While Zenith’s masteries are being slightly tuned up with more skills and more inter/intra-synergistic skill lines, development of other areas of the overall gameplay overhaul mod are slowly trekking along as well. In this miniblog, I want to talk about Zenith’s itemization and crafting systems.
To do that, we first need to consider Grim Dawn’s existing item and crafting systems. While probably mindnumbingly familiar to most of you by now, Zenith’s systems are so different that it’s worth remembering the fine minutiae of their basis.
Common items are generally not of use to anyone past a very early level. They are the base items used to apply the vast majority of affixes to so as to make more powerful versions of themselves.
Magic items are simply Common items with one or two Magic-tier affixes. Nothing too special.
Rare items are where things get interesting in the Vanilla GD system. They are either Common items with one or two Rare-tier affixes, or they themselves are Rare-tier monster infrequents with heightened base stats relative to their Common peers.
Epic items are the first ‘uniques’ players will find and have higher base stats than even their Rare counterparts, feature innate variable stats comparable to a Rare/Magic affix combo, but for the most part cannot be affixed themselves (exceptions being Decorated Pauldrons, for instance).
Finally, Legendary items are the fantastically powerful ‘uniques’ one shoots for at endgame. They sport much superior base stats even to their Epic counterparts, several variable stats on par with even two Rare affixes, and sometimes can be affixed themselves (e.g., Badge of Mastery).
Crafting any of the above is very simple, aside from Common items, which can’t be crafted (why would you, anyways?). Crafting Magics and Rares requires only some scrap and sometimes some components, and Crafting any of the uniques requires some components, rare crafting mats, and rarely a Rare base item or a relic. Unfortunately, this sort of crafting system is very one-to-one; that is to say, you rarely take one crafted item and use it elsewhere in crafting (exception being using relics to make some Legendaries). This seems very unfortunate for an otherwise fully-fleshed out crafting system.
Zenith is heavily inspired not only by Grim Dawn but also by Dark Souls. Those familiar with the Dark Souls games likely know what that entails for Zenith’s items/crafting, but for those unfamiliar, here’s how Zenith is looking to approach the system:
Zenith first suggests that ‘Magic’ items are irrelevant clutter. So Yellow items will not be seen in the mod (although perhaps they may be used for special non-gear items? Hm…). Zenith also endeavors to more clearly make the different item types separate from one another while also allowing the types to compete with each other. How is this accomplished? Improvement (aka crafting).
Improvement is a crafting system that takes as input one base item and some other reagents and spits out a higher-quality, more potent, and more customizable version of that item. More importantly, the same item may go through several steps of Improvement, and each stage may have branching choices associated with it. For instance, suppose we had some base hammer (Generic Hammer I) dealing solely Physical damage that we managed to drop from an enemy. If we took this hammer to a blacksmith, we would be able to pick and choose between one of several ways to upgrade it. We could give it some Fire Damage, if we wanted to, for instance. We would then be using a higher-quality but same-loot-tier item (Enflamed Generic Hammer II). If we came back later, we could take our Enflamed Generic Hammer II and possibly choose between giving it some more Fire Damage, some Burn Damage, some Conversion, or even a Fire-based proc, for instance. We would then have one of any number of Enflamed Generic Hammer III’s. But wait! What if instead of making our Generic Hammer I into an Enflamed Generic Hammer II, what if we made it a Glacial Generic Hammer II? Or an Aetherwarped Generic Hammer II? Being able to customize and improve any item several times allows for a small pool of base items to grow into a vast collection of powerful tools to pick and choose from, provided you have the materials.
Zenith is intending to divide its four tiers of items up as follows:
Common items are intended to have 1-2 variable stats associated with them by default. A variable stat is one other than Base Armor or Base Weapon Damage, for instance. All Common items will also have 5 tiers of Improvement associated with them.
Rare items, much like our current Monster Infrequents, should have 2-3 variable stats, but only three tiers of Improvement. However, each tier will be more costly but also more rewarding than the 5 of Common items.
Epic items will also be much like our current Epic items, with approximately 4-5 variable stats. Like Common items, they’re intended to have 5 tiers of Improvement.
You can probably figure out the intention with Legendary items at this point. 6-8 variable stats, 3 tiers of Improvement, but again each more costly and rewarding than those of their Epic item peers.
“This is all well and good, Ceno, but I’ve spent 800,000 hours in Diablo III and hope you’re going to have some awesome sets for me to hunt down.”
I won’t judge your life choices, but I will confirm that Zenith will have its sets…
…however, it will NOT have Weapon sets or Weapons as part of sets. Why is this? My intention with Zenith is to engage Weapon Swapping as an active part of play, so I don’t want players to lose some degree of power by choosing to use one weapon type over another when the situation demands it. In fact, I would much prefer rewarding such aspiring players. This means sets will only involve Jewelry and Armor pieces, though it’s also worth noting that the two will not be mixed (i.e., a set will not have both Jewelry and Armor involved in its completion). I like that concept because it allows Jewelry and Armor sets to be distinct from each other and guaranteed to be capable of being paired with one another to completion.
One thing to note, however, is that there will be no set bonii until the very last ranks of a set (n/n or n-1/n). It’s (mostly) all or nothing. This is heavily inspired by Dark Souls, too, of course. I’m doing this because I want to make individual set pieces strong and unique in their own right and to kill a meta where players just assemble partial sets upon their character in every way, shape, and form. That just feels yucky to build AND look at. Set bonusii will also not be exceptionally powerful, but they will be distinct. I don’t want completing a set to ever be required for an optimal character, but I do want to offer some incentive to trying out the full set.
Finally, while we’re on the topic, I’ll note that ALL armor will be a part of a set. Yup, even Common and Rare armor. How will sets interact with Improvement? You’ll have to wait and see… 
I’ll leave you with a little glimpse of a testing, Improved weapon while you’re here. I present to you, the Enflamed Generic Hammer II:
