EQ2’s Game Update 61 (scheduled for Tuesday 23rd of August Update: and delayed til Thursday 25th!) brings with it an item revamp for level 20-90. Intrigued, Maltheas stepped into Zoltoon’s patented Chronobarrel, to see what would be in store. For future events such as these will effect us in the future.
EQ2’s itemisation has been amiss ever since the Stat Revamp rendered all but two stats useless for every class. There has also been a gradual inflation in item power that has left items from launch areas desperately poor compared with items of the same level from newer areas. So then, the Item Revamp is badly needed, and I rejoice in its arrival. If it is done right, that is!
The Item Revamp is a work in progress on the test servers right now, but as I always say, we can only look at what is, not at what might be later, so lets have at it!
Many existing items appear unchanged, while others have been updated with new stats, sometimes even leaping from treasured to legendary. I don’t mind too much either way, as some of the fun will be exploring and finding wondrous new gear. Part of me does suddenly have buyer’s remorse about quest rewards which can never now be re-attained, especially as Maltheas has largely done any quests with rewards he’ll be able to use any time soon. Even if the items were being updated, it would not help matters, as they’d have been transmuted for being rubbish a long time ago! It’s hard to see how this effect could have been avoided, so Maltheas shall bear it bravely and seek out fine new equipment!
Crafted gear has all been retroactively boosted. Test-Malth’s crafted armour upgraded quite nicely, in fact! The yellow number is from the adornments he has plugged in, rather than being part of the item. Original is on the left, and revamped is on the right.
Everquest 2 - Crafted Gear in the Item Revamp
To check out how loot has changed, I swang over to Runnyeye, via the Enchanted Lands.
While in the Enchanted Lands, I took the opportunity to knock off a few nameds that I expected would be up on such a quiet server. Chomper, The Sludge Creep, and the Essence of Darkness fell to Rodcet’s light. The results were interesting:
Some Loot from the Enchanted Lands Named Monsters
Each dropped at least a legendary piece. It has a very obvious feel of having been algorithmically generated, lacking some of the flavour of the old drops. The Essence of Darkness did drop the Wicked Cutthroats chain Leggings of Pure Darkness, but I’m not sure if the name was pure coincidence or not.
The druid-only plate bracers from Chomper were rather disturbing. Nothing, be it algorithm or designer, should have created such a monstrosity. I hope there’s not too much gear like that.
Do they all have their own loot tables still, or is it shared across the zone, or even tier? Only one way to find out, with another round of beating up the same beasties. Just as soon as they get around to respawning. Research! That’s how we roll around here!
Aha! The Sludge Creep dropped the Fiendish Fateseer’s Spaulders of Acumen again. This is good, as bosses should have some degree of predictability in what they drop. I hope he does have a few more drops, and I just happened to get lucky there. The Essence of Darkness drops some Unyielding Veteran’s Legplates of the Stalwart, so I’m reckoning that the darkness in the name of his last drop was sheer synchronicity. Chomper drops some legendary cloth wrists, Spellbound Prodigy’s Cuff’s of Focus, this time usable by all classes.
Anyhows, that was a small sample of overland heroic bosses. I have a whole lot of Legendary drops. Seems adorners may well find getting their higher end ingredients a little more easy going forward.
Delving into Runnyeye, I rejoiced to see that the Clay Insurgent still dropped the Clay Band of Subterfuge, in a new updated form,and no longer restricted to scouts, not that anyone else would really wear it. This is far more how I hoped things would work out.
Mudslinger, however, was only carrying an Adept book, which did not seem right at all. Perhaps his drops got missed in all of this. As only the second Runnyeye named I slew, that was a little bit worrying.
On a second slaying, Mudslinger was a bit more generous and gave up the legendary Muddite Limb of Beating, which also seemed to be an up to date item. So, from this small sample it seems that Runnyeye’s boss drops have kept their flavour. Hopefully that applies to all other dungeons too.
Mudslinger and the Clay Insurgent are generous hosts.
Brief Thought: The simple + Ability Modifier seems to have been phased out for new gear, with Potency in its stead. Do they stack, and is Potency capped? Might be worth keeping keeping some +Ability gear around, just in case.
Overall, I think the Item Revamp will be beneficial. It’s long overdue, and might lead to a little more action in some of the excellent older content. I’m not too comfortable with the generic feel of much of the gear though. It would be good to know if there are still items with interestingly unique properties and procs out there.
Something that does make me bitterly unhappy is that Heritage Quest rewards have not been improved. I spoke about how badly they had been left behind in a previous post, but with the new competition, they are so bad that it is almost funny. Heritage Quests are supposed to be some of the most epic and meaningful quests in the game, and it is desperately important that the rewards are brought up to scratch (and purchasable from Shady Swashbuckler, as usual for Heritage rewards).
The other thing I thought needed updating in that post were the Qeynos and Freeport T3 armour quests. Doesn’t look like that gear has been updated either.
There’s still some time before this is due to go live at the end of August, so perhaps they may yet feel the magical touch of GU 61’s Item Revamp!
Tune in next time, when I weep bitter tears over what the AA Revamp is going to do to poor Maltheas!