So my main is a LoD WoL monk
for fun, I decided to try out a LoD HoTa barb… and a primal Blackthorne’s Jousting Mail dropped
so uuh, I have it un-identified in my chest, will it be smart rolled into Monk stats (IE roll +650 dex)
or is it already predetermined to be smarted rolled into barb stats (+650 str)
I suppose if I’m lucky and it rolls resist all and fire damage, I can just reroll the STR to be Dex… but that seems rather unlikely
I think it’s determined on the drop, you can’t change the outcome. As far as I know unidentified items work different than Caches, so you can not really make them tailored to the other classes. No harm in trying though; at worst, you get a Primal pants and you would reroll a stat for your liking at the end.
I’m 99% sure this is the correct answer, though there always exists the chance I am incorrect.
But from what I recall, Loot 2.0 basically made it so the item’s stats are determined at time of generation (ie, “dropping”) in order to specifically ensure “Smart Loot” actually pays attention to class played upon generation. Though, it’s worth noting that Smart Loot by design isn’t always smart; it could potentially roll Dex even though it dropped on a Barb, but the odds are very low.
My personal opinion, though? I’d just roll with it, to turn a phrase. Once you get to the point where you can reliably run GR’s above 100, main stat actually ironically becomes UN-desirable for many builds because you can just augment it on there from high level leggo gems. But of course, it depends on the build.
Was 99% sure it was predetermined on drop (so str for you unless smart drops gives you different), but didn’t want to stick my foot in my mouth, so did a quick test:
Killed Malthael with my dh and got a St Archews, Leorics ring, and Rechel’s ring (all 3 drop regularly for each class and with that class’s main stat)
Left unid’d
Put in stash
Switched to barb
Upon id’ing with barb, all 3 rolled dex
so ya, it is predetermined.
You can play around a bit with bounty caches, they will usually roll items with main stat corresponding to class that open them (technically it is “drop” when you open them).
Still the 2nd Primal you get from drops (not Kadala AFAIK) can be for any class.
I got a Barb Primal on my Crusader and a Necro one on my Wiz that way.
Since I’m relatively new to d3, I actually read up on it. It’s determined when it drops so it can’t be abused by some consoles which could play the RNGame instead. And it’s the same for PC.
I would have been inclined to disagree with you. It seems I tried this many Seasons ago, with an alternate Character of a different Mainstat from my main Character, and received items appropriate for my main Character. So, I decided to test this… just now.
I loaded up my Solo Season 34 Demon Hunter. I picked an Act where I had the least amount of Bounty Mats. (Act 5). With the Altar fully unlocked I received two Bounty Caches. I put them in my Stash.
I then switched to my alternate Crusader and let him open the two Bounty Caches. He received:
| # | Item | Type | Attribute | Class Specific | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2x | Helltrapper | Hand Crossbow | Dexterity | Hatred Regeneration | ||||
| 1x | Salvation | Crusader Shield | Strength | Wrath Regeneration | ||||
| 1x | Death’s Bargain | Pants | Strength | None | ||||
| 1x | 2-Hand Rare | Axe | Strength | None | ||||
| 1x | Rare | Belt | Strength | %Punish Damage |
The Helltrappers are Bounty-specific Legendary Hand Crossbows, so it’s no surprise they rolled with Dexterity and Hatred Regeneration. Death’s Bargain is also a Bounty-specific item. However, I was surprised that this and the rest of the items rolled with Strength. And some with Crusader-only Properties. The Bounty-specific Salvation rolling with Strength and Wrath Regeneration wasn’t a surprise because of it being a Crusader Shield.
But, it seems you are correct.
I am now inclined to use a Mark Twain quote that @yessquire recently posted in these forums:
“The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened.”
Not so fast, young Padawan! 
Kidding aside, I think I read that originally, items “rolled” when IDing them. Which was abused by Console players which could disconnect and re-ID if they didn’t like the result. And then it was changed to “roll” when dropped - for all systems.
IOW: Things mighta been as you remember and might’ve changed later on.
Cheers! 
I’m not following you.
I thought we were talking about whether items are determined when receiving the Bounty Caches or when opening the Bounty Caches. And IDing them would not account for the Rare items since they don’t need to be IDed.
I’ve never played on console. So, I don’t know how that works.
From what I discovered, it appears that Bounty Caches work much like Haedrig’s Gift.
(But, I appreciate you trying to “cheer me up”. 
)
If I understand things correctly, Bounty Caches entered this conversation just a few posts ago and the original question was about general item drops. And that’s what I was hinting at, although a bit too implicitely I guess.
Got’cha.
It might have been less confusing if you had replied to the OP. 
Noooooooo!! The resident ABM was in seriouzz troublezzz and needed my helpzz. 
On the console, the items you get from Bounty Caches are determined upon opening. Thus, people save scum over and over until they get that RoRG or the Guardian’s recipe, etc.
And I doubt it works differently than the PC.
But once the items are created, the stats are generated, even if the item itself is unidentified. Thus, if you get an item as a Barbarian, it’s most likely going to have Barbarian stats, regardless of what character you identify it as.
And I know Alexismad verified this already. But it’s also true as far as the actual stats. Because the item itself has the same level stats, regardless if you id it with a level 70 character or a level 1 character.
From what I recall, it’s actually an XML string, and at one point, people could identify what stats an item was going to have, to know what to buy and sell from people, back in the early days. They’d have you link it to them in chat, figuring you’d only see the item dialog, where they’d get the necessary info to know if it was worth buying in the first place.
It’s weird they even kept unidentified in the game anymore, it serves no real purpose.
POE has some recipes where it matters or is used but on this game all it is is a flag on an already rolled item that hides the stats. With how they made it cost nothing to remove it, it is largely just a pointless step and waste of everyone’s time.
I’m ambivalent about it, myself. On the one hand, you are technically correct in that in the D3 we have now, it’s entirely irrelevant. On the other hand, it doesn’t bother me that it’s in there, mainly because there’s so many other things I view as more important, and more impactful, that I wish they’d change. (Altar in NS? Seasons not getting blipped? Actual PVP? Playable on Mac? Etc.)
They removed it with Diablo 4 thankfully.
And unidentified items made sense back in Diablo 1, when you could wear unidentified items, and items could also have negative as well as positive stats.
Items become rolled at the drop. But sometimes you can get items rolled for other class. I.e. with dex class get str or int in main stat.
Class specific items will roll with the stats that class uses, which is why Helltrapper had dex/hatred. Any item that is not class specific follows the 85/15 smart loot rules where it has an 85% chance to be smart loot for the character that the item drops for (caches “drop” items on opening, they don’t actually have the items in them prior to that from a server/storage perspective), and a 15% chance the item will roll with a randomized but still class specific set of affixes. All sources of loot work this way, but only caches result in loot specific to the character class opening the cache (subject to the 85/15 rules of course).
Console uses the same loot system PC uses. Disconnecting didn’t allow rerolling an item because once it’s dropped it’s predetermined. The only items you could manipulate on either platform come from caches, and to “redo” those you’d need to save scum, requiring a PS+ subscription as PS4 and PS5 users cannot backup individual game saves otherwise, only entire game libraries + save data. PS3/PS4 allowed for save file editing through illicit services, but that was the only real way to actually cheat on console. PS5 users can’t do this because of the encryption and save locking that the PS5’s OS uses.
That’s the reason D4 auto-IDs once you pick up the item. It’s unidentified (shows only the item class name) while on the ground until it’s picked up, where it then shows the full details of the item. D3 could have been patched to have this functionality if they wanted to. At the very least it’d be nice if the ID process was brought back down to what the original “object” channel timing was, which was 0.75 seconds.
You’re thinking about Xbox. PS4 & PS5 can backup their games to USB drives, whereas Xbox doesn’t allow this. Xbox you can only backup to the cloud.
(Strangely, the PS3 allowed for Saved Game Locking, determined by the game, but almost no game actually used this.)
PS4 and PS5 don’t allow per game save backup except to the cloud. PS5 goes a step further and encrypts those saves on the system. PS4’s mechanism allowed for illicit save editing services, which is why the PS5 uses strong encryption for saves.
Star Ocean 4 used it. It meant that unless you made multiple copies of your in-game save to different slots, if you didn’t have PS+ you were boned for backups since save locking prevented individual backups. Rather stupid that a single player game had that lockout. It didn’t make Squeenix many fans, that’s for sure, especially given just how crash prone the PS3 SO4 game was.