Median XL 2016 Announced

[Ben-]

Plz my pierce

[Marco]

@Stealthmaster: they are too random as in "they are not generic stats". It's the same logic for reanimates.
[spoil=What about jewerly ones...]I know that same thing can be said about jewelry ones (wyrd, summons) - but this is just a part of a process. The jewelry ones serve a determined role right now at least (wyrd-based builds, lolsummons) but they should be eventually replaced as well. Wyrd should probably be re-designed into UMO. Lolsummons would need to become low level runewords instead so that the builds based on them (mainly summoner necro) keep existing.[/spoil]

The problem with mystic orbs is general. They have killed item diversity big time. What is the point of an item with -25% enemy lightning resistances when you can just put a few of those MO in your empyrean band. Basically, all stats that meet the condition of "X of this is enough" (resists and pierce for the most part) have become almost dead stats on items. With these removed, people will seek a wider range of stats in their equipment. Imagine a very dumb scenario: 1% time strike on striking is implemented - how much people would continue using items like SotS? While it seems such change would hurt runewords/crafts more than unique items, that is actually false.

I am not saying MOs are bad design - in fact, they are a fanstastic feature. But they should be limited to crafting and honorifics only. Maybe runewords too. But certainly not uniques - unique items are clearly the superior kind, making them MOable does nothing but extend the edge they have over the other itemtypes.

@Naabaanit: the goal here is to slowly remove MO dependency. This only gives us good things:
- shorten the viability gap between uniques and crafts/rws
- spend less time cubing
- prevention of easy gear-checking / unintuitive ways to play the game (%res for qt, lc2, lolsummons vs witches, pierce vs heroics, etc.)
- lower the advantage of old players over new ones AKA "reduce the amount of knowledge required to beat the game" (MOs are far from obvious if you're new to the game)
- reduce that feeling of "what the fuck is going on" when it's your first time playing MXL and you go speak to akara.

As I said this is just part of a process. And yes, the shift in the game will be big, not only thanks to this change, but to more upcoming ones. Removal of MOs isn't equal to making the game harder, the necessary changes and adjustments will be done to enemies to keep the difficulty of the game similar. And weakening all monsters allows the possibility of stronger monsters - which lowers the necessity of mechanics such as heroic shields and whatnot.

[Naabaanit]

Alright, Marco, I understand your choice. It is kind of hard for me to imagine specific MOs leaving, though, and it is certainly going to be different without the autonomous action of creating honorific resist boots for Act 2 and onward. I guess I'll just have to see how it goes, but +1 to you if this means a reduction of heroic nonsense.

[Food]

@Food: not really. The MO count is.

Whelp, I should learn not to speak when I'm as tired as I am right now.

I want to comment on the change but I don't have to necessary mental capacity to do so right now, so I'll just say this: please consider the fact that you'll need to change and rebalance a lot of content.

And, just out of curiosity, how do you suggest completing the countess challenge without summons?

[Stealthmaster]

And, just out of curiosity, how do you suggest completing the countess challenge without summons?

Even if lolsummon MO's are removed one beautiful day, we still have TU Heavy Crossbow to equip

[Hello_Retard]

Remove one tree skill influence holy or unholy and bring back old build holy caster.

[whist]

Note that some of these mystic orbs will still be obtainable from monster drops (which also gives these drops a purpose).

Will the sold ones get removed from drops at the same time? Else that will make it tedious to check every damn orbs that drop in case it could be one you want. Either that or add the desc in the item's name, but this has the downside of adding text to the already very limited "alt overview"

[Taem]

@Food: not really. The MO count is.

@SB: many of the removed MOs won't have that much impact in the game. I'll explain the whys and whichs:

- Jewerly: crafting points. This MO totally killed the purpose of crafting points as a whole. Obvious pick.
- Weapon: melee procs (4) - too random to be mystic orbs.
- Weapon: health / mana on striking / max damage (3) - these stats do not fit to the leveling progression as they are flat amounts.
- Weapon: stun attack (1) - completely useless and misleading.
- Weapon: IAS / FCR (2) - not really used.
- Armor: hp/mana when struck (2) - similar to weapon case, flat amounts don't fit leveling progression
- Armor: individual resistances (4) - these promoted gear checking in certain uberquests (psn belial, or tri-ele against quov tsin, tal rasha)
- Armor: fallen one / skeleton reanimates (2) - for the reason you mentioned
- Armor: curse length reduction (1) - useless
- Armor: teleport when struck (1) - too random, similar to weapon orbs
- Any: damage reduced (1) - same logic here for flat amounts.
- Any: flat stats (4) - their only real purpose was to quickly obtain a certain stat without respeccing. Not that useful
- Any: elemental pierces (4) - these completely fucked up the game right the day they were born. Bye bye!

Note that some of these mystic orbs will still be obtainable from monster drops (which also gives these drops a purpose).

As for 1x1 items, those are pretty much test items that contain all charm stats, to save up space. Yes, TEST items that won't make it into the game.

Interesting idea. Would require testing ofc. I'd most likely keep all MO in the game as droppable, but exclude them permanently from the vendor, then they actually become a rare commodity and people will have to choose if it's worth farming for a bazillion orbs to get the you "want", or get the gear check you "need". I honestly feel this would solve all the problems here, just remove orbs from vendors.

[RollsRoyce]

yay nice the progress is made

will those removed itemstats be used for some fresh new ones ? - If so this could be an awesome patch

[xzmnick]

Interesting idea. Would require testing ofc. I'd most likely keep all MO in the game as droppable, but exclude them permanently from the vendor, then they actually become a rare commodity and people will have to choose if it's worth farming for a bazillion orbs to get the you "want", or get the gear check you "need". I honestly feel this would solve all the problems here, just remove orbs from vendors.

YAY +1 entertaining area to farm - hatred den of evol.
But seriously, keep the lolsummons mo. I want them for my build next ladder.