I hope D3 has many more high quality sets/items than D2.

[StreetShark]

Like the topic states, I hope Blizzard really plays D2 and comes to realize they need many more options for high level sets and rare/unique weapons. The problem in D2 became the fact that everyone was wearing one or two sets(outside of PVP players who fashioned their own builds). As seen in game, everyone started to look the same. At the beginning of the game things were allright, everyone wanted frostburn gloves or tarnhelm, but eventually everyone started wearing the same armor and it got rediculous. Couldn't they create numerous very nice items/sets that were both rare and visually appealing? I hope they fix this issue in D3. They need to get out of this whole Tier1/Tier2 that I hope they don't bring from WoW into D3.

To fix this, I hope they put in numerous quality sets that both look good and function very well at high levels, so there will be many options for players wanting to have a "cool character" and be strong in game. Hopefully they will work on balance a bit more than they did for D2 so we won't have the whole SOJ issue again. I don't want to play with friends that look the exact same as me.

Also like others have stated, I hope they put ultra-rare items in game that are "godly" in a sense, but make their drop rate extremely low, or sets that are very hard to complete, but once complete create a new visual image on the character that is special. Oh... and they tack on the warden client for D3 thereby nullifying most attempts at duping/hacking.

[CarsV]

I'm pretty sure there will be tons of new schtuff and new content will always be added ona regular basis. Only this time I hope they get the rares and uniques RIGHGT lol. In D2 the rares are the true uniques and the uniques are the true rares.

[Majaii]

I just got back from a camping trip to hear about D3, but from what I have looked at so far, it seems to me like every single item will be class specific. If that is true then at the very worse, each class would look vastly different then another class, even if all the barbs looked the same, for example. I don't think it will be like that though, but that is just my opinion.

[stillman]

I agree, but there still has to be a ton of junk items. Otherwise, everything will be just grand and nothing good will stand out.

I think d2 has or had the concepts you seek, but it all just got ruined by players terrible duping.

I agree with th soj part. That was the doing of Blizzard to have this one overpowered ring (back in early versions). There should be far more variety.

[CarsV]

The problem in D2 became the fact that everyone was wearing one or two sets(outside of PVP players who fashioned their own builds). As seen in game, everyone started to look the same. At the beginning of the game things were allright, everyone wanted frostburn gloves or tarnhelm, but eventually everyone started wearing the same armor and it got rediculous. Couldn't they create numerous very nice items/sets that were both rare and visually appealing?

Please reiterate this in the character customization topic. This is the type of schtuff I'm talking about. Thank you.

[Merick]

Part of the problem is that melee is so underpowered that most people play casters. Casters mostly have to worry about +skills, whereas melees have to worry about many more stats.

[CombatShrine]

they should just put a system in so that you can change the appearance of items to whatever you want so your character will look how you want it.

its dumb how you cant do that in d2. I mean, if I want a red sword, I should be able to change it red. if i want my tarnhelm to look like a great helm, I ought to be able to make it look like one!

[HRP]

I hope they bring back items with negative attributes like in the original Diablo.

It created some balance by sacrificing in one sense to gain in another.

I've been wondering about the drop system and how it works. It seems to me that everyone will see their own individual drops, but I'm guessing that these drops will be much less frequent for each character in order to thin out the amount of gear that everyone picks up. Essentially I think the same amount of loot will fall, it's just that the game will use a round-robin way in deciding who it drops for. I'm hoping that drops will not be character specific, otherwise the trading scene would be pretty dull.

[Intolerance]

I much prefer the pre-LoD days when rares were the norm and aside from a few popular uniques, every character was different. I'm not sure how uinques/sets should be handled, but I think it's pretty dumb that the best builds use the same exact items every time. Rares make it much more interesting since no two are the same.

[Felix]

they should just put a system in so that you can change the appearance of items to whatever you want so your character will look how you want it.

its dumb how you cant do that in d2. I mean, if I want a red sword, I should be able to change it red. if i want my tarnhelm to look like a great helm, I ought to be able to make it look like one!

This I just don't get. Dyes are great, also as a trading commodity, but changing appearances to make an item unrecognisable is over the top in my opinion. You wouldn't even be able to distinguish a level 90 from a level 12, since they would both look like a King in his armor. They would probably look exactly the same, as the low level guys would copy the highend items.

[Felix]

I much prefer the pre-LoD days when rares were the norm and aside from a few popular uniques, every character was different. I'm not sure how uinques/sets should be handled, but I think it's pretty dumb that the best builds use the same exact items every time. Rares make it much more interesting since no two are the same.

I like the blues -> rares -> uniques, and then in some cases -> crafts.

Rares are too much a dime a dusin for me to want them to outcompete uniques. But a good crafted ring or amu or another piece should be the most highly priced item, maybe up there with runewords.

I didn't like it much when we were all PvPing with blue swords for example. Rares are abit the same to me. But crafts yes, and then runewords that are able to compete with each other quality wise, and favors different kind of base items for most usefulness. So we get the diversity, though rare and exclusive.

Above uniques should be something exclusive, and crafts for me look like the perfect candidate, so as to not "step down" to improve.

[StreetShark]

I think it should come down to a very strong oversight/control of the drop system and how much drops and in what areas off what mobs. We sure don't need another bone wall exploit so people can farm items, but items need to be made more valuable, especially sets. These items should be so valuable that they sell on ebay for $, not necessarily because of their power, but because of their rarity, visual effect, and sheer rarity of dropping.

[CombatShrine]

This I just don't get. Dyes are great, also as a trading commodity, but changing appearances to make an item unrecognisable is over the top in my opinion. You wouldn't even be able to distinguish a level 90 from a level 12, since they would both look like a King in his armor. They would probably look exactly the same, as the low level guys would copy the highend items.

I'd rather have to tolerate level 12's looking awesome than level 90's looking like nubs. what does a barbarian with a oath balrog, shako, and skullders look like? crap!

[Remy]

I think the problem with most characters looking the same comes from the fact that in most cases, uniques(sometimes sets) are the best items. It's always those same few items.

I think most people would agree that when rares were valid, things weren't so bad. So I think the solution is to introduce a new item type/rank that's similar to rare, as in randomized mods, vs uniques' preset mods. We can call it epics, super rares, or whatever else, doesn't really matter.

The problem with rares being the highest ranking items is that they are too abundant, there's an ocean of crap rares out there. Also, due to randomness of the mods, you can often get an extremely good rare with +1 Life or some other mod that ruins the item.

So a few differences with epics to solve those problems.

- First of all, every single mod possible in the game should be possible on an epic, at least all the possibly useful ones.

- With mods that have variable ranges, only the highest ranges should be possible. So you would be guaranteed a high minimum value, to not have any crap mods.

- It should be possible to roll the same prefix or suffix more than once. For instance, if at max you can get 3 prefixes and 3 suffixes on an epic, and +2 to all skills is possible prefix, then it should be possible to roll that three times and get +6 to skills. The chances of that happening should be extremely low of course.

- To balance it all, epics should only be possible on items above a certain level, say 70~75. Even then, the chance of rolling an epic should be very very low, lower than the chance of rolling uniques.

So you won't even see a single epic drop until you're well into late-game, no over-abundance like rares. Any epic you see will not be entirely crappy even if the exact combination of mods do not benefit your character. And most importantly, everyone's characters will not all look the same since epics are not based on specific base item types.

[CombatShrine]

I, for one, would like to see the magical modifier pool severely drained of the aforementioned useless modifiers.

there is absolutely no use to having 10% chance to cast ice bolt on an amulet, belt, or anywhere else. its just a useless modifier that dilutes your chances of getting a decent rare.

[tony iii]

I would prefer that set item where handled differently to normal, magic, rare, uniques in that if you wanted to obtain a specfic set that would be useful then you could spend time doing this, as the prob with Diablo 2 was that whenever you found a complete set, it was nigh on useless ie underpowdered for your character level/equipment.

There should be variety of different sets available (ie differing types of low, mid, high end sets) that are achievable to obtain while they would be useful, this would be done by specfic quests to fin full or part of sets and alternatively just be a mercenary for hire to make money from sub-quest to buy the sets from the npc traders, then continue on with the main plot arc.

It was amazing with Diablo 2 that their was all these fabled sets that had all been lost and no-one had any to sell!!

The trade off would be that you would spend longer doing sub-quest to achieve these sets as opposed to just blazing through the levels as quick as possible to level-up your character. The motive of getting a set would be to get a 'cool looking' character or a set that assentuates certain skills. Set items would be equivalent to a semi-decent rare or unique, so when you find a really good magic, rare, unique or craft an item you have the difficult decision of 'breaking' your set for the better equipment and losing your set bonus's, or sticking with the lesser set items and aim for the next level set later in the game.

I like the comprise from D2-LOD where the sets gave some unique attributes and synergies and a balanced power, but a combination of magic, rares, uniques and crafted items would give more ultimate power and sacrifice the set bonus's.

This way you have the choice to obtain a set when it is useful to your charcter, then sell/trade it when you find better equipmet or a go for a higher level set.

[grShaman]

Like the topic states, I hope Blizzard really plays D2 and comes to realize they need many more options for high level sets and rare/unique weapons. The problem in D2 became the fact that everyone was wearing one or two sets(outside of PVP players who fashioned their own builds). As seen in game, everyone started to look the same. At the beginning of the game things were allright, everyone wanted frostburn gloves or tarnhelm, but eventually everyone started wearing the same armor and it got rediculous. Couldn't they create numerous very nice items/sets that were both rare and visually appealing? I hope they fix this issue in D3. They need to get out of this whole Tier1/Tier2 that I hope they don't bring from WoW into D3.

Also like others have stated, I hope they put ultra-rare items in game that are "godly" in a sense, but make their drop rate extremely low, or sets that are very hard to complete, but once complete create a new visual image on the character that is special. Oh... and they tack on the warden client for D3 thereby nullifying most attempts at duping/hacking.

You haven't ever played classic, have you? Because I think that's what you need.

they should just put a system in so that you can change the appearance of items to whatever you want so your character will look how you want it.

its dumb how you cant do that in d2. I mean, if I want a red sword, I should be able to change it red. if i want my tarnhelm to look like a great helm, I ought to be able to make it look like one!

I hope you are kidding. That is one of the most stupid things i had to quote.

[CombatShrine]

I hope you are kidding. That is one of the most stupid things i had to quote.

Uh
No, I'm not kidding?

Grow up and learn to make real arguments instead of just insulting people, ya twerp.

[zooply]

Well, as somebody else stated, if we're going to have customizable looks, put some restrictions on it. By restrictions I mean make sure that they somewhat match the game. It ruins the mood when a barb with neon pink armor and a yellow helm comes in.

[CombatShrine]

well then how about have multiples graphics for the class "Cap", "Full Helm" and so on and so forth, and the ability to change the color by manipulating R/G/B values. Then you can just pic a certain cap graphic, and whatever color you want.

Its a happy medium, no?

[grShaman]

Uh
No, I'm not kidding?

Grow up and learn to make real arguments instead of just insulting people, ya twerp.

(Duh, callin' me a twerp shows your age)

Anyway, you think that something like that would make the game look realistic?

[CombatShrine]

realistic?

the Diablo series, sir, is in the fantasy role-playing genre. you know, with monsters, magic swords, spells, ghosts, and ghouls.

if realism is what you're looking for, perhaps counterstrike would better suit you.

I was simply posing a suggestion that would alleviate the cookie-cutter syndrome. it doesn't matter if everyone has the same gear if people can choose to make it look how they want, purely for aesthetic reasons.

I still fail to see how the suggestion I made was unreasonable.

[grShaman]

realistic?

the Diablo series, sir, is in the fantasy role-playing genre. you know, with monsters, magic swords, spells, ghosts, and ghouls.

if realism is what you're looking for, perhaps counterstrike would better suit you.

I was simply posing a suggestion that would alleviate the cookie-cutter syndrome. it doesn't matter if everyone has the same gear if people can choose to make it look how they want, purely for aesthetic reasons.

I still fail to see how the suggestion I made was unreasonable.

I guess realistic was a wrong word.

How about not-for-16-year-old-kids?

[CombatShrine]

What on earth does age have to do with anything.

You're not making any sense, whatsoever.

Being able to make your character look cool is a trait only shared among 16 year olds? That statement actually makes sense to you? Do you have a better idea? If so, what is it?

Also, in regards to that erroneous, previous statement that that mechanic idea is for 16-year-olds, why would Blizzard NOT avail themselves to put it into the game then, considering that adolescents are one of their target demographics?

I don't know why I waste my time. I am pretty sure you're just trolling now.

[grShaman]

Being able to make your character look cool is a trait only shared among 16 year olds? That statement actually makes sense to you? Do you have a better idea? If so, what is it?



Rare Items. Just like in Dii Classic. No character over 70 level wears the same set or have the same uniques. They just use rares.

I don't know why I waste my time. I am pretty sure you're just trolling now.

Nice conclusion.

[CombatShrine]

Then we are in agreement!
I have always thought that rares as the high-end items were the way to go, but why is it that you feel the two systems are mutually exclusive. They aren't. BOTH can be done.

[lionheart]

I would love to see as many of them with different and cool looking graphics. I am the collector type and the only reason that kept me playing after i maxed out my guys was to collect as many as possible of the elite unique items in the game (fyi i play SP)

[Arkansaw]

well then how about have multiples graphics for the class "Cap", "Full Helm" and so on and so forth, and the ability to change the color by manipulating R/G/B values. Then you can just pic a certain cap graphic, and whatever color you want.

Its a happy medium, no?


LOLWUT?

Is that The Diablo Sims I'm seeing?

ps: I mean that's really funny, but in a good way

[TwiiK]

It's probably already been stated, but I'll say it again because it is the best solution to this problem.

Rares should be the best items, rares should be more prominent, uniques and sets should be toned down.

Why?

Diablo 2 had and still has the best random item generator in any rpg, action rpg or mmorpg out there. The least we can expect from D3 is an item generator with similar qualities. Most probably it will be even better.

Nothing is as fun as finding an item which noone has found before you and a good, random rare give you that feeling every time. In D2 noone has still found a perfect rare, yet the perfect uniques appear all the time.

Rares doesn't need to be made by blizzard. The better a rare is the rarer a rare is so blizzard don't have to sit around balancing them. Just add the prefixes and suffixes to the generator and sit back and enjoy. On the other hand sets and uniques require balancing, testing, and are hand made by blizzard. This translates to work hours Blizzard could spend elsewhere.

They could also give uniques and sets very variable stats so even though alot of people use the same item it behaves very differently for everyone. For example variable elemental damage, life or mana drain, chance to cast a variable spell etc.

So one unique sword could spawn in 3 distinct versions:

+500 cold damage, ctc ice bolt
+500 fire damage, ctc fire bolt
+500 lightning damage, ctc lightning bolt

Then just give them a different visual look depending on which elemental you get and 1 unique is transformed into 3 distinct, equally useful uniques with close to no work required by Blizzard.

But we can probably all agree that as long as Blizzard stays clear of anything they did with WoW regarding items I'm sure Diablo 3 will be just fine. :)

[voraginous]

I think the problem with most characters looking the same comes from the fact that in most cases, uniques(sometimes sets) are the best items. It's always those same few items.

I think most people would agree that when rares were valid, things weren't so bad. So I think the solution is to introduce a new item type/rank that's similar to rare, as in randomized mods, vs uniques' preset mods. We can call it epics, super rares, or whatever else, doesn't really matter.

The problem with rares being the highest ranking items is that they are too abundant, there's an ocean of crap rares out there. Also, due to randomness of the mods, you can often get an extremely good rare with +1 Life or some other mod that ruins the item.

So a few differences with epics to solve those problems.

- First of all, every single mod possible in the game should be possible on an epic, at least all the possibly useful ones.

- With mods that have variable ranges, only the highest ranges should be possible. So you would be guaranteed a high minimum value, to not have any crap mods.

- It should be possible to roll the same prefix or suffix more than once. For instance, if at max you can get 3 prefixes and 3 suffixes on an epic, and +2 to all skills is possible prefix, then it should be possible to roll that three times and get +6 to skills. The chances of that happening should be extremely low of course.

- To balance it all, epics should only be possible on items above a certain level, say 70~75. Even then, the chance of rolling an epic should be very very low, lower than the chance of rolling uniques.

So you won't even see a single epic drop until you're well into late-game, no over-abundance like rares. Any epic you see will not be entirely crappy even if the exact combination of mods do not benefit your character. And most importantly, everyone's characters will not all look the same since epics are not based on specific base item types.

LOVE the epic rare idea (not a D2C player so its new to me)

I, for one, would like to see the magical modifier pool severely drained of the aforementioned useless modifiers.

there is absolutely no use to having 10% chance to cast ice bolt on an amulet, belt, or anywhere else. its just a useless modifier that dilutes your chances of getting a decent rare.

If we reduce the amount of crap blues and yellows that drop (and replace em with good whites and greys) then finding a blue or yellow would be a great moment.

Also a great idea. Maybe expand on this by streamlining what enchantments appear on what kind of gear. Noone wants resistances on their sword. It's kinda neat if you're in a pinch but we want +%damage and +damage or +ar or +elemental damage on our weapons. But the downside is this reduces the diversity of possible builds because some builds rely on weird items. So maybe keep weird items? I dunno..

[phool]

I agree useless (non buff/utility) ctcs and charges should be purged from non-set/unique items.

I'm a big classic player and love the rare>unique ideology (except where fcr, +max res, offweapon ias, etc is concerned, that is), it makes mfing more involving and rewarding. I don't see D3 having a close equivalent to classic however in this respect. I suspect D3 will have more than 1 expansion as well.

So one unique sword could spawn in 3 distinct versions:

+500 cold damage, ctc ice bolt
+500 fire damage, ctc fire bolt
+500 lightning damage, ctc lightning bolt

Then just give them a different visual look depending on which elemental you get and 1 unique is transformed into 3 distinct, equally useful uniques with close to no work required by Blizzard.

Making 3 completely different items with the same appearance is close to no work required I imagine (assuming they're not very top tier, in which case there may be a lot of balancing to consider). Different graphics would be far more work, unless generic item appearance modifiers (basically different colour glows/flames/etc that will work with any weapon of the same shape) are assigned to primary affixes.

[Sein Schatten]

If rare über item X has a chance of 2% to drop of mob Z, why not make unique Y also 2% chance? This way you can have uniques and rares. I like sets and uniques. :)

[jakotaco]

One more vote for letting the items have a "fixed look". that gives you a much better feeling when you find something that looks really awesome, some style-freaks can even get into the dilemma between a stylish or a more powerful item.

I could maybe stretch myself to a "dying" quest. Once per character or difficulty depending on how the game is built up allowing you to personalise an item by recoloring it. (ie. changing your red "crown of blood" to a blue "crown of blood", but not a "yellow turban of blood".)

After all you wouldn't want some level 1 barbarian look as menacing as your level 95 powerhouse you have been working on for almost a year...

Remember kids, this is Diablo3 not Tibia2! :crazyeyes:

[pigeons]

why not just go for broke and make hundreds of new sets, but make it so that it's only possible to assemble one complete set on each realm

sets are supposed to be these hugely epic one of a kind things that specific characters used back in olden times, so doesn't it make sense that there's only ONE of each set?

i doubt bul kathos had 6 million pairs of these epic magical swords of his lying around

heck, make uniques the same way

this would add actual VALUE to things again

now most equipment sets would consist of good rares, magics, crafts and runewords, and only the TRULY godly players would walk into a game wearing say...full ik.

that character would essentially BECOME the immortal king at that point.

doesn't that make more sense?

i know, i know, it makes it practically impossible to actually collect something good, but if rares were improved to compensate, it shouldn't really be a problem.

i like the idea back on, the second page or so, about the epic rares.

can't find them until you're over level 70, multiples of the same mods possible, only pick from the highest possible ranges, etc etc

[slickr]

I completely agree, in fact there was for example 10 different chest armor models/looks in D2, around 10 shields models, 5 belt models and basically everything in the category or "armor" had no more than 10 models!

I really hope D3 has at least 40 different models/looks for each "armor" and at least 200 different weapons and all that without the unique and crafted ones!

[Sein Schatten]

I completely agree, in fact there was for example 10 different chest armor models/looks in D2, around 10 shields models, 5 belt models and basically everything in the category or "armor" had no more than 10 models!

I really hope D3 has at least 40 different models/looks for each "armor" and at least 200 different weapons and all that without the unique and crafted ones!

If WoW is any indicator, we might see a lot of recoloring. :(

[AlexanderM]

My two cents:

Diablo 2 had re-coloring, but it wasn't purely cosmetic. All gemmed items got colored by the first one you put in. You could have a full set of ruby'd armor and look like a cherry if you wanted, it just wouldn't be the most useful thing. It also had some specific images for uniques (they didn't appear different until identified, which was weird to me).

I think it would be nice to have several alternate images for each item type (like rings in D2, but with all items), but have them look different on the character as well. Even if two characters managed to get all the same gear, they'd look dissimilar. The very highest uniques should look unique though (make other players say "What is that?!" or possibly "WAT SWORRD?").

As for having one copy of each set on each realm, and one copy of each unique per realm, that can be problematic. What happens when a few people with lots of free time farm up all the sets and uniques, and a new player comes to the game learning that the only way he'll ever get a truly godly item is to buy it on ebay, because they simply won't drop any more? While lowering the drop rates for ultra-uniques would be a good idea, limiting to only one would be discouraging for more casual gamers.

Also, having a level-limit on drops seems wrong. If you were able to build a really powerful character, and kill in a level 80 area when you are only level 60, it shouldn't prevent more powerful gear from dropping if you manage to fell a commensurate beast. I love the idea of changes between uniques, like focusing on different elemental damage types, but dropping as the same item. Wouldn't work for things like "ichorstring" that imply the damage type right in the name though.

I'm concerned about the one-icon-per-item system, everything-takes-up-one-slot system. I loved the detailed inventory images, not just how they looked on the character, it seems those have been swapped for tiny smaller than avatar-sized icons.

Back to the actual topic: I agree, definitely more sets, at least 3 or 4 geared towards a class instead of the 1-2 we got in Diablo 2. Also, set items should have a very specific visual look, if they're going to be so rare.