Are legendary weapons any good really?

[Hammadryad]

I have two characters, a Warden at level 46 and a Beorning at level 52, that have gotten their legendary weapons, slotted their traceries and upgraded them to level 52. However both are getting what appears to be better weapons dropped in loot! From what I understand of the new Legndary Item system their LIs seem to only improve when they are reforged at levels ?1 and ?6 (basically every 5 character levels). If this is correct, then can I use the better weapons I am finding and just carry the LIs around with me until they reforge each time, or do I have to use them even if they seem inferior for them to progress in some way? The traceries available in rivendell don't seem particularly great really, at least for my character classes.

[Oc2pus]

If you don't use your LIs, you don't gather XP for the reward track. Other than that, use what you like, until you don't find better loot any more.

[Vilan]

At lower levels, you're only going to be able to add a few traceries to your LIs, so you're right that they may not be particularly impressive compared to a typical weapon. But at higher levels, you can add more and more of them, to the point that they are clearly better than any loot you'll find. For now, if you find something better than your LI, go ahead and use it. Their progression has nothing to do with how much you use it, just what traceries you slot, and reforges to bump up their damage.

[Hastran]

Legendary Weapons at the lower levels are not really...."Legendary". The old Legendary weapons were better and more interesting (again at lower levels). At level 100 you finally get as many Traceries on the new LIs as you could have legacies on the old LIs...the Traceries are however stronger for the most part over the old Legacies. The settings, gems etc. on the old LIs did give some room for tweaking the LI to your preferences as well.

The new LIs base damage from Level 45 to 55 does not increase and you have few Tracery slots so it does really seem really bare bones.

With the right Traceries I would expect the new LIs to be okay at low levels, but mine do not seem "Legendary". Of course you get them from the Rivendell LI mart so even the presentation is meh .....so I keep using my old LIs (which were maxed) for the time being on my lower level toons.

[StinkyGreene]

Old level 60 First Aged (max starlits) Legendary items were better in DPS and variety of legacies. And good luck getting gold traceries at 60…as far as I can tell, you cannot get them in Dol Guldur, Dar Nargubud, Filikul, nor the Vile Maw.

[Halphast]

I can't see how weapon drops could ever be better than LIs. Whenever I have a character reach level 45 and I go get their first LIs, their numbers almost double what they were before. I've never seen loot-drops that even came close. If you hadn't made it clear that you did reforge and you did apply traceries, I would have thought you hadn't. This is a total puzzle to me!

[Hastran]

I can't see how weapon drops could ever be better than LIs. Whenever I have a character reach level 45 and I go get their first LIs, their numbers almost double what they were before. I've never seen loot-drops that even came close. If you hadn't made it clear that you did reforge and you did apply traceries, I would have thought you hadn't. This is a total puzzle to me!

Some examples:
Legendary Weapons: A Level 45 to 55 one handed weapon does 59 - 98 damage, Ranged damage is 78 - 142.

Crafted : A Level 54 crit Fine defenders word does 63-105 damage, a crit Exquisite Ilex bow does 84-152.

The Traceries probably make up for any damage reduction in the LI weapons, but the base damage is higher in these crafted weapons.

I would be using the LIs over these as I think the Traceries make it worth it...(like the legacies used to with the old LIs)

I have to admit initially going as much as 10 levels with no improvement in my weapons damage is not something I find particularly engaging, but it is what it is.