already agreeing that DF alt gearing is too cumbersome with the amount of crests we need to farm, hence the change to add a catch up mechanic. To talk round numbers for the sake of comparison between DF and TWW:
- DF Great vault rewards are 2/4 myth track requiring 15 crests per upgrade tier
- 15 gear slots if you use a 2-handed weapon, 2 of which will likely be crafted so I’m ignoring those. So in total, we should factor 13 gear slots.
- 13 gear slots @ 2 tiers to upgrade @ 15 crests each = 390 crests to upgrade everything
- TWW Great vault rewards are 1/6 myth track requiring 15 crests per upgrade tier.
- We assume the same 13 gear slots
- 13 gear slots * 5 tiers to upgrade @ 15 crests each - 30%= 682-683 crests to upgrade (depending on rounding)
In summation, with only a 30% decrease to alts gear for crests, you will still be required to get almost double the crests required to gear out your character in DF, which has already been identified as an issue.
I believe the intent was to make it so that gearing alts was 30% less than the current requirements of DF. If that’s the intent, then the alt catch up would need to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 70-75% in TWW. This is what I believe should be done in lieu of the 30%. The alternative would be that you gain an increase in crest acquisition so that instead of getting X amount of crests from all sources you get X+Y%.
If neither is done, and the 30% value that was mentioned is left in play, I fear there will be far fewer alts played than DF and there will be gearing fatigue amongst all players where you spend so much time gearing that you don’t actually get to enjoy your character when you’re done gearing, or the alternative where you spend the first few weeks/months where crests are capped using an alt to gear up first before you use crests on your main so that your main gets the reduced requirements.
As mentioned previously, this is an all around good thing, I think it just needs to cook a little bit more.