I know this is a subject that has been talked about a lot. I will now give an updated point of view as to my thoughts on how D4’s itemization should be and it might be a little long winded so hear me out.
Now I don’t have any special skills to give you pictures so I will use words to convey the message as best as I can do.
After much thought about the subject I have come to the conclusion that there is just too much random in itemization in D3 and I don’t want that for D4. I know that Diablo is a game about randomization. But not about randomization as the only means to keep people playing as D3 is doing and it looks like D4 will do the same.
D4 like D3 will be treating legendaries, sets, and rune words like rares. All just to keep players playing isn’t a good idea. More so if you will truly have a ton of viable builds that can clear the highest difficulty of endgame content. If you have one build that has dozens of variations that change how the build is played then you don’t need to threat all items as glorified rares and magic items.
Rune words: I like the idea of trigger rune words that can be inserted into magic an rares to get their trigger affect. But I think that Blizz need to make socketable white items. Then you can put the same trigger rune words that would create a definite rune word that would be similar to D2’s rune words in color of name and border if you want.
This triggered rune words in white items will give you fixed affixes along with the triggered affect.
Other rune words in white items based on the progression system can do a whole lot more than just triggered affects. The sky could very well be the limit here.
Sets: Again I feel that these in D4 currently will be treated like a glorified rare. That shouldn’t be the case. They should be about giving you something that rune words don’t give you and things that even other non set legendaries give you. Their set bonuses could be similar to what you see in D2 as a guide to inspire you to make your own set bonuses that isn’t about combat power but will give you something that doesn’t come on other pieces of gear.
An idea that would hopefully inspire Blizz and maybe the readers is that I will use the boots from the Waste set to give you an idea. Based off of the text alone I would state the following as special affixes on those boots that normally don’t come on other pieces.
- Increased cold resistance by 25%
- Cold skills penetrate 15% monster resistance. Here I am not wanting immunities just high resistances for the monsters.
- Cold skills chill the monsters reducing their move and attack speed by 30%.
Let’s say that you want to make a class set for the sorceress for cold spells. Well the set could have a few pieces that gives her the ability to change physical damage to cold damage. Then the full set (not necessarily six pieces) could give her up to 50% physical damage as cold damage, along with a boost to cold resistance of up to 50% (all made up numbers of course).
Now here is the trade off with such a set you have to find other pieces that will make up for the loss in resistances of other damage types. Along with possibly skills and talents that could help make up for the loss.
Legendaries: Seems like they atm will be glorified rares again when they should have fixed affixes along with their legendary powers. It won’t hurt a bit to have them with fixed affixes. Some of the fixed affixes can be things that you normally don’t find on that piece of gear. Think The Witching Hours attack speed and crit damage here.
Mythic: If they still exist will be just a glorified rare with four legendary powers, which shouldn’t happen. They too should have other things that don’t normally come on other pieces of gear that are fixed on each piece.
Crafted gear: Here think something along the lines of D2’s Blood items. Where they have one to three set affixes and the rest are random. Again these should be about giving the player something that normally doesn’t come on other items.
Ultra rare magic and rare items: Here you would have hard to find magic and rare items that would be like D2 that would have properties that normally don’t come on those items that could be useful for a selected group of builds.
Hopefully I have given you the reader enough info to see where I am going with this. I want D4’s itemization to be about getting excited when that beam of light appears knowing that what you find will be useful, instead of another rock for Charlie Brown’s Halloween bag.
When the Mythic beams shows up, if they still exist, I want to be super hyped knowing that I have found something special instead of another rock like above.
Itemization should be about each tier having something special that it gives to the player. Let the player figure out what they want to use for their builds. Let them determine the true usefulness based on their build and how they want their build to play.
Do they want a strong cold resist sorceress that is tanky to physical damage go get that special set as I mentioned before and then put on the right items, skills, talents, etc… and you are good to go.
The idea of funneling players to where they are all wearing the same rares with legendary properties along with probably a few Mythic items if they exist isn’t a good idea. You are still thinking WoW itemization here and we need you to be thinking like D2, PoE, Grim Dawn, maybe even some last Epoch as well.
I know turn the floor to you the readers I want to hear your thoughts, suggestions. I will try to refrain from making too many comments here because I want D4’s itemization to be the best it can be drawing inspiration not only from Diablo games but other games as well. I hope that in the end D4’s itemization is something that will get me excited every time a beam of light appears, if they have them. Instead of thinking it is just another rock to avoid.
I do believe that if Itemization is done like I am saying then you won’t have that many problems. You will see all kinds of builds and gear setups that will give other players ideas for their own builds and gear setups.
