05-11-2003, 12:59 PM
Rares, especially weapons got significantly worse with D2X.
1) Affix pool cut. Some of the highest bonuses got left out for some kinds of items when compared to CD2
2) Affix pool dilution. This is the biggest offender. "Thanks" to tons of new affixes, many related to stupid charges and silly "extremely low chance to cast extremely useless spell at an extremely low level", getting a rare that is at least usable borders on impossible. I did a lot of magic finding in 1.09, and I've found perhaps 15 weapons actually worth using
3) Increased monsters HP, especially in Hell difficulty, meaning a lower damage weapon just doesn't cut in for most players
4) Competition from unique, set and high-end magic items (cruels)
On the other hand, rares are very, very good on several slots : gloves, boots, amulets/rings, circlets. For many builds, those slots are often much better with decent/good rares than with uniques.
1) Affix pool cut. Some of the highest bonuses got left out for some kinds of items when compared to CD2
2) Affix pool dilution. This is the biggest offender. "Thanks" to tons of new affixes, many related to stupid charges and silly "extremely low chance to cast extremely useless spell at an extremely low level", getting a rare that is at least usable borders on impossible. I did a lot of magic finding in 1.09, and I've found perhaps 15 weapons actually worth using
3) Increased monsters HP, especially in Hell difficulty, meaning a lower damage weapon just doesn't cut in for most players
4) Competition from unique, set and high-end magic items (cruels)
On the other hand, rares are very, very good on several slots : gloves, boots, amulets/rings, circlets. For many builds, those slots are often much better with decent/good rares than with uniques.