is it me?

[Bob]

I tell you why I think this, in just 2 days (well, about 6 hours total) of playing 1.10 beta, with a 2 dagger throw barb in players8, finishing normal and then act1 NM, I found:

The battlebranch
Bloodthief
Rockfleece
The patriach
Kinemil's awl


Tancred's crowbill
Magnus' skin

~10 rares, most of them decent

and probably some other stuff that I've forgotten

(note, I normally play this guy in players8 mode, and the drops have definately increased), this stuff in 6 hours is mostly better than what I've found playing for a whole year on 1.09 realms.

AND, playing a new character, found 4 rares before I'd even finished the cold plains.

Maybe it's a single player thing to help us find some decent stuff, or maybe it's going to be a constant thing, or maybe it's just a beta thing so that we end up playing as if we were on a test server, but if it moves over the Bnet, there's either going to be little need for trading, or there's be more legit trading going on, as proper amounts of things that people actually want start to appear.

Although I'm not complaining, with all these nice items dropping, we're going to have nowhere to put them on single player, we either need bigger stashes or some sort of proper way to mule. Perhaps if we had infinite stash size in single player, since it's much harder to mule on SP.

-Bob

[Arutha]

After having full-cleared act 1 and act 2 (except for Duriel), I've only found Cleglaw's shield. Was handy for dealing with Andariel, but that was it.

Found quite a few rares.

All in all, I'm rather disappointed, especially with out-of-the-way superunique boss drops and gold chests.
Makes me long for the days of CD2 where you were guaranteed a set item in the early stages of act 1, and full-clearing an act usually netted you a coupla uniques and 2-4 set items.

But I may just have been unlucky.

[NiteFox]

Maybe not that unlucky.

I can count the number of uniques I've found in three years on one hand. I'm sure if you look through the old posts you'll find my old list, and since then I've found a Biggen's Bonnet with my 1.09 kung-fusin.

Boss, Champion, and gold chest drops are awful, simply awful. Wanna know the best thing a creature with a gold name dropped? A Grand Charm with 1-2 fire damage, yippe-kay-aye mutha-trucker.

Normal monsters on the other hand are doing fine. I've found at least 300% more rares than I usually get. Normally at this stage I wouldn't be wearing Leather Gloves at this stage but... Oh, I just couldn't resist my new pair of Bone Grips dropped by a nameless Fallen on the Blood Moor.

[phylogen]

Well, I finally downloaded the beta.

I ran around Hell Acts I, III, and V for about half an hour with my 86 sorc to
see how she'd do. I got a gold champion sword out of an urn in the
Crystalline Passage or Glacial Trail (can't remember which). It's the first
Doombringer I've ever seen.

[kandrathe]

I noticed that in Hell at least the quality of the items is better as well. It seems to me that more exceptional and elite nonmagical items are dropping now. I will be interested in what the Mod makers find out as far as how all the formulas have changed.

[whereagles]

I haven't reached 1.10 hell yet (finishing A5 NM now). So far the only change I noticed is monsters dropping more rares, though these are still somewhat sucky, lol. I also found a bit *less* runes, but those I found were of higher quality.

I did notice slightly better items throughout A5. Some of the randomized monsters of A5 NM have clearly much improved treasure classes, but other monsters seem to still have the same TCs of 1.09. Strange. Knowing blizzo, I'd say they messed around only with a few TCs and didn't bother with the rest. Drops up to A5 NM are as sucky as ever.

But this is easy to check out. The l33t haXxoRs from the workshop can surely decode the two TC mpqs and tell the differences. Right boys? :)

[Occhidiangela]

Does the affix pool seem to have changed any, like the "regenerates in 20 second" and "+stamina" affixes, or is the suckage due to low affixes in damage, resist, elemental damage, etc?

Curious, as I won't be messing with 1.10 till this Weekend, RL being what it is.

Other question: is your character set up with modest, lots of, or little Magic Find percentage?

[NiteFox]

Personally, as a slow-paced Act 1 no-edited-char-does-everything-slowly-surely-and-completely-without-missing-a-damn-thing-and-that-includes-all-the-cave-levels-in-Act-1 player, I'm seeing a great diversity in the affix pool. Normally the stuff I'd be getting will be naught but "repairs 1 durability every 22 seconds" belts and swords. This is with a character that had a two-Chipped Topaz socketed Ring Mail and a two-chip'paz Helm on my Rogue, so we're not talking about massive MF here. Nope, the affixes seem nicely varied, which doesn't naturally mean they're good. I could count on a few "find more gold" rings popping in the first few areas, but now that ain't happening.

But... What the hell is wrong with the base item drops? Moor, Plains, and Field: Katars popping up everywhere and little else. Tristram, Woods, and Tower: So many Wolf Heads popping it's as if Cruella DeVil gave up on the fur trade and picked up a shovel to bury the poor puppies up to their necks in the dirt. Highlands, Gate, Cloister, Barracks: I'm practically slipping on all the Targes appearing in drops. Of course, I'm not actually talking about Rares here - If you asked me what base item 90% of the Rares I found were, then I'd say "Quilted Leather."

Anyone else noting the lack of diversity among base items in areas? Or is it just the whim of a mischievous god?

[AssA]

Blame your god, it seems all of us have experienced things like that.

I have played through the first four acts, and my character is currently parked at the Frigid Highlands wp. So far, I've found:

- A truckload of rares. At least 50 of them. (At players 1, mind you)
- A lot of rare Leather Armors, about 8.
- An accursed Isenharts Cage. In total, 4 set items. 2 of them were Berserker Hatchets.
- 3 Uniques.
- A ridiculous amount of Diamonds.
- No "preferred base item". I didn't notice an abundance of Katars early on.

I guess it's all about luck. Let's not jump to conclusions.

[whereagles]

The affix pool, as far as I *noticed* (don't have any .mpq haXXor skills), seems to have *enlarged*. The sucky mods are all still there, but the cool stuff popped in (ferocious, cruel, great wyrm's, bahamut's, dual leech in jewelery, 2-sockets). Result: rares are better now but can still be horribly sucky. Blizzo, what's wrong with chopping off the lower level affixes on high level itams??????? Grrrr..... :rolleyes:

The character has about 70% mf. Can't put much more or monsters eat me alive lol. But I still found a lot of rares in the early stages, with 0% mf. It's a frenzy mace barbarian w/ defiance merc (right now he's better than me lololol).

As for the item base level, I think it's as I said. Monsters' treasure classes (TCs) of 1.09 clearly favour low-end items like, say, leather/sharkskin/wyrmhide armors, as opposed to ancient/ornate/sacred armors. In 1.10, up to A5 NM, I have the definite impression the TCs were unchanged (99,99% sure!!). In A5 NM *some* monsters have had their TCs greatly beefed up, but others seem to have remained with the old TCs. As for hell, reports show a clear improvement on TCs. I'll tell you in a couple of hours, IF YOU JUST LET ME PLAY THE FRIGGIN' GAME AND STOP HARASSING ME WITH POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS :)

[Taem]

I tell you why I think this, in just 2 days (well, about 6 hours total) of playing 1.10 beta, with a 2 dagger throw barb in players8, finishing normal and then act1 NM, I found:

The battlebranch
Bloodthief
Rockfleece
The patriach
Kinemil's awl


Tancred's crowbill
Magnus' skin

~10 rares, most of them decent

and probably some other stuff that I've forgotten

(note, I normally play this guy in players8 mode, and the drops have definately increased), this stuff in 6 hours is mostly better than what I've found playing for a whole year on 1.09 realms.

AND, playing a new character, found 4 rares before I'd even finished the cold plains.

Maybe it's a single player thing to help us find some decent stuff, or maybe it's going to be a constant thing, or maybe it's just a beta thing so that we end up playing as if we were on a test server, but if it moves over the Bnet, there's either going to be little need for trading, or there's be more legit trading going on, as proper amounts of things that people actually want start to appear.

Although I'm not complaining, with all these nice items dropping, we're going to have nowhere to put them on single player, we either need bigger stashes or some sort of proper way to mule. Perhaps if we had infinite stash size in single player, since it's much harder to mule on SP.

-Bob

Hail Bob,

I played a 4+hour session in Softcore with two friends and found nothing but chipped gems and about 3 rares.

I played a 2+hour session with one friend and two lurkers and found one set item, some chipped gems, and 2 rares.

I played solo act V to see what it was like for 2+hours and found NOTHING!

My friend was playing solo and with his friends and saw uniques and rares practically falling from the sky. So, yes, I've heard of good drops in games, but no, I have personally got NOTHING!

[whereagles]

You didn't find anything?? You suck. I got 2 windforces, 1 grandfather, 3 chams, 1 zod. All this in blood moor A1 normal :)

[kandrathe]

I moved my artillery necro from the Maggot Lair to the start of act III. As soon as I entered the Far Oasis, we were jumped by two boss packs which dropped Hsarus belt, and Cathans Helm, then 1/2 a screen away another boss dropped a Coldcrow crossbow. I also saw and had to sell many decent rares (considering this is normal), and plenty of runes. I was able to upgrade my runes to make a Tal, so I made a set of "Stealth" armor.

There was noticable change in difficulty once we got into Tal Rasha's tomb. My tactic became using my summons and merc to herd together all the skeletons around their masters, spam bone spear until a few died, and then CE, CE, CE,CE. Then me and the merc would rush in and finish off the bosses before they could reanimate the troops. Once we cleared the tomb, and opened the portal to Tal Rasha's chamber, my merc and I toasted to each others health with a thawing potion, and jumped right in. The skeletons, and mages bought it quickly, I was able to get the Amp Dmg curse off and spam about 10 BS until I ran out of mana, I was Shift healing my merc about every 10 seconds, and finally bailed to town. Duriel's life bar hardly moved, so I decided that "Players 8" may not be such a good idea for this fight. Players 1 then.

The Iron Golem had died, so I shopped for another good axe, and we toasted with thawing potions again, and we jumped back in. He went down a third of his life this time, and 30 seconds later we were back in town with the IG surviving this time. Then two more times like that, with a total of 4 shots of antifreeze each, then it was me and the merc heading back to town to pound down a few cool ones at Atma's and bragging about our leetness. Duriel never laid a claw on me, so I'm pretty pleased. Nothing is quite as humiliating as being biatch slapped around a tiny tomb by an overgrown crustacean. Duriel dropped the "Umbral Disk" but I'm not sure where to use it, and a really sweet rare maul (+55%ed) plus some other useful affixes, but I have no room and I doubt I'd use it soon, so I sold it.

So now I'm starting Act III at level 26.

Edit: BTW MEAT, I suspect this is more what you had in mind for this thread rather than just some obnoxious flatulance sounds, right?

Edit II: Conquored the Spider forest, and wonder of wonders, the little statue fell from a unique boss there, I went 1 click north and there was the Gidbinn and the Flayer Dungeon. As for Drops, again many good rares which I habitually turn into Iron Golems now, and a unique ring dropped... I held my breath and ran back to town to find... a Nagel ring, w/18% MF. I gambled for a couple rings and got, Angelic Halo. Huzzah. Still haven't gotten to my favorite normal item farm of Travincal, yet. I made a detour to do another countess run, found Stoutnail in the black tower and the countess dropped Tal, Tir, and Eth.

Edit III: Fought through Kurast, and Travincal only item of note was another Helm, crafted at Cathen, Inc. Fought Mephisto at Players 8, no problem. He dropped 5 rares and Deaths War Sword. I replaced my Helm, Gloves and Boots with Rares from that Mephisto drop. The helm has 5% Bonus to AR, 30%ed,Fire Res 28%, Cold Res 24%, Pois Len Rdc 25%, +5 Light Radius; light gauntlets have 12% chance cast lvl 4 CB when struck, +60 AR, 26% Ed, 16% MF; and the Heavy boots have 10% FHR, 1/2 Freeze Duration, 11% MF. So with 34% mf Ammy and Nagel ring I found this morning, am now at 79% MF with resists at 75/69/39/69.

Continued on to Izual, and fought him at players 8 no problem. Somewhere on the plains of despair I found a Shael, so I crafted a Rhyme head with +2 Bone Spear, +1 Confuse. Continued to the River of Flame where we ran across a Venom Ward, found Hephastus and kept him trapped in Bone Prison, cast IM on him, and spammed him with Bone Spears quaffing 5 mana pots. Skeletons and Golems are no longer useful on Players 8, but my merc is kicking A and taking names. Now we are poised at the gates of the Chaos Sanctuary, ready to face off with Big D. So now me and the merc are both at level 30, with BS at Level 15 (210-223 dmg) Str 52 Dex 52 Vit 76 Nrg 62.

Edit IV: OMG! I found a plain old white bone wand, and I decided that this just being beta test why not try out the Charsi imbue on it. Here is what I got; +1 Summoning, +3 Golem Mastery, +1 Life Tap, 20% Faster Cast, 7% Life steal, +19 NRG, +35 Mana, LR 39%. Fought through the Chaos Sanctuary -- using a combo of Amp, BS and CE. In the end we fought Big D at players 8, and my merc died twice to the lightning breath. I had to finish off Big D alone with Amp and BS and about 1/4 health. Diablo's drop was pathetic compared to the others so far, a rare Pilum and a rare thowing axe, and a couple useless blue items. Fought through the Bloody foothills, and Shenk's drop was also non existent, but Dac Farren dropped me my new rare Light Gauntlets; 20AR, 2 Str, CR14, LR29, 78% GF, 23% MF.

[Occhidiangela]

I think there has been a not too subtle upgrade.

Players 4, I found. (Trapper.)

NM Foot hills: lots of rare drops. My MF = 0.

One of the rares has 16% MF on boots, I now become MF goddess.

Found a Hel rune in the NM Den of Evil. That's new.

NM Andy dropped 3 rares.

Den of Evil NM I found a TWO SOCKETED CIRCLET. Huzzah. I have always wanted to make a Lore Circlet, style reasons, this made me happy. :)

In two hours of play, it seemed to me that quite a few more Exceptionals dropped, and rares, given my lame MF, than previously. Some 20+ in four hours of not particularly fast play. (I did a lot of messing about trying to figure things out.)

[Deadlyman]

I started a Shapeshifter. I was getting a rare here and there. I was doing good gambling in getting most of my equipment that way.
But when I defeated Andy in Norm. She dropped 5 rares, 3 gems (2 chipped, one regular) and one magic. I have never seen that good of a drop from Andy before. I know that she has always dropped gems, but never so many rares. This brings hope for me hopefully, when I face Duriel.

[Kevin]

Yar, I like all the extra sockets. 2 socket rares and 2 socket circlets are nice, I too enjoy the circlet look.

My general feel is that I am getting better drops. But I think some of that has to do with the increase in monster density that I have noticed as well. This is very obvious in the once barren Blood Moor. But it seems to hold true in general that there are more monsters, which will cause a drop improvement. I'm not sure drop improvement has really changed much other than that.

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

or is the suckage due to low affixes in damage, resist, elemental damage, etc?