What if we changed armor bonus’s to be based on a “socket” type. Lets say we add another “socket” like that of gem sockets for another type of “gem” (something like runeglass but specifically for armor bonus’s)
Alternatively we can make it an “enchant”
Each type of armor can have 2 or 3 types of bonus for each attribute. So the end result is 3 variants of light armor for str, 3 for int, 3 for dex, etc.
And so on for medium and heavy armor.
Each of these bonus’s can be around a “scope” or “range” of concepts for a class identity. For example Mages generally range in thier lore / design from “glass cannon mage” to “fighter-mage” concept.
So you could provide bonus’s for the light glass cannon, the medium armor druid type mage, or the fighter-mage. Something like
Light armor gem
1% elemental damage per 50 intellect for each piece with this gem. Only can be socketed in light armor
Medium armor gem
1% max mana and mana regeneration per 50 intellect for each piece with this gem. Can only be socketed in medium armor
Heavy armor gem
1% Elemental resists per 50 intellect for each piece with this gem. Can only be socketed in medium armor
I am not sure I understand correctly but considering we already have 3 types of each armor e.g. high physical resistance, high elemental resistance armor and balanced for each of the light, medium and heavy weight classes, are you suggesting 3 types of armor for each? So we would have 9 different base armor pieces (not including perks) for each attribute per weight class?
I feel the game already has so much trash gear that this would bloat it even more.
Also, you mentioned a new gem for light, and medium but you missed heavy armor unless the last gem was a typo.
Im suggesting that we take the bonus’s off of the armor outright and shift them to some sort of gem/enchant system where a player can select between a few different versions which scale based on what attribute you have placed.
This will effectively allow you to mix and match pieces and create very unique builds. for example as a mage i could run 3 light and 2 medium and get something like
+1% Critical strike chance per (dex gem/enchant) medium piece per 50 points AND +1% spell damage per (int) light armor piece per 50 int.
The result would be something like a light armor + medium armor build that provides a light loadout (roll), 300 int (+18% (6% * 3) Elemental damage) + 200 dex (+8% Critical strike chance) (+4% * 2) build.
I do like the idea of more customization although, at the same time, I hate the armor system we have right now. I think light armor users should be wearing all light armor, the medium should be wearing all mediums etc. At the moment as a light armor user, most of your armor is actually medium so you have similar damage mitigation as a medium but you have the benefits of being light. I feel like it defeats the purpose of having weight classes if we can mix and max different armor weights to almost cheese the system, but that’s just my opinion on it and I know many people like mixing to min/max.
I have considered yeeting the armor classes outright, or maybe the approach of how it mitigates armor should be reinvestigated. Maybe doing something like sticking a fort cap on each armor type would be a better way to make the armors more unique.
I agree with the concept of having light armor be all light, that made me want “sets” but i dont think thats “practical”. It may be as simple as adapting this suggestion and making the bonus scale based on how many peices you have.
Mixing is complex and i hate (intentional) complexity, but (the dev team made new world complex and ) there are “good” t hings that come from it.
