To be more specific from my reply in the auto pickup shards thread, let me elaborate here further.
Disclaimer: This is obviously WITHOUT any regards or consideration to balance and just something I came up on the fly while reading the recent posts about shards in the forum lately. Also sorry for cringey lame term(s) I used below.
Right now, I don’t think there’s enough value to shards that will make you stop, read it, and rejoice because you got Health on Kill shard. Because there’s just none of that, as simple as that. So like I said in the linked thread, they should just let the current one be automatically picked up. And instead add new unique “shards” (or a different term) that can only be used once (or 2-3 times) per piece of equipment.
How does “Ascension” works?
It’s basically a new way to add unusual/unique effects on current equipment through new unique shards that the player has and are not simply plain stats like Fire Resistance, Added Melee Damage, Dexterity, etc. This feature leans more towards “build defining” or enhances the main theme of your build or create a whole new build theme entirely. These “shards” have specific requirement and criteria in them like:
- “if you have X passive node, this shards does Y”
- “if you have maxed X passive node, this shard does Y”
- “if you have at least 200% X ailment chance on Hit, this shard does Y”
- Or more complex ones like "if you have axe on main hand and shield equipped and have maxed X passive node, this shard autocasts Y skill if you hit an enemy within the last 4 seconds for 3 seconds.
- "if you’re X class mastery and have Y and Z equipped, this shard converts all Fire Damage to Void Damage.
Here’s an actual example:
- Everlasting Decay shard (Rings): If you have 300% or more chance to inflict any ailment. All damaging ailment now deals 80% damage (multiplicative) but ailment inflicted lasts twice as much as long.
- Doom Orb shard (Gloves): If class mastery is Void Knight and have Divine Bolt and maxed Shared Divinity node in the Paladin skill tree, replaces Divine Bolt with Devouring Orb that uses its skill tree. Devouring Orb cast this way deals 50% less damage multiplicative) and instead slowly travels in a straight line towards the nearest enemy before exploding. Maximum of 10 Devouring orbs may be present in the battlefield cast this way.
- Crescent Cleave shard (2H-Sword/2H-Axe… Sorry, Warpath stuff ahead): When using Warpath and have maxed Giant Splitter node, it now casts Void Cleave at random direction every 1 second while spinning instead of stopping to perform the slash. This uses Void Cleave skill tree and deals 80% less damage (multiplicative) and consumes 90% less mana. Requires a 2H sword or 2H axe.
- Poison Nova shard (Body Armor): When Aura of Decay is specialized and have Corruption node, Aura of Decay now debuffs enemies with “infection” while they are inside the aura. Enemies hit that are affected with “infection” causes 50 poison stacks on them to detonate dealing AoE damage and poisoning nearby enemies caught in the blast. The blast deals 1% more damage and 1% chance to poison per second per Healing Effectiveness.
- Guillotine Shard (1H-Axe): Using Multistrike will now debuff enemies hit with “execution” on each hit. Reaching 5 stacks of “execution” will summon a giant guillotine blade on top of the enemy dealing massive damage on the target that scales with the character’s Armor. If have a shield equipped, increases stun chance.
A player can only have a max of 3 types of unique shards across all equipment. Trying to equip a 4th equipment with unique shard in it will have the unique effect useless. The game could make a new NPC UI too where you can turn ON/OFF these unique effects in case you are wearing more than 3 pieces of Ascended equipment so players can easily choose which ones are active. Of course this raises the issue similar to respeccing skills having access to different builds on the fly before fighting the boss separate to the build used for mobbing. This NPC can only be found in later towns.
When can I use/unlock Ascension feature and where can I get these shards?
I’d say after beating the story up to whatever available at the moment. And these shards can drop anywhere. A more powerful or build-defining shards may drop on dungeon bosses or monolith story bosses too or X corruption.
How do I use the ascension feature?
As I said, it’s tied to story progression. EHG could add a new NPC that introduces us this feature on later parts of the game or in new areas tied to upcoming future updates. Or add a new dungeon with this mechanic at the end similar to Temporal Sanctum. Or let that certain NPC you’re allied in the Harbingers update to introduce this new feature to you. I think that NPC fits the role, visually and lore wise (I don’t want to spoil it here for some people but you’ll see why once you defeat the Harbingers final boss or even BEFORE facing the final boss).
As to how to actually use it:
- Place the item you want to “Ascend” on some UI or pedestal.
- You select which unique shard you want to attach to that piece of equipment.
- Certain NPC casts some magic and blabber some gibberish to it completing the process.
- Take your item back, use it, and enjoy.
What if I don’t want this unique shard I used anymore or I want to completely remove/replace it?
This is where other “unwanted” shards comes into play. Unique shards you either don’t want to use or no plans of using or just simply got no use to your character if you’re playing SSF or something.
“Unwanted” shards may be traded for a certain item from certain NPC tied to this new feature and I will just call it “Shard Dust” for now (lame). Shard Dust is then required if you want to remove the unique shard effect on the equipment. It’s up to EHG how much is required in the process and how much is the trade ratio from NPC.
And “Unwanted” shards may also be traded to other players of course if you’re in the MG faction for gold or Shard Dust itself.
This whole system of course comes with its PROs and CONs
Pros:
- Utilizes Passive Tree nodes to create more build variety through meeting specific requirement and criteria. No item or unique ever does this yet, so this will be the first to tap on to Passive Tree.
- Utilizes Skill Tree nodes that nobody ever uses because right now, EHG refuses to acknowledge and buff them.
- SUBJECTIVE: This will make existing shard drops be picked up automatically. Instead we get this feature to kind of replace it. And this will make us actually read the shard description.
- Dopamine when you pick these shards up because it’s quite rare and actually does something new. Even if years later if this feature ever gets implemented, still makes players read the item description.
- Works on all types of equipment.
- Could be “fun” to play around with.
- Increases replayability even further.
- NO RNG BS as Ascension feature is 100% guaranteed. The only RNG you need is finding the unique shard you want. If you want some RNG, then stat roll on each shard may also be introduced similar to normal shards we have now.
- DOES NOT REQUIRE FORGING POTENTIAL. GOD.
Cons:
- Possibly all too complicated and requires a lot of coding to make even just 1 unique shard work on the developer’s side.
- Possibly quite difficult to come up with something “unique”-ish effect to the item as there can be a lot of these unique shards.
- Might feel builds rely too much on specific shard to make something work or barely “viable”. This depends on how the game would balance out the stats and whatever effects the unique shard has.
- Level requirement. Since its unlock is tied to story progression, this indirectly adds level requirement to the item. And for the sake of “balance”, even 0-5 level-requirement Ascended unique items will be locked until you reach a certain point in the story/campaign.
Other feature that might also be added/changed:
Though this is mostly for RNG seekers. As I said, a player can only apply ONE unique shard per equipment. This could change too to 2-3 times to “improve” the tier of the current unique shard. So a unique shard can be Tier 3 max. To increase the tier, one must use the “same name” shard in the process. And the higher the tier goes, the less likely it’ll be successful. This doesn’t come any “item bricking” downsides which is a good thing.
So with all that being said, of course this system is just a basic idea, and I just pulled it up my arse, I am not even going to pretend. And of course this has lots of ups and downs depending on how you view it.
This post is brought to you buy boredom and because Warpath path finding is still crap even after the update, so I made this post. I’ll just leave it here, people might argue and I might not reply back.