How about making it so that the difficulty starts raising based on what you add to the item and not what the item contains as a whole?
That way, you can start from a blank slate with 0% but you'd have to add 500% to max it out so it would be the more difficult item to create.
Whereas, if you started from a runic that had 200% already, you'd only have to add 300% and so it wouldn't be as hard.
This way, runics aren't made useless but you can still go from blank if you want.
Sorry if this is the way it already is, was just something that came off the top of my head.
Cheers.
My brain was skirting around this idea or one similar, though I hadn't set out to fully working it through.
I kind of liked the 'Imbue only 300%' for the fact that it would work with loot and crafted items(w/ Runics), but I don't think I liked it as being necessary. I think 400% might have been a little better because of the item property bonuses from exceptional craftsmanship.
I like the idea of only 450% max item property intensity for non-exceptional items and 500% max item property intensity for exceptional crafted items.
Your idea would also encourage loot and crafting, in the sence that it would make Imbuing easier at higher levels.
e.g. normally, adding the first 2 item properties would have a 100% sucess chance and that third item property would be at a 50% chance. Considering your idea, if I understand it correctly, would make the first 200% to not count towards the difficulty on adding the next 3 mods, causing the final item to be imbuable at a 50% chance on the 5th mod.
Part of the reason I didn't set about working a similar idea through is for the fear of making the max intensity too easy to reach, even after all the time, effort and cost of resources(including the cost of tendonitis!).
I know Imbuing is quite a bit formula intensive as it is. However, to modify your idea, if, instead of completely ignoring the pre-Imbuing property intensities, only a fraction(.9) of the preexisting item property value counted toward the Imbuing success chance.
Currently at 120 Imbuing as a Gargoyle at the Queens Forge, that last item property to get to 500% has about a 1% chance of success(feel free to correct that stat)
With the addition to your idea:
- Item A; an item with 200% preexisting item properties(2x100%) adding that last item property to the 500% limit would act as if it were only 480%, which would increase the chance some, however I'm not sure by how much.
- Item B; Whereas and item with 400% preexisting item properties(4x100%) adding that last item property to the 500% limit would act as if it were only 460%.
That modification to your idea encourages using Loot and Crafted items(along with Runics). This would cause loot and crafted items to not be necessary nore useless(other than unraveling), hopefully without being too uber. Maybe .95 should should be used instead of.9?
On a side note, I thought I remember that bonuses from exceptional craftsmanship didn't count some how. Is it that they don't count towards the success chance of following Imbuings? I'm not sure I fully understood that when it was mentioned.