What makes the item system so bad?

[Archon_Wing]

Nothing, except hoard more gold in the event something interesting pops up. The time spent to gather said amount of gold isn't worth it imo, at the very moment.

Well, then, aren't we back to what I said initially? I wasn't trying to be insulting. I really mean it: If playing a game where you kill stuff in order to find or buy marginal upgrades isn't doing it for you right now, then why play? Because that's what Diablo is, and always has been.

Well, you would have been right pre-1.04.

It's changed though. There's alternate methods of progression besides gear, and the whole killing monsters bit is an example. I can still find other parts of the game better and not like the itemization.

I guess we've been playing differently. Sure, I love loot, but I'm much more interested in finding exciting items that stand out. Hell, I bought a Horadric Hamburger just because it's something else. Legendaries also help mitigate this boring item issue.

I'm really glad that the AH shows you what you sold. Before I switched to hardcore for a while, I sold my old, more crit heavy gear on the RMAH. I really couldn't tell you the items, or what they were called beyond "This was a yellow item that contained resists, primary stats, crit hit, and vitality"

It just doesn't lead to crazy awesome items to dream for. Improved yellow #2536 isn't going to give me the same fascination when I was seeking to and eventually complete say, the Heart of the Oak Runeword in Diablo 3.

It's why the paragon system, while simple, and doesn't solve the problem of repetitious gameplay was applauded. It's a lofty goal that's arguably a waste of time, but it's something that you can easily work for just by playing the game and know that it's going to something that isn't at the mercy of the RNG.

If I wanted to summarize Diablo, it's a slot machine. It needs to have a dream, no matter how unrealistic that can come true. And it must be all shiny and stuff.

It would be true that a true perfect roll in every slot as am uber item, would be so rare to be practically impossible, but I'm fine with that level of item to be unattainable, if it were merely possible. I don't care as long as I can mix and match the traits that I would want.

Are the traits you would want idiosyncratic? Because if they're the same as everyone else's, then the good gear would have gotten rarer, not more common. (Unless you're talking about adding affixes without balancing the game around them, in which case, you're just going to end up with massive gear inflation.)

If you added one affix, it wouldn't make uber gear unattainable, just rarer than it is now. Two affixes, rarer still, and so on until you get so many affixes that the question becomes which traits a piece *doesn't* have.

How many affixes should gear have? I think 6 is already way over the top. Cut down the number, and gearing choices become more interesting, and pieces more specialized.

-Jester

Well, we can't really go back on it now without wrecking the value of everyone's gear now. Maybe in the expansion. And I don't feel 6 is over the top since there's already so many I consider mandatory. I'm convinced it's too little through playing the game. For the reasons of balance and interest it would make sense that new traits would have to be added, or even allow certain things to stack twice.

It's my feeling that the characters need more power, or at least present the illusion of such. Before 1.04 there were mostly nerfs of both players and the monsters making the action more dry. 1.04 though certainly had other amibitions.