Capes as a potential for End game PVE/Progression loop.

[Foreskin]

Hello: End game PVE in MMO's unfortunately revolves around progression(getting stronger) which can result in power creep. So when thinking of new systems that present the player with progression options we must try to accomplish as many objectives with a single system as we can. To not box ourselves into a corner later with power creep. Efficiency is the name of the game.

I present to you Fractured Capes:

On Terra: Random spawns/incursions appear on the map as a POI for players. Demi bosses and adds of medium difficulty that require at least one player in maximum gear to defeat. Demi Bosses have a 1/3 chance of dropping " basic cape shards" and a 1/15 chance of dropping an advanced cape shard

On Aehren: Random spawns/incursions appear on the map as a POI for player. Demi bosses and adds, These spawns are much easier then Terra. They have high health and some CC but low damage. A single player in good gear can solo this spawn without a specific build. These demi bosses have a 1/2 base chance of dropping basic cape shards and a 1/10 for advanced cape shard on good alignment.100% chance of dropping basic cape shard while flagged neutral or Red. While flagged Neutral or Red a player has a 1/3 chance of receiving an advanced cape shard.

On Aehren: A static mega boss location requiring 4 average players to defeat. This boss is on a 30minute timer. This boss always drops 5 basic cape shard and 5 advanced cape shard. This boss should also drop unique cosmetics. This boss can only be looted by neutrals or reds and when it is looted it puts a debuff on you that you can not trade players for 5minutes.

On Terra: A static mega boss location requiring 5 average players to defeat. This boss is on a 30minute timer. This boss always drops 3 basic cape shard and 2 advanced cape shard

Rolling the cape: After acquiring 3 basic cape shards and 1 advanced cape shard you can roll your first cape.The basic cape shards roll the traits of the cape; Anything from movement speed to life steal, to % dmg, to %mitigation to crafting bonus's that give bonus's to crafting gear.

You roll 3 traits on the cape, randomly.

The advanced cape shard determines the tier of the cape. All the way to t6. A t6 cape has visual animations on it and visual aesthetics over a t1 cape, has higher bonus's. a t1 cape might have 2% movement speed. A t6 cape might have 12% movement speed. A t1 cape might have 1% life steal/spell vamp and a t6 cape might have 8%. The gains do not have to be fully linear, take care not to give oppressive stats like lifesteal too much scaling.

You roll a tier level on the cape randomly. A t6 roll is 1/10000, a t5 roll is 1/2000, a t4 roll is 1/500, a t3 roll is 1/100, a t2 roll is 1/25

Rerolling capes:
To reroll the traits of your cape you only need 3 basic cape shards. This is rolled separately from the tier. It also costs gold/reagents to reroll traits.

To reroll the tier of your cape you need 1 advanced cape shard and 2 basic cape shards and gold. The tier of your cape can never decrease, it can only increase. If you roll a t4 cape. It rolls for the t5 and t6 separately, if both rolls win then it prioritizes the highest tier.

Capes are soulbound when equipped for all players, including reds.
Capes can be traded
Capes are not soulbound if in the inventory
Capes have durability and must be recharged with gold and reagents depending which traits the cape has and recharging also requires basic cape shards. Capes lose durability on death. A 0 durability cape will not provide any bonus's and any visual animations are lost.

All monsters on Aehren have a mega rare drop table that can include advanced cape shards and basic cape shards. The probability of this mega rare drop table is based on monster tier. This mega rare drop table can not roll if the monster dies in a safe zone.

Terra monsters do not have access to the mega rare drop table. Incursions/boss are the only way to obtain shards on terra.

This system accomplishes many objectives at the same time. 1: It gets players roaming for incursion POI's, there will be several of these available on the map at any given time but you will have to roam between them. A group of 2 players on Aehren should be able to complete 3-4 incursions per hour after banking is considered. 2: It gives large guilds a static location to hold down. There can be 2 static boss locations per map.3: It creates a gold and reagent sink, the gold costs associated with repairing/rerolling/charging capes should be significant. 4. It creates a new economy for shards, capes will need basic shards to repair their durability. Shards will always have value.

Also major consideration were made in this system to player crafting. The capes are crafted by the player, as well as tradeable. I know the fractured team does not like "Unique item drops", so this system holds true to your values.