[To Balance Random Loot] Give us a little more open choices on skilpoints.

[Zenas]

The basic idea is good, I admit. However I do not think this exact implementation would give balanced results. Mostly because you can obtain stat numbers on dedicated characters that will be far higher then we currently have. Which as said, will end up making most if not all of the game a lot easier. No, I can't see this be a good way of doing it.

However, a good example for this that might be looked at as a base, is Reforging from WoW, changing 40% from one stat into another. Of course, only as example.

Something that might be interesting, is the ability to swap the amount of stat points between 2 skills. So For example you find an item with several really high stats, its really good, but has negative tower attack rate. Why not swap it with that really high movement speed as it hardly benefits at all after the initial 100 points? Of course, only one stat can be swapped at the time, so it is still entirely dependent on the item used, and in my opinion, better balanced, as it does not allow you to create outrageous numbers.

[Chaoslux]

Two things here:

You need to try and think as a game desginer, and not as a player.
The difference being that Trendy needs to find a way to bridge the gap. "We need to find a way to smooth out the progression." vs "Trendy needs to make the game easier for me"

But to give better feedback, your idea has merits, except its WAY too convenient. It needs to be on a 10:1 ratio (10 points to get 1 skillpoint) to make it less of an impact to specialized players, while still giving you a "slight boost". In the previous 6000 points. This is the difference between a 600 points increase vs a 2000 points increase. At this point, it looks somewhat more manageable, but would still very much be exploited to create very specialized characters that can only do one thing, but do it great.

The ideas Zenas presented are far more interesting. We could go on a Reforging way where you get to say, transfer 30% of one stat to another existing stat on that gear. (Yes, i did lower it on purpose), or you could transfer it into 60% of a stat not found on your gear. For example, a really great item that has high tower health, high tower range, high tower speed and no attack at all, but it also contains really high hero attack. You could suddenly make use of that piece of gear!
I acutally like the 60% to inexistant idea better than the 30% to "stack it up even higher". Because we're back to a scenario that seems to "force" you to stack up a certain stat to really high potentials.

The other idea of switching 2 stats is a pretty interesting one and while it does let you increase a stat you want to stack for example, it doesnt have the problems of the previous solutions for the reason that the stats do not become higher.
Say some gear quality cant go over 300 in a single stat. And can only have up to 1200 total stats.

1) Using the 1:3 transfer idea from OP. We just need to find a 300 stat item, then we can pump it up to have 600!
2) Using 1:10 transfer, we find that 300 stat and we can turn it into 390 stats.
3) Using the 30% reforging idea, we could turn another 300 stat into a 400 stat.
4) Using the switch, No matter what happens, you can get an item with the 300 you want, it cant get higher. But it would make the difference between farming 20 hours for THAT specific 300 or farming 8 hours for -a- 300 stat to switch.

3 of those scenarios creates items with Above-The-Cap numbers, which is the issue that leads to specialization being too powerful.

[The Ich]

I don´t like the idea of getting skill points from items which have just high stats but I agree to the point, that the skill-point system needs to be updated. 120 per skill is meaningless with 2k and higher stats.
There are other ways to improve the progression, for example: better rewards for beating something (challenge, boss fight ...) or move the drops of a wave number "n" to "n-1" or "n-2".

[imported_some_guy]

My issue is making the game a joke to end game players.

I think the it would help newer players and is a good idea.

What's the problem with making it easier for endgame players? They're already beat the game and usually aren't so much playing it as they are just farming the same maps over and over again for a piece of gear that might be just slightly better than what they have now.

It's only natural that the people who have put 500+ hours into the game find it too easy and I don't think they have much of a reason to complain.

[Chaoslux]

I think the it would help newer players and is a good idea.

What's the problem with making it easier for endgame players? They're already beat the game and usually aren't so much playing it as they are just farming the same maps over and over again for a piece of gear that might be just slightly better than what they have now.

It's only natural that the people who have put 500+ hours into the game find it too easy and I don't think they have much of a reason to complain.

The problem lies in the fact that new players normally look toward endgame players to "learn to play". Newer players generally try to have one hybrid character that do dps and put down towers. As they get much higher, they find out "Oooh, so i can switch in between waves and should have a tower and a dps guy!" and they start doing that. Soon after, they probably level a monk to put down auras. Because it helps them and having an array of characters is what endgame people do.
If such a system was addded, the players that are newer and also the players that have less time would go from:
I need a Tower Guy and an Aura Monk.
To
I need a Tower Health Guy, a Tower Attack Guy, an Aura Monk and a Casting Rate guy.

Or however crazy it turns out.

If Trendy is to implement something to help newer players, it need to be something to bridge the gap or make loot slightly less of an issue (ie: Swapping two skill numbers to allow a bit more flexibility), without giving endgame players the potential to turn the game into an even more complex system for an "easier gameplay" because you can be sure as hell that people would do it.

Here's a completly crazy idea to get the idea across:
If Trendy made it so that when you are naked IRL, your towers do 50% more damage, you would see people going "WELL IF YOU ARENT NAKED, YOU MIGHT AS WELL NOT PLAY AT ALL". Regardless of how retarded and/or disturbing they would look if someone were to check on them.