Keeper Weaponry, and the underlying problems with Shadowlands weaponry
Keeper Weaponry, and the underlying problems with Shadowlands weaponry Part I
Well, I'm sure you've all ready Balrog's Guide to Keeper Weapons and Armor. Quite a thorough guide it is, and offers some good guidance for those who need help with their keepers.
The purpose of this series of posts is different than that guide. While I will be discussing specific weaponry and my perception of their usefulness, I will also be challenging some of the underlying gameplay elements of Shadowlands, and putting on the table the things I would like to see different both with specific keeper weaponry, and Shadowlands weapons in general. I think this post was spurned by my seeing the results of keeper needs with weaponry being at the very top. Perhaps I have some small sliver of hope that things may be addressed if they are discussed more, even if it does require major programming to fix.
If you are just interested more in my specific takes on weapons strengths and weaknesses, scroll down to Part II... Though personally I find this read pretty important.
Let's start off with a little history. The keeper is a relatively new class to Anarchy Online. When Anarchy Online was first released, Shadowlands did not exist, nor did the keeper. An expansion pack was then released 'Notum Wars,' which focused more on PvP. Keepers and Shadowlands were still not in the game, and a large base of weaponry was created and continued to expand for classes in game.
Over this time, people played AO and obtained weaponry a certain way. Then Shadowlands came out and everything changed. While it was a cool change of pace, I believe there are some fundamental flaws.
Let's first look at how you obtain "unique" or "uber" gear and weaponry on Rubika. I will go from the perspective of a Keeper since that is the forum we are in.
Example 1 RubiKa Level 0-125:
For the first few title levels, you get the majority of the cool stuff from The Temple of Three Winds dungeon (which also is relatively new, but still follows the rubika theme). Most of the best weapons and items drop off enemies that are difficult to kill, require teamwork, or some skill to take down. In other words, you just can't run up, hit attack, and watch the enemy fall then collect your uber loot. Take the Stygian Desolator. For those keepers who didn't "buy" it, how satisfying was it for you when you saw Aztur hit the floor with a resounding thud? I know it felt pretty good to me. It felt even better when I was able to be rewarded for my effort with a nice item. It was a challenge, and one that was met with reward once conquered. Then there were other items like the Guardian Tank Armor. While not worth it for those who don't plan to be lvl60 twinks forever, killing the Guardian of Tomorrow was still relatively fun. Though camping was required, odds are after 10-20 kills you would get your tank armor. And, during those kills all your team members and many people passing by would be able to pick up cool new NCU belts that were much better than anything else you could equip at the time. In other words, it was worth it for other people to kill the beast so they could get a nice belt, and it gave you some sense of accomplishment not just to be able to kill the beast, but also to be able to provide others with 'uber' loot. Another example is Lien the memorystalker. Challenging to kill, but rewarded the player in the end.
Example 2 Level 125-200:
Everyone within this level range has probably either seen Azure/otaf/etc armor, or has some of it. In order to get Azure, you have to camp a bit and kill some mobs that aren't too tough. If you stick it out and OTA spawns, you will be able to trade in your note and spawn mercs. If a single player, or even a single team of player then goes up and tries to kill mercs by themselves for Azure armor, they will likely be seeing reclaim faster than you could blink. In order to kill them and get the opportunity to get their armor, you have to have a relatively skilled puller take them out one at a time, then have multiple groups of properly setup teams in order to take them down. It takes some work, but in the end someone is going home with Azure.
Now lets look at Inner Sanctum. Another relatively new dungeon, and one that has some nice drops. Killing the 2nd floor and 3rd floor bosses requires teamwork and skill. If you go into IS with no gameplan, you will likely be exiting just as quickly as you entered. Yet, if you do coordinate things and everyone knows their role and is sufficiently prepared, you will likely come out with some good stuff. If you really think things through and have an effective strategy, you can come out with some of the best stuff.
Now lets look at Shadowlands.
First example, the soldier's JAME blaster. How is this blaster obtained? For such a highly sought after item, you would think that going by the way AO has worked over the years and the way that 'uber' loot is obtained on Rubi-Ka, that some big bad boss must drop this sucker. Nope. The JAME blaster can be obtained by a single level 190 Soldier just as easily as three fully decked out 220 teams. The only difference is that the 190 Solider is going to probably be outdamaged and KS'd, leading him to leave and go home in frustration. JAME is acquired by camping a mob that can easily be soloed by a TL6, or even TL5 player. There is no skill in acquiring JAME. The reason it sells for so much is because the chances of it dropping are slim to none. And this is where Shadowlands and Ruki-Ka diverge. While Rubi-Ka had many rare drops, there were many drops that were only-semi rare, and just required a little bit of camping to acquire. And, when an item that dropped was really rare, usually there was some other good stuff that dropped along with it so the members of your team would feel rewarded after killing the same creature repeatedly. Not so with JAME. 99% of the time you kill the mob that drops JAME, it drops junk. It requires no skill to kill this mob, except the ability to stay awake from boredom sitting in the same place killing a joke mob that drops nothing most of the time. Few will want to stick with you for long periods of time, too, as there is little incentive in the form of a challenging battle that requires skill, nor is there any incentive in terms of getting at least some decent loot. So the soldier is forced to sit there often for weeks on end camping a mob that he could have killed 20 levels ago with ease, praying that the gods of the loot table will roll up a JAME for him. And when he does get it, he will be happy. But he won't have that feeling the keeper did when he took down Aztur, or the feeling your team did when Ian Warr bit the dust. Will he be happy then, or just relieved that his ordeal is over and he can continue the game ungimped? If there was some challenge in killing the boss *and* if it dropped something decent on a somewhat consistent basis maybe then the soldier would be truly 'happy.'
This is the fundamental flaw of Shadowlands in my opinion, and the pain that many keepers are experiencing. There is no challenge in obtaining the weapons, except your will to sit there and endure being bored to tears camping grey or green mobs that require little to no skill to kill, being at the mercy of the loot table day after day. And the fact that most keeper-specific weapons are Shadowlands weapons simply makes it worse for keepers.
It would be nice if something like high QL Jobe Defenders or Excaliburs dropped off a big-bad-boss that required skill and teamwork to kill, had a relatively high droprate, and dropped other stuff that other team members can use. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. Jobe Defender drops off redeemed mobs with a loot table bigger than rubi-ka itself, filled with lots of junk you and your teammates will laugh at, while Excalibur likely drops off some obscure Inferno dynaboss that drops nothing useful at all except excalibur maybe 1% of the time. For jobe defender - So you either have to camp camp camp easy to kill mobs until you get a good ql jobe defender solo, which could take days (or even weeks), or you have to start/join a spec4 team (odds are you will have spec4 done before you get a high QL jobe defender), or you have to get together a Pandemonium team and try your luck there where the droprate is still as poor, but at least if it does drop you will likely get a nice QL. For excalibur, it's even worse - if it does drop off some inferno dynaboss that drops nothing but perhaps pattern pieces and excalibur and has no other useful loot, do you really think you are going to be able to get a team there to kill it time and time again, camping it with little to no drops? For a weapon that only you can use? It might not be so bad if it dropped off a boss that you could solo or even duo, but since it hasn't been found yet it probably drops off a pretty high level mob that requires a team.
What we need for Shadowlands are more big-bosses that have more consistent drops, instead of mini-bosses with abyssmal drops. We also need smaller loot tables that are perhaps tailored to certain enemies. Maybe only certain type of redeemed mobs drop guns, while others only drop melee weapons, etc... At least then you would have a greater chance of obtaining an item that might be useful to you or someone in your team, because you'll have a general idea of the type of item that will drop. We need more bosses that require skill and a team to kill, bosses that drop useful stuff on a consistent basis.
