Zeel's Amplifier : My upcoming unique item.

Hi !

After roughly 6 years, many ideas and fails my Diamond pack unique item is finally coming !

Here's the screenshot for those who don't care about the backstory :

https://imgur.com/a/n1ZkMBU

Now for the story :3

It took me a while to have my first item idea(We already had Dominus as the end game boss).
The introduction of the porcupine mobs gave me the idea. I wanted an helmet (torture cage)that was able to proc the equivalent of the porcupine spikes from the mob when we were hitting an enemy. The damage of the spikes would be based on the reflect value on gear. Like offensive thorns. Think about Hellgate London novas.
The idea got rejected back then as it was not possible to proc the skill without having on our skillbar or something. I never understood the exact explanation tbh. Keep in mind that at this point, the game was not as crazy as now. I felt the devs were clearly limited when it was coming to item creation or skills.
I gave up on this item after a 2nd rejected proposal maybe a year later. Too bad as using the currently useless reflect damage stats to create hypnotising novas would be cool i'm sure.


I then waited a LONG time before submitting the next idea. Until September 2016.

Since the first submition, the game popularity and growing really took off. It has started to evolve REALLY fast. To a point where an unique item could be great and popular during a league and then completely destroyed the next one. Cloak of Defiance, Crown of Eyes, Mjolnir for example.
I was worried to submit an item that could be interesting but vulnerable to the meta changes.
I wanted to create something that balance changes couldn't hit. A convinience item, like the Portal gem.
I then thought about a unique Scroll of Wisdom.

It would have an infinite amount of usage, but we would still need to use it as regular scrolls, from the stash or inventory. To add a unique feeling to it, i was thinking about giving it a stat like"10-50% chance to make the item you identify max quality on use".
Idea got rejected again with this explanation: [...]"Unfortunately, we are no longer able to apply supporter designed currency to the game as part of your unique item design. This has proven to cause a large number of issues from a design standpoint"[...]

Fast forward to January 2018, with my new idea submition. It came while playing my billionth Essence Drain build(during Harbinger league iirc). It was an evasion one with a 1k ish ES buffer on top this time that was surprisingly enjoyable. I thought that it was a shame that ED life drain couldn't recharge my ES after my life was full. This league also introduced the revamp of the possible mods on shields, like spell damage on spike shields.
I then thought about a shield with Zealoth's Oath on full life with Inc. AoE per enemy killed recently to help Contagion grow in radius while spreading. It would have been the perfect item for my character at this time, and many other builds could use it i hoped.

ZO on full life turned to not be possible as wearing it with blood rage or other degen effects could mess things up when reaching full life, essentially turning ZO off and on again every frame. GGG designers offered the compromise the item has now : ZO if you haven't been hit recently. We then agreed on the remaining stats (Without me being able to specify the min-max values as this is a balance team concern i learnt).

As for the name and flavor text now !

ZeeL is the nickname people know me the best with. It comes from my favorite game of all time : Anarchy Online. One of the nano(equivalent of spells in this game) is called "Malaise of Zeal".
https://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=275824
I wanted the item name to be Malaise of Zeel which wasn't that great as it was implying a negative effect, which the item doesn't have.
I wanted the flavor text to be the same as the most iconic item in Anarchy Online, the Burden of Competence: https://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=244718. I won't go into details as for why this item was at some point the most important to get your hands on, as Anarchy Online level of complexity, itemization and deepness is still unmatched(no one should have the right to talk about twinking a character outside of this game^^).
This exact flavor text couldn't be used as this, because it already exist outside of PoE though.
I then used a few of the stats we use in AO to cast nanos as the easter egg and GGG did the job better than i could ever do as english isn't my native language.

Time to give the item a look then :)

AO being a 30k years in the future game i couldn't go to crazy on the art, as it has to still fit PoE. I wanted something mechanical, on the same side as Dominus style steampunk-ish kind of stuff.
My drawing being at an embarassing level, a friend helped me with a few ideas, GGG artists took the sketches and implemented it on the game. My idea of an old device, which power was not magic but purely mechanical turned out nicely i feel.

Regarding the design process as a whole, i have to say it was way harder than i expected to be when i purchased my diamond pack during closed beta, and I'm sure people that have their item in game already agree with that.
For the supporters that still have their item left to do, you have to realize you cannot simply say "here's what the item will be". We don't have any insider about the big picture that GGG does, we don't know exactly why and how certain items can or cannot be done. It's a lot of compromises on BOTH sides.
Even after some of my ideas got rejected, and my final item not being 100% what i want, i don't regret ANYTHING about it, or the purchase of the supporter pack.
Huge respect for every people behind the item creation process, both supporters and specially GGG team, because it's not an easy task ;)

I hope you guys will have fun with my item. I hope it can prove useful for some builds i'm thinking about and other crazy builds people think about.
Whereas you cherish it, vendor-trash it, i hope it can help add a layer on this ever-evolving game.

Have fun, because creating it was fun for me, and it's what video games are about !

ZeeL

Took 6 years to make a fucking item

what the fuck dude lol

Ill be on the lookout for this one.

Nice job mate.

Cheers,
Matt

Ill be on the lookout for this one.

Nice job mate.

Cheers,
Matt

Actually looks very good unique item

cool item, that aoe is very nice

Like the item, dislike the art.

Cheers kagari \o

Peace,

-Boem-

"

Abdiel_Kavash wrote:

I could see this modifier be somewhat useful for a hybrid build if it was reversed (you have ZO if you have been hit recently). As it is now, I wonder - what kind of character do you think will make best use of it?

Perhaps could be useful with eldritch battery?

"

Abdiel_Kavash wrote:

"

ZO on full life turned to not be possible as wearing it with blood rage or other degen effects could mess things up when reaching full life, essentially turning ZO off and on again every frame. GGG designers offered the compromise the item has now : ZO if you haven't been hit recently.

The way it is now, you regenerate ES if you haven't been hit recently (in which case you are also recharging ES, which is likely much faster), but you regenerate life if you have been hit recently. For an ES-based build, this is pretty much the opposite of what you would want!

I could see this modifier be somewhat useful for a hybrid build if it was reversed (you have ZO if you have been hit recently). As it is now, I wonder - what kind of character do you think will make best use of it?

My first though about the mod was simply to not waste the small ES buffer we sometimes have. If people can find ways to use it more efficiently with some weird combos for stuff like CI or RF then that's cool.
As for the use i will have at first, it will be on a QotF ED trickster, trying to maximise clear speed for this skill. This build during harby was satisfying when rushing into dying packs while the ED regen kept me alive. It will now be more of the same as my ES will be full when entering the packs.