I believe the itemization in Diablo 4 is an epic failure.
It feels like the designers were trying to do a rehash of D3 itemization, when they should have been striving for D2, but better.
The only thing they got semi correct was the uniques.
Overall the items are a big let down, and here is why:
Level Restrictions:
Do not reflect the items power.
Hinder the ability to trade.
Prevent items from being used by alts.
Solution:
Replace level restrictions with attribute restrictions, but not just arbitrary or random values.
ex. A 2H Hammer has a higher strength requirement than a 1h sword etc. This is basic rpg stuff hereā¦
Listing the item power cheapens the hunt for interesting items. If I wanted to be an accountant I would work for H&R Block.
Hunting for a full set of Sigons just so I could give it to a freshly rolled Paladin or Barb was satisfying and added replayability.
This method would actually motivate me to want to unlock the requirements to use a specific item.
Stat RNG:
Overall the stats feel limited and not well thought out.
Restricting certain stats to specific items as a way to keep balance (Attack Speed only on gloves).
Receiving multiple +core skills on the same pair of gloves.
Sub-dividing stats feels like a cheap trick to make it look like more (Damage to Close/Distant/Injured).
Many useless stats (Potion Drop Rate, Slow Reduction, Lucky Hit: Chance to Slow) etc.
Solution:
Complete overhaul of stats and damage tables.
Item power breaks the RP wall. It is far to mechanical. Instead of looking for cool items, right away Iām looking for some accounting number.
Items should not give +skills multiple times on the same item.
Replace useless stats with more meaningful ones (DnD, NWN, D2, Grim Dawn, or PoE as a reference).
Item rarity:
Common items are not worth picking up.
Magic items are not worth picking up.
Drop rates on low quality rares is way to high (gives me a headache looking through it all).
Legendary items are not legendary.
Unique items that lack usefulness (Gloves without +skills, Boots without movement speed).
Uber uniques are impossible to find.
Solution:
Common items could be used as base items for crafting/runewords.
Magic items have only 1 stat, but that stat could roll 50%-100% higher than on rares. Allow Aspects to be placed on magic items.
Drop rates on rares need to be lowered across the board. The stats on the rares need to be more meaningful/higher quality.
Legendary items should be removed, and the Aspects should drop instead. Break them up into shards that need to be collected to form the Aspect.
Overall the uniques are good. Some of the uniques are not worth the sacrifice however. Benefit/detriment affixes could be used on some aswell.
Uber uniques should have an increased chance to drop from higher level content.
Another potential issue with itemization. The enchanter. The people who datamined affixes to develop an enchanting simulator believe they found a bug that effectively cuts the odds of getting most stats by >50%.
agree with you on a number of things here but especially like this idea. rares have already become the real gear hunt pieces so why not lean into it and divide aspects into a new system of item we can also farm. could add to replay value of end game content.
however the only item affix i would say is 100% useless is the shrine buff duration affix, that one just makes no sense. any others are either at least okay enough to be in the rotation or would only need very minor buff to be potentially viable in builds.
better items + better class skill balancing = more viable builds to branch into which i am down to see
But aspects are already a separate thing you can farm, they just appear on rare items. Iāve foundany legendary items with great stats I want to roll and re imprint to another aspect. Why remove the rare item base that carries the aspect? I donāt see this as a new innovative idea, just removing the rare item under the aspect gives us lessā¦
by farming aspects like this you are wasting 90% of what you find though. most aspects go straight in the garbage for me personally due to low quality so i would rather have a system where grinding a bunch of them out started to lead to me gaining something out of all of them instead of just the only benefit being it is now not taking up my bag space.
the item carrying the aspect is worth less because doing anything to work on it costs more gold, it being a normal rare is actually better for the player and a system for aspects that makes them dropping more rewarding is too.
I bet a season theme will introduce a crafting npc.
No Runeword items
How does runewords work? You farm some āmaterialsā (runes) and then you craft a bis-item with insane stats. Completely nullifies the basic kill-n-loot-for-items cycle.
The only reason people like runewords is because theyāre so overpowered and donāt want to play games on fair terms (ie: cheating).
Inability to trade for items
Add trading to a game and you have to lower droprates to compensate. Really bad.
I agree that set items and runewords can be OP if not carefully balanced. Maybe that is not the answer, but at least it would add an interesting factor to the itemization. If Blizzard has the best minds working on this Iām sure they could come up with something better. As of right now they missed the mark by a long shot.
but in d4, its the most boring thing about the game.
d2 let me play my wayā¦way more than d4(or d3)
runewords, rares, uniques, even crafted all had a place.
d4 is just all rares worth using are the same.
the uniques you want, you never find, and cant trade for them.
the whites and magics are useless after t2
world boss only spawns every 5.5 hours or something like that, and yet the loot is never worth it.
d2, a unique ring drops from hell Baal, you get a lil excited. d4ā¦its always garbage.
Ability to trade in an online game is a necessity. Youāre worried that the drop rates on the 99.9% trash items will be reduced? or how about the 7 copies of blood artisans cuirass maybe I would only get 3?
My Necro is lvl 98 havenāt had an upgrade with any relevance in over 30 levels, cant even find any rares with stats worthy of alt builds i had in mind.
Itemization in this game is trash and needs a FFX style overhaul. So i agree with everything the OP said.
Agreed, not having trade in a multiplayer rpg is a massive short coming. It encourages players to interact with one another. As the old saying goes āone mans trash is another mans treasureā. Gold farmers are going to find a way no matter what, why is Blizzard punishing the rest of us for it?