First of all, I really enjoy the feather system on the server and I think it is a great idea for the raid boss drops to get those top tier items. I also like that you can use them for the best potions in the game. However, requiring only raid content to get the best pots feels a bit out of place for me. I know this topic has been discussed quite a bit and saw a few closed threads on it but I really wanted to put my own input on it.
After playing the beta for the past month, I have leveled several 50 characters and templated them out with the highest level reactive procs and all. I havn't needed to purchase a single item from the feather merchants for templates and aside from buff charges, I have everything i could ever want from only crafted gear + rog jewelry. There are some neat things on those feather merchants that I would have liked to buy for fun or for **minor** upgrades to rog based templates...But every time i talked myself out of using feathers for gear. Why? Because feathers are needed so much more for procs and potions.
PROCS: The epic heal proc and epic ablative proc I feel are in a great place in regards to their feather prices. Do one successful Sidi/galla raid and you can proc out your template armor for ~6k feathers. This is a reasonable amount of time to invest for something that will last the templates entire lifetime (it may even be too easy IMO). Everyone from casuals to hardcore players can achieve this with some effort.
POTIONS: This is where i feel the balance is out of whack with feather costs. I completely understand the top tier potions should be costly and should require work to get. They always required the effort of farming high level mobs to get these annoying alchemy mats and I love that we can use feathers to make them instead now. However, these mats were achievable with small groups or even solo on good farming classes. Removing the ability to make these potions with the old mats and only use one material (tears) is nice but we should be able to acquire tears outside of 16+ player raids. Farming one barrel of a tier 4 potion costs the same amount as an armor proc that will last months if not years. Doing one raid for a day or two worth of potions feels like a bit much to me without the option to farm the classic mats and use those instead.
My suggestions:
Thanks for the server, having a blast!
After playing the beta for the past month, I have leveled several 50 characters and templated them out with the highest level reactive procs and all. I havn't needed to purchase a single item from the feather merchants for templates and aside from buff charges, I have everything i could ever want from only crafted gear + rog jewelry. There are some neat things on those feather merchants that I would have liked to buy for fun or for **minor** upgrades to rog based templates...But every time i talked myself out of using feathers for gear. Why? Because feathers are needed so much more for procs and potions.
PROCS: The epic heal proc and epic ablative proc I feel are in a great place in regards to their feather prices. Do one successful Sidi/galla raid and you can proc out your template armor for ~6k feathers. This is a reasonable amount of time to invest for something that will last the templates entire lifetime (it may even be too easy IMO). Everyone from casuals to hardcore players can achieve this with some effort.
POTIONS: This is where i feel the balance is out of whack with feather costs. I completely understand the top tier potions should be costly and should require work to get. They always required the effort of farming high level mobs to get these annoying alchemy mats and I love that we can use feathers to make them instead now. However, these mats were achievable with small groups or even solo on good farming classes. Removing the ability to make these potions with the old mats and only use one material (tears) is nice but we should be able to acquire tears outside of 16+ player raids. Farming one barrel of a tier 4 potion costs the same amount as an armor proc that will last months if not years. Doing one raid for a day or two worth of potions feels like a bit much to me without the option to farm the classic mats and use those instead.
My suggestions:
- Reduce the feather cost for tears by a significant amount, 5 feathers for 1 tear seems more reasonable.
- Give us back the ability to farm and use alternate alchemy mats from certain mobs that aren't raid content. The mobs could even drop tears directly at a very rare rate.
- Allow us to craft 10 charge tier 4 potions with the classic materials
- Implement the ability to use DF seals to purchase tears, giving DF a spark of life and more incentive to RvR for keeps.
Thanks for the server, having a blast!