Jeff mentioned something over here
truedungeon.com/forum?view=topic&defaultmenu=141&catid=737&id=257369&start=0
about: "Lastly, and hopefully very soon
after the classes are re-aligned, we will hammer out any changes we want to make to the various class-specific Legendary tokens. We need to re-balance them so all class have equal amounts of fun."
This got me thinking about our current crop of class specific Legendaries - most specifically the Legendary Necklaces.
My general impression had been that many of them are ridiculously overpowered, in terms of what we could have / should have expected for a legendary neck slot item.
However, as I've been considering what I might think of as "fair" neck slot class based legendries, I'm a bit surprised to see my opinion changing to most of these aren't so bad.
I thought it might be interesting to hear other people's thoughts on this, and to lay out my own.
Simple Approach - Legendary Necklace Factory:
Step 1. Start with a UR neck slot item, such as: Stu-Pendous Pendant, Medallion of Valhalla, Medallion of the Sweetwoods.
Step 2. Add on to the UR more features consistent with a UR to Legendary Jump.
Step 3. Optionally, apply some transformations to the resulting stat line, allowing for:
..* Reduce melee hit and damage by 1 and gain critical hit on 19+
..* Reduce a to-hit by 1 to add +1 to damage for the same attack mode
..* Restrict a melee mode to two handed only for +2 damage
Step 2 Options What Is a UR to Legendary Jump?
We have several existing examples of legendary progress, from before the Class Based Legendries:
- Back: +3 to Saves
- Finger: +4 to focus
- Finger: +4 to AC
- Mainhand Melee: +3 to hit, damage, and for caster weapons also focus
- Mainhand Ranged*: +2 to hit, +8.75 damage, Crit Range Expansion from 19+ to 18+
- Waist: +4 to STR
* One of these things is not like the others! The Mainhand Ranged bump comes from Io's Ultra Keen Slayer Bow, and seems way out of line with the other bonuses. However, that should also make us realize some of the power levels seen in the class based legendries are not unprecedented.
Generally the neck slot has been considered one of the most powerful slots, so I'd say any of these incremental effects is reasonable to tack on to a UR neck item that is moving to Legendary.
Workshopping some Existing Class Based Legendries
Ralson's Pendant of the Yew provides:
+5 to CON
+9 damage with ranged attacks
Use any scroll 2/game
Animal Friend
Let's see how we can build this using the approach above:
Step 1: Begin with a UR neck slot item: Medallion of the Sweetwoods: +3 DEX, +4 CON
Step 2: Add a UR to Legendary bump, selecting the Mainhand Ranged one, giving a total of:
+3 DEX, +4 CON, +2 to hit with ranged weapons, +8.75 ranged damage, crit on 19+ with ranged attacks
This is pretty clearly much better than Ralson's as is.
One could argue the UR to Legendary bump offered by Io's is too good and should be ignored as a possibility. If instead we grant a simple +3 to hit and damage as the UR to Legendary bump, we'd get:
+3 DEX,+4 CON, +3 to hit with ranged, +3 to damage with ranged.
Step 3: Let's make the trade of +3 to hit with ranged for +3 to damage with ranged, bringing us to:
+3 DEX, +4 CON, +6 damage with ranged
I think generally people would allow for a trade of +1 DEX for +1 CON, and a trade of +2 DEX for +1 ranged damage, so lets make both those trades, giving:
+5 CON, +7 damage with ranged
This is not so far off of Ralson's - and I have no problem with the 2/scroll and Animal Friend abilities, which I would classify as "dorky fun" that has no substantial bearing on power level.
Bog's Medallion of Berzerking provides:
+10 to damage with 2 handers
+1 Rage use
Fury 2/game
Let's see how we can build this using the approach above:
Step 1: Begin with a UR neck slot item: Stu-Pendous Pendant: +3 STR, +3 DEX
Step 2: Add a Legendary bump, selecting Mainhand Melee of +3 to hit and damage, giving a total of:
+3 STR, +3 DEX, +3 to hit with melee, +3 to damage in melee
Step 3: Restrict ability to two handed melee weapons for +2 damage giving:
+3 STR, +3 DEX, +3 to hit with melee, +5 to damage in melee with two handed weapons
Step 3 again: Swap +3 to hit for +3 to damage giving:
+3 STR, +3 DEX, +8 to damage in melee with two handed weapons
Step 3 again: Swap +2 STR for +0/+2 in melee, giving:
+1 STR, +3 DEX, +10 to damage in melee with two handed weapons
The remaining delta between these two items is:
+1 STR and +3 DEX versus +2 additional uses of Greater Rage and Fury 2/game.
Clearly Bog's is a bit better than you'd get out of my factory, but it's not stratospherically better.
Final thoughts:
1. To make a better factory, you could expand the URs considered in step 1. For instance, the basis of the Monk Legendary could be hand slot UR Gloves of the Flying Fist, and the basis of the Druid Legendary could be the UR Shirt slot Shirt of the Fey.
2. Being a "class restricted" item is probably worth something all on its own. I'd say that something is probably worth in the neighborhood of +2 points of damage to one mode, and some amount of "dorky fun" that adds flavor and doesn't really tip the balance of power.
Examples of Dorky Fun would include things like Druids being able to use any polymorph potion without turning it in, Monks getting a few extra Psychic Power uses, Rangers getting Scrolls and Animal Friends, and several of the ArchMage powers like Boost, Assure, and Intensify.
