Community

May 31, 2012 -- 6:27AM, Armisael wrote:

May 31, 2012 -- 6:19AM, Mommy_was_an_Orc wrote:

Why don't you make a group password of some kind, similar to the collective, where say only 10-20 CharOp regulars who do this kind of thing a lot have access to it? That way, people can still post here to submit ratings, but that cuts out a lot of cutting and pasting for you...

Tons of paranoia about it degenerating into a cluster****, mostly. Also, I'm not convinced that I, or anybody else, is qualified to designate those 10 or 20 CharOp regulars who can rate items because they are the One True Group of experts. I don't mind the C&P either, I just think it's a really bad idea to try to tackle a gargantuan project such as this alone. Hence, asking people to lend a hand with the submissions.

I'm not actually saying that you won't do the ultimate ratings - at a certain point, you just change the password once most of the basic work is done. But there are thousands of magic items...

Also, you should consider stealing...um praising through copying...Soulliard's item thread, just so you have things to quickly edit. 

Rending Weapon (Weapon): The more ways you have to increase your chances of scoring a critical hit, the more this becomes a mandatory weapon. Not only does this add 1d6 per plus to your critical hit damage, it also grants you a no action melee basic attack. There's nothing more a striker could ask for. Only drawback is that it only comes as an axe, but that's just more incentive to wield a Gouge.
Avenger, Striker. Level 4+

Amulet of Life (Neck): Access to extra healing is never bad, especially if you get beat on a lot. Even better if you have a reliable way to generate saving throws so it doesn't compete with other neck slot items that grant saves. It shines on classes that have a lot of healing surges, because after a few fights surge management tends to become an issue.
Defender, Encounter. Level 5+

Strikebacks (Hands, level 10, AV): If you have a serviceable melee basic attack and don't use your immediate action literally every round, there's no reason to skip this. Combats where these don't trigger are few and far between, so take these and be happy with them. Additional benefit: you finally don't have to remember those annoying Gauntlets of Blood anymore.
Encounter. 

Acrobat Boots (Feet, level 2, PHB): Who likes to spend their move action standing up from prone? No-one, that's who. This lowly level 2 Feet slot item forever saves you from having to worry about this. This effect is also obtainable by taking the level 2 Acrobatics utility power Agile Recovery, but why spend a precious utility on it when these boots do the same?
At-will. 

Boots of the Fencing Master (Feet, level 7, AV): This kind of mobility is usually reserved for Monks, so making it available as a Feet slot item is great. There are so many uses for a minor action shift 2 it's not even funny. And that's not mentioning the item bonus to AC and Reflex when you shift. One of the top heroic picks for Feet slot items.
Encounter. 

Butterfly Sandals (Feet, level 12, AV): There are few classes that benefit from a static bonus to fly speed, but for those who do this is a huge increase. If you have a way to consistently take to the skies, this lets you do a decent Neo-impression.
Common. 

Helm of Able Defense (Head, level 14, AV2): The best way to survive is to not get hit. And this helm facilitates that, a lot. Defenders should be careful though not to become too hard to hit, because monsters will go looking for your allies otherwise. Oh, and a +1 item bonus to Will is just gravy. Part of the Panoply of the Shepherds of Ghest set. 
Defender, set.

Casque of Tactics (Head, level 4,14,24, AV): An easy way for everyone to boost their initiative a bit with an item bonus. Gets a lot better at higher tiers, where the difference really becomes noticeable. The daily power is deceptively powerful. If you're a Dex-striker and your controller or defender rolled badly on their initiative, this will let them set up the battlefield for you, after which you can come in and kill what's left.
Daily. 

I'd argue that for things like items, the Gold category really has different meaning.  It's not that Staggering Weapon is inarguably the best for flail fighters, but it is the core item in the builds that use it.  Sure, I can build a fighter that doesn't use Staggering Weapon, but for the ones that do, it's absolutely critical.  Is it really helpful to give a general, across-the-board rating?  It's entirely possible that a general rating of Sky Blue for one item and a general rating of Black for another may be appropriate in general, but character builds aren't general.  For my build, maybe that Black item is so stupidly crazy important that it becomes Gold, for that build.  Alfsair Spear is a perfect example.  As a spear enchantment, it's pretty meh.  Nice, I guess, but no better or worse than dozens of other mediocre spear enchantments.  In the hands of a Polearm Druid, though, it is the item that makes the build, and you have absolutely zero choice in the matter.  Which is the definition of Gold.

What I fear, though, is that in recognizing the semi-uselessness of the general rating, we just have a list of Gold items for popular builds.  Which rapidly just turns into a list of our favorite items, which isn't the point of handbooks like this.  If anyone's got an argument for why general ratings are helpful, I'd love to hear it.  I'm at a loss right now.  The only use I can think of is for the truly generalist items.  Things like Iron Armbands of Power.  There's no one specific build that they're the key linchpin of, they're just generally good for everyone who uses melee attacks.  But that's a pretty slim set of the item base, and to be honest it's the most boring set.  The interesting items, in my opinion the ones that you can make a build around, aren't the sort of things that lend themselves well to ratings.  Either they're all going to be purple-black as a general rating, or they're all going to be Gold (or, if you're overly humble, sky blue).  Neither of which is particularly useful.