You bring up many valid points. I appreciate your thoroughness in describing how items often time are repurposed outside of their intended use to make something that otherwise wouldnât work, become viable. This is also covers how some things feel redundant or pointless, but itâs the freedom to choose that gives us that opportunity to decide this.
I recognize that can be frustrating when the outcome of using items outside of the intended purpose feel so wasteful, but looked at from another perspective, is an ode to our ingenuity as players. I do agree that the forging potential system can often times be unforgiving. Given that the RNG based approach to crafting can, as you said, be quite the gamble. The way FP can just disappear, other times you can critically succeed, have enough left over to refine it near perfectly, and then even duplicate your item. Especially useful for when what youâre attempting to add affixes to took hours, sometimes days to get for the perfect slam.
I personally enjoy the experience of potential failure, and the reward following a hard earned success. Lightly touching base on the nature of items being âstat sticksâ I would say, while yes, that is absolutely true, this is a formative component in the the genre. The specific style Last Epoch has evolved to possess in regards to crafting over other games in the genre is a combination of the developers unique approach, community feedback driven changes, and an earnest attempt to create something new and unique.
Imagine what crafting and gear would look like if the bases of items were created exclusively to have every line of text dedicated specifically to one task. Without the opportunity to craft affixes onto that sword to make it function on a damage over time build it would have been restricted to only being used by a something that took complete advantage of it. This is not bad inherently, if the player base had not already experienced this exact method of item design in other games, and wished to only use items for one specific purpose. To be honest, it would be very much what set items are in this and every other game. Limited, without the freedom to create, and because of this, stagnant and rarely used.
It can very easily be said that legendary potential is a band aid for any number of deficiencies one might find. I will agree to the merit of thought brought by anyone willing to explore possibilities, but I do not agree specifically that this creative freedom is in any way a bad thing. The guaranteed affix came about as the developers released new content that went beyond their original ceiling in terms of difficulty. Many builds were fleshed out and experimented with to be found incapable of rising to the challenge of completing the Uber Abberoth challenge. The ones that were able to accomplish this, were, by their original creators especially, cultivated over hours of experimentation and grinding. This process was made more efficient and less arduous by the inclusion of that one change. If anything, the casual player is most disadvantaged and benefits the most from having one guaranteed affix. Disadvantaged not because they canât create builds for themselves to beat the Uber challenge, but because the internet shares all of our creations, and content creators showcase builds with sometimes impossible equipment for someone who doesnât play ten hours a day, five days a week. You revert this change to synthesis, and the hardcore player spends more time doing what they would always accomplish anyway. The casual player will be lucky to beat all of the harbingers. (Btw, Iâm talking parents and students with a couple of hours to spare playing games every few days when I say casual, not people who only play three hours a day over ten.)
I personally play this game for hours at a time, multiple days a week. I have amassed a massive amount of resources affording me the opportunity to make any build one could think of, and I still play fully entertained. Iâm sure you know, and anyone who reads our very long dialogue can relate. Getting 1 affix on a unique item, even if it is best in slot, does not guarantee the build can beat Uber. Where crafting can feel tedious at times due to everything you said, when I accomplish one of the many goals to progress a build to go a little further, it feels good. The ceiling for accomplishment moved with the difficulty of the game. Now in order to have your legendary gear for synergistic builds up to spec you need not one, but two perfect affixes. If you want to push even further, you grind for 3-4LP items and get as many top tier exalted affixes as you can. The meta of the current build would obliterate the previous builds, but it still feels challenging, the crafting, still rewarding. I want to feel the same sense of wonder at what I could make with set items and have it push a little further with my own twists when I drop them. To me, adding 1-2 LP would do that.
I will never claim to be able to suggest a perfect system for every type of gamer out there. All I can hope to do is honestly ask for what I would like to see, hope it comes across well received by enough people that it maybe gets put in an update. Worst case scenario, itâs not a great idea, and we decide together that it doesnât belong. Iâd just ask that where possible, we at least try it out before we decide itâs not worth having.
