Legendary Items + Consumable = Redundant?

General Discussion
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I’d like to start off by saying thanks to David Kim.

The recent changes to itemization are definitely a step in the right direction as I know most will agree. I also realize nothing is final and development is ongoing but I’d like to share some feedback for the current iteration.

From my understanding a legendary has inherent power that’s specific to that item.

That’s how they exist in DIII at least.

My concern is how legendary consumables will fit into this equation.
The system as of now feels convoluted because all items can potentially use legendary powers and legendary items are no longer unique.

Still I prefer the idea of consumables because it makes sense that “power” can exist outside of and unbound from items.

Moving forward I think it would make more sense if “legendary” affixes were limited to consumables only. Removing a item tier that redefine skills entirely would open the door for something far simpler.

Unique items in Diablo II had a significant purpose that worked really well. Rolls were fixed stats and special to individual items. They were very useful but not game changing or breaking.

Balancing items around this approach will let players experiment with existing affixes, skills and talents first then gradually adapt legendary power later after gaining more experience and consumables start to drop.

I believe this system will provide meaningful choices and enhance the aspect of loot hunting.

Collecting “legendary power” instead of items will change how players build.
Now slots are no longer predetermined and players have the freedom to apply their consumable to any magic or rare of their choosing. Customization that isn’t limited by the existence of legendary items and improved by uniques sounds a lot better.

Mythic items could function similar to unique items but allow players to harness more than one legendary consumable.

I think this direction feels grounded in many ways, but it’s just an idea.

What are your thoughts on the current systems? Blizzard is listening!

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I look at it less as a legendary consumable and more as imbuing an item with an affix.

5 Likes
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Instead of balancing an entire tier of items and allowing their affixes to drop they could separate the two concepts entirely.

I just think that’s more beneficial to character building.

4

exactly my opinion :slight_smile:
they should eighter just remove the idea, or remove the legendary items, as they are now and only keep the consumables

i would suggest, just bringing back the uniques from D2 with unique stats and affixes and just keep the legendary powers in the consumables

1 Like
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if they do that, realize they can no longer tailor item sets and have to assume in all cases that an item will be abused.

what i mean by this, is look at how many items have their power bound into rings. this is because you can only choose 3. so those powers can be really powerful with the idea you can only ever use 3. if you unlink the affix, suddenly you can use 16… and thus the item power needs to drop significantly. (or, the affix needs to be ring slot only, in which case, what is the point really?)

6

you can still limit the use of those consumables to 3 or what ever
someone also suggested, to not bind them to items but just straight to your character/skilltree

7

A simple remedy is baking requirements into legendary powers like the cube in Diablo III.

Weapons, armor, jewelry.

The point is as I stated. Freedom to choose what items to imbue without competition from existing legendary items.

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how many legendary items could you equip in D3? only 3?
i mean you could drop legendary items, no? could you not just equip them all?

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In that post I’m suggesting to actually make use of the point allocation in skills and talent tree to make builds possible instead of having “legendary powers or sets” like in D3 that make builds.

And leave gear for attack/defense/procs/etc… much more flexible.

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Totally agree with this sentiment. I would rather see unique items with interesting affix combinations then balance endgame around legendary consumables.

DII’s approach worked relatively well with runewords.

I liked that items were imbued with character skills that anyone could use.

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Both systems have merit imo.
They can keep the droprate lower for the consumables than the items. Something very late-game where you try to create interesting Rare items with legendary affixes. While the “premade” legendaries is what your build will primarily consist of.

1 Like
12

but it still gives this uncomfortable feeling that…the legendary is just a placeholder
thats my main concern about it
legendaries/uniques should not be a placeholder
they should have their own very unique special thing
and if its not that legendary power anymore, give them something else

1 Like
13

I definitely understand that, but the direction Diablo III took with legendary/set items makes me a bit skeptical with balancing.

Even DII struggled with endgame runeword variety.

The idea of legendary power is awesome I just don’t want them tied to items directly.

Unique items with fixed stats and special affix combinations feels grounded and would be easier to balance around other tiers.

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14

I hope they won’t make another PoE from D4. Item hunting > item crafting, imo.

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The best would be hunting = crafting = others activities. So you can choose your favorite and dont feel penalised, every options are relatively equivalent

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Maybe not equal exactly but there should definitely be endgame variety that promotes longevity.

1 Like
17

if they increase the power of angelic, demonic and ancestral unlocks on legendary items the legendary affix becomes a part of your total power… then just roll low amount or none of angelic, demonic and ancestral stats on it and each tier has pro/con…

18

What if, instead of dropping the consumables that contain legendary affixes, end game will drop a very-hard-to-find legendary crafting material. Then players can use crafting to extract legendary affixes from legendary items. In the process, both the legendary crafting material and the legendary item are consumed, to produce a one-time-only consumable.

This way, you still have to find legendary items first, and you need to think hard if your rare item equipped is BiS enough to sacrifice a legendary item for it.

1 Like
19

If I’m following you correctly you’re suggesting higher requirements for legendary items and no requirements for consumables?

Given the recent changes I would say that’s the direction developers are currently taking.

Interested to see how angelic, demonic and ancestral affixes will work exactly.

I had a similar thought exactly. It would make a lot more sense for power to be extracted.

If legendary items are indeed rare players will have tougher choices to make.

Sacrifices for power is a balanced approach in my opinion.

20

in which direction it could go is kinda open… one simple example would be…

-yellow item rolls 20 angelic stat and at 60 total angelic power unlocks 1 additional projectile

-legendary item rolls 0-5 angelic stat and at 60 total angelic power unlocks 2-4 additional projectiles

the thing is if you adjust the legendary powers without adding pro’s and Con’s either yellow or legendary items become useless… with this you have to use yellow items in combination with legendary items… it should also be possible to gain angelic stat by tree or jewel or gem…

that said no matter how they do it each affix fights other affixes and atm it would be legendary power vs angelic power…