Nightmare Helm Update from 7/15/18

Nightmare Helm now requires level 300. SDM bonus decreased to 10% (same as necro hood) and removed Necro and Mysticism resistance.

From what this is saying it appears that the NMH bonuses are as follows:
10% Necro SDM Bonus
95 Armor Rating
Level 300 Requirement

With this in place, the Nightmare helm appears to now be the worst helm in the game. The only correlating helm in the game is the Proficient Necromancy Hat which gives 10% Necro, Nourish, but only has a 15ar.

If I may make a suggestion, I think the change went too far. I agree that 50% Necro/Myst resistance was a bit much, but stripping it entirely makes the helm so close to worthless that it's incredibly niche.

Suggestion:
Return the Necro/Myst resistance, but bring it down to around 20% instead of 50%. Everything else is fine.

I concur With Endals sentiments. The NMH has been reduced to scrap mythril at this point. Giving it 15% MR would make it viable again, where one can max out to 75 MR with a FW ammy and the NMH. I'd also suggest 15% Necro boost.

Please restore the NMH back to usefulness. As it is, it is absolutely a waste of once great and well loved helm.

I might add that it has been suggested that anyone looking for the max MR, they simply add a Magic Shield. Sure that works for anyone using a Long Sword. Anyone using a 2 hander of any type got royally screwed. Now, to max MR with the use of a Long Sword + AoFW + Magic Shield, it puts you in range of a lot of counterattacks (think Harl,) not to mention you had to downgrade from your 2 handed weapon. As I said before please restore the NMH to some semblance of usefulness.

EDIT: AFter a conversation with Redbeard on chat I was assured that the 15% MR loss (from 75% to 60%, and wearing AoFW) as a result of the NMH nerf, will result in only a 1 round loss of shug capability. Dependent on rng factors such as duration of spell cast and I would assume character build. So it's not as bad as I might have assumed, but still goes down as a nerf in my book.

Nuther Edit: It appears that despite their best efforts to completely destroy the usefulness of the NMH, it does still retain it's DMP properties. Which is a small bonus. probably when they figure that out they will nerf it too…

should have left it the way it ws.

Agreed. If there was one aspect they needed to fix about the helm was the drop rate. Dropped way to often compared to all other armors and weapons.

I mean no offense to anyone when I say this, so I hope it doesn't get taken as overly harsh and get me crucified by people who feel compelled to defend them…

But the overall truth is just that Rat Labs doesn't really know how to balance these types of items.

The gear they've added - the 1, 300, and 600 weapons and the 1, 250, and 500 gear all follow a very logical, progressive, linear path and they do a good job with these items.

But these legacy items, such as the old helms, don't fit in that gear progression.

And since they don't fit in that progression they would need a defined identity before they can be balanced and they do not have that.

What is the NMH's target identity? I asked Gimli this on channel 4 when he was pondering how to nerf it, and he had no answer.

How can it attempt to be balanced if there's no identity and it's outside the normal progression? It's just throwing darts at a board.

I think it could have had lots of different identities, for example:

a) It could be a Necro-focused wiz hat intended for between Prof and Expert Necro helms.

If this were its identity perhaps it would have:

20 AR
2.0 Weight
+15% Necro SDM
-5% Thaum/Elem SDM
Nourish
Level 350

This would put it at more necro power than a proficient helm, at the cost of dodge and some other SDMs. You get to have level 500 type SDM earlier than normal, at a cost.

b) It could be a Necro-focused hitter hat designed as an alternate path to Prof/Expert Warlord's.

If this were its identity perhaps it would have:

60 AR
6.0 Weight
+10% Necro SDM
+5% MDM
+1 Attack
Level 350

This would give you a necro boost as a hitter, at the expense of some MDM and Nourish from the prof/expert route.

These are just illustrations of how starting with an identity then dictates the direction of the stats. I'm not necessarily suggesting that either of these identities is the "right one", but I guess my overall point is that it feels like it has no identity and that is the underlying issue.

Instead of having an identity it was just "too strong, make it weaker".

I agree that the helm in its previous state was OP. It needed a change. But without an identity all of these items will invariably be "OP" or "not for anyone" rather than at least having a niche audience.

Hey Everyone,

I was talking in game about the changes. To summarize, the rationale behind the change was that the NMH had an identity crisis about what type of helmet it was and who it served. It was both a potent caster helmet AND a potent melee helmet due to the high resistances.

The decision was made to categorize this as a caster helmet which is why it was brought down in line with the other caster helmets in its level range.

After talking with players today, I believe that it should be categorized differently as an anti-necro resistance helmet; Not a caster helmet.

My plan is to remove the SDM bonus and replace it with resistances which should serve a purpose very few other items do.

Sounds good, worth noting it was also a level 150 helmet or - early-ish game helmet. I would have liked to see it atleast stay at 150 to provide more options when someone hits 150. Most of the good gear is 300+. I was hoping to just see the drop rate reduced and maybe a small nerf, this was a huge nerf hammer in every way and it feels like it was because the drop rate was the highest and most ridiculous of any magical item in the game. Glad to see there will be tweaks, poor Nightmare Helm, no one loves you! First you are useful shop food, now you are useless shop food!!!

@Gimli

Right now there are plenty of options for wizzies, we have +Thaum/Necro/and Elem outfits galore. The hitter suffered moreso than the wiz on this one IMO. Although I had the NMH on all 3 toons, (1 wiz, 1 GA, 1 Hitter) I was getting the most out of the helm in both categories essentially. But the hitter needs the higher AR, and hopefully a bit of MR.

The wiz has options. To be honest I hadn't even considered the wiz options because I was rolling along fine as it was. But now with the NMH nerf and the spell cast shuffle, I decided to snoop around in my gear and found 3 Pro Necro items, I at least have the option of using this stuff with the wiz. The hitters could use some love on this one I think.

Oh are there any plans on any inherent DMP protection items? Kinda like we had with Fin Bracers? That would be the one thing that would be nice to have, a replacement item offering the DMP we lost with the NMH because of the necessity to move away from the NMH. Thus eliminating the agonizing choices/time consumption/likelyhood of forgetting of what amulet to use for this fight and what amulet for that fight… Unless of course that is all part of the intent, we never know. :)

DMP was never removed from NMH, and it will be sticking around still after the upcoming change

Well then, that increases its usefulness by a magnitude.