This is an issue that's come up on a bunch of boards but I'm not seeing an active topic for it here right now so I thought I'd ask for some opinions. Are you guys mostly cool with the new simplified items in Diablo 3, or do you think it's a step backwards in the loot department? My friends seem to think I'm a bit nuts for being critical about it, but you tell me.

Diablo 3's items feel like they came out of the day 1 release for Diablo 2, for better or worse. You find a thing, and it either has the two stats you need, or you salvage it. I've been running a wizard and if it doesn't have Int or Vit on it I don't really have any reason to hang onto it. Sockets let you put even more Int or Vit into the things, if you have the gems for it, but since we don't have runes, the stats are all we can settle for. Because of the randomization your armor is just as likely to have +dex on it as +str as +3 yards to gold collection, and for as rare as the rare items are, I've only found something like 6 out of about 25 that were of any use to me at all, and that's not accounting for all the rares I crafted that had the wrong stats on them every time. Uniques (Legendaries) are uncommon enough that people have played up to 60 without running into one, and their stats are just as randomized as the rares, often with lower levels than the rest of your gear at the time you discover them.

The up-side of this system is that it allows for players to grind out better gear without having to jump through hoops trading with friends to find the resistances and skill bonuses they need to compete in higher difficulties. The down-side of this system is that the loot is totally uninteresting and I have no desire to farm for, auction off, or purchase any of it. Half of the fun of the loot system in Diablo 2 was just how ridiculously random it was. You had modifiers that gave you %chance to stun on hit, bonus damage to undead, bonus damage to demons, knockback, mana steal, life leach (which is sort of in the game), element absorb, skill bonuses (which I personally enjoyed immensely), chance of nova on hit, chance of charged bolts on hit, and chance to open wounds. You had crazy pieces of unique loot and set items that set you up to be immune to fire, learn skills from other classes, or even transform you into a vampire. You had gems, jewels, runes, and charms you could grind for, and crazy recipes with the horadric cube that allowed you to spend gems to socket items that didn't have sockets in them or turn regular items into magical ones with specific properties. In Diablo 2 even the non-magical items served a purpose, whereas in Diablo 3 you can sell them for something like 8 gold a pop? And that's all you can do with them?

Am I out of my mind? I've got friends sitting at 60 farming loot right now, and I can't possibly imagine what's even remotely exciting about that. You *really* want 10 more strength on an amulet? I mean, is that really what it boils down to? There are no interesting or unique properties, no final-fantasy level crazy game-altering late game items to dig up. You're choosing between some amulet with +90 int +112 vit and something with +125 int +70 vit while desperately grinding to find something with +120ish +120ish so that you can get through inferno... so you can farm inferno? The end game of Diablo has always been the gear grind, and I'm not seeing any allure to it now. Did I miss an announcement somewhere where Blizzard said they were going to flood the auction house with better items or something? Or release some patch with new content? I'm not exactly looking to buy an expansion to get access to items Diablo 2 has had for 7-8 years, I just want this loot mechanic to feel less like a total chore and more like a treasure hunt.

You're right about farming for loot seemingly pretty uninteresting. Blizzard could have combated this (to an extent, wouldn't do much about the gear just seeming boring) by making the super rare legendary drops, well... legendary. As is, they are routinely blown away by even the tamest loot from Inferno. Hopefully they'll fix it with patches (seems pretty easy, just make legendary gear scale better!), but right now I'm not holding my breath.

I miss rune words and the +skill bonuses. And yeah it seems a bit weird. I just think they wanted magic/rare items to be more relevant this go round. Same with gold and gems. Cause for the most part that shit was irrelevant in D2

Yeah, its a bit of a bummer, but surely Blizzard will do something about it right? Its in their best interest to have worthwhile loot to strive for because of the real money auction house. Heres to hoping.

I see no reason to believe that issues with items cannot be fixed down the line if need be. I do miss items with interesting properties and since the skill system is different you can't get those crazy +1 to a skill not inherent to your class.

My only problem so far (level 51, just started Hell) is that Legendary items are routinely worse/on par at best with similarly leveled Rare loot. That really sucks the excitement out of drops, even if you find a Legendary it probably won't be that great. Same with most Sets I've perused on the AH.

I played a lot of D2 but never the expansion so I never had any interactions with runes.

How do the set items work in Diablo 3? It seems that there are mini sets here but they don't work the same way as D2 where the sets where literally an entire set covering each type of equipment.

I'm also finding it a little weak. I kept waiting for hidden depth or some other stuff to jump out or some interesting strategies, but so far it's pretty much look at Int/Vit and DPS/Health change and that's it. I have to imagine they're going to keep bumping up the loot, adding more interesting stuff, and adding more challenges to go along with it, akin to WoW. They don't have subscription fees to try to keep people in for, but with the RMAH they have plenty of incentive to add interesting rare loot that'll go for a ton of money.

It's still early on. This game seems like it was somewhat forced out. No PvP, Character balance needs a bit of work, No Real $ AH, etc. Give it time. Blizzard is still working hard on the game. Save your legendaries, they may get much better in the future.

Yeah it would seem the loot as it stands has some major flaws.

Y'know what really annoys me about the loot though? and this is really petty. Nearly all good loot I find, and I mean nearly all, has either or both an attack speed increase or some form of life leech, which both have a visual effect on the weapon. The problem I'm finding is that both effects override any other affix effect like poison or fire.

Want that sweet ass fire axe to be on fire? too bad! it's bleeding or glowy :( Now whether or not that's because the strongest stat is the effect that gets used, I don't know.

My biggest complaint is that so far the +Arcane Power of any kind is entirely useless in the amounts that I'm seeing. Maybe that gets better as you level up, but at level 20 you recharge the stuff so fast that having 2 extra max power or getting +1 when you crit means absolutely nothing. It's an entirely worthless stat to increase in those increments. For it to have a meaningful effect, I would have to stack that stat on every piece of my gear, and in doing that I would sacrifice way too much Vit, magic find, +damage, and Int.

edit: Since Arcane Power and its regeneration don't increase with level, I should point out that that level 20 gear would still be garbage, even at level 1.

I kind of dislike the heavy emphasis on random stats, especially in regards to named legendary gear. But I suppose it compliments the auction house as for the most part no matter what you get, there will probably be another of that item that has ever so slightly higher stats than the lesser version you have. Looking at just the Buriza there are hundreds of them for sale, all with varied stats/damage outputs.

Throughout normal i would get just primary stats like int, vitality and strength(not on same class ofc) but now that im running through hell i get all sorts of resistances, attack speed, class skill modifiers and things like crit chance and crit damage, there is quite the variety compared to earlier playthroughs. this has allowed me all sorts of customization i didnt think i would have in my normal playthrough.

I do have to agree. The loot is mostly.. predictable and uninteresting. You look for the two stats you need and that's pretty much all that matters. It doesn't help that they make half the stats 100% useless for any job that you level. It might be interesting to have certain abilities modified by specific stats, for example. That might shake things up a bit.

Loving the game, but I think they went a little too far in streamlining in that regard.

Edit:

@buft said:

Throughout normal i would get just primary stats like int, vitality and strength(not on same class ofc) but now that im running through hell i get all sorts of resistances, attack speed, class skill modifiers and things like crit chance and crit damage, there is quite the variety compared to earlier playthroughs. this has allowed me all sorts of customization i didnt think i would have in my normal playthrough.

Huh, interesting, so there is some deliberate progression in that regard. You only need that resistance stuff in the harder difficulties, after all. Good to know

Itemization is amazingly deep. Anyone who is just looking for Primary Stat + Vitality is barely scraping the surface of what the game has to offer. If you think you're going to beat Inferno with that sort of attitude you're gravely mistaken. Not only do you have to weigh stats according to your class, but also to your skill loadout.

In terms of Legendary items, well, they have never been the point of the Diablo end-game. They're simply items that are guaranteed to have a few relevant stat bonuses, a stepping stone to the real end-game of perfectly crafted rares. It may seem counterintuitive to the uninitiated but that's the way it is.

To be blunt, the item system isn't getting its hooks into me like Diablo 2's system did. The general lack of direction in acquiring desirable gear was what drove me away from Torchlight, and, frankly, from Diablo 3, as well. Being left at the complete and utter mercy of RNG dynamics is a huge turnoff for me.

When I found Uniques in Diablo 2, even if it wasn't for my character, I felt excited. One could appreciate the usefulness of the Unique from its statistics even if one couldn't use it for his current character. In contrast, with Diablo 3, most moments involving a Legendary discover were extremely disappointing. The possible range of statistic variation on Legendary items is going to mean lots of underwhelming items for a lot of people. The Legendary item category is, at the very least, a huge misnomer.

It doesn't personally offend me, but it certainly contributes to a long list of issues I've got with the game that are keeping me from going back to it. The added depth would have been a welcome addition. At the very least, Blizzard could have included the more complex items exclusive to the Inferno mode for the more... involved audiences.

While the stuff they removed is weird, at higher levels it all starts to make sense. There are more levels to jewel crafting and the odd stat bonus you don't "need" may be more useful on harder difficulties when coupled with the stat you do need. This makes for more interesting loot drops I've found (again, at higher levels).

If you just play on normal you may actually never notice any of it and it will just seem simplified.

I haven't noticed any item sets yet, though. I find that one kind of odd. I guess I never used them, so it doesn't matter, but there is less variety in loot types because of it. Then again, i'm not sure that really matters if I never used them anyway. I am glad though slotted items isn't a separate loot type like it was in Diablo 2. I didn't much care for that. Its more of another possible bonus now. I like that better.

This game is probably going to get patched like crazy for years, just like Diablo 2 and many other Blizzard games. So I'm sure everything will eventually change for the better.

But I understand what you mean.

I'm happy with the loot system.

One thing i would like added though(and they probably will at some point) is more exotic skills on stuff. For example not just fire damage, but explosive that deals damage in a radius. Or a very low instakill chance. Or just random spell effects on any item that triggers when you kill an enemy or something, like shock nova. You know... more diversity in item stats.

@StarvingGamer said:

Itemization is amazingly deep. Anyone who is just looking for Primary Stat + Vitality is barely scraping the surface of what the game has to offer. If you think you're going to beat Inferno with that sort of attitude you're gravely mistaken. Not only do you have to weigh stats according to your class, but also to your skill loadout. In terms of Legendary items, well, they have never been the point of the Diablo end-game. They're simply items that are guaranteed to have a few relevant stat bonuses, a stepping stone to the real end-game of perfectly crafted rares. It may seem counterintuitive to the uninitiated but that's the way it is.

QFT