Disclaimer 1: i will NOT be adding suggestions to the main post. Reason being, i want to present the mechanic, not the possible items. And i want the post to be judged based on the mechanic itself.
Ideas of items will be in the comments
Disclaimer 2: pictures for proof of concept will be added later today
[ Heirloom, a new tier for equipment ]
Idea loosely inspired by the concept of exotic found in both Destiny and Dauntless.
Simply put, this suggestion aims to change a bit how we view armor.
Today, armor is nothing more than a “stat stick”, or stat robe if you will. You either use it for the stats, or use it for the looks.
But… What if there were something more to armor? Something worth not having the most optmized stats? Something… Fun
Heirloom is a rarity of equipment that can take any wearable slot, unique functionality and looks. Here are some steps i took to make this concept, trying to fit the game:
Heirloom is a separate rarity tier, not an specific item.
Heirloom is only a tier for armor and accessories, not weapons.
Heirlooms are mutually exclusive, meaning that you can only have one piece of equipment of that tier at all times, even if they take different slots (like a chestpiece and a ring for example)
Heirloom equipment will usually sport the less desirable stats. When that cannot be the case, it will have a lower stat poll for its level comparad to a non relic piece.
And the most important of the bunch, Heirloom equipment have passives that change the fundamentals of the game…
Those passives are created in such way that they affect base mechanics like movement, m1s, dashes, T-jumps, charging ETC. In doing so, they have a lower potential for stats, as that potential is being applied in bending the rules ever so slightly. The passives are not meant to be stackable
These items could be either found in chests, being drops from world bosses and non story bosses, or through any other activity.
To wrap this up…
Reasons to add
For starters, this is a surefire way to diversify builds. With Heirloom taking up the slot of another important equipment, the rest of the build would have to be warped around it, creating more grounds for unorthodox buildmaking.
This mechanic also adds a new item to pursue, meaning more replayability and a way to bring attention to the less relevant activities.
It implements passives in a way that integrate seamlessly with another prevalent and preexisting feature.
It can bring forth new ways to play the game and an aspect of emergent gameplay with the synergies it would provide
and even if it isnt powerful enough to shift the meta, it could still be fun and different from what we have so far
List of possible names for this tier
Relic
Artifact
Heirloom (my favorite)
Mythic
Artisan (to tie with the artisan weapons planed if you will)
Just for the sake of parity. They should not be designed to be meta, so if someone should be expected to use one, it is a good sign that it needs balancing and fine-tuning
Tho i see how this could be a problem since drip is an important part of the game
The main problem that I have with this idea is that you cannot hide relics by vanity, this mainly only concerns me because I’m overly involved in editing my looks, but if a relic affected my vanity, I would use them much less than normal.
This is just flavor text I dont care about this items, they’re here to represent what Heirlooms should do.
A ring type item that changes blocking, draining your energy to generate a shield of your magic (or spirit energy, draining life as well) in the direction you’re looking. The shield has a reasonable area, making it possible for you to block for your allies as well. (So a tank related heirloom)
A pair of boots (leg slot) that change your dash (not dodge reflex), reducing its distance but making it so you dash in the direction you’re looking, allowing you to dash upwards at an angle.
An empty quiver (back item) that changes your magic m1. M1 now creates a bow and changes the projectile to arrows. This significantly reduces the cast rate of m1, but increases the range of them (this is clearly a mage’s item, but it only has a level req, not a stats req)
A sheath (waist item) that changes Weapon Draw skills. They now have a longer startup, but charging the skill (holding the key) gives it an increase in area/distance.
A scarf (neck item) that changes charging. Charging now drains your hunger to boost your natural regeneration. You cant eat uncooked foods anymore.
None of them are particularly gamebreaking imo, they just change something about the main mechanics enough to make it worth a try
It would make buildmaking much more fun if new armors sets gave unique effects along with stats instead of only stats, but I don’t think an entirely new type of armor is warranted.
The thing with armor set is that it wouldn’t change much
Like, if you’re using king calvus armor, you’re most likely already using the whole set. So it wouldnjust make what’s powerful, more powerful while punishing people for experimenting
cant those new “stats” be added by jewels, or literally new stats entirely like regen, armor piercing and resistance
anyway rant about the slightly confusing writing
idk if thats just me but the fact you start each bullet point with 1st, 2nd, 3rd… it just makes it sounds like each of these is a different tier of heirloom, especially when it starts by saying that the 1st heirloom is a tier above legendary. i may be stupid tho but i did have to reread that 2-3 times to get what this suggestion was actually trying to add (after all usually heirlooms are a thing, not just a tier)
tldr im dumb
My bad, the original post was “first, heirlooms are…” But i decided to proof read cause i thought it was too big… Gues that brought about more problems than solved them
necessarily all those passives need to apply to all players so its not possible to add a passive specifically for magic m1s
now changing blocks thats kinda vague, although sure a shield could probably do that such as reflecting. pretty sure the idea was already brought up
now the one point this suggestion has is that you can only wear one heirloom, which is not something that makes much sense for jewels or enchants or whatever. unless we make warship 2 for armor
