Hey there, had something, that I thought is worthy enough to share.
The point of my post and the main theme - Current LP system has lots of issues, where it is usually so draining, that many players quit. I will split it into different brackets, so it is more digestible.
For background and context, I have around 1k hours into the game, started actively playing since Runemaster patch, always played CoF since it’s introduction, usually stopped playing a character when reached around 600-700 corruption, and have killed Aberroth this cycle.
1. The one that hurts the most - long item acquisition into big disappointment.
As the title suggests, this segment covers the part, where you spend time to obtain your uniques and exalts, only to reach the Temporal Sanctum forge, miss the slam and feel bad, since none of the time you spent mattered in the long run. This includes all randomness with the rarity of Uniques, their rolls, their LP rolls, the rarity of Exalts, and the rarity of getting the proper stats, the rarity of slamming them properly, and the harshness of this investment going to waste, fairly often resulting in waste of the Exalted item that you were also using if the affix was super important for your build, and in some cases resulting to downgrade of your gear, though such cases are not the norm.
Basically what it comes down to is that the balance between possible positive outcome and negative one is so off, that in some cases it’s so unreasonable, that certain setups aren’t even considered aspirational, they are just flat unreasonable for the duration of the season. And I’m not talking about 4 LP items, even combinations for 2-3 LP legendary versions of certain items with the Nemesis system are still not adequate.
All those feelings and limits are subjective, I agree, but at the certain point, the “win” feels like it’s no longer a “win” but a relief from the gambling-statistic torture wheel.
Especially when you get the unique with decent enough rolls, spend extreme amounts of time looking for that exalted with +4 on your main skill, finally get it and miss the slam. For example for me this cycle, it was 2 LP Unstable Core, and I missed both of my slams, I used the Rune of Creation, didn’t hit both times and will be just quitting that chase, it is not fun. Or the World Splitter axe, where I found multiple exalts with T7 Melee Fire Damage and T5 Attack Speed via prophecies, but after over 250 harbinger kills, still haven’t been able to obtain the necessary stats/LP on the unique or missed all my slams, including all the ones I tried via nemesis system. Or five of 3 LP Siphons of Anguish, where I failed to hit 3 of the stats I needed.
I get it, that the idea of the game, is that there is something than can always roll better, be improved, and if you hit those impossible slams you must feel like you cheated and won the day, but the balance right now in all legendary items, old and new is so harsh, that getting the rolls and affixes you need just feels like a chore. I understand that space for certain very specific items, like Omnis, or Nihilis, where the whole idea is to get some very good stats, and build around the rest, but it is so present everywhere, that most of the time regular exalts are just ways better, and easier to get, that legendary counterpart, that don’t even provide that substantial of an increase, and we have way more control over the exalts with all the crafting options.
This note regarding something so painful, that it deserves a separate paragraph. Farming any boss specific uniques as CoF player is the worst experience in the game, and that is with all the MASSIVE improvements we got in 1.1 with the bonus Boss drops and Nemesis for possible LP.
The process of obtaining any of those items with decent rolls and god forbid any LP is still very bad, and we as CoF players do not have any deterministic way of helping ourselves, besides just increasing corruption and leveling our CoF and Shattered Road factions. Whenever an MG player farms enough currency by any means they prefer, they are able to purchase the items necessary, and that process is finite every time, for CoF it is an unknown gamble with burnout on the same boss to follow. Just think of how unreasonable it is to get 4 good rolls on Black Blade of Chaos if it is your build defining item, which many of the new items are, and the worst feeling part is not the rolls themselves, but the part where you get to roll, you do not get nearly enough glyphs of envy to spam the boss kills, the buffs of 1.1 are cute, but they are not nearly enough.
Circling back, just for a second, boss items aside even though they are the worst, think how many layers of RNG must pass, to create a 2 LP Unstable Core or even 1 LP Unstable Core with pretty good rolls with 2 or 1 necessary affixes, one of which is +4 to your main skill, if we are talking in a reasonable playtime during one season for someone who also has life and other games outside of Last Epoch and wishes to not burn out on the game, the grind is just so discouraging, especially after you finally get all those components and miss the slam.
So how can we improve this?
My possible solution for exalts is to make a codex system, where you are still required to drop your first +4 to skill for example, and once you have it, you will be able to apply it or craft it on the same item type, exalts only. And to do so you will be needing a rare resource, so we still keep that necessity to farm, we can even make it so, that you are able to farm for that special resource for that specific affix only after you’ve obtained the affix, so it feels fair, and you can’t print the exalts you want, as soon as you dropped your first. That will keep the chase alive, but won’t make it feel so terrible, and make the drop chance fairly rare, but not the same rarity, around glyph of despair. We get the more deterministic way of acquisition, you guys keep us chasing, feels reasonable to me, as it removes that soul crushing part, that it will take an unknown unlimited amount of time to make that exalted item again, and we can slam soon enough.
Somewhat similar but in a different way is possible for uniques. It is also pretty much somewhat of a codex where we have to drop that unique at least once, but the system is different.
Let’s say it’s a Special Smelter, where once we got our unique, we will get the blueprint for it. And with that blueprint, we have an option to craft that exact unique we want. And in those blueprints, you can have a variety of options to approach it.
For example, let’s say we want a specific above average rarity ring.
We can assign each ring a rarity tear in the system and split each ring into their respectful tiers, and to make that rare ring, we have to sacrifice a set amount of rings of the previous tier. This will make us pick up all the unwanted unique rings, melt them and have them all work towards our goal, since we will have a determined way of getting that unique. Even if our ring is “Tier 3” or “Tier 4” we will still need the “Tier 1” rings to make the “Tier 2” rings which will allow us to smelt that specific ring we want. For convenience purposes, in order to make it so that we don’t hoard all the Two-Handed Axes if we were to craft special axe, and fill our inventory for example, it is possible to make it so that you are able to immediately destroy your unwanted uniques, and keep the components in a separate tab, similar to our crafting resources tab, but for unique crafting specifically. The quantity would be the balance lever in this case, or additionally, it is possible, that only certain LP level of previous items is good enough to be turned into the materials.
Or alternatively, make the defined recipe of like 5 other uniques for our specific unique ring, and make a web or atlas of them, so we will hunt not just our unique, but also other less rare ones, while keeping the same goal, this variant is more elegant, but requires more resources to implement.
There are plenty of ways to approach it, you guys are talented in system construction, this is all comes back to the issue, that gamble aspect is way too much, and implementing any of the solutions would feel way better, especially if it lets us choose our activity, instead of slamming our head against the same boss over 250 times and not getting the desired result, which would end in burnout and quit for the season, cause some of the items are so rare and unlikely, that it is not reasonable to try and get them within the season time.
- Temporal Sanctum is a chore, the later you are into the game, the worse it gets.
I’m pretty sure you guys are aware of all pain points of this dungeon, there are plenty. With all recent systems and Monolith in general, dungeons as a whole feel like a waste of time in terms of rewards, and if you want boss specific uniques it is just bad experience, but since Temporal Sanctum is mandatory for any legendary, running it over and over, with all its flaws hurts more every time with every new character. I know that dev resources are limited, and complete rework is not something that is in any near future, so for the time being, perhaps the best solution would be to just start the dungeon from floor two? Sometimes it bugs that way, and you skip a floor, any time that happens I am happy, so make it a feature, until you get to it and give proper treatment.
In conclusion, I want to say that the main reason for this post is an indication of a bad experience with hope for improvement, and the possible solutions I provided, are just examples of how it is possible to make it better, they are here just to bring a discussion, this is not a request for implementation. In some other posts, people indicated, how snowbally the effect of an early perfect legendary could be, and how in some cases, a coin flip decides where you will be stuck in your character progression this season. The general dissatisfaction with these issues is rising with each season, and since they are one of the core system in our game loop, I thought it is important to highlight them.
Thank you for your time.
. I can’t remember to completely brick an item and I’m rather sure i would cry about it still if it ever was the case ^^.