The Azoth changes are nice.
I dunno about the mindset of “chasing the (ever climbing) & unreachable GS”.
I watched a couple streams playing on the PTR last night, doing the math on Umbral Shards. The whole Mutator 1-10 is brutal. Great for those that grind min/max and have a regular party of 5.
But, if AG thinks people are going to PUG a 5-party, when proper gear is essential; it’s not happening. I’m not even sure if a geared-out 4-party can still charge coin to help a 5th person through.
Reaching 590 doing Elite chest runs takes forever. If I understand it right, all your gear needs to be 590 to enter a Mutator? Even if it doesn’t, can you imagine how many of the total player population will be left out making any headway in mutators.
I think the new content is fine for hardcore players. It’s great. But, there should be some way for the masses who don’t have 5 friends that play regular to reach that GS. The best they can do if they have a skill in one trade is to craft that item to 600, then acquire the rest and grind it to 590. Then they are stalled at mutators.
Crafters are covered in using their own umbral crafted items over 600. But sold items only carry the additional possible max GS to the purchaser. So the GS > 600 needs to be grinded. Gypsum casts is about all I can think of.
Maybe I’m missing something. It seems they left out a big chunk of the player base in this.
When you reach Expertise 600, you unlock the ability to upgrade items of that type via Umbral Shards, as well as the ability to acquire Umbral Shards from Gypsum Casts of that type, or crafting by GS 600 items of that type. An item must have rolled a Gear Score of 600 to be eligible for an upgrade.
Once at Expertise 600, you can increase Expertise by upgrading items through the Umbral System. For example, the first time you upgrade any Great Axe from 600 to 601, it will increase your Great Axe Expertise to 601.
Have they confirmed yet wither gear score 600+ items actually DROP anywhere or is all progress from 600 to 625 done via Umbral Shards? This to me sounds like the only avenue to progress gear and expertise from 600 to 625 is umbral shards.