Asheras wrote on Nov 14^th, 2011 at 7:18pm:


First, I think it should be
Loot Gen-->Cannith-->Raid/GS-->Alch (tier 2)-->tier 3/epic

Raid items aren't necessarily any easier to get than greensteel, and some should certain eclipse GS. Alchemical weapons are a sort of GS+(the simplified edition). If ToD Elite were dropping weapons, I would expect them to end up better than GS.

Anyway, I don't think the solution to the current melee::caster imbalance is to overpower the rest of the weapons in the game to match or exceed the ESoS...not all of them anyway.

For one, the game needs to first get adjusted so that THF can stand on its own merits at endgame without relying upon an incredibly difficult to acquire weapon to bring it even with TWF.

Second, the imbalance between casters and melees has shifted back and forth over the course of DDO's history, where casters were, at the low end, relegated to being largely buffbots, gaining one slot in a raid for buffs and a tiny bit of crowd control while melees dominated everything. Yes, self-healing casters have always been rather strong, and casters while leveling have always been pretty powerful, but for a lot of the game melees dominated, and they did so for several reasons. Rampant immunities and new content with a lot of action between shrines/beginning to end taxes casters more than melees.

Recently, though, we've seen casters gained more self-healing options, more efficient spells, and a revamp to their options in general, along with a removal of many of the immunities that kept casters from dominating the endgame a couple years ago, in addition to more abilities that improve their spells.

Casters have simply been the focus of much improvement for about a year now, and, yes, melees now need to be brought in line with them, but indiscriminately buffing melee combat in excessive ways will just end up leading to more problems down the road. Right now, caster DPS is pretty close to high-end, but not top-notch, melee DPS. The big problems are that they can apply this damage from a safer position and can lay down crowd control/instakills as well, allowing them to move fast and freely in a lot of content.

Simply buffing melee DPS isn't going to solve the issues at hand.

QuantumFX wrote on Nov 16^th, 2011 at 3:38am:

Eh. The problem is that other exotic weapons aren't worth picking up. Dwarves use dwarven axes because they come for free and benefit from enhancements.

If you're going to spend a feat on a weapon it should be better than the stuff you can get for free. If you want to make a comparison to PnP, look at the Spiked Chain: it has a big damage die, is versatile in how it's used, and adds some combat power that no other weapon can touch--reach plus the ability to threaten adjacent spaces.

The khopesh, while a little too strong, isn't so ridiculous that it is the only weapon to use. Scimitars and rapiers aren't that far behind, which is where they should be in comparison to something that costs a feat. In any case, the game is too far along to go and change the khopesh now I think.

Actually, my main objection to the khopesh proficiency feat is that it adds less and less as time goes on compared to the other exotics.

I put it this way at the other place (roughly): You've got an aoe attack for bastard swords and dwarven axes, tripple the rate of fire for repeaters, and now knockdown for great crossbows.

Khopesh? You don't need to slot a pair of +4 attack goggles if your to-hit isn't already overkill, which is the same that could be said for the rest of those as well.

ddoplayer064 wrote on Nov 21^st, 2011 at 11:41am:



20 HP max if it's put in CON?  That's such a HUGE sacrifice

sounds like a good thing but the odds are it will be a cluster fuck.