Legendary Items - What We Know So Far

AndrewTilley · October 25, 2021, 1:38am

I’ve collected all the information I could find about legendary items and placed it within this post. As more information becomes available about legendaries I’ll be sure to add it here – at least until its own dedicated developer blog is released. If I’ve missed anything please let me know and I’ll be sure to include it.

I’ve also created similar threads for the following:

Here is what we were told about legendary items in the 0.8.4 & beyond dev blog:

https://i.imgur.com/URjA7Z2.png

Since then Mike has answered various questions pertaining to legendary items during the dev streams. I’ve gathered all these below – transcribing them to the best of my ability, but I’ve also provided links (if the dev stream is accessible on their YouTube channel) or timestamps (if the video is still only accessible on Twitch) for all the content if you’d rather watch Mike answer them.

October 8, 2021 Developer Q&A Stream - YouTube

October 15, 2021 Developer Q&A Stream - YouTube

October 22, 2021 Developer Q&A Stream - YouTube

Q: What are the high level design goals for legendary items?

A: High level design goals for legendary items would be; something to strive for – something where you know there’s these high level, really powerful items that you can deterministically get. Like given some sort of – okay, deterministically is possibly a misleading thing there – but where you have some agency over how the legendaries you’re getting…so you can target certain legendaries. That’s really important. Having them be less reliant on just here’s one individual drop – something so that you’re less reliant on a single individual drop to get this really amazing item. Legendary items are what you’re striving for, they’re what you’re pushing for, they are really, really good.

However, in order to make something that powerful and that good we kind of need to have – it either ends up being one drop…like okay, you got that one in a billion drop and OMG you’re suddenly zero to sixty rich, type thing. While it is really great to have those drops, we’ve made legendary items a bit of an important part of itemization, in general. So it’s really important to be able to have a little bit of control over which ones you’re getting and be able to work towards them in pieces.

A really good example of this is the pandemonium event in Diablo 2. In the pandemonium event you can find keys that are rare drops from specific mini-bosses and you can combine those keys together to access some very difficult bosses that then drop organs which you can combine together to fight the hardest content in the game. It’s these stepping stone moments – once you’ve found the pieces that drop you can then combine them together to make the thing that’s really good, and you have a little bit of control over that.

This is going to add a little bit of that to the game. So you’re completing specific events to combine these things together in such a way that you are creating a better item. Yeah, I guess those are the high level goals for it.
Source: YouTube Link

Q: Can we get a legendary colour reveal leak?

A: Nah, because it might change. It’s not set in stone. I have to tell you guys things that are actually going to happen the way they are because if I say something like, ‘it’s probably going to be this way’ and then it changes slightly…I don’t know what happens but there’s this game of telephone that happens. I see people in chat that say, ‘oh they say this is going to happen’ and I’m like I know what you’re referring to and I definitely didn’t say that. So I got to be careful and just say things that we’re more confident in.

But like, we don’t plan to change the colours of other things and there’s only so many spaces in the colour spectrum to put another item type so you guys can probably – not the exact hex code – but you guys can probably get pretty darn close.

I could see us changing colours of secondary items. So what I mean is that we’re not likely to change the colour of common, magic, rare, uniques, or set items.
Source: YouTube Link

October 29, 2021 Developer Q&A Stream - YouTube

November 5, 2021 Developer Q&A Stream - YouTube

November 12, 2021 Developer Q&A Stream - YouTube

Q: Are legendary items going to get legendary skins and not looking like a normal item?

A: Yes. Immediately? No. We want every items 2D and 3D art to match, but it takes a long time. We’re not going to hold up item creation to wait for the 3D art creation. So what this means is, as always, we will get more – and I want to be clear as well that a lot of the, basically all of the 3D item creation…well, 90% of the 3D art creation pipeline has been used on creating all the base types in the game. So we’ve got this huge array of base items that all need to get fresh 2D/3D models. So we’ve been going through those and we’re pretty close to done going through every base weapon in the game.

The team that’s working on all of those, they’re not just going to stop there. They’ll just keep going and start working on other items that need them, and the next items that’ll need them are uniques – and just more of everything…more base types, more armours, more uniques. All of these things they’re just going to be getting more and more and we’ll be creating those 3D models for them. We’re also ramping up that pipeline as well to make it a little bit bigger. Quality is also the most important thing with them. We’d rather them come a little bit slower and be better than them all come at once and need to be redone down the line.

But yes, eventually each legendary item – ohh, I don’t want to say each and every single one as there might be an exception to this – the majority of them will have gorgeous looking skins so they look pretty…and match their 2D art as well. There’s way more legendary items coming in this patch then we can make models for in a single patch cycle. There’s just no way we can do them all at once. I know I’ve eluded to how many there were before and I think people didn’t quite believe me with how many there are – there’s a lot.
Source: YouTube Link

November 19, 2021 Developer Q&A Stream - YouTube

Q: Are you guys happy that loot is entirely craft based (beside uniques)? Or do legendaries change this subject a bit?

A: Yes, legendaries do change the subject a bit. The overarching design goal here is to have all main types of drops be useful in some way. So like…is it a legendary? Is it a unique? Is it exalted? Is it crafted? Is it whatever? The goal is to have them all be relevant in some way for leveling your character and designing an endgame character.

So I hope – and actually expect – that post-patch that there will be in peoples loot filters at least some of all of those categories of items. Well, there’s not a lot of set items so some builds don’t use any set items so maybe set items won’t be as much. We are wanting to add more of those and get them more relevant for endgame stuff, in general. Most builds will eventually have them in the filter I’d say. I would kind of put set items and unique items in the same category as far as like “successful if they exist” type thing.
Source: YouTube Link

Q: (Continued) What I meant was that I would like to simply find an item and use it as is from time to time.

A: Oh I see what you’re saying, so just have things be out of the box good. Yeah, that definitely is the case or will be the case sometimes. It’ll definitely be more rare that you do nothing to it. Like most of the time you’ll want to do something to it. Whether that’s just some fine tuning or what not, but most of the time you’ll have to do some little stuff to it.

I could see some set items, for example, being no fine tuning required. Set and unique items right now are just you find them and play them. There’s nothing to do on them at all. It’s possible to find an exalted item that’s just right that you don’t need touch it. Because the crafting system is so – I don’t know what the term for it is – so specific, deterministic, easy to use, fruitful…I don’t know exactly the right term I’m looking for here, but because of that it is difficult to find items that need no attention at all.

I think it comes down to dropping items that you know are going to be at least useful or good or exciting. It’s having that moment of ‘oh my God, I just dropped blank!’ With the crafting changes, along with the legendary updates as well, both of those things are going to introduce more of a ‘oh my God I just dropped a blank…that’s so cool!’
Source: YouTube Link

November 26, 2021 Developer Q&A Stream - Twitch

Legendary Items & Eternity Cache Dev Blog

EHG_Mike · October 25, 2021, 2:15am

One mistake I know I made in all that was the minimum number of affixes. Right now it is possible to get a 3 affix legendary. Only one of them and you’d have to intentionally do it.

I double checked and the max right now is 12 on one specific legendary.

Tibone · October 25, 2021, 3:37am

Sounds like the intentional bad rewards you were talking about from dungeons

Llama8 · October 25, 2021, 7:40am

Which peopel will complain about.

EHG_Mike · October 25, 2021, 8:35am

Nah, it’ll be fine. It’s not like you are being forced to pick a bad blessing or something. You would really have to try to make a 3 affix legendary. You would know for sure that it was happening before you start.

Llama8 · October 25, 2021, 9:16am

May I introduce you to the internet? People will complain about anything and everything. And I’m British, I’m good at complaining!

So the Blessings have sometime to do with Legendaries?

Shtrak · October 25, 2021, 9:45am

As a French guy, please permit me to laugh!
No, sorry, we should never laugh at beginners, we should encourage them.
Keep it up!

Llama8 · October 25, 2021, 10:05am

Just because I’m too polite to complain out loud doesn’t mean I’m not complaining in my head. Out loud I’ll be tutting disapprovingly while frowning because this is the proper thing to do. Not everything has to involve screaming at the top of your voice & getting all emotional.

I’m certainly not waving a white flag while eating cheese.

Maelstromicus · October 25, 2021, 10:22am

My interest is definitely peaked, and the game does need more things to chase once you get to 100 with most of your blessings done.

The only thing that concerns me from the sounds of the legendaries is the possible introduction of a starting point of power creep.

Right now the balancing between what is available, high corruption mobs, and survivability is very well balanced imho. I trust that a lot of thought and testing has gone into introducing more powerful items without an equippable limit.

Introducing things with increased power without counter balancing could start us on the slippery path of constant “patch tinker balancing”, and most of us have seen what that looks like in another popular arpg.

Tibone · October 25, 2021, 1:27pm

I think he was more making a joke. That we will have to intentionally work hard to make a 3 affix legendary. Unlike blessing were we are forced to pick one that may be bad for our build .

Vekongnitoo · October 25, 2021, 9:27pm

Wxcuse me but what do u mean by game is perfectly balanced? Some builds can reach 800coruption some can barely sustain 100, some can speed run through maps killing everything with huge AOE, others have only few targets on their disposal. Did i miss something here?

Maelstromicus · October 25, 2021, 11:28pm

I never said it was perfectly balanced. I said I thought it was VERY WELL BALANCED, that is not the same thing. I’m not sure if you are asking a genuine question, or trolling, so I will give the benefit of the doubt here and attempt to answer the perceived genuine question.

I don’t think in a complex game where players can choose their builds there is ever going to be such a thing as “perfect” balance. All the devs can do is make what they perceive to be a collection of average/common builds and balance those against the incoming damage; and I think they have done a great job of this.

As far as some builds doing 800 corruption and others 100, well that is down to the individual builds. Obviously every build has its individual capabilities. I personally play what I think to be well rounded builds aiming at the “middle of the road”. I prefer being on the tanky side of things rather than speedy glass cannons. I’d rather die less and go slower at higher corruption.

The beauty of a game like LE is that each player can pick builds that suit their play styles, or indeed make up their own.

The scenario you pose has little to do with dev balancing. Someone could quite easily make what “experts” would see as a terrible build, but one which that player might enjoy. The fact that it gets trashed at 250+ corruption has nothing to do with general balance, and more to do with bad mathematics and build making skills. Also, 800 corruption that you mention is hardly a typical amount of corruption. I think that pretty much most of the builds in these forums would get trashed often at 800 corruption. Again, that has little to do with balance, and more to do with a sense of sado masochism.

Also, “speed running” is subjective as well. I get your meaning, but this is more akin to something from PoE than LE. Some builds are built to combat single target, some AoE, some a hybrid. Some are Arena specific, some are Mono specific, some are hybrid.

In fact, the more I try to reply sincerely, the more difficult this is becoming. I am failing to see the purpose of your reply other than it being purely rhetorical. Perhaps you could elaborate on any question you are trying to ask of me in reply to my previous post, if indeed there is a question?

Vekongnitoo · October 26, 2021, 12:06am

Man chill out it was a simple question, u are overcomplicating with your answer and u are being rude in some parts i do not have any desire to go in disvussion with u

AndrewTilley · October 30, 2021, 4:38am

Post was updated with some minor information from the latest dev stream.

However, we did get several spoilers. In patch 0.8.4 you’ll be able to see what ailments and the number of ailment stacks that are currently on the target, as shown below:

A new enemy was shown off:

And there’s more leaks – in the Dungeons & Crafting Updates threads.

Heavy · October 30, 2021, 9:33am

I am really sad, that I sometimes can’t join the devs stream.

But that new enemy type gives me some strong WH40K vibes!

Purge the unclean!

Llama8 · October 30, 2021, 10:17am

It does look a bit Nurgle-y.

AndrewTilley · October 30, 2021, 2:50pm

Ya, this stream was definitely un- -lievable, especially Mike’s entrance on camera.

It’s totally worth going back to see. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great work @EHG_Mike !

McFluffin · October 30, 2021, 10:36pm

OMG I completely missed this in the dev stream. That’s awesome!

AndrewTilley · November 6, 2021, 1:22am

All threads were updated with the relevant questions & answers from the latest dev stream on November 5. So be sure to check out the Dungeons and Crafting Updates threads as well if you’re interested.

AndrewTilley · November 24, 2021, 12:31am

All threads were updated with the relevant questions & answers from the latest dev streams on November 12 & 19. Be sure to check out the Dungeons and Crafting Updates threads as well if you’re interested, though the crafting updates dev blog was released so that thread won’t be receiving any further updates.