Hey there, players.
I know its been a while since you've heard anything from
us, but really, there hasn't been much to report on recently. However, I noticed something in the town crier that prompted me to make a short announcement concerning it.
That being said, one of the things we are currently working on are making group unique items that are actually... group unique. Items that are unique to the group are intended to be best-in-slot items-- meaning, in other words, the best gear in the game. Its why these items are flagged as one per group. However, there have been several instances where players will ignore group unique items in favor of hero unique items that are actually better. Naturally, this is not what should have been originally intended when group unique items were first created, so we're fixing that.
As I noted in the town crier,
Shining Guard is one such group unique item. Before, this sword was decently good for Paladins and Knights, but other hero unique swords could often eclipse it by offering more useful stats. So Shining Guard was brought more in line with how we felt group unique items should be. And as I'm sure you've noticed, the weapon offers a bonus to a skill for a class not yet in the game. This is completely intentional, but not entirely. While we did want it to offer that skill bonus, we didn't realize at the time that it would tip players off about the new class itself. So no, its not a bug, nor a new item, but merely an old unique reworked a bit.
And to nip a few further questions before they spawn, you can expect other group unique items to receive tweaks to make them feel like the best gear you can obtain. Its an exhaustive process, but if you suddenly find some of your gear to be more effective, now you'll know why. Unfortunately, there are too many group unique items in the game to list all of the adjustments, so you'll just have to discover them for yourself. Until next time, players.
~Ravenhide