I’m hoping that someone can help me out with this.
As far as I know, Dragon set was the “end game” set before they released R8R. So, my question is, why did they go from fixed stats to random stats?
Fixed stats pros:
Everyone has the same gear, it’s not based on luck, the time you are able to farm (e.g. people that farm BH’s on 25 characters for 2-3 hours each day vs normal people that have actual lives) or the money you are able to throw at this game.
Easier to balance (e.g. we’ve got -90% chan archers and mages that could have been easily avoided with fixed stats).
Random stats pros:
You can tailor your gear to how you’d like to play your class (e.g. sage caster ea vs demon aps ea).
But, it’s entirely possible to have best of both worlds.
Instead of having random stats you’d have different sets of gear that could be mixed for your playing style, something like:
LA armor:
Caster = -3% channeling reduction on all gears and other stats that go well with that.
APS = -0.05 interval on all gears and other stats that go well with that.
Damage = +25 dex on all gears and other stats that go well with that.
Same would go for all other classes, barbs would have APS, Damage and Tank, etc. etc.
The entire LA armor set would be considered as one big set, so if you choose to go with caster boots, caster chest, damage wrists and aps leggings you would still get the same bonus if you had the entire caster set (e.g. +25 def levels, +25 attack levels).
I somehow find it hard to believe that all the “issues” with balancing the game are not related in some way to random stats. No one is complaining about an archer or a mage that has -70% channeling but once they reach -90% it gets a bit OP.
This would also reduce the amount of farming that is needed to get a decent set, allowing the casual players keep up with the hardcore players.
