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Legendaries need a new direction


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As we know legendary weapons (as well as armors and trinkets) are to be pinnacles of gear we can equip both visually and fuctionally.When it comes to functionality i give it 8/10. The idea of free stat swapping instead of making it a bigger stick like in most MMORPGs is pure genius and my hat's off to a-net for it.Missing points are for how it lacks quality of life features such as being able to slot full runset in one go if you have full lege armor on you, as well as legendary weapons missing the non-destructive upgrade removal feature of armors. And the aurora visuals you can't turn off:/

But as for visuals.....sigh....a-net got a waaaaaaaaay to go, to the level of "legendary" i expect from this game. All these joke, gaudy or too netural weapons just make me release sigh after sigh and hope for a change...but ok i'll be more precise:

The good:

  1. trasformations (The Shining, Juggernaut, etc). Not disco fiesta, but tasteful, and interesting changes either to weapon or the wielder.
  2. unique thematic effects - like chuka and chumpawat shooting tiger projectiles and leaving claw marks as footprints
  3. legendary journeys to aquire them

The bad:

  1. King Kong sized weapons - we really don't need our scepter to look like a hammer to convey it's a legendary...
  2. Generic crafting with no proper journey to it (hi everything past chuka and chumpawat)
  3. Trying hard to make legendaries profession or lore-agnostic (i'll forgive the very few epic ones like chuka and chumpawat or twilight)

How i think legendary visuals should be:

  1. Evolving - journey of a legendary should not only be one of acquisition, but also one of growth and unlocking it's lost or unrealized potential.
  2. Going past weapon itself - each weapon can have it's own unique take on that - visually enchancing or unlocking new effects or gear pieces for your character
  3. Customizable - once certain visual aspects are unlocked, it should be under your full control if you want each of them displayed or not.

Example:

Greatsword - the Gravestone

A dark, eroded slab of rock covered with few withered runes and clearly a blade of a greatsword lodged into it. The handle protrudes from the piece of stone, wrapped in old, dark bandages, while itself adorned with graftings of skulls and undead along it's handle and guard.

Wielded animation:

The stony coffin which embraced the blade explodes and falls apart, as the tattered, chipped, dark metallic blade is exposed. There is a dark smoke effect along it's edge and small black sand particles seem to fall of it, feint, dark, clearly weakened yet visible runes glow along it's edge (runes being small, not taking up it's whole space).

Unlockable animations as you progress in awakening the Gravestone

  1. Blade restores lost and chipped fragments to it's former glory.
  2. Runes on it's stony sheathe are restored, each giving a visual effect for a piece of armor that can override your normal one. These pieces of armor are wrapped in dark, ancient, partially untied bandages, emanating dark aura and dripping small streams of dark sand. It's fully your choice if you want this "dark armor" to replace your own choice for each unlocked rune and corresponding armor type.
  3. Enemies slain by the gravestone are withtered and petrified into granite colored dessicated corpses
  4. You will now shadowy footprints that make area affected darker, more monochromatic and have small shadowy grasping hands effect.
  5. Upon mastering the weapon you get to choose if you want the stony coffin to still embrace the blade upon stowing, or to wield it as a normal greatsword fully exposed. Before the power was too dangerous, now you are capable of keeping it in check.

This is an example of what i would consider a legendary weapon in gw2. One that not only takes you on a journey of creation, but also on a journey of mastering it and it's effects, which exceed just the weapon's own visuals. Then you are given full control over which ones you wish to make part of your look and which one you'll subdue for a given look.

Maybe even introducing small dye channels to the weapon, that won't however break it's initial look & feel - like dye channels for the small runes along the blade, that will always be bleaked out and less saturated then the color chosen to keep the theme of death, ghost and withering that the blade represents.

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The journeys for legendaries were stopped due to needs being met elsewhere. To quell the uprising we got craft able legendaries with high mat cost and no story. It's was the best we could hope for. While the stories were very nice ( especially chuka) I can see that due to numerous bugged events based arou d these journeys that they made the right decision.

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Normally I would agree with you, but since you can buy gold with real $$ and buy your way to your legendary, at least most of it, and if these new legendary effects and affixes increase your power in any way, I don't want it.

If I can spend real dollars on an item that grants me the ability to do XYZ in game that someone else otherwise couldn't, especially if those abilities are power increasing in any way, nope. That creeps into p2win too much

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@"cesmode.4257" said:Normally I would agree with you, but since you can buy gold with real $$ and buy your way to your legendary, at least most of it, and if these new legendary effects and affixes increase your power in any way, I don't want it.

If I can spend real dollars on an item that grants me the ability to do XYZ in game that someone else otherwise couldn't, especially if those abilities are power increasing in any way, nope. That creeps into p2win too much

Actually my proposition counters what you just mentioned. S1 legendaries can be bought. S2 crafted with enough gold in it, save the initial 4 that requires doing their journey.

But imagine we get S3 ones that follow the pattern i suggested.Not only is their acquisition "journey-bound", but then their looks on your character are a proof of how long you have one and how far you've taken it. I never said unlocking legendary full visual feature set is a 2 day job.That would provide that much needed bragging rights for those who view legedaries as prestige "earned, not bribed" weapons to show off and be proud of!

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