Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 4

(Finally giving you all some answers to what was in those mystery boxes at the end of the last book!)

Chapter 4

As part of his rewards from reaching #89 in the Rankings for Quest Completions, Thaden received a Legendary Rarity Necklace and a Legendary Rarity Ring; he’d taken a quick look at them earlier but hadn’t replaced his current equipment with them yet because he hadn’t taken the time to compare them.  He pulled up what he was currently wearing, which were two Epic Rarity items he’d acquired from The Devil’s Nail dungeon and were at Level 95 – so he was sure that he could improve upon them.

Sunsilver Ring of Brilliance

Rarity: Epic

Class Restrictions: All

Level Restriction: 95

+30 to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality

Provides illumination in even the darkest of spaces

Angelic Necklace of Light

Rarity: Epic

Class Restrictions: Mage, Control, Support

Level Restriction: 95

+75 Celerity

+120 Mentality

+10% Light Resistance

For 30 seconds, a protective barrier of divine light can be formed around the wearer, preventing up to 1,000 damage before collapsing; has a 10-minute cooldown after activation

The illumination effect from the Sunsilver Ring of Brilliance was amazing because it lit up dark areas even brighter than his Healthful Protection set, which glowed faintly for a small amount of light to see by.  Other than that, it was the only piece of equipment that provided Physicality, which as he’d already noted, was an important part of his doing damage because it raised his maximum Health. 

The Angelic Necklace of Light gave a lot of Celerity and Mentality, which was excellent, but the 10% Light Resistance hadn’t really been a factor, and he had honestly forgotten about the protective barrier that was available for use; it had never really been needed because he had so many other protective spells to choose from.  Seeing the Class Restrictions included a Mage and a Control in addition to a Support Class, he figured it would be much better suited for one of them.  That being said, it had functioned well for him, if only for the stats alone, but he wouldn’t mind upgrading it.

When he really focused on the new Legendary Ring and Necklace he’d received as prizes, he didn’t have any hesitation in replacing them.

Mithril Ring of the Elite Quester

Rarity: Legendary

Class Restrictions: All

Level Restriction: 189

+120 to all stats

Mithril Necklace of the Elite Quester

Rarity: Legendary

Class Restrictions: All

Level Restriction: 189

+90 to all stats

All Quest rewards are increased by 9%

He ended up losing the illumination effect from the Sunsilver Ring, but he would be keeping it just in case he had need of the light it provided; the necklace also gave him a bit less Mentality, but it was balanced out by the fact that it gave +90 to all of his stats.  Overall, once he equipped them, he had increased each of his stats by 210, with Mentality actually increasing by 60 points even with the loss on the new necklace.  In reality, it actually increased even more because of his Achievement giving him a 60% increase to Mentality stats on his equipment, so was nearly 100 more points.

Physicality – 1,738 (2,011)

Celerity – 1,719 (2,226)

Mentality – 4,284 (6,390)

Personality – 500 (710)

Fortuity – 655 (892)

Overall, it wasn’t a huge change in his Celerity and Mentality stats, but everything else went up dramatically.  Based on the names of the two items, which sounded fairly generic as a Mithril “item” of the Elite Questor, he could only assume that most – if not all – of the Contenders in the top 100 who received Legendary equipment got something similar, if not exactly the same.  He could definitely see why Contenders would want to reach the top of the Rankings if these were some of the rewards, especially since he also received those Free Stat Stones, and additional 6 spell selections, and 120 Adventurer Coalition Rank progress along with the Legendary equipment.

Not a bad haul, if he did say so himself.

Of course, those rewards couldn’t compare to what he received for reaching #1 on the leaderboards.  There were only a handful of Contenders who reached the same Ranking, and most of those were related to specific Classes that Thaden didn’t qualify for, because he ended up taking the top spot in six different categories.  Obtaining even one set of the items he did would’ve been amazing, but six full sets?  It was so much that it had been too overwhelming to really comprehend how powerful they were when he was opening up the reward boxes; now that he had some time to think about it and get some other things out of the way, he was able to see just how incredibly broken he was just about to become. 

So, what was it that he received?  Originally looking at the rewards for Rankings 2 and 3, which gave full sets of Legendary equipment with set bonuses similar to his Healthful Protection set, as well as Legendary accessories and weapons on top of Free Stat Stones, Adventurer Coalition Rank Progress, and a whole load of spell/ability selections, it had to be something even better than all of that combined.  Was it as set of equipment of a higher Rarity than Legendary?  Was it 5,000 Free Stat Stones?  Or was it some obscure item that would make him incredibly powerful and god-like?

The answer to that was a little more complicated than those possibilities, as it turned out to be a little of everything.

Realistically, an upgraded set of equipment would be extremely powerful and would set him even further on the path of being unstoppable, but the problem with equipment – any equipment – was that even if something was his suited for his current Level, as soon as he raised his Level in the future, it would be obsolete.  Many of his items that he was wearing right now, for instance, were incredibly powerful for someone around Level 100 or so, but at Level 189, they were simply adequate.  Even if he had acquired some sort of better-than-Legendary set for a reward that was suited for his current Level, it would eventually be overshadowed by whatever he might receive in the future, especially when he gained another 100 to 150 Levels.  Sure, he could certainly find or even have crafted some better equipment in the future, but it would be a constant struggle to keep his equipment equal in quality with his Level.

While his new acquisitions didn’t necessarily negate those struggles, they certainly made everything so much easier.  As he brought out one of the items to look at again, out of the corner of his eye he noticed that the Guild Raid Parties were moving up again as the next group went inside the dungeon entrance, and he waited to bring it out until he moved up as well.  He also noticed another Guild Raid Party arriving from the direction of Rageharbor, but he barely spared them a glance as they took up position behind him, occupying the space he’d just vacated.

When he was settled in his new position, prepared to wait for his turn, he finally pulled out one of the new items from his Inventory.  As he held it in his hand, he was fascinated at the prismatic color and transparency of the rectangular plate which was approximately a little bit bigger than his hand with his fingers spread wide.  It was extremely lightweight and thin, looking like a stiff piece of cellophane film, but it was – as far as a brief experiment had proven – virtually unbreakable.  It was certainly unlike anything he’d seen on Tarth, and while it was pretty to look at, it was fairly unassuming in appearance, as if it was simply a thin sheet of colorful glass or crystal.

The description of it, however, belied its unassuming appearance.

Adaptable Mimicry Plate

Rarity: Artifact

Imprinted User Restriction: #32599999-E

Durability: Indestructible

Usage Limit: None

Can be attached and unattached to any non-consumable item to mimic and replicate all of its effects; set bonuses are only replicated if Adaptable Mimicry Plates are attached to multiple items in the set

The description was relatively short-and-sweet compared to even a basic, Common piece of equipment, but it said more than enough for him to know that this special Artifact-Rarity plate was absolutely broken.  A single glance at the description wasn’t necessarily enough to know why it was so powerful, so he broke it down for himself as he turned the Plate over in his hands, admiring its appearance.

What this single Adaptable Mimicry Plate did was attach to a piece of his equipment, where it would then mimic and replicate its effects.  For example, with his new Mithril Ring of the Elite Quester, if he was to attach this plate to it – how it would fit, he wasn’t sure, since it was much larger than the Ring – it would add another +120 to all of his stats. 

That was huge – it was like wearing another copy of the Ring.

But that wasn’t the best part.  It didn’t just copy stat increases; it also replicated other effects.  Take his newly crafted Belt of Burning Life that he’d recently had specifically crafted for himself. 

Belt of Burning Life

Rarity: Epic

Class Restrictions: Support

Level Restriction: 100

+3 Mentality

Decreases cooldowns for all spells by 9%

Increases the effectiveness for all spells by 9%

Increases the Health replenished by Supportive spells by 25%

Increases the damage mitigated by Defensive spells by 25%

Crafted By: Trela

If he attached the plate to it, he would be getting an additional +3 Mentality, but he would also replicate the 9% cooldown decrease, the 9% effectiveness increase, the 25% increase in Health replenished, and the 25% increase in damage mitigation.

But that still wasn’t all.  It apparently also worked with set bonuses, so if he attached one of the Artifact-Rarity Plates to all six pieces in the set, it would create a copy of its effects.

Divine Gloves of Healthful Protection

Rarity: Legendary

Class Restrictions: Support

Level Restriction: 110

Physical Damage Resistance: 9

Magical Damage Resistance: 90

+27 Celerity

+117 Mentality

+5% Chance to double the effectiveness of all Defensive spells

5% Reduction in casting time and cooldowns for all spells

Whenever someone is protected by a one of your defensive spells, they are healed for 1% of the damage prevented

Set Bonus (2): +10% to all spell effectiveness, +90 Mentality

Set Bonus (4): All previous Set Bonuses, +100% to Mana regeneration speed, +180 Mentality, and +27 Fortuity

Set Bonus (6): All previous Set Bonuses, all spells have a 50% casting speed and cooldown reduction, Defensive spells have a 50% chance to double their effectiveness, and every Support spell cast on targets with an active protection spell – that the wearer has cast upon them – are healed for an additional 20% of their maximum Health

He wasn’t exactly sure if it would only create a single instance of the set bonuses when he had a Plate installed on each of the 6 pieces of equipment in the set, or if it would create 6 copies – though he had a feeling that it was only a single instance.  What he really wanted to know, however, was if he added 2 Plates to each of the 6 pieces, would it create 2 instances of the set bonus, or was it limited to only one copy?

The reason he wanted to know that was because he didn’t just receive a single Adaptable Mimicry Plate in each of his “Mystery” Reward Boxes, he received 9 Plates.  It made sense that there was more than just a few given as a reward, as while the Plates were powerful, it had to compete with the Legendary sets that the other Ranking individuals received.  With 9 Plates, someone could basically double up their main armor-based equipment once while have a few left over for their choice in accessories or weapons. 

The biggest difference between Thaden and the other Rank #1 winners was that he received 6 of these boxes, for a total of 54 Adaptable Mimicry Plates.

Not only could Thaden place one Plate on every single piece of equipment he was wearing, which totaled 11 with his accessories, he could place 5 of them on all but a single piece – which would still have 4 Plates on it.  Or he could theoretically place all 54 of them on his new Mithril Ring and increase all of his stats by 6,480.  Or stick 10 of them on his Belt to increase his Health replenished and damage mitigation by 250%, 10 of them on his Major Supportive Focus Stone of Healing to multiply the 45% increase in effectiveness for all healing spells and effect by 10, and then throw the rest onto his Healthful Protection set to see how many instances of the set bonus he could stack all at once.

There were so many possibilities of how he could distribute the Plates that it had been overwhelming just thinking about it at first, which was why he had put it off until now.  The best thing about choosing where to place his new Artifact-Rarity prizes was the fact that he could detach them and move them somewhere else; in other words, they weren’t one-time use items that were only good for using on his current equipment.  Rather, they were going to be with him forever, and as soon as he looted or bought or crafted a better piece of equipment, he could transfer the Plates over to the new piece – or rearrange them all to make the best combination of copied effects.

Since he had some questions he wanted answered, he decided to just start using his new Plates by pressing it up against his chest.  An instinctual mental command caused the prismatic plate to fall apart in his hand before it visually melted into his robe, disappearing with a flash of rainbow-like color as it attached itself to his piece of equipment.  He immediately felt a change come over him as he felt his stats increase; it wasn’t too shocking because he expected it, but he knew that he would have to be careful putting too many Plates on simultaneously until he adjusted to the increases. 

Pulling up the item’s description, he wanted to see exactly what changes it had made.

Divine Robe of Healthful Protection (+1 AMP)

Rarity: Legendary

Class Restrictions: Support

Level Restriction: 110

Physical Damage Resistance: 12 (12)

Magical Damage Resistance: 95 (95)

+27 Celerity (+27 Celerity)

+117 Mentality (+117 Mentality)

+5% (+5) Chance to double the effectiveness of all Defensive spells

5% (+5) Reduction in casting time and cooldowns for all spells

Whenever someone is protected by a one of your defensive spells, they are healed for 1% (1%) of the damage prevented

Set Bonus (2): +10% to all spell effectiveness, +90 Mentality (AMP Set 1/2)

Set Bonus (4): All previous Set Bonuses, +100% to Mana regeneration speed, +180 Mentality, and +27 Fortuity (AMP Set 1/4)

Set Bonus (6): All previous Set Bonuses, all spells have a 50% casting speed and cooldown reduction, Defensive spells have a 50% chance to double their effectiveness, and every Support spell cast on targets with an active protection spell – that the wearer has cast upon them – are healed for an additional 20% of their maximum Health (AMP Set 1/6)

The changes were thankfully clear, as it listed the differences in adding the Adaptable Mimicry Plate – denoted by the acronym, AMP – to the Robe.  For the set bonuses, it had a note that he only had 1 of 2, 1 of 4, and 1 of 6 for each of the bonuses, which was fairly straightforward.

On a whim, he pressed his hand against his chest and mentally commanded the Plate to detach from it, and the next thing he knew, there was a familiar prismatic-colored plate in his hand.  Enthused at how easy that was, he reattached it the Robe before pulling out another Plate and added it to the Cape on his back.  After letting his body adjust to the stat increase, he checked to see that the first bonus was now replicated, with a +20% bonus to all spell effectiveness instead of just +10% and an additional +90 Mentality.

Moving up the line again when another Guild Raid Party entered the dungeon, he kept adding to different pieces of his Healthful Protection set, and after the fourth one was done, he had to wait about a minute for his mind to stabilize, as he not only added +117 to his Mentality because he copied its normal stats, but also another +180 as the 4-set bonus was replicated.  Once the last two had their Plates attached, the full set bonus was completely replicated.

Set Bonus (2): +10% (+10%) to all spell effectiveness, +90 (+90) Mentality (AMP Set 2/2)

Set Bonus (4): All previous Set Bonuses, +100% (+100%) to Mana regeneration speed, +180 (+180) Mentality, and +27 (+27) Fortuity (AMP Set 4/4)

Set Bonus (6): All previous Set Bonuses, all spells have a 50% (50%) casting speed and cooldown reduction, Defensive spells have a 50% (50%) chance to double their effectiveness, and every Support spell cast on targets with an active protection spell – that the wearer has cast upon them – are healed for an additional 20% (20%) of their maximum Health (AMP Set 6/6)

When he looked at his Bonuses Breakdown again after this, he noticed that his Casting Time reduction was capped at 95% just like his Cooldowns were, but nothing else seemed to hit a limit.  He could only assume that there was also a cap on Mana Cost reduction, though he hadn’t hit that yet.

Thaden kept moving up the line as he started attaching another 6 Plates to his Healthful Protection set, but it didn’t take the entire time to know that he was going to create more set bonuses when he started doing it.  At 2 Plates, the set bonus noted—

Set Bonus (2): +10% (+20%) to all spell effectiveness, +90 (+180) Mentality (AMP Set 4/2)

   —so it seemed like for every additional set of plates, he would be getting the bonuses all over again.  He wasn’t sure if the 6-set bonus being duplicated would be beneficial in the long run, as only the additional healing was useful given that the other benefits were capped, but it was nice to see that everything was working like he thought it would. 

Glancing up from what he was doing, he saw that he was getting close to the front of the line already, with the last Raid Party ahead of him just starting to enter.  While he still had some time to kill, he continued looking through his equipment to see what kind of trouble he could get up to with his new, extremely broken, Artifact-Rarity Adaptable Mimicry Plates….