Here we show some of the real-game examples of the items and how the stat changes really pan out in the item system. The changes that you see in many classes are mostly secondary to the item and stat system, which in turn is secondary to a goal of making the game a harsher, more trying environment. As you may already know, enemies gained substantial amounts of Hitpoints, armor and DPS, so present a greater challenge to every class. In addition, similar balancing has been done to all player classes, however, the balancing point lies in making 'naked' characters 2 or 3 times less effective when tackling the improved mobs than the 'dressed' ones. AOC doesn't depend on manual attribute investments at level up, but rather raises them across the board keeping their class-specific ratios. New stats and dependencies are a good starting point for some greater customization in that aspect. This makes feats, skills and classes only partial contributions to the way your character will play solo or in a group.
Basics of new itemization
Almost half of the overall contribution in 1.5 stems directly from items. Wearing a specific armor, weapon, shield and even jewelry makes your character more unique. The most visible difference is now present in tanking soldier classes. You can spec for a heavy-DPS dealing guardian via feat-tree, but adding a heavy armor (which in new system almost always provides an attack rating and strength bonus) into the mix really boosts the damage capability of such a build, while making a quick switch to a full-on tanking career impossible.
You may think this doesn't differ from the choices you had before in 1.4, but the truth is, polearm DPS guardians were still pretty good at tanking if they simply switched defensive stance on and had some specific feats in general tree invested into beforehand. In 1.5 they also need to keep in mind their overall equipment choices as those are as much part of the class as skills, abilities or feats. Simple weapon-set switch (from Polearm to Sword&shield in our example) isn't enough to embark on a new role at a drop of a hat - the guardian has to have specific feats invested into from general AND from either of class trees, use FULL fullplate armor set and use all possible abilities (in this case - stratagems, tactics and maneuvers).
Classes and items
As we presented last week, archetypes depend heavily on 2 or 3 basic attributes - those increase overall damage and basic defences against SAME ARCHETYPE enemies. At the same time, secondary stats are kept by the game at rather low levels, to ensure inter-archetype (e.g. guardian vs. archer) combat is more dangerous and interesting. In combat of that type, only specific items, chosen carefully during one's career, can overcome handicaps each archetype receives in 1.5. Let's quickly recap those handicaps, stemming from STR/DEX/WIS/CON/INT ratios:
- -mages are weakly protected against holy, unholy and ranged damage
- -priests are weak against elemental damages and in close combat
- -archers/rogues are weakly protected against mages and priests
- -soldiers cannot evade archers/rogues hits and are weak against unholy/holy damage.
Shields and talismans
With passive blocking from shields gone from the game, shields become another part of armor set. However, as weapon-slot items, they usually offer offensive and defensive stat mixture. Some of the changes are good, while other - are bad. See for yourself on the example of same-level, same-place unique shields that are now offering DRASTICALLY different amounts of offensive/defensive stats:
Shields and talismans now perform similar functions, despite the latter being more of a weapon than a defensive enhancer. The basic difference between the two is now ARMOR stat, which again is useful for some, but useless for others. For instance, DT with his/her great overall armor stat stemming from fullplate/heavy armor he/she wears, may benefit more from a talisman than a shield in DPS department. As you can see, changes in talismans also have been rather drastic, with some talismans becoming very good, while some being worse than regular shields or offhand items..
Weaponry
Weapons have undergone mostly bonus changes. The previous DPS differences have been retained, so there're still 1H weapons (moderate DPS), daggers (low DPS), bows (moderate range DPS), crossbows (high range DPS), etc.. With stats giving substantial boosts to every weapon's outcoming 'natural' damage, some stats become more important to weapons (and to their respective classes) than others. Strength is of course the most obvious choice - melee weaponry has this stat almost 'built-in', specifically on lower-damage items.
Armor
Armor pieces have retained their looks but have undergone a substantial change. As you recall, all defences are now split into two stats, protection (previously mitigation stemming from magical/elemental invulnerabilities) and armor (previously mitigation stemming from armor rating and physical invulnerabilities). Gradation of armor stat is still light-medium-heavy-fullplate, but in addition the color of the item, its level, its WEARABLE level determine how great the armor bonus is.
Armor stat is of course only one of the stats possibly appearing on a chestpiece. Funcom decided to allow almost any modifier to appear in any item. You can now gain magical damage from each armor piece, and have life-tapping abilities tied into any armor piece as well. Even some supposedly un-offensive items, like chestpieces, can offer direct attack rating bonuses - which increase specific damage and chance to hit for weapons/damage types. This has been done in order to increase the choices classes can make. The most prominent change in stats possible on armor concerns heavy and fullplate armors.
Since in 1.5 every soldier can wear fullplate, it made little sense to make fullplates as offensive as their heavy counterparts. Thus, heavy armors are now adding substantial amounts to damage via strength and combat rating bonuses, while fullplates concentrate more on constitution, strength and protection bonuses.
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