Van's Sigma 3 ideas and thoughts on game design

[Vanarchy]

Greetings, boys and girls. Stay awhile and listen

I wish Median and its community the very best, I love this mod - been playing it since 2009 or so, and with Sigma 3 on the horizon I've decided to finally make this thread. The main goal of it is to list some (arguably stupid and/or crazy) ideas that I had over the years, some concepts, some redesign propositions and so forth. Needless to say, by definition, I am subjective and biased about things - just like everyone else. Feel free to leave feedback and constructive criticism.

My main stances on game design

» The more variety to builds there is in the game, the better
» The more customization possibilities of your character there is in the game, the better
» Sometimes it's true that "less is more", but only sometimes
» If an item has seen near-zero use in over a year, it should be buffed / reworked / removed to make space for something better & more interesting. Same for skills and character skill trees
» I prefer buffs to many weak/underused things over nerfs to a few strong/overused ones

► On the subject of Game Balance

On the subject of game Balance

Now on the hard subject since people love throwing the word "Balance" around

» Balance in PvE games is.. not very important. Yes, I said it. It's relevant in extreme cases such as when a build outshines all alternatives in its category by a mile - and it feels pointless to play anything other than that version of the build. But even that seemingly justified feeling is a purely psychological thing, we do it to ourselves. We spend a lot of time minmaxing a build, then look at someone elses minmaxed build, see that it kills a big boss 69 seconds faster, an emotional crybaby wakes up in us and goads us to go tell developers their game sucks, spam sarcastic "nice balance" comments and ask them "next patch when"

Or - which is true for many people - they just jump the ship and copycat the more powerful build. And that's how metas are formed btw. People flock to what was proven by top players to be working in endgame. It's all purely psychological. Very often we cannot force ourselves to play and experiment with something less powerful knowing something more powerful exists. Ignorance can indeed be a bliss.


» Games are not about balance. They are about people willing to play them. To challenge themselves, to enjoy their time and to have fun. It's about exploration and experimentation, about the journey. Not about developers trying to numerically match all existing builds for your crybabys' sake in their attempt to tame this mythical beast called "perfect balance".
In fact, if you were to somehow achieve "perfect balance", you've failed as a developer. Yes. Because at this point it's like as if all food tasted the same. It still takes different amount of time and effort to cook different foods, but if they all taste the same you just pick the easiest one to make and never try anything else. Because why would you? It would be the very same thing just with extra effort.

For me, the actual meaning of "good balance" is when meta is diverse, when it's hard to "solve" it quickly, when builds are diverse, when they have strong and weak sides to them. Pros and cons. So that you have reasons to play different types of archers, different types of summoners, of tanks and so on. When you as a player are given many reasons to try many things, the more the better.

Edit for those who understands: Speaking of solved metas, if you see Tofu running around claiming that he reached nirvana, knows everything there is to know - and telling people left and right what works and what doesn't, it's a good time for a patch, it's a good time to shake up the meta. To shake it up hard.
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Crafting

I love crafting, I genuinely adore making my own items. In Median I've always preferred custom-made rares/honorifics over preset uniques - if they fit my current build and are competitive with SU alternatives. Correspondingly, I prefer oskill builds over the "normal" ones. There is a big similarity between orthodox skill-tree-based builds and children's coloring books: they already have outlines prepared for you - you just fill in the colors.

I always gravitate towards doing my own thing, straying away from the path of "intended" play. In fact, I often try to isolate myself from reading any balance feedback on the latest patches because I want to explore stuff by myself, without anyone telling me, "Oh hey that thing you're doing, it's not any good right now". I'm fine with trying and failing.
By extension, I don't like playing meta builds because I don't want to be yet another clone in the legion of people doing the same thing. And generally speaking: the more established, solved and rigid the meta is, the faster the new season and hype for the new patch die down.

Which brings us to the cornerstone of long-term success for any serious ARPG out there:

Variety and Customization

The more of those there is in a game, the more I enjoy playing it - and the more I want to explore new things. And I believe that is objectively true for most people. One of the biggest parts of customization in ARPGs is, well, crafting of course. Crafting in Median has 3 parts to it:

» Shrinecrafting system - allows creation of custom rares, it is very random, but shrines are plentiful and thus you get many-many tries bruteforcing the mods you're looking for
» Mystic Orb system, which btw I see as one of the best systems ever made in any game - it allows you to take a unique that you've been leveling with and prolong its life by 30-60 levels, maybe even push it into endgame. That system allows you to add pricesely the mods that benefit your build the most, that fix your breakpoints, resists etc
» Luck / Lottery / Corruption system - that one is minor compared to the other two, it's random-based, but there are some huge potential highrolls associated with it

► Shrinecrafting

Shrinecrafting

Well, how does it work atm?

It is essentially Chaos orbing from PoE that rolls 4 random mods + 1 guaranteed mod from shrine itself. We take a rare base and reroll it again and again until we hit a combination of mods we like. If we're looking for a particular oskill, we just reroll until we hit it.
Once the combination of mods suits us, we use that item / stash it and procede to craft on new bases trying to do better than our previous best. And that's pretty much it - there's no real skill to shrinecrafting, the only arguably skillful thing you can do is train your eyes to indentify the desired mods - so you can reroll faster.

I would like the process of shrinecrafting to be more deterministic, to remove a considerable chunk of RNG from it. Also, as someone who plays PoE since 2012, I'm used to rares being a much, much bigger part of the game. In Median I would want rares to be more competitive with unique items. Mind you, I don't want them to overshadow uniques, but definitely to be better than they currently are. If overshadowing requires 10 abstract steps, I'm only proposing doing 2-3 in that direction.

Proposed updates to shrinecrafting

» We remove all oskills from the pool of things normal shrines can roll
» We create a new special oskill Shrine - instead of rerolling a crafted item, it adds a random oskill to it (or rerolls the existing oskill if item already has one)
» At this point the droprate of normal shrines can be reduced, since you wouldn't need such enormous amounts of them anymore

By separating oskills into their own crafting category, shrinecrafting would no longer be about mindlessly rerolling an item from one oskill appearance to the next. Every reroll becomes an actual roll to consider.
Also, this way we go from 5 mod crafted rares to 6 mod ones with the ability to (eventually) hand-pick an oskill of our choice. It can be a build-defining skill, a generic damage buff or something providing extra utility that people can add to their builds.

The biggest questions here is, how hard would it be to implement all that - and how hard would it be to keep the item-type oskill restrictions on top of it.
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► Lotteries, HP squish and why 2 is a weak number

Lotteries, HP squish and why 2 is a weak number

Humans are peculiar creatures, we are often obsessed with round numbers, numbers that come from events in world history, urban myths and legends, our culture, and those "special" numbers that mean something to us personally. Edit: Oh, and numbers that come from memes, of course

Numbers heavily influence our life and we often make decisions based on minor numerical differences.

When HP squish happened about 2.5 years ago, all HP numbers were reduced by 60%. Numbers on items, charms and so on, everything was cut down proportionally. But I feel like that was kinda lazy approach, some things should have been addressed on a case-by-case basis, depending on how overused or underused they are.

» Example: Not many people were doing armor lottery at the time, trying to nail that 1/33 gamble to get 5% max life. HP squish reduced that bonus to 2% max life and nowadays you don't really see anyone doing it. Most lotteried items are just random finds from Scos boxes.
» Example #2: Yshari Trophy (that has already been buffed back since then) went from 5% to 2% Max Life for a time. It's the only trophy in the game that sometimes rivals Laz Trophy in value, because it takes a lot of time and effort to get. 2% from it felt like an insult.
» Example #3: Dementia is a good endgame belt, but 2% Life on it feels like one of those mods you see on items with a bunch of jewels socketed in them - minor and almost irrelevant

2 in general as a number sounds and looks weak, measly. In 1.8 I've spent half a season lotterying pieces from Psionic set. I don't feel like doing any projects like that nowadays for 2%.

Propositions:

» Lottery chance 3% -> 5% for all item types to increase the lost incentive of doing it manually and make the idea of season-long projects of acquiring a perfect lotteried set of items more appealing. Armor lottery 2% -> 3% Max Life
» %Life on some endgame items increased to be more meaningful, Dementia for instance can have a 3-5% roll on it - despite it already being a powerful item. It wouldn't be the end of the world
» Plunderbird can have 5% on it without rolls, that item is already a huge gamble with its other mods
» Luminescence can have 10% easily as a 2-hander. Although who cares about spearzon omegalol... Kappa. I care
» Books of Kalan (lvl 130 Void Charm) currently gives 25 flat life and 50 flat mana after HP and Mana squish cuts happened to it. Don't even ask what I think about that xD
» Demonstone Blood can have a 1-2 or even a 2-3% roll on it, otherwise it will never be used by anyone, including that one guy who'd come up with the fringiest use example just to prove me wrong

And so on and so forth for some other items.

Mystic Orbs and Effigies

► Freedom of Choice - Effigy

Intended primarily for oskill-centered builds to open up more gearing options. But can be very powerful for all builds that scale well with skill levels.

» Some big hits:
+10-11 to Druid/Necro/Soso Skill Levels on staves
up to +15 on Black Ice
up to +8 on Dead Lake's Lady
up to +10 on Bone Scalpel
up to +12 on Fleshstinger
up to +12 on Witch Drum
up to +12 on Elemental Disciple

» 25 to level required might be an overkill for most items and actually not enough for some extreme cases like Elemental Disciple. Ideally it should be "+4 Required Level for each skill level transformed" or something like that. This way it would autobalance itself in a way.
But, from what I know about the transformation effigies, they take immense amount of cube recipe coding already even without such dynamic features.

» Another point I want to make about those 3 extreme cases - those items see no play whatsoever. When a reason to use such an item emerges, I say "good", that's a win in my book - even if the emerged application of the item is above the curve in terms of power level. Would be nice seeing people actually trading and actively hunting highrolled versions of those items.
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Corruptions

For now the only thing I'm gonna mention here is making troll mods unrollable on items that do not benefit from those mods in any way (like reduced %requirements on jewelry). And I know, if it was easy to do, that would have been done already. But I'm mentioning it anyway just to create a fake impression that this thread segment is not empty :weirdchamp:

Mastercrafted Items

► 1. Echo Sabre

Core idea: Weapon that allows doubling (or - rarely - even tripling) down on a specific proc - but weapon itself is not going to have any meaningful damage on it really. I crave for builds that are fully centered on procs to be back, that was one of my fav parts of old Median

• Can roll both normal and angelic versions of procs, making it much harder to hit x2-x3 of the angelic proc that you want

► 2. Soulbinders Belt

Core idea: Craftable belt for summoners that can roll things like +1 to maximum Necro/Barb/Pala/Exodia minions, most non-ultimate summon X skills, and generalistic minion life/damage/AR/resistance mods. Summoners often go for a crafted Belt either way, having a mastercrafted base with some potential highrolls would be very welcome

• I'd argue minion mods on rares in general need a revision, with generalistic minion mods added to more armor types, +1 to max Paladin Minions added as a mod to 1 or 2 Paladin bases, +1 to max Barb Minions added to Barb Swords and Shields etc

► 3. Gnarled Bow

This is a Gnarled Staff

-» Bend it -» String it -»

This is a Gnarled Bow



Core idea: A craftable bow for spellcasters and Arcane Swarmers. Variation of an old PoE idea of mine, based on the fact that an unstrung unbent bow is basically a staff

• I went looking in the interwebs for item icons that somewhat represent a bow/staff transformation but didn't find any that would satisfy me. So I went through D2 stave icons, stared at Gnarled Staff for a few minutes, a bit of screwing in Photoshop - and voila! If someone thinks they can do a better Photojob than me, be my guest
• Originally I was going for a bow with combination of 2 mods: "Cannot roll attack modifiers" & "Can roll caster modifiers". But Gnarled Staff basis pushed the whole concept into a slightly different direction
• Has immense mod pool, diluted by a ton of attack mods you generally don't want, so getting combination of affixes you want (primarily +skills/+spell damage prefix combo) should be hard. Tier 1 affix block was added as a balancing factor cause some people would say this is a straight power creep over 4-socket staves because you get quiver stats on top of your craft. I'll tell you what, basically no one crafts staves - even 6 socket ones, they are outclassed by 1-hander + shield setups by a mile. Tier 5 meme builds do not count. It's a problem with 2-handers in ARPGs in general and is a whole different topic for a different time

• Attack Frames: 6 at around 200 AS for all classes. I'm an adept of variety, so I don't mind people being able to build an Arcane Swarmer from any class, I don't like it being basically a Sorc-only build atm. Can always nerf frames for some classes / increase AS requirement
• Cast Frames: same frames and breakpoints as Gnarled Staff because flavor. Also a balancing factor, thus can selectively be made worse for specific characters
• On Melee Attack procs and oskills that require a melee weapon should be excluded from the Gnarled Bow mod pool

► 4. Artisans Gloves

• Oskill player's dream. Being one myself, I would be all over those gloves
• Immense Shrine sink - it's not easy to get what you want, especially considering roll ranges
• There's a million ways to make this pair of gloves stronger if you think it's too weak and a couple ways to make it weaker if you think it's too strong. Or a balance of both

• Examples to make it stronger:

○ -(10 to 20) Required Level as an extra orange mod
○ Less non-oskill mods in the pool
○ Always rolls 3 suffixes and 1 prefix
○ Tendency to roll multiple oskills at once
○ Doubled MO effectiveness

• Examples to make it weaker:

○ Only drops in Labs / High Labs / from specific strong bosses
○ Only rolls armor-pool-specific oskills (weapon-specific oskills excluded, another item could be made for those - a Craftsman's Hammer of some sorts)
○ Only has 2-3 suffixes and no prefixes
○ +(10 to 20) Required Level as an extra orange mod

• Alternative names: Smithing Gloves / Griswold's Gloves (would need a smithy looking art for that); Artisan's Trial; or simply Artisans - since that's what people realistically would refer to them as

► 5. Vampires Fangs

• IED throwing knife that has some Life on Striking scaling attached to it. Original idea by magz
• Splitting the attribute scaling is what made this concept interesting for me. It felt like basing both on Dex would be too much of a powerhouse and would require the nukening of LoS mod numbers
• Split scaling gives the player additional reason to loose some damage and move more points from Dex to Vita vs dangerous bosses
• Optional: innate damage could be Magic instead - to synergize with Doom instead of the Cold Way




• A more restrictive version, forcing you to put a lot of base points into Vita to gain access to the IED and MR from Anathema
• Personally I prefer the first version, it's cleaner and leaves you more freedom in attribute allocation + gives you a reason to stack %all attribute mods instead of pure dex ones. LoS scaling can always be adjusted if it turns out too stronk

► 6. Scorching Girdle

• Aura grants elemental thorns to you and your minions that deals fire damage. Could have some base damage to add another balancing factor
• Intended mainly for Summoner Paladin and Unsummonzon, very synergetic with their kits. To a lesser extent usable on summoner Necro, can spec into Jinns for fire pierce on minions
• Belt slot chosen because summoners usually go for a crafted belt, it's neutral and doesn't compete for a gear slot with stuff like Redeemer, Vision of the Furies or Dux Infernum
• Would help with clearspeed, might be okay vs some bosses. Numbers are arguably on the low side, currently ~2.5-3k fire thorns is realistic when you take fire pierce of Fire Eles and Servants of Valor into account
• Auras in D2 have very buggy behavior, devs avoid using them unless absolutely necessary. I'm listing this belt concept either way in case those technical issues get resolved one day

Unique Items and special mods

«Let's not kid ourselves, ARPGs in a nutshell are just Barbie doll dress-up games for grown men» © me

I love top-down designs. Top-down design is when you start with an overall concept, some defining idea - and work your way down, eventually filling in the details. Something as simple as a clever item name can be a catalyst for a top-down design. Those are much more interesting to both make and build around than endgame statsticks. Statsticks simply increase your numbers, endgame statsticks increase your numbers by a lot - that is their purpose. I don't mind them, in fact I think their existence is absolutely mandatory in RPGs, but you won't see me designing many of those. I prefer making items that either actively modify what you do and how you do it - or make you puzzle over how to build a character around this thing :hmm:

Or last - but not least - items that are just fun to use, with potential to create some memorable, hilarious gameplay experiences.

Needless to say, the numbers on the items are provisional and are up for debate.

► 1. Remembrance of the Arch-liche - SSSU War Staff

Core concept: Staff that lets you be in Liche Form shooting out punishers almost permanently

» Liche Form (existing skill itself): heavily reduced MS penalty, 15s duration/30s cooldown, actually transforms you into a Liche. Liche Morph has bad attack and cast frames, but excellent fhr
^ While wearing this staff it's somehow automatically cast while you're poisoned and removed when you're poisoned no longer

» Vengeful Apparition: 40s duration, 40s cooldown. Summons a melee enemy, untargettable (like worms in Sam fight), can go through walls/terrain (like those Knights from Pandemonium season). Apparition casts a very long lasting poison in melee + deals some amount of phys damage with that cast. Very slow cast frames, fast MS, AI that would chase you around. Model: https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Arch_Lich

» Gameplay: you summon Apparition, let it poison you and run around firing off punishers. It chases you so you can get repoisoned when needed. Might not need to summon it in bossfights where you can get poisoned constantly

» A lot can be modified about this concept based on codability of its components

► 2. Body of the Forbidden One - SSU Breast Plate

Core concept: Chest that allows you to use all 3 elemental trio minion types at once while "disabling" most other attack-based minions by nullifying their AR

» Disclaimer: this chest does NOT require you to have 3 Exodia relics. In fact, Ama and Barb can get access to all 3 minions without relics at all - 2 from class bases and 1 from oskill Gloves



» Replaced "Your other non-ultimate minions are disabled" from the first iteration of this item with "Your Minions have no Attack Rating", which is just a veiled -1500% Minion Attack Rating mod. There is no need to implement functionality of disabling a ton of specific minions this way. Yet it still heavily restricts most non-exodia minions - as I originally envisioned it. Can use those as pure meat shields, I guess

» For those who sees this concept for the first time, this is basically a PoEsque Golemancer chest. You ditch your Barb Spirits / VK Hawks / Servants of Valor and focus on scaling these elementals
» Can totally be used on some hybrid spellcaster builds. I preemptively added -spell damage downside to it because I can see some very powerful things that can be done with this

» Frostwalkers and Fungi need to be added to 1 or 2 Paladin bases (helms/shields/1h weapons). When elemental summons got their rework in 2.2 Pala wasn't really a summoner, nowadays he'd be an excellent match for this build

► 3. Pragmatism - SSU Aspis

Core concept: Psionic Assa got tired of casting spells and found a more practical application for her knowledge. This shield makes her a Cognition-based magic damage attacker that synergizes well with maxed Doom and full Cognition commitment due to magic pierce at 150

» Can be used as a build-around unique for both Clawsin and Throw, but you have absolutely minimal amount of points to spend on attack skills themselves if you want to get your Cognition to 150. Some oskill builds with this are also possible
» Cognition Mastery is a passive that gives "Passives in Mastery tab also contribute to Cognition". Less skill points will feel wasted on spells you do not use from Psionic tree this way
» Optional addition: "3-Mastery restriction disabled". Knowledge is power. To be honest a whole separate unique can be made out of this idea :hmm:
» I originally thought about making the passive give Cognition per points in other Assa trees, but gaining Cognition from stuff like Batstrike and Maelstrom felt too unrestrictive + it didn't feel right flavor-vise

► 4. Last Resort - SSU Short War Bow

Core concept: Bow with On Melee Attack proc for newly reworked Queen of Blades shenanigans

» Originated as a meme concept during 2.9 beta, but it can be totally viable depending on the procs you put on it and QoB cd numbers
» Orange mod is a disguised "You may Only use Melee, Summon and Support Skills", reworded for flavor reasons. Thus, you cannot shoot arrows / use ranged skills with this bow
» I don't think we have any melee attack oskills that are usable with bows, such a skill would be a good fit for this
» Life leech was originally Life on Melee Attack, but sadly it turned out to not work with QoB
» QoB cd reduction number can be slightly higher, but need to be careful with it - currently Assas can get their QoB cd to 0.8s I believe, -0.4 from the mod would result in 0.4s cd = 2.5 attacks per second. -0.5 would result in 3.333 attacks per second, -0.6 would result in 5

► 5. End of Trust - SSSU Mask

Core concept: That thing that is usually not allowed

» Hostility only works on Hell - to avoid people griefing others during leveling on Normal and Nightmare. Morph still works there - so you can be a friendly Phoboss helping people.
» Arguably, hostility should only work in labs... Arguably, it should not even be on the item Sure, you could remove it and turn the Mask into a pure Phoboss Cosplay PvE item. But it's just too much potential fun.
» Imagine putting it on mid lab run, trying to gank your friends and failing miserably, randomly dying to their ability spam. That's what I mean by memorable gameplay experiences. If that's not fun, then I don't know what fun is

» Phoboss morph attack frames should be pretty terrible - about 12 frames, so 2 attacks per second.
» Phoboss Arena (ongoing novas of Ice Bolts with a safe zone in the middle) from the item should only last for ~3 seconds - unlike the actual skill Phoboss uses. The duration and 17% proc chance on Arena is balanced around 2 attacks per second - you have to be attacking constantly to keep it up most of the time.
» Phoboss Spiral does huge damage, but has a low proc chance. At 2 attacks / second and 3% to proc you need to be attacking continuesly for 15-16 seconds to proc once. Can be brought up to ~4-5% for consistency at the cost of damage.
» You do inherit the iconic Phoboss Aura while morphed as a hidden mod (aura gives max cold res reduction to enemies, -20 enemy max block, -60 dodge (only dodge, not avoid or evade), +15s to their teleport cds). Without the hostility feature on the Mask the aura would loose some of its flavor, but it would still be super nice vs things like Necrobots and bosses that teleport a lot.
» Hostility turns on when you equip the mask (or join the game while wearing it), notifying other players via the usual "hostile" sound from vanilla. To turn it off you need to unequip the mask and rejoin the game.
» Hostility probably shouldn't work on Hardcore... probably
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► 6. Fangless Count - SSU Chain Gloves

Core concept: Item that "transforms" a life sustain mechanic that doesn't work for elemental-based attackers into one that works for them.

» With the removal of old Solitudes life sustain of IED (and flat elemental) characters went from over 9000 to pretty low. Melee toons can at least stack Life on Melee Attack, while ranged ones currently have to rely mainly on the regen abilities from their skill trees.
» This pair of gloves has no defense partially as a joke. Kudos to you if you can figure it out )
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► 7. Paradoxica - SSU Scimitar

Core concept: IED weapon that forces you to build IED character in an unorthodox way.

» For all "normal" IED characters you stack one stat as high as possible. With this sword you'd want one of your stats to be as low as possible while keeping the other 3 more or less on the same level.
» You need to increase the gap between your 2 lowest attributes if you want more damage. Essentially it means you have to raise all 3 of your higher attributes without affecting the 4th one.

» Paradoxica is a sword in PoE. Don't really like the sword, but love the name.

► 8. Equilibrium - a mod-enabling mechanic

» I'm using Auriel's Robe just as a model to showcase the Equilibrium mod. Auriel itself needs some kind of rework either way, whatever it might be. I don't care for this version at all, just using it as an example.

» Greyed out mods only work while the condition of all your attributes being equal is met. This condition can actually be pretty harsh for some characters, would require you to constantly keep track and rebalance your attributes while changing gear and charms.
» Another cost of using items with this mod is being forced to put stat points into attributes that you don't really want. Putting all extra points into vita is not an option.
» Due to this condition, you can make the greyed-out mods pretty powerful

» There can be some small leeway to it - let's say 5 points - to cover for the rounding and make it slightly easier to pick stuff like

Fool's Gold

Fool's Gold
Moo moo moo Moooo! Moo!

Required Level: 115
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
+(0 to 38) to Strength
+(0 to 38) to Dexterity
+(0 to 38) to Vitality
+(0 to 38) to Energy
(11 to 15)% Bonus to Defense
-10% Gold Find
(16 to 20)% Magic Find

and

Cold Fusion Schematics

Cold Fusion Schematics
Required Level: 125
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
1% Chance to cast level 10 Time Strike on Striking
+(16 to 30) to Strength
+(16 to 30) to Dexterity
+(16 to 30) to Vitality
+(16 to 30) to Energy

for your character
» Personally, I don't find this mechanic too interesting or pleasurable to build around. But I had it as an idea and, well, here it is as a concept )‎

Redesigns

► 1. QQ ring

Core idea: Perfect match between item name and its orange mod :kek
Player eventually gets lucky, rolls some great corrupts on it, rips it once, rolls couple more stats, gets greedy, yolos, rips it for good and then QQs in #general discord about how great it was :pepeHands:

» Immense CC sink
» First "rip" would raise level req to 120, so it would still be usable and even have some space for MOs
» Level req could theoretically be removed completely, success/null/rip chances could have unique values for this ring. There could be some extra special troll mods in the pool, that would add to the QQedness

Old QQ ring from 2017

► 2. Unearthed Hawk

Buried Hawk got buried and forgotten. Power of its stats deteriorated over time. Full access to Ultimates became limited by charges. Phys res rolled zero long time ago and stayed this way. While thinking about passing time it developed skill duration... [dramatic pause] ...until eventually it got unearthed :mmyea:

» Rarity: SSSU, drops in 130+ zones, very rare. Alternatively, a rare drop from 1-7 hardest bosses in the game (drop chance scaling with boss difficulty)

» What's the Ultimate Challenge? Idk, you tell me. Many options. But it needs to meet these conditions:

• It should be more skill-based than gear-based
• It should be somewhat time consuming (like Sam's 11 minute quest)
• It shouldn't be easily/cheaply solvable by TG

» Number of charges: depends on the ultimate and difficulty of the challenge. But just as an example, I'd say something like 13 for SB and SoV, 49 for Baneblade and Faerie Fire, 127 for Chronofield and Doom (insane buffs = low charges, mid buffs = mid charges, curses/skills that you want to use often = high charges)
» Passive ultimates: either lost to time and ignored or recreated (as separate versions) as buffs that last ~10 minutes at a baseline

» Optional: level 90 and 115 reward skills could also be considered to roll on Hawk with varying charges. Personally, I would love me some Spellbind vs particular bosses :tazoRolls:

► 3. Segnitia, Grandfather and 2h sword cast frames

Core idea: Huge phys damage body armor that is designed specifically for skills like Fortress/GT/ATMG/Disco that use CS instead of AS

» Been in its current state for 5 years. Heck, Median 2017 version of it is basically the same. Trade & auction logs of this item are miserable and tell everything there is to tell. Has no niche, outclassed by other endgame phys armors by a mile. No build wants it, no build uses it

» After I googled what "Segnitia" means, turned out it's latin for "disinclination for action", slowness, sluggishness. Negative speeds on the updated version properly represent that

» Update is meant for builds that use cast speed based WDM skills. Negative CS is the actual downside to overcome. Huge negative AS not only prevents its usage on normal attack builds, but can also be a big upside when comboed specifically with

The Grandfather

The Grandfather
Great Sword (Sacred)
One-Hand Damage: (219 - 254) to (336 - 396)
Two-Hand Damage: (312 - 347) to (423 - 483)
Required Level: 120
Required Strength: 1340
Item Level: 120
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.16 per Strength)%
+400% Deadly Strike
-5% Deadly Strike per 1% Attack Speed
Adds (75 to 110)-(180 to 240) Damage
(150 to 300)% Bonus to Attack Rating
+200% Enhanced Damage
+(30 to 40) to Ancients' Hand
+50 to all Attributes
Maximum Life +(5 to 7)%
Requirements +100%
Socketed (6)

: it allows using Wolf Stance on Barb, maxed Spark of Hope on Pala + some AS buffs and passives on other characters

2H sword cast frames

» Important for cast speed based WDM skills - ATMG, GT, Disco etc. Other groups of weapons like mauls and 2h axes could also use an update
» Current Cast frames from speed calc for chars in alphabetical order: 9 / 8 / 9 (7 while DW) / 8 / 6 / 6 / 7
» Proposed Cast frames: 6 / 7 / 7 (6 while DW) / 7 / 6 / 6 / 7. Arguable, needs discussion. I went over all character trees to see what support they have for WDM CS playstyle and based those numbers on that

Grandfather

» Has been unchanged since 2019 apart from %max life reduction during global HP squish. Trade logs not as miserable as Segnitias, there was a popularity surge when GT + Fortress were fotm, but as of right now it mostly just collects dust on mules
» If sword cast frames were to be changed + big Segnitia synergy, might not even need any numerical adjustments
» Ancient's Hand replaced with something else - it does not fit. Orange mod yet again screams WDM CS playstyle. GT / Fortress / maybe even "Fortress Cooldown Reduced by Xs" mod. Some neutral passive like Ama's Balance is also an option

► 4. The Point of No Return

Core idea: SSSU that makes you more and more powerful based on the time spent in boss arena, but draining your life faster and faster

» Entering a lockable boss arena while wearing this staff or equipping it inside one causes a (near)instant lockdown. Leaving the area (or dying) resets the buffs to 0 and disables them until new lockable boss arena entry
» Numbers are very debatable and depend on the time step between checks (every second / every 2 seconds etc). Scaling numbers need to be balanced around top-end bosses like Samael, not Butcher and co
» Might need +1-2% all max resistances mod on it to relief gear choice pressure on other pieces (gosh I hate low socket endgame 2-handers without max res on them)

» Optional alternative for scaling mods if this is not codeable / too hard to implement: basing the scaling mods on the time-spent-in-this-game counter, with lower numbers (retroactive in case player equips this staff 5 minutes in). So you'd need to be fast after entering a new game to get where you need to go before you start really dying. Possibly could be used to speedfarm some areas this way

► 5. Xiphos

Goal: Breath life into this long-forgotten short sword. Buff it and make it more customizable to open up more things players can do with it

» Mod allows all Mystic Orbs to be useable on it, including armor and jewelry ones
» Lowered level req by 10, changed AS to combat speeds to fit the "universal" theme of the sword, added minor SD as a nudge for those who'd want to make something proc-based with it. Buffed damage numbers slightly, ditched proc and CB

► 6. Return of Buzzbomb in SSSU form

Core idea: Buzzbomb returns, becomes ultra rare and goes from Red to Green

» If you don't remember the old Buzzbomb, it used to be this very thing, but it was fire-based and the key mod on it was "3% Chance to cast level 50 Flamestrike on Striking". Judgement Day is that skill Kabraxis and Anomaly use, basically a green poison + phys damage version of Flamestrike
» Flamestrike procs from this thing were known to cause some FPS issues on slower machines, going from 3 to 2% proc chance should feel better in that regard. In terms of power level 1% would probably be enough... But I envisioned it as an SSSU, so I'd want it to be super cool and a bit broken, sue me :weirdchamp:

» Speaking of Judgement Day itself, I'm one of the few people who played with it thoroughly in 2.8 (Pandemonium) patch when it was available from a relic. I've killed Samael and 0% Difficulty Deimoss with it. Aye, it's strong. But no, it's not really broken. Like, you can never do Regen Shrine Deimoss with it no matter how much you min-max it, it simply doesn't do enough damage to outpace regen. Power level of Jday as a proc can always be adjusted via proc chance and level

► 2 Boulder-utilizing item designs that no one asked for

2 Boulder-utilizing item designs that no one asked for

Do you care about The Boulder? If you do, there's probably something wrong with you :kek: Last time someone cared about The Boulder was in 1965.

» The main goal here is to showcase that even such an unused thing as The Boulder can be made useful. Items themselves are more like sketches, a lot can be changed about them
+ While brainstorming the great maul I found a holy grail of design space: oskills that are charge-limited and only rechargeable under certain conditions / via special cube recipes. In older patches (before item durability removal) that concept was impossible because players could just refresh charges by repairing the item at a blacksmith in town. Second post of this thread will contain more on that idea.




» What does Rock Shatter do? Idk, you tell me) Maybe some alternative ST skill for Earthshaker Barbs, maybe scaling off total character Strength or Crushing Blow, I dunno. I'm just showcasing charge-based nature of it. Max number of charges depends on the power level of the skill. More power = less max charges = needs to be recharged more often
» Boulders are consumed by the recipe, so they would actually gain some trade value
» Name is an obvious reference to Large Hadron Collider. Hedron is the ending of all of those tetra-deca-hedrons and basically means face, so you can kinda treat the item name as "Face Smasher" :kekeHands: More conservative names: Rock Grinder, Stone Crusher (hello, vanilla d2)




(Assuming current SBS can be renamed / moved to another base. I've always been annoyed by the fact that current SBS has NOTHING Strength-related on it, despite bearing such a name - it's just a pretty straightforward endgame statstick for phys builds. Hate wasting names with so much potential flavor)

» Kaom's Heart vibes. Basically a body armor that doesn't have many lines of text, but those it does have give a ton of what they give
» That orange mod is uncodeable right now, maybe in the future, who knows. But just as a concept for Boulder's sake: you put 6 Boulders in + 2 Sigils of Absolution + 2 Lodestones -> a literal ton of Strength. If 100% is too much, can always be halved / toned down. Out of 4 attributes Strength is the least offensive one to stack in terms of balance imo
» Lottoed Boulders :stonks:
‎

► Meme items

Memes

» Flav's iconic weapon. He smacks you with it a couple of times and then bans you for posting gifs




» If you die in one of those boss arenas while wearing this, a wild Ben- appears laughing and diagnoses you with "skill issues"
» Runewordmaster works same as Runemaster, but scales with the number of runewords you're wearing. Also boosts chance to find runes by 33%
‎

Unfinished sketches

► 1. Cyclops - SSU Helm

Core concept: I've been craving to play proc-based builds for a long time. This helm is a proc build in itself, but it has a blinding twist to it

» Being Blinded hard locks your chance to hit to 5%, so that seemingly broken 100% Rock Shock proc is actually 5% and that 20% Tremor proc is 1% on practice. On top of that, blindness guts your leech, life on striking and all other procs you might have, so helm procs do need to be powerful
» So... how powerful is Rock Shock? I tested it a bit (it exists on Hellmouth SU Gloves) and... it kinda sucks, but my judgement is inconclusive. But it's a WDM skill, so it should be able to proc itself on striking... But being a WDM skill, it also only has 5% chance to hit, so it shouldn't cause a cascade of self-procs... idk. Rock Shock itself could use some improvements. Needless to say, this concept and proc choices are highly experimental
» Flavor-wise, this item is an obvious reference to the Cyclops who was blinded by Odysseus. Shaking the ground (Tremor) fits the concept pretty well, also after Heroes of Might and Magic 3 I will always associate Cyclopses with rock throwing
» Icon used is one of the heads of the Biclops from vanilla D2 (I believe you can still meet them deep in Yshari). If someone with better Photoshop skills than me could make a visually fitting helmet out of it, would be cool. Otherwise, normal Helm image is good enough. Would be the first SU Helm btw, there are still no SUs on that base.

My previous thread with custom unique items (might rework Divinity at a later date since I was pretty clueless about Ice Lances current state when I designed an item for it)

This thread is going to be updated over time, I will be adding more things to it when I can

[Vanarchy]

Updates to existing Skills

► Resurrect

Resurrect

Problems:
» One of the weakest "ultimate" skills in the game. As someone who experimented with a bunch of reanimates over the years (+new Pandemonium season ones on a well-geared summoner), I must say there are almost no reanimates that do much. You could argue that it's a beastiary problem that can solve itself over time as new monsters are added and old ones are rebalanced. But even so, this skill is more of a meme than an ultimate in its current state.
» From my experience, there is only 1 reanimate in the game that survives in endgame labs - Corpulents (elite version ideally from Lord of Lies domain). Simply because they have built-in regen. All other reanimates will die to the first Corrupted hero you meet in labs. Corrupted Barb / Assa / Goat will just evaporate them. And those who miraculously survive will be at low HP and won't last much longer in that lab.
» After your reanimates die in labs / other lockdown areas, there's no way to resummon them. You'd need to leave the area and go on yet another pilgrimage to find the monsters you want
» Thematic problem - as a Paladin you get locked into picking Resurrect by putting points into Nephalem tree, which is dedicated to close-range physical/magic spell damage playstyle. It has nothing minion-related in it practically or thematically

Proposed changes:

» +3% HP regen per second for Reanimates as a built-in feature of the skill
» Number of reanimates starts at 3 and increases by 1 every 5 base levels - for a total of 6 max on Pala. Other classes that acquire Resurrect via relic or by other means are still capped at 3 (but they do get the passive regen)
» Increased phys and spell damage numbers

» (Highly experimental, likely uncodeable) + 2 secondary skills:
» skill #1 targets corpses to "snapshot" that monster type
» skill #2 creates corpses on the ground of the snapshotted type. Snapshot is bound to your character save file and thus stays in-between gaming sessions - kinda like your iron golem and merc do

You know that huge update Summoners got in PoE 3-4 years ago? Spectres (≈ Resurrects) stay after you relog into the game. + there's a skill that creates corpses on the ground for you to resurrect - and your chosen spectre type will be among those corpses.
Would be nice to have at least a small fraction of that functionality for Resurrect. I still Remember Body of the Savior oskill from 1.8 that summoned a corpse of Akarat (technically it summoned Akarat and then brutally killed him for you to resurrect)

Other thoughts:
» Maybe make Resurrect a normal skill and move it to the bottom of the Aspects tab so that summoner skills are together. + Make a different ultimate for Neutraldin that synergizes with Vessels and Absolution.
‎

► Faerie Fire

Faerie Fire

Problems:
» Outclassed by 2 other Druid ultimate abilities - Survival Instinct is the skill of choice for most casters, while physical builds usually go for Vine Companion because of the physical pierce (+ %max life aura synergizes very well with all that flat life you gain from Barkskin)
» Faerie Fire only gets used for the passive avoid chance, not for the actual trail you leave on the ground

Proposed changes:

» Improve Faerie Fire so that there are more reasons to build and play around the Spark Trail itself
» Increase the AoE of the Spark Trail by ~150-200%. Current AoE is so small enemies need to be literally on top of you to get hit by it. More so, in most situations enemies can hit you in melee without actually entering that AoE. That can also happen when you yourself approach an enemy - your melee swings will outrange the trail's AoE unless you literally hug them
» Make Spark Trail duration slightly scaleable via some means - skill levels / points into other skills / character levels / stamina (to synergize with Dudus Blood of Creation) / whatever else. Maybe add a small stamina / MS buff to it as well

Gameplay applications:
» You can kill bosses by running circles around them. Gimmicky, yes, but that's basically a build of its own that players can go for
» AoE increase would actually make the damage of the trail a thing to consider for melee attackers. Damage contribution ofc depends on the numbers
» If we were to see a return / rise of on-striking procs (which I personally would love), one could make a proc-based build around Faerie Fire. Current AoE and duration simply wouldn't cut it
‎

New oskills

► 1. Reverberating Effigy

‎‎

Reverberating Effigy ‎ -‎ ‎ Create an effigy that sends out a shockwave when you strike it

Core concept: skill that creates an enemy with "when struck" proc attached to it

» Effigy is basically a target dummy reskin - it has immense HP pool and regen - you can hit it as much as you want without killing it
» Effigy has 100% Chance to Cast lvl x Shockwave when struck, that proc has ~3 second base cooldown time that goes down with skill levels
» Despite it being "hostile", ideally it should teleport with you (if that's possible)
» Only 1 Reverberating Effigy can be out at a time

Application #1: I always wanted an option to make bouncing (chaining) skills at least semi-viable versus bosses. Many bosses are alone in their arenas, there's nothing to bounce to and using those skills is generally pointless. Effigy is meant to fix that - or at least try.
» Being able to create an additional "enemy" at will would give potential to skills like Parasite - projectiles would bounce between the boss and effigy and the damage would scale with the number of bounces divided by 2.
» As a Parasite-using character, you can just summon and attack the Effigy instead of chasing the boss around - as long as they are close enough to each other.

Application #2: Min-maxing the shockwaves to make it into a reliable clearing skill. By stacking +All Skills on your gear you can reduce the cooldown between shockwave procs and increase their damage. You can take a build that has good single target damage but bad clear and integrate the Effigy into it to speed up farming.
» Process of proccing Shockwaves can be semi-automated by using skills like Queen of Blades and other recurring weapon-based effects.

This oskill has infinite amount of things that can be changed about it. At the baseline I wanted to design something that empowers bouncy skills, that's the core of the idea. Instead of damaging novas, Effigy could:
◦ Curse nearby enemies with -pdr or some other debuff when struck
◦ Have some permanent debuffing aura of that sort - or an aura buffing you
◦ Can actually be made killable (no regen) - with some value scaling higher as the HP of the effigy is getting lower (i.e. strength of that aura ^)
◦ Can deal damage to enemies in radius based on some % of damage it takes (probably uncodeable, think Spectre's passive from Dota)
‎

► 2. Recoil

‎‎

Recoil ‎ -‎ ‎ Release a lightning bolt that jumps between enemies, but can also jump back to YOU

Core concept: skill that sends out a lightning bolt from your character to the nearest enemy that starts ricocheting between units. Skill treats you as a legal target for the bounces, and it WILL damage you if it jumps to you. You gain X% lightning absorb for 2 seconds after casting Recoil.

» Number of bounces scales with skill level. Meant to reach 30ish bounces with very high investment. Bounce range: ~1/3 of the screen.
» Starts at 10% Lightning absorb, increases with skill levels up to 25% - temporary buff to mitigate the damage you receive from bolts bouncing off you.
» Griffon's Eye would be a BiS helmet for this skill since you aim to raise your lightning absorb to the 40% absorb cap - to become almost immune to Recoil's self-damage.
» This skill is meant to have a decent (mid tier 2-ish) clear when min-maxed. It would shine vs singular bosses with lightning chaining between you and the boss - as long as you can stay close and tank the recoiling damage.
» You cannot realistically use minions or Merc while playing a Recoil build because they would eat up the bounces and die all the time. Unless there's a way to exclude them from the "legal bounce target" list without excluding you.

Optional: Fires extra 1/2 bolts at extra targets in range after reaching certain skill level breakpoints (or from relic/unique orange mod). Shouldn't do anything for bossing, but would improve the clearspeed.
‎

► 3. Orb of Eradication

‎‎

Orb of Eradication ‎ -‎ ‎ Creates a stationary orb that zaps nearby enemies

Core concept: concentrated version of Orb of Annihilation intended for single-target

» Damage of OoE is based on damage of your OoA (similarly to how damage of Askari Lightning is based on damage of Stormcall). % damage ratio scales with skill levels.
» Unlike OoA, OoE only damages enemies that are on top of it / right next to it. Has higher zap frequency than OoA.
» Has similar enormous mana cost. Probably can even cost 9000 mana like the pre-mana-squish OoA. In that case %damage scaling can be set really high.
» Optional: disables OoA for the duration - just an idea. Most likely not necessary because both skills are superlimited by your manapool in their usage.
» If someone can come up with a synonym for Annihilation that starts with B and has similarly powerful sound to it, let me know. Originally I wanted it to be OoA and OoB... You get the joke )
‎

► 4. Sacrificial Altar

This is one of my ideas from years ago. While writing this I realized that Sacrifices were recoded since then, tested it and learned that current version doesn't proc on-deathblow effects / Life on Kill / Reanimates. This design is based on the old version of Sacrifices that did proc those.

Sacrificial Altar‎ ‎ -‎ ‎ Create an invulnerable altar. While near the altar your Sacrifices cooldown is zero but casting them costs you x% of max life

Core concept: oskill that creates its own on-Deathblow playstyle. You can spam Sacrifices to your heart's content while standing near the altar. You need large amounts of Life on Kill to balance out the health cost.

» Sacrifices is a skill available on

Gallowlaugh

Gallowlaugh
Amulet
Required Level: 110
Item Level: 110
+1 to All Skills
+50% Bonus to Poison Skill Duration
-(20 to 30)% to Enemy Poison Resistance
+1 to Sacrifices
Poison Length Reduced by 50%

,

Armor of the Old Religion

Armor of the Old Religion
Ceremonial Armor (Sacred)
Defense: (8437 - 9306) to (10452 - 11529)
(Sorceress Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 722
Item Level: 105
+(4 to 5) to Sorceress Skill Levels
+200 Spell Focus
50% Hit Recovery
+(35 to 50)% to Fire Spell Damage
+(35 to 50)% to Lightning Spell Damage
+(35 to 50)% to Cold Spell Damage
+(9 to 12) to Sacrifices
+(172 to 200)% Enhanced Defense
Elemental Resists +25%
10% Chance to Avoid Damage
+(101 to 150) Life after each Kill
Socketed (6)

+ it can be gained from the relic. Necromancers have it on their skill tree.
» Build would incentivize you to:
- use items like

Black Hand Sigil

Black Hand Sigil
Ring
Required Level: 100
Item Level: 120
4% Chance to cast level 50 Shuriken Flurry on Death Blow
4% Chance to cast level 50 Drakemaw on Death Blow
4% Chance to cast level 50 Doom on Death Blow
Elemental Resists -25%

&

Eternal Vigil

Eternal Vigil
War Sword (Sacred)
One-Hand Damage: 46 to 50
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 1162
Item Level: 120
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Strength)%
4% Chance to cast level 53 Glacial Nova on Death Blow
4% Chance to cast level 53 Supernova on Death Blow
+(3 to 4) to All Skills
+200 Spell Focus
+(31 to 40)% to Spell Damage
-(28 to 35)% to Enemy Elemental Resistances
+(200 to 250) to Mana
Requirements +100%
Socketed (3)

to trigger their procs while spamming Sacrifices
- use items with X% Reanimate as: Random Monster
- stack as much Life on Kill as you can, eventually overpowering the health cost to get all the extra LoK above that as healing
» You can probably aim to somewhat limit your max life gains from gear and passives (within reason) to reduce the health cost thus turning more of LoK into actual healing
‎

QoL things

Vessel for Signets of Learning + syphon functionality for them
- Greater Signet of Learning + Oil of Craft -> Vessel
- Right-clicking the vessel syphons all singular, Large and Greater Signets of Learning from your inventory, cube and stash.
- Vessel probably shouldn't syphon Custom signets of learning to reduce the number of cube recipes needed.
- Cubing the vessel by itself takes out a Greater Signet (x25) if vessel has enough signets in it. If not, it takes out a Large Signet (x5) if vessel has enough signets in it. If not, it takes out a singular Signet of Learning.

Increased maximum gold carried and stashed gold cap at higher levels
- Although it can be argued that current gold caps contribute to the realm economy - making people trade for gold from time to time - those trades are still pretty rare (mostly related to Scosglen charm completion) and their influence is minimal.
- Stashed Gold cap could be rebalanced to keep scaling up until the max character level - to something like 3.5 mil (compared to 2.5 mil cap we currently have)
- Carried Gold cap scaling could be slightly increased (to reach ~2.5 mil carried at level 150) - to decrease the frequency at which you need to stash/spend it (currently you have to do it after every ~3 lab runs / 2 Fauzt clears)

Big Boss Portals
- It would be nice to get a permanent red portal to Deimoss's Antechamber once you reach it at the end of lab 10. Such portals would be a nice standard for all endgame bosses that future holds for us.

To-do list

» Shrinecrafting and rares in general - updates to the pool of mods
» UMOs and effigies
» Some redesigns for the existing unique items
» Thoughts on how to prolong season longevity so that they don't die as fast
» More custom uniques, oskills and QoL ideas
» Better formatting for better readability

[Vanarchy]

Skills with charges

Thanks to the devs for confirming the essentials of this concept are possible and not too hard to do

Goals of the system

1. To add more variety to what players can do, add more complexity & extra buttons to builds
2. To add more variety to what developers can put on items in general - including some very powerful things - while giving them more control over accessibility of those things compared to how it was in the past
3. As a side effect, to potentially give some underused items some (trade) value due to them being used as recharge reagents


If you travel back in time to let's say Median 2017 or other old patches, you will notice some items having charge-based skills on them. At the time those had to be designed with the old vanilla repair mechanic in mind - replenishing the charges was essentially free whenever you visited the town blacksmith, it just costed some gold.

Sigma 2.4: durability was removed from items | Sigma 2.5: the repair button was removed from blacksmiths
Sigma 2.10 (next patch, big leek btw kappa): hotkey for repairing items at blacksmith will also be gone for good (thanks to Whist)

That seemingly minor and easy to overlook change actually opens up a lot of item design space. Temporary Buffs / Debuffs / Extra summons for summoners / Mobility and utility skills / Altermative single-target or clear skills and even Ultimates can be added to items with cost of recharging them being fully customizeable. Maximum number of charges and skill level are the other balancing factors that can always be adjusted individually for each item. Worth noting, skills with charges DO NOT benefit from any +Skill Level modifiers from gear or other sources.

Custom ways to replenish item charges

1. Cube recipes that utilize thematically fitting/underused items
2. Rare reagents that drop in endgame areas / from bosses on Hell
3. Bossfight challenges (think Riftwalker III or Samael's 11 minute uberquest) that only allow players to recharge powerful skills under specific conditions

Here's some simple, but pretty flavorful examples:
(for clarity: items that are used for recharging are consumed by the cube recipe)

Malus Domestica

Malus Domestica
Club (Sacred)
One-Hand Damage: 41 to 42
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 376
Item Level: 105
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Strength)%
Increased Healing Rate from Apples by 100%
Apple Healing Effect While Equipped
+(0 to 2) to All Skills
(11 to 20)% to Vitality
+(1 to 1000) to Life
Maximum Life +3%
Physical Resist (6 to 10)%
10% Reanimate as: Random Monster
Socketed (3)

+3 charges of Lifeblood (or maybe Gift of Inner Fire)
cube with an apple to recharge

Mjolner

Mjolner
Maul (Sacred)
Two-Hand Damage: (207 - 222) to (479 - 546)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 1890
Item Level: 120
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.16 per Strength)%
Reckoning of Zerae: Grants +1% Lightning Pierce per 1% Deadly Strike
10% Chance to cast level 10 Thunder Hammer on Striking
+(250 to 300) to Maximum Damage
+(180 to 200)% Enhanced Damage
25% Chance of Crushing Blow
+1000 Defense
Lightning Absorb 5%
Physical Resist 10%
Requirements +200%
Socketed (6)

+25 Charges of Thundergod
rechargeable with Light Runes and Nif Runes

Guardian of Scosglen

Guardian of Scosglen
Recurve Bow (Sacred)
Two-Hand Damage: 81 to 90
(Druid Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 725
Item Level: 105
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.19 per Dexterity)%
Adds 1 - 4 Fire, Cold and Lightning Damage to Weapon per 1 Spell Focus until capped
1% Chance to cast level 5 Charged Strike on Striking
-(5 to 20)% to Enemy Elemental Resistances
+25% to Summoned Minion Resistances
Poison Length Reduced by 50%
+1 Mana on Striking
+(1 to 50) Life after each Kill
Cannot Be Frozen
Socketed (6)

+250 charges of level 70 Trinity Arrow
rechargeable with Farsight Globes and Taha runes

► More examples, will expand list when I have time, thanks to Mortimer and Magz for helping me out

Stormpick

Stormpick
Flail (Sacred)
One-Hand Damage: (108 - 122) to (129 - 145)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 486
Item Level: 120
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Strength)%
+1% Lightning Spell Damage per 2% Gold Find
25% Cast Speed
Adds 375-625 Lightning Damage
+(131 to 160)% Enhanced Damage
Maximum Lightning Resist +(2 to 4)%
Physical Resist (6 to 15)%
+100 Life after each Kill
Socketed (6)

+30 charges of high level Golden Calf
Ideally requires a Gold Find boosting aura to be added to the Calf itself (gold find on Calf relic reduced / changed to something else)
» rechargeable with 1 million gold (transmute the Stormpick by itself as long as you have enough gold)

Sagittarius

Sagittarius
Cestus (Sacred)
One-Hand Damage: 41 to 43
(Assassin Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 349
Item Level: 120
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.13 per Dexterity)%
Vessel of Judgement: +3 Targets
+7 to Assassin Skill Levels
+100% Damage to Vessel of Justice
+100% Damage to Vessel of Retribution
+(50 to 60) to Vessel of Judgement
+(100 to 150) to Energy
+(300 to 400) to Life
Maximum Mana +(20 to 25)%
Physical Resist 5%
Socketed (3)

,

Vizjerei's Necklace

Vizjerei's Necklace
Amulet
Required Level: 100
Item Level: 105
+(1 to 3) to All Skills
+(20 to 30)% to Physical/Magic Spell Damage
(10 to 20)% to Energy
Maximum Mana +10%
+(25 to 50) Life after each Kill

or some other gear piece Psionic Storm and OoA users would use: +charges of Hounfor (mana regen buffing circle to stand on)
» rechargeable with Zol runes

Manticore Sting

Manticore Sting
Repeating Crossbow (Sacred)
Two-Hand Damage: (221 - 255) to (436 - 530)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 670
Item Level: 120
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Strength)%
-1% to Enemy Poison Resistance per 25 Strength
16% Chance to cast level 60 Punisher Bolt on Striking
+(150 to 200) to Maximum Damage
(200 to 250)% Bonus to Attack Rating
+3000 Poison Damage over 2 seconds
+(160 to 200)% Enhanced Damage
+100% to Poison Spell Damage
10% Chance of Crushing Blow
+(700 to 1000) to Life
Socketed (6)

+75 charges of Punisher Barrage (high CD but also high slvl)
that way from time to time you can stop hitting things to proc punishers and simply run through packs
» rechargeable with Poison Runes and Xith Runes

Hepsheeba's Mantle

Hepsheeba's Mantle
Chain Mail (Sacred)
Defense: (6060 - 7575) to (6854 - 8568)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 600
Item Level: 105
+(2 to 4) to Paladin Skill Levels
+(2 to 4) to Sorceress Skill Levels
30% Cast Speed
-(20 to 30)% to Enemy Fire Resistance
+(15 to 25) to Pentagram
+(140 to 200)% Enhanced Defense
+100 Life Regenerated per Second
Maximum Fire Resist +3%
Socketed (6)

+charges of Armageddon (short ~30s version to make swapping tedious. Or full duration if it can be made non-snapshottable)
supports a real melee penta caster
» rechargeable with Fire Runes and Tyr Runes

Alchemist Apron

Alchemist Apron
Scale Mail (Sacred)
Defense: 4960 to 5538
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 575
Item Level: 105
1% Chance to cast level 50 Cluster Bomb on Death Blow
+(10 to 30)% to Spell Damage
+(15 to 20) to Powder Keg
+100% Enhanced Defense
Elemental Resists +10%
Poison Length Reduced by 75%
Physical Resist (1 to 10)%
Cannot Be Frozen
Socketed (6)

+100 charges of Blast Wave
to knock enemies back into Powder Keg explosions / get out of sketchy situations
» rechargeable with Fire Runes and Tyr Runes

Lilith's Temptation

Lilith's Temptation
Plated Belt (Sacred)
Defense: (3680 - 4089) to (4031 - 4479)
Required Level: 100
Item Level: 105
3% Chance to cast level 2 Time Strike on Striking
+(170 to 200)% Enhanced Defense
-100 to Life
(60 to 100)% Magic Find
Requirements -100%
Socketed (2)

+10 charges of Level 20 Goblin Glee (assuming level 20 lasts 20 seconds)
pop it right before finishing off a boss/miniboss (maybe a corrupted hero in lab?) that usually drops a bunch of sacred items on death
» rechargeable with X (some low enhanced rune, idk). Originally thought about Wishmaster jewels, Nagapearls and Yst runes with much higher charge count, but that's way too much of a price - would be easier to get a new Lilith

Natalya's Deception

Natalya's Deception
Quilted Armor (Sacred)
Defense: 2263 to 2331
Required Level: 80
Required Strength: 500
Item Level: 120
Orb Effects Applied to this Item are Quadrupled
Socketed (6)

+30 Charges of Dominate
Thematically fits. Absolutely unnecessary ofc, but I can totally see Natalya in her leather tights being a top tier dominatrix :weirdchamp:

Shadowfang

Shadowfang
Bastard Sword (Sacred)
One-Hand Damage: 44 to 47
Two-Hand Damage: 70 to 72
(Necromancer Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 535
Item Level: 120
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.16 per Strength)%
Pestilence: duration reduced by 50%
Pestilence: regenerates 4% of Maximum Life per Second
25% Chance to cast level 50 Veil King Plague Grasp on Melee Attack
200% Bonus to Attack Rating
+100% to Poison Spell Damage
+60 to Stormlord
Slow Target 25%
+200 Life after each Kill
2% Reanimate as: Veil Terror
Socketed (4)

+150 charges of Veil King Plague Grasp (maybe replacing the proc)
+ personal touch: Veil King morph on Shadowfang for full VK cosplay)) That would be 10 out of 10 on the coolness scale, people love morphs.
Shadowfang is a Necro-specific 2H weapon, meaning it should not be that much work to tune the morph - no need to manually adjust a ton of IAS breakpoints for other weapons
» rechargeable with Poison Runes and Xith Runes

Grim Silhouette

Grim Silhouette
Gargoyle Head (Sacred)
Defense: (3694 - 4389) to (4792 - 5617)
Chance to Block: 2%
(Necromancer Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 443
Item Level: 105
Veil King: +100% Life and Damage
+(3 to 5) to Necromancer Skill Levels
+(31 to 60)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(75 to 150)% to Summoned Minion Attack Rating
+(130 to 180)% Enhanced Defense
+(500 to 1000) Defense
Maximum Cold Resist +(1 to 2)%
Elemental Resists +(15 to 25)%
Socketed (4)

or some other Summoner Necro piece: +sizeable amount of high level Spark of Hope charges (non-snapshottable ideally to avoid using it just for yourself on a non-summoner)
to buff Veil King, Golem and Abyssal Knights
» rechargeable with Hem Runes and Katamari jewels

Goetia Plate

Goetia Plate
Full Plate Mail (Sacred)
Defense: (8467 - 9339) to (10376 - 11445)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 700
Item Level: 120
+3 to All Skills
+1 to Maximum Necromancer Minions
+(151 to 200)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(51 to 75)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(172 to 200)% Enhanced Defense
+100 Life Regenerated per Second
+750 to Life
+375 to Mana
-4 to Light Radius
Socketed (6)

+35 charges of high duration Mythal
Goetia doesn't really need a buff per se, it's a very good armor as is. But it would be a super nice thing for elemental damage summons like Pala's Scourges and Shrooms. Players are limited in ways to give summons extra pierce, Mythal on a summoner item would be a great option.
» rechargeable with Farsight Globes and Taha runes

Now let's take on one of the most extreme examples: Superbeast

In the past, Superbeast and some other ultimates existed on Buried Hawk (super rare unique amulet). That was deemed way too strong, so the Hawk got buried

Superbeast and co existed as CotWs and later on as socketable relics. That was deemed too strong, so they were removed from the pool - now only returning during fun special seasons

The problem with those was: the system was binary. Player either had no Superbeast at all, or had full unlimited access to it. If you had it, there was no reason not to use it all the time.


With charge-based system, you can put Superbeast on some SSSU with 3-5 charges or even bring it back in a relic form (with charges too ofc). So even though people can gain access to "The OP Morph", it is very limited. Instead of running around in SB all the time player needs to use it wisely and cautiously, like vs hardest bosses / in highest labs. Dying also means -1 precious charge of Morph, plus it still has limited duration.

To recharge such powerful skills, strongest bosses could have a chance to drop a special reagent - partially to increase incentive of beating and farming them. Most people who farm T10 labs simply ignore Deimoss unless they have a key to upgrade. Some (even chance-based) reason to beat her at the end of every T10 run would be nice.

Additionally, some items with strongest skills can have special bossfight-related challenges/conditions to recharge them. Like "Beat Deimoss with all optional modifiers active. Must activate the two Heralds before any other spires"
-> 8 second window to recharge any SSSU or relic just by cubing it. Or longer window, but hard limit on the numbers of items that can be recharged in that time - if that's codeable.

Speaking of bosses dropping special reagents...

Boss orbs

A relatively simple concept that I wanted to put into words for a while

Goals of the system

1. Create something very flexible in its use, with list of applications expandable over time
2. Add some occasional highlights to the repetitive process of running same boss over and over while farming trophies
3. Add another "currency" to the game similar to ACs and Signets for people to use in trading

Core concept

Bosses on Hell have a chance to drop a special orb (name pending, will just call it boss orb for now). There is also a more powerful version - an Ultimate Orb - that only drops from the hardest endgame bosses. Drop chance factors:
» Higher boss level = higher drop rate
» Higher bossfight difficulty = higher drop rate
» Accessibility = lower drop rate for bosses that are fast/easy to get to like QT, higher for the Void, Uldy and such

Numbers are rough estimates and would need thorough playtesting either way. So take them with a grain of salt.

Approximate drop rates for normal boss orbs

» Drop chance scaling from 5% from Butcher to ~25% from Uldyssian
» To consider: 1-2% chance to drop from minibosses on the way to Uldy / 3% from minibosses on the way to Inarius in the Void
» To consider #2: a very very small chance for orbs to drop anywhere on Hell so that players would find some through normal farming

After the player is done with lvl 105-115 bosses (assuming some additional runs to get better rolled charms) they should be expected to have 4-5 boss orbs on average.

► Uses for normal boss orbs

Uses for normal boss orbs

Any SU with charge-based skill + Boss Orb => recharge SU
Any SSU with charge-based skill + 2 Boss Orbs => recharge SSU

Catalyst of Learning + Orb => Large Signet of Learning
Catalyst of Learning + 5 Orbs => Greater Signet of Learning

Catalyst of Disenchantment + Orb => 3 Arcane Crystals
Catalyst of Disenchantment + 5 Orbs => Arcane Cluster with 15 ACs in it

Catalyst of Disenchantment + Catalyst of Learning + 2 Orbs => Belladonna Extract

2 Trophy Fragments (same trophy frags, only works for boss trophies up to lvl 120) + 3 Orbs => full trophy
1 Trophy fragment (up to lvl 120) + 6 Orbs => full trophy

^ basically substitute 1 or 2 fragments for Orbs to make a trophy. Recipe works with level 120 trophies max (Kingdom of Shadow/Dunc/Jday)

Zan Esu's Stone jewel + Orb => cycle through f > l > c > p versions (4 cube recipes are required for that)
The Searing Heat + 5 Orbs => The Biting Frost, and vice versa (2 cube recipes)
Emblem + Orb => cycle through Emblem types in specific order (6 recipes)
X Orbs + item with multiple versions => cycle through versions in a predetermined order

^ that would be a nice deterministic option for SSF and SP players who might need ages to find the correct version of the item that they want

Ghost Trance + 3 Orbs => Nats design
Xazax Charm + 3 Orbs => Book of Cain design
Weather Control + 3 Orbs => Valk Prime design

^ for unlucky people who struggle to find those

Crafted Jewel + 4 Orbs => Duplicate the Jewel (end up with 2 identical jewels in cube, except one of them could get a "Mirrored" tag of some sort, but that's a design choice)

^ legal duping for crafted jewels and maybe rare rings (much higher orb cost for rings). Necessity of "Mirrored" tag is arguable. Tag would bring PoEsque "Mirror services" to the TSW economy

► Experimental and harder to implement uses

Experimental & harder to implement uses

Orb + set piece => next piece from the same set in order
weapon -> off hand -> helm -> body armor -> gloves -> belt -> boots

Orb + Enhanced Rune up to Urt => Enhanced Rune of next tier
2 Orbs + Enhanced Rune up to Lux => Enhanced Rune of next tier
4 Orbs + Enhanced Rune up to Vez => Enhanced Rune of next tier

Fireheart Totem relic + 3 Orbs => Stormeye Totem relic; => Frostclaw; => back to Fireheart

^ potential cycle recipes for some groups of relics

Ultimate Orb

Drops only from hardest endgame bosses. Approximate drop rates:
Phoboss: 0.5-2% chance scaling with Phoboss/lab level
Laz: 3%
Sescheron's Destroyer: 6%
Samael: 8%
Deimoss: 3% base +2% per activated spire (maybe rebalanced for the regen spire to give more than others) for a total of ~15% for max difficulty
Nithogur: 15%

► Uses for Ultimate Orbs

Uses for Ultimate Orbs

SSSU with charge-based skill or ultimate relic + Ultimate Orb => refresh the charges
SSSU + 2 Ultimate Orbs => fully reroll the SSSU anew = Divine Orb + MO cleanup service + uncorrupt + unlucky + refresh charges

^ SSSUs are super rare, sucks when your super rare drop rolled bad or your yolo corruption bricked it with +100 lvl reqs

2 Trophy Fragments (for the same charm, only works for boss trophies lvl 125 and up) + Ultimate Orb => full trophy
1 Trophy fragment (lvl 125 and up) + 2 Ultimate Orbs => full trophy

Any Runeword + Ultimate Orb => disassemble RW like Oil of Disjunction would if it worked on successful RWs

Ultimate Orb + perfect Duncraig charm (with +2 to each class) => unique version of the Duncraig charm with all of class skills compressed into a singular +2 to All Skills line
+ same recipe for Bone Pile and Xazax charms (Xazax recipe shouldn't care about poison and life regen rolls)

^ great for oskill builds... and flexing

15 Ultimate Orbs in cube -> Atomus (on average would take 100 max difficulty Deimoss / Nith kills)

^ for most hardcore min-maxers to play seasons to the very end)

► Experimental and very hard to implement uses for Ultimate Orbs

Experimental and very hard to implement uses for Ultimate Orbs

Any class-restricted item + 3 Ultimate orbs => remove class restriction

^ Would require a bunch of cloned SUs with transition to different bases - Claws changed into 1h Swords, Druid animal masks changed to look like normal helms etc. Insane amount of work, but could be a theme for the craziest goblin season ever. Idea by Magz


Any Sacred Unique with an orange mod + 2 Ultimate Orbs => upgrade the orange mod (once per item)

^ Even if devs were to like this idea, that would be an absolutely enormous amount of work. As in, Sigma 3.5 things... or something like that

Will add more use ideas over time. Feedback and constructive criticism appreciated

[Rusev]

I think the actual owner of the rights of the mod should just wrapped up and sell it to blizzard.

[Maertsy]

Love your ideas and respect your effort. My feedback:

- Resurrect relic should not give the % life regen. Resurrect Snapshot features maybe impossible to code because of old game engine.

- Paradoxica is super hard to scale, why it gives only 90% of the stats diff? I would double that number. Comparing to default easy scale weapons: throwing axe and crystal sword give 45% of a stat; 2 handed ele give like 80% of a stat. But fuck balance right?

- Equilibrium: aw yiss perfectly balanced, as all things should be. But it takes us years to exactly equalize the stats. Because each of them are already multiplied by a different % number. How about making this acceptable: 1010 str, 1013 dex, 1015 vit, 1019 ene.

- Freedom of Choice effigy. +all skills itself is a very valuable stat in the game. +12 alls on a Elemental Disciple is crazy. Even if you make this effigy turns just your own class +skills into +alls, and make the item become your class only, then the effigy is still OP.

- The OoB skill is inadequate with your creativity.

- I love your thoughts more than the skills/items. And in future please consider giving ideas to early game skills/items, too.

[imngocson]

Kudos for all ideas. Some of those are really interesting!

[p2w]

I totally agree with your stance on game design and game balance

[Taem]

Regarding your proposition on Shrinecrafts, I'm not sure I understand the purpose of separating 0-Skills, not the assumption you'd need less shrines to craft what you want. This seems to speak directly from your own personal experience, but not necessarily everyone else'. My experience is quite difference in that when I am crafting gloves or boots for my sorc, for example, after rolling a perfect superior item, I am then looking for a perfect Shrine roll of -enemy element resist combined with +element damage and +skills. Of course +'s to mana/energy/spell focus is ideal, but not necessary. Then, you bless that shit and if the roll of the Bless is also not perfect on -enemy resists, then you start all over... You need a perfect craft, esp endgame, and this can take eons of rolls! My point is if your proposition is to reduce the time finding that perfect O-skill, then your suggestion is a fine one for people looking for 0-Skill builds, however if your suggestion is to reduce the number of shrines used for people making crafts like me, then it really doesn't do much; I hardly see any O-skills pop up on my crafts so, it might save me possibly 3-5% of my shines, but not enough to make a huge difference, IMO. Perhaps I am simply misunderstanding your suggestion, if you'd like to elaborate?

[GodlyPancakes]

I agree with how you said things that are unused should be removed/replaced

[TopDimas]

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