I’m setting up the thread like this because I’d like to ultimately discuss all areas of equipment, but such a discussion would be much too massive for anything constructive to get done. Unfortunately, equipment in this game provides a sense of “illusion of choice” where there are loads of Epic + Legendary equipment but 90% of it is simply a placeholder for the true BiS to arrive. Between the saturation of sets, the formidable amount of passives that make +1 to skills more important than anything else, and RR overtaking near anything else, gear slots are sadly limited to a few choices:
- Is it part of a set you’re building around? If yes, you’re likely picking it.
- For weapons / rings, does it give stackable RR? If yes, you’re likely taking it, even if the skill bonuses do nothing for your build.
- For Head + Amulet slots, does it provide %CDR and even remotely gives you good skill points? If yes, anything else has a hard time justifying itself.
- For belts, does it provide +1 to your class skill, or even +1 to both your skills? If not, then likely a hard pass.
- For gloves, does it provide %Speed + a modifier related to one of your skill choices? If so, you’re likely picking it and moving on.
While skill allocation and bonuses are best left for people trying to improve certain skills, there should be a significant boost between softcap, +6 to the skill, +8 to the skill, and full overcap - sometimes skills reach a breakpoint and then there’s no real benefit to adding any more skill points. Blade Spirit - for example - has a 15% DPS gap in Bleeding between 24/16 and 26/16; definitely enough of a boost that if you’re building around this skill, it provides a real choice as to whether to take equipment that gives that last +2 or go for equipment that gives better bonuses everywhere else. I don’t know which pants provide any necessary skill bonuses - most of the time I see people take the pants for the straight OA/DA bonuses or to cover up resistances from filling up every other slot. Note that skill point allocation can help balance overperforming builds by removing skill points from perfectly syngergistic gear and placing them in less optimal equipment so you have to choose between two or more competing slots instead of having everything in one package.
Outside of being used for skill points and resistances, several pants try to make their own identity with their own procs. Take Barbaros pants, the 150% to all Damage proc provides a 5% DPS increase at around 3,000% damage, and the 10% Total Speed increase corresponds to a further 5% increase when going from 180% Attack Speed to 190% Attack Speed, meaning that your total DPS is increased by approximately 10%. Can you really come out and say Wave of Fire from Mythical Runeplates of Ignaffar increase your DPS by 10% at any time? How about Feral Lash from Feralmane Leggings? Can you really say that adds 10% to your total DPS? And here, people were complaining that removing the 20% Armor bonus on pants that singlehandedly add 10% DPS to any attacking build was too much of a nerf! I’d personally like to see procs either significantly buffed or revamped entirely. DPS never seems to be an issue around here - it’s usually survivability facing multiple Nemeses at once that does people in. Do people think the proc in Fateweaver’s Leggings has too little uptime for it to be worth it? Make the cooldown shorter so that people would want to use it the same way people use Barbaros pants. Make things interesting for players!
I’d say we go over each of the underwhelming equipment - based on people’s expertise in playing - and find a way to buff those equipment slots so that there can be actual choice instead of illusion of choice? Do you want procs on these armor pieces? Make sure they significantly add to your DPS like Barbaros pants do. Should we have more pants that have 100 OA or DA like Barbaros pants (on offense) or Arcane Harmony Leggings (for defense) do, because what is having 20 or 30 OA or DA adding to a build? It’s great seeing pants that add 100 Cunning or Spirit (or both in the case of Really Great Pants) because it allows people a lot more flexibility when mapping out their build. Do people really need procs like 20% Armor for them to survive? I’d say tone down Enemy damage, but if the numbers must stay, put the procs on pants that certain classes need it much more (Melee Tricksters was a class someone mentioned, so put it on pants like Feralmane Leggings). I know we can really help out underperforming builds if we think of ways of improving equipment. It’s not power creep if the items were so bad that nobody ever used them in the first place.
:rolleyes: