One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor
After reading Zubon's, Suzina's and Sweet Cherrie's posts about Legendary Items, I'm reminded that one person's idea of joyful progression can be another's grind.
'Grind' is probably the biggest and most common complaint about MMORPGs. That must drive designers a bit nuts, because progression (real and illusory) are an important aspect of any RPG. An MMO without progression is likely to be criticized as a bore, but you cannot escape that someone will inevitably call your game's progression a grind.
The Legendary grind is an illusion:
That's been my subjective opinion, mostly because Turbine has dropped in a bunch of shortcuts to item leveling that almost trivializes the progress of any given weapon.
I'm not right per se, because ultimately nothing is inherently a grind, it comes down to each individual's perception. So whether the grind is as deep not as deep as people say, it's a bit moot. If it seems like a grind to them, then it is a grind for them.
I wanted serious progression in the Legendary system and I'm almost disappointed that it's too easy, too quick to almost max out the potential in the system. Part of that is due to the curve, because at some point the differences become small, making not much difference between a 'good' to 'great' Legendary.
It's also true (as noted by Zubon) that getting a great Legendary weapon is more about sorting through the trash caused by the random nature of stat generation. This part of the system disappointed anyone who was hoping to get 'One Sword to Rule Them All'. Instead of keeping a weapon as you progress, you're likely to disassemble dozens as you slowly upgrade.
Turbine is also being rather conservative on how powerful these weapons can become. Obviously they don't want Legendary Items to trump their content balancing, but at the same time, that reduces just how... Legendary these items can be.
I find myself at odds with some of the complaints though, because overall I love the Legendary system. Oh I can imagine ways it could have been better, for sure, especially with the toss-your-old upgrade paths, but this is what's in the game and rating it as-is: I'd say it's pretty good.
Just the aspect of having something to level once my character is at Endgame, that alone is a boon to me.
This sort of thing must drive MMORPG devs a bit nuts, because progression (both real and illusory) is an important aspect of any RPG.
May 16, 2009 1:22pm
"Instead of keeping a weapon as you progress, you're likely to disassemble dozens as you slowly upgrade."
Hundreds, the word you are looking for is "hundreds." Unless you get both good level 59/60 Third Age LIs very early, you will be mulching quite a few, then more for the relics.
If it actually were a legendary item that leveled up with you, where you had one or two across your character progression and chose how to level it, that would be something. As it is, you go through them like toilet paper, with convenient rolls of them just waiting in the Dolven-view.
The leveling itself is kind of nice, although taking an item to 50 must be a bit of haul. I like having extra numbers pop up after every kill. I do not like the randomness and continuous mulching of items.
May 16, 2009 10:33pm
Well the dozens I meant on choosing a decent weapon, but point taken and it's true especially with the relics.
That said, the curve comes in, because tier 7 & 8 relics aren't significantly better than tier 5 & 6 relics, but they take much longer to get.
I'm currently on an okay-not-great 2nd age as my primary weapon and my secondary item is a hard-to-beat-so-great-it-hurts 3rd age that I'm unlikely to be able to upgrade past for awhile. The sad part is that both are nearly maxed, so that fun leveling / dinging will only be on dissamble-material items for me for awhile.
May 17, 2009 5:12am
Hundreds or Dozens?
Unless you are one insane picky bastard, there is no way you are going to have to gun through more than 30 or so legendaries to get one with good traits.
On getting the slottables, I think it depends on your strategy. One way of doing things is to disassemble weapons as soon as you ID them. Another is to level groups of weapons to 11 and disassemble those. Disassembling weapons as soon as you get them is faster if you are willing to channel high intensity beams of money through the AH.
However, for most folks I would argue leveling groups of weapons is the best strategy. That's the approach I've used, and I doubt I have disassembled even 100 weapons so far. I bring in so many more tools and tablets than I need that I actually make a ton of money selling legendaries in the AH (a lot of those high intensity money beams are going into my bank account).