07-16-2003, 10:34 PM
Occhidiangela: 3. Gems and Runes will be firmly established as the currency on the Ladder Only Realms.
Why? Rarity of the Gold and Set Items.
I don't think Unique and Set items will be uncommon at all.
From the bit of playing I've done in 1.10, I was floored by how much Green & Gold drops in NM and Hell. It looks like most of the Unique monsters have been set to have a very high likelihood to drop Unique or Set the first time you kill them, similar to the act bosses. I ran in to 4 Unique bosses in the Blood Moor in Hell, and only covered a third of the Blood Moor. I'm not sure if the "Merc-gets-killing-hit" trick works on these bosses, but it certainly does with Mephisto.
The funny thing is, what I had the hardest time finding was a plain, non-magic Elite armor. Everything that the vendors offer to my high level characters is magic, so is no use for Rune Words. I finally found an Embossed Plate (Exceptional Gothic Plate), in the time that I gained 6 levels with my character (Level 54 to 60). I saved the item and copied it a few times (not an option in Realm), and did the socketing recipe on 5 of them. (Results: two 4-socket, one each of 3, 2 and 1 socket).
I guess one thing that will happen is "Non-MF" runs, to get Elite versions of items for Runewords. :S
I have found that a character levels very fast to the 60s, fast enough that someone could create characters just to get the "First Kill" drops on the Hell Unique monsters if the Merc Kill trick doesn't work, or gets "fixed". Once someone has managed to put together a serious MF set to twink those characters with, Unique and Set items will be common.
I don't think it's a bad thing, it's a lot more fun PLAYING a character through than it is to do continuous Mephisto runs. It seems to be a lot better for the casual player, but how it will work out on the Realms remains to be seen.
I do agree that the Runes will be the new economy, but they won't scale up based on their relative value in the Upgrade recipe line. Since you can't DOWNGRADE a Rune, Zod has a very limited value. Ral, Tal, Amn and Thul, although low level Runes, will be in demand for the socketing recipes. Since the number of sockets can be anything up to the item's maximum, it can take a lot of tries to get an item with the number of sockets you want.
One thing that I haven't seen is anything with the "+X% Experience gained" attribute. That should help the folks who want to race to Level 99, if they can collect enough of them. I'll be surprised if someone doesn't hit 99 on the Realm Ladder within the first month. :) The Arreat Summit states that [i]" The maximum experience gain is limited to 1 character level" for A5Q5 (Ancient's Quest). If the actual reward IS 1 CLevel, then the power levelers will only need to get to level 96 IF they can complete Baal without completing that quest. That should be do-able, since you don't get credit it you are less than 20/40/60 when you kill the Ancients. Just go through them at CLevel 19/39/59. :)
I agree that there will be folks selling items to suckers, one thing I bet that they will be trying to sell will be the "First-Kill" characters I mentioned. Run a new character through the game, collecting all of the good stuff. Once the character has gotten all of the "First-Kill" Unique boss drops, they will sell them as High-Level characters. Minus what they found, of course. :)
Why? Rarity of the Gold and Set Items.
I don't think Unique and Set items will be uncommon at all.
From the bit of playing I've done in 1.10, I was floored by how much Green & Gold drops in NM and Hell. It looks like most of the Unique monsters have been set to have a very high likelihood to drop Unique or Set the first time you kill them, similar to the act bosses. I ran in to 4 Unique bosses in the Blood Moor in Hell, and only covered a third of the Blood Moor. I'm not sure if the "Merc-gets-killing-hit" trick works on these bosses, but it certainly does with Mephisto.
The funny thing is, what I had the hardest time finding was a plain, non-magic Elite armor. Everything that the vendors offer to my high level characters is magic, so is no use for Rune Words. I finally found an Embossed Plate (Exceptional Gothic Plate), in the time that I gained 6 levels with my character (Level 54 to 60). I saved the item and copied it a few times (not an option in Realm), and did the socketing recipe on 5 of them. (Results: two 4-socket, one each of 3, 2 and 1 socket).
I guess one thing that will happen is "Non-MF" runs, to get Elite versions of items for Runewords. :S
I have found that a character levels very fast to the 60s, fast enough that someone could create characters just to get the "First Kill" drops on the Hell Unique monsters if the Merc Kill trick doesn't work, or gets "fixed". Once someone has managed to put together a serious MF set to twink those characters with, Unique and Set items will be common.
I don't think it's a bad thing, it's a lot more fun PLAYING a character through than it is to do continuous Mephisto runs. It seems to be a lot better for the casual player, but how it will work out on the Realms remains to be seen.
I do agree that the Runes will be the new economy, but they won't scale up based on their relative value in the Upgrade recipe line. Since you can't DOWNGRADE a Rune, Zod has a very limited value. Ral, Tal, Amn and Thul, although low level Runes, will be in demand for the socketing recipes. Since the number of sockets can be anything up to the item's maximum, it can take a lot of tries to get an item with the number of sockets you want.
One thing that I haven't seen is anything with the "+X% Experience gained" attribute. That should help the folks who want to race to Level 99, if they can collect enough of them. I'll be surprised if someone doesn't hit 99 on the Realm Ladder within the first month. :) The Arreat Summit states that [i]" The maximum experience gain is limited to 1 character level" for A5Q5 (Ancient's Quest). If the actual reward IS 1 CLevel, then the power levelers will only need to get to level 96 IF they can complete Baal without completing that quest. That should be do-able, since you don't get credit it you are less than 20/40/60 when you kill the Ancients. Just go through them at CLevel 19/39/59. :)
I agree that there will be folks selling items to suckers, one thing I bet that they will be trying to sell will be the "First-Kill" characters I mentioned. Run a new character through the game, collecting all of the good stuff. Once the character has gotten all of the "First-Kill" Unique boss drops, they will sell them as High-Level characters. Minus what they found, of course. :)