Imbues
As mentioned above imbues, to me, are the greatest type of progression in ARPGs. The idea is to create a new item-type that has varying loot-tables for each region. These items can imbue certain item-slots and those can not be of unique quality. They consist of several parts (3-7) and each part roles random stats of the same affix and can be imbued on an item even if the imbue is not completed. If combined the affixes add up and if completed they also gain a new affix from a new affix pool. If this new affix is an ability a more detailed description is available in the "imbue-window" Imbues start dropping in Hell difficulty. Imbued items can not be traded.
Example: In the cathedral, the crypts and the festering woods each monster has a chance to drop an "imbue of withering". This item is an additional item drop and does not effect other item drops. It is not influenced by magic find and it can not be traded. The "imbue of withering" consists of 6 parts. It can only imbue amulets. The base attribute of each part is "+2-8 intelligence, 1-3 strength". A completed imbue can vary from +12 intelligence and +6 strength to +48 intelligence and +18 strength. When the imbue is completed it gains an additional affix giving the imbue a random passive from any class (only the respective classes can use it).
If implemented correctly these imbues can create huge incentives to keep farming and improving. What does correct implementation look like? Important rules are:
Easy to achieve, very very hard to perfect: The first step to make this possible is randomization. Everybody will be able to complete imbues but most of them will be of average quality if rushed. Those that want perfect ones will have to farm for a long time. The second step is to make people lose the imbue, once it has been used. If you managed to craft a perfect one, it is necessary to still have an incentive to craft new ones. So the imbue has to be lost if the amulet is replaced.
Make them farmable, but not as an exclusive type of progression: As mentioned in the example these things have to drop WHILE killing whatever you want to. If you limit them to an area where ONLY imbues drop, people get tunnel visioned and are saddened every time they don´t get the drop they wanted. But making them drop at completely random locations makes it to hard and to unrewarding to strive and hunt for those. So the perfect solution is to bind certain imbues to certain places that allow for efficient farming but not at the cost of normal loot.
Example of a few imbues:
Completion bonus: Gain a random passive for your character (respective class only)
Example: Imbue of celerity:
Parts drop in Fields of Misery, Howling Plateau, Desolate Sands
Tooltip: "This magical tool can increase its wearers speed, allowing him to move quicker and dodge attacks if imbued on an amulet. Creatures in huge open areas had to adapt to their environment and move quickly to survive. Magicians claim to be able to harness their essence and bind it to scrolls."
Can imbue amulets
3 Parts
1%-2% dodge chance, 0.5%-4% movement speed (Min: 3% dodge, 1.5% ms; Max: 6% dodge, 12% ms)
Completion bonus: Teleport 20-60 yards by clicking "force move" on the ground while having the item not on cooldown, 60-10 seconds cooldown
Example: Imbue of resilience:
Parts drop in Hell Rift, Gardens of Hope, The Battlefields, The Barracks
Tooltip: "Grants the wearer improved defense and allows to retaliate attacks."
Can imbue shields
3 Parts
0.5%-2% all resistance, 5-50 armor (Min: 1.5% AR, 15 armor; Max: 6% AR, 150 armor)
Completion bonus: + 50 random single resistance, Shield retaliation: After being struck the yielder has a 30%-80% chance to retaliate with 300%-2000% of intelligence as damage. The retaliation is not possible for 2 seconds after each block. (Coupled with this affix i would like to see at least one tier of shields that can role a lower block chance than 10%)
Example: Imbue of fortification:
Parts drop in Gardens of Hope, Desolate Sands, Fields of Misery
Tooltip: "Allows its wearer to increase his life and a chance to summon a sacred shield when being hit."
Can imbue shields
7 Parts
0.2%-1% increased life (Min: 1.4% HP; Max: 7% HP)
Completion bonus: + 40 random stat, Sacred shield: When dropping below 50% HP a sacred shield appears and reduces all damage taken by 0.01%-0.1% of its wielders dexterity for 4 seconds, 60-15 seconds cooldown.
Example: Imbue of strangulation:
Parts drop in Festering Woods, Howling Plateau, Dhalgur Oasis, Stringing Wind
Tooltip: "Reduces cooldown of all abilites and allows to drag monsters to the wielder."
Can imbue shields
6 Parts
0.25%-1.5% reduced cooldowns, 2-10 Vitality (Min: 1.5% Cd, 12 Vit; Max: 9% cd, 60 Vit)
Completion bonus: 10%-50% Chance to vortex a monster towards the player if its attack is blocked, + 12-60 Vitality
Example: Imbue of domination:
Parts drop in Cathedral, Alcarnus, Tower of the damned
Tooltip: "Increases summoned minions damage and allows to control more minions. Gather the essences of Sanctuarios' greatest summoners and bind them on a scroll."
Can imbue Belts, Amulets
3 Parts
1%-4% increased minion damage, 0-2 Pickup radius (Min: 3% MD, 0 PR; Max: 12% MD, 6 PR)
Completion bonus: summoning mastery: Reduces cooldown of minion based spells by 1%-50%, 10%-50% chance to summon twice as many minions.
Example: Imbue of venom:
Parts drop in Howling Plateau, Fields of Misery, Fields of Slaughter
Tooltip: "Increasing its wearers Agility and Resistance. Gathered from the most poisonous areas in Sanctuario this allows to apply a deadly venom to the attacks, once completed.
Can imbue Shields, Belts
5 parts
3-10 agility, 1-6 poison resistance (Min: 15 agi, 5 pr; Max: 50 agi, 30 pr)
Completion bonus: Venomstrike: Normal, non critical hits apply a poison, dealing 100%-2000% of the players poison resistance as damage over 2 seconds
Example: Imbue of oppression:
Example: Imbue of refraction:
Example: Imbue of dedication:
Example: Imbue of efficiency:
Parts drop from all monsters in areas with beefy monsters
Can imbue shields
4 Parts
1%-3% Increased resource gain, 2-11 Strength (Min: 4% IRG, 8 Str; Max: 12 IRG, 44 Str)
Completion bonus: Increases resource cap by 1%-20%. Every time you generate 50% of your resource Limit you heal yourself for 100%-1000% of your Strength
These are a few examples (I can come up with another 200 so there still is room).
Imbues have A LOT of potential to make the itemhunt really really addicting. They drop everywhere and the player himself can decide how perfect he wants his imbue to be. If he wants that one perfect imbue he can invest 30 hours and craft it on his own. But even if he manages to get that PERFECT one it's not over. As soon as he finds an item upgrade (which might happen during these 30 hours of farming) he then can again decide whether he wants that perfect imbue.
– The inventory problem: The biggest problem is the space these little imbues take up. I think usually people will want to farm at least for two sorts PER imbue. One perfect slot that wants the best stats and one "trash" slot that people just want to complete so they can get the completion affix. But i wouldn´t call it a problem, if there wasn´t a possible solution to this. By creating a new "imbue-screen" that has all imbues listed you can not only create an easy way of informing people which imbues exist but also give them the possibility to craft one imbue in the window. If people want to work on more than one imbue they will have to give up a slot in their inventory. I´m thinking about creating 20 imbues, so the window would consist of two rows with ten imbues per row. All available imbues will be listed there and be greyed out until the player stores a partial or a completed imbue in the slot. The player can drag this imbue out and use it on an item at any given time. If moving the mouse over an imbue in the "imbues-screen" a tooltip saying "This magical tool can increase it´s wearers intellect and strength if used properly. It was seen to be created as a side product when corpses in the foul crypts and graveyards were reawakened." to show people what the imbue does and give a rough description where it can drop.