Talk to the Team: Gifts

[AmonGwareth]

The current system of Gift spells is boring, simple stat buffs leave nothing to the imagination. We've been brainstorming ideas for ways to introduce and alter Gifts that would make them much more interesting. Listed below are some ideas we've had for ways to change some of the existing Gifts as well as some ideas for new Gifts:

• Gift of Resistance (was Armor) = Reduces incoming physical damage by a %
• (NEW) Gift of Resilience = Reduces incoming elemental damage by a %
• Gift of Vitality (was Health) = Slow pulsing HoT
• Gift of Alacrity - Do not change
• Gift of the Mother (was Dexterity) - Increases Arcane Skills by X%
• Gift of the Wood (was Focus) - Increases Mystical Skills by X%
• Gift of the Shroud (was Power) - Increases Spell Damage by X%
• Gift of the Widower (was Strength) - Increases Physical Damage by X%
• Speed - Do not change
• Velocity - Do not change
• Gift of Malice (was Toughness) - On non-standard hit, has a % chance to cause the next attack to do X% bonus damage.
• Ancestral Determination (was Determination) - Increases Physical Damage by X%, bonus to T&C skill, conflicts with “Gift of the Widower”
• Drulkar’s Roar (was Primal Roar) - Increases Spell Damage by X%, bonus to Primal skill, conflicts with “Gift of the Shroud”
• (NEW) Gift of the Serpent - %Chance to resist poison on physical attack
• (NEW) Gift of the Fates - %Chance to automatically resurrect upon death (Use causes the Gift to immediately fade and cannot be re-applied for N seconds)
• (NEW) Gift of Benevolence - %Chance to heal those within X meters when hit by non-standard attack
• (NEW) Gift of Knowledge - Bonus to Mystical Tradeskills
• (NEW) Gift of Artistry - Bonus to Mundane Tradeskills

Costs, available, etc. have not been determined as this is still in the brainstorming phase. We do recognize that this would impact crafters by removing stat buffs that they rely upon for optimal work. To counter that we'd consider increasing the skill boosts that player-built machines offer.

As always your comments, feedback and suggestions are welcomed and encouraged. Thank you!

[Tilithia]

I have to say my first reaction after reading first few gifts was...shock. I cant imagne crafters life without those constant stat bonuses,even with machine bonuses increased. a lot of public machines don't offer any bonus at all and a lot of young players rely on current gifts as they help them a lot through their first 20 lvs or so. Then I think of T6 builders of Istaria. currently even with fully teched t5 gear and T5 gifts you barely reach optimum on building mats,not to mention applying them to structures.

What I would like to propose instead,keep the old stat gifts,make them conflict with Mother,Wood,Shroud,Widower.

I do not like idea of vitality gift to be a pulsing HoT. both dragons and peds have a small (but still) variety of hots and im worried they will conflict with the gift. To be honest I prefer the 212 health that we currently get from Gift of health 5.

I really like the ideas of latter gifts and I can see their usefulness.
To conclude: keep old stat gifts, add new ones with conflicts to old gifts.

[Spyrioyo]

I agree that may be best who knows what problems it could cause as Salwirk mentioned it could also cause conflicts between the schools or even general buffs or buffs they can make. In addition maybe reduce the optimum on the build mats and other T6 materials if you decide to go this route. I know its hard to reach T6 optimum as I heard. We need to keep the community happy at the same time as making changes to improve or refresh the game it is a delicate balance.

[anonimas]

A very bad changes by persons...well, who obviously have no crafter toons. Crafter depends upon these gifts, jewellery, armour and expert facilities.
Please, bear one rule in mind: do not change anything unless not changing brings more damage than changing. Right now, Gifts are just ok, there is no need to change names (too confusing about widowers etc) or effects.
Better brainstorm something players asked for, like in-game mail.

[LOVWYRM]

Maybe I am wrong- but the answers here sound more like
"lets try to survive this" than "Huzzaah- thats what we`ve always wanted"
to me.
Why not simply give us a short break from changes and renaming
and give us some little real new content, or a nice world project
(E.G.: You want a vault in Delgarath? So here it is -build it right beside the anchor^^ Will make adventurers AND crafters busy and happy, make it for all tiers-areas).

I know that different teams/devs work on different projects..but..I think this is something players want more than changed/nerfed/renamed gifts or schools atm.
Only my 2c.

[Korchak Strongbone]

Maybe I am wrong- but the answers here sound more like
"lets try to survive this" than "Huzzaah- thats what we've always wanted"
to me.
Why not simply give us a short break from changes and renaming
and give us some little real new content, or a nice world project

*Stands up and applauds* I second this. The amount of changes are coming so fast I can't keep track of them. I haven't really adjusted to what we have had changed and a break would be nice as mentioned above.

-KOR

[Calyndrell]

*Stands up and applauds* I second this. The amount of changes are coming so fast I can't keep track of them. I haven't really adjusted to what we have had changed and a break would be nice as mentioned above.

Ok, I don't exactly agree nor disagree with this statement. Whilst I do like these changes, I would ask that they are held off for a while to iron out all the bugs that have crept in over the last few deltas because as the game stands currently its almost broken.

Just my two pence

[Tarlin]

Maybe I am wrong- but the answers here sound more like
"lets try to survive this" than "Huzzaah- thats what we`ve always wanted"
to me.
Why not simply give us a short break from changes and renaming
and give us some little real new content, or a nice world project

Nailed it. A lot of the changes, like this one, lately have been about fixing things that aren't even really broken. New content or world project instead of a couple gift changes or renamed mob would be much more interesting.

[whistlingwind]

Hi Guys,

I really like the ideas, however I think gifts should be close to game changing, like how your play style can be based around them because they are that strong.

My idea would be along the lines of having a super gift per class leveled to 100 (amongst other quested, crafted and earn via leveling up), these gifts will be tribute to the class and the mechanics themselves. Allowing you, similarly to the masterables to increase your focus on that playstyle if you so wish to.

For instance the healer gift can empower your beneficial and hostile spells to trigger a small heal to a team member, allowing you to fight and heal, or heal more effectively. The spiritist gift allows you to gain some HP leached from any spell or skill cast, adding additional effect if you have the spirit disciple gift combined. The Monk gift will allow you to combo attack with melee, building 6 stacks (a stack per special move) will unleash a critical on the 6th strike, allowing you to trigger that with your biggest attack for tremendous damage.

I think gifts with game changing affects, both entice the player to reach max level, and allows you to customise the playstyle even more.

I would much rather have some gift that speeded up my gameplay, and allow me to support my team members even when I am not strictly a priest class. I currently play Storm Disciple, but would love to heal better and function like a melee druid, where my punches can heal the team and make up for the missing healing spells I could have had when I was a druid.

Anyway, just my thoughts, hopefully the ship has not sailed already.

[Malicore]

What I don't see here, (unless I missed it somehow) and I think is worth mentioning... Is adding gift slots. 1) keep the original 5 for the stats. 2) add another 5 for ability and 3) add a row for skills (craft or whatever) Getting all these new gifts seems nice, but at the cost of losing others in the process. The first 5 keeping for stats, isn't going to be a game breaker if you add a new row for each type of gift being added in. (craft and abilities) The craft gifts won't interfere with stats or abilities, and vice versa. So, if nothing else, add a row of gift slots for crafting alone if you feel adding 2 extra rows is too much

[Ming]

Good idea. Add.

[Alisto]

There's a whole line of buffs that give resistance and ward to certain attack types. Maybe something could be done with those? % chance when attacks with a certain type to take reduced damage and reflect some damage?

[Alisto]

Was editing original post, but got distracted >.>

Anyway - mild concern over conflicting things. As a dragon, I'd like to be able to fill my Gift slots with, if I like, all casting (excluding Aclarity) Gifts (or melee for my melee dragon, and so forth). Could Shroud/Roar and the melee equivilant be made to not conflict?

[Tilithia]

Was editing original post, but got distracted >.>

Anyway - mild concern over conflicting things. As a dragon, I'd like to be able to fill my Gift slots with, if I like, all casting (excluding Aclarity) Gifts (or melee for my melee dragon, and so forth). Could Shroud/Roar and the melee equivilant be made to not conflict?

They both increase Spell damage by certain percent so I don't think so. Bu this is where I would use determination/roar with old Power and Strength gifts.

[Chasing]

We do recognize that this would impact crafters by removing stat buffs that they rely upon for optimal work. To counter that we'd consider increasing the skill boosts that player-built machines offer.

They could still be craftable via scholar and scrolls, unless they will change as well?

[AmonGwareth]

They could still be craftable via scholar and scrolls, unless they will change as well?

That could certainly be an option, though I believe the scroll formulas require a Gift spell as part of the ingredients.

[Alisto]

For crafters, a Gift that gives them an increased chance to for each harvest to give bonus resources would be wonderful.

[AmonGwareth]

Thank you all for your feedback. Further refinement of the idea would mean altering existing stat gifts (str, pow, foc, dex) to be:

• (NEW) Gift of Knowledge - Bonus to Mystical Tradeskills
  
• (NEW) Gift of Artistry - Bonus to Finishing Tradeskills
  
• (NEW) Gift of the Builder - Bonus to Construction Tradeskills
  
• (NEW) Gift of the Creator - Bonus to Gathering/Processing Tradeskills
  
• (NEW) Gift of the Shaper - Bonus to Dragon Tradeskills

And the scrolls would also be altered. These gifts would boost specific skills by +2 to +10.

[Calyndrell]

Psssttt.. Marynah... from the delta 269 patch notes.[/LIST]

Erm, Velea, if I am not mistaken the changes to the gift system would result in approximately 10 or more extra gifts. So those 50 or so extra spells will be almost completely swollowed by 5 tiers of gifts. And I know alot of people would have all tiers scribed so that higher levels can help out those lower than them. So perhaps we'd need a second increase to 300?

[Cilok]

• (NEW) Gift of Knowledge - Bonus to Mystical Tradeskills
• (NEW) Gift of Artistry - Bonus to Mundane Tradeskills

In general, I like the sound of this idea. My concern is with these 2 gifts. Hopefully the craft bonus is enough to offset the loss of the stat bonuses to craft skills, mainly in regards to applying construction resources. And also please make sure that dragons get access to these two gifts as spells if added to offset the loss of Determination/Primal Roar stats for crafting.