Idea about armor heirlooms

[San]

State of Armor Heirlooms
You get more defense with no downside other than the time it takes to acquire them, to no added cost. It is very good. Even if it isn't that good, it's hard to deny how good they are compared to their non-heirloomed counterparts.

Brainstorm how to Balance Armor Heirlooms
Armor heirlooms are pretty great, yet a lot of people think that it may just be too good. The problem is, even if we decrease the amount, it would satisfy some players and anger others.

Let us think: Is there a way to tweak armor heirlooms to balance in an innovative way? I believe if players are given the dilemma of meaningful choice to their armors where they can choose a certain path, it could bring us a nice change of pace.


Possible Suggestion: Defense vs Weight

You have a choice of either buffing defense at the cost of increasing weight OR decrease weight.

There are 3 outcomes:

Full Defense
If you go full defense, you increase weight to compensate.

Pros:
-There will still be a pretty large defense buff.
-Still a very low cost to armor ratio

Cons:
-It will be better, but not MUCH better, than using upper level armor if money isn't an issue, since upper levels of armor have increased weight also.

A mixture of increasing armor and decreasing weight
If you want to break even on weight while increasing defense

Pros:
-You can still get a defense buff while having no weight penalty.
-Jack of all trades

Cons:
-Time commitment to get looms may not be worth it as much.


***Fully decrease weight. (Could potentially be very strong)
Decrease weight of an armor only. It's essentially what we have now.. but backwards.

Pros:
-Very versatile. Archers would like this so they can reach the minimum weight threshold in more armor. People can make their favorite heavier armors lighter if they feel it already has good armor.
-could possibly be very strong if used over all types of armor.

Cons:
-Similar system as before with more armor per weight ratio, but using armor that costs more (and the effect may be more balanced)
-Doesn't actually increase armor
-More weeaboo ninjas/samurai in the heavier weeaboo armor (!!!)


The choices someone may make may vary depending on what type of player they would want to be. I feel like players would be able to get a little more of what they want, and more armors will be usable for more builds given the right type of loom.


Possible Problems in Implementation

1. Complex
- This may require some type of loom refund for armor, or something to that effect
- Multiple names
- fixing the marketplace to account for this
-making sure THIS is balanced, too

If the path thing doesn't work/too complex, a possible solution would be to just mix increasing  some defense and lowering weight on every armor heirloom.

2. Public Feedback

Some Questions: What kinds of tweaks to armors would you be able to accept? Are you fine with the way it is now? How much of an advantage do you feel that heirloomed armors bring compared to those who don't have them?

Even if this idea is really bad in your opinion, it would be nice to know what is good.

Discuss.

[Diomedes]

Your first bolded point highlights what's an odd premise in your post: that good things must be tempered.  The reason things are nerfed in this game is because they are too powerful, not just because they are powerful.  Becs, for example, hit hard as heck but they're not (IMO) game-breaking weapons by any means.

All that said I would like to see a minor adjustment to armour heirlooms.  Currently +3 gloves and +3 armour gives about +12 overall body armour.  This isn't a crazy amount by itself, certainly not, but it's significant in the extreme cases (like maxed out Milanese or Black plate suits).  When coupled with a reasonable STR build it makes some players almost impossible to individually kill, even when a skilled player can land with a 3:1 hit ratio.  Some players, and I think we all see them occasionally, end up being pincushions for even heavy-hitting ranged attacks.  At close range, too, they can soak up even a couched lance blow or two.  And though I really do like having tanky players (think of them as boss fights!) it does get exhausting sometimes when there seems to be no end in sight to a duel with one of these folks.

But then again, perhaps I just have a radically underwhelming build for fighting thick tin cans.  That's probably a big part of this^ rant.

Actual Suggestion: have gloves give a +1 armour bonus rather than +2.

[Freland]

I don't think armor looms are overpowered. I guess 90% of the player base still loom their main weapon first. There is no downside in looming a weapon so why should you introduce a downside in looming armor.

It's fine as it is.

[Fasader]

I don't think armor looms are overpowered. I guess 90% of the player base still loom their main weapon first. There is no downside in looming a weapon so why should you introduce a downside in looming armor.

It's fine as it is.

this.

[Camaris]

You weaboo?

[Phew]

I do like the OP's suggestion regarding weight. I think when you loom armor you should get a choice between the current implementation (increasing armor, with no penalty) and decreasing weight. That way archers/ninjas/whatever could wear loomed medium armor that weighs as much as light armor. 

Conversely, the light armors should get the full +7 armor bonus at three heirlooms. I'd still one-shot an archer with 37 armor studded leather, so it's not like it's OP. They should also add some armors between studded and lamellar, i.e. 33 armor 7 weight or so.

I'd like to see some customization options for heirlooming in general, both aesthetic and functional. For weapons, +5% chance for crushthrough/knockdown, choice between adding thrust or swing damage, adding speed, increasing reach, etc.

[Patricia]

this.

Don't listen to Fasaderp, he's a well known shitbalance dev.

The problem is mostly how light armor get shit bonuses and heavy armor with already a shitload of armor get crazy bonuses, combine that with heirloomed gloves and you've got yourself a shitload of armor.

I don't know about EU (Apparently they all crutch on clothes when someone mention everyone in NA crutching on heavy armor) but in NA, 85% of players in any given server has over 60 body armor, it can go as high as 86 body armor because uhaehuae tripleloomed black armor and heavy gauntlets.

I just find it stupid, you have have 49 armor, +3 it, ohh shiny 56 armor, get a hourglass for 9 body armor, loom it to +3, ohh shiny +16 body armor, for a grand total of 72 body armor at the cost of almost no penalty because armor is too cost effective for what they do.

Meanwhile you heirloom the lighter armor, all you get is 4 additional armor at loomed +3.

[Leshma]

this.

Of course it's not overpowered according to you, when most of the time you're hiding somewhere shooting from clearly OP arbalest at innocent people

[Dach]

Fix the damn weaboo!!!

You nerfed my beautifull Lordly light leather armor 

 but the weaboo can still get a lordly light strange armor... 

Dev boosted the damn weabooo for this patch, armor aboooze and katana too

[RandomDude]

this.

bit late to the party but

"this" too

If you want to nerf my armour some more then it needs some buffs too imo. (Giving me the same weight for less protection or same protection for more weight isnt good enough).

[Torp]

then yu would need to do the same to any other heirloom... no heirlooms have downsides, why only add it for armors?