At least for me, No items in d4 really get me excited when they drop,
Scrap d4 itemization and bring back D2 itemization and build upon it , including D2 style runewords.
Alternative idea if devs dont like this, bring in D3 Itemization
Itemization is not the problem with D4 (or at least not the brunt of the problem)
Crafting systems are (MW is mandatory and Tempering is well, tempering :P). BUT yes, in order to fix the crafting systems have to fix itemization (just a bit), so it’s a chicken & egg type of problem but to fix the chicken have to make eggs a bit better thing 
The solution is to add another “round” of baseline affixes which will roll baseline. i.e. simply “baseline wrap” itemization with items that were as used to be in loot 1.0 -ish, and make just a portion of items Temperable (add a hammer icon or whatever there is)
Then on top of that add a quantifier which will hint what the item’s value in a potential crafting system but not too obvious, for example:
- All chance-based affixes on this item roll 5% higher
OR - Damage-based affixes on this item cannot roll less than 30%
OR - All affixes on this item will roll 15% higher if not more than 4 affixes in total
OR (I actually like this version better cause it “hints” for the less affixes the better without going too blunt about it) - Total amount of sum of values on this item increased by 60% spread amongst all affixes equally
Stuff like that, and then last but not the least make MW, Tempering, and Imprint exclusive (so it’s a choice), that way players will “hunt” for good items for one or the other or the 3rd thing (not make items a “project” to complete)
Additionally if MW is no longer mandatory but an optional effort surprise drops will get more value immediately (not be like oh look, that’s a great 2GA Staff of Krom, oh wait, have to go do 15 rounds at horde to MW it :P)
The most important aspect of itemization systems are “clear and obvious impact” of individual affixes (therefore D4 itemization is not bad), the problem/s is/are that “crafting” is bad and is fully-mandatory
P.S.: I also talked about the “secrets of D2 itemization” (i.e. more along the likes of what makes a good itemization good) here https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d4/t/joint-effort-lets-fix-itemization/226313
And I still think that’s the best way to do it 
// itemization is not bad by itself, but has to be “wrapped” in a bigger context so that crafting systems get fixed
I honestly like the Rune system in D4 more. It is harmonizing with finding loot and i am all for options to use skills from other chars in my builds. It offers greeat opportunities for building a char. We need much more Runes though.
However here 
I agree 100%. D2 Loot is much much better then D4 loot.
D2 runewords need to stay in the past. 1.10 runeword powercreep was the worst evolution of D2.
I do agree D2 itemization is best in class but I dont see it. To many ppl would QQ they didnt get whatever streamer told them they needed.
I agree D4 itemization like D3 itemization is not exciting. It was designed to be accessible for smooth brain mobile gamers for good or bad.
i am not saying d4 itemization is like insane but really, aside from runewords, how much different is d2 itemization from d4?
desirable affixes on d2 gear (sans runewords): +ranks to skills, +life/mana, damage reduction, flat damage, faster attack/cast speed, faster hit recovery. idk. maybe arguably resists are more important.
D4 now has the same itemization as D3. You have your MS/Vit/other (often crit/vul). There isnt anything exciting or anything to “play around with”
D2 itemization did have damage on tuesday but it worked and was interesting.
D4 we dont even have basic conditional stats like LL/LS/Slow on hit/psn dmg ect…
D2 was also well balanced so you could create some really off the wall builds because of thr itemization where D4 is very linear.
You can streamline a game to the point it feels like a walking simulator which is how D4 feels now.
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I agree but it doesn’t require too much steps to fix
Step 1 => add about 20 “roll #4” affixes for yellow gear (made a list that should probably look something like this)
DoT per tick increased by Life per kill
Thorns increased by basic attack damage amount
Overpower damage [x ] increased by CC% duration bonus
Evade grants Overpower
CDR increased by DR%
Cannot be Dazed
Cannot be Vulnerable
25%/50% less elite affix damage taken
DoT can be stacked twice
Overpower occurs twice in succession
Lucky hits occur twice in succession
Lucky hit chance vs Elites & Bosses is doubled
Basic attacks ignore defenses and barriers
25%/33% of damage ignores defenses and barriers
And here are a few/several more (these are also non-standard rolls but only for blue items exclusive b.t.w.)
- 1-3% CC duration per 100 points of Str
- 1-3% damage vs CC per 200 points of Str
- 1-3% of LH per 100 points of Int
- 1-3% DoT per 100 points of Int
- 1-3% CDR per 200 points of WP
- 1-3% DR per 200 points of WP
- 1-3% Damage vs Elites per 200 points of Dex
- 1-3% AS per 200 points of Dex
- 1-3% MS per 200 points of Dex
Step 2 => drop these with an explicit restriction that cannot be tempered
Step 3 => add a quantifier which will “hint” best value of crafting use (Imprint vs Temper vs MW)
- All chance-based affixes on this item roll 5% higher
- Damage-based affixes on this item cannot roll less than 30%
- Sum of values on this item increased by 60% spread equally amongst all affixes
Step 4 => should’ve been step 1 b.t.w., make Imprint, Temper and MW exclusive (i.e. only do one per item)
Done
No dont get me wrong they are some good ideas but I dont see blizzard fixing itemization to make it interesting.
They wanted a 
co-op game anyone in life can pick up play and understand. Rod spoke about math being bad prior to loot 2.0 coming out. I just dont see them adding anything that adds complexity or excitement to the game when it comes to loot.
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The excitement vanished for me with season 4’s item rework.
What I miss in particular are the 4 affix slots on legendary items. Now, with only 3 slots, there is almost no randomness to produce a lucky find. It is hard to get excited for looking at the same few affix combinations all the time.
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Thats a really good idea to limiting items that can be master worked, Would love to see this implemented
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