I wish rares would make a comeback

[Vash]

I remember when rares used to be so much better. Well, no. Rares actually haven't dropped in quality at all....it's just that the game got harder and uniques/sets got better while rares stayed the same. It's just kind of disheartening to know that in the current environment, if you wanted to be teh 1337 you'd have to use the exact same equipment as everyone else.

I miss being able to level up my character and using the money I find on the way to gamble for all the godly equipment I needed. Now I'd have to do countless boss runs and cut into my "real" playing time to hunt for items. Blizzard mentioned that gambling will yield better returns in 1.10. I hope that this is the change I am looking for.

[CorwinBrute]

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.

[Brista]

I hate to be gloomy but all we know is "gambling is better"

That might not mean rares are better

It could just be increased chance of set and magic items

I too really hope the affix pool improves not only for rares but for crafts too as well as these new tempered items if they make the final cut and if they are rare affix only like crafts

[Ruvanal]

I too really hope the affix pool improves not only for rares but for crafts too as well as these new tempered items if they make the final cut and if they are rare affix only like crafts

I would not recommend concerning yourself with the 'tempered' items. From my understanding of the post that Isolde used to describe them, I would assume that they will be for the modding community only. My understanding of them is as follows:

1 The 'tempered' items will not randomly appear in the game.
2 They use the same data structure as the rare/crafted item use.
3 When the game generates a 'tempered' item it does not call any of the functions that are used to put a random affix on the item.
4 from point 1 the only way to get one would be a cube formula and from 3 the item will appear 'blank' unless you explictly assign affixes to the item in the cube code for generating the item. The only randomness would be for affixes that have a varible range on one of the mods that makes up the affix (e.g. "Savage" gives dmg% of 66 to 80).
5 from 4, it would not matter what the affix pool really looks like as these items would not be getting their affixes in a random way as the rares and crafted items are.

[Dozer]

I don't really get people who complain about rares, I get some awsome stuff(although mostly gloves) on USEast....
Compressed screens of some of em:





Oh, all of em were found in 1.09 and none of these were gambled :)

[Vash]

Well then you're a lucky bastard =P

Not to say that there are NO good rares around...I've found/gambled a few in 1.09. But my collection of good rares is NOWHERE near my collection in the old days.

And here's another thing that really irks me....the way they screwed with the leech mods. It's very difficult to find mana leech and severely limits my choice of equipment. Plus the level requirement on leech is too steep. That Chaos Master ring you got there would not have had a level 65 req back in D2C =P

[TaiDaishar]

And here's another thing that really irks me....the way they screwed with the leech mods.  It's very difficult to find mana leech and severely limits my choice of equipment.  Plus the level requirement on leech is too steep.  That Chaos Master ring you got there would not have had a level 65 req back in D2C =P

I disagree, I think what blizzard did with the leech lvl req is a good thing, back in D2C every character used leech gear once he/she it lvl 6-8 which is rediculous, it made the early game too easy.

And I don't seem to have problems with 4-6% mana leech and 4-8% life leech at all, if you're going for a mana intense build you shouldn't be able to refill it as quickly as you drain it, not in the lower levels at least.

[Vash]

I don't have a problem with using that little leech either...but it's very hard to even FIND that much leech (at least for me...and especially mana leech).

I get pissed when I see an amulet or a ring jump in level req just because it has a high level leech mod. I would have been very happy with just 3% on the piece of jewelry...but now I have to struggle through like 20 more levels of insufficient leech to use it...

[Albion Child]

It is certainly possible to get a rare with "perfect" affixes that at least rivals any other godly weapon of the same type. Unfortunately, the chances of recieving an item like this is probably even lower then finding the godly uniques.

I think there are too many worthless affixes for rares, and the level reqs are absolutely ridiculous. I have seen some (many actually) rares which would be perfect to help get through normal, but they have level 40+ requirements and are therefore worthless and most likely just sold...

I think that some of the ridiculously useless affixes need to get dumped and level requirements dropped sharply. However, the really good affixes can still make VERY powerful weapons and I don't think they need improved.

[Archon_Wing]

Some rare claws are good. Never seen a good rare armor. Would kill for a good rare scepter :P

But pretty much everything there needs to be said has been said. Get rid of certain suffixes/affixes once you reach a certain ilvl, and voila! Usable Rares. Perhaps make a suffix that allows 2 sockets on rares. :)

[Dahij]

Oh, all of em were found in 1.09 and none of these were gambled

Are you sure about the boots ? They have 20% fhr.

[Brother Laz]

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.

Ehm, no.

Gloves -> ya know, that one set bramble mitts? Or else Chance Guards and to a degree Frostburn and Magefist.
Boots -> It has +25-50 damage and the best MF% of any boot in the game...
Circlets -> Why even bother with circlets? You can get the dual leech on Vampire Daze and the +skills/MF on Harlequin Crest.
Ammies -> 20% amp damage per multishot...

:(

[NuurAbSaal]

Laying of Hands has lvlreq 63, check out





not bad for lvl 27, eh? :)
I found these in Normal Act V. IMHO Corwin was quite right.

Greetings
Nuur

Edit: Sorry 'bout the sloppy image, I guess I should look at them before posting :P

[Jugalator]

I don't really get people who complain about rares, I get some awsome stuff(although mostly gloves)  on USEast....
Compressed screens of some of em:

This also shows that only gloves/boots/circlets use to be good, something I've noticed too. I don't think I have found a single rare weapon that has rivalled the best magic item I've found in the Expansion, and that's not good. Same goes for non-circlet headgear and body armor. But the problem can be blamed for magic-only affixes too. Something I'd like to see more is having those affixes removed and add new RARE-only affixes instead. Affixes that give some better damage (although not as good as Cruel, but better than what magic's can get), resistances and other modifiers. Perhaps even "special" modifiers like 10% crushing blow on gloves, etc. Something to make rares rival uniques when they're "perfect", and in other cases at least be better than magic's.

[Brother Laz]

Forget it.

They have all those ladder-only uniques now, they added variable bonuses on most of them (to make sure people would use different CG/ormus/merman/shako/mang instead of the same one)...

Nothing done to rares at all.

Oh and the new uniques are weaker than the old ones (unless they nerf those) so people won't even use the new items except the boots and maybe helms/belts. Way to go Blizz for adding uniques that are way better than the best rares in those few item types where rares are actually decent (not the best, but decent) and not adding more uniques for those item types where uniques dominate (I'd rather have 4 overpowered uniques that compete with each other, than 1).

[Dozer]

Well considering that my account was created in 1.09, I would think so :D Oh and i found those boots an act 2 normal :)

[Ruvanal]

Well considering that my account was created in 1.09, I would think so  :D Oh and i found those boots an act 2 normal :)

The boots are from v1.00 to v1.06. The affixes on the boots match what was availble then, not what can spawn on them in 1.09.

The "of Balance" that can appear on boots in v1.08/1.09 will only give 10% FHR. In the earlier versions there was a suffix "of Stability" that could appear on boots and gave them 20% FHR.

Also the magic find on those boots does not match what is possible currently. While there is a suffix "of Luck" (mag% 26-35) that can appear on boots in v1.09, it has a required level to use of 19 which is 7 levels higher than what is on the boots that you are showing. In the earlier versions (pre-LoD) there was a suffix "of Fortune" (mag% 20-35, magic only affix) that could appear on boots and had a level required to use of 12, which does match the boots in the picture.

The way affixes were assigned in the pre-LoD, those boots could have dropped in act 2 normal. With the changes to method used for assigning the affixes to items, just to get the suffix "of Luck" (mag% 26-35, min_alvl=26, magic only affix) to appear on Light Plate boots (qlvl=20) would require that they have an ilvl=36+. This is more like early Nightmare or a few boss types in late normal.

IMO they are from the pre-LoD game and they are rather good (I still have some similar floating around). But this does reinforce the point that what has been done to rares makes them distinctly poorer than the magic, set or unique items that you can currently find.

[ghost70]

I don't think I have found a single rare weapon that has rivalled the best magic item I've found in the Expansion, and that's not good. Same goes for non-circlet headgear and body armor.

Yeah, magic/unique items are far superior. Using the three chips and a sword recipe and some nice jewels you can get a weapon with far more damage than a rare and possibly more affixes. Since LOD came out I have seen only one rare weapon that can rival cruels/elite uniques. It was a rare ethereal berserker axe with around 170% enhanced damage, ias, self-repair, and the fool's mod. Saw it on diabloii.net marketplace about a month ago, real nice weapon. But the odds of getting something like that are near impossible (haven't done the math, but to get the that combination of mods on an ethereal elite weapon has got to be less than a zod rune), and as far as damage goes cruels can still beat it. I think schaeffer's might have had a higher damage as well. Blizzard definately needs to thin out the affix pool for rares.

On a sidenote, cruel is too powerful in my opinion. It needs to be toned down to 250% or removed completely, in the current version of the game ferocious is plenty powerful enough.

[Dozer]

Well, I stand corrected. I could of SWORN I found those from Dark Elder in act 2 Normal though! wierd......
I guess I traded for them and didn't even notice ^^

[whereagles]

I once got this in LOD:

Rare chain boots:

30% fast run
Lightning resist +3x
Cold resist +3x
Fire resist +3x
+6 dexterity
32% magic find

Gloves can be nice too, with dual leech and 20 ias. Amulets can be pretty ok. However, a lucky craft can beat the best rare and it's also easier to get.. ;)