Time for a new supporter item? (in General)

I think the BOE has passed the phase of usefulness.

With only 15 in existence and only 7 actually upgraded, I think we can call it an epic failure.

I remember at one time Jon wanted to change the MOD since it was not selling very well, but with 90 bought, it seems like huge success compared to the BOE.

So how about it, a useful supporter item soon?

how bout a modification or improvement to the BoE in order to boost it's usefulness

That would be one alternative.

Like giving it inate SS to the wearer or another ability.

thats what happens when the community more or less forces jon to put out a supporter item, you get what you asked for, but you didnt ask for a GOOD item haha, so we ended up with this "epic failure"

Give it SS and its useful again

Let's not turn this into a "who's fault is it!?" or another pointless flame war.


Simple post. The BoE is not used because it's not a very good item. Certainly not one that should be used in competitive play or have any real NW put into it.

The GOAL of this thread should be:

A) Discussion of a new item to replace the BoE

OR (And more reasonably)

B) Ideas to make the BoE more useful, but still balanced along with other chest pieces and game mechanics.

If you can't post something constructive about the topic at hand, do feel free to move on :P

As for my opinion:

1) If nothing else, I would ask Jon to re-evaluate whether the harsh penalties on the BoE are necessary. Yes, I understand it's going to cut it's own penalties in half, but 4% DD is still pretty tough.

2) Add SS. Honestly, I'm not sure why everyone thinks this would make it so great. Seems to me people are just putting the two abilities together out of habit (I could be wrong here, I just don't see why adding SS would suddenly put this in the realm of supporter items). But I put it here for the sake of others.

3) An idea I was toying with was allow the bearer of the armor to reduce the damage taken from non-ranged/melee attacks. Let's say (just for a number), that the wearer of the BoE takes 5% less damage from RoBF/CoC/FB/GA/AMF/Explosion. ( A note. A minion wearing the BoE that was being targetted by the FB/CoC/SoD would still take full damage. The damage reduction would only apply to the area of effect portions.) This would make it great for mages and for PL batteries. And, yes, I know it wouldn't help tanks as much, but it is what it is. It wouldn't help familiars at least! :P

Second note: The item wouldn't reduce the effect of AMF cast on the wearer. Only the amount of backlash taken from it.

There are tons of other ideas, I'm sure. That's just one they made me smile and something CB doesn't have (maybe for good reasons! But change is good. It's not like the BoE is going to get much worse :P)

To respond to GW, I seem to recall that supporter items are not all supposed to be super amazingly good. Take (in CB1), the MoD, non upgradeable 255-base weapon (if I recall correctly).

Furthermore, it's only been 1 months since the item has been introduced.

Supporter items aren't always supposed to be useful... right?

I think we all understand the motivation behind why have low-mid-range armor, to get new players into something quick so they can start playing and have some advantages. The problem is that there is no motivation for anyone, new players or otherwise, to spend any time or money on anything less then the high end equipment.

Everything costs lots of money, and unless equipment and weapons had prerequisite features or some cost involved to maintain your equipment, there would be no motivation to use anything less then the best equipment, from the very start of the game.

"The problem is that there is no motivation for anyone, new players or otherwise, to spend any time or money on anything less then the high end equipment."

Yep.

Mitt,

Jon has stated he wanted supporter items to be different in CB2 then CB1.

He intended for them to be useful and in some cases better then normal items.

And Verifex is 100% right.

Why use anything but the best in each equipment slot when as starting out, you get millions of CB2 in days, not months?

If you make the penalties of the BoE any less, then your making the McM useless.

When I first saw the name, BoE, I thought the minion wearing it would get a slight boost in Xp like the RoE used to do. I was completely wrong.

honestly, expertise to me means to excel at something past others around you, like hand to hand combat or ranged, magic? erm maybe it should be the supportership version of a hard leather armor. with no real drawbacks other than there is still something better to replace it with. the only thing i could think of that would make this boom, is if it had a constant % to +/- PTH/CTH like an AoF would work for enchants.

"Why use anything but the best in each equipment slot when as starting out, you get millions of CB2 in days, not months?"

And let's not forget that "rares" are not rare. There's so many of them floating around that most high-end items, especially weapons, go for less than a single million today. They're so easy to stumble upon and afford that low-mid range items are completely obsolete after only a day or two into a NUB.

i think i might have to clarify my last idea... if the BoE granted 5% +/- PTH/CTH this would affect the whole fight on that one minion, get PTH lose CTH(this can go either way), the first rule of alchemy. to get something you must sacrifice something of equal value.

General D gives me an idea. How about in addition to its current effects, it has a zero PR weight? It will be the only item where an upgrade to Armor + won't add to PR.

"get PTH lose CTH(this can go either way),"

This equates to the same thing. It would be completely worthless.

thought pth and cth were 2 different things?

No. P ads to C. It is part of C. Taking from P takes away from C and vice versa.

Think of it this way:
apples = 10
otherFruit = 10
total = 20

If I take from 5 apples but add 5 to the total, I'm still left with a total of 20.

kk, im totally hi-jacking this ^_^

im done now

I think since it grants AP, it shouldn't have any penalties on it. It wouldn't make the MCM useless, just not as desired as it once was. Could adjust the upgrade costs to make the MCM a better alternative to get more AC and make the Breastplate harder to get AC, like a TSA.

Certain supporter items have replaced other previously used items in the past right? The AoF seems like the most popular item in the game and it had to knock something else out of that slot.

I like the idea of the BoE but don't get the penalties that come with it. And for being time for a new supporter item, it seems like we just got this one. Jon also just gave out T-shirts.

looking at the supporter items it seems the RoE needs some help (as mentioned in previous posts). About 4 have gone to auction in the last couple days and sold for just over 500k!

I really like Lord Bob's idea.


I also agree that it isn't particularly useful, and as it is, I do not plan on ever owning one.

NW-PR should be gone period... not just on one item

With ENC, the only items that should add PR are tattoos.

I agree Ranger.

tats are of course a separate issue... good point

"NW-PR should be gone period... not just on one item"
"With ENC, the only items that should add PR are tattoos."

Well, I completely agree, but since I'm not going to hold my breath for that, an item that does this seems like a good enough placeholder for me.

I think the low demand for this item is due to its failure to appeal across demographics. Only a small percentage of CBers actually have breasts that need to be plated.

I want another xp boosting item.

maybe just change the BoE... f'rinstance, maybe have it enhance some, say, expertise of some sort.

it does that chaosal by the expertise of wielding heavy armor easier