Well, I disagree.
A legendary power does not has to be super powerful for the item to be interesting.
For example the affix on D3’s Ess of Johan. Yes, it could proc a bit more often, but something like that makes a legendary very interesting in my opinion, even if it is or would be not super powerful.
Let our mercanaries gear matter
I hope there will be no mercs in D4.
This. If we do have them, I’d rather not have to bother with gear. Worst part of the followers. Even their annoying banter was better than having to gear them out.
i like it 
because looting and gearing is, what i like about this genre
so when i play as a warrior, i am happy to have a use for a good magic staff that i dropped
You cant really say that a legendary affix is always worth 2-3 other affixes.
It depends on the build.
Maybe build X will have a weapon with a legendary affix that is super great, and easily worth 5 normal affixes. But in the helm slot, there are no good legendaries for that specific build, maybe the best legendary helm is only really worth 1 normal affix.
In that case, using a rare helm with 2-3 more affixes would always be better for that specific build. Which is fine. Just like it is fine that this specific build would always use a legendary weapon (or rare with legendary consumable) because the build was made to take advantage of that specific legendary power.
All in all, the balance between rares and legendaries, if you want such a balance at all, should not be seen on a per-item basis, but as a general balance for all builds and items. Some builds might be more legendary focused, others might be more rare focused etc. But if both kinds of builds are balanced with each other, then rares and legendaries are balanced.
I really hope we got mercs. I like them. More loot options, more build options (Yes, the more, the merrier!). Let them equip all the same item slots as our main characters
yea, thats what i would like to see
balancing them out so you can decide what you want to use for your build and not like “blue shoes will be BiS, orange weapons will be BiS, yellow helmets will be BiS”
balance it out and the players will decide what is best for their character
i was just using the 3 affix statement because blizz said it and its a number that you can build around in your itemization and evaluate how to balance legendaries to other item tiers
But that get to the legendary consumable. If rates are to have more affixes than legendaries, and you can extract legendary affixes and apply them to rates, it gives practically no choice but to extract legendary affixes and use rates since there would be no competition. Might as well scrap legendary items and just have rates have a chance to roll those unique affixes.
im still against the idea of legendary consumables
I also would be much more in favor of a consumable that can only be put on magic and rare items (but not legendaries, sets or white items), which adds another random non-legendary affix to the rare or magic item.
That kinda doubles down on the idea that rare and magic items are kinda like ‘affix-bombs’, while also letting legendaries keep their own identity.
I think legendary consumable is a great fix to an issue in Diablo.
If legendaries comes with pre-determined stats, it limits gear to the pre-determined path Blizzard decided (as is one of the issues with D3 Set items).
If a legendary with “Frostbolt has a chance to freeze enemies” or whatever, also has +5% crushing blow chance. Then you are pushing users down a path of using crushing blow, which then probably also means they want to use faster attack speed to proc it, as well as the ADA power that makes procs more likely. Creating a chain reaction of gear and skill dependencies.
At the same time, people like the idea of pre-determined stats, because it makes items more thematic, removes a bunch of RNG, and it also allows Blizzard to give players ideas in which direction they can use an item.
Having pre-determined stats on legendaries, but allow us to add legendary affixes to rares kinda gives us the best of both worlds imo.
you dont have to code legendaries with fix affixes
you can farm for them with your perfect preferred stats like you have to in borderlands^^
I’d be fine with totally randomized legendaries too.
But some people really want pre-determined stats. One of those times where it seems easy to make everyone happy.
Though in Borderlands you do have somewhat predetermined stats. The legendary affix is usually tied together with a specific dmg type, a specific weapon type etc., and some of the affixes also seem to always be the same.
yea but f.e. class mods can have a bunch of secondary stats and thats the thing that you would compare to affixes in diablo
life regen, shield size, shield regen, manufacturer damage, weapon type damage, grenade damage, ammo count, magazine size…
imo. you have to decide what you want to do
pure uniques with fix stats and no effect + legendary consumable
legendaries with fix stats, no legendary consumable
legendaries with random stats, no legendary consumable
but having legendaries with legendary effects and then allowing people to customize their own legendary rare items, kills legendaries
Same here, it seems to be a solution to a problem with a much easier answer.
Which answer would that be?
just make 1 of 2 easy solutions
legendaries and no consumables
uniques and consumables
I guess it would be a bit like PoE, where you add skills/modifiers to the items.
A consumable for legendary affixes that could be added to rares and uniques could work I guess. Certainly wouldn’t be my first choice though.
i am talking about the legendary consumable that blizz has planned
So was I.
Based on what you said previously I assume the uniques would be the legendaries without the legendary affix. Where you can then add a legendary affix through the consumable.
thats right
every item has its own unique thing and additionally you can craft on legendary effects