Guild Wars 2

Legendary items differ greatly between game franchises, but a lot of stale ideas seem to resurface. Long grinds, significant crafting costs, and RNG tend to be the biggest frustrations. Occasionally, games will tie essential components to difficult to clear content, even if it becomes “farmable” later on.

Whether the legendary items themselves are “better” than the alternatives or simply attractive aesthetic options, the name would imply the completion of some gargantuan task.

Is it possible that Groanar Splitpaw is a legendary Charr because he personally scavenged fully 70% of the precious metals used to construct the Black Citadel? Maybe. Perhaps that kind of dedication to scavenging could be rewarded with legendary components.

Is the Countess Emilia Hollern a legendary human because she amassed thousands of gold, and her family bankrolls Divinity’s Reach? One could argue this kind of “legendary” achievement should come with its own legendary rewards.

But for most players interested in “adventuring,” (I would wager to say almost all…), these kinds of achievements seem decidedly un-“legendary.”

Legendary items simply should not be for everyone. Making them excessively expensive or time consuming alienates players, and perversely rewards automators. Possessing a legendary becomes less a sign of prowess, and more a sign of persistent, boring, and not necessarily attentive play.

I believe that the task should still be herculean. There ought to be a significant cost (I don’t think the current model is far off). However, completion should require some sort of quality gameplay. Perhaps requiring a token obtained from the head of your home city after completing ALL available dungeon paths. Or requiring the completion of particularly challenging jumping puzzles. Perhaps PvE content exclusive to the crafting of a legendary weapon.

Legendaries should feel legendary because of what you’ve accomplished, whether it be as a scavenger, an investor, or an adventurer. They should not be tied to luck. Not ever.

The base weapons themselves should be only marginally more difficult to obtain than most exotics. Ideally, the item could be put to good use while the player seeks to strengthen or enhance its magical properties over the course of the legendary construction process.

Presently, I believe there are not significant “legendary” challenges that appropriately reward “legendary” gameplay. Furthermore, I believe that the system of randomization should have long since become ancient history, and solely serves to detract from what should be an otherwise fun, if arduous journey.

I would propose the following amendments to the legendary crafting process:

Firstly, legendaries should begin by being “unlocked.” I believe that the following requirements should be completed for “unlocking.” 100% World Completion, 100% Personal Story Completion. 1000 Kills in WvWvW. This would prompt a quest to approach a Legendary scholar, who-your reputation preceding you-believes you worthy of seeking out artifacts of great power.

(To start your next legendary, start from Step 2.)

Secondly, you are tasked with collecting the essences of beings of great power in the realm. This requires you to complete ALL paths of ALL dungeons, with an ancient relic in your inventory. Completion of this results in a charged relic (Your legendary base weapon).

From here you seek to have the resurgent artifact reforged. This requires the collection of a variety of components (similar to what we have now), as well as the mastery of at least one trade skill. Once the components are assembled, the weapon is reforged in body.

You must now christen the weapon in blood, empowering it with each felled foe. 1,000 kills of Silver portrait mobs or other players in WvWvW will satisfy this portion. (PvP players rejoice!).

You are now presented with the final task of collecting the blood of the world’s dragon foes.

After bathing the reforged weapon in the blood of the dragons, you return to the Archivist of Legends who aids in the completion of the Legendary weapon, to much fanfare.

High and Low, all rejoice, and the player can then move on to the next legendary item immediately, once again collecting essences from the bosses of every dungeon path.

Time sink? Check.
Money sink? Check.
Compelled into experiencing all dungeon content? Check.
Higher difficulty bar? Check.
Greater Lore? Check.
Improved “Legendary” Experience? Check.

Thoughts?

Ideally, there would be an additional “Challenge” component, but I don’t know what I would recommend for that as of yet.

Sounds good but a lot of people will have issue with the getting 2000 kills in pvp.

And of course the fact that there is actually only 1 dragon we can kill right now. Zhaitan. Unless you mean the lietenants, Claw of Jormag, Shatterer, and that Sunless fellow.

I love the idea !

it is a name and colour that makes it legendary and legendaries should be for everyone, I dont mind that 100 people around me use the same greatsword from CoF, I enjoy my graphics no less than before and I dont see a reason that other people should not be able to parade with legendaries and enjoy them – considering that greatswords look amazing I think it would be more than a waste if only 5% aquired them, 95% should have them and simply be happy

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/legendary
Definition of legendary:

Of or pertaining to a legend or to legends.
Appearing (solely) in legends.
Having the splendor of a legend; fabled.
Having unimaginable greatness; excellent

You would need a wierd imagination if you think a huge amount of grind or rng is legendary.

I may not know what makes an item legendary. But what I do know is that grinding for hundreds of hours to buy a precursor weapon off the market like a common loaf of bread or throwing hundreds of weapons into magic blender in the hope that it will shoot out a precursor isn’t legendary.

Some good ideas here. I would only say that the 1k WvW kill should have an alternative at both phases for those who simply do not want to partake in WvW.

“http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/legendary
Definition of legendary:
Of or pertaining to a legend or to legends.
Appearing (solely) in legends.
Having the splendor of a legend; fabled.
Having unimaginable greatness; excellent”

Huh, says nothing about having to be unique or extremely rare or available only to a select few…

Who would have thought.

I like the ideas put forth here too. But as others will have voiced,
what about those whom do not favor PVP.

To answer the OP —-- Luck!

The only thing that makes it legendary is luck. And the devs are “monitoring” the price yet they seem to be okay with making their game require no skill for the most sought after items in the whole game. They seem to be fine with the fact that only people who are “lucky” have them.

Archer.6485:

“http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/legendary
Definition of legendary:
Of or pertaining to a legend or to legends.
Appearing (solely) in legends.
Having the splendor of a legend; fabled.
Having unimaginable greatness; excellent”

Huh, says nothing about having to be unique or extremely rare or available only to a select few…

Who would have thought.

Fabled – Well known for being of great quality or rarity; famous.

Agreed. I personally thing they should be a sign of your achievements in game, rather than a sign that you’re lucky and good at grinding.

Although, before you start your Legendary, I think that you should be required to show that you could handle it.

Having Max Tier for the Weapon Master, and then killing a Veteran / Champion with only them weapon’s skills (and a heal) would show your dedication to using that weapon, and that you know how to handle the weapon effectively (one-handed and off-hand can be used as a set, as long as the weapon you’re aiming for is used).

Achievements are already nicely divvied up:

- Killing a certain amount of each enemy earns Gift of The Slayer
- Emergency Response Hero, Dungeons Discovered and Survivor earns Gift of the Hero
- Tier 2 for WvW Achievements (aside from Stonemist – only T1) earns Gift of the Mists
- Hobby Dungeon Explorer and Jumping Puzzles earns Gift of the Trailblazer(?)

Combining these gives you Gift of the Pinnacle, when combined with a named Exotic (same skin for Greatswords i.e. Naegling gives Dusk, Khrysaor, the Golden Sword gives Dawn) gives you the pre-cursor, and then it goes onto the process you outlined.

Or something like that.

It still doesn’t say that it HAS to be rare or that more of them would make them not be legendary anymore, as is the argument with some people.

For those of you who remember the scepter chain from WoW vanilla, that was an Epic quest.

I like this idea, and it is 10 times more FUN than the MF slot machine game. Didn’t they say that when they put something into the game, they always ask, “Is this FUN?” I doubt the MF is anything but fun. It feels that the thoughts that on to the precursors were a bit rushed.

Killing a 1000 champions and weapon mastery are great as well!

The current system of getting the precursors is actually good. It maintains demand for rare (yellow) items and it’s keeping ecto prices from falling even more. Do we really want rare items to be as worthless as greens/blues and ectos as cheap as certain materials? The only problem with the current system is that the chance to get a precursor has been set way too low. The drop rate just needs to be increased significantly. That way, it’s not too much of a strain to obtain it via the mystic forge. The supply will increase and it will be a heck of a lot harder for groups/individuals to control the precursor market since an increased chance might motivate more players to use the mystic forge, spreading the supply across more players and continuing to maintain the value of rare items.

I am actually against decreasing the rarity of the precursors.
I just believe there are other more “fun” ways/systems in getting it them without decreasing the rarity on them.
Right now, the way you get them, you are just stumbling into them. It feels like “meh”, there you go, a precursor for you.