Does anyone feel Legendary items have fallen behind?

[The_Cannibal]

I only ask because after the addition of new crafting tables I have picked up items (ie Commanders chestpiece) and thought. I can make better.

Has anyone else thought this?

Is it time to buff the old legendary items a bit?

[Sera67]

Legendary doesn’t always mean end game, Just named item.

Quite few that drop early, and are by no means “godly” Most are just good starter-mid weapons. Thou few of Easy Boss like Hyena at Dogs of Desert base, drops a Maul which is fairly nasty.

There really shouldnt be a huge gap from crafted in Legendary.

[Pugilist]

" Does anyone feel Legendary items have fallen behind?"

I would say that, with very few exceptions, most legendary items are nice to haves but are not game changing items.

I prefer that.

[Croms_Faithful]

Agree. Legendary Items should be the undisputed superior weapon class in the game. The reason is the risk, reward, time factor. Legendaries require killing powerful bosses, overcoming rnjesus, and drops cannot be reliably replicated through such outcomes or farming. We are also burning through healing resources and taking durability losses to other items obtain them. Then there is the time investment needed for farming them. Now compare these factors to how long it takes to mass produce say Dragonbone weapons without even leaving the safety and comfort of our base, assuming one had gathered materials beforehand.

For me the bottom line for me is that Legendary Weapons should outperform craftable, ie-mass produceable, ones.

[Twitchy]

In my personal opinion I think it is time for funcom to sit down and rebalance weapons and armor in general. Especially after all the recent changes to crafters and such.

[darthphysicist]

I think they may go this route… certain changes imply it.

[Kapoteeni]

@Sera67

Legendary doesn’t always mean end game, Just named item.

Good point, and I like the idea in general. Having “unique” items at earlier levels, balanced to be good (but not overpowered) at those levels gives a sense of getting a special reward, which is a welcome feeling for beginning players as well.

Although many games use the word “legendary” to refer to top-tier items, it doesn’t have to be that. If a “legendary electric cattle prod” is just a better version of a regular electric cattle prod, what’s so legendary about it? But if it’s called “Prototype A.C.M.E. Thunderbolt” with some flavor text (referring to a wily coyote, maybe), it feels like it’s something special, even if it has the stats of a level 20 electric cattle prod rather than a level 60.

In other words - I think legendary items should feel rewarding for the effort it takes to get them regardless of level. So a legendary item dropped by the Imp King should be rewarding for early-level players, whereas a legendary dropped by the Red Mother should be rewarding for max-level players.

Also, a legendary item does not need to be the best at everything. A legendary weapon could have lower damage than a craftable weapon, if the weapon has other special qualities in return. We’ve had good examples of these kinds of effects with e.g. Lifeblood Spear or the Nemedian. These items are often more interesting than just a “+6 Longsword”, even if they’re not necessarily stronger.

[Khaletohep]

Balancing legendary dropped weapons and crafted weapons is difficult.

Legendary weapons…
… often require a lot of luck or lots of farming to get a specific weapon to drop from the loot table,
… can be found quite early/easily by beating or exploiting certain easier bosses,
… are in danger of trivializing early content if they are very powerful,
… lead to balancing problems if they are very powerful, but require luck or possibly endless farming,
… make killing bosses feel useless if dropped weapons are not powerful enough.

Crafted weapons…
… are relatively reliable to get, barring Isle of Sitpah rng recipe generation,
… require materials to craft,
… are often level-locked due to the required crafting feats,
… get much better with the right thralls, which adds some random element, but much less so than with legendary drops,
… thus are much, much easier to balance, as they can be tied to the level and effort required to craft them.

To bring this under one hat is impossible, or at least difficult. So, we should accept that any solution will leave room for criticism.

My personal suggestion:

• Allow legendary, dropped weapons to be upgraded via the crafting station to slightly above equivalent crafted weapons.
• Tie this to feats, materials and so on as with crafted weapons.

Alternatively, legendary weapons could scale with player level, feats and recipes automatically. However, that solution seems more complex to implement and less immersive.

[Twitchy]

To possibly add to this, maybe have a feat that allows legendaries to be combined with something else to create a “blueprint” that the player can learn and then be able to craft that legendary. That way it doesn’t affect finding a random legendary early game while also allowing that some legendary to be churned back out in the late game as a piece of high end gear.