Armor of Solace (Q-Grade, Lv120+)

Introduction

As we move to levels beyond 100 and, although in NCWest we are still far behind from content updates, I would like to propose an armor set for levels 120+, where a new grade is introduced: Q-Grade.
Given that the suggestions on these forums mostly regard modification of current systems and new content is not being proposed, I would like to launch a series of suggestions for a fresh game experience.

Figure 1: Armor of Solace bond.

Topic

Armor of Solace is a level 120+ wearable armor. It features a system where you get to determine the power and quality of your armor, depending on your resources. This system allows you to upgrade the armor, at any time, while it also introduces a unique, community-friendly attribute.
Visually, it creates a glowing chain among the players (see, Fig. 1).
The armor cannot be crafted through a Maestro; in order to craft it and/or upgrade it, you need to visit Blacksmith of Power, Lahm, on Parnassus.

Figure 2: Example of the armor: Leather Armor of Solace description.

From Figure 2, there are two features that require further explanation:
i) Distance from group members.
ii) Armor effects being influenced from the crafting ingredients.

• When the armor's wearer is close to a friend (a player present in their friendlist), a clan member, a partymate, a wife/husband or an alliance member, there has to be one condition met: that character must also wear armor of Solace (regardless of its type (heavy, light, robe)), in order for the effects to take place. Assuming there are two characters wearing the armor and they are close to each other, a buff, which serves as an indicator, shows up:
  
  
  
  Figure 3: Armor of Solace: Solace Tether buff.
  
  The players do not have to be in a party for the buff to be given; as long as there is some form of a relationship among them, the effects are given.
  
• Unlike other crafted items, Solace armor gives you the flexibility to utilize your own resources in obtaining effects that you are primarily interested in or you are being poor and you do not have many ingredients at the moment of crafting.
  The quality of the armor is determined by two parameters: a) level of ingredient used, and b) amount of the ingredients. The effects are determined by the type of ingredients.

Technical Characteristics

• Passive Stats
  • Stat modifier (+4), CHA +3 | Stat modifier (-1) [Heavy Armor: -1 DEX; Light Armor: -1 CON; Robe Armor: -1 MEN]
    • In order to apply the bonus modifier, you need to purchase 2x Stat Pendants from either Moe in Giran or Eeny in Talking Island Village.
      • CHA +3 is given by default (default stat).
      • The +4 Stat modifier (custom stat) is derived as follows: a CON pendant will bestow +CON, whereas an INT pendant will bestow +INT.
  • Base attribute resistance (+50): Except for the attribute enhancement of an armor with attribute stones/crystals, one can bestow a bonus of attribute resistance of their choice. Only one attribute can be bestowed.
    • Applying the base resistance requires either 200 Attribute Stones or 50 Attribute Crystals. Just like the way you apply the stones for defending yourself against an opposite element, 200 Fire Stones will result in +50 Resistance to Water. 50 Earth Crystals will result in +50 Resistance to Wind.
  • Resistances: Can obtain +15% resistance to either of the following attacks, Sleep, Poison, Stun/Shock, Paralysis, Mental, Hold, Bleed, Positioning modifiers (Knockback, Knockdown, Aerial Yoke, Pull).
    • Obtained with a fee of 15.425.000 Adena and the following items:
      • Tome of Incantations: Chapter 1-8
        • Drops from monsters of level 105 and above.
        • Each chapter represents a specific resistance:
          • Tome of Incantations: Chapter 1 provides Sleep Resistance.
          • Tome of Incantations: Chapter 2 provides Poison Resistance.
          • Tome of Incantations: Chapter 3 provides Stun/Shock Resistance.
          • Tome of Incantations: Chapter 4 provides Paralysis Resistance.
          • Tome of Incantations: Chapter 5 provides Mental Attack Resistance.
          • Tome of Incantations: Chapter 6 provides Hold Resistance.
          • Tome of Incantations: Chapter 7 provides Bleed Resistance.
          • Tome of Incantations: Chapter 8 provides Positioning Modifier Resistance.
  • Default armor-type resistances when armor is enchanted to +4 and above:
    • Heavy armor: P. Def, Reduced critical damage.
    • Light armor: Evasion, Speed, P. Atk Resistance, Decreased chance of receiving critical damage.
    • Robe armor: M. Evasion, Mental attack resistance, Reduced critical damage and chance of receiving it.
  • Quality of armor:
    • As previously mentioned, quality of armor is determined by the level of the ingredients you use and their number.
      • Ingredients used must be level 3 and above (up to 5).
        • Each level adds 10% P. Def to the armor's defensive capabilities (not the character's). Thus, if you use Level 3 Metallic Fiber to craft it, you receive 10% bonus armor defense, and if you use Level 5 Metallic Fiber, you receive 30% additional armor defense.
      • The amount of ingredients pertains to the level of the active skills (Level 1 to Level 4) you receive. The ranges are: 20 (default amount, necessary to craft the armor) up to 110: 20 (Level 1); 50 (Level 2); 80 (Level 3); 110 (Level 4).
    • Type of ingredients: The type of ingredients apply a small penalty, depending on which you are using.
      • Metallic Fiber (Lv3) / Quality Fiber (Lv4) / Exquisite Fiber (Lv5): -15 Fire Resistance
      • Synthetic Cokes (Lv3) / Greater Synthetic Cokes (Lv4) / Exquisite Synthetic Cokes (Lv5): -15 Water Resistance
      • Durable Leather (Lv3) / Quality Leather (Lv4) / Exquisite Leather (Lv5): -15 Wind Resistance
      • Adamantite (Lv3) / Orichalcum (Lv4) / Durandil (Lv5): -15 Dark Resistance
      • Adamantite Wire (Lv3) / Orichalcum Wire (Lv4) / Durandil Wire (Lv5): -15 Holy Resistance
      • Synthetic Braid (Lv3) / Durable Braid (Lv4) / Quality Braid (Lv5): -15 Earth Resistance
• Active Skills
  • Except for the passive stats, you receive active skills, which are usable only when the Solace Tether buff is active.
    • Solace Triumph: Starting from the caster, it increases the chance of the next skill attack to score critical damage by 40%. Once an offensive skill has been used, the buff is transferred to another player who shares the Solace Tether buff with you, even if the critical damage has not been dealt. The buff recycles X times among the tethered players. 10 minutes cooldown.
      • Lv 1: 1 times.
      • Lv 2: 2 times.
      • Lv 3: 3 times.
      • Lv 4: 4 times.
    • Solace Membrane: Creates a thin membrane on top of the caster's skin. Once active, damage dealt on the caster (greater than 800) will heal the tethered players for a fixed amount. Tethered players may not cast the same skill while another membrane is active. Can occur once per 0.5 seconds. The healing amount is subject to healing amount enhancing buffs. Lasts for 3 seconds. 80 seconds cooldown.
      • Lv 1: 600 HP.
      • Lv 2: 800 HP.
      • Lv 3: 1000 HP.
      • Lv 4: 1200 HP.
    • Solace Winds: Finds the maximum movement speed among the tethered players and applies it on the rest tethered members for X seconds. Ignores currently applied movement-modifying debuffs. 150 seconds cooldown.
      • Lv 1: 4 seconds.
      • Lv 2: 6 seconds.
      • Lv 3: 8 seconds.
      • Lv 4: 10 seconds.

Crafting Ingredients

As an example, I will use the Leather Armor (Upper part of Light Armor).

• Default & Mandatory
  • 1 Recipe: Leather Armor of Solace (60%)
  • 525 Q-Grade Crystals
  • 75 Elcyum
  • 17 Armor Fragment (Top Grade)
  • 10 Leather Armor of Solace Ingredient
  • 9 Exquisite Leather Braid
• Custom & Mandatory
  • 200 Attribute stones or 50 Attribute crystals of your choice.
  • 20-110 Level 3/ Level 4/ Level 5 ingredients (see: Quality of armor - Type of ingredients section)
  • 2 Pendant (modifies the base STAT of the armor)
  • 10 Tome of Incantations: Chapter 1-8 (depending on the effect) & 15.425.000 Adena

Other details

• Should you craft a Solace Armor of low quality (that is, the level of ingredients you have used), you can still upgrade it through Lahm on Parnassus, once you have more resources. In order to upgrade it, Lahm will ask you for at least 20 ingredients of a higher grade.
  • Warning: If you have used Lv4 ingredients, you cannot use Lv3 ingredients. In other words, you cannot downgrade the armor.
• If you wish to increase the level of your active skills, make sure you give Lahm a higher number of the ones the armor already has.
• You can also change the type of ingredient you have used. If, for example, you have used Durable Leather (which, by default, gives a penalty of -15 Wind Resistance), you can change it for Synthetic Cokes of any level; thus, the penalty will be replaced with -15 Water Resistance.
  • This is the only instance where you receive some compensation. Lahm will give you back a rounded-up 1/4 of the original ingredient back to you.
• Up to a party of 3 members can be tethered at the same time. A character cannot be tethered because they have two kinds of a relationship with a nearby character; if you are both clanmates and friends, you will not receive extra benefits. The Solace buff is acquired once the condition of at least one type of a relationship exists.
• Although another Solace Membrane cannot be activated before the current Solace Membrane is worn off, the skill is set to cooldown only when you cast it.
• Leveling up the active skills from, e.g. Level 1 to Level 2, does not require you to accumulate the target level's amount of ingredients needed. For instance, if you have crafted a Solace armor with Level 1 Active skills, you have already used the 20 ingredients needed. Upgrading the skills to Level 2 requires 30, not 50 (as seen in section Quality of armor). You should always subtract your target level's amount from your current, in order to find out how many ingredients are needed for level up.
• PvE/PvP bonus damage and defense is not multiplied based on the number of tethered players. It is always 7% and 4% respectively, whether the players are two or three.
• Event attribute stones/crystals or ones acquired with Mentee Marks cannot be used as a crafting ingredient.

Reasoning and Ending Notes

The reason for this suggestion is that we currently lack a player-guided crafting system. Lineage II unfortunately suffers a lot of static content which might be occasionally disturbing. For instance, current armors of R / R-95 / R-99 offer pretty rigid stats, which may not be helpful to specific classes.

Given that such grades do not offer alternative armors to wear (except for R featuring Immortal and Twilight), one has to resort to armors of lower grade, majorly risking their fighting power. It is not uncommon for players to use Vorpal (S80) for Stun Resistance. Another example is the Magic type of e.g. the Seraph Robe Set. Resistance to Sleep might be helpful, but one should be able to change it depending on the circumstances. This undermines the assemblage of characters in sieges and/or clan wars, where you are bound to face any class with any kind of debuff. Obviously, you cannot protect yourself from every possible enemy, but at least you should be given the freedom to choose the stats that benefit your gamestyle the most.

Other

I will get some concept art done for the armor. It will feature a female's robe armor for now, just to demonstrate how I have envisioned it. As a hint, it will assemble artistic details from the giants' spaceship (See Helios update patch) and Reliquary of the Giants.

Coming up next
Urn of Sorrows

Armor of Solace (Q-Grade, Lv120+)