Hi all. I'm new here and just recently started Andor's Trail, completed the story available so far and just started grinding for legendaries (just meaning over 5.000 imps and 10.000 gargoyle guys without any luck so far). I've been following forums and reading up for some time now, and just had an idea regarding legendary items grinding. I was about to start a new thread, but then just found this one which suits me well, too.
My approach is a different one. I don't like the idea of getting any given item by a quest and "guarantee" you get it. Legendaries should be hard to obtain and chance based. But a quest with hints to where an item can be found (dropped by chance) is a good idea. I'll amend my idea with this suggestion further down.
I've played Diablo II in the ladder a lot, so I know the pain of grinding. While you will never find all desired items yourself, at least you were able to trade with others. And it was possible to have MF gear. It always felt great to up your MF with equipment rather than a skill, keep grinding with boosted MF, still fail, but feel better cause the chances are (a little more) in your favour
So, while I like the idea of the MF skill, I think the rewards (only 50 % base chance increase) and the penalty (you have to waste 4 level ups!) make it very unappealing.
To up your chance of finding a RoLS from 0,01% to 0,1 % (factor of x10), you'd need 18 levels of MF, or 72 level ups! And yet, you'd still have to kill an average of 1.000 gargoyle guys to get it (by the time you get 72 level ups, you sure enough have found 2 RoLS already).
My idea:
Option 1) Make equipment available (for sale or by quest) that increases your MF skill to a total of 18 if fully equipped. The equipment should not be top notch regarding protection or damange, but on the lower range of ok-ish. 9 equipment slots = 2 MF per item (alternatively 1 MF per item and a bonus of 9 MF if fully equipped, so you cannot opt out a single item
). Players should have the choice between dual-weapon, weapon & shield or two-handed weapon, depending on their flavour of play!
Option 2) Make MF skill levels available from an NPC (for sale or by quest) that increases your MF skill to a total of 18, if you've got it all.
I like option 1 better, since you have to give in and compromise much more than with option 2.
Requirement:
No matter which option, I still want you to grind! Though, I want to reward you for not giving up, and upping the chance if you're one of the unlucky ones (though, no guarantee, see reasons above)! Therefore, each level of MF (by equipment or by upping the MF skill directly) should involve an intense price which forces you to grind. Lets say an average of 100 stones and 2.000 gold per level of MF you get. This could also be scaling, cheaper for the first MF levels/MF items and more expensive for the last (though with an average of 100 stones and 2.000 gold per level of MF if you get all 18). The stones can be replaced by any other item or a combination of them (equal in chance/worth/grind-time), but should have about the same total "grind-value" to force you to grind (gems, crystals, whatever, just adjust the number in correlation with their rareness).
Benefit:
This will aid the player and the game in two ways.
1) You still have to grind. Though, you do get rewarded in the end. There is no certainty that you will obtain any and all legendaries, but it will reward you for trying and up your chances. While you grind, it still seems to serve some purpose, so you are motivated to keep going.
2) It will reduce the amount of grinding for other legendary items, which in return helps you reduce the amount of level-ups you get by searching for the legendaries. It also stops people from using the save/reload tactic (which I quite frankly use alot! 3 gargoyle guys swarmed at me, saved, reloaded, killed, rinse and repeat means 1.000 gargoyl guys in just 30 minutes slain!). You're still chance based, and the desire of the developer is met.
Now, tell me. What do you think of this option?