SOLVED Imperial store

The Dungeon Journal combined with the Collections tab in WoW makes it easy to see where to go to get most end-game gear. I will grant that there is still plenty of murkiness outside of instanced content, but I haven’t needed WoWhead for general gearing information since Pandaria.

EDIT: I would like to add to your suggestion a bit. People don’t really have memorized what is Celeste specific gear or not. Some sort of gear reference in game that told you, in addition to what you’re describing, would be nice.

 

Darn it, I really should type slower and pause before I click "Post".

After thinking about this more, something even better than the Library at Alexandria would be a building that becomes available in every home city when that specific culture reaches level 40. This way players don't have to "travel" to Alexandria to find the information (which would involve the loading screen as they transition to a new location).

The information that is available at the building would be the same for every culture, that way there is only a single background script that is used at all locations rather than custom scripts for each culture, but the building itself would be based on the architecture of each culture.

If you want to take the easiest route it could be as simple as a temple dedicated to the god/ess of knowledge/wisdom for that culture, of if you don't want to keep re-using god/esses that are already being used elsewhere in the game it could be a place of learning and knowledge that is dedicated to someone appropriate for each culture (I'm betting that you already have a building that could be used for this in each culture). Personally I prefer this latter route, especially when there is someone associated with the alphabet/writing of each culture.


* God/esses of knowledge/wisdom (shamlessly copied from wikipedia), if you want to use a temple as the building
Celtic - Ogma
Greek - Athena, Cecrops, Coeus, Metis
Egyptian - Neith, Isis, Thoth, Sia, Seshat
Persian - Anahita, Ahura Mazda, Chista
Norse - Odin, Frigg, Saga, Snotra, Vor
Babylonian/Sumerian - Enki, Nabu, Nibada
Roman - Egeria, Fabulinius, Minerva, Providentia


* Divine/semi-divine creators of Writing/Alphabet/Speech, if you want to use a house of learning & knowledge as the building

In each case they could be called the "Library of <character>" or the "House of <character>", like the "Library of Cecrops" of the "House of Cecrops".

Some of these characters are also associated with making predictions, for example Carmenta was also a (minor) goddess of prophecy, and Enheduanna was the high priestess of the most important temple in Sumer, which fits in with the idea that legendary gear is not guaranteed to drop, you're undertaking a quest based on the wisdom stored at the house of learning and you hope to be rewarded upon success.

Celtic - Ogma
Credited with inventing the Ogham alphabet. He's divine, but that doesn't mean it has to be a temple in the standard sense, it could still be house of learning in his honor.

Greek - Cecrops
Legendary Athenian king who invented the Greek alphabet.

Egyptian - Seshat
Scribe of the gods, credited with the invention of writing and the alphabet.

Persian - Darius I
He claimed credit for the invention of Old Persian Cuneiform in an inscription on a cliff at Behistun in south-west Iran.

Norse - Mimisbrunnr
In Norse mythology Odin didn't invent the runic system, but he discovered is by making sacrificing himself. But since he's already head of the Norse pantheon I'm thinking that the Norse "library" would be dedicated to a lesser source of knowledge/wisdom. It could be as generic as the "Library of the Runemasters", or a little more obscure like visiting the "Mímisbrunnr", the Well of Mimir, who was a counselor of the gods, or maybe even the House/Temple of the Norns, the Norse version of the fates). Personally I like the Mímisbrunnr best, but your mileage may vary.

Babylonian - Enheduanna.
Techically she was Akkadian, the world’s first author known by name and was (possibly) the daughter of Sargon of Akkad (Sargon the Great). Whether Enheduanna was, in fact, a blood relative of Sargon’s or the title was figurative is not known. She is also credited with creating the paradigms of poetry, psalms, and prayers used throughout the ancient world which led to the development of the genres recognized in the present day.

Roman - Carmenta
According to the legendary origin given by Hyginus it was Carmenta, a Cimmerian Sibyl, who altered fifteen letters of the Greek alphabet to become the Latin alphabet and which her son Evander introduced into Latium.

 

Fun idea. Much better than Alexandria, since we can't exactly have Alexandria in the game, at least not for a while.

 

I agree, that's true for general gear. But in this thread we're not discussing general gear, we're discussing best-in-slot gear for end-game play. And for end-game best-in-slot gear both games are on an equal footing, you need to consult external resources if you want to be certain of getting it right.

 

I meant like if you equip berserkers with master assassin's gauntlet, then you cannot equip spearmen with the same item. You have to go with Ramses, or some other legendary. A wall of architect could either go on TC or market, but not both. It's probably impossible to implement in the game as-is, since it would piss off a lot of people, but one can dream.

 

Ah, yeah, that would be difficult to implement, and if you thought the blowback was bad when we stopped stocking Empire Store Legendaries, I cannot imagine the riots if we in one stroke of the pen rendered obsolete dozens or hundreds of items people have spent millions on over the last 2+ years.

 

The discussion isn’t really about BiS gear, it’s about how the Empire Store made it easier to gear in general and how it permitted targeting certain gear slots. I’m not really concerned about it being difficult to get BiS gear, or even being able to tell what is BiS. I just want to know where I need to farm if I’m targeting any specific piece, if the Empire Store is not an option, and I feel that that information should be provided in game.

 

100% Agreed. Why don't you add the quest where x item might drop on Celest Item Search?
Still, the items and gear that drops per each quest needs to be revised. There is no point in doing legendaries when the drop rates of Green/Blue stuff is too dam high! Understand that players that do 5 legendaries and can't get even a piece of legendary gear will be very frustrated and when they see that it's almost all blue or green that frustration will increase until it reaches the moon. Those who can coup with it will continue playing, other will leave their game time and go sleep or do other things IRL (or play another game) for that moment.

I understand that loot must not be granted, but we do need a few things to improve the game looting system without breaking it:
- Have acess to information - Where does x item has the higher probability to drop (Crete? Athens quests? Wel of Hur?) we don't need % like Wowhead;
- If you want to drop greens/blues do it on the daily quests more often (as they already occur), and on legendary with 10 chests at least give us 1 random legendary (it's a 10% chance) even if is crap;
- Fixing the loot tables will help to diminish part of the problem we are having with the EP Store, to solve the other part, change the EP cost of the chests to a more affordable number (425/750) so that new players can use it more often;
- Sometimes i think we talk a lot, but we keep forgetting that newplayers are complaining because they CARE, and having someone that is new to the game caring about our beloved game is amazing, they are sharing their first impressions and things that we no longer see because we are used to the game itself.
- A way to compare two items and see where one benifits from the other without having to remove a piece of gear from the slot (Yes, WoW Shift ability pops up on my mind straight away);

I know i might be unfair to ask so much to the Devs that are doing an sensational work, but is my obligation as a fan and a player to care about it!

Regards,

 

Of course it breaks the market. Everyone is waiting for the reset.

But this has a significant impact on new players. They want the best equipment (Hi the Master Assassin's Gauntlet). And now they won't be able to get them anymore by the imperial store. This can be discouraging for them and they won't want to get more involved in the game.

Knowing that former players were able to equip all their units with Master Assassin's Gauntlet's Gauntlet's...

 

My guess is that something like the Master Assassin Bow drops just as often as the Walls of the Architect, Athenian Training Manual, and Master Assassin Gauntlets. Thing is, each civ needs a lot more walls, manuals, and gauntlets than it needs bows. I don't need much of any gear, other than legendary manuals, walls, and gauntlets. I have 10k in EP and was doing high value EP quests to obtain these items when they finally made it into the rotation. I am back playing because of the Halloween event, but I will not be grinding for EP anymore after the Halloween event since there is barely any use for the EP anymore. I like the events because I know what is at the end of the rainbow in return for my grinding. Grinding on a hope and a prayer that a yellow manual, gauntlet, or wall will drop isn't quite as much fun. There is my 2 cents.