But there were good items that you could trade for the uniques and runes that your build needed.
Ethereal bases. Uniques for other classes. Leveling gear. High-tier runes. Crafting materials. Set items. Mercenary gear.
In D4 you are just farming worse versions of your gear and you can brick it as well, which makes it feel bad.
Not to mention all rarities of items had possible rolls that could make them worth A LOT. Even blues.
And Non-Ladder (Eternal Realm) never got “reset” or had items force bricked by labeling them “Legacy”. Made some Pre-Patch items worth so much more if you happened to horde them.
Yes, the item system is worse in this game. The item system is also the reason this game cannot have a proper endgame. They will not give up the aspect system, though. Giving it up or greatly amending it is a necessary but not sufficient condition for fixing some majors flaws with the game.
Yeah I’m not sure what the goal was for loot in d4
But I have to say I’m starting to think d2’s itemisation was a flat out fluke…a perfect storm that’s never really been replicated in other arpgs
Not everyone wants to spend their playtime just doing trading. Gear of all rarities should drop at a sufficient rate for people to find it on their own actually playing the game instead of working the trade chat or RMT on third party sites.
Forget all that, back in D 2 I … you know what? (puts credit card away) I’ve said enough. 
Items that give access to skills and passives from other classes are a big thing that’s missing in D4.
It is a simple system with simple stats. There are a few things better in D3/D4. AS for example armor gives actual dmg reduction and not evade. Mages scale with weapon dmg.
So not everything got worse. But overall D2 is much more fun.
It wasnt even remotely as rare as current loot
The rare loot in D2 was very specific loot, that once it dropped, there was no RNG involved. The only RNG was in dropping or not, like uber uniques here
The problem with low ancestral drops is that the drop chance is very low, but there is also a high chance than once one drops, its useless
And the second problem is that you tierd two other different systems to it (max aspect rolls and GA) making the problem even worse
And even then, if you get an useful item, you can brick it with tempering
Don’t forget masterworking.
Loot in D2 was also rare not as rare as it is in D4! Come On Man don’t be such a suck up Fan Boi! 
They will ruin the game with their incessant crying about loot.
They will cry so much it will become like D3. Geared in 1 evening, upgraded after 2 days, 90% of people quit completely bored after 2 weeks in a 3 months season.
S6 is the Season where people are leaving the fastest
If you cant get the gear, people get bored and leave
S4 and S5 were the Seasons with the highest retention, and they were also the Seasons where it was easier to get items
People want to get loot in a loot based game. Shocking
What they mean is useful loot I believe.
I didn’t play D2. Hopefully I will play D2R with a buddy of mine if the price drops for coming holidays.
In about last 35 to 40 hours I played I didn’t get any items that would make me excited or add something to my build. As far as I understand you would probably get some interesting item in a similar time period in D2.
Be careful you will be hunt down by certain people.
As far as far can see this is an issue that has been shown time and again. When loot is too hard to come by, people leave. They think it doesn’t worth their time.
But for some reason blizzard choose to listen people with all the time in the world who says people leave because they get everything too fast and get bored.
No my friend most people have between 50 to 100 hours that they will give to any game. They will leave eventually.
If they have fun and able find items. They will stick around a bit longer trying a few classes and leave.
If they don’t find enough items for even one class they’ll most likely leave even quicker and don’t come back because of the bitter taste.
D2 didn’t have seasonal content for about 3 years. The intended way to play was the long game, so rarity made sense to a certain degree.
D4 is designed specifically to be played in 3 month seasons, with each one having a near-complete restart. Nothing should be exceedingly rare.
Its amazing how Blizzard keep listening to that kind of people, even when those people were the oens that made Blizzard made the mistakes that were S1 and S3
And the worst part is, Blizzard had the data showing S4 and S5 were the best recived Seasons, and were also the ones were you got items the easiest
The problem is, Blizzard doesnt really know how to design ARPGs anymore, so they choose who to listen to draw ideas from, and sometimes they listen to the wrong feedback
I love how some people talk about this game as if it were the Price Is Right game show.
The funniest thing is that those people aren’t grinding longer. They are literally just using their wallets to RMT for 3GA legendaries and 4GA uniques.
Of course people who pay for their gear don’t want gear acquisition to be more reasonable.
Thank you for the snarky comment at the end.
I agree with you but I got loot and geared up better this season than the last. I was not gold capped last season. I am this season. And gave 50B to friends. Gear is easier to get this season.
Why Cus I got tons of alt last season. That is why it lasted longer for me and I was not gold capped. Spiritborn ruined it by making it the only class to play. I have much better gear this season than last which I play from A-Z. And you will to if you run pit to 290
Don’t know what plan on playing but if it’s a Bowazon the best early to late weapon is a Buriza-Do Kyanon
Buriza-Do Kyanon
Two-Hand Damage: (82-99) To (139-412)
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 110
Required Dexterity: 80
Crossbow Class - Slow Attack Speed
+150-200% Enhanced [Damage