Ponizszy tekst ukradlem z uoboards . Napisal go: Gamma_Zulu.

Or, how to tell a good or rare magic item from common trash:

Since AoS came out, I’ve put a lot of time into making and enhancing magic items using runic hammers and runic sewing kits. I had a complete collection of runic hammers from copper to verite, and blown the charges on most of them making weapons and plate armor. I’ve also owned 2 spined, 1 horned, and 1 barbed leather sewing kit so far, and blown all the charges making various armor.

I’ve learned a few things about what’s really a good magic item in this post AoS world. So, with that in mind, let me give some advice to the consumer out there on selecting weapons and armor that’s actually worth something.


Principle #1 Understand How the Weapons got Converted:

First of all, let’s establish how all the previous weapons got converted over into the AOS system.

GM = +20% damage
Force = +25% damage
Power = +30% damage
Vanquishing = +35% damage
GM Gold Runic = +35% damage
GM Agapite Runic = +40% damage
GM Verite Runic = +40% damage
GM Valorite Runic = +45% damage

Exceedingly Accurate = +8% chance to hit
Surpassingly Accurate = +10% chance to hit


Principle #2: Don’t be fooled by pretty neon colors

Next, thing to keep in mind is anyone can make any color weapon, using any particular hammer. This means a dull copper hammer can be used to make a neon orange weapon, or even a valorite weapon. If the dice line up properly more than 50% of the damage ends up being attributed to one of the elemental damages, and the weapon turns a nifty color. Notice the damage bonus of the weapon is still only 20%. It’s simply a GM weapon, with it’s damage spread out in a different area. Why people are paying 100K to have what is essentially a GM weapon is beyond me.

It’s going to be the damage bonus and the accuracy modifier that’s what’s really important, compared to the elemental damage distribution. Unless you’re going up against an opponent that’s very weak in a particular elemental resist, it’s better to just plain have a weapon with a higher total damage output, and higher accuracy bonus. In PvP the nifty neon colors will become more of a liability, because it gives away what type of damage you’ll be doing. Equip an elemental-based weapon, and my mage casts magic reflect.

With that said, there’s certain situations where enhancing weapons with certain ingot types makes sense. For instance, all silver weapons should be enhanced with bronze ingots to shift the damage to fire damage. You end up with a weapon that does about 2X damage to liches compared to normal undead slayer weapons. Enhancing a silver weapon with either agapite, verite, or valorite actually ends up weakening the weapon, since undead seem most resistant to cold, energy, and poison. But, the average person hasn’t figured this out yet, so all that seems to be in demand are valorite, agapite, and verite ingot weapons.

If you do find a nicely enhanced magic item, please understand that enhanced weapons and armor will be more expensive. My elder smith destroys about 50% to 60% of the magic items in the enhancement process.


Principle #3: Look at the quality and number of enchantments:

As the novelty of finding all these nifty colored weapons and armor with single enchantments wears off, everyone’s going to want to start finding weapons with more and better enchantments.

The only real substantial difference I see between the runic hammers is in the quality and quantity of added enchantments. What’s really distressing is the damage and accuracy modifiers can be all over the map. The verite runic hammer tends to make weapons with higher damage and accuracy modifiers, but not necessarily so. The highest damage modifier I’ve made so far is +49% damage, from an agapite hammer. Some weapons made from my verite hammer had damage modifiers as distressingly low as 25% (barely above GM quality). Some of the best weapons I’ve made have come from burning lots and lots of charges from bronze hammers. I have a sinking feeling that the value of high end hammers is a heck of a lot less, and the value of the lower-end hammers is now much more, but that’s a different topic. But, I’m out of the high-end BOD market.

So, what you’re looking for is high damage modifier score, high accuracy score, and the number of enchantments that are useful to you. Just because the weapon was made by a bronze hammer, or agapite, or verite runic hammer really doesn’t matter as much. Since things are so variable, it’s possible to have a better weapon come out of an agapite hammer than a verite hammer. Also, don’t just think that just because it’s made with valorite ingots that it’s significantly better. The ingot selection used in the weapon manufacture doesn’t necessarily make the weapon that much better, it just spreads the damage out into different areas.