The Hidden Forest

Considering the difficulty of mobs in Kael, including the majority of areas where a large portion of pulls come double, and mob dps (accuracy and atk still need to be adjusted there imo) the loot isn't nearly worth the time, especially considering every piece is single class specific, and most of the time, the drops rot or go to a bot.

The stats on these class specific items are, for the most part, not an upgrade for those of us hardy enough to venture into the zone. Losing mod2's, hp/ac and some focus on a large portion of these items just for "upgrading" from sebilis and solb. (Crown of the Magus for example is better than the helmets available in Kael). For the difficulty of this zone, the stats on these items should be tuned to having at LEAST 10-15 more hps than current best non-raid loot from sebilis and solb, and somewhere closer to the same stats as chardok drops (minus royals loot).

I struggle as a tank in this zone, for no apparent reason other than the fact that I like to take a beating. The loot just isn't worth the risk. Especially considering that named here drop nothing "Extra" except for BP's and Legs that are not only class specific, narrowing those who can use, but also not even an upgrade most of the time.

The difficult part of this, is that there are just too many examples to compare them all. But as a reference, with around 30 mobs killed, including 4 noble giants and 2 named (Kallis and Kel`dor) a Warrior, Monk, Rogue, Berserker, Cleric and Wizard saw only 2 pieces of upgrades (BARELY) out of probably around 20 drops and the rest of the drops went to bots or rotted. For about 50 minutes of work, and a lot of "close calls".

I'm not asking for uber easy loot, but it's just not worth the time when chardok easily drops numerous more upgrades including augments, for MUCH easier kills, and more experience against time spent.

I don't like to present a problem without helping to find a solution, however, so I would suggest "melding" the equipment to archetype based instead of class specific. Silk, leather, plate, and chain would be a better approach to gear in this zone in my opinion, and then customizing the mod2s and focus as well as hps/ac/mana/endurance on these pieces to better fit the difficulty of the zone. Nerf the drop rate on trash, and/or limit the drops to only noble giants, and put bp/legs ONLY on mini named and/or random 1-2 pieces per raid boss. Please don't make this zone easier though. Consider the alternative of upgrading the rewards first. I know it takes time and effort to create customized content like that, but it would be well worth it if you ask me.

Actually, another idea:

Make the current drops there the first half, or part of a quest available only in zone. If each pieces was tier1 of drops, then you could add quest pieces that drop from mini-bosses and raid bosses that "upgrade" your tier1 to tier2, slightly increasing stats, and/or adding new focus or clickies. For example, you could add an item that upgrades ONLY chain pieces, or upgrades ONLY glove pieces. Either way, it would be a challenge worth fighting in this zone for. This MIGHT be a great alternative to changing the loot altogether. Would mean that this zone would provide a good reason to spend a lot of time working on upgrades.

So current Vadd's Elite gear could be upgraded with the proper pieces from nameds to be turned in to a quest npc for an upgraded version.

Just making sure, we are talking about the Qvic armor that is dropping here, correct?

Yes, I haven't seen anything else dropping, but I haven't taken out a raid boss yet.

in my opinion the armor sets from trash are fair for the difficulty, and the fact its from trash rather than a named, says alot as far as how potent it should be, the loot the bosses drop is considerably better than those set piece by a decent chunk.

Then the trash needs to have it's dps lowered to amount closer to that of Ssra trash. Once you can actually clear Kael without difficulty, then the drops are moot. At least for me, and the others in my guild. I'm not asking for a HUGE upgrade, but something better than 210 hp imo is fair.

I see your point - we put in the Qvic drops as it didnt require me to design 6x16 Armor pieces which is a total unbelievable amount of work (im not kidding). But instead can copy and paste item ids.

What we did was give Helms faerune and added +5 stun resist. Beside that its the good old Qvic armor, so further customization is really not an option. We can discuss making trash easier tho, im open for that.

To be quite honest, I don't need the drops much myself, but some of the players on this server do, and/or will in the future. I see the benefit to a lot of the pieces as upgrades to chaotic, but it's a steep incline from guk to Kael, if you get my drift. The difficulty of the zone is set too high for those that actually NEED the upgrades. It just seemed like a far jump to me. Personally, I would rather see the items updated or customized, but I know how difficult and tediously time consuming such a task is for you.

The way I look at it is, Chardok is easier and has more options for armor upgrades that are flagged as multi-class usable. Much of the chardok and ssra gear that I wear, and have seen drop, is an upgrade to Kael (except raid bosses, I'm not counting raid gear, only the group gear). Yet Kael seems higher in difficulty, by a decent margin. The progression, at least what it seems like to me, is Sebilis/Solb -> Icewell -> Chardok/Ssra -> Kael (keep in mind i'm talking about groupable, not raid). The differences in difficulty come from my own experiences in all zones, both solo-boxing, and grouping. Yet some of the kael pieces are not even an upgrade from some Sebilis/Solb pieces. See my reasoning?

Once again, I know you don't want to custom create 96 pieces of armor. Which is why I suggested taking the approach of making the drops archetype based. Leather/class/chain/plate would be 24 pieces of custom created gear as opposed to 96. But that may be more than you're willing to do.

Anyhow, at the very least of making the trash slightly easier, somewhere around chardok/ssra trash difficulty, then it would be a step in the right direction in allowing players a good option for visible armor slot upgrades that don't require a ssra raid-geared tank to obtain. Thanks for taking the time to listen, btw.

just adding my thought since im one of the top geared tanks which might help with you adjustments on the trash, imo the named are fine with tormax,statue,aow,and idol difficulty and loot, the 2 mini named dropping bp & leggings for the difficulty isnt bad considering its a for sure thing they are going to drop them, for nobles and trash i see tankorz point , being that im more or less fully ssra/tov geared and the trash eats through 20k hps and 3.4ac like ive just came in with seb/guk gear they are a bit mean seems like each pull im crunched down 8-15k hps before i can get a slow or heal off and when 2 come or paci fails there a 95% chance im going to have to pop defense to survive. also i understand this is a grouped or 2 grouped zone but even at that one wrong move and everyone is wiped just from the trash. ok just throwing this in im kinda use to kael so a change in trash is your decision either way i was just throwing in some feedback

Ok, i removed Flurry and Enrage from trash. Please post more feedback.