Just logged into the PTR to see if they affected the legacy seasonal Bindings of the Lesser Gods. Usually a legacy item retains their legacy property since they have a unique item identifier. For new updated item properties, you would normally have to get it in a new release as a drop, rendering the older item legacy.
Not the case here. Seems the removal of the “Split Fire Allies gain 5 times this bonus” is global to the entire game, including the transferred seasonal gear (now legacy). As OP and broken as that bonus was, it would have been nice to retain it as a Seasonal artifact and fun to play (like a bonus for those who played the season). Similar to the days when the legacy Cold dmg Frostburns could still co-exist uniquely after a seasonal upgrade and could be worn at the same time as their newer incarnation (cubed) . As it was mentioned in the PTR release notes, this is Just a heads up on the status of the legacy Bindings for those wondering. Game on.
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I thought that wasn’t possible, or maybe just not done, allowing us to keep our legacy versions if we wanted to.
This may be the first time, however, where the legacy item is at least 5x times more powerful than the new version. I think it’s kind of a jerk move on blizzard’s part, but I see why they would do that.
The legacy Bindings does not have that 5X power now … Its also has changed to the legacy legacy Bindings aka before the Bindings has that 5X power
Nerfs tend to be retroactive, the change to the Furnace comes to mind.
Whether it’s a nerf or buff is irrelevant. The legendary items contain a reference to an external function and its RNG value which together form the legendary power. If neither the reference nor RNG value is altered, the change can always be retroactive. The BotLG change was one of these cases, the extra 5x modifier to Fire Allies was not stored in the item data (the reference or the RNG value), it was stored in the external function.
The Furnace change is a rare case where the item was completely changed. It’s harder to do because it effectively requires going through the entire user and character database and editing each individual item. Changes similar to BotLG are much, much, MUCH simpler to do than people think.
Not really though, if an item is buffed legacy items doesn’t matter so they don’t bother, if the original item is vastly superior to the post patch version they have always changed it retroactively. Whether it’s easy or hard doesn’t seem to play a part in that policy.
The change to Ring of Emptiness was retroactive and effectively a buff. Thus buffs can be retroactive as well, it’s not always nerfs the only retroactive change.
My main point was just to remind that changes to legendaries can be retroactive depending on what is changed. If the reference or RNG value remain untouched, the change can always be retroactive. Obviously this is typically used for nerfs but there’s nothing stopping these types of changes being used for buffs too.
As I already mentioned, the 5x to Fire Allies was not stored in the individual items but in the external function. Thus it could be removed easily and there’s no alteration to the individual items. They could just as easily add it back without modifying any item directly.
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