Project Pieces

[Idalias]

Hi all -

Was hoping to solicit some feedback as to the best way to tackle a few long-term projects that I’ve created for my level 47 wizard. My ultimate goal is to make each of these items as uber as possible, within reason. I am a patient person and I’d much prefer working on my own items than buying something already floating around. That said, I'm somewhat intimidated by the prospect of upgrading these myself, because I don't want to add anything that either is useless or inhibits my ability to add something else that I later want.

Anyway, here’s what I’m working on:

1. +33 full leathers, maxlight

- Current plan is to finish enchanting these up to +35 on my own, then start adding crit padding

- Questions: When is the right time to ensorcell if I want to add a lot of padding over time? Should I put flares on (doesn't seem super helpful on armor for a wizard as I donÂ’t take many hits)? Will flares make it too difficult for me to continue to enchant this and/or hire someone to do an ensorcell?

2. 6x/6x nervestaff, maxlight

- Technically I shouldn't call this a "project" because it's already awesome and I love using it. That said, my goal is to make it even better over time. It seems like the only realistic options are to further enchant it and ensorcell it

- Questions: Should I wait to ensorcell and try to take up the enchant now as much as possible? I know it's a difficult enchant and I would need some professional help. Or, if I enchant it to 7x or further now, will it make the ensorcell impossible?

3. +18 full plate, HDP

- This is a piece for whenever I get around to creating a warrior

- My plan is to keep this at a +18 enchant while it's not in use. Would like to add the best flares I can find/afford next time there's a festival with an autoflarer. Then, I would start adding crit padding and then eventually start working on the enchant before the padding makes it too difficult to do. Then continue with padding

Am I generally on the right track with these? I'm just afraid of screwing something up!

Thanks

[zephyrii]

with how crazy the ensorcell penalty is for enchanting, nowadays if you want to enchanter further, layoff on the ensorcell until the end (with the hope they don't get rid of enchant certs at DR)

[Idalias]

with how crazy the ensorcell penalty is for enchanting, nowadays if you want to enchanter further, layoff on the ensorcell until the end (with the hope they don't get rid of enchant certs at DR)

Got it. So even if I take my nervestaff up to 7x (or beyond) it should still be ensorcellable later?

[zephyrii]

Honestly, there's no point in getting the enchant up. It only adda to DS which is relatively minimal benefit for the cost. Better to add other stuff with the money like getting it to 10x acuity, adding a bane and adding rotflare instead

[Idalias]

On the margin, isn’t it more useful to add +5 DS by taking the enchant up from 6x to 7x, vs. taking acuity up from 6x to 7x? If the staff only flares once every 6 or 7 spell casts, the +5 bolting AS is worth less than +1 AS per average cast.

[kutter]

I think zephyrii meant going past 7X for the DS portion, I tend to agree with him. My nervestaff is currently at +34/4x and after my last cast I will stop raising the DS, at that point I will get it ensorcelled to T5 and then get to work on the acuity portion, with first goal to be 6X, already have enough scrip for one cert to get it to 5 but they were sold out last duskruin when I went. Eventually getting the acuity to 10 would be awesome then adding another flare. Obviously anything beyond 6 acuity is a long term goal.

[Idalias]

Great, appreciate the advice!

[Versin]

To chime in on your other questions, there is no real point in getting flares on full leathers, and better to add DP than CP to the plate.

[zephyrii]

On the margin, isn’t it more useful to add +5 DS by taking the enchant up from 6x to 7x, vs. taking acuity up from 6x to 7x? If the staff only flares once every 6 or 7 spell casts, the +5 bolting AS is worth less than +1 AS per average cast.


In general, at cap, wizards are generally not in need of additional DS, much less +5 which is small. However, its much much harder to get +AS (much fewer spells and many of them are not easily available like 215/1606/etc). So getting to 10x acuity is a bigger benefit.

In general I would say for a nervestaff, the upgrade path would be:

1) enchant to 7x (if you really want it, its skippable really)
2) get it to 10x acuity
3) add ensorcell
4) add a subscript, either rotflare or bane
5) add the other subscript left from #4

That's really the most feasible nervestaff upgrade path.

[gilchristr]

Start a project piece if you have one or more of the following:
- bane
- amazing combination of enhancives
- perfect forging
- rare and powerful script such as knockout, poleaxe, nervestaff, good armor script, etc.
- rotflares
- 20% of more of resistance

If your item doesnt have at least one of these, don't bother with it.

[zephyrii]

That's a good point from gilchristr, your #1 and #3 pieces really aren't great choices to start project pieces with. Its much cheaper and faster to buy a good project piece with some script or something else hard to get and start from there.

Even something like 6x HCP armor isn't great to begin with now. like last DR, its 500k BS to put T0 ithzir armor script on an item, that's just ridiculous.

[Idalias]

Super helpful feedback, thanks. The nervestaff upgrade path seems very logical. I certainly get the point about starting with project pieces that are a bit more unique/special. The full leathers are somewhat important from an RP (and personal pride) perspective, so even though they’re plain jane, I like the challenge of working to upgrade them. I’ll think twice about spending time/money on the plate though. Also - why would you suggest that I focus on adding more damage padding to the plate than starting with crit padding?

[gilchristr]

We know that padding above 6 CER is randomized (so if you have 10 CER and you get hit, for that hit you will get 6 + 1d4 crit padding.

We don't know what happens when you have 6 CER of both types of padding, but I wonder if you would get the full 6 points of padding from each on each hit. It seems like its how things would probably work. I think this is why some advocate splitting padded (getting 6 of each type vs. 12 of one kind).

I would start with crit padding on that plate.

I would abandon the full leathers for a better set, and get that new set altered to have whatever sentimental connection you have with the description of your current leathers.

[Idalias]

I had a nifty find earlier this week - a sleek razern katana. It’s maxlight at 3 lbs with no properties other than what I presume is 12 total CER of crit weighting (10 from being a katana plus 2 from the razern). It just has the natural +10 razern enchant currently. Seems like a piece potentially worth enchanting up and loading with more crit weighting?

[gilchristr]

Meh, if it were a razern katana with really good enhancives, then maybe.

[Leafiara]

IIRC, older razern katanas have 12 CER (210 services) so that the change to services didn't make existing VHCW weapons weaker, but razern katanas created afterward have 10.67 CER (150 from HCW + 20 from LCW = 170 services).

[Idalias]

IIRC, older razern katanas have 12 CER (210 services) so that the change to services didn't make existing VHCW weapons weaker, but razern katanas created afterward have 10.67 CER (150 from HCW + 20 from LCW = 170 services).

Oh, interesting. I'll have to get it assessed to confirm. That does seem logical though, now that you lay it out in terms of services.

[gilchristr]

Don't make a project piece out of a razern katana.

Besides the fact that a good enhancive katana would probably be better than a razern katana, I also think a plain jane perfect bastard sword would probably be better. For instance:


Plate DFs:
2h katana: .210
Pefect bastard: 2385

[Idalias]

Yup, that seems reasonable. I'll probably sell it and use the silvers towards something else.

[Dantx]

We know that padding above 6 CER is randomized (so if you have 10 CER and you get hit, for that hit you will get 6 + 1d4 crit padding.

We don't know what happens when you have 6 CER of both types of padding, but I wonder if you would get the full 6 points of padding from each on each hit. It seems like its how things would probably work. I think this is why some advocate splitting padded (getting 6 of each type vs. 12 of one kind).

It's not confirmed if it would be 6 + 1d4 padding. It may very well be weighted to ensure a non equal distribution skewed more towards the higher end. It still doesn't negate the fact that 25%+ of the hits you take will probably not use much of your uber CER.

We do know that both floor at 6 and that is definitely how it works. I'm vocal on LNET a lot and am a big fan of 6 CER DP on armor, despite the masses continuing to add superfluous CP CER. Double emphasis if you're a wizard or GoS.

Also, consider the fact that CP only does something to reduce a critical rank from > 1 to 1. Most of the time you'll just be reducing rank 2 to rank 1 and you don't need a shit ton to do that or rank 1 to rank 1 and you don't need any to do that.

For the Full plate, def add CP CER at this point, you got HDP so it's a diminishing return with higher service costs per CER and a randomization which diminishes the returns as well. Get it to 6 CP CER, then figure out if you want to invest in more DP or CP CER, knowing both will provide larger diminishing returns at that point.

[Idalias]

So with the “new” WPS changes which allow for both damage and crit weighting, the optimal padding strategy seems like it almost always would be to do 6 CER of one type of padding, then 6 CER of the other type, and then continue as desired. I wonder if the market views armor with 6 CER damage and 6 CER critical padding to be as valuable as 9.5 CER (which is the equivalent number of total services) of critical padding.