116852-secondary-stats-becoming-much-more-important-in-drop-34

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I remember this as well, and I think it is needed. AP and SP *should* matter - but not at the expense of everything else. Diversity in gear and builds should be encouraged and even necessary in the game. There should be situations/builds where you might actually want to stack critical/strikethrough/deflect instead of just going all out AP/SP. Itemization discussions should move away from "Best in Slot" to "Best in Slot for Build X". The cost of not doing this, and making AP/SP the sacred cow of itemization, is not only ending up with a lot of useless items in the game - it also means that in order to provide a challenge to well-geared players, top-end content has to be tuned for characters with a very high AP/SP level. This effectively shuts out anyone who's not in Really Good Gear because they will be accepting a large handicap on their ability to complete that content. It leads to mudflation scenarios where as new content (and better gear) is added to the game, the bar gets higher and higher and higher, and so the next set of new content has to be even tougher to continue to be a challenge. On the other hand, if the value of AP and SP is more proportional with the value of secondary combat statistics, this allows content developers to set up unique situations that require players to use thought, rather than just numbers, in order to win. For example, imagine an enemy that only takes damage from critical hits, or one with low hitpoints but a high deflect rating, such that a lot of strikethrough is needed in the fight. In this scenario, smart players will optimize their gear towards versatility, and be forced to make tradeoffs when they want to emphasize one stat or another. Not only would that add diversity to the game itself and require players to pursue different strategies in order to win, it also makes for a lot more freedom within the system to do unique and interesting things. In my mind, that's good for the game in the long run.


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