One of the things I loved about the pre-expansion diablo was that for the most part everyone was using different gear, and people got really excited over the good rares which were almost never identical
I think it’s fine to have craftable items like rune words that give you a predictable set of good stats; or have good uniques - but I still think rares should have the potential to be the best items in the game
I think the development team should go through each of the different item types - see what unique or runeword is massively overused and see what can be done to tweak the spawning stats of rares of that type so they have the potential to be better, even if it’s quite rare
That way we dont have everyone running around with nearly completely identical gear, and a fully decked out player could strive to replace their uniques and runewords with top tier rares
5 Likes
I think uniques and sets (bonuses included) should be on par with rune words. That isn’t the case.
I have seen some rares that are flat out amazing, but they are… rare. 
2 Likes
funny enough, the items you don’t see on the char sprite (gloves/boots/jewelry) are the ones most viably replaced with rare or crafted versions. so i see your point. problem is that weap/shield/armor/helm is where all the +skills comes from, which rares do not provide besides some circlets + pelts which can roll better stats than, for instance, shako.
What lumpus said. Runewords shouldnt dominate.
Yes they are super expensive, some are more than needed as well, but they shouldn’t be so OP, since they give auras or tele etc.
They have tried this before in D2 and D3. It always goes back to Blizzard buffing uniques as the player base demands it. I personally this it’s an interesting idea but it’s objectively unpopular. Right now there is good balance with some of the slots being potentially good for rares.
You should see these boots I have they are nuts…. Tri res big rolls with mf. I wish the mf roll could be a bit higher tho
Would love a patch that rebalances rares.
maybe take off a couple of the unnecessary variables on underused items like (+Stanima, Heal stanima, or the silly 4 different tiny psn dmg chances into 1 variable) For slightly better chance for useful mods.
The chance of getting the etheral+fools+high ED roll is way too low when you have 30 different rolls possible, and 35 of them are useless. Getting rid of the stupid/useless different variables of the same element would maybe open up more possibilities.
Same with armors, rare armors must roll pretty much perfect, with the most expensive jewels to even be looked at. Maybe bump the mod variables slightly? (15-20 str possibility changed to 20-25, or 10-30% fire res goes to 30-50%)
I know im talking like im some kind of developer, but a slight number crunch would be appreciated, the game was so much more interesting when most of your items were rares.
2 Likes
Agreed. This game was at its best when Uniques and GG Rare’s were the top of the mountain and actually made farming for them 10x more enjoyable than the hunt for HR’s and oh look, a Lightsabre, meh…
they already are. it’s entirely possible for the game to roll rares that make best-in-slot uniques and runewords look like trash. when an item is dropped and RNG determines it to be of “rare” quality, it can then roll up to three prefixes and three suffixes, for up to six different “effects” on the item. that’s in addition to any special modifiers it could have as a base white item.
for instance, a grand scepter that has +3 to zeal while being a white base item, can also roll six more affixes, and will also have the +50% damage to undead from being a blunt weapon.
this means a rare grand scepter can roll sockets, + to individual skills, +to pally skills, extra damage to undead, chance to cast a skill or effect on striking, and enhanced damage percent.
it can also roll ethereal on top of that, giving it even more damage, and if it’s socketed you can slap a zod rune in there. if it’s got 2 sockets, you can slap a zod run, and a hel rune, and use that sucker at an even lower level or with lower stats than you normally would.
i’ve seen some utterly AMAZING rares in the game.
1 Like
Rare items usually are the most expensive. I do think that 1.10 runewords ruined this game balance.
I can get an Uber capable paladin without ever magic finding anything, just runewords and crafted items.
They are just most ppl are d3 scrubs with no clue beyond what Mr llama told them
2 Likes
Are they not already? Most GG builds will use at least a few rare items (and I suppose we can include Crafted items in the Rare items category as they serve the same/similar purpose). The amount of rares I’ve sold for like a Lo-Ber rune, that weren’t even particularly GG all things considered, is more than I can count on my fingers. The only “problem” with rares is that the truly worthwhile and valuable ones are…well…rare.
Go figure.
If you like rares due to the randomness of the item, then try PoE. That game has tons of uniques, but 97% of them are garbage. Many have terrible negative stats, like “all your curses reflect back on you” to counter-balance whatever benefits they give. A typical end game character has all yellow items, maybe one unique which is used as what they call a “build enabler” because maybe it gives +2 maximum golems which you really need if you have a golem build. But otherwise, it’s all just rares. That’s because their deep crafting system is all about rerolling to get perfect or near perfect rares, and people would lose interest in the crafting if the uniques were BiS everywhere.
In this game, I think a perfect or near perfect rare (99%) should be BiS in most cases. While uniques and runewords are just behind. Which is fine since perfect and near perfect rares are nigh impossible to get. Even in PoE where you can reroll literally thousands of times you’re lucky if the best permutation was 90% of maximum theoretical stats for that item type. Here, it’s even harder.
That sounds stupid glad I don’t play something lame like that
It’s not lame. It just isn’t appealing for everyone. Anyone who really enjoys item crafting is going to like PoE best of all arpg’s. If that’s what you like. If you’d prefer to wait on a low drop chance to get a BiS item that needs no alteration after you acquire it, then you’re going to prefer D2 or another arpg. Which is also what I prefer. I like uniques because they have properties that can’t be found on other items. And I found POE’s crafting to be grueling at times, spending hours to re-roll an item thousands of times, and if unlucky, going through orbs that took me months to farm, to get one really good end game rare. But some people love it.
Bear in mind that PoE has some other nice qualities, like having more build diversity than any rpg in history. There are hundreds of viable builds in that game. I even came up with my own build, a build suggested by no youtubers or websites, and it was a great build. Three years after the game was released.
I also enjoyed the fact that the end game content is way more challenging than in D2. Basically D2 has the best itemization ever, complimented by a low drop chance. Because I’m a loot hound, it’s kept me hooked. But honestly, it’s outclassed by other rpg’s in nearly every other area.
Yes and no
Everything should have its role
Magic: best tier affix but also material for crafting where magic affixes have a chance to be retained in the crafting process
Rare: best item made of basic affixes. Only random source of 6 affixes (Unique,set,rw being predetermined)
Unique: provider of Unique and/or build enabling affixes
Set: should feel like Pre-determined rare items but that synergize with one another
Runeword: should not be best in slot due to its ease of access and predetermined nature. But it sure should not be specific weapon restricted
1 Like
some of the most powerful items in this game are rare items lol,its just a matter of rolling one of these GG items
i disagree, not not entirely
rares CAN be very good… but the things is most of the “best” attributes simple cant spawn on rares… they can ONLY spawn on pre-determined items like sets uniques and runewords
if u spend the time to look at magic prefex and suffixs
you will see “why”
its hard for rares to meet uniques or runewords
http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/magic/
but more importantly
http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/magic.shtml#sma
tons of the best attributes simple cant spawn on magic or rares
most notably crushing blow and deadly strike.
also what u want exists… its called “classic”…
Agree. Meanwhile AR system should be improved because most interesting functions of rare weapon are activated by phy attack. It’s a pity that Blizzard team made so many cool images on rare gear but everyone’s turning to runewords.
I agree OP, even though there are some slots that rares can still be BiS in such as amulets, circlets, rings, boots but what happen to weapon slots, chests, belts, necro wands, sorc orbs etc? The item hunt would be much more interesting if you knew you could find a BiS rare sorc orb or a BiS necro wand instead of using HOTO or death’s web. I like death’s web though its one of the few uniques that didn’t become obsolete.
Regardless runewords have definitely removed the variety of options that SHOULD be in the game. We don’t really have BiS rare chests, weapons, necro wands, sorc orbs anymore because runewords are too strong.
I think when they made runewords back in the day they were thinking of them in a way that they would be so rare that of course they should make them overpowered. But I think they underestimated how much people can no-life video games.
But here’s some examples of BiS rares etc
