Legendary weapons and class items came about with the Moria expansion and as originally conceived was available for roughly 10 levels (50 - 60 if you ignore the starter weapon). Part of what this did was to give level capped characters another achievement to pursue: finding a weapon with good legacies and leveling it.
But now as Lotro has moved on to Mirkwood/Endewaith the Legendary system has to integrate with ongoing character leveling and this creates some problems. First Legendary weapons tend to lag a leveling character, you can't equip and begin to level a weapon until the weapon is at your level and typically you end up discarding several weapons before you find one worth keeping. The result is you may be two or three levels above your weapon before you find one you want to keep for good. This has implications with regard to base damage statistics, the weapon's attributes (fate, vitality etc) and makes for a leveling within a leveling game with lots of waste (discarded weapons) that's kind of tedious. This issue will only become worse as new expansions are released and the level cap rises further.
To make the Legendary weapons system more compatible with leveling characters, I propose:
But now as Lotro has moved on to Mirkwood/Endewaith the Legendary system has to integrate with ongoing character leveling and this creates some problems. First Legendary weapons tend to lag a leveling character, you can't equip and begin to level a weapon until the weapon is at your level and typically you end up discarding several weapons before you find one worth keeping. The result is you may be two or three levels above your weapon before you find one you want to keep for good. This has implications with regard to base damage statistics, the weapon's attributes (fate, vitality etc) and makes for a leveling within a leveling game with lots of waste (discarded weapons) that's kind of tedious. This issue will only become worse as new expansions are released and the level cap rises further.
To make the Legendary weapons system more compatible with leveling characters, I propose:
- Allow characters to begin leveling legendary weapons that are 5 levels above them. They won't be able to equip them, just level them.
- Allow characters to choose 1 legacy out of 3 or even 4 (instead of 2) at the first level 10 reforge. This will result in more certainty about whether to keep the weapon and fewer discarded weapons.
- Allow the scroll of renewal to also deequip all relics, or make a new scroll that does this (good candidate for the Turbine store). This way if you find a better weapon closer to your level you can decon your old weapon without waiting until you've leveled it to infinity and beyond for a reforge.
- Runekeepers have an additional permutation in the already complex Legendary System, in addition to auto-attack damage type (which is equivalent to "regular" damage type on other legendary weapons) they have damage affinities (fire, lighting, frost). Unlike the damage types on all other legendary weapons, the runestone affinity can't be changed. There should be a scroll or title that allows a runestone to change it's affinity, especially if fire is to become a viable damage type in the future.