From what I have seen from people who responded to the D4 Quarterly Update Thread of June 2020 here on the forums, as well from some major Diablo and ARPG YouTubers, the consensus seems to be that D4’s items and affixes are kinda underwhelming, or either average or below average, which is an assessment I share.
So I thought we, the players and the community could come here together and collect some ideas and suggestions affixes and how items could work, or at least something that the D4 devs could take inspiration from and give it their own twist.
=======================
Affixes
Okay, here is a list of ideas for affixes:
Offensive Affixes
° +x-y [single elemental] damage
- physical
- poison
- bleeding
- fire
- frost
- lightning
- arcane
- holy
- shadow
° x% increased [single elemental] damage
(aka physical, poison, bleeding, fire, frost, lightning, arcane, holy, shadow, etc)
° x% increased material damage
Material Damage = Physical, Poison, Bleeding
° x% increased elemental damage
Elemental Damage = Fire, Frost, Lightning)
° x% increased occult damage
Occult Damage = Arcane, Holy, Shadow
° pierce through x% of enemies armor
° pierce through x% of enemies energy shield
° pierce through x% of enemies resistances (pierces through all resistances)
° pierce through x% of enemies [single elemental] resistance
° pierce through x% of enemies material resistance (physical, poison & bleeding)
° pierce through x% of enemies elemental resistances (fire, frost & lightning)
° pierce through x% of enemies occult resistances (arcane, holy & shadow)
° x% increased overall damage
° x% increased base weapon damage
° x% increased innate skill damage
° x% increased melee damage
° x% increased ranged damage
° x% increased spell damage
° x% increased minion damage
° x% increased damage against elites
° x% increased damage against non-elites
° x% increased damage against enemies in melee-range
° x% increased damage against enemies outside of melee-range
° x% increased damage against distant enemies
° x% increased damage against [specific monster type]
(aka undead, beast, demon, human, drowned, etc)
° x% increased attack speed (community suggestion: maybe separate between attack and casting speed)
° x% increased damage of damage over time effects
° x% increased damage while healthy
° x% increased damage while wounded
° x% increased damage against healthy enemies
° x% increased damage against wounded enemies
° x% increased area of effect *1
° x% area damage *2
° x% splash damage *3
° x% chance to overpower *4
° x% critical hit chance *5
° x% increased damage against CC’ed enemies *6
° x% crushing blow chance *7
° x% death blow *8
° x% multistrike chance *9
° x% twinstrike chance *10
° x% spell echo chance *11
° x% empower chance *12
*1 increases the Area of Effect of e.g. the detonation radius of a Fireball, makes the cone of Upheaval broader, increases the AoE of Whirlwind, Pulverize, etc, or also adds additional missiles to skills like Multishot
*2 similar to how it works in D3, but with a limit of how many targets can get effected: deal x% of the initial hits damage to an enemy to up to ~5 enemies that are within 10 yards of the initial hit
*3 deals that amount of damage in a 12 yards radius to all enemies around the first enemy you hit with a melee attack (melee weapons/attacks only)
*4 your attack can't be blocked, dodged, or parried & deals more damage (and maybe it also will not be effected by resistances, or pierces through energy shield, etc)
*5 chance that an attack deals 100% increased damage
*6 x% increased damage against slowed and chilled enemies, and double or triple that amount against enemies under a Hard CC Effect like stun, freeze, charm, blind, etc
*7 target looses x% of its current health – reduced on elites & bosses, and reduced in higher difficulties and also reduces the more players are in the party
*8 instantly kill enemies below a threshold, e.g. 17% death blow = death at 17% life)
*9 chance to make the same attack 2 or 3 times in a row within the same time it would take for the initial attack to finish, for no additional resource cost
*10 if you dual wield, attack with both weapons at once at the same time
*11 cast the same offensive spell again at the targeted spot after ~1-1.5 seconds for no additional resource costs
*12 skill deals xx% more damage/does xx% more healing/is xx% more efficient, but also costs zz% more resource (e.g. 30% increased damage, but also 15% increased resource costs)
Defensive and Healing Affixes
° x% increased innate defense
(an increase to either energy shield, life, all res, evasion, armor, depending on what the innate defense is of the armor, see below at the end of this post for more info)
° +x maximum life
° +x maximum energy shield
°* +x armor
° +x evasion rating / dodge chance
° +x to all resistances
° +x to [single elemental] resistance
° +x to resistance x and y (each at 1/2 of their amount)
° +x to resistance x, y and z (each at 1/3 of their amount)
° +x to material resistances (physical, poison & bleeding)
° +x to elemental resistances (fire, frost & lightning)
° +x to occult resistances (arcane, holy & shadow)
° +x life per second
° +x life per attack
° +x life per kill
° +x life per y resource spend
° +x life when you get hit
° +x life when you block an attack
° +x life restored from health potions
° increases all sources of healing by x% (maybe aside from health potions)
° gain x life per second while under the influence of a CC
° health potions have their cooldown reduced by x%
° health potions have +1 charge
° +x energy shield per attack
° +x energy shield per kill
° x% increases energy shield recharge rate
° x% reduced energy shield recharge delay
° fortify for x per attack
° fortify for x per kill
° fortify for x per y resource spend
° fortify for x when you get hit
° fortify for x when you block an attack
° fortify for x when you drink a health potion
° x% increased block chance
° x% reduced damage taken from blocked attacks
° x% reduced damage taken
° x% reduced damage taken from elites
° x% reduced damage taken from non-elites
° x% reduced damage taken from melee attacks
° x% reduced damage taken from ranged attacks
° x% reduced damage taken from spells
° x% reduced damage taken from enemies in melee-range
° x% reduced damage from enemies outside of melee-range
° x% reduced damage taken from distant enemies
° x% reduced damage taken from damage over time effects
° x% reduced damage taken from [single monster type]
(aka undead, beast, demon, human, drowned, etc)
° x% reduced damage taken while healthy
° x% reduced damage taken while wounded
° x% reduced damage taken from healthy enemies
° x% reduced damage taken from wounded enemies
° x% increased armor/resistances/dodge chance/etc while healthy
° x% increased armor/resistances/dodge chance/etc while wounded
° x% CC resistance (reduces duration Hard CC Effects have on you and reduces Slow)
° x% faster block rate
° x% faster hit recovery
° +x maximum stagger (character specific stagger meter like bosses have, that micro-stun your char when the bar is full)
° x% less stagger gained when hit
Other Affixes
° +x to all attributes
° +x to offensive attribute
° +x to maneuverability attribute
° +x to defensive attribute
° +x to resource management attribute
° +x to class skills
° +x to [single elemental] skills (e.g. fire, physical, etc)
° +x to defensive skills
° +x to healing skills
° +x to e.g. Shapeshifing Skills (and similar things)
° +x to e.g. Major Destruction Skills
° x% increased buff duration
° x% reduced debuff duration
° chance to parry a melee attack (melee weapon only)
° chance that missile pierces (ranged weapon only)
° chance to stun/knockback/taunt the target (melee weapon only)
° burn x% of targets resource on hit
° reduces enemies healing by x% for x seconds when you hit them
° reduces enemies healing by x% for x seconds when they hit you
° slows enemies movement speed by x% when you hit them
° slows enemies movement speed by x% when they hit you
° x% increased CC duration on enemies
° x% cooldown reduction
° x% reduced resource costs
° increases your maximum resource by x%
° increases resource generation/regeneration by x%
° +x thorns
° x% increased movement speed
° transform xx% of [element -a-] damage into [element -b-] damage
° +1 point to [random class specific passive talent]
Bonus Affixes
(a separate category of non-combat related affixes that do not take away spots for offensive, defensive, or other affixes)
° x% increased chance of finding better magic items
° x% increased amount of gold dropped
° x% increased shrine and pylon duration
° x% increased XP gained
° increases pickup radius by x yards
° increases light radius by x yards
° indestructible
Cursed/Detrimental Affixes
A feature from Diablo 1.
Maybe some items are cursed, which means they have +1 Detrimental Affix, like “10% reduced armor”, “10% reduced attack speed”, “loose x life per second while in combat”, etc, but they also have +1 additional Normal Affix.
The Detrimental Affix could appear at the bottom of the affix list and be in a red color, while the additional normal affix is simply displayed just like the others.
Legendary Affixes
If there is interest, I also have written down a basic “blueprint” for how to make some interesting legendary affixes, that can involve this kind of structure (but legendary affixes don’t have to be limited to that):*
=======================
I also have some more general thoughts on items, particularly the Defense Affix/Bonus that spawns on armor pieces, and on Rare Items.
Rare Items
This is gonna be shot: rare items should be able to have up to 6 affixes, which would make them feel more beefy. Just having 4 affixes on rares, makes them feel a bit underwhelming.
Furthermore, the Legendary Consumable that adds a legendary affix to rare items kinda blurs the lines between rare and legendary, an dso I thought it might be better to let this consumable work more like an Exalted Orb from PoE, which adds a random normal affix to a rare item, and you can place up to 3 of these orbs on a rare.
That would improve rare items, but also keep the distinct identity of legendaries and rare items.
Defense
Currently, every piece of armor in D4 has Defense. How Defense works is not totally clear at this moment, but I assume that it works like flat number that translates into a perceptual damage reduction (e.g. 4000 Defense = 25% Reduced Damage Taken).
This is very streamlined and simplistic, which in this case is nothing good. Here you could do what Blizzard has always done best: stealing someones idea and improve upon it.
Look at PoE. In PoE, there is Cloth Armor (Caster Armor) that gives Energy Shield (a second layer of life, that quickly replenishes itself after not having taken damage for a while), Leather Armor, which gives Evasion Rating (aka Dodge Chance) and Heavy Plate Armor which gives Armor (physical damage reduction)
Now why not improve upon this idea in D4? Instead of each piece of armor giving Defense, it could look like this:
° Cloth/Light Armor Type 1 = +x maximum Energy Shield
° Cloth/Light Armor Type 2 = +x maximum Life
° Leather Armor Type 1 = +x Dodge/Evasion Rating / Dodge Chance
° Leather Armor Type 2 = +x to All Resistances
° Chain Mail/Medium Heavy Armor = +x Armor(*)
° Plate Armor/Heavy Armor = +x Armor(*) + flat physical damage reduction on top of that + reduced movement speed
(*) = Armor could give percentual physical damage reduction, or something else that fits, like x% reduced to all damage + x% reduced physical damage (or whatever else fits)
That already makes these the defensive modifiers and the items itself much more interesting.
I hope the devs at least have a look at this and maybe take inspiration from that list of they desire to do so.
Now I would like that the rest of the community can share their thoughts, ideas and suggestion below. Hopefully the devs take notice.
TY!
EDIT: Typos + structure & paragraphs
EDIT2: included suggestions from other posters
many more edits…