My idea for Class Specific "Legendary Weapons" and a way to keep more people interested long term.

x5ofspadez

Alright so I absolutely love this game, Been playing since release on Xbox and had the game purchased on PC since release, however there seems to be something missing in individual character progression.

Right now pre-DB you get a character to Vet 16 and you're done. Aside from Crafting, (researching) there is not a whole lot that is keeping me wanting to come back and play every single day as there was before. I believe that the content has gotten stupidly easy, and the feeling of progression has been taken away significantly. So, this is what i propose.

DISCLAIMER
I understand that this would take a long time to implement correctly, and that the balance and numbers I will suggest within should be taken simply as ideas and not as what I think should be completed items.

First off, these "Legendary items" would take up your weapon slot, You would have the choice to double bar it or single bar it.
They would have a sort of infinitesimal scaling to them, allowing for them to be upgraded beyond "gold legendary"
The weapons would have levels given to the quality that they currently are. For this example I will call the Weapons level "Legendary #"
A Legendary 1 weapon would currently be equivalent to a Vet 15 Gold weapon, with its extra bonuses. With the removal of VR ranks consider this artifact CP Rank 150, this could scale all the way to CP cap, and would be the only item in the game for each class that can scale in such a way.

Ideal requirements for receiving your legendary weapon. (OF course this is not a thorough list, I want it to be something to work towards, and not just have everyone have it day 1. It would probably need a more significant PvE requirement, however the only one I can think of is Tamriel Hero/Explorer. )
Must be Max Rank (Level 50) duh.
Must have all of your class skill lines maxed.
Must have completed your original zone with "Alliance Hero"
Must be at least an alliance rank of General to start the quest to receive the item.
Must have an Undaunted of 9 and have all the "Veteran Dungeon Achievements" and Normal Dungeon Achievements.
Must complete all of the Achievements for "Dark Anchors"

Attaining this weapon would NOT require the purchase of any DLC as it should be a base game update. However gaining new achievements can allow the upgrading of the weapons in the future. The weapon would be Bound To CHARACTER. Could not be banked, sold or traded.

Each class has 3 different specs for each weapon. a Healing Spec, A Damage Spec, and a Tank Spec. You may only own one of the three at a time, Choosing a specific spec would not tie you down to it forever, you could change it, however, when swapping between specced artifacts, you lose all current progress towards the next upgrade. The levels could never go down though, If you have a Legendary Rank 3 Healing staff, and you are almost to 4 but you decide you want to swap to a Tank spec, you do not start back at level 1, instead you lose all progress you have towards level 4.

Now the fun part in imagining how this could work for each of the classes so that it is somewhat balanced. (at least in my own mind) All Percentages should scale with the level of the weapon as a whole, so if it is 2.5% base, at level 2 it could be 3.5% or maybe 4.0%. incremental improvements but adding longevity to investing in that particular character.

Nightblades

Damage Spec. Would increase the damage done by the skill Veiled Strike (and its morphs) by 2.5% and adds a bleed over 10 seconds for the amount of damage that Veiled Strike's current tool tip states. While equipped the effect from Refreshing Shadows is increased in increments of 3% based on the weapons Legendary Level.

Healing Spec. Increases the Damage and Healing given from the skills Strife (and its morphs) by 4%. Funnel Health morph once again grants healing to yourself and 2 other targets. Swallow Soul now has the additional ability to heal one other ally, and has the Vitality increased by 4%. The Soul Siphoner Passive is increased by a total of 3% (scale able)

Tank/Mitigation Spec. The ability Blur and its morphs now also provide 2400 Spell and Physical Resistance as well as increasing the dodge chance from 20% to 30%. Resistances scale, Dodge chances do not. The weapon also passively increases all recovery by 3%. While equipped, using a class ultimate grants Major Protection for 12 Seconds, and Grants Major Vitality increasing healing received for 12 Seconds.

Templars

Damage Spec. Increases the damage done by Puncturing Strikes and its morphs by 2.5%. Also grants 6 ultimate (every 4 Seconds) Upon activation. While equipped the Burning Light passive proc chance percentage is increased to 40%. Ultimate gained and Damage Percentage scale, Burning Light chance does not.

Healing Spec. Increases all healing done with class skills by 3%. Once an hour, upon death, Call upon the Aedra to resurrect downed allies (in your Party) within 12 meters, and healing your allies (in your party) to full. Can activate this ability with a synergy for up to 3 seconds after death. As the user you can choose when this effect kicks in. Not just automatically. Note: In PvP zones this ability is restricted to a maximum 12 players.

Tank/Resistance Spec: Rune Focus and its Morphs now also provide 225 Stamina per second for standing within the Rune, or for 8 seconds after leaving it. Also increases the effect of Major Ward and Major Resolve by 10%. (5280 base is increased) While standing inside a Nova, Dragonknight Standard, Bolstering Darkness or Negate Magic, Decreases block cost by 8%, increases your damage by 8% and increases healing received by 4%. Does not scale.
This might be OP as hell but its what I could come up with.

Sorcerers. This is going to be the hardest one to take both Magic and Stamina users into effect with the lack of Stamina costing Damage abilities for Sorcerers. At the moment I am going to simply hope that C-frags gets a stam morph at some point in the future.

Damage Spec Crystal Shard and its Morphs now do an additional 2.5% damage and have a 10% chance to proc an elemental effect on the target. The Disintegration passive can now proc at 15% health and has increased damage by 35%. (Does not scale)

Healing Spec; Increases all healing done with class skills or class passives by 3%, Healing from pets is increased by an additional 4%. Overload Light Attacks now have a 4% chance to heal an ally for 50% of the damage done. While a pet is activated gain Major Mending for 3.5 Seconds.

Tank/Resistance Spec. Reduces the cost of Encase and its morphs, and Lightning Form and its morphs by 30%. While an ability from all 3 class skill lines is slotted, Stamina Regenerates while blocking at a 50% rate. (example if your recovery is 1200. while blocking instead of receiving 0 stamina while blocking. you gain 1200 every 4 seconds, instead of every 2 as standard). While this weapon is slotted reduces the cost of all class Ultimates by 20.

Dragonknights.

I am not very familiar with how the DK's play as a whole so I am not qualified to even give an opinion on what should be used here. I have only ever played one DK and he is still not even Vet rank, so If someone else wants to take the time to put something together that is in the similar format at the above I will be sure to include it.



Finally, Leveling up the Legendary Weapons would take a lot of time, and would be the final end game piece for every build ideally. I think that the leveling of the weapon would ideally have a UI similar to that of the Caldwells Almanac in that same section of the Menu. In my opinion it should take 4-8 weeks to upgrade a level on a weapon by consistent game play, (10-14) hours a week.

Some ways to advance the level of your weapon might be, Appear on any leader board 4 times (at the end of a cycle), and gain rewards from those events. PvP or PvE. Earn x amount of Alliance Points or a reduced number of Tel-Var. Complete all of the current trials on both normal and hard mode. ( would include checklist of trials and mode completed on)

Each event would be given a point value. And upgrading a weapon requires a certain number of points to actually upgrade it. This way PvP only players can earn their next upgrade by simply gaining AP and TV stones, however they could potentially earn it faster if they were to do end game PvE and vice Verse. PvE players can potentially never have to go back into PvP zones however it would be much quicker to complete the level by doing both!

Things like Becoming Emperor, Holding a #1 spot on a weekly leaderboard, Holding Emperor for an extended period of time, would all have increased amounts of points. However Holding emperor would have diminishing effects simply because of the possibility to abuse this system. Becoming Emp could only be counted once per level, To avoid Emp trading.


Alright I think that's about All i have for right now. Its long, probably some bad grammar in there. But if you made it all the way through this thank you for your time please leave comments on what you think and how you would see something like this holding attention and gaining popularity.

Steel_Brightblade

I like the idea, a bit like the epic weapon quests in Everquest in part. Making it both pvp and pve level able is a good thing though there are some pvpers that hate pve with a passion and some pveers that hate pvp, and those people will either not bother or complain about being forced into it continuously.

Only issues are see though are, choosing a type of weapon (relatively easy fix there though with more options) and this would make all other weapons in the game (except in the case of dual wield) completely worthless so no Max level crafted weapons or set weapons could really exist with it.

But overall a great idea, needs some little tweaks and refinements, as you said would take ages to implement, but would add a new dimension and additional longevity to the game.

x5ofspadez

Steel_Brightblade wrote: »

I like the idea, a bit like the epic weapon quests in Everquest in part. Making it both pvp and pve level able is a good thing though there are some pvpers that hate pve with a passion and some pveers that hate pvp, and those people will either not bother or complain about being forced into it continuously.

Only issues are see though are, choosing a type of weapon (relatively easy fix there though with more options) and this would make all other weapons in the game (except in the case of dual wield) completely worthless so no Max level crafted weapons or set weapons could really exist with it.

But overall a great idea, needs some little tweaks and refinements, as you said would take ages to implement, but would add a new dimension and additional longevity to the game.

The way i see this working is that really only the top 2-5% of players would be able to obtain it within decent amount of time. As far as weapons are concerned. I would see it being a Destro/2H for Damage in all classes except NB which could go with Dual Daggers. Healer Specs would get a restoration staff. and Tank/Resist Spec would get 1H/S.

Meta changes quite often. this would make the most committed of players even more committed to their class/build. But could also allow for some changes.

As far as which weapons and sets one could use, I see this somewhat like how the Master/Maelstrom weapons enchants work. The ability that the individual weapon offers is an enchant, As an owner of A Legendary weapon, you would have the option to either keep the enchant or toggle to a set currently being worn. It wouldn't remove the enchant forever but would be a way to make it more viable in multiple builds. My Magic NB's dont use Concealed weapon. But if i got extra damage on my legendary weapon than on a regular julianos Destro I would rather use this Weapon. There would be a toggle that allows you to choose which set the weapon was apart of, as long as you are wearing at least one other piece in that set.

Enchant gets removed, you get a toggle set piece but only for a set you're already wearing.

Somewhat of a transmog idea, but with sets.

The other option would be that you have to remove the legendary enchant, but can switch it to a specific set. You can buy the enchantment again, but Only for that specific weapon. And the price would be exorbitant like 500k for the enchant
.

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO

They wont be able to use the term legendary weapons. Lord of the rings online already has "legendary weapons" Im sure they would probably sue over it.

That being said it isnt a horrible idea. I just would like to see them be truely rare weapons only obtainable after a long time.

vontariel

I don't like this idea at all.
First of all it will introduce another way of power creep to the game.
Secondly, you are locking yourself completely to one spec and for long time. Appearing 3 times in LB could take at least 2 weeks (weekly +vMSA). It makes life for tanks and healaers even more difficult since they would not swap builds for that time.
Thirdly, you pidgeonhole people to use certain abilities whether they like them or not. I'm strongly against homogenisation of builds.
Fourthly, what will be weapons type and skill choice? Once again you are pidgeonholing people to certain builds. And also, some bonuses are not viable for some builds. Eg, for bow you would rarely prefer to buff melee or magicka based skill.

x5ofspadez

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

They wont be able to use the term legendary weapons. Lord of the rings online already has "legendary weapons" Im sure they would probably sue over it.

That being said it isnt a horrible idea. I just would like to see them be truely rare weapons only obtainable after a long time.

I know they wouldnt literally be called Legendary Weapons. But its to get the point across. Thats the idea. I would like these to be top 2-5% of all players having this.

vontariel wrote: »

I don't like this idea at all.
First of all it will introduce another way of power creep to the game.
Secondly, you are locking yourself completely to one spec and for long time. Appearing 3 times in LB could take at least 2 weeks (weekly +vMSA). It makes life for tanks and healaers even more difficult since they would not swap builds for that time.
Thirdly, you pidgeonhole people to use certain abilities whether they like them or not. I'm strongly against homogenisation of builds.
Fourthly, what will be weapons type and skill choice? Once again you are pidgeonholing people to certain builds. And also, some bonuses are not viable for some builds. Eg, for bow you would rarely prefer to buff melee or magicka based skill.

vMSA isnt the only leaderboard in the game. PvP for each Campaign, Weekly Trial, VMoJ VMA. Thats 4 at least and of those 4 Healers and tanks can easily get on 3 of them. They can get into VMA with a simple Armor Change for Healers, Tanks, are slightly more hassle.

Im not planning on homogenizing any builds. Lets just take the very first one as an example. NB Damage. Veiled Strike. I personally do not use the skill. but the extra damage that the weapon itself provides, plus recovery, would make it better than almost anything else.

The idea is to use the most common DPS skill in the Damage tree, if you use it great, if not then re-enchant it with a different enchant or use poison. the Damage will still be higher on the legendary weapon after 2 upgrades.

As far as weapon types are concerned. Destro/2H for damage, NB can get daggers. Healing Resto and Tank should be 1h/s. Now hypothetically speaking. this wouldnt be perfect for everyone. But thats part of the option in this kind of game.


PS To clear things up a bit. I want to see the weapon be hard to get, even harder to upgrade, but when it is finally upgraded, its worth the wait.

NewBlacksmurf

Nice idea.

This is me tho. I think the removal of VR should remove VR.

And use CP to create a "legendary" state and incorporate some of your ideas. This would be cool.

If ZOS would remove the Cp player and NPC level experienced on PTS and use level 50 on player characters and levels 49-56 on NPCs but keep the cp on the items for progression this would align well with your thoughts I'd imagine

WalkingLegacy

So many games have "legendaries". Lord of the rings doesn't own the word. Neither does WoW or Diablo or Borderlands, etc.

I like the idea though OP, I just prefer nothing be tied to the Champion Point system.

x5ofspadez

I totally agree with you. I do understand as far as gear is concerned why it is how it is.

The could have been a little more creative with it. Maybe making the gaps for the CP ranges be twice as big. Who is really going to upgrade gear every 30 CP? thats like 2 hours of normal questing at most. When you start to get CP..

I do think the CP level is almost required, the way gear works currently, but wouldnt mind to see a change to it as well.

Aimora

They did something like this in Lord of the Rings Online, but their implementation was terrible.