How to fix, unbreak, or properly nerf legendary greensteel.

[Wierdattacx]

Okay, so by now everyone knows that legendary greensteel is so ridiculously overpowered that all named loot that came before it is now completely obsolete and running the quests to get everything else at that level is now pointless. Epic necropolis, thunderholme, haunted halls, Storm Horns, Wheloon, all now pointless. Here are some suggestions that could make a proper place for L greensteel and keep your other packs alive and worthwhile to play.

1. Increase the minimum level of L greensteel items to 29 and up. While this does not keep with the heroic greensteel trend of being able to use it at lower levels (11 & 12), it would allow all the gear that has been created in previous packs that go up to level 28 remain useful and worth building.

and/or

2. Seriously nerf L greensteel. If you look at heroic greensteel you'll see that it wasn't giving us +10 stat items at level 11. The max it gave was +6, which you could find on other items at level 11. What made greensteel awesome was that it consolidated item effects for us that would usually have to go on multiple items and then gave a few special effects. For example a common item, lets say Mineral 2 bracers, gave a stacking 45 hit points (special), heavy fort, (findable at that level) protection +5 (findable at that level) +6 to con skills (special but balanced to level 11), and could cast stoneskin twice per rest (doable with a wand or the spell).

This mechanic freed up body slots for other cool items but wasn't giving us superpowers that made the game a cake walk. If properly nerfed a legendary Min 2 may look like this. Stacking 100 hit points (special), Fortification 150% (findable at level), Protection +10 (findable at level), +15 to con skills (special but balanced to level) and can cast something new like greater stoneskin twice per rest.

Another commonly used example: Heroic Lightning 2 greatsword: 3d6 base damage (only slightly higher than regular 2d6), +5 (findable at level), 1d6 shock (findable on other items), Good burst (rare but level appropriate), Shock blast and lightning strike (both specials). If I wanted a stat on that weapon I could get Cha or Dex +6, not higher. An appropriate legendary equivalent would be as follows.

Base 4d6 X 4 or 4.5 (slightly higher than thunderforged), Shock 4d6 (findable at level), Good burst (scaled up: 4d6 per hit + extra on crits), shocking blast scaled up to level, and then a special such as summon lightning storm or something cool like that. If it did have a stat on it it would be around + 10 or +12 depending on the minimum level of the item but it would not exceed that which could be found on an individual item at that level.

These changes would make legendary greensteel still awesome while allowing the previous content to remain useful and the adventure packs containing them, those mentioned before and others, would remain worth playing.

Now a word about the new random loot generation system. It needs a serious nerf as well. Yesterday I saw a min lv 4 item with a +6 skill and a +7 skill on it. You all can do math but everyone knows that +11 skill items should not be usable at level 4. Special effects should also not be found on random loot that was previously on named items only. Assassinate bonus, combat mastery, insightful and exceptional stats, sheltering, all should be taken out and made exclusive again. Having them just everywhere takes the challenge and thrill out of finally finding the named items that have them.

[Kristii]

Do it. Absolutely right.

[PsychoBlonde]

You are aware that HEROIC greensteel items can have +6 base, +1 exceptional, and +2 insight stat on them? So, yeah, it DOES have nearly a +10 stat boost available.

Personally, I find Legendary greensteel underwhelming. It is primarily useful for casters (who needed the boost, in a lot of cases). The stat boosts are weapon-only, which means you can have 2, maximum--1, if you want the heal amp. Kinda sucks for SWF and THF, and handwraps people are just screwed.

Best general bennies for non-weapon items are still the HP, SP, and skills (big surprise) which are nice but hardly game-breaking. And they're tainted, so you can only wear one of them, anyway.

Dunno what the major effects are going to look like, I'm assuming they roughly reflect the heroic bonuses, in which case I may be making an HP and SP item for my main. Eventually.

[janave]

The blank is not really OP at 26, esp considering that pug normal Shrouds can fail now

I'd simply suggest that each Tier Augments Slotted raise the ML by 1.

T1 => 27
T2 => 28
T3 => 29

Clicky would be an exception, as they are kinda "meh" anyway.

ThunderForged should be still superior in cases where DR breaking is a thing.
ToEE Stuff is already a TWF only thing as far as i am aware.

Aside: Heroic GS was massively OP at its time .