I think it'd be better to make health as a mechanic less important. I'd assume even if they halved HP items across the board, it wouldn't make armor or damage that much more desirable.

i dont see any problem with items, not even with hp ones

Another approach to this (from other team-pvp-games) is to look at the current spamming of abilities.

Right now, direct-damage, slow and stun are plenty, and with cooldown so low, one or two mana-items can make you use them as soon as the cooldown allows you. This makes inventory a split between basically hp-items (2-3; unbreakable, hauberk anyone?) and mana-item (1-2, faceguard, battlecrown anyone?). You can get speed from wand, and not lose a precious inventory-slot. This is basically the balance right now (no complain, just stating).

When it's possible to spam spells, hp becomes priority, so priority items either buff health to survive being focused, or mana to be able to focus. I'm not calling for a nerf, but this is why hp and mana is way more important than damage, speed and armor. Only late game when artifacts come into play, you can actually use normal damage, then armor too becomes important.

Instead of nerfing hp items (which would be a bad idea, since focusing would kill you instantly in for instance a 5v5) you have to consider the rock-scissor-paper concept of cooldown, spell-damage, mana, and hp (and possibly also damage and armor).

Or am I way out of line?

what i do doesnt matter with the balance of items

I think other items could use a buff rather then BoF getting the nerf bat.

How about does *anyone* ever buy scalemail, then?

I use scalemail a lot, and later i replace it with nimoth chest.

for 400gold, 600 armor, great deal and you dont lose much gold when you sell it later.

Whoah, great idea! I'm gonna go start a thread to discuss that prospect...

change function of wings of seraphim to "lose health regen effect if you ATTACK or use a SKILL".

cape of plentiful (think thats the name) - lower its cooldown.

so many favor items need buffs or changes in one way or another. ive only bought very few favor items leaving me with 20k favor points unspent. i just find that many r long term redundent.

HP items are not overpowered. In 3s a DG can end in 5-10 seconds already. If you're saying HP items are too good what you're saying is that fights currently last too long, and if that's what you think then you are mistaken.

Outside of 2v2s and 1v1s and HP items aren't a problem. If they reduced the HP of all the DGs via item nerfs they would have to add an HP flag in your base on every map that were intended for 3v3 and up (there effectively is one on Exile already).

You're really just underestimating the variety of favor items which get used already. These ones are used frequently:

• Blood of the Fallen (surprise!)
• Anklet of Speed
• Blade of the Serpent
• Staff of Renewal
• Heaven's Wrath
• Cloak of Night
• Horn of Battle (yes I realize it's inactive atm)
• Ring of Might (same deal as HoB)

Seriously that's not a bad variety at all.

These items get infrequent use:

• Blood Soaked Wand
• Amulet of Teleportation
• Poisoned Dagger
• Symbol of Purity
• Cape of Plentiful Mana
• Totem of Endurance

Does infrequent use mean bad/average players use them but experts don't or just that they have very specific niches? I don't know, but I have seen some of these items used to great effect.

The items that get no usage generally have very straightforward explanations:

• Charm of Life - Shitty version of BotF
• Sam-El's Cloak - Redundant with game mechanics implemented after its creation, ultimately a shitty version of the Anklet of Speed
• Essence of Magic - Incredibly shitty version of BotS
• Mard's Hammer - Not directly comparable in some ways, but still just a shitty version of BotS
• Furious Blade - Characters which benefit from autoattack cap out on attack speed late in the game if they get the items they need anyway. Ultimately a shitty alternative to BotS or Poisoned Dagger
• Totem of War - Shitty version fo Ring of Divine Might
• Pendant of Grace - Not directly comparable but it's generally worse than the HoB

Pretty much all assassin favor items are viable and many of the items which aren't used aren't used because they're worse than other items with identical or similar effects, not BotF. I don't see a problem with favor items that are worse than each other so long as they're also cheaper than the item they're worse than. Just because people who play a lot cap out on favor points doesn't mean that having a price scale is a bad thing.

Favor items by and large are fine and I think the ideal way to increase variety is to add interesting new items rather than nerf the most popular ones.

If you put BotF on the chopping block I guarantee Staff of Renewal, Anklets of Speed, and Cloak of Night will be next, and for me that would dramatically reduce this game's fun level.

TB Blade of the Serpent Scale Mail and Banded to start...

The biggest joke is the Footsoldiers Sabbaton. So fucking underpowered.

I mean, dps Items need a buff. If i have 1,5k Gold, I always buy Nimoth Chestmail. Nobody buys on this level wyrmskin gloves. They should deal +50 dmg all the time and not 15.

Of course, BotF is a little bit imba. But never forget: With banded armor, wehich costs 550 Gold, uhave nearly the same effect, only 400 hp less, but anyway, u got the regen and 400 hp...