I've been preoccupied with other things as of late, but for anyone willing to create upgrades for old set items to bring em up to date in a new area. Using a template like this makes it easier on you and to keep you grounded with properties. I will use LT armor as example here.
Template:
Special
BAC and AC
Imms
DRs/Defensive properties of high quality
Skills
Stats
Fluff: saves/regen/common misc immunities
Caster slots (if class uses, or if this item should give them - that is not necessarily the case even for casters - not every item needs to grant slots).
Special Properties:
- Old special that is really useful for the old class (think Lifethreader armor for instance)
Base stats:
- up to +16, as is common place in Paragon tier. On this armor, that would mean +16 to two key stats in WIS and DEX.
Armor, base phys imm/base ac in paragon tier:
Robe: 15-20% , 16 ac
Light: 20-25% 18 ac
Medium: 30-35% 18-20ac
Heavy: 40% 20ac
Gloves: 15%
Cloak: 15%
Boots: 0-5% at max, doesn't need to have phys imms. Specialist physical item could have 10%.
Ammy: 0-10% depending on properties
Helm: 0-10%, better if no physicals on these if you can avoid it
Shield: 0-15%, higher on Tower shields
Note: it is impossible for old armors or new armors to compete with XR unless they have up to date AC and phys immunity on them, you lose too much defense otherwise. Follow these minimum guidelines, if the item is intended to be a specialist item with physical defense in mind they can be higher, but otherwise no. They're not supposed to be stronger than XRs by default if they have a special, your special needs to carry the item, the physical immunity needs to be competitive but not better.
Example for a new LT Light armor:
- BAC 3, 18 ac
- Physical immunity: 20% to Bludgeoning and Piercing, their expertise with weapon mastery and armor crafting could beef us up to 25% but we like that the item looks pretty and so we will stay at 20% because we want more of other stats in our item than physical immunity, even with all the KB our poor character needs to deal with.
Check old stats, beef skill levels up to match ~~50-80 total skill amount unless it is specifically a Skill bonus item, in which case this doesn't apply. Example spreads: 20/20/20/20, 25/25/20, 30/30 to key skills for that class.
- Example skill spread for Threader armor: Listen/Heal/Parry 25/25/20. If the armor is really strong in other ways, you could drop skills from the armor and force other options elsewhere in gear, but that can also cause gearing to be excessively hard especially for those who are already spread thin (like caster melee types are). We know that the Threader XR race is Corrupter of Fate - so we can take that into account (or not). Pigeonholing classes to one item AND one sub is REALLY PAINFUL and HURTS, but we will respect that anyway and skip ESF:Heal on this item to avoid excess stat strain on the item for those who use the sub.
Check what they provide, beef em up or come up with new defensive properties. Old "empty" items probably need new additions to compete with new randomized gear. Many of the sets were developed before even Bur randomization, and we know where that got us (read: them being really weak in comparison, we avoid that now. We want to use the items).
Old LT armor gives phys DR. New LT armor could also give that, or another form of DR instead, but some DR is required for such a spellslot intensive caster type that needs to be in close proximity. With the changes to Vestiges and Threaders needing Slot items, they are likely to use either one or two of both Belt/Cloak slots to fit. You could also implement another type of thing on the armor to help, such as spellslots. We will use DR and Spellslots as the useful modifiers on this item, to leave special defenses on other pieces and to allow more of these types on this item, + LTs really need help so there's that. We will put DRs at average XR and less than randomized one and to enable having slots on the item we have no special immunities - misc, elemental or exotics - of any kind to make sure the item doesn't get gimped upon implementation by appearing too strong.
- Physical Reductions to all 3 35/-
Spell slots - Threaders benefit from all slots, lower tiers for buffs and higher tiers for restoration and damage - we will go with 11 22 33 44 55 66 77 8888 99999 on this piece to ease spell slot strain elsewhere, combined with the special this gives us a fair fighting chance at not being useless. Priority being on high damage slots here.
And finally, flesh out the fluff stuff your character will inevitably need - or leave them for other pieces. Can add Haste/Freedom, Regen, Saves, stat checks or whatever jazz to fill out gaps/holes or to leave them out and have the player be forced to get them elsewhere, or to just increase the strength of the item if it is lacking elsewhere. We are planning for an LT, we don't need regen our class is supposed to do that.
* Note: we could try suggesting a new special here of some kind. Do keep in mind if it's hard to implement (like a completely new plugin crap or something or something) it is extra strain. If it's easy to implement (like + dc or +sp for a caster type, then it's easy) then it's more likely to be implemented and actually work upon implementation. For LT I can't think of anything useful *and* easy to implement off the cuff, so we will refrain from doing so and stick to old stuff + upgrading that. I thought of special that makes your Threading ability operate as if your WM level was 2 higher than it is allowing more level spread versatility, but skipped it. Maybe on another item - we want this item to happen eh
End result example item looks like this:
- Special: Wisdom modifier % to avoid consuming a spellslot when using this item.
Light armor - BAC: 3
AC: 18
Cleric slot 1 x2
Cleric slot 2 x2
Cleric slot 3 x2
Cleric slot 4 x2
Cleric slot 5 x2
Cleric slot 6 x2
Cleric slot 7 x2
Cleric slot 8 x4
Cleric slot 9 x5
Damage immunity: Bludgeoning 20%
Damage immunity: Piercing 20%
Damage immunity: Slashing 20%
Damage Resistance: Piercing resist 35/-
Damage Resistance: Slashing resist 35/-
Damage Resistance: Bludgeoning resist 35/-
Haste
Freedom
Enhancement bonus: Wisdom +16
Enhancement bonus: Dexterity +16
Skill bonus: Heal +25
Skill bonus: Listen +25
Skill bonus: Parry +20
Saving Throws: Universal +8
Only usable by: Cleric
Requires at least 10 Weapon Master levels to use.
Alright, final look at the item: Looks very plain, but it does have many useful properties for the intended user and the slots help out a LOT with your other gearing. Take a second look at your intended item and think: would I use this even without making it beefier? Answer honestly. If the answer is yes, keep it like that and suggest it unless you're a poor beggar using only mediocre Burs then think again and upgrade the item so you'd use it over an unrandomized XR. If the answer is no I wouldn't use the item, think of why not - and think of a couple ways to fix the issue, and pick the best one. Don't forget to think about the reason "would I be able to fix the issue by using another piece" with all of the solutions you come up with.
If answer is "I would use it but man it would be so cool if it had xyz properties on top", don't add them just because you're power hungry, the devs will look at the item and think this is op and take away the useful stuff you had on the item and make it unusable. Shame on you for suggesting something OP (or something they deem OP, but your item is crap now and it's too late).
--> Woq guide to developing new suggested items.
TLDR:
Step 1:
- Pick old item that is integral to the class you like, but it's too outdated to use.
Step 2:
- Boost stats to Paragon tier. Write stats down.
Step 3:
- Suggest to devs. Done, you helped develop future areas for the game. Good job.
Step 4:
- Wait 3 days
Step 5:
- Loot item, sell it to someone who actually plays the class, steal all their XR goodies and become a rich multiboxer.
Step 6:
- Start over from step 1 or 5 depending on how done you are with step 5.