Expable Items

As of patch on 9/29/2010

Adept loots can now "level up" as you gain experience in combat, increasing their worn stat benefits with each level. This will hopefully make the rewards for defeating Adepts more interesting and more useful, with, for example, the Grikky Fork you picked up from Grikk the Reborn at level 9 slowly growing from a dalium-ratio weapon into a ghostmetal-ratio-esque weapon as your character rises into the mid-levels, essentially growing with you.

All expable items will start off at level 0 and with no stat increases. As your character gains experience in combat, any expable equipment they are wearing will also gain an equal amount of experience at no cost to you. When an expable item reaches level 1, it will gain a stat modifier, which can come in one of two flavors.

First, it can be a flat increase, like +1. I.e., if your item had 10 AC and 4 STR at level 0, it will have 11 AC and 5 STR at level 1 if it has a growth modifier of +1.

Second, it can be a percent increase, like +50%. I.e., if your item had 10 AC and 4 STR at level 0, it will have 15 AC and 6 STR at level 1 if it has a growth modifier of +50%.

The exact amount of experience an item requires to level up, the number of levels it can gain, and the stat modifier it receives will vary by item. However, the increases will be linear. If an item requires 5000 experience to reach level 1 from level 0, it will require 10000 experience to reach level 2 from level 1, 15000 experience to reach level 3 from level 2, and so on. The stat modifiers will similarly be linear; if an item receives +1 stats at level 1, it will receive +2 at level 2, +3 at level 3, +4 at level 4, and so on. If it receives +50% at level 1, it will receive +100% at level 2, +150% at level 3, +200% at level 4, and so on.

Clear messages will be sent for every expable item you are wearing every time you gain experience, telling you how much experience they gained, or that they gained a level, or that they have reached their maximum level and can not advance any further. Growth-related information will also be viewable at any time using #itemexpreport, which will give you info about the item you have on your cursor, or all the expable equipment you are currently wearing, otherwise.

Note that due to client restrictions, when an item levels up you will not be able to view its updated stats until after you zone. You should, however, gain any full benefit from any increased stats in serverside calculations even before you zone. If you want to full extra sure that you're getting the updated benefit, you can simply re-equip the item in question. If you want to be really, really sure however, you can just zone or refresh and see the new stats for yourself.

Further notes

• Expable items will only gain experience when they are "used" in combat. That is, they must be equipped, and they will only gain experience from combat, not from quest rewards or adventure bands. Similarly, items that cannot be equipped, have no stats, or are consumed (i.e., throwing weapons) cannot gain experience and level up.

• There will be no penalty for wearing expable items; you will still gain full experience as normal. There will also be no downside to wearing multiple expable items. They will all gain the same experience that you do, whether you are wearing one piece or twenty.

• Items will only see increases in stats they already have. I.e, an item with 0 CHA at level 0 will not suddenly gain 1 CHA at level 1. Stats that can potentially increase with item levels are AC, STR, DEX, AGI, STA, WIS, INT, CHA, svMagic, svFire, svCold, svPoison, svDisease, HP, Mana, and for weapons, Damage and Bane DMG.

• Racial Experience Modifiers will not affect the rate at which items level up.

• Any items which are subject to this system should have a tag saying "This item grows with experience" on its inspection window. (Make sure you PATCH!)

• Since this is a new thingy and all that, keep in mind that the specifics are subject to change, particularly things like how much experience an item needs to level and its final stats and things like that.