108707-rune-changes-part-4-rune-slot-counts

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One of the biggest issues we've had with the Rune system is the amount of randomization on both Rune Slot Count and Rune Elements. In order to address the Rune Slot Count randomization issue, we are moving to a more locked slot count system where there is little to no variance in the number of Rune Slots an item can roll. The new system will set a default value for all items of the same quality. We can still override this to make certain items more appealing (such as dungeon drops) but the vast majority of items will be converted to this new system.
 
I'll talk more about two other ways we are addressing the RNG issues in later posts about rerolling rune elements and adding rune slots to items.
 
The new default breakdown for Rune Slot counts is as follows:
 
Good quality (Green) items from all sources will have either zero rune slots or only one slot.
 
Excellent quality (Blue) items from vendor, quests, and crafting will roll 2 slots.
Excellent quality items from group content will roll 3 slots.
 
Superb quality (Purple) items from vendors, world loot and crafting will roll 3 slots.
Superb quality items from group content will roll 4 slots.
 
Legendary quality (Orange) items from vendors, world loot and crafting will roll 4 slots.
Legendary quality items from group content will roll 5 slots.
 
Artifact quality (Pink) items will continue to roll 6 slots.
 
There is one notable exception: Gadgets.
Gadgets will continue to follow their current expected rollout, which is (with some exceptions):
Good quality gadgets roll zero rune slots.
Excellent and higher quality gadgets roll two rune slots.
 
This will not effect existing items similar to how the changes to runes of Gadgets did not effect existing items.
 
Because this will not affect your existing items, we have planned for the adding rune slots feature to allow players to fix existing items that are below the new thresholds (i.e. 2 slot Superb items). As part of the Add Rune Slot system, all items will be able to add up to a maximum number of total rune slots.
 
The breakdown for the maximum counts is as follows:
 
Good quality (Green) items cannot add additional rune slots.
 
Excellent quality (Blue) items from vendor, quests, and crafting can have a maximum of 3 rune slots.
Excellent quality items from group content can have a maximum of 4 rune slots.
 
Superb quality (Purple) items from vendors, world loot and crafting can have a maximum of 4 rune slots.
Superb quality items from group content can have a maximum of 5 rune slots.
 
Legendary quality (Orange) items from vendors, world loot and crafting can have a maximum of 6 rune slots.
Legendary quality items from group content can have a maximum of 7 rune slots.
 
Artifact quality (Pink) items can have a maximum of 8 rune slots.
 
This means that any items you currently have that are below the new thresholds (2 rune slot Superb items) will be able to add up to the new maximums to 'fix' those items. If you already have an item at or above the new maximum counts (4 rune Excellent items), your item will not be affect but you will not be able to add any additional rune slots to that item. This should naturally balance out the spread of rune slots across the different quality tiers - such that Artifact > Legendary > Superb > Excellent > Good and that you should no longer have cases where a Superb quality raid drop is worse (in terms of rune count) than a crafted Excellent quality item. We feel that these changes will keep crafted gear relevant while also keeping the value of group content rewards high. I want to highlight again that these are default values that we can adjust per individual item. When we introduce crafted items that are intended to be comparable to or better than group content rewards, we can adjust them up to the group content slot numbers very easily.	
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			Well this be retro actively done or are we pretty much going to have to acquire these items again i wonder?	
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Well this be retro actively done or are we pretty much going to have to acquire these items again i wonder?
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			The only thing I read here was Legendary Crafted items. 	
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"This means that any items you currently have that are below the new thresholds (2 rune slot Superb items) will be able to add up to the new maximums to 'fix' those items."
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The only thing I read here was Legendary Crafted items. 
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			So just to clarify... You can only add 1 extra rune slot to purple items?  I am asking this because it is different from what was said on twitch and I want to make sure the new information correct.	
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BOE(world drop) purple loot can have 4 slots. Group content(I assume dungeons, raids, adventures) can have 5. 
 
J-Tal will any of this make it in for drop three, or are we looking at drop four? 	
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BOE(world drop) purple loot can have 4 slots. Group content(I assume dungeons, raids, adventures) can have 5. 
 
J-Tal will any of this make it in for drop three, or are we looking at drop four? 
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BOE(world drop) purple loot can have 4 slots. Group content(I assume dungeons, raids, adventures) can have 5. 
 
J-Tal will any of this make it in for drop three, or are we looking at drop four? 
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			Thanks for the info. Is there a timeline as to when these changes will go live?	
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If this comes in drop 4 with the tradeskill changes coming in drop three, then I can see the prices of crafting mats going way up as people try crafting 100+ pieces of adventus gear for good slots.
 
Also, how will this affect the power cores that have a chance of rolling increased rune slots on crafted gear?
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Based on the information provided by J-Tal, I think that means you can either use a dual hybrid for a chance at a third slot...or use the item that can add a third slot (for a maximum of three in total.)  In other words, dual hybrid are going to become nothing better than "equal to refined hybrids in power output, with a chance of not having to use the item needed to add a rune slot to gear." Depending on the cost and/or availability of the item needed to add rune slots, dual hybrid may lose a significant part of its value post crafting/rune changes.
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I understand what was said in the OP, but on the stream we were told that purple drops would be able to add 2 extra rune slots and not 1.  I just want clarification that the new information is correct and not just a typo.
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			Legendary gloves from dungeons are they  counted as group content or world drop? i hope they are group content aka 7 slots	
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			Does the Eldergem vendor gear counts as group content? You need to kill the group/raid content bosses to buy it so I would say yes, but a confirmation would be nice.	
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Also, how will this affect the power cores that have a chance of rolling increased rune slots on crafted gear?
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Dual Hybrids are going to be worthless since they offer less power output than refined cores. People wanting to get the most stats out of their gear as possible will want to use the better cores for more output and then the item/whatever to increase slots unless dual cores can be used to get you to a higher rune count which will give them a place.
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Does the Eldergem vendor gear counts as group content? You need to kill the group/raid content bosses to buy it so I would say yes, but a confirmation would be nice.
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			Hears complaint after complaint about gear gaps, adds more gear gaps...	
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			Is there a possible estimate on how expensive/rare/difficult to obtain the items that add additional rune slots will be? What about the items that allow you to reroll rune slots? A few guildmates and I were wondering if the cost to 'fix' older gear such as purples with few rune slots may be prohibitively expensive and we may end up having to farm for those items again. We certainly hope (and guess) that isn't the case.	
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These are extremely well thought-out and reasonable changes, so props to Carbine. My only question is, what are these items that will add rune slots to old gear exactly? What will they cost; how rare are they?
The last thing we need is a bunch of promises about adding rune slots, and the rune-adding item is a 5% drop-rate rare located in boxes bought from vendors that cost 50,000 Reknown/Prestige.	
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			I wonder how we will be able to fix our existing 2slot superbs. If it will require the same item, that adds rune-slots and it will have drop rate same as ability/amp point unlocks, it will be frustrating.	
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Does the Eldergem vendor gear counts as group content? You need to kill the group/raid content bosses to buy it so I would say yes, but a confirmation would be nice.
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			i dont know if i would be terrible  worried about the  not getting a  6th rune, its not  going to  boost the  Ap equivalence of  a drop  enough to overcome   the difference   of  getting  strong base  stats.	
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			This is all great but...... WHEN.  That's all that really matter at this point.	
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Is there a possible estimate on how expensive/rare/difficult to obtain the items that add additional rune slots will be? What about the items that allow you to reroll rune slots? A few guildmates and I were wondering if the cost to 'fix' older gear such as purples with few rune slots may be prohibitively expensive and we may end up having to farm for those items again. We certainly hope (and guess) that isn't the case.
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I bought a Superb quality (Purple) item from elder gem vendor after killing the first 20man raid boss and it came out having 2 slots. After the changes anyone buying the same item will have a guaranteed 3 ( or 4 ? ) slots while i will have to upgrade mine with a new item to have the same slots. Since i paid the same 140 elder gem cost i dont see why i am required to get an additional item to have the same slots.
I think upgrading your existing raid Purples to 4 slots should not be expensive. If you want the 5th slot than yea that upgrade should cost you.	
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			While I like what I see here, I have to ask why in this change it makes crafting feel even more useless? I am trying to understand how and when crafters will ever be important in the grand scheme of other systems.	
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			Quick question J-tal as I have only seen them drop from dungeon mobs, stuff like the Overcharged Pell Databoard BoE Epics with vet dungeon Imbuements, what category of epic are they for this rule slot change	
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it should all be automated through the current runecrafting station for a small fee.
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How are items bought on the Elder Gems considered? Most require you to do group content to acquire. Would an epic item from the elder gem vendor be considered as just "vendor" goods even if it requires you do get and achievment to even buy?
 
To me, i think it's fair for them to be on the same level as the drops in the group content, since you have to complete the group content to be eligible to buy.  So... 3 or 4 slots?	
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			Out of curiosity.. what will this "Add a rune slot" cost? PLEASE don't attach to elder gems.	
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Yeah, definitely need to know more about the whole add a rune slot thing. I have 5 pieces of 2 slot raid gear - should I expect to spend the rest of my life grinding for rune slot unlocks? 
 
Also, how are they going to work with pre-patch items? Is one unlock going to add 3 slots to a 2 slot GA item (i.e. 2 -> 5) or is it going to require 3 upgrades?
 
Can prepatch items get the 'extra' slot as well (so 5 instead of 4 on GA items)?	
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The new default breakdown for Rune Slot counts is as follows: 
Good quality (Green) items from all sources will have either zero rune slots or only one slot.
 
Excellent quality (Blue) items from vendor, quests, and crafting will roll 2 slots.
Excellent quality items from group content will roll 3 slots.
 ...
 
The breakdown for the maximum counts is as follows:
 
Good quality (Green) items cannot add additional rune slots.
 
Excellent quality (Blue) items from vendor, quests, and crafting can have a maximum of 3 rune slots.
Excellent quality items from group content can have a maximum of 4 rune slots.
 
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I am a little confused. So does this mean that if I have a blue crafted with 1 slot before fix i will be able to buy two more rune slots for a total of three. If I create one after the patch I can only have 2 slots. Do I have the option to buy the third if crafted after the patch? If this is true then we have to buy a rune slot for every item then. Is this an intended gold sink?
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 I am a little confused. So does this mean that if I have a blue crafted with 1 slot before fix i will be able to buy two more rune slots for a total of three. If I create one after the patch I can only have 2 slots. Do I have the option to buy the third if crafted after the patch? If this is true then we have to buy a rune slot for every item then. Is this an intended gold sink? Then for Pink items we will have to buy 2 slots.
 
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This will not cost gold. There will be another cost associated with adding new Rune Slots.
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Our souls? I'm totally fine with that actually.
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Is there a possible estimate on how expensive/rare/difficult to obtain the items that add additional rune slots will be?
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please do not let the cost be elder gems, as is we're already excluded from actually buying elder gem items by the fact that we need all of them to buy ability and amp points, which are (almost) unobtainable by other means.
renown is totally ok for the most, but would suck for solo players. 
so if i could make a suggestion, you could shuffle some things around. sideways upgrades at cap does ofc have to take time, or people would just max it out immediately, and having it maxxed would be considered cap. instead you could remove the amp and ability point upgrade items from the elder gem vendors completely, and tie them to xp gained at cap instead, then put the rune shuffle and rune add items on the eg vendor table as replacements.
this would mean that they would have value, that you would still have to make a choice, and it would allow people to actually buy elder gem items without gimping their char for the future.	
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Hopefully not renown...I'd be fine with a small amount of EP or other unknown currency.
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			How would a crafted (blue) item with a base of 2 rune slots work with a 'Dual' core that granted an extra slot?  3 slots + 1 expansion possible?	
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			I agree that Renown/Prestige would be the best currencies to use. Currently sitting on 600k Renown with nothing worthwhile to spend it on. Meanwhile Elder Gems get spent each week on AMP/Ability upgrades, and gold goes into the plethora of sinks that already exist. Make the group currency useful for something tangible, not just cosmetic and conversion into gold via crafting.	
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			Is the added rune slots rng based or u can pick what type of rune slots u want?	
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			also can we add rune slots to pvp gear?	
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Is the added rune slots rng based or u can pick what type of rune slots u want?
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Making it renown would be a good incentive to do group content, and unless they up the drop rates of AMP/Skill points then making it cost any amount of EP to add and re-roll slots would be a horrible idea.
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How would a crafted (blue) item with a base of 2 rune slots work with a 'Dual' core that granted an extra slot?  3 slots + 1 expansion possible?
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Currently sitting on 600k Renown with nothing worthwhile to spend it on. 
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I wouldnt expect to see those anytime soon :P I feel that they are definitely moving in the right direction, however, I disagree with their stance that crafted items need to be inferior to adventure/dungeon gear.  The incentive to run that content is challenge/fun, gold/xp, trash drops (dyes, amps, etc,), and a chance at purple gear - no need to add an additional incentive that crafted/reputation gear is inferior (it should be equal) - it just hurts those who don't enjoy grinding group content.  If need be, give us some crafted gear that is equal to (or better than) group content gear that is relatively expensive to craft in comparison to current items AND Bind on Account.
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Take a look at everything else about Wildstar's itemization, then take a wild guess.  <_<
 
Obviously I have no definite knowledge, but I'm 99% convinced it will be rng.
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"When we introduce crafted items that are intended to be comparable to or better than group content rewards, we can adjust them up to the group content slot numbers very easily."
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			Hopefully its not some drawn out retarded-ly long process to get, since gear is changed out a lot, makes it a bit pointless if you think deep..	
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I have just one question about this new system...
 
If I have a 2-slot purple item, will I have to spend currency or some item post-patch to add slots up to 4? Or that is only to get the real extra slot (5)?	
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			I hope it's some item from a crafting prof that lets us add/reroll runes.	
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I have just one question about this new system...
 
If I have a 2-slot purple item, will I have to spend currency or some item post-patch to add slots up to 4? Or that is only to get the real extra slot (5)?
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			according to how good drop rates are in this game assuming the item is a drop.. this is just not cool.	
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according to how good drop rates are in this game assuming the item is a drop.. this is just not cool.
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Perhaps this have already been answered but I couldn't really find a specific one to what im asking about.
 
Q: When we get the new itemslots implemented, it is said that all our existing gear, will be able to fit in the new amount of runeslots. eg. superb purple gear from group content will be able to get 5 MAX slots.
 
And it was said that all the old gear would be able to be "fixed" to get that new amount, provided you didn't actually have 5 to begin with.
 
So the real question is, do you need to use the new rune slot increaser ingredient to max your old superb purple item up to 4-5, or will it automatically be "fixed" for free, no item, no nothing, just free extra slots rolled at random?	
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So the real question is, do you need to use the new rune slot increaser ingredient to max your old superb purple item up to 4-5, or will it automatically be "fixed" for free, no item, no nothing, just free extra slots rolled at random?
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THIS!
I would like to know this also.  I understand what you can add and have the maximum is...I just want to know if there will be a cost associated.  I have a two runeslot Purp that should have three runeslots post patch.  I would need x3 Eldan flux to add the 3rd.  I want to know am I going to be able to not have to use the reagents for something that is basically a "FIX."  For example, carbine allowed this with the Gadgets.  WHich was no slots, sell item, rebuy, boom RNG slotsx2.  SO I know this is possible. 
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Unfortunately, the Gadget 'fix' only works on items that haven't had a Rune Slot instance instantiated on the item. So if your item(s) has no Rune Slots before the patch, the 'trick' of selling it to the vendor to force a new Rune Slot instance will work. However, a 2 Slot purple-quality item already has a Rune Slot instance. Selling and repurchasing does not force a new Rune Slot instance. You will need to either acquire a new item or use the Eldan Runic Flux item to increase the Rune Slot counts.
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Any chance of giving a few of those Eldan Runic Flux items free to people as a one time thing to help bring their gear up to date once the changes go live? I have like 4 group drop purples with only 2 rune slots. That's gonna be ridiculous to try to get right. I know I'm not alone in this.
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Items bought with elder gems pre-drop should be upgraded to the minimum rune slot count for free. Elder gems are capped weekly and more rare imo. I can run dungeons all day and night to acquire the flux. 
 
Basically, this is why no one is buying gear with their elder gems now even though it would be an upgrade (max amp/ability aside).	
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Personally, I am saving up Satchels of Scavenged Supplies so that I can hopefully add a few runeslots day one.
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"Superb quality (Purple) items from vendors, world loot and crafting will roll 3 slots.
Superb quality items from group content will roll 4 slots."
 
Stuff from the elder gem vendor falls where in this dichotomy? It comes from a vendor, but group content is needed to unlock it.	
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			Having just been on the PTR, items at the Elder Gem vendor said "+4 rune slots" (at least all the ones I looked at - GA gear might be better)	
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Having just been on the PTR, items at the Elder Gem vendor said "+4 rune slots" (at least all the ones I looked at - GA gear might be better)
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