New gear and gear balance suggestions + list of potential BiS gear

This is a spreadsheet worked by myself and @frogs.poison that contains existing gear with potentially desirable stat combinations, and whether they are a good choice or not. Below the list of each piece of gear are our thoughts on the gear category as a whole, listing what options are viable or great for a specific purpose, and we also have suggestions for rebalanced and new gear. A lot of gear addition / rebalance suggestions are already in this document, although we may release an updated version with more streamlined organization.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19gcrSRaQQkm7fjjULlgkYctWe9iezi9exTTrDqTlGMs/edit?usp=sharing

As for gear that should be priority first for rebalancing or being added, I have a list of what I consider most important:

Summer gear rebalance:
Event gear should not cause players to audibly groan. Unfortunately, a lot of summer gear options are not only niche, but do not excel at their niche enough to warrant losing out on alternatives. Thus, Me and Frog have composed a slew of buffs for summer event gear, the boosted stats in green:

Ra's Scepter of the Solstice:
Heal rate: +100%
Movement Speed: +25%
Cost: -13.5%

Priestess of Ra is at their strongest when used as an economic option. The benefits of choosing this scepter over Pharaoh is 1.5 heal per second currently, and the movement speed cannot keep up with speed War Elephants. For any other Egyptian strategy, the extra speed does not let them keep pace with any build they could not already catch up with. As such, even when this item was around, it was not used often, and is why I propose a noticeable healing and movespeed buff for this scepter to make the loss of economic benefit worth the combat benefits.

Set's Sandals of the Solstice:
Health: +27.4%
Movement Speed: +6.4%
Unit Train Time: -5.1%

Set's Sandals are another generally underutilized priest accessory. Generally, players either want max health or max speed, getting a split of the two is often unnecessary. Thus to compensate, not only do I propose buffing their movement speed and health, but also adding a little bit of train time reduction to give it more universal benefits.

Ashur's Quilted Armor of the Solstice:
Damage: +10.7%
Ranged Bonus Damage: +29.9%
Pierce Armor: +50%

Suggested by frogspoison, because for how more difficult it is to get over Divine High Vizier Robes, it is only marginally better at countering ranged units at the loss of generalized damage once all the ranged enemies are gone. By adding high amounts of pierce armor, not only does it help anti-ranged range units live longer, but also opens the door for Ulfhedinns running this armor to counter ranged harder through more pierce armor.

Ishtar's Sword of the Solstice
Damage: +41.2%
Ranged Bonus Damage: +36.7%
Movement Speed: +14.7% OR Pierce Armor: +35%

Unanimously agreed on by the community to be worse than other existing options. This sword falls short against other anti ranged options for bosses. It performs even worse against actual ranged, because most ranged enemies have pitiful health that makes them die quickly. So this sword ends up being overkill against a tiny fraction of enemies or not even helping units reach a strong ranged unit without dying, making Zahhak or Tiberius still greatly preferred by players. This is why I propose either a hefty movespeed or pierce armor buff, since both of these let sword units close the gap and kill ranged units, in turn turning this item from one of the worst options for a legendary sword, to a really good choice for dealing with ranged.

Ishtar's Divine Wine of the Solstice
Movement Speed: +4.4%
Unit Train Time: -5.1%

So close to being a strong value deal for the early and mid-game. As it is right now, the value package is not stronger than Zahhak, Nebuchadnezzar/Goibniu's, or Delian Hood for regen, train time, or speed, respectively. Buffing its movement speed should make it a situational consideration over these other options.


Ashur's Arrows of the Solstice
Damage :+8.78%
Maximum Range :+12.040%
Cavalry Bonus Damage :+9.8%

These arrows are an option that is close to being a very solid choice for bursting down buildings. But the bonus damage against buildings are so negligible that even with Marduk, it is unlikely that a typical player will notice the bonus over Ice King Arrow's snare's utility. This buff would finally make the damage against buildings more notable while not being absurdly good.

This original suggestion no longer works because there is no way this can realistically compete with Piercing Frost Arrows. instead, proposed rework to cavalry bonus damage so that it can excel against cavalry units from a distance.

Solstice is not the only option that benefits from a buff though. Some Classic and Celeste world pool gear have been left in the dust.

Classic/Celeste chest drops:

Divine Heavy Cedar Beams
Cost : -0%
Damage :+19.4%
Health :+15.7%

Rework suggested by frogspoison, Divine Heavy Cedar Beams' cost increase may sound small, but given that the only potential unit it could have been great for are rams, the added in-quest cost in comparison with Legion or Delian Wheel's focused stat benefits makes this not worth it for those units, and Divine Cedar beams remain a budget choice for pallintonons with no great viability for other units. Thus, with the buff, the value package can finally be worth running on rams for those mid-game pushes.

Gilgamesh Scrolls/Khnum Beams/Argo Oars
Cost: -38%
Unit Train Time: +25%

These items have been a joke ever since the release of AoEO. Despite that, the dynamic of a significantly cheaper unit for a longer train time is a very interesting dynamic that freshens up gameplay if done correctly. This is why I propose these very potent buffs to them, so that they still offer a significant penalty to train time while becoming competitive in their own right.

Staff of the Oracle

Maximum Conversion Range :+33.8%
Maximum Healing Range :+33.8%
Damage :+59.6%

Rework suggested by frogspoison, this staff has overlap with Druantia/ahapitep's staff. Giving extra heal range would distinguish it from that staff.

Aside from buffing old items, we also have new gear suggestions:

Scout Specials:
Scouts are one unit that players generally spawn with in a quest, and as a result, scout gear can play a role in how players handle the first few minutes of a quest. Of course, players generally gravitate towards the Lens of Menes, and I think part of that is because it is the only easily accessible scout special that is also practical.

My suggestion is thus adding three legendary versions of rare scout specials (excluding mummy bandages) that make them stronger and worth considering over Lens of Menes.

Legendary Ahdeeda's:
Movement Speed: +29%

Legendary Noose Pole:
Damage: +266.2%

Legendary Quick Build:
Build Time: +332.3%

Legendary Ahdeedas would be great for players who like getting around places quickly to rapidly find out what is occuring at any given location, Legendary Noose Pole makes scout a viable early-game combatant, and Legendary Quick Build not only builds substantially faster to get watch posts out very, very fast, but now also works for the Norse Melee scout for building Barracks for extra utility.

Marduk Gear:
Marduk's Ram Head:
Attack Rate: +35%
Damage: +30% / Health: +40%
Building Bonus: +15%

A marduk ram would be great for reducing overkill on rams, who take ages to attack once while dealing substantial damage. With the proposed damage stats, it equates equate to 75.5% extra DPS against units, and 101.8% extra DPS against buildings, lower than Athenian's potential 89.25% against units and Khnum's 116% against buildings, respectively, while still making it good for getting out attacks faster. Alt proposal for 40% hp instead of 30% damage for tankier rams with less overkill.


Marduk's Soldiers Gear:
Attack Rate: +15%

A Marduk/attack rate soldiers gear granting 15% attack rate, no other effects, would be a great alternative to MAG, and the offensive variant of Legion Greaves. The main downside is that this effectively is less burst damage than a MAG. For any spam unit except a deathball, health is still a very beneficial stat to have alongside dps. Unlike Deathballs, melee units except immortals often scale better with damage increases over attack rate increases. Any unit with a powerful attack with a cooldown only make the attack animation faster, rather than decrease the cooldown or increase the damage of said attack. Finally, the main contention is with Beorix Gauntlets, which still provide more damage per resource spent than a 15% attack rate item.

Specialized Counter Gear:

Given the lessons learned from the summer event, for players to start considering these extreme counter options, they must provide very strong benefits. Ranged bonus damage on its own is also quite lackluster, but by taking a page from Hathor and also adding siege bonus damage on top of it, ranged counter gear now has a very bulky threat it can sufficiently counter while also not necessitating any other indirect bonus. If the stats are deemed too overpowered by the community, they can be toned down, but they are kept crazy for light spear units as except War Elephants and Ulfhedinn, they are not excellent damage dealers but instead specialize in tanking. Even for War Elephants, running these options would make them significantly vulnerable against any other unit.

Light Spear of Cavalry's Doom
Cavalry Bonus Damage: +215%

Light Spear of Infantry's Doom
Infantry Bonus Damage: +215%

Light Spear of Ranged and Siege's Doom
Ranged Bonus Damage: +215%
Siege Bonus Damage: +215%

By opening up an alternate playstyle for these counter units, they let players specialize them in a way they normally would never have been used for.

I hope that if a developer does take note of this, that they remember that players do like some crazy options that changes up their gameplay, even if they may tip the balance slightly! While powercreep is a real fear, this should not be reason for stagnation. Thinking of smart options that people would get excited for, while still not being a given best choice in every scenario, is great for keeping players from complaining about poor gameplay loop diversity.

 

I honestly forgot about them. I had a suggestion on the spreadsheet but I put the suggestion on the forum post now as well.