I was thinking about a possible addition to the crafting system after replaying D2:R.
The current implementation of legendary potential for uniques to turn them into legendary items is quite nice but sometimes even an LP4 unique is not that enticing because of the low values of the implicit of the unique base item.
For instance, an LP4 Prism Wraps is theoritically very interesting but it would generate a legendary leather coat which would remain with a very low +25 armor …
If there was a way to craft-upgrade a leather coat Prism Wraps into an arcane regalia Prism Wraps that would be very enticing endgame gear chase crafting optimization.
Of course I imagine that it create some very OP combinations and it should remain a very endgame gear upgrade and not something you would do before the empowered monoliths for example. Also it should have some steep falure chance like the upgrade of the base could decrease the LP of the base unique item so a LP4 would be down to an LP3 or 2 or directly delete the LP of the unique potentially.
I think Uniques/Legendaries are fine. I wanted this idea for Set items because they need some love. Imagine upgrading a Shard of the Shattered Lance from a Broken Sword to a Crystal Sword or a Katana.
It’s funny that you used prism wraps as your example as that is one of the exceptions of the “Low level high LP” rule. Prism Wraps is such a strong unique that it’s difficult to get above 1 LP on it.
I think the currently implementation is good and if the bases for uniques were improvable it would absolutely break the balance with LP. I could easily see builds only using upgraded 1 LP uniques as it’s basically a free affix slot.
Also as a note, there’s no way they’ll add anything that causes a failure chance after what they learned from their first crafting system. Items breaking or something failing to happen is just a feels bad moment.
Exactly; turning some 1LP uniques into something useful would be a plus for the game overall as for a lot of uniques even 2LP is just not interesting enough.
And when it comes to a breaking system, just losing LP is not a break per se since the unique would still be useful with the upgraded base implicit. Also, I feel like losing forging potential on a good item is still more a “feels bad” moment than getting a good base uniques even without LP. After all you loot so much uniques that ultimately even some 2LP can be right now be sold directly to the merchant without a second thought.
I just feel like the base upgrade would never be worth the 1 LP trade off, and if you were to leave the chance that the LP stays on the item then that’s an even worse grind than we have right now with moments that will cause frustration.
I would rather see more implementations of the way some of the current uniques work where there is both a low-level and high level variant of the unique with the base improved, but the LP Chance is affected as well.
