Non-Imbuement LI Progression After Level 100 is ‘a Bug’

Today Turbine made an interesting post on the forums.

“The existence of LIs above level 100 is a bug. We never intended to drop LIs above level 100.”

Then why is imbuing even an option?  Why not just make level 100 LI’s be imbued in the first place if you are not going to give the option for an alternate progression system?  This makes absolutely no sense to me.  I understand it would save Turbine development time but beyond that this makes absolutely no sense.  Players who want progression after level 100 are now forced to imbue.  If everyone has to imbue to progress, then why not just make all 100+ LIs imbued from the start and save everyone some time?

“We’re working on a fix to make it so the LIs that drop from 101+ mobs have a level of 100 rather than anything higher. It is absolutely not our intention to make LIs that are better than level 100 LIs. We promised you that you’d never have to throw out your old LIs again, and we intend to keep that promise.”

Well that makes a bit of sense but I expected imbuement to be an option.  Instead it is just a tacked on progression system.  With or without the imbuement system, LIs will no longer level beyond level 100.  Why have an imbuement system at all?  It is now pointless.

You can read the rest of the forum post here.

5 comments

  1. Tirian /

    Imbuement was never intended to be an option – the whole point of it was to make it a better system than what came beforehand, to replace the constant need to replace LIs – and most of the time, imbued LIs are significantly better (other than, perhaps, the tanking weapon of a guardian, for AoE targets).

    What they mean by calling it a bug is that there aren’t meant to be any LIs dropping above level 100 AT ALL. Its not the fact that some are dropping with better stats than current third agers, but rather that they were in a pre-existing loot pool for mob drops (it seems likely that it was automated, and the LI corresponded to the mob level), and so were an oversight.

    I agree that imbuement seems to have little value at the moment – but that’s only because they’ve not yet released any more levels to the LI legacies (the top tier is still 44). My hope is that we’ll be able to go beyond that (although the LI’s level doesn’t actually need to increase to make the LI any more potent – just the individual legacies), although given how overpowered that might make some classes, Turbine will have to be quite clever in what they add on to the higher tiers of the legacies (like secondary affects – so ferocious strike cooldown/damage for a champ is already the same legacy), rather than just continually boosting damage gain on each skill.

    • Andang /

      Right but my point is that imbuement has not stopped LI’s from leveling. Otherwise they would continue to level if you don’t imbue. Imbuement is just an additional progression system that has been tacked on to LI’s at the end of 50 levels of switching them out needlessly.

      • Tirian /

        Sure, it would be better if LIs could be imbued earlier (at level 50, or so). But the great thing about them from 100 to 105 is that you don’t have to spend ages reconfiguring new LIs for the new cap – you’ve already got one that’s the best it can be (other than the bugged third agers, but as a bug, can be ignored).

        Imbuement wasn’t intended to stop your level 100 LI from levelling – it was meant to grow with you (in terms of more scrolls of empowerment, more star-lit crystals, more xp etc.) – but that does not mean levels. I fully expect to see more legacy tiers soon – but if those appear, then I’m not sure I understand your point – these weapons will have grown with us from 100 to 105, as Turbine initially stated was the intention, and we’ve avoided having to make new LIs for a new cap.

  2. The “100” is just a number. It won’t increase: So what? You can imbue the LI so that it becomes more and more powerful. And that’s all we need.

    • Andang /

      I completely agree that is all we need. My point is simply that imbuement itself doesn’t stop LI’s from progressing as they suggested. They could have just made level 100 LI’s be the last ones you ever get. Instead they added on an additional progression system that is required now for advancement beyond level 100. That is not necessarily a bad thing, it is just different than what they have said in the past and even in this post.

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