The Gear Rework

[Jeto]

Yes, you read that right – the time has come for the official Puzzle Quest 3 Gear Rework!

Quick note before we get started though- while we would’ve loved to have gone into as much detail as our Spell Rework blog, given that the release of 3.0 is right around the corner, we wanted to focus on getting the information out to you folks in a timely manner.

So, this blog will give you the details, the FAQ, and a bit of a light explainer of where we were coming from, with the rest of the 3.0 Patch Notes to follow later in the week!

What are we trying to do?

In a nutshell, we’re trying to both simplify things, and make sure it always feels fun to get Gear no matter where you are in your journey!

Our goals were:

• Reduce the complexity of the Gear System (in the early-game there can be quite a lot of cognitive-load tied up in choosing what to upgrade or not upgrade)
• Reduce the investment required for specific pieces of Gear to allow for more flexibility
• Not change too much about the inner workings of the Gear itself
• Try and ensure that getting Gear is always fun no matter whether you’re a beginner or an old-hand

What is the Gear Rework

The basic idea should be pretty straightforward:

You get Gear → You replace it as you find better Gear

• Gear is no longer Leveled Up or Evolved
• You may improve any Gear from Uncommon and above via “Honing” (see ‘Honing’ below)
• Each piece of Gear is, effectively, unique
• Not change too much about the inner workings of the Gear itself
• Gear will now drop with Core Stats (Armor, Block, Resistance, Attack, Mastery) and Attributes determined by the Rarity of the Gear

Quality

Stats and Attributes will fall within a range based on an item’s Rarity. This is referred to as “Quality.”

This is not so much a change to the types of numbers you’d see associated with Gear, just a more visible gauge of how good the number on the stat/attribute is within the possible range.

• Higher Rarity items will have a higher floor and ceiling on their Quality ranges

• The overall Quality of an item is summarized in its Quality value

• Higher Quality Mythic items also have an accompanying word to describe their Quality:

• < 600: Mythic

• 600 - 749: “Divine” Mythic

• 750 - 849: “Sacred” Mythic

• 850 - 949: “Exalted” Mythic

• 950+: “Immortal” Mythic

Note: This does not have any impact on gameplay.
They are just words that are used as shorthand for the upper range of Mythics due to the size of the range.

Battle Scrolls

Much like Spells, we’ve removed the need to Level-up specific items by essentially transferring those Levels over to 3 new Battle Scrolls:

Item levels have been consolidated into 3 Battle Scrolls per Hero:

• Offense - Affects Weapons and Shields

• Defense - Affects your Helm, Shoulders, Chest, Legs, Gloves, and Boots

• Utility - Affects your Necklace, Belt, and Rings

• Leveling up each scroll improves all of the relevant item’s Attributes

• Leveling up a scroll uses Gold, Shards and then Glyphs at the higher levels

• Battle Scroll levels are capped at your Hero level

Honing

Individual items can now be Honed! Honing an item uses Runes and Relics to improve the core stat and all the attributes on an item by a small amount.

Think of Honing as though you are sharpening your blade or polishing your shield!

Items of different rarities can be honed different amounts:

• Common: N/A

• Uncommon: Up to Tier I

• Rare: Up to Tier II

• Epic: Up to Tier III

• Legendary: Up to Tier IV

• Mythic: Up to Tier X

• The costs for Honing each Tier are the same, regardless of the rarity of the item

• Honing Tier is represented by pips on the left side of the item display

• Any resources used in Honing are returned if the item is Salvaged

Items of different rarities can be honed different amounts:

TIER	Runes	Relics
I	1 Uncommon	–
II	2 Rare	1 Rare
III	3 Epic	2 Epic
IV	4 Legendary	3 Legendary
V	4 Mythic	4 Mythic
VI	4 Mythic	4 Mythic
VII	4 Mythic	4 Mythic
VIII	4 Mythic	4 Mythic
IX	4 Mythic	4 Mythic
X	4 Mythic	4 Mythic

New Resource: Aether

Aether is a new crafting resource and is collected from Salvaging Rare or better items

• Rare: 1 Aether
• Epic: 4 Aether
• Legendary: 20 Aether
• Mythic: 100 Aether

Follower Updates

Toragon, Gemka, and Soulchaser have all had 3 crafting options added.

Follower Crafting will be updated further in Update 3.1

Follower Level	Ability	Cost
30	Craft Random Epic Weapon or Shield/Accessory/Armor	20 Aether
40	Craft Random Legendary Weapon or Shield/Accessory/Armor	100 Aether
50	Craft Random Mythic Weapon or Shield/Accessory/Armor	500 Aether

Salvaging Updates

With the removal of Levels from Gear pieces, the chance of getting the Rune or Relic from a salvaged item is now based on the item’s primary stat, Quality, taking into account the Rarity of the item.

Generally, the better an item is in comparison to other items of its rarity, the better the chance of salvaging the Rune or Relic

• e.g. An Epic Buccaneer’s Charm with 258 Resistance (the Primary stat for Accessories) has a 4.6% chance of getting a Rune and 4.6% chance for a Legendary Relic vs an Epic Buccaneer’s Charm with 301 Resistance (%6 for a Rune, %6 for a Legendary Relic)

A set amount of Aether is Salvaged from Rare or better items

Salvaging a Honed item will return the materials used in Honing that item.

Gear Vault

The Items in the Gear Vault have had their display updated to reflect the system changes

• The different tabs in the vault are now named, rather than using icons
• Items & Minions can now be quickly equipped without opening the full info screen (similar to Spells)

Compensation/Transition

All of your Gear will be converted straight to the new system.

• All Rarities will remain the same

• No Gear pieces will be removed

• All Gear will be converted to keep the existing stats as similar as possible. Everything converted should end up similar if not better than what they are currently.

• You will receive 4 Tier IV Relics per Mythic piece of Gear, in your Inventory.

• Your Battle Scroll Levels will be set based on the highest level Gear piece in each Battle Scroll category, capped at each Hero’s Level.

Example:

I have…
A Level 47 Savior’s Locket
A Berserker at Level 50
A Shaman at Level 35

My Berserker will have a Level 47 Utility Scroll, and my Shaman will have a Level 35 Utility Scroll.

FAQ

• But how will my Gear be affected? Will my Hero be weaker after the update since there is more ways to upgrade Gear with Honing and Battle Scrolls?

• All your gear will remain the at least the same, if not improved. In some instances you may even see your Power score greatly improved.

• Is anything changing with Gear drops in Chests?

• Yes. We are making changes to the drop rates for Chests to better support the new system, such as reducing the chances of seeing Common and Uncommon Gear at higher player/Chest levels with the chance being 0% at Level 100 in Ruby and Diamond Chests. As of right now, these are still being adjusted in the lead-up to the release of 3.0.

• Has anything changed in rerolling Attributes? Or is it the same as before, just now there are the Honing and Battle Scroll bonuses on top?

• This is the same as before - the Quality of an Attribute will stay the same, but the Attribute itself can change.

• Are there any more details about the Follower changes coming in 3.1?

• There are limited details we can share for the moment, however, this is what we’re aiming for with our beloved Toragon, Gemka, and Soulchaser:

  • Ensure that their abilities are integrated better with the new system**
  • Open up some of their abilities earlier so newer players can benefit from them earlier**
  • Allow more flexibility for players in how their abilities are used**
  • Preferably move away from having one giant horizontal list with every possible option for each of them (i.e. we’d like to streamline the UI and crafting flow)**

• Will Seasonal Caches continue to drop only Legendary versions of the Season 3.X items?

• They can drop at Mythic or Legendary now. In 3.0 you may notice it will have multiple of the same rarity piece of Gear with various percentage chances. This is to show the chance for the different Quality ranges. In 3.1 we will update how this information is displayed so it is easier to understand at a glance.

• How is Gear Score and “perceived strength” determined after these changes?

• The calculations for perceived strength are based on actual stats, so the calculation is unaffected. The final value will change based on the character’s new stats. The Gear Score calculation does not take an item’s Quality into account.

A Note from Jeto

Huge thank you once again to @Mother_Morgz who put this together.

When possible, I will share some comparisons of my gear from 2.5.1 versus 3.0 gear so you can all see the changes, and that my gear is all the same if not better!
But as these changes are coming in hot so I was not able to include any current screenshots with you all yet, as they may be different to when 3.0 actually goes live and I do not want to cause any confusion if my gear was to look different later.

I’ll do my best to answer what questions I can, that won’t be answered when you start playing 3.0 for yourselves.

[KenpoKid69]

@Jeto

You will receive 4 Tier IV Relics per Mythic in your Inventory.

I’m a little confused by this, by mythic, you mean mythic relic or mythic gear piece? Also if it is mythic relics is this going to affect minions as well next season?

[Jeto]

It’s per Mythic item of gear - for example, I had two Mythic rarity pieces of gear so in my mail I got 8 T4 relics in total

[Cheesy]

Hi. Glyphs will be used to upgrade high levels of battle scrolls, correct? Will that be Armor, Accessory and Weapon glyphs only use?

[Jeto]

Correct, Weapon/Armor/Accessory Glyphs will now be used towards the 3 Battle scrolls.

We have plans for further uses for these Glyphs in a future update, well, generally more content coming for end-game players.

[KenpoKid69]

Maybe I missed it, but do we get glyphs back that we use making mythics and legendaries too before the patch?

[Jeto]

It will just be T4 relics as all your gear remains the same Rarity, that will carry over into 3.0

[KenpoKid69]

@Jeto

Gear is no longer Leveled Up or Evolved

Leveling up a scroll uses Gold, Shards and then Glyphs at the higher levels

So if I use all my glyphs to legendary/mythic gear right now I get the mythic relics back, but not the glyphs? Doesn’t that hurt me when trying to level up my Battle Scrolls or is the gear applied to their score?

• Also side note, but is the Marks shop going to get a revamp as well? Otherwise its going to feel really outdated and useless after the patch drops.

[Jeto]

Much like the spell rework and your Spell book being levelled depending on the hero class spells you have…

@Jeto

Your Battle Scroll Levels will be set based on the highest level Gear piece in each Battle Scroll category, capped at each Hero’s Level.

So I started playing 3.0 and with I think level 44/45 battle scrolls

We will be redoing the shop in a future update! Hoping for 3.1

[KenpoKid69]

@Jeto

Your Battle Scroll Levels will be set based on the highest level Gear piece in each Battle Scroll category, capped at each Hero’s Level.

Ok this is cool, but then you also say in a reply…

Correct, Weapon/Armor/Accessory Glyphs will now be used towards the 3 Battle scrolls.

We have plans for further uses for these Glyphs in a future update, well, generally more content coming for end-game players.

So does that mean if I level up 1 weapon to level 50, 1 armor to level 50, 1 accessory to level 50 and all my characters are level 50, all my battle scrolls are level 50 too right?

But if say Cheesy has 4 weapons to level 50, 4 armor pieces to level 50, and 4 accessories to level 50 and all his characters are level 50, all his battle scrolls are also level 50 too right?

The difference however being he’s used 90 more glyphs than me, which he doesn’t get back? Not a big deal since our battle scrolls are level 50, however you also said that we have plans for these glyphs in a future update? So does that mean its a bad idea to start making mythics right now if you already have the level 50’s or is there really no downside to doing so. If I understand correctly, you’re eating away at your glyph reserves by doing so without an upside or am I wrong?

[Mother_Morgz]

Yes, you’d both end up with Battle Scrolls at Level 50 for your Level 50 characters.

However, it’s not a bad idea to still make Mythics as Rarity is what the transition takes into account when it switches the items themselves over and you keep everything you have at the Rarity it is.

That said, we aren’t intending to drastically increase the number of different uses for Glyphs. The things we’re planning are more just looking to ensure that once you’ve maxed out your Battle Scrolls that you still have something to useful do with the Glyphs that come up in Rewards etc.

[ed.209]

By “inventory” do you mean my gear vault, or what’s equipped to my character?

[HigureTheStillWind]

@ed.209

By “inventory” do you mean my gear vault, or what’s equipped to my character?

They are referring to the Gear vault.

[Yukit]

I feel bad because I used my accessory glyphs to level a shield to 50, but as far as I can tell that’s not going to count to transfer a 50 to my utility scroll.

I also feel bad because I put more emphasis on getting more variety of pieces to mythic at 45 instead of any piece to 50. I mostly feel bad because I assume it’ll cost the same number glyphs as spell book to level the scroll, per character, and that’s very very very expensive. I would significantly value having my previous investment of resources to translate to scrolls to 50 vs the mythic relic refund for honing. Should the expensive scroll leveling be the case, I would be strongly disinclined to play more than one character.

[Khu]

The spell rework already diminished the viability of playing more than one character for me. I’m in a similar boat to you vis-a-vis shield instead of accessory, too; I would need 5 more glyphs to get the shield to 50, and (obviously) a heck of a lot more than that to get an accessory, now, to mythic and then to 50.

I would not only need to spend a fair amount of real money on it, I would have had to start doing so weeks if not longer ago.

[ed.209]

So, if I own 1 level 50 weapon, and 1 level 50 armour, and all but one of my heroes are level 50, does that mean that all but one of my heroes will have level 50 offense & defence scrolls?

[KenpoKid69]

I think so, its like spell books. Level that last hero to level 50 before the patch drops if you can.

[HigureTheStillWind]

Yes. And if you can level up the last hero to 50 it will be even better.

[HigureTheStillWind]

@Yukit

Should the expensive scroll leveling be the case, I would be strongly disinclined to play more than one character.

@Khu

The spell rework already diminished the viability of playing more than one character for me

I agree that this is something pretty dissappointing from the recent reworks. Until 2.5 we could freely play any class but could only play a few spells and gear items due to the high cost of upgrading them. Now we are getting an improved opportunity to play with different spells and gear since the spell books & battle scrolls affect all of them, but in exchange we are losing on the flexibility of being able to play any class. I would really love to get a system that doesn’t focus in one or the other, but allows both.

@Yukit

I mostly feel bad because I assume it’ll cost the same number glyphs as spell book to level the scroll, per character, and that’s very very very expensive.

If it works similarly to spell rework, it means defense battle scroll will require 16x6= 96 armor glyphs to get lvl 50 (per character). Utility would be 16x4 or 16x5 accessory glyphs and offense 16 or 16x2 glyphs.

[00h00m]

This is exactly how I built my characters too. The game was set up with very little return on investment (ROI) for using glyphs to get armor and accessories past 45 mythic to 50. Luckily, I am well past that part of my progression and have level 50 gear in many slots and will be fine through this update.

If I were in @Yukit’s situation I would be very angry, and I believe rightfully so.

10 glyphs spent making level 45 mythic items instead of a single level 50 item is going to cost 30+ glyphs to overcome? PER CHARACTER. So in essence, 100s of glyphs.

There has to be a better way.