Skill Gem Set Enhancements!

So, set items. Set items give the player a sense of progress as he pieces together a puzzle, giving another dimension to the build aspect of the game.

However, as GGG stated, set items like in D2 are too limiting (and I agree). So I decided to come up with a "set" idea that doesn't conflict with current itemization, adds depth, and doesn't feel enforced or complicated.

How it will work:

1. Gem enhancements may drop from monsters, with rarity on the same level of GCP's.

2. These will be called "Aspect of X", X being the name of the appropriate hero from the lore. A Dex based gem enhancement will be called "Aspect of Hyrri", while a Strength based gem enhancement will be called "Aspect of Kaom".

3. Right click to apply to a gem. When applied to a gem, aspect cannot be redeemed, only replaced.

4. Aspects will add a global bonus to the player. The type of bonus depends on the number of the same aspects socketed into an item.

5. So if a piece of equipment has two gems enhanced with an "Aspect of Hyrri", it will give the tier 1 and 2 bonuses of the set. If it has one aspect of Hyrri and one aspect of Kaom, it will give the tier 1 bonus from both sets.

6. Examples:

Aspect of Hyrri

(1) +10 to Dexterity
(2) 10% increased Evasion Rating
(3) 4% increased Attack Speed
(4) 10% increased Projectile Damage
(5) +200 to Evasion Rating
(6) 20% increased Frenzy Charge Duration

Aspect of Kaom

(1) +10 to Strength
(2) 10% increased Armour
(3) 10% increased Melee Physical Damage
(4) 5% increased maximum Life
(5) +40 to maximum Life
(6) 20% increased Endurance Charge Duration


So I have a lot of options before me with just these two sets! I can equip 3 of each in my chest or two-hander, and receive tier 1-3 of both. Or, I can get 6 of the same aspects for the final tiers! With more aspects added in, this becomes a wonderful challenge to get the most out of your aspects.

There will be 6 aspects in total: Hyrri (Dex), Kaom (Str), Shavronne (Int), Lioneye (Dex/Str), Geofri (Str/Int) and Maligaro (Dex/Int).

Thoughts?

Huh, sorry, but I would see this as a total no-brainer. It's just more power without real choice. It would be very obvious to see which Aspect would suit your build.

Why would any spellcaster think about getting Kaom or Hyrri's aspects?
Why would any melee think about getting any of the Int aspects, or getting Hyrri's before Kaom's?

Q: Why would any spellcaster think about getting Kaom or Hyrri's aspects?

A spellcaster who's interested in the Life or Endurance Charge parts would want the Kaom's enhancements.

The tiers can definitely be tweaked if you want more of those options. For example, what if Hyrri's +200 Evasion Rating was tier 3 instead of tier 5? Then more evasion based characters would be interested in it.

Q: Why would any melee think about getting any of the Int aspects, or getting Hyrri's before Kaom's?

If the Int aspects had reduced skill mana cost, mana regeneration or maximum mana, then melee characters might go that route in order to sustain their attacks or auras.

If a melee character is CI instead of Health based, or deals Elemental damage instead of Physical damage, then it wouldn't be that attracted to Kaom's and might mix&match it with the other aspects.

Another example is a melee character using IR that wants to maximize his armour. He would then get 2 Hyrri's and 2 Kaom's for +20% armour on a 4s piece.

If this were implemented, the rarity should be that of Exalts and they should be bound. They seem VERY OP.

Because they're committed to a specific gem once applied, they'll lock you into a specific skill set even more than we already are. This is one area that PoE needs to break down rather than reinforce.

There is no reason to add such a system, all it does is serve to add more power to characters without adding anything of real interest in character development/creation.

Q: These seem too powerful, their rarity should be higher

I have no problem with reducing their power, but increasing their rarity only serves to limit the feature away from the majority of players.

Perhaps the single attribute ones could be weaker and as common as a chaos orb, the double attribute ones could be stronger and as common as a GCP, and then we could have funky ones that are very rare.



Q: Because they're committed to a specific gem once applied, they'll lock you into a specific skill set even more than we already are.

You can always replace it with another aspect. If it's too much of a waste then we could limit the aspects to certain gem levels (15?) so players don't commit too early.



Q: all it does is serve to add more power to characters without adding anything of real interest in character development/creation.

I personally think it adds a lot of interest to character development/creation. If you could say why it doesn't interest you at all or have an idea of ways to improve it then I'm all ears!

Bump!

GW2 eh.... I'd make these item only. Basically, that'd just be the usualy set-items. These have a huge drawback of forcing you to use those items if you want to get the real bonuses. Free assignment like this will just make all builds stronger .. to which the world will be adapted and we're back to 0 and have a useless feature everyone must have in the end.

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voonvoon wrote:

GW2 eh.... I'd make these item only. Basically, that'd just be the usualy set-items. These have a huge drawback of forcing you to use those items if you want to get the real bonuses. Free assignment like this will just make all builds stronger .. to which the world will be adapted and we're back to 0 and have a useless feature everyone must have in the end.

It's not at all a free assignment, you have to decide between the right benefits. If what you're trying to say is that there are no drawbacks, then I'm open to suggestions. One thing I had in mind is that using these aspects on gems will increase their attribute requirement. For example, using a Strength aspect on a gem will increase its dex/int requirement by 25%.


I never played GW2, but this idea was inspired by City of Heroes. Coincidentally also an NCSoft owned game(which came out long before GW2).