[p]1) If magic find is bad, and it feels like a mandatory/decision reducing stat, why do gold find, extra xp, and other pointless secondary stats exist? Should secondaries all just be removed?[/p]
[p]2) Almost every "good" weapon looks like this:2000 dps, 600 str, 600 vit, socket, pointless secondaries[/p]
[p]MAIN STATS ARE NOT INTERESTING. Blizz, make something cool. Crushing blow was nice. Cooldown reduction and resource reduction are pretty cool too. But having two interesting stats and main stats as the ONLY options is not ok. I was reading the D2 manual this week for fun, and under items it said that there were too many properties for them to be listed. That's the way it should be. Now that I've complained, I need to provide a suggestion to help instead of just put angry things in caps.[/p]
[p]A compilation of things that are my ideas, other people's ideas, or things that already exist that I know of that I think would add positively to the items:[/p]
-decrease main stats numbers, so that when comparing other, less effective stats, the efficiency is more or less equal[/p]
-remove crit damage, make critical strikes just do double damage. Keep it under control[/p]
-make items have higher chances to freeze/slow/convert/fear/etc. have higher values so that they become more viable (dont forget that synergies with stun and freeze and such also make them increases in damage sometimes)[/p]
-remove secondaries and keep the useful ones (the cc things mentioned above, pickup radius, individual resists, and control impairing effects reduction) as primaries[/p]
-make individual resists have much higher values (i.e. 350-500), and make items unable to have all res and individual res, you have to choose[/p]
-add stats such as the following (maybe good, maybe not. The idea is moar properties=moar choices)[/p]
*chance to ignite[/p]
*more damage dealt to ignited enemies[/p]
*increased duration (anything that lasts a certain amount of time before stopping)[/p]
*chance for projectiles to pierce/ricochet/seek/bounce back and explode[/p]
*chance to cast (any skill in the game from any class, ooohhh yeaaa)[/p]
*equip a certain aura[/p]
*increased area of effect range[/p]
*increased projectile speed[/p]
*chance to gain 10% move spd/atk spd/damage/crit chance/armor/resource regen/life regen/etc. for 3 seconds on hit/when struck/when attacking/etc.[/p]
*chance for resource spender to be free[/p]
*deal 10% of your current life as damage on hit[/p]
*etc. you get the point. not sayin any of theseare stellar,but hey at least a fewmore would be a welcomed change[/p]
P.S. number balance not thought out for more than 2 seconds [/p]
What do you guys think? Please post your ideas/suggestions I'm really curious about this![/p]
I dont now that I agree that secondary stats are pointless. I've gotten some really amazing legendaries on PTR. As an example, I recently got a WD dagger that removes the CD of Grasp of Dead. This is great!
I think it depends on rng. Some legendaries are great, some are so/so. And within those, the rolls for them can vary.
That said, I do agree that there is still tweaking that could be done. I think the feedback that is needed (on the official forums) is which ones need tweaking, specifically?
Phew. I'm not really sure if I agree or disagree with what you're saying, because I simply don't understand some of the things you say. I'll try to address each point one by one, but please feel free to neglect my argument and clarify your point if I misunderstood something.
1) I don't see the relation between "magic find being bad" and "secondary stats being pointless". Yes, magic find had to be removed (or nerfed; it's still in the game but its effects on finding more legendaries is very small). The most elaborate reasoning as to why it had to be removed can be found here. But no, secondary stats are not pointless. Absolutely not. They're just not as awesome as primary stats, otherwise they wouldn't be secondary but primary, isn't that obvious? I have salvaged certain rares that had the four desired primary stats just because I didn't like the secondary stats. For example, I prefer some pickup radius or health globe bonus over thorns and single resist. For a monk who has the thorns-improving legendary those two secondary stats might be absolutely awesome and desired. Secondary affixes are far from being "pointless", and in my opinion they are one of the few things in the game that is "better balanced" (there are some serious balance issues right now, but secondary affixes are really less of a concern right now). So no, secondary stats should not be removed, absolutely not. Btw, note that this separation of stats into primary/secondary is one that the community called for almost since release.
2) You are right, to some extent, that choice of stats for each slot is quite limited right now. But your reasoning as you go on is something I absolutely disagree with.
i) Crushing Blow was bad. Many people wanted it back, some because of D2 nostalgia, some because they thought it would add depth to the game and itemization. After quite some testing on PTR the feedback was quite unanimous that CB had to be removed. Just browse the PTR forums and see all the elaborate threads of in-depth testing, most of them created around November.
ii) D2 had more affixes, yes. But most of these affixes were so absolutely pointless and uninteresting, some don't even remember their existence. I don't wanna go into depth here as we've had plenty of D2 nostalgia discussions on this board already, but the decision has been made by Blizzard to reduce the number of stats. And it's for the better: quality trumps quantity. Simply "more affixes" doesn't mean "more choice". Quite the opposite - on a Mempo, you have 30 possible rolls, but there is only one that everyone wants to get (crit chance). How's that choice? It's 97% annoyance to make the one roll feel like an achievement.
iii) When I started playing RoS beta, I realized - just like you said - that I would only go for 4 stats on most slots: main stat, crit (if available), IAS (if available), socket (if available), vit, all resist. Fourth stat on shoulders... whatever, satisfied with a bit of armor. Felt pretty bland. But only for a few hours, after some time I discovered that I had healing issues, so I tried to switch to life regeneration or LoH. Which of these? Hm... don't know, so I gotta test a bit. Then I thought it would be cool to stack cooldown reduction, or resource cost reduction. At some point I had made a decision for a build, so I wanted to get specific skill/damage school rolls on some slots. My stash is now full with lots of items with different rare affixes. There are quite a few slots where you'll want to choose between not less than eight interesting primary stats. The only stat that's really fixed is main stat. Now, that was a pain in the ass in D3V, but it's absolutely no issue in RoS because 1) thanks to smart drops, about 80% of my loot has main stat anyways and 2) if an item doesn't have my main stat but is perfect otherwise, I can always reforge.
See, if we didn't have smart drops and the Mystic, I might agree with you that it's the same as in D3V. But thanks to these two mechanics, it's not that difficult at all to get that item you are looking for. And what makes it even better than in D3V is that you earn the item yourself - it's not bought from the AH. Furthermore, once you switch your build or find one of the build-changing legendaries, you want to reconsider your choice of primary affixes. In D3V, it was possible to give everyone an exact list of desired affixes for each slot - independent of class, build, and playstyle. Heck, without that "flaw" in itemization my guide (sig) would be completely useless. In RoS, such a guide wouldn't work. There are so many dependencies, so many factors that change your thinking, that ultimately you will have to make a choice for certain affixes on certain slots.
3) The list of changes you posted sounds really arbitrary. Let me just address each of the points you mentioned:
-"decrease main stats": Blizzard kind of just went down the typical RPG route here. You're playing a wizard? Get some int. A wizard isn't supposed to be stupid. This is a one-way street that limits choice, yes. But it also adds a certain feeling that this item "belongs to a class". It's an RPG decision, period. I was really worried about it at first, but in my opinion it works - again, mainly because of smart drops+Mystic.
-"remove crit damage": Crit damage will be slightly lower in RoS, mostly because eventually you replace Witching Hour, your weapon has no CHD anymore, and on rings/gloves you might prefer other stats (hey, choice is back here!). It's still quite powerful, and some might say too powerful, but it's not as "broken" anymore as it was in D3V, imho.
-"higher chance to freeze": We already have some instances where classes/builds were able to stunlock/freezelock enemies. Don't ask for another broken CMWW mechanic. If at all, they need to lower some of the synergies and make it impossible to completely chainfreeze stuff on Torment 6.
-"remove secondaries": Absolutely no. As I highlighted, once you play RoS for a couple of hours you really want to have more than four primary stats. Secondary stats are useful, but primary would be "better". By asking to reverse this change, you're essentially saying "gimme the flawed D3V itemization back". Hell no.
-"individual resists higher": You gotta be kidding me? A monk with OWE can get to insane mitigation levels by stacking single resists. Single resists are already slightly higher (up to 140 IIRC) than all resists. Asking for 400 is asking to break itemization. No.
And that list of effects you post in the end is already in the game. For almost every single one of them I can think of skills, runes, or legendary affixes that have such an effect (or a similar one). It's just not around the corner.
See, I get that you're frustrated about itemization, but almost everything you mention has been tested and is either already included or has been removed for a very good reason. Game balancing is extremely difficult, especially if you have a few million players all trying to find the one flaw in itemization. We don't see most of it, and when I read some things that came out of the F&F beta I was like "what? why did they make that change?". But so far, itemization in RoS makes sense to me. It's not perfect - absolutely not! But it's far better than in D3V. Actually, I don't think I have any major complaints about rare items and their stats in RoS right now. If it comes to itemization, my issues are more about the legendaries - why do they have only four primary affixes, just like rares, and why are legendary crafting recipes so damn useless (although being a pain in the ass to come by)? But it's only an issue in the "pre-Torment stage" of the game. Once you find Torment-quality legendaries, you don't mind that much anymore and you really start thinking about builds, see mannercookie's thread, for example.
I dont now that I agree that secondary stats are pointless. I've gotten some really amazing legendaries on PTR. As an example, I recently got a WD dagger that removes the CD of Grasp of Dead. This is great!
I think it depends on rng. Some legendaries are great, some are so/so. And within those, the rolls for them can vary.
That said, I do agree that there is still tweaking that could be done. I think the feedback that is needed (on the official forums) is which ones need tweaking, specifically?