During the campfire they stated that:
Legendary Items → 3 affixes vs 4 now
Rare Items → 2 affixes vs 4 now
This is concerning to me. Many of my best items on my characters are items that I crafted from Rares. It was one of the things that I enjoyed most about D4 up to this point because the items are unique to me because I made them.
Now, it sounds like Rares may be worthless unless I am misunderstanding something. Will we be able to add our own affixes from crafting to bring the Rare item up to the level of a Legenday item like we can now? Or will the Rare forever be one full affix short of the Legendary? If the latter is the case then Rare items have basically become trash tier and on the level of whites and blues that are dumped asap. This will limit loot worthy of being looked at in World Tier 4 to Legendary items only.
Now, if a Rare drops now with only 2 affixes but you can add additional affixes to bring it up to the same level as a Legendary through a more costly path in term of time farming, money and mats then that is acceptable in that, if we choose to put in the effort we can still make a truly custom piece of gear out of a good rare.
I know that this will be a nearly total revamp of the item system but IMO it is unwise to discard something that was fun and rewarding from the game completely by making Rare items trash and that leaving Legendary items as the only worthwhile drops at higher levels.
Please let Rare and Legendary items have the same number of affixes with the difference being that Legendary items come with aspects and Rare items do not. Or allow us to use the manuals to add 3 affixes to Rare items which would require more effort to make them good. The aspect being included still makes Legendary items the more sought after loot.