Hey thids, from your post i read that you have an issue with the useless items such as the banded mail and the gear that you consider favor sneaks.Thids wrote:It's nice to see epic shops being added to the game, there are several things that bother me with the new one.
Let's start with the armor selection:
+4AC, +3str... banded mail... What is the purpose of this armor exactly? I would really, really like to hear an explanation. Are you trying to get more people to use banded mails? This isn't the way to go about that, you change the stats of the banded mail if you want that. Or, better yet, change the pve environment so that it doesn't require 50AC at epic levels.
Sneak items... You not only introduced a few +3 hide/ms items, which the sneak lobby (falsely) claimed were not present in game, but you went a step further and added a +4 hide/ms item to the shop. Talk about offering a finger and losing a hand. Oh, but it's okay, the +4hide/ms boots don't have AC. That's a big nerf, seeing as AC is very important when you are "sneaking" 24/7.
weapons:
Blackjack... really? Are you serious? You made a shop with blunt weapons like flails, maces, morningstars and then you make Blackjack a shortsword in disguise? If Banded mail was a move against "power creep", why wasn't the blackjack made a proper flail then? :^) Why was blackjack made a finessable weapon? We are talking about a +4EB, 1d4 piercing damage and +3hide/ms one-handed weapon which is finessable, while pretending to be a flail.
The Dark Heart, another shortsword disguised as a flail. +4eb +2 vamp regen. Yet another weapon designed for ptwf sneaks. From the last discussion about enchanting, I got the impression that vamp regen was frowned upon, or does that only count for non-sneaks?
Rest of the weapons, and the lode and whet stones seem really nice though. I still don't understand why you went ahead with the unpopular items first. If you want them used more, this is not the way to do it. Throwing disguise on flails just so you could stick with the theme of the shop while directly giving two ridiculous weapons to sneaks was a cheap shot though.
Let me begin by saying that this is a great change for two reasons.
First epic shops close the gap between meleers and casters ( and those with grandfathered items ) by having epic equipment available to all. So far casters had Epic equipment just by casting GMW, Magic Vestments, Mage armor etc.
Second, epic items are available for all, not just loot grinders or dm rewards and the suspicion behind them ( favoritism, how often they happen, who gets them etc )
Now, about the issues you mentioned. At its first implementation the epic shop had epic weapons for every taste, literally. We were told to tone it down and only have epic items of the least used weapons and armors and take it from there. Alright, the least used weapons are items that can also be used by sneaks ( mostly all finessable weapons ). What you want us to do? Not have anything introduced? The ones dont want popular weapons, the other dont want weapons that can be used by sneaks... where do we begin?
Some of us hope, that in the end there will be epic stores that will cover everyone. We hope this is the beginning. In the end we hope there will be epic longswords, scimitars full plates, epic sneak items etc. Of course there will be items that we dont like, For example you have an issue with the +4hide/ms boots, I might have an issue for items being added that can be used for FSs etc. That will always be the case. However arguing why this got added in theory wont solve anything. Play a sneak and prove if those boots will make it better for that character rather tha the +2AC, +3hide/ms that you can currently buy. Prove that this sneak character is better from your current one for example. Otherwise, just arguing for arguments sake, will only delay the process.
You can ban me from having any sneak item from the store. Really, I dont need them...
Yes... nothing more to say!
