Dachy Gear

[Yojimbo]

This gear is pretty low by many peoples standards and the Maze is not easy to navigate even for some who have been on HG a while. It is decent gear for fresh casters until Rona, PoM, UR, and BUR items which are all superior to Dachy gear. I recently noticed that Rona gear only has a requirement of L50 which makes it quiet nice way to collect gear for a newer toon. It seems that Dachy gear might be more valuable if its requirement was changed from being tagged items to something else I think the best option might be immortality.

[evilkittenofdoom]

To my knowledge, there are no UR Caster Cloaks or Boots. Thus the Dachy Cloak+Boots have gotten my sorc through a lot of runs. I got through every Hells Run with just a Sussurus of Sorcere and Wraps of Fist (for the last 4 layers) Both augmented with Slots, plus an Un-augmented Handmaiden's Regret and Ur-Ward. My Cloak and Boots were Dachy gear from Tia through Nessus with the rest of the gear. While lacking in comparison to pretty much everything else, it was better than nothing at all. It's not completely useless, but it *is* pretty close.

A boost is indeed probably in order, especially some level 1-3 spell slots for buffing spells, especially weapon buffs which can take up huge amounts of slots for non-spontaneous casters. I'd rather not touch the current slots on them, as slots of (888-999) is relatively fair for the relative ease of gaining the tag and item.

The staves however could use a bit of an upgrade. The UR staves more or less outdo the Dachy ones in most cases, especially since you can Augment them to your preference and can have added properties, and randomized Spell Slots can make it better overall. The staves could use a bit of a boost - perhaps some slots 1-5 for buffs and whatnot. 2 of each plus what's on it now would be enough to make it attractive enough for use IMO.

The Codex of Axeria Imperia .... now that needs some help overall. The slots pale in comparison to the staves, and the only unique part of it is the 5 Mords / rest (not to be scoffed at, but I think most casters would rather have the staff) - I'd suggest adding a Spell Sequencer, like the Sussurus which matches the Codex thematically, casting at CL 45. 2 Uses per rest would be fair IMO for a 1 spell sequencer.

[Crazy]

Maze is outstanding XP at level 41-45 atleast.

Tanks only need 105+ AC to do well, vs desert that needs 120+ ideally. Mages/clerics/Druids/melee can rip the place apart solo or with a small party.

XP starts at 1100 per dot at 41, and is now about 1020 per dot at 44.

Loots good enough for a few new hardcores.

[chirality]

If Crazy's point is that the Maze is easy and thus the Dachy gear shouldn't be improved, I can't argue with that.

However without intimate knowledge of the Maze and a large party each Dachy run is a huge hassle, several hours' worth of undertaking without a pro guide, and just like Tia it must be farmed again and again and again to get the gear you want. This gear is really not that good in the first place--it's really not.

To give an example I watched 2 players with no knowledge of the Maze whatsoever duo their way to Dachy with extremely-poorly-geared mid-40s hardcore toons. It was definitely possible; but it took hours and hours and hours of exploration, and if I recall correctly multiple trips before they even lucked out on a seal spot and finally did the boss. The boss fight is a huge pain without the right toons/party; cleric and wiz were able to do it without running out of rests but it was still quite an undertaking in terms of time investment. Easy? Sure. Worth several (4+) hours' of time? Just to get an extremely low chance of even one piece of gear that you want, let alone more than one? Shrug.

The gear sucks, the Maze is the province of vets who know their way around or newbies who enjoy slogging through hour after hour as they explore, and by the time you spend all these hours in the Maze, sure you have tons of XP, but do you really want to go back again and again for the right gear for your toon? I've done Dachy about 20 times on one toon alone and finally gave up due to not getting anything but other classes' gear that I didn't care about. The staff is worthless compared to a UR that can be used even before you are able to get into the Maze, the rings are worthless for anyone but a sorc or wiz who can afford to (due to skill, knowledge, and party composition) play their role as back-line artillery perfectly with no fear of needing imm rings (or breach/mords rings, or WB/Levi--although this last is more dependent on the given run and subbie to be fair). So you're looking at an even lower chance of getting something that you'll realistically use, let alone be excited about, than even Tia drops, where at least the ring is good enough to warrant dropping another ring for it, and the staff (until recently) was the best available.

What am I getting at with all this? I don't know. I support things that force you to spend more time playing, and Dachy is a great example of this. But other than novelty, in the end the gear is a joke and the reward for the run is the staggering xp and the sense of accomplishment of figuring your way around the Maze.

So should the gear be improved? Shrug. I'd like to see it improved so that I feel like it's worth the trip, but then again the way I look at it the gear isn't worth the trip in the first place and everyone knows this, so if you're spending time in the Maze you're either wanting the tag just to have it, wanting a secret, wanting to explore, or wanting xp. So if you look at it from this standpoint maybe the gear is fine how it is--slight chance of a small loot carrot for accomplishing another goal.

[desocupado]

A life threader can solo the maze just fine. Well I learned the maze layout with one.
Well, maybe if the SR of enemies/boss drop a bit, it would be more popular.

[vorshlumpf]

May 3, 2012 16:40:26 GMT chirality said:

So if you look at it from this standpoint maybe the gear is fine how it is--slight chance of a small loot carrot for accomplishing another goal.

That's sort of my situation. In my many hours of mapping the Maze (for the sole purpose of getting to the Sphinx), I once got a wonderful suit of cleric armour that can't be used until level 50. Boy am I excited!

[Crazy]

May 3, 2012 17:19:20 GMT desocupado said:

A life threader can solo the maze just fine. Well I learned the maze layout with one.
Well, maybe if the SR of enemies/boss drop a bit, it would be more popular.

Would actually like to see Dachy's SP dropped a lot, think its 85, which is pretty high at low 40s. Currently it seems the best way to kill her is a mage with starfire and the IGMS epic, and just cast/rest/cast/rest until she dies. AAs with seeker arrows so quite well too.

[Yojimbo]

The problem is it is kinda newbie gear yet a newbie can't navigate the maze with out hours of frustrations and a decent chance of reaching Dachy only to find they need the seal and give up. I think there isn't much Dachy gear available to people either and in part because most vets will just mass it as it hold little value on the trade market. If the usability and possibly the functionality of the gear went up then it could become worth trading too. I like the idea of places to get low LL caster gear but the cloak gets replaced @ L50 with Rona cloak really as it stands currently and the Staffs and Accessories may never get used because the UR stuff is better. This really just leaves the boots and Ammy to have a use until L60 when there are BURs or L55+ for Tia or Abyss gear. We also now have augmenters with spell slots that can be very useful and even suit as a replacement to some of the Dachy pieces and can end up on UR or lesser items and still be superior.

[arek]

Perhaps the maze itself could be made easier/different without losing its character. My idea: Make it so that each level of the maze has a selection (say 5 or so for each level) of maps similar in character to the existing 4 maze maps. The big difference would be that there is only one ladder going up and one going down on each level, and that what levels you get are randomly chosen when the first person enters the maze each reset. The reason for the multiple maps per level (which would be specific to that level) is so that stuff like class secrets and the sphinx can be guaranteed to be on specific levels, yet those levels would be different for every visit. The glasdir and seal could still appear in a randomly-chosen location within the chosen maps or, if desired, could have semi-static locations just like other stuff.

Mobs and rules for navigating the maze would, of course, remain as they are now. :-)

--Arek

[vorshlumpf]

I have greatly enjoyed the Maze as a newbie. I look forward to completing my map and then sharing it on the Wiki. But I understand that I may be in a small minority due to my personality.

- Niilo

[arek]

You would still be able to map out the maze in its entirety with my suggestion, but doing so would take a while and would, quite likely, be unnecessary. Remember, if this is the first LL area some new player sees, we don't want them getting frustrated and leaving because of it, thinking that other LL areas are similar. this "new maze" would likely be much, much easier to navigate without a map, tho a map (or maps, rather) might be helpful. :-)

--Arek

P.S. This would also help with the planned expansion, since the entrance to dachy could simply be one of the "secrets" on L4, and there could be more floors added later.