I realize it's early days, and feedback is likely looking at the concepts vs the actual items in game. I went with an ASGW and AIEW to start, the two extremes of the game.
I love the random enchants on gear. It will take a while for people to find the best gear. So far, it seems like strength, dexterity, intelligence, and endurance appear less on basic gear which is kind of nice as it makes that gear a little more coveted. It means there's a bit of longevity to the system as getting the best in slot RNG'd item will take some time.
Armour is currently heavily biased towards adventurers and warriors though due to the strength requirements on magical gear. With the strength requirements, an elf wizard can't wear any of the magical drops except for cloth unless they put 3 points onto strength. Casting Empower (+strength) can bring that up to 6 points in strength (for an elf wizard with no points put towards strength) but you still can't equip any of the gear requiring 6 strength. So an AIEW will be unable to use the majority of the gear dropped while a warrior will be able to use anything that drops. In cloth armour, the tunic is male only, while the doublet is gender neutral. This places female characters at a disadvantage for dropped gear that is more biased than the robe/skirt side of things. I've found a magical tunic, but no magical doublet/skirts/robes
Again, the perms on weapon drops are great. The weapon damage should be looked at though. I think the magic 2 handers that drops has 19-24 base damage while a steel 2 hander has a base damage of 17-34. My initial experience found the shop purchased steel 2 hander better than the green/blue drops. I've found a legendary (yellow) 2handed sword (19-24 dmg, FIVE enchant) and haven't compared it to the steel 2handed yet. This will likely be less of an issue with more weapon tiers of weapons, but better store bought gear or rarity that causes players to out level the weapons before they find them make the treasure.
Magic is in terrible shape. Spell damage is terrible, and spell damage doesn't compare to what a single hit of a weapon can do. With Drain life & Steal life being switched to touch spells, there is very little damage opportunity in necromancy. Summon undead was used as a way to reduce damage to my ASGW. Once you get summon demon, you suddenly are able to summon something better than anything else in the game. I can't comment on the other circles as I haven't leveled high enough to include them.
Overall the magic armour/weapons drop is a great change. The game mechanics still heavily favour high strength and seems to magnify some of the problems in the mechanics (armour you can wear, encumbrance, the amount of loot you can collect, damage that can be done). I think where this system will really shine is with adventurers, where characters will have only several GM skills (likely 1 weapon, 1-2 spells, 1 enhancing skills). Characters will have more unique builds and the mana system will mean rationing mana could be important. in a fight. However, it has to be balanced against the ASGW. While the low intel will have a big negative with an ASGW at a higher level, there are very few negatives at the lower levels.
