Runic Materials: A review

[Shaeris]

Runic materials have been on the server for a small while now, and are well sought after by any characters with an ambition to increase the potency of their gear towards the latter half of their playtime. However, some materials in particular eclipse others entirely in their value. This phenomenon is likely unsurprising when you factor that between the four different kinds of runes, there exists also three 'tiers' among them that are only applicable to certain kinds of equipment with specific amounts of properties on them.

This post isn't meant to educate people on what is already well known, however. It's to address the imbalance that exists between the many materials. One that easily comes to mind is the sheer amount of Blueleaf samples I've come across, when realistically there isn't much of anything that can stand to benefit from them. Comparatively however, you'll find cases like lesser Chardalyn that is used on the very (in)famous Headbands of Protection to throw an ability score or universal save on what's already a potent item. Granted, I don't think going through the crafting matrix of every item and handpicking which should or shouldn't be useable by runes is particularly useful; implying anyone is committed enough to even do that. I think the ability to break down runic materials into a select amount of their lesser selves was a step in the right direction, which brings me to my proposal:

Allow players to have the means to pool together a select amount of materials, of the same type and tier, to create its greater variation. I personally find [4] to be a suitable number, but anything is fine so long as it's harder to make than to break in this case.

It would serve as an equalizer across the board, seeing as how even the most unpopular of materials could be saved and later used to go a step up in tier. An incentive, so if people are missing just one or more materials to make that jump then they'll have a compelling reason to go and buy them from people's shops. I see it also as a means to provide people with another way of achieving their distant ambitions of attaining Masterwork tier runes. I don't imagine it will increase their prevalence in the world in a dramatic way, but if balance remains a concern then I would encourage to have its recipe be more expensive or to even go as far as to prevent people from being able to go above a greater.

But that's just my take on it, and one I felt like bringing to light.

[the grim yeeter]

I have been thinking this for a long time as well, and all I can add is that I agree with everything said here.

[Sockss]

Being able to upgrade them would be great.

It'd be even better if there was only one place that did it and it took you a dungeon or so to get through, and cost a fair chunk of gold (maybe 50k for an increase of less to mid, then 100k for mid to high), so you had to take it with you and risk the GP.

That way you could promote some more co-operation, banditry and shady dealings.

[Archnon]

It's to address the imbalance that exists between the many materials. One that easily comes to mind is the sheer amount of Blueleaf samples I've come across, when realistically there isn't much of anything that can stand to benefit from them.

Be careful here to not confuse drop rates and the economy. There is a lot of them because they are worthless, not because they drop more frequently. Converting these into other Runic materials might solve this problem and may be something to think about to balance out the economy another way.

Allow players to have the means to pool together a select amount of materials, of the same type and tier, to create its greater variation. I personally find [4] to be a suitable number, but anything is fine so long as it's harder to make than to break in this case.

This is an interesting idea but my worry would be that it would bankrupt the economy on lower-tier runes. Arguably, people have said that they have bucketloads of these lower tiers in their chests, I have not seen them in the shops. Further, those lower tier runes are less expensive and still useful on a number of items, especially for lower levels. If this was the case, all rune-farming individuals would just stock them up, make the biggest rune they can and then sell that to another level 30 who has the cash for it. The reason there are three tiers is that there are dropped/made items that take all three tiers.

I think converting into other Runes would be a more useful way to balance things out potentially.

[Subutai]

I'm not sure the perfect way to handle it (I like the idea of combining them, but Archnon's point is also good), but I think more prevalent and easier to acquire runic material would be very beneficial.

One of the issues that I think promotes so much farming on the server is that the runic components are rare enough that people who have the builds for it, and the willingness to grind and grind, can make a huge amount of gold by farming runic materials and selling them for very high prices.

Many, I daresay even most, players on the server are either unwilling or unable to spend so much time grinding, don't have the builds to do it solo, or don't have farming groups to go out and do it daily or multiple times a day. That leaves a relatively small number of players who have regular access to runic material and gives them control over the market.

This wouldn't be a bad thing for an MMO, but it isn't great for a RP server where the choice often comes down to "grind and grind and grind for runic materials" or "almost never find them on your own and spend all your money on them".

The hard limit on how much you can enchant items already puts a good limit on the power of characters. I don't know that making runes as extremely rare as they are does much to level the playing field. It might actually do the opposite, by rewarding players who spend a massive amount of time grinding rune chests with the most heavily enchanted gear which, after a certain point, is almost unattainable to the other players, without spending 6 or 8 million on runes.