July Tinkering FAQ
Original Link (now dead) - http://acdm.turbinegames.com/featuredarticles/?action=view&article_id=235
July Tinkering FAQ
By Alex "Ibn" Beckers
In July's event, "A Swelling Tide", we introduce a number of new tinkering effects. We discussed these in the July Letter to the Players but many of you had further questions and requests for clarification.
General Imbue Questions
Q: Will the new imbues have the 33% maximum chance of success?
A: Yes.
Q: Will we ever allow an item to receive more than one imbue?
A: We have no plans at this time to add this ability.
Resistance Rending Imbues
Q: What happens if we imbue a weapon with Resistance Rending for a damage type that it doesn't deal? (For example imbuing a Fire Tachi with Cold Resistance Rending.) Similarly, what happens if I use Fire Arrows with a bow that has been imbued with Cold Resistance Rending?
A: The imbue will take, but will have no effect. Likewise, the Resistance Rending on a missile weapon will only have an effect when you use the appropriate ammunition type.
Q: How much extra damage will a Resistance Rend do?
A: At maximum effective skill, it is roughly equivalent to a level VI vulnerability spell.
Q: Will Resistance Rending work with wands?
A: Yes. This will primarily benefit mages by reducing the need to cast a vulnerability spell before attacking with war magic.
Q: Will Resistance Rending on a wand also affect any war spell that the wand itself can cast? For example if I have a wand with a built-in Acid Blast V, will Acid Resistance Rending improve the damage?
A: Yes.
Q: Will Resistance Rending affect life spells such as drains and harms?
A: Not at this time, and we have no immediate plans to add this functionality.
Q: Will Resistance Rend on a wand work differently than on a melee weapon or missile weapon, similar to how Critical Strike and Crippling Blow work differently?
A: Critical Strike and Crippling Blow work differently for wands because criticals work differently for wands. This difference doesn't apply to Resistance Rending.
Jewelry Cantrip Imbues
Q: Will the jewelry imbues affect the maximum mana and mana burn rate of the item?
A: No.
Q: Will you be making more minors available for imbuing?
A: We'd like to see how well the existing ones work before adding new ones, but it is certainly a possibility.
Q: Can we imbue jewelry that is not currently magical?
A: No.
Armor Defense Imbues
Q: Could you provide more details about the Armor Defense imbues?
A: It's an imbue, so you can do it once and only once to any piece of armor. The maximum chance of success is 33%, like all imbues. And the bonus you get is +1 skill point, not +1%. You can imbue the piece with a bonus to melee defense, missile defense, or magic defense.
So you can build a suit that, with all of its pieces, gives you +10 melee defense, or +5 melee defense and +5 magic defense, or what have you. These bonuses stack with any spells or weapon modifiers you have.
Each effect -- Melee Defense, Missile Defense, or Magic Defense -- is a separate imbue.
Q: The Armor Defense imbues appear to be underpowered, considering the 66% risk of failure even in a best case.
A: When creating new dynamics like this, we generally start cautiously to avoid potentially doing awful things to game balance. We will pay close attention to your feedback and look into adjusting the imbues in the future if necessary.
Requirement Tinkering
Q: Will changing requirements on an item also affect any wield requirements?
A: No, they will only change the activation requirements.
Q: If I have an item that has a rank requirement in addition to other requirements and I remove the rank requirement, will the new arcane lore requirement take into account the other requirements?
A: Unfortunately no, the new arcane lore difficulty will be set equal to the spellcraft. Any heritage or skill requirement will no longer provide a benefit. This is a technology limitation.
Q: Can we add heritage requirements?
A: Not at this time, and we have no immediate plans to add this functionality.
Q: Can hilted weapons be affected by the requirement tinkering effects?
A: At this time, no hilted weapons can be tinkered, nor can you hilt a tinkered weapon. We are considering removing this restriction for the requirement tinkers, but we haven't reached a decision yet.
Leather Tinkering
Q: Will Retained items (tinkered with leather) still be tinkerable?
A: Yes.
Q: Are Retained items also Bonded (no-drop)?
A: No, Retained items will still be droppable on death.
Q: Can Retained items be destroyed by using a mana stone on them?
A: At this time, yes. We would like to change this in the future.
Q: Will they be only wieldable by the tinkerer, like the Ivory tinker?
A: No.
Q: Can quest items be Retained?