What are the differences between classic and LOD?

[Crystalion]

If the item doesn't have a magic level, the chance of a given affix is the frequency over the sum of the frequencies.

If the item does have a magic level, the chance of a given affix is the (frequency * level) over the sum of the (frequency * level)s.

The level there is the alvl requirement for an affix spawning.

Italics mine.

Yes, that explains my confusion. I assumed the "level" was some level that didn't vary by affix, like the magic_level, in which case the distribution would not be skewed.

What this means, which I did not know, is that base items with magic_level are biased toward the "better" (actually just higher alvl, so sometimes not) affixes.

Does the affix calculator (still only v1.09) properly take this into account, do you know?

I'm going to have to give this a little thought. Knowing this is helpful in looking at the distribution of affixes on a shadow's diadem, magic (warrior) or rare (higher slvl master).