Design challenge - New items

Fun little design challenge for anyone who feels like it - you've been picked to design new ladder-only items for the next ladder season (which will be rolled out to non-ladder in future). You've been asked for the following new things:

* One endgame best-in-slot option for an underused or underpowered build.
* One strong option for lower-level play (anywhere up to mid-NM), but without obsoleting too many other items.
* One quirky/fun option that does something we haven't seen before, for mid-level or mid-high-level play (anywhere from early NM onwards, but not endgame).

Out of those three goals, one should be done with a new unique, one with a new runeword, and one with a new set, but you can pick which is which. They should all be usable, but not game-breaking.

Have fun!

Alsadius wrote: 2 weeks ago

Fun little design challenge for anyone who feels like it - you've been picked to design new ladder-only items for the next ladder season (which will be rolled out to non-ladder in future). You've been asked for the following new things:

* One endgame best-in-slot option for an underused or underpowered build.

(not specifying every affix or mod)

A Necro offhand that allows you to have all 4 Golems active at the same time and gives +2 to all Necro skills, +2 to Summoning and +6 to all Golem skills.

A Barbarian

Helm that gives

Bash,

Stun and

Concentrate area of effect damage and effects, that increases with skill level. Think about it, being able to hit a dozen or more monsters with a

Bash or

Stun... Would make the skills drastically more useful, area effect is the weak point of melee barbs(except

Whirlwind).

A Druid pelt that adds 20% fire and 20% lightning damage to all Wind skills. Wind druids are fine, but they lack an Edge that this would give them.

Assassin

Boots that have a high chance to cast Amp damage and reduces target fire resistance by maybe 30-50. (

Dragon Tail builds would be lots more fun against higher enemies...)

A Paladin 2-hand weapon that gives +3 Paladin skills, +3 Paladin combat skills and +6 to

Vengeance, +300% ED, an extra +100 minimum damage and +200-300 each Fire, Lightning and Cold damage.(

Vengeance AND

Charge weapon) Think an

Earth Shifter with 232 as lowest damage, plus a big chunk of elemental damage

Alsadius wrote: 2 weeks ago

* One strong option for lower-level play (anywhere up to mid-NM), but without obsoleting too many other items.

Take all the lowlevel old Sets, give them a 1/3 chance, that if they have 3 or less modifiers, they drop with a completely random additional one, that does not have to be limited to what can normally spawn on the item type in question, and is only level restricted based on where it is found.
This would make literally almost every old "weak sets" viable the moment you find all parts with something good as their extra random affix.

Alsadius wrote: 2 weeks ago

* One quirky/fun option that does something we haven't seen before, for mid-level or mid-high-level play (anywhere from early NM onwards, but not endgame).

A bow runeword that fires

Freezing Arrow at a high skill level, 15+. With +cold damage added somewhere in the 50-300 range. Basically a cold counterpart to the

Kuko Shakaku.
Could be used as endgame, but wouldn't be great at it unless you stack a lot of cold damage from other sources.

* One endgame best-in-slot option for an underused or underpowered build.

We could use an endgame unique

Guardian Crown, with 3-4 warcries, -%req, and +1

Warmth oskill. This lets you run reapers on your merc if you have otherwise top-tier gear and a big enough mana pool--which is a big boost to the endgame singer build, but not broken

* One strong option for lower-level play (anywhere up to mid-NM), but without obsoleting too many other items.

It would be nice to have a mana recovery-focused ring and amulet set for low level characters. It should give +1 all skills and modest amounts of mana, mana regen, and mana per kill, but be pretty weak otherwise. It's mostly a qol set for power leveling a new character, but +1 skill is also decently strong until you can run Insight and soj

* One quirky/fun option that does something we haven't seen before, for mid-level or mid-high-level play (anywhere from early NM onwards, but not endgame).

There is still a major gap between Honor and Oath for melee builds. This could be filled with a runeword with something like 200 ED, good ias, -%def, a little crushing blow, and most importantly, self-repair. It should give +1 weapon range. It should cost

Fal and fit into 3 sockets, but only in hammers and clubs

Let's answer my own challenge. I'm not sure these are actually balanced right, but I did try to keep them looking fairly reasonable.

===

Endgame BiS: Unique weapon for summoners, especially necromancers
Bonestalker (Unique

Lich Wand), level 66 required

• Summoning skills do not consume corpses
• +[3-4] to summoning skills
• +3
  Summon Resist
• +[10-20]% faster cast rate
• +[30-50]% magic find
• +(2 per character level) 2-198 life
• +(2 per character level) 2-198 mana

Only the first point is necro-specific, the rest benefits all summon skills (the necro and druid trees,

Decoy,

Valkyrie,

Shadow Warrior, and

Shadow Master, plus any I may have forgotten). Still, I think that makes this a mostly-necro item. I figure skeletons and Revives fall off partially because of stats, but partially because a lot of the toughest fights happen in places where you can't easily keep your army at full strength. (And getting 20+ revives off a single good corpse can probably be really strong at times too.)

===

Quirky midgame: Set that grants and boosts passive skills
Caesar's Balance, level 40 required for all pieces
Partial set bonuses:

• +3 to the level of all active auras (2 items equipped)

Set bonuses:

• +3 to passive skills
• +20 Energy
• +20% faster run/walk
• +50% magic find

Note: "Passive skills" here means anything that has an effect even if it's not one of your mouse button skills, like masteries. It does not include auras, not even the passive effects of auras like

Blessed Aim. "Active auras" means all auras that are currently giving benefits, both ones from equipment and any that a Paladin might be using themselves.

Item 1: Dextra (Set Ring)

• Level 1
  Blessed Aim aura active when equipped
• +20 Dexterity
• +[5-10]% increased attack speed
• Prevent monster heal
• +1 to
  Critical Strike (2 items equipped)

Item 2: Sinistra (Set Ring)

• Level 1
  Defiance aura active when equipped
• +20 Strength
• +[5-10]% faster hit recovery
• +[10-20]% resist all
• +1 to
  Evade (2 items equipped)

Item 3: Medius (Set Grand Charm)

• Level 1
  Cleansing aura active when equipped
• +20 Vitality
• +1 to
  Natural Resistance (2 items equipped)

A whole bunch of random utility skills and stats, to make up for the lack of the usual sorts of things that headline a set - I know passive skills tend to be fairly weak, so I made the numbers higher than they might otherwise be. The "quirky" part here is the choice of items, with there only being two set rings total in the whole game right now, and of course no set charms.

The names are Latin for right, left, and centre, respectively. I couldn't find anything that seemed both balanced and sinister (in the English sense), for Sinistra, so I figured the right hand is the attacking one, and the left hand is the shielding one.
===

Early-game levelling item: Runeword with +XP
Apprentice (

Helm, 'TalTirThul'), level 23 required

• All resistances +30%
• +[3-7]% to experience gained
• Poison length reduced by 50%
• +[2-4] Mana After Each Kill
• Cannot be frozen

Fairly basic stuff, I just want a +XP option that doesn't block out other gear - the natural competitor here is Lore, which is 2 sockets, so I went with 3 here. Other than the XP boost, not a lot going on - two of the resists come from the runes themselves, not the word, but for those two I also gave the side bonuses to poison length and freeze, so the runes still "show up" as stronger effects.

Thanks for sharing! Those are interesting.

But I'm not sure if this would really only be for "lower-level play (anywhere up to mid-NM)":

Alsadius wrote: 1 week ago

Early-game levelling item: Runeword with +XP
Apprentice (

Helm, 'TalTirThul'), level 23 required

• All resistances +30%
• +[3-7]% to experience gained
• Poison length reduced by 50%
• +[2-4] Mana After Each Kill
• Cannot be frozen

Fairly basic stuff, I just want a +XP option that doesn't block out other gear - the natural competitor here is Lore, which is 2 sockets, so I went with 3 here. Other than the XP boost, not a lot going on - two of the resists come from the runes themselves, not the word, but for those two I also gave the side bonuses to poison length and freeze, so the runes still "show up" as stronger effects.

My offline level 97 cold sorc would wear that instead of her

Shako or

Nightwing's Veil during a variety of P8 TZ exp runs.

She has a +9% exp

Annihilus and an

Ondal's Wisdom (+5% exp).

It would be quick and easy to roll a perfect helmet, giving her a total +21% exp gained. And the res, cbf, etc., are all very welcome additions.

gensymmed wrote: 1 week ago

Thanks for sharing! Those are interesting.

But I'm not sure if this would really only be for "lower-level play (anywhere up to mid-NM)":

My offline level 97 cold sorc would wear that instead of her

Shako or

Nightwing's Veil during a variety of P8 TZ exp runs.

She has a +9% exp

Annihilus and an

Ondal's Wisdom (+5% exp).

It would be quick and easy to roll a perfect helmet, giving her a total +21% exp gained. And the res, cbf, etc., are all very welcome additions.

There's a level where you get so OP that you don't need to optimize for power and can just optimize for side stats. And yeah, it'd see use there, for sure. But it's still vastly weaker than a

Shako, even if it'd have niche use late-game. No level 99 would be caught dead in it.

But I do take your point - it might be more impactful than I'd planned on.

FULCRUM75 wrote: 2 weeks ago

Alsadius wrote: 2 weeks ago

Fun little design challenge for anyone who feels like it - you've been picked to design new ladder-only items for the next ladder season (which will be rolled out to non-ladder in future). You've been asked for the following new things:

* One endgame best-in-slot option for an underused or underpowered build.

(not specifying every affix or mod)

A Necro offhand that allows you to have all 4 Golems active at the same time and gives +2 to all Necro skills, +2 to Summoning and +6 to all Golem skills.

A Barbarian

Helm that gives

Bash,

Stun and

Concentrate area of effect damage and effects, that increases with skill level. Think about it, being able to hit a dozen or more monsters with a

Bash or

Stun... Would make the skills drastically more useful, area effect is the weak point of melee barbs(except

Whirlwind).

A Druid pelt that adds 20% fire and 20% lightning damage to all Wind skills. Wind druids are fine, but they lack an Edge that this would give them.

Assassin

Boots that have a high chance to cast Amp damage and reduces target fire resistance by maybe 30-50. (

Dragon Tail builds would be lots more fun against higher enemies...)

A Paladin 2-hand weapon that gives +3 Paladin skills, +3 Paladin combat skills and +6 to

Vengeance, +300% ED, an extra +100 minimum damage and +200-300 each Fire, Lightning and Cold damage.(

Vengeance AND

Charge weapon) Think an

Earth Shifter with 232 as lowest damage, plus a big chunk of elemental damage

Alsadius wrote: 2 weeks ago

* One strong option for lower-level play (anywhere up to mid-NM), but without obsoleting too many other items.

Take all the lowlevel old Sets, give them a 1/3 chance, that if they have 3 or less modifiers, they drop with a completely random additional one, that does not have to be limited to what can normally spawn on the item type in question, and is only level restricted based on where it is found.
This would make literally almost every old "weak sets" viable the moment you find all parts with something good as their extra random affix.

Alsadius wrote: 2 weeks ago

* One quirky/fun option that does something we haven't seen before, for mid-level or mid-high-level play (anywhere from early NM onwards, but not endgame).

A bow runeword that fires

Freezing Arrow at a high skill level, 15+. With +cold damage added somewhere in the 50-300 range. Basically a cold counterpart to the

Kuko Shakaku.
Could be used as endgame, but wouldn't be great at it unless you stack a lot of cold damage from other sources.

Love the concept of making summoning more interesting for necros. Another alternative to having all 4 golems active would be to make

Revive minions permanent until killed or maybe double their duration. Cut down on Urdar hunting…

I don't have another full answer here, but this concept has been bouncing around my mind for days, so what the heck, posting it too.

Early-game levelling item: "Baby Enigma" unique

Boots.
Frogfoot (

Boots), level 11 required

• +1 to
  Leap
• +(1 per character level) 1-99 defense
• 5% damage taken goes to mana

Leap is obviously far less powerful than

Teleport, and these have far fewer good side stats. But for lower-level characters, or offline players who would never have a chance to play with Enigma, I can see them being a very interesting option. Even if you don't use them all the time, in places like the Maggot Lair, some players would kill for this.

Alsadius wrote: 6 days ago

I don't have another full answer here, but this concept has been bouncing around my mind for days, so what the heck, posting it too.

Early-game levelling item: "Baby Enigma" unique

Boots.
Frogfoot (

Boots), level 11 required

• +1 to
  Leap
• +(1 per character level) 1-99 defense
• 5% damage taken goes to mana

Leap is obviously far less powerful than

Teleport, and these have far fewer good side stats. But for lower-level characters, or offline players who would never have a chance to play with Enigma, I can see them being a very interesting option. Even if you don't use them all the time, in places like the Maggot Lair, some players would kill for this.

Great idea, lets stretch the concept a bit?

Give it +0.5 Str/lvl(need lots of strength in those legs for those leaps you know!) and some poison damage(poisonous frogs), and possibly a bit of cold and/or poison resist and you have a pair of solidly useful

Boots. And since it relies on 2 scaling bonuses, they wont be useless at higher levels, just not very good, nor will they be too good at low level.

The Str bonus means they will always be a potential option to get around Str requirements for endgame gear, giving them a niche value there as well.

Teebling wrote: 2 weeks ago

From forums/create-your-own-unique-items-t545891.html

image.png

Its a amusing and sad attribute to put such a huge level spell upon the Death of a hardcore. But the rest of the stats are genuinely just good, not broken, just a good boost.

If this existed, I would definitely wear if I wasn't to chicken to play Hardcore.

My take on this would be a piece of body armor. I don't know if this counts, but I feel like this would help most of the builds that don't get the attention the need while also not taking away from things like Enigma's presence for those who still want that.


Unique Arcon Plate:

Name:

Akara's Blessing

+2-3 Skills
+%200-%300 Enhanced Defense
+%35-50 FCR
Level 10-15

Vigor Aurora
+30-45 All Res
1-2 Sockets
Can Not Be Frozen



Everyone loves Enigma. But one of my favorite classes to play is the

Frenzy Barbarian. I love zooming around the map more than teleporting

The sockets and variants make it usable in a multitude of different ways. The variety makes it so you don't always get the best one, but like Viper Magi, even a low level one is way better than none at all.

It also makes chancing a perfect one an amazing find for those who want the best of the best, have some great trade value.

Also from the trade perspective, there isn't yet a Unique

Archon Plate yet so it would have value as an unidentified unique as well.

I added the can not be frozen partly from a flavor standpoint, but also because I feel like end game armor should really have it.