It’s a simple question, really. But after having it on my mind for a long while, I want to discuss it in more detail.
For starters, how many items can you look at in the game, and say: " Oh yeah, I might feed that to my pet. "? It’s probably not many.
There’s three major issues I’ve noticed that have caused a lot of items to be worthless to feed. Those being a general lack of feed power, the difficulty to obtain them, and their rarity. So I’ll be going into all three of those in detail. ( A lot of detail, cause I’m very wordy. You’ve been warned. ) As well as the biggest offenders that have all three issues, and what could potentially be done about this issue. Note that I do understand the concept of wanting to deter players from feeding certain items.
I wrote this thing in one big spree by the way, so there’s any point where I contradict myself, or just say something stupid. Please inform me.
( Note that using Enter to create separate lines seems to break collapsed sections, so bear with me on the lack of paragraphs in these. )
A General Lack of Feed Power
This issue is most noticeable in tiered items. Take Wine Cellar Tops for instance. The weapons have 450 feed power, the armors have 435 feed power, and the abilities have 380. When on Earth would you ever be in a position to feed one of these things? The feed power is so negligible that they’re likely not going to help any pet that’s past Uncommon. Not to mention if you have enough of these things to want to feed one in the first place, odds are you have a lot of items that are better to feed. The Lost Halls tops aren’t much better. Both sit at 650 feed power, and the Unbound Rings have a disgustingly low 325, which is even more worthless. The only people who would likely have a steady stack of these things probably have fifteen something 8/8s, countless UT items which are better to feed, and a pet that’s probably maxed, or reasonably close to Divine at least. Under no circumstances are these things actually useful to use as feed power. It’s not just the tops that are the offenders here though, it’s literally every single tiered item in the game. If you’re in a position where this kind of feed power is actually useful, why not just grind Mixlcoatls drops? The staff alone is worth 320 feed power, making it an incredibly easy to get, accessable, and useful item to feed. I have fond memories of grinding these things out to feed my common and uncommon pets to fuse back in my red star days. Why can’t other items be like this?
The Difficulty to Obtain Them
Endgame items are the biggest offenders here, without a doubt. And these also fall under the rarity issue, but we’re not quite there yet. The only endgame item I’d even consider feeding would be the Omnipotence Ring. And even then, I’d have to at least have a few spares to do such a thing. Most endgame items sit in the 1,000 to 1,500 feed power range. Which isn’t horrible, but it’s by no means good, either. The same argument applies here, how many of a certain item would you need to have to consider feeding it? And would it even be worth it to do so? Feeding prices aren’t cheap by the time you get a Legendary pet, and I’ve seen a lot of people who simply don’t have the fame to feed their pets. So now you’re stuck with the choice of keeping another spare of your item, or blowing the likely amount of either 350, or 1,000 fame to feed it. The worst part about this is how good most of these items really are, which makes their feed power even more useless. For just a few examples, Stinger is the only real dagger that pierces both enemies, and defense. In the same dagger. Hivemaster just offers even more DPS than tiered helmets, and grants Curse to Mystic-less groups. And I think you all know how good The Shatter’s rings are. And this isn’t the only issue endgame items have, which brings me to the third point.
Their Rarity
Their rarity, oh dear, their rarity. It shouldn’t come as any form of surprise that endgame whites are annoyingly rare. Even during events, these things can be a pain to acquire. I mean, heck. My account’s over seven years old, and I’ve only ever gotten one Shatters white. That’s hardly fair. But the fairness of their rarity isn’t the topic at hand here. It’s how you get rewarded for it. Getting the items by themselves generally makes the grind feel worth it. But that’s exactly the issue, the grind. It can take a good while to build a reasonable stack of endgame whites, and even then. How many people are going to feed such items? Practically nobody. Why would I feed my rare Magical Lodestone with 1,000 feed power, when I can grind the much more common Coral Bow that has 1,200? The Coral Bow itself is the biggest issue with whites, and their feed power. The problem isn’t that it’s bad, it’s that it’s good, and nothing else follows its example. Thessal is by no means difficult to defeat with just a few good people. And you can get an item that’s not only a really useful bow, but also has a feed power that’s high enough to be used. And at a respectable rarity. Now take the Void Entity. Literally the most difficult boss in the entire game. Capable of killing any player, no matter how strong, and no matter the group, easily. And how much feed power do its items have? 1,000 at worst, 1,500 at best. And boy howdy can they be rare. What’s the deal with this? Was the feed power made this abominably bad just to discourage us from ever thinking about feeding these items? If so, let me tell you. They did a good job at it, cause this is awful.
The Worst Offenders
Event Whites, and Shatters Whites. These two groups of items are without a doubt the worst offenders of this. Because they heavily embody all three major issues. Let’s start off with The Shatter’s whites. All three have 500 feed power. Are you kidding? Is this some kind of sick joke? As previously mentioned, this is practically worthless to any pet above Uncommon. I’d sooner toss one of these things than actually feed one if I had that many. There’s not even anything more to go into here, it’s just that bad. Now Event Whites. These have varied feed power, ranging from 500 at worst, to 1,300 at best. Again, is this some kind of sick joke? Only four out of thirteen event whites have a feed power in the quadruple digits. Being Ogmur at 1,000, Tablet at 1,100, Jugg at 1,250, and the Cloak at 1,300. That’s about 30% of event whites, and even then, this is awful feed power. Event whites are some of, if not the rarest items in the entire game. And easily can take the longest amount of time to obtain. And as such, should have feed power that really reflects that. Would you even feed the amazing event whites like Ogmur, if they only had feed power superior to an Ambrosia? I certainly wouldn’t, unless I somehow had quite a few extras. It’s just too rare. So, what? Are event whites just destined to never be fed? Well, that brings me to my next point about them. Their feed power should scale with their usability. While it’s somewhat like this already, I definitely wouldn’t put the Cloak of Bloody Surprises above Ogmur and Jugg. Everybody knows that getting a Ray Katana isn’t nearly as eventful as getting an Ogmur. Just cause it’s nowhere near as good. So there should definitely be a discrepancy in the feed power because of that. Even lesser event whites likely wouldn’t be fed despite the feed power, because they’re still rare, and usable. This is coming from someone who got four Kageboshis after they were made into event whites, by the way. If Kageboshis had say, 2,000 feed power. Would I have fed at least of them? Absolutely. The feed power event whites should have is by no means an easy number to uncover, but I believe that something can be done.
What Could Be Done
I personally think that Mixlcoatl’s Necro Set and Thessal’s Coral Bow are an example that should be followed by most, if not all items. As in, having enough feed power to where you’d specifically grind the items to feed them. Or enough that it’s a genuine option you consider once you have a duplicate or two. I mean, it’s not like this would be an issue. Pet food with good feed power gets handed out on the calendar all the time. So they’re clearly not uncomfortable giving us some feed power to work with. Why not a little more that we can work for ourselves? F2P pets are a serious pain once you get to the Legendary stage, even with the holy grail that Coral Bows are. Most people know that. Yet there’s such a huge power difference between Divines and Legendaries, and it’s heavily gated off by microtransactions. Giving us a little more to work with to grind to that spot would be really nice, honestly. I’m not quite sure where event whites and endgame items should sit, honestly. They definitely need to be high, event whites especially. But putting everything at a perfectly fitted level of feed power that puts them how I described would definitely take some thinking.
TLDR Version
Tiered items are completely worthless due to their low feed power. As well as their rarity and difficulty to obtain at higher tiers. Mixlcoatl’s items are just outright better to grind and use as feed instead if you really need it. Endgame items are too rare, difficult to obtain, and generally useful to justify feeding, even with duplicates. Especially Shatters rings. The Coral Bow sits atop a throne as the best renewable UT item to feed in the game. Due to its balance of feed power, difficulty to obtain, and rarity. Event whites also have far too little feed power for their absurd rarity, and likely won’t ever be fed with intent to boost your pet. Even with a significant boost. Just cause they’re too rare. Because of all that, all items should follow something similar to Mixlcoatl’s Set, or preferably the Coral Bow. As in, you grind them out specifically to feed, or feeding is a genuine option once you get a duplicate or two.
