Socketed helmets: the good, bad, and ugly (give feedback)

[SuIIy]

Most, if not all of the helmets need a price reduction, something in the range of 500-1200 gold, depending on the helmet, stats, bonus auras/menaces, skills, and/or added abilities. Here is a list of the prices, stats, and added goodies each socketed helm comes with: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1967

I'd like to get some feedback and help out Yak so he can know where to go in terms of tweaking the helms....So which items are good? Too good? Not good enough? Too expensive? Too ineffective? Just right? I noticed one in particular while doing some tests...

Bonelord's Crown = (Plate Helm + Heroism socket)

This item was insane. The negative stats appear to stack continuously?, plus there is no cooldown, as the effect is linked to individual attacks. This is triply effective when applied to heroes with a high attack speed (I was using Neph), and can easily lead to draining huge amounts of str, agi, and int. (After mere seconds, the enemy hero I was hitting on had negative int, str, and agi well into the thirties). Some of the other items need some explanation, but this one stuck out the most.

NOTE: To be fair, this item is very expensive (almost 6,000 gold).

Also: It would be nice if the auras (Kingsguard Great Helm and Stormcrown) extended to allied heroes as well

[Executor]

It is difficult to assess the value of each item without further explanation of their effects. It would be nice to know details about the effect's cooldown, what triggers the effect, and if the effect stacks.

[SuIIy]

what triggers the effect

You clicking on the item icon?

and if the effect stacks.

They aren't rings. You only get one helmet.

It is difficult to assess the value of each item without further explanation of their effects.

Already went over this. See the URL in my previous posting.

[Executor]

You obviously don’t understand what I said so I’ll give you an example of what I mean. What triggers the effect of “5% chance for enemy units to flee in terror for 4 seconds”? Obviously it is not clicking on the item. You already stated that “The negative stats appear to stack continuously” which has nothing to do with rings. The rest should be self explanatory.

[SuIIy]

“The negative stats appear to stack continuously” which has nothing to do with rings. The rest should be self explanatory.

I was referring to an individual item, not any collection of them. In this case, the "trigger" is set via each attack. So each time the hero hits an enemy hero it removes 4 points from a random attribute.

“5% chance for enemy units to flee in terror for 4 seconds”? Obviously it is not clicking on the item.

What I mean't to say was these are passive effects. Sorry I didn't explain further.

[Executor]

Sorry if I was vague. To clarify what I'm asking for, I'll summarize it to: further explanation of each item. I know that the “5% chance for enemy units to flee in terror for 4 seconds” is a passive effect, but I still don't know what causes the effect to occur. Could it be attacking an enemy unit, being attacked by an enemy unit, or casting a spell? It would be nice to know the cooldown/activation/stackability of each item effect without going through the difficulty of testing each item in game. I'm guessing only DarnYak would be able to answer these questions.

[SuIIy]

I'm guessing only DarnYak would be able to answer these questions.

Considering how new all this is, I'd have to agree.

[DarnYak]

The bulk of those should be answered by the tooltips themselves. If they're too unclear, then I need to know which ones so that I can fix them. Sully's list, while appreciated, wasn't exact and left some things out.

DarnYak

[SuIIy]

Sully's list, while appreciated, wasn't exact and left some things out.

Yeah, I abbreviated a bit. I plan to go back to get the exact wording.

[DarnYak]

After looking over the numbers it seems a roughly 30% reduction in prices would put it in line with other items.

DarnYak

[Executor]

First of all, thanks Sully for the list you provided. We all make mistakes so it's not that big of a deal that there were some in your list.

I generally assume that effects apply to both hero and non-hero unless specified. I noticed that glacial wall’s frozen effect only applies to non-heroes but isn’t indicated in the tooltip. Actually, I’ve seen Gravel get frozen a few times but I’m not sure what caused that to happen. I paraphrased the tooltips so just let me know if I should edit them to match the actual tooltips or include the item where the effect comes from.

“[Menace that reduces healing received by 75%]” appears to be overpowered against heroes that can be designated healers so is it safe to assume that this is a non-hero menace? For consistency, I think the tooltip should include “non-hero” if that is the case.

Is it safe to assume that the duration of “[Creates a circle that heals friendly units for 30 hps so long as the hero remains in the circle]” is unlimited so long as the hero remains in the circle? I can see this being powerful when capturing a location in verdant falls or holding any point for that matter (such as attacking enemy bases) depending on the size of the circle.

“[Teleports the hero to any visible position on the map. After casting a spell or 8 sec. elapsing, the hero will return to their original position]” doesn’t work as indicated; the hero doesn’t return to their original position and casting a spell appears to have no effect. I teleported my hero across the map and saw him blink a small distance back after some time.

I’m not sure if the effect from “[Attacks drain 4 points of a random attribute from the target for 10 seconds]” was intended to stack. I usually see tooltips that include information about stacking when applicable. Also, the points drained were permanent (persisting through death) when I tested the item against enemy AI heroes.

“[10% chance on attacking enemy units to deal 1000 additional dmg.]” appears strong compared to most other effects if it applies to heroes. 10% chance to do 1000 dmg. is similar to 100% chance to do 100 dmg.

“[Forces an enemy hero to walk towards your hero (45 sec. cooldown)]” appears weak compared to most other effects unless there is a forced duration of the effect? (700 gold) Mindgem’s “Puts an enemy hero to sleep for 4 seconds. 90 second cooldown.” appears more favorable as an interrupt. Maybe I’m underestimating the value of this interrupt and maybe you intended the gem cost to be higher than Mindgem’s cost?

The cost per benefit of “[Attacks cause enemy units to have a 5% chance to flee for 4 sec.]” is much higher compared to glacial wall, even if it can apply to heroes. I’m not sure if that was intended.

That’s all I have for now. Maybe I’ll analyze each item in further detail in the future.

[DarnYak]

Just a general rule of thumb I try to use when writing tooltips: If its hero only, it specifically says heros. If its spawn only, it will say ally/enemy units. If its either, it's just allies/enemies or no noun if i think its obvious that the effect is friendly/hostile.

I’m not sure if the effect from “[Attacks drain 4 points of a random attribute from the target for 10 seconds]” was intended to stack.

Stack yes, but expires after 10s of non-attacks.

“[Forces an enemy hero to walk towards your hero (45 sec. cooldown)]”

I was running out of time when I added that one and planned on redoing it. Currently it's probably ineffective, but I'm more likely to make it a forced march towards your hero for x seconds.

The cost per benefit of “[Attacks cause enemy units to have a 5% chance to flee for 4 sec.]” is much higher compared to glacial wall

Not sure exactly what comparision your doing, but let me clarify in case. For thism every attack causes every unit around the target to have a 5% chance to flee. These are seperate rolls per unit, not a 5% chance to cause all units to flee at once.

DarnYak

[SuIIy]

Some of the wording is a little confusing, which is why when I paraphrased what you wrote and put into the other post it got me in alot of trouble.

Other than that, most of the effects seems clear whether they affected heroes,units, or both. I'm almost certain you specially mentioned the 1,000 dmg chance be applied only to units. As for the heal reduction, I actually thought it was meant for heroes

Stack yes, but expires after 10s of non-attacks.

I actually didn't know this.

[watermelon]

Does anyone even get sockets?
The price reduction for helmets is definitely nice.