Hi all!
I’d like to stress how important it is to have nice, interesting and unique items in Diablo, as they play a big part on the power of a character and they represent one of the goals in game, the item hunt.
Here are a few ideas I find cool.
- Normal Items
The most common kind of item, they offer raw stats and have no enchantments on them. Weapons offer a range of damage and armor offer an amount of defense.
There are tiers of each type of item. The more you progress in the game and the tougher the monsters become, the more tiers are available to be found.
They can be used later in the game to imbue/enchant stats on them or crafting.
- Magic items
They are the blue items, they can have a prefix, a suffix or both taken from the affixes pool. The more you progress in the game the more affixes are available. Weapons and offensive slots have much more chance to spawn offensive affixes. Armor and defensive slots have much more chance to spawn defensive affixes.
- Rare items
Traditionally the yellow items. Scarcer than the blue magic items.
This items are superior to the magic items in the number of affixes they can spawn. Minimun 3, max 6. It’s mix of prefixes and suffixes with a minimum of 1 of each.
- Legendary items
Traditionally the golden uniques or orange legendaries. These items are very rare and have a unique set of affixes that might have a range in the values but are always the same. Some properties found on these items can’t be found in magic or rare affixes. Or maybe similar affixes can spawn in magic and rares but the value on these is not found in the range those affixes normally spawn in magic and rares. Or maybe it is a weapon that besides offensive stats have defensive stats too that normally aren’t seen on weapons.
- Ancient items
Similar to the legendary/unique items, probably more powerful stats and epicness, they are assembled from very rare parts and devices and materials found throughout the world. Assembling one should feel like completing a high end runeword in D2.
Example -> The Grandfather.
You need to find the hilt, the blade, a gem, and some oil/essence/blood and assemble them at a blacksmith for some amount of gold. Not easy at all to complete but the reward should be worth it without being game-breaking or being perceived as mandatory to do well.
Items like: Azurewrath, Windforce, Dreamflange, Lightforge, Wartraveler, Doombringer, Eaglehorn, Wizardspike, Cranium Basher, Harlequin Crest, Veil of Steel, Demonspike Coat, Naj’s Light Plate, Silks of the Victor, Mang Song’s Lesson, Jalal’s Mane…
Additionally and in similar fashion to the D3 follower lore or set dungeons, once completed a portal could spawn somewhere as long as you are wearing the item to learn more about the lore behind these items, their original owners, battles where they were used, etc.
- Soulbound items
These can be a subset of set/legendaries/ancient, or maybe even the announced mythic items. They have a base set of affixes and stats. Their true power develops the more you wear them and achieve milestones with them equipped, gaining new stats/affixes or upgrading existing ones. Only 1 milestone/goal active at a time. Once achieved the next one unlocks until you reach the last. They can be upgraded 3-4 times.
Milestones could be something like:
- Deal 3000 fire damage
- Kill 20000 fallen
- Take 2000000 lightning damage
- Finish 5 Tier 4 keyed dungeons
- Buy an item from every NPC in some area of the world
- Talk to every NPC in some town
- Pick up 40000000 gold
- Drink 500 potions
- Kill 100 monsters in 1 minute
- Kill 777 treasure goblins
- Spend 7 days travelling while mounted
- Kill every boss in an area
- Find and identify 50 legendaries
- Assemble 3 other ancient items
- Kill 30 different other players
- Agree a trade with 10 other different players
- Prevent 10000 damage
- Activate a shrine at night while raining on an odd day in certain dungeon
…
The progress attained through these milestones is reset if you equip them on another char.
- Set items
The green ones. Their rarity should be the same as legendary. They are items useful on their own but wearing more pieces of the same collection grant extra bonuses but nothing too crazy. Max 3-4 pieces per collection.
The affixes
Tiers of affixes for defensive, survivability, utility and offensive stats.
Weapons should have much higher chances to spawn offensive stats.
Armor pieces should have much higher chances to spawn defensive stats.
Pure caster weapons should have only stats related to casting and not melee weapon stats. (Sorc)
Hybrid caster weapons could have both melee and caster stats. (Druid)
Examples:
- +x to single attribute
- +x to all attributes
- +x to a single resistance
- +x to all resistances
- +x to defense
- +% dmg
- +x cold/fire/poison/lightning/… dmg (with actual effects)
- +x to a single skill
- +x to 2 skills
- +x to 3 skills
- +x to all skills/class skills
- +% to fire/cold/poison/lightning/… skill dmg
- +% increased attack speed
- +% increased projectile speed
- +% increased cast speed
- +% faster hit recovery
- +% movement speed
- +% health regeneration
- +x max health
- +% resource generation
- +x max resource
- duration to cc effects/debuffs on you reduced by %
- critical hits have a % chance to freeze for x seconds
- enemies you poison have their armor reduced by %
- burnt enemies lose 1% of their maximum/current health every second
- gain % increased armor when you are stunned/frozen/burnt
- ranged attacks grant you an absorb shield for % amount of the dmg dealt for 5 seconds
- attacks have a % chance to cast a determinate effect (item-only skills maybe)
- being damaged have a % chance to cast a determinate effect (item-only skills)
- socketed (x)
- % increased chance to find magic items (^__^)
- % increased gold find
- % dmg reduction
- % elemental dmg reduction/absorb
- % chance to fear/blind/stun/slow for x seconds on hit
- attacking enemies have their attack speed decreased by %
- …
…
Well, these are my ideas, I might develop more about them. Feel free to comment and add of your own.
Have a nice day.
