Enchantment and set bonuses

Nerror

What type of set bonuses would you like to see in Ashes? How about enchantment bonuses? Should crafters be able to change certain set bonuses?

First some basics from the wiki:

• Crafters will be able to assign different skills/abilities and stats on gear.
• Master crafters will be able to influence several (but not all) stats on their crafted items.
• Stats on crafted items will vary based on the item's rarity.
• There will also be methods of moving stat blocks around but this won't necessarily be an easy task.
• All gear will be able to be assigned any stat.

Specifically for set bonuses, we know that there are bonuses based on armor types (heavy, medium, light):

There'll be certain types of set bonuses granted across specific full sets or partial sets of armor types. There will be a similar function in how damage is mitigated based on the type of armor you're wearing and how that relates to physical or magical incoming damage. So that's something to keep in mind. It's going to be situational what type of adversarial foe am I facing and what armor is the best against that to mitigate damage. – Steven Sharif

My assumption is that there is more to set bonuses than simply the armor type bonuses described above. Different games have done set bonuses differently. Some focus more on stats and passives, and some focus more on boosting skills/abilities.

World of Warcraft has this for example, focusing on boosting certain skills, making the gear somewhat class dependent:

Lineage 2 focuses more on stats and passives, which perhaps better fits the style in Ashes, where all classes can equip all types of gear:

But we also know that crafters can assign skills/abilities to gear in Ashes. We don't really know what that means yet, but instead of just speculating, what would YOU like it to mean? Should crafters be able to apply that to single pieces? Or would you like to essentially design your own set bonuses within a set of parameters?

Aside from set bonuses, if you look at the Lineage 2 armor again, you can see certain bonuses depending on enchantment level. Considering L2 is a major inspiration for Ashes, and that we'll likely have a similar enchantment system, what do you think of those enchantment bonuses? Like? Dislike in general? Like but you would prefer different types of bonuses?

Noaani

The set bonus from armor that Steven has talked about is pulled directly from Archeage. It may be implemented slightly differently, but the description given for it describe that games system perfectly.

Archeage also has set bonuses on some items on top of the bonus from armor type, so I don't see any reason Ashes wouldn't have both (keep in mind, Archeage is Stevens most recent influence for Ashes).

I find stats as set bonuses to be boring, it doesn't actually give you a reason to pick the set over other items, you just go for the best stats still.

My personal preference for set bonus gear is for it to be a mechanical change, something that actually changes the way you play your character.


As an example, imagine that Ashes has a range on bows where they do little damage if you are close to your target, but more damage as you get further away. As a set bonus, flip that range modifier on it's head, so bows do more damage closer (though still out of melee range). This totally changes the way you would play a bow character, and picking a set with this as a bonus is a real decision that you need to make.

Other set bonuses could be adding half your mana from items to HP instead (or the other way around). Or you could convert all your mana to HP, and make all skills use HP instead of mana, or you could have a set bonus that adds 10% of any overhealing to your mana.

Basically, imo, if a set bonus isn't causing you to rethink how to play your character, it may as well just be individual items.