'Legendary' Shards

[Certon]

Dear FeatherofSun,

The loot system can be a bit insane and unforgiving at times, and I'm just talking about random loot atrocities (+1 Tempestuous light crossbow of a Thousand Suns, anyone?)

I am going to propose you a solution, Feather. One that I hope at least gives you an idea that would help create more useful random loot without inasmuch changing its rarity. The idea? 'Legendary' shards.

When loot is generated in a chest, at times, the generator often decides that a weapon will drop. It generates the type of weapon, then assigns it random applicable abilities at the CR of the chest or thereabouts.

My suggestion is to occasionally (a non-trivial percentage of the time--I'd actually prefer it to happen often) have the item that is dropped be a legendary shard. This is a +5 potential shard with all the abilities of a weapon which can be inserted into a Cannith Crafting blank which has no other shards installed. The shard would have a minimum level stat which would be transferred to the item it is inserted into, allowing the item to be crafted for the appropriate character. These shards would not bind (though the finished weapon would be BtA or BtC) and could be traded on the market, further stimulating the economy.

Example:

Old System: Fred the Barbarian finds a +5 Holy Silver Dagger of Greater Evil Outsider Bane. He cries a lot because IT'S A DAGGER. Such a rare combination on a useless weapon!

New System: Fred the Barbarian finds a +5 Holy Shard of Greater Evil Outsider Bane. Excited, he goes to the auction house to find a silver greatsword. He buys it, disjuncts it, and merges it with his new shard! Viola! He is the proud owner of a devil killing machine!

"But" you say, "how do we handle weapon specific prefixes and suffixes, like keen, impact, and precision? Easy enough. Based upon the combination of abilities, limitations as to which weapons these shards can affix to would be created.

Well, it's just an idea, but I think it'd improve game play and generate excitement over random loot once more.

[Certon]

/bump

Is this a HORRIBLE idea?

[psteen1]

/bump

Is this a HORRIBLE idea?

It's a fine idea. I will just never happen.

[fool101]

I agree with the above.

Two years ago this would have been a terrific idea and saved Turbine lots of time and resources developing the cannith crafting system.

With so much invested in that system now though, I don't think they would implement something that would require more time to develop, and compete with their current crafting implementation.

[TrinityTurtle]

The problem I see with the idea is that it would completely put crafters out of business. I'm aware that this appeals to some who hate the crafting, but others who like it and put a lot of effort into it would have a legitimate complaint if this happened.

[Eighnuss]

but others who like it

I can say with confidence that no one 'likes' it. It is merely the best/only way to create decent gear in this game for low and mid levels. People who saw this then invested into it so they could reach their goals. No one thinks crafting is fun. Any who say other wise have never actually tried to level up crafting, or have never converted greater essences into lesser essences. I've spent probably days of in game time spamming m1 over **** buttons in a **** interface my self to reach 110 109 91. I had even bound multiple keys, using third party software to simulate m1, so I could use 3 fingers to spam 3 buttons on the keyboard rather than dominating my mouse's m1 button. I can assure you, it is not fun in any respect and I dream about the demise of the man who thought m1 was fun to press.

[redspecter23]

I think the root of the problem is that a dagger (as well as a pile of other weapons) are either subpar or useless. To expand on the example in the OP, the barbarian might be a greatsword user, but if that dagger were a khopesh, he'd still be quite happy, even if he can't use it. Either an alt can use it or it's great trade bait. Make daggers more useful overall and you have more diverse weapon choices. Bits of the leaked enhancement update seem to be addressing this core issue. Hopefully many underused weapons will have more uses after that.

As to the suggestion of having certain weapons drop as "blank" shards, it's an interesting concept. I'm not certain if I'd be for or against. It would be up to the minor details. Drop rates can't be so low you never see them, but not so high that they flood player inventories. If the crafting system eventually evolves to include many high tier prefixes and suffixes that may serve the same purpose.

[Daemoneyes]

The problem I see with the idea is that it would completely put crafters out of business. I'm aware that this appeals to some who hate the crafting, but others who like it and put a lot of effort into it would have a legitimate complaint if this happened.

Crafters are already out of business.
We are almost useless in this game and it does get worse with each update.
Turbine maneuvered into a corner and got stuck, well actually its more like driving a car into a vulcan but people tend to say i am negative when i speak the truth :P

The system is to clunky, to slow, to bloated.
Combine that with -30% from AH and that you cant craft even half decent unbound weapons & items.
(without minlvl reduce they just suck compared to random loot and get pawned by named)
Which leads to totally overpriced **** weapons that i sell at the AH, not what i wanted to make for a living but as long as people are dumb enough to buy my **** i will continue to put it up for sale like Turbine.