Item Buffs (in General)

Well, given the recent changes, I feel a few items are in definite need of some buffs.

Firstly, the BoNE desperately needs a buff. Now that one handed weapons have got a slight buff, and encumbrance is such a big deal, AND items can be disenchanted (making so it's not even cheap anymore!) it needs something to make it worth using.

Ideas: Boost the strength of the minion using it in melee by a straight 20%. That may seem too much, but I think that kind of change could really make it comparable with the Morg.

ELS: 15% DX bonus in melee only.

VB: Just buff it's damage. Encumbrance made the giant walls a thing of the past, and honestly, VB just is useless now, regardless of whether it hits in the first round or not.

DB: Reduce the NW upgrade curve. Now the only people that can use them are on minions with nothing else. That may be what you want, true, but it's a bit ridiculous right now. DBs or nothing... :\

Add EH to the list. Single most worthless item in the game.

BoNE: The best way to buff the BoNE is to give it partial vorpal ability.

Make 25% of its damage vorpal through the defenses. The other 75% is normal.

20% increased str is nice, will give you more ENC, however not many tanks are up against their ENC unless they used USD.

ELS: Already got a huge buff with attacking in first melee round with a missile. Great weapon for archers to use, vs a Bth.

VB: Get rid of it and fold the idea into the BoNE: Or convert BoNEs to VBs, name only.

DB: Unfortunately one has to keep the DB curve almost identical to the big 4 weapon + upgrade curve. For some sort of balance. It would be wrong for a weapon to get to +300 and someone have to spend 2-3x for +300 DBs. With the new ENC rules, more people will be using EBs then ever before.

BoNE: No vorpalness... It's the highest base in the game, and can be combined with VA to do more damage than the MH with the same leech. Succeptable to DM, sure, but not everyone uses DM... Let it do what it do what it do...

ELS: Not sure how it'll stand up with the new 1H weapon buff... I'm still partial to VB :P

VB: It is fine as is ^_^. Walls are not a thing of the past... Well, maybe 465 AC ones, but 350-400 AC is still easy to fit on a minion that trains nothing but one of the primary stats attributing to encumbrance...

DB: Difficult there... Unless they're enourmous, they don't do much, but they are hard to fit with anything else... Let time tell the story, and allow it to pan out and see what happens... ^_^

This idea is another that keeps running through my (spacious) head.

Buff the ELS by buffing it in combination with other elven items. And you could add the EH to that essentially giving it something to be proud of.
ELS + EG = 5% dex melee bonus.
ELS + EG + EB = 10% dex melee bonus... and so on up to 20% with the EH and/or EC.
In any elven combination by the way.

BoNE just got a buff a little while ago. I started using one and thought it was pretty darned nice, too. Just because it isn't the most popular weapon doesn't mean it is in need of help.

Didn't ELS get a boost too? Anyways, like you said, 1-H's just got a slight buff. :P

VB: Probably does need a little help, but not much. Buff it too much and you have a vorpal BoNE, and what's the point of buffing it if you make it so overpowered it gets re-nerfed?

DB: They have one of the best upgrade curves in the game....

Okay, firstly, until you use the BoNE over the Morg, let's not go saying how great it is.


In theory, everyone says ELS, VB, and BoNE are fine. But no one uses them.

The thing is, at 300AC you are BARELY doing more damage. BARELY. And anything less AC wise and you're doing pathetic damage.

And as to the "Let the BoNE do what it do" comment, it's not doing anything. It's not being used.

If something is built and considered on the same scale as something else, it should be equally useful.

As for DBs, yes, it's a hard thing to change. But it needs something.

"Okay, firstly, until you use the BoNE over the Morg, let's not go saying how great it is."

Hello, that's what I've been doing for months. I only recently changed that strat. God, why doesn't everyone inspect my character more often, it's not like anyone else is the center of the universe -.-

An increase to the base damage of the bone would be warranted.

Question: Because it isn't better than the MH? It does a ton more damage.

Can you quantify that?

Damage or damage and extra HP...

Yes, let's buff everything... What's the point?

Are you serious? Did I say everything?

This may be the closest I've come to directly insulting someone in awhile.

As as MH user, I could not care less if the BoNE did twice as much damage as the MH.

The innate leech is too good to pass up.

If there was no DM spell as in cb1, the BoNE would be far more attractive.

Okay sorry to be sort of mean earlier.

The BoNE, well I don't think a strength boost would help too much unless it was somehow given only during melee but before EC.. If it's after EC, you might as well just boost the damage (equivalent calculations wise). From my experience with a rented BoNE they already do quite nice damage, and I think the recent changes actually made them more viable than before because let's say you are boosting your damage so you can kill one minion per round versus a specific character, this would be cheaper on a BoNE than on a morg and therefore take up less ENC then.

I don't see many using an ELS, but then again I don't see many use a BoTh either. Maybe the extra round will change this, but a weapon with a dex boost would be interesting or as someone else asked on the forums a weapon with a cheaper pth that can compete with the other five.

From the point of view of an Endurance team.. the VB is far from useless, it goes straight through my wall.

Mmm DBs hard to say, I'm not sure on this one.