Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

What You Should Know About "Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls"

Loot 2.0

There have been a lot of changes to how loot works in RoS. Here are some of the most noteworthy:

• Auction House - The auction house, where you could buy and sell items you looted from the game for in game gold or real money, no longer exists. This means that you have to actually play the game to get the stuff you want. This had lead to a number of other changes.
• "Smart Loot" - Loot will now very frequently match your character class. This means that most of the drops that you'll see will boost your character's primary stat, skills etc. Because of this, it has become necessary to farm with the same character that you want to get loot for.
• Legendary Drop Rate - The drop rate for legendary items (the most unique items in the game) has been increased. This is due to the fact that you can no longer just purchase what you want in the auction house.
• Looting and difficulty levels - Each difficulty level increase will increase the amount of gold you can attain. Additionally, once in Torment difficult, legendary drop rates will increase. There are also certain class set items that will only drop in Torment difficulty.
• Adventure mode - Certain legendary items will only drop through the completion of a set of bounties in adventure mode. These items will drop from the horadric cache that Tyrael gives you once you complete the set of bounties. These unique items change from act to act. These items and the acts they appear in can be found here.
• Trading - Many items have become "account bound" and cannot be given to other players. Other items may be dropped and given to players if they are not account bound. Additionally, you may trade items with players who were in the same game as you when you picked up the item. This effect lasts for a limited time.
• Stats - Items have two sets of stats, primary and secondary. Primary stats are typically stronger and more important. Some secondary stats on legendary items will be unique to that item. Items will also have a "damage", "toughness" and "healing" rating compared to your current gear.
• Legendary Crafting Materials - Some items now require legendary crafting materials. These materials only drop from certain enemies in the game. You can find out which ones drop from which enemies here. You also require a level 70 white item for these crafting recipes.
• More Gems - Gems have been upgraded. At level 70, you will receive gems that are much better than the high end gems pre-RoS.

What does this mean for me?

Basically, it means that it is easier to find loot for your character, and easier to know how the loot compares to what you already have equipped. Additionally, there are some tactics for looting that have now become fairly standard.

Farming below level 70

If you're below level 70, it's not worth it to farm. Basically, you should play the game at whatever difficulty is most fun and just equip what you find. If you're planning on playing the "end game" (collecting items at level 70), be aware that act bosses, such as Malthael, will drop guaranteed legendaries on your first play through. This means that you'll want to fight him at level 70, to make sure the items are max level as well.

Farming at Level 70

If you're farming items at level 70, then you're interested in late game gear. The strategy for late game gear is to farm normal until you're able to, without too much caution, farm Torment 1 (more on that later) rather easily. The basic tactic here is that drops in normal to master do not change, while legendary drop rates increase once you move to Torment. So, it's typically fastest to farm normal instead of any other pre-Torment difficulty without sacrificing drop chances if you do not have the gear to farm T1 yet. The exception to this rule is with legendary crafting items, which have these drop chances (source):

There are a number of super unique monsters (ones with a purple name) that can be farmed very quickly, and have a good chance to drop legendary crafting materials and items. These monsters can be exploited via the quest line and are becoming fairly popular to run at high-ish torment levels with lower specced characters. These monsters are Manglemaw (Act I), SSthrass (Act II) and Razorclaw (Act IV).

Adventure Mode

A new no-story mode players can use to level up their character and farm.

Paragon Levels

Paragon levels can be acquire on max level characters and allow you to add various benefits to your all of your characters. There is no limit to Paragon levels.