Armor

Dünir tier 5 in-game achievable plate armor 3D render turntable.^[1]

The Dünir are suited up for battle with these in-game unlockable tier five armor pieces!^[1]

Alpha-1 leather armor 3D renders.^[2]

Dünir tier 5 plate armor 3D render.^[3] This render does not include any special effects as a result of enchanting.^[4]

Armor types in Ashes of Creation.

Kaelar tier 1 (level 10) early Alpha-1 cloth armor non-cosmetic set 3D renders.^[12]

Gear (weapons and armor) has approximately a 40-50% influence on a player's overall power in the game.^[13]

There are no stat requirements for equipping gear, but there are affiliation and level requirements.^[14]^[15]^[16]

We have level requirements that are going to be applicable for particular types of gears. There's going to be affiliation requirements for certain types of gear as well; but from a stat perspective we decided not to go down that route; and the only reason for that is we don't want to shoehorn people into particular types of builds; and stats relate to those particular types of builds because there's a lot of versatility that exists within our class system. They don't have to play it per-se and that kind of lends itself to a meta. It's like, oh you're a tank where you have to tank constitution and if you don't take constitution you don't get access to this really cool tank breastplate. You know stuff like that. It can feel a little too restrictive when you start to dictate from a stat perspective how a player must build their character.^[14] – Steven Sharif

Specific and necessary crafting materials for higher tier items can only be obtained through the deconstruction of lower-tier items. This is designed to keep lower tier crafted gear relevant through progression and across expansions.^[17]

A big component of gear usefulness or relevancy, as either you're progressing or as expansions come out or whatnot, is that there is a deconstruction method associated with gear; and that deconstruction can provide very specific and necessary crafting materials that can only be achieved through deconstruction of certain types of gears. And then additionally as we consider expansions and additional itemization paths and tiers going forward, all gear is going to remain relevant within the tiers that they exist. So from a progression standpoint, as you achieve access to different types of tiers, those gears are still going to have relevancy within that tier.^[17] – Steven Sharif

List of armor

This section contains information from Alpha-1 testing. It will be updated when new information is made available.

Item	Type	Set	Rarity	Level requirement	Source
Band of Concentration	Jewelry		Rare	1
Chain Pendant	Jewelry		Rare	1
Cloth Belt of Dark Fortunes	Belt	Dark Fortunes	Epic	15	Crafted items
Cloth Boots of Dark Fortunes	Boots	Dark Fortunes	Epic	15	Crafted items
Cloth Epaulettes of Dark Fortunes	Shoulders	Dark Fortunes	Epic	15	Crafted items
Cloth Gloves of Dark Fortunes	Gloves	Dark Fortunes	Epic	15	Crafted items
Cloth Hood of Dark Fortunes	Helmet	Dark Fortunes	Epic	15	Crafted items
Cloth Leggings of Dark Fortunes	Pants	Dark Fortunes	Epic	15	Crafted items
Cloth Robes of Dark Fortune	Chest armor	Dark Fortunes	Epic	15	Crafted items
Cloth Sleeves of Dark Fortune	Wrists	Dark Fortunes	Epic	15	Crafted items
Ethereal Plate Gauntlets	Gloves	Etherial	Rare	1
Ethereal Plate Spaulders	Shoulders	Etherial	Rare	1
Faded Breastplate	Chest armor	Faded	Poor	2
Faded Plate Boots	Boots	Faded	Poor	2
Frayed Cloth Gloves	Gloves	Frayed	Common	7	Quest rewards
Imposing Plate Belt	Belt	Imposing	Rare	9	Crafted items
Plate Belt of Dragons Protection	Belt	Dragon's Protection	Legendary	15	Crafted items
Plate Boots of Dragons Protection	Boots	Dragon's Protection	Legendary	15	Crafted items
Plate Cussies of Dragons Protection	Pants	Dragon's Protection	Legendary	15	Crafted items
Plate Gauntlets of Dragons Protection	Gloves	Dragon's Protection	Legendary	15	Crafted items
Refurbished Plate Boots	Boots	Refurbished	Uncommon	8
Refurbished Plate Gauntlets	Gloves	Refurbished	Common	7	Quest rewards
Ripped Cloth Boots	Boots	Ripped	Uncommon	8
Titanbark Belt	Belt	Titanbark	Uncommon
Titanbark Boots	Boots	Titanbark	Uncommon
Titanbark Bracers	Wrists	Titanbark	Uncommon
Titanbark Chestplate	Chest armor	Titanbark	Rare
Titanbark Cloak	Back armor	Titanbark	Uncommon
Titanbark Gloves	Gloves	Titanbark	Uncommon
Titanbark Helmet	Helmet	Titanbark	Rare
Titanbark Leggings	Pants	Titanbark	Uncommon
Titanbark Shoulders	Shoulders	Titanbark	Rare
Torn Cloth Boots	Boots	Torn	Poor	2
Torn Cloth Robes	Chest armor	Torn	Poor	2
Transcendent Plate Helm	Helmet	Transcendent	Legendary	15	Crafted items
Worn Breastplate	Chest armor	Worn	Common	1
Worn Cloth Belt	Belt	Worn	Common	1
Worn Plate Boots	Boots	Worn	Common	1
Worn Plate Cuisses	Pants	Worn	Common	1
Worn Plate Helmet	Helmet	Worn	Common	1	Vendor
Worn Plate Vambrace	Wrists	Worn	Common	1

Stats on gear

Crafters will be able to assign different skills/abilities and stats on gear.^[18]^[19]

Master crafters will be able to influence several (but not all) stats on their crafted items.^[18]^[20]
- Stats on crafted items will vary based on the item's rarity.^[21]
There will also be methods of moving stat blocks around but this won't necessarily be an easy task.^[22]^[18]
All gear will be able to be assigned any stat.^[18]

Crafters will be able to 'rejigger' stat blocks; and there will be a couple of other ways to move things around to create both the look and the stat block that you're looking for. It's not always going to be easy. There will be a lot of challenges involved with that. But the goal is to give you guys the option to customize your gear the way you want them to be.^[18] – Jeffrey Bard

Not all armor sets will be the cookie cutter kind of set. They will have the influences from the crafter available in it, if it's a crafted set.^[19] – Steven Sharif

Gear is broken down into Core Stats and Additional Stats.^[23]

Gear slots

Alpha-2 character sheet work-in-progress UI.^[24]

We wanted to create something that would handle a couple of different roles, with obviously your equipment slots for what we call a "paper doll", which is that display of your character. Eventually it won't just be a image of your character, we hope to have the 3D character and be able to rotate around, look at what you're wearing. And then we wanted to support a couple of different features here, with some base stats; the equipment, which will show what equipment you have available to quick swap, so you don't have to have your inventory and the screen open; detailed stats for those people who want to get into all of the details; and then of course gear sets. So this is going to be able to swap to your sets of gear quickly; and being able to save different loadouts.^[24] – Colby Marchi

There are multiple gear slots in Ashes of Creation.^[24]

Artisan gear may be able to be equipped in an "undergarment" slot that can be toggled between adventuring gear and artisan gear.^[25]

Previously it was stated there were 16 gear slots.^[26]
- 8 Armor slots
- 5 Jewelry slots
- 2 Weapons slots
- 1 Ranged slot

Armor characteristics

Kaelar armor.^[27]

You're not going to get one set of armor that's going to be situationally relevant for every encounter you might face- that's crazy- and as a result of that you're going to have to succeed in acquiring sets that are situationally relevant for the types of encounters you are intending to face.^[28] – Steven Sharif

Armor characteristics are in general determined by the "type" of armor (Light, Medium, Heavy).^[22]

Stat values will be predominately the same but may be able to be adjusted by crafters who are capable with that type of armor.^[22]
- Physical Defense Mitigation.^[22]
- Magical Defense Mitigation.^[22]

The stat values on armor can include both damage dealing and damage mitigation stats.^[28]

Certain armor types are going to have certain type of predominant stat values. So there's going to be certain waterfall stats and/or certain primary attributes that are available on certain armor types; and then if you want to have the one that's not more prominently available- those will be rare to get- you'll have to elicit the services of a crafter who's very capable within that particular type of armor in order to get the non-traditional stats and/or waterfalls available. So there's still the ability to get whatever on these but they're going to be more predetermined for certain types of stats and waterfalls.^[22] – Steven Sharif

Set bonuses are granted to wearers of exclusively one type of armor, for example: all cloth, or all plate.^[22]^[22]^[29]

There'll be certain types of set bonuses granted across specific full sets or partial sets of armor types. There will be a similar function in how damage is mitigated based on the type of armor you're wearing and how that relates to physical or magical incoming damage. So that's something to keep in mind. It's going to be situational what type of adversarial foe am I facing and what armor is the best against that to mitigate damage.^[22] – Steven Sharif

The "type" of armor (cloth, leather, plate) a character is predominantly wearing is visible in their nameplate.^[22]^[30]
- There will be strengths and weaknesses for armor sets that opponents can exploit with gear enhancements, for example.^[22]

You're going to have certain strengths and weaknesses of armor sets and those can be specced into by your opponents. For example, I might place some type of elemental enhancements on my weapon that horizontally changes my outgoing damage and that's going to reflect based on the opponent on my target opponent and what type of armor they have available to them to counter that.^[22] – Steven Sharif

Itemization choice may potentially play into universal skill sets such as Dodge, Parry, and Active blocking.^[22]

We're playing a little bit with the idea of these universal skill sets, such as dodge, parry, block, active blocking, stuff like that; and progression within those areas. There is something to be said I think for incorporating itemization choice as part of that system as well; and how it might affect that system. That's something that I think is going to be coming up in the pitch phase here shortly from design as we implement those universal skills. So you can look out in the future for more information on that.^[22] – Steven Sharif

Light armor

Kaelar Level 20 robe set 3D render.^[31]

This set is a level 20 set and this is not cosmetic. This is an in-game achievable armor set I believe.^[31] – Steven Sharif

Light armor (also referred to as Robes and Cloth armor).^[32]^[33]

Light armor is more mobile than heavier armor.^[34]
Light armor is geared towards magical damage mitigation.^[35]^[36]

Medium armor

Level 10-20 crafted leather armor set 3D render.^[37]

Leather gives you a blend between both worlds. It also will have different types of set benefits that aren't purely related to damage mitigation. So that could be outgoing skill damage, it could be critical chances, it could be some other waterfall stats that are associated with it. Our armors don't just boil down to damage type mitigation.^[28] – Steven Sharif

Medium armor (also referred to as Leather armor) can incorporate robe, chainmail, and plate, influences.^[32]^[33]^[38]

May provide some benefits from light armor or heavy armor.^[28]
May also include benefits that aren't purely related to damage mitigation, such as improved critical chance.^[28]

Heavy armor

Tier 5 in-game earnable Kaelar plate armor 3D renders.^[39]

Heavy armor is predominantly plate metal, but may incorporate other influences, such as leather.^[38]

Heavy armor typically has more HP than lighter armor.^[34]
Heavy armor is geared towards physical damage mitigation.^[35]

Class weapons and armor

Weapons and armor are not class locked, but certain classes are more efficient with certain types of weapons or armor.^[40]^[41] Certain abilities require certain items to be equipped.^[42]

Weapons are intended to be somewhat agnostic in the sense that you can find a way for a weapon to be utilized by different classes. Not just the rogue is going to be able to use daggers. Because if you restrict equipment through that, it makes the economy more difficult to have sustainability across the market of items.^[43] – Steven Sharif

Q: We had stated that we were going to allow people to use any class combination, which would be both your archetypes together, being able to use any weapon. Do we see problems that could occur with that, for instance like a bow tank, or an orb tank or things like- will there be some strangeness there, or are there problems that you first are foreseeing in the future?

A: We're giving a lot of flexibility to the crafters in our game. They get to help define the stat block that a particular item, weapon, or gear has; and that stat block can be relevant to any particular class or archetype combination. So in that sense the idea is, no not to see any strangeness there or not to see any elements that would dissuade a person from that customization perspective.^[44] – Steven Sharif

Racial weapons and armor

Armor racial appearances in early Alpha-1.^[45]

Violet light and myself are wearing exactly the same armor set right: Same stats, same everything, but it drops for her it looks one way, it drops for me it looks another way; and... a small part of that is gender, but then the other part of it is race. So because I was a Vaelune in that playthrough my armor was in the Vaelune style; and when she picked it up it was in the elven style because she was an elf. So that kind of gives you an example of sort of the breadth of looks that we're going for and how we kind of try to capture like who you are as as a character and kind of allow you to kind of build your look that way.^[46] – Jeffrey Bard

Dünir and Empyrean racially styled armor concept art by Keith Kovach.^[47]

We have essentially sets that exist across all races; and each race that dons those armor sets is going to have their own racial influence on the presentation of those particular sets. So that's something that's unique in how each of the races get diversified.^[48] – Steven Sharif

Weapons and armor are not race locked, but armor will take on a racial appearance.^[48]^[49]^[50]

The customization of equipment per race is really focused on Armor sets not Weapon props. Weapon props will, from a model standpoint, will translate pretty one-to-one across the races.^[51] – Steven Sharif

Racial appearance of gear is focused on Armor. Weapons will not change in appearance but will scale in size based on race.^[52]^[51]

Let's say for example you have the Eagle set or something, right: The Eagle set has in art, it has a thematic design that's going to include certain attachments to the armor. It's going to include color palette and theme. It's going to have some aspects to it that define it as the Eagle set, right. When a Elf wears the Eagle set or when an Orc wears the Eagle set, you obviously have two different cultures there; and you don't want to stomp out that culture by assigning a de facto 'This is the Eagle set and this is how it looks on everybody.' What we want to have is cultural influences play a role in showing how that set looks.^[51] – Steven Sharif

Racial appearance of gear sets is tied to the character model of that race.^[53]

When you say, what if I'm an Orc but want to look like an Elf and I want my Eagle set to be the Elf representation? Well the issue becomes there that you know Orcs have a different organic model. You know, their body is different than that of the Elf. So, from a scope-creep standpoint, it's one thing to add different influences that represent the cultures that are donning the armor; it's another thing to adapt each influence as a matrix that can be worn pretty much by everything. From a scope perspective, that's a very difficult task for the character artists to kind of tackle. So instead what we've done is, in order to facilitate a variety of cultural representation between the races but allow for the sharing of assets like different armor sets, we give different representations of those armor sets to each race.^[53] – Steven Sharif

Appearance

Alpha-1 female plate armor 3D render.^[54]

We want to be realistic with the application of particular types of armor, such as plate armor. In this regard for the different sexes there's a fine line that has to be drawn between accentuating the form of the sex as well as making it somewhat realistic and actually applicable to the environment.^[54] – Steven Sharif

Gear is intended to be realistic in appearance.^[55]^[56]

There will not be "oversized" weapons.^[57]
Armor will not be overly sexual in appearance.^[56]
I'm more of the mind that it wouldn't really serve a purpose to have bikini plate armor, just in like reality, if you're going to have armor, it should be protective. I think from a fashion statement is enjoyable for some people, but it's a kind of an immersive issue.^[55] – Steven Sharif
- Some armor and costumes will be more revealing than others, but there will not be nudity in the game.^[58]
There might be sliders, but there are not gonna be naked sliders.^[58] – Steven Sharif

Armor will take on a racial appearance.^[51] Weapons will scale in size based on race.^[52]

Each race is getting its custom geo pieces, which then will share thematic components such as color palette, attachments, design filigree. Those types of things will get shared across the geo but generally you're going to see unique races with unique geo.^[59] – Steven Sharif

Cosmetics can be used by all races but there may be slight variations to make them work with the body builds of each race.^[60]

Players can change gear colors using dyes.^[61]^[62]

Helmet display can be toggled on and off.^[5]

Hair will likely be masked if helmet display is toggled on.^[63]

Particle effects are used to denote the importance and rarity of some weapons.^[64]

Crafters are able to influence what their crafted items will look like.^[18]^[65]

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Weapons are able to be sheathed.^[66]

Appearance slots/Transmogs

Gear will have appearance slots (Transmutation/Transmog/cosmetic slots) that are used to copy the appearance of an item (in some cases).^[67]^[16]

There are rules when applying cosmetics to specific items, unlike costumes, which don't have level restrictions.^[68]
Cosmetic slots can be toggled on or off by the player.^[69]
A "default player appearance" may be automatically applied during sieges or other large scale battles to improve client-side performance.^[70]^[71]

Cosmetics, whether purchased from the shop or earned in game, are an important component of MMORPGS I personally enjoy; and there's a lot of collectors out there who spend a great deal of time either in-game achieving these things or spend money purchasing them from the cosmetic only marketplace; and we don't want to demean or reduce that achievement or that expenditure. So it's going to be situational where the default appearance will be applied and can be activated.^[70] – Steven Sharif

Attachments

Attachments are able to be unlocked as flair pieces to armor to create a customizable look.^[72]

There will be hundreds of attachments available ranging from a small clasp to the front plate of a breast plate.^[72]

Dyeable items

Dyes only affect tagged portions of dyeable armor or cosmetic items.^[73]

The dyeability of costumes depends on the specific costume.^[73]

Outside of wanting to keep maybe some identity from a lore perspective; for example if you have like a white lion's suit of armor, you may not want that white lion suit of armor to be black or blue. So, it's possible. It depends on the costume itself.^[73] – Steven Sharif

Backer only armor skin

All Kickstarter backers receive a unique armor skin set.^[74]

Modular armor

Kaelar base level Ashes of Creation Apocalypse robe set.

You can kind of start to see like some of the components that we put together that we can mix and match and kind of make new armors from. This is kind of like the base chassis for all of that.^[75] – Jeffrey Bard

Your base look for the character can be pretty boring, but what Steven gave us a challenge with from day one was to make sure even the base look, the t-shirt and pants, looked amazing... This is your zero character, if you will... Then you can go in and customize everything from the shoulder pads to the elbow pads, the belt that goes around them; do you want duel belts, you want to harness the clothes in the front. So every piece you see on here you can actually customize that at the front end. So what we do is we scale that up from zero, ten and twenty... We scale it up and we customize it; and then I want to really stress that each one of those looks as you progress is different. We're not just repurposing the same armor pieces. We're making unique sets that complement each other as you progress.^[75] – Mat Broome

Ashes of Creation Apocalypse will have three different armor themes: Plate, leather and robe.^[76]

You can actually have three different types of themes: You have plate, you'll have leather and you'll have robe. So for every armor set that we're showing at each one of those tiers, you're actually gonna have nine unique looks to pick from.^[76] – Mat Broome

Cosmetic store

Ashes of Creation cosmetic store.^[77]

There is going to be legendary cosmetics that can be earned and achieved in the game through the game systems, but that's going to take a significant amount of effort and work; and those cosmetics are going to be on-par with the cosmetics offered in the marketplace... What that does is it provides additional revenue to the company so that we can continue to fund the development of content as well and bridge the divide that not having a box cost would have and not having any pay-to-win mechanics whatsoever.^[78] – Steven Sharif

The Cosmetic store enables players to purchase Cosmetics for use in Ashes of Creation.^[79] The cosmetic store offers limited time, limited quantity items to help sustain game development.^[80]

Equitable cosmetics, both from a quantity and quality standpoint, are achievable through in-game means.^[80]
Nothing in the cosmetic store will be pay to win.^[81]

Nothing in our shop will ever be pay to win as we believe this practice greatly hurts the MMORPG genre.^[81]

Cash shop cosmetics will offer a diverse selection of unique looks.^[82]

I want to incentivize purchase in the cosmetic shop for sustainability of what expansions we have intended, since we are not a box cost. I want to incentivize purchase by offering limited items: limited time, limited quantity, so you have confidence that when you purchase them, they won't be offered later on in some other way.^[80] – Steven Sharif

All cosmetic store items will be non-tradeable.^[83] There will be no gifting mechanism for cosmetic items.^[84]

I don't want cosmetic items that can be purchased from the market to be transferable... because it is in a way a transfer of money for potentially something in-game.^[84] – Steven Sharif

Gear sets

Equipping the Titanbark gear set in Alpha-2.^[85]

We're going relatively traditional in the gear access points by being driven by level tier that players will have access to. So as you advance in your adventuring class you will begin to unlock the ability to equip gear of a higher level.^[15] – Steven Sharif

Empyrean tier 2 (level 20) early Alpha-1 leather armor non-cosmetic set 3D renders.^[86]

Gear sets (also known as tier sets) are a part of Ashes of Creation.^[15]^[16]

Different tiers of gear are accessible based on a character's level.^[15]^[16]
Players gain bonuses depending on the number of pieces of the set they have equipped.^[15]^[16]
- An overarching set effect is granted to wearers of exclusively one type of armor, for example: all cloth, or all plate.^[29]
- Certain set bonuses may trade off core gear stats.^[87]
- There may be set bonuses that members of certain communities will obtain based on gear set type.^[16]
There are passive abilities that can be chosen to become more adept with certain set types.^[16]
There will be viable non-set builds.^[87]
Racial appearance of gear sets is tied to the character model of that race.^[53]
It may be possible to store and swap gear sets with a single button press when out of combat.^[88]

Approximately 49 unique gear sets are obtainable in Alpha-1 from crafting, quests, drops and exploration.^[89]

These are unique sets with different stats, but some may be similar in appearance.^[89]

List of gear sets

Dünir tier 5 plate armor 3D render.^[3]

This is fully modeled and completed top grade armor and this is obviously a plate set that you're seeing. This is an armor set you can achieve in game.^[4] – Steven Sharif

In-game achievable gear sets.^[89]^[15]^[16]

Best-in-slot armor

Crafted items are best-in-slot in Ashes of Creation.^[90] Previously it was stated that crafted items will be on-par with best-in-slot items.^[91]
What is considered best-in-slot is based on a character's role and the type of monster they are facing.^[92]
Instanced content will contain scripted and difficult boss fights that drop gear, but the gear drops will not be best-in-slot. These can only be found in the open world.^[93]

Gear enhancement

Gear enhancements (power stones/runes) can be applied to weapons to add elemental or energy types of damage.^[94]^[95]

Gear enhancements do not increase an item's level requirement.^[96]

We are very likely going to have a rune system and then we'll have the ability to sort of enchant weapons outside of that too... That's not always going to be like a vertical progression... Some of it's going to be giving up something to get something else; so maybe I do less physical damage but more magical damage, that kind of thing.^[95] – Jeffrey Bard

Progression in various PvP systems will unlock enchantment stones that grant temporary PvP-focused benefits to gear (via a socketing system).^[97] Performance is measured over six month PvP seasons.^[98]
- Guild wars.^[97]
- Arenas.^[97]
- Caravan PvP.^[97]

It's not as though you're going to necessarily acquire these once and then you're set for your PvP enchantments, but instead you'll have to continually perform month after month in order to keep having those slotted enchantments.^[97] – Steven Sharif

Enchanting

Enchanting is not an artisan profession in its own right. Scribes create scrolls that can be utilized by different professions to create enchantments relating to that profession.^[99]^[100]

Enchantment scrolls can be sold on the open market.^[99]^[101]

Enchanting does not increase an item's level requirement.^[96]

You don't really push a particular item's level requirement or the identity of that item. You can enhance it, you can add enchantments to it, but it's still the item it is.^[96] – Steven Sharif

Enchanting weapons applies visual effects, such as glows and colors.^[4]

Switching gear

Weapon swapping in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse.^[102]

Weapon swapping (between equipment slots) is possible while in combat.^[103]^[104]^[105]^[106]

Swapping weapons (from inventory) into a hand or range slot is not possible in combat.^[103]
- Previously this was said to be subject to a cooldown period (in the range of a few seconds) following any damage taken or done by the player.^[107]^[108]

You can always hot weapon swap even in combat, but you can't swap your armor and gear. Nothing that's in a hand or range slot if you're in combat.^[103] – Steven Sharif

Players cannot swap armor while in combat.^[103]^[107]^[109]

Trading gear

Ashes of Creation concept art.^[110]

There will be player to player trading in Ashes of Creation.^[111]^[112]

Player to player trading, interacting with vendors or NPCs, and the ability to access storage is disabled for corrupted players.^[113]^[114]^[115]

Q: Will Ashes of Creation have player-to-player trading? Will there be anything stopping me from gifting a friend that's fresh to the game a bunch of in-game money to help them get on their feet quickly?

A: There won't be anything to stop you from doing that.^[111] – Steven Sharif

Sharing gear with alts

There will be a "comfortable" number of character slots available for alts.^[116]^[117]

Progression pathways in Ashes of Creation are per-character.^[118]
Gear will be able to be transferred between characters.^[119]^[120]
- Transfer of resources and materials to alts will only be possible via player housing storage, which is localized to a particular house.^[119]
Cosmetics can be reassigned to characters within an account, with a potential cooldown period.^[121]^[122]^[123]
Alts within a single account may have different professions.^[124]

There will be a comfortable level of character slots available to players because we are a subscription model game.^[117] – Steven Sharif

Item rarities

Item rarities in Ashes of Creation.

Legendary items

There is a small RNG chance of looting rare and legendary items or crafting materials from mobs based on the level, status and type of mob. This also applies to harvesting resources with a gathering profession.^[131]

There is a much higher chance that materials and unique recipes are dropped that can be used to craft items of equitable value.^[132]^[133]^[134]
Legendary equipment is only dropped by Legendary world bosses.^[135]
- Legendary equipment will have a roughly 6-12% improvement in base stats, subject to testing and balancing.^[136]

At each stage from Gatherer to Processor to Crafter you are required to have certain prerequisites before those elite types of materials can be essentially gathered, processed, or crafted.^[133] – Steven Sharif

Gatherers must have high quality tools to gather rare resources.^[133]
Processors must have high tier processing buildings on their freehold to produce rare materials.^[133]
Crafters must also satisfy certain prerequisites to craft legendary equipment.^[133]

The amount of effort needed and interdependencies across the different types of players – between raiders and PvPers and crafters and even role players and the taverns and businesses: the processors and gatherers – all of those systems will likely have a component that lends toward creating or crafting that legendary item... We want to stay away from the highly RNGd system, and instead take our multiple progression paths that we are offering the players and put the construction components for achieving these legendary items within them so it encourages communities to work together because it's going to be difficult for just one person by themselves to gather everything. Not to say that they couldn't in an economic sense, by buying those components, that's possible. But achieving them from a time investment standpoint we want it to be considerably less RNG focussed.^[134] – Steven Sharif

Certain legendary items may be limited to one per server at any given time.^[137]^[138]

If the player character leaves the server then the item will become available for acquisition through whatever means it was acquired previously.^[137]

There are absolutely legendary items and they're not items that are attained easily nor are they granted out in a volume. There might even be items that are single items that will exist on the server at any given time.^[138]

A legendary weapon is easily distinguished by its visual appearance.^[134]

It will be a very ornate and detailed weapon, more so than any other weapon or piece of equipment in the game. It will also include some awesome looking effects that won't too gaudy, you know they won't be too bright and shiny so that it doesn't look good, but they will be subtle and people will notice it and know wow that guy has this weapon.^[134] – Steven Sharif

Legendary items are not intended to be temporary.^[139]

A notable exception to this is Royal mounts.^[140]

The fact there is only one of them... or very very few of them depending on what it is. I think that in and of itself is a balance component right and you need to make sure that the players who are striving for those legendary things and who are devoting the time energy, resources in order to achieve them are accurately rewarded... We do not intend on having legendary items that are temporary.^[139] – Steven Sharif

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Discovery of legendary items will unlock further chapters of the Lore.^[141]