Mike Steele wrote:
I'm not in agreement that the Ranger legendary is underwhelming, I think it's more powerful than the previous class Legendaries. I think the Legendaries this year need to be scaled back to the power level of last year.
I’ve seen you echo this sentiment.
A lot.
Iktomi’s Shaper Necklace
1a. Acts as a weapon…only one other class Legendary can be slid in a puck – the Avenger.
1b. Iktomi’s has an average damage of 11. Compare to Thor’s and Drue’s that only have 8.5 & 9.5 respectively. So even if you’re a maxed out Druid, you’ve improved your damage by 1.5 here.
1c. Iktomi’s has a high of 18. Compare to Thor’s and Drue’s that only have 11 & 13 respectively. Improvement of +5 at the top end of Druid weapons.
2a. Bestows elemental benefit. When used offensively, this allows the Druid to gain +5 damage against enemies who may be vulnerable to Shock/Sonic/Fire/Cold.
2b. When elemental benefit is used defensively, it allows the Druid to gain 10 DR from Shock/Sonic/Fire/Cold.
3. While in Polymorph, the Druid can also speak and cast spells. This combined with the instantaneous Polymorph into any elemental (or Potion Polymorph) is basically Shirt of the Fae. It’s actually better, because Shirt of the Fae requires that you give up your free action.
Ralson’s Pendant of the Elder Yew
1a. +6 damage when in Range.
1b. Another +3 for each ammo.
2. Can read 2 scrolls per game.
3. Upgraded Charm of Shadow Shot.
4. +4 to CON.
Comparison
1. So the Ranger gets +6 damage to Sharp Shooter. The Druid gets +5 if taking advantage of vulnerability. Pretty close here. One could argue that the Ranger's damage is constant while the Druid's is situational. I would argue that the added defensive option on Iktomi's Elemental Benefit evens them out.
2. Animal companion is a much harder benefit to quantify, but let’s try:
Average polymorph wheels:
Cave Bear – 8.33
Shark – 8
Cobra – 7.5
Bear – 7
Viper – 7
Giant Spider – 6
Scrael – 6
Gremlin – 5.5
Lemure – 5
Asp – 4.75
Brownie – 3.5
Otter – 2.5
Some of these potions have a higher max. The snakes have 20s, the bears have 12s, and even the Giant Spider has a 15. The fact remains that in exchange for freeing up Charm of Shadow Shot, the Ranger will need to burn consumables. Furthermore, anything with an average damage wheel that is higher than 6 are not-easy-to-find rares.
3. Ammo the Ranger utilizes gains + 3 damage. Again…the Ranger is capitalizing off of consumables. This makes the damage gap larger between Ralson's and Iktomi's, but at a real-world cost. So if you’d prefer to think of it another way- the Ranger gets to spend $$$ to always get +9 damage. The Druid spends nothing to sometimes get +5 damage.
4. Rangers can read two scrolls with Ralson's. This is again very hard to quantify. We’re still awaiting confirmation of what types of scrolls the Ranger can read, but if it’s all of them…then this ability will truly be quite powerful.
However, we can’t ignore the opportunity cost. The Ranger will be using his standard action to read a scroll. He will not be attacking in either of those two rounds where he reads a scroll, and he will also be burning a consumable.
5. The +4 CON. The Cloak that goes into the legendary is +3 CON. I think this is peanuts with getting a free Shirt of the Fae. The Ranger nets +1 CON while the Druid nets 1 free action per round of combat (more if he changes back and forth).
If you look at the Ranger legendary and strip away all of its consumable requirements, it's a $1000 token that grants +4 CON and +6 damage.
Druids, on the other hand, get the best weapon they've ever had access to.
Pound for pound, Ralson's is probably more powerful. But that's only if you dump money into it after you've spent $1000 or more obtaining one.
Strip away the consumable perks of Ralson's and compare it to Iktomi's for the benefits each have from the get-go and I think Iktomi's is better. That's IMHO a good design space for them both to exist in.