My thoughts about personal vs shared loot

[Rusheen-1504]

@Zax-11538

I was kind of shocked that there is even big discusssion going on between some people about this. I fully understand that people dont want to fight for items and even have personal loot because of possible cheats which pick up items fast. I get it there is only one anihilus but 8 players killing the Diablo clone. And it sucks when you do the kill and most of the job and someone pick up shako and you ends up with blue item.

But shared loot is core mechanic of Diablo 2. It is just part of Diablo 2 life on battle net, always been. it creates create emotinal moments and it can suck but its just the way how it is. I have seen reasons for personal loot and i get it, but there is big problem how you will make it. How will personal loot work? Because you cant have personal loot without making items account bound which will damage trading between players or without changing drop rates and other game mechanics like Magic find.

Changing drop rates could just throw balance of the item drops completely out of window because original drop rate are kind of perfect almost and touching the drop chance numbers can end up badly. There are other issues with shared drop. Since who will have final hit, dictates the drop with their magic find. So how to distribute items? I just see too many issues which could shared loot end up with.

Can someone who supports personal loot actualy explain to me how would it work? I mean I want to see example and some numbers, not just " I think it would work" or stuff line that. Try to explain effects of Magic find, changed drop rates and how to not flood the trade with items under the “Personal loot option”

Personal loot has already been done in the Diablo franchise (D3). Everything is Bind on Account. There’s no community visibility and engagement like in D2 because of that (nevermind the auto-matching system for joining/creating games). Personal loot has no place in D2, and yes it’s frustrating to feel like “you never get to snatch anything because something something etc.”. Buuuuuut THAT’S a huge defining chcaracteristic of Diablo. Controlling loot drops was done with WoW. Aside from wiping, the need for guild structured raids exists because of shared loot. Can you imagine if everyone got their own personal full raid drop in WoW? Dead economy, dead community. Making a multiplayer game that rewards solo-play as equally as group play is a waste of time and totally counterproductive.

D2’s drop rates are fine as is (YES, high runes are omg rare and yes, most elite set/uniques that are necessary are rare), but everyone being able to farm up all their own crap whether grouped or solo like in D3 will kill D2:R. Perhaps not instantaneously, but it’ll certainly relegate the appeal of D2 to the likes of some old retro novelty found in 1980’s era arcades.

[south park reference]
"Hey D2:R is here! …aaaaand it’s gone. :"