I am mainly a D2 purist: Keep D2 FFA Loot, not Personal Loot. But, if they did change it to Personal Loot only, or having an option to make games that are FFA Loot only, or Personal Loot only this is how it should be played out.
Personal Loot would not be the same as D3. In D3 everyone sees their own loot even if other players kill monsters/open chests/etc. before you. In D2 it would have to be implemented differently. It should follow the same rule as D2 in that the “total drops” are still the same. Meaning, during a full 8 player FFA Loot game if 10 uniques drop across all 5 acts Bosses(Andy, Dury, Meph, Diablo, Baal), the same amount of 10 uniques would drop if it was a full 8 player Personal Loot game, not x8 the amount for a total of 80 uniques. The same “total drops” would be for both types of Loot games. Only difference is Personal Loot would be random chance on who gets the 10 uniques.
Some might argue on people who would afk, leech, etc. and still get drops in these Personal Loot games. They could make it to where the game creator could set the level for drops to be given so that way low levels especially level 1’s couldn’t leech high end items. Or, they could implement a radius/hit monster for drops. In a Hell game if you are killing a unique/champion/Act Boss majority of the time a lower level especially level 1 isn’t right up on the monster/can’t get a hit in because too low attack rating. Once the monster/monsters die the lower levels wouldn’t have a chance for the random drop from the Personal Loot because they weren’t in the radius/hit monster.
So, I wouldn’t mind if they implement Personal Loot as long as “total drops” stay the same, and lower levels couldn’t leech items that they couldn’t get if they couldn’t kill the monster/monsters anyways. These are just some examples of Personal Loot, and I’m sure there are other ways. Roll like WoW. Timed so everyone can have a chance, etc. I am not a Personal Loot type of guy. I like FFA Loot that is currently in D2 because that is how it has always been, and it is just much more fun on who gets the loot. Makes the game more exciting. But, if implemented right, Personal Loot isn’t as bad as long as it’s not like D3’s Personal Loot! 