Add Shield Upgrade Components

One of the greatest things about GW is the way upgrade components can turn a plain 'white' weapon into something useful. In fact, only one of my 4 chars has even a single gold weapon, the others are all combinations built up with components.

But shields are frustrating...you have to find the exact one you want, which is almost impossible. The most valuable shield I have is not even a blue...but it has quick recovery from blind, which is FAR better than any other property.

So I'd like to see the ability to modify shields with components in the same way as weapons.

Alternatively, if you could increase the damage/AL of items...

This is an okay idea, I barely see any warriors with shields, so this could probably make shields (and swords/axes) a little better. Then again, I have had my ass handed to me by good axe/shield warriors before, so maybe it's not needed.

This would be game-breaking and make warriors godly, along with increasing grind for others to obtain those items, so should not be implemented.

Alternatively, if you could increase the damage/AL of items...

I expressed this badly...I meant that if I find a neat sword that is not max damage, I'd like to upgrade it up to (not above) max damage stats. Same thing with the AL of shields. That way, if I find a cool crystal sword with low damage, I could make it useful.

Ah, in this case, you make a good point. I've found so many eternal shields with 14 or 15 defense and either terrible or nonexistent mods, and the same goes with the "stylish" weapons, such as fellblades, storm bows, etc. It would be nice if you could combine items of the same type or something of that sort to give them a slight increase in stats/mods (though not over the maximums.) I don't know... on the other hand, this could have a huge impact on the economy, as the only real point of even buying a weapons or shields is for looks, since stats are already covered by collectors.

Best shield I have is a Gold Tower Shield, 16 armor, 9 Strength Req., and +40 health while enchanted. I like the idea of shield upgrades, but if they do that then why not upgrades for Canes and Wands as well?

Yes, yes and yes.

If the top level items are not supposed to be Uber, then everyone should have access to them, who has reached a certian point, Finding a shield in this game is a matter of luck, and grind. If players shouldn't have access to these items till a certian point in the game, they should be kept from the player until that point.

Perhaps an off hand customizer, at the last mission. Make items customized for the player(no loading low levels with Top level Gear), and expensive (gold sink).

Maybe, the level of customization could be based on experiance. After 750,000 or so all customizations are available?

Rather than upgrade coponents, why not have:

Upgrade quests!

Complete the quest to bump the stats of a weapon to max. This process customises the weapon unfortunately. Several of these quests can exist, and will bump whatever mods are on a weapon/focus/shield to their maximum. The quests should be difficult and scattered around areas, and they should be repeatable, as people change their builds. It could be a 6 person quest in an 8 person area to make it tougher for example - at the end you hand in your 14-26 flatbow, with a 3:1 vampiric and +3 AL and you get a 15-28 with 5:1 vampiric and +5 AL, but customised to you. Make it more difficult (or impossible) to get components out of customised weapons and you eliminate too much impact on the grip/string/etc. market.

It would also maxise the innate stats on a blue/purple/gold weapon - so if you had a +11% while over 50% it would be boosted to 15%, but if you had no mod it wouldn't add one.