Now, come to present day. Logged on and guess which button I click first? The Auction House. I spent countless hours checking it repeatedly, hoping shinning loot with big numbers "drop" within my budget. Then eagerly log in my barb and equip it, only to log out once again to sell the replacement.........
The end of an era: RIP "The Grandfather" and "Windforce"
I'm sure, people form this forum would remember the power from these two godies. The feel when you hold it in your hand. Hell, the "Windforce" was what it drived nuts me to level Amazon to max and wearing socketed armor with 40% Damage / 15% attack speed jewelries.
Come to Diablo 3, if you login and check the auction house, "Windforce" is less powerful and much cheaper than many "Rare" alternative. Loads of "Rare Items" with power stats (150+ DEX/ VIT) had made these relics no chance to enter top selection gear list of the soon-to-come PVP arenas. Sure, the rune words were ruling in Diablo 2, but remember how long it took for Blizzard to patch with the super rune words, and the never end farming to get a "ZOD" drop.
Is the easy-access-power-filter, auction house to blame?
Many hardcore players have stated repeatedly, that they do NOT use auction house. I admire their strong mind, but cannot resist to it. Often I got friends whispering with links of their super powerful treasures and bragged about the bargain they got from AH. I come to realize if there were no auction house, their "victory" cannot come by so easily nor frequently, They would have to spent countless hours going through vendors in trade channel or in public games like in Diablo 2.
Is it the drop rate?
Others may realize, to make the powerful goodies pop out on AH, they have to drop in game first. The issue must be something to do with the drop rate. If they make the "Rare Item" drops less, then players will have to go fight in the game and hope to get the uber rare loots. But is it fun to play such a game without all the colourful items dropping every 10 or 20 minutes?
Is it fun to play without "Rare Item" drops?
You may remember how frequently the "Rare items" popping out from the minions of hell; from the endless echoes: "Moo mo moo mo" back in Diablo 2. Do they really appear to drop more? I guess to get the exact answer; we will have to wait for the exact drop rate from Blizzard. However from what I feel after leveling all the way to almost finishing Hell is that they drop about the same if not less. If the drop rate has been nerfed severely on the "Rare Items", it may ruin the fun.
The core issue:
Back to square one, what is the problem that makes the game less rewarding than auction house hunting?
I have to say it goes within the "Item Affixes" randomization.
Before people throwing eggs at me or flaming this thread, you may want to read the following:
Keep in mind, Blizzard had confirmed that same stat do NOT roll twice. Source
I am NOT saying the power of the "Affixes" needs to be nerfed. I.e. It seems fine to have "+200 Damage" on a rare or blue item with "+ 50% Damage".
I am concerning about the chance of the combination of affixes. Or to be specific - damage related affixes gets rolled repeatedly. i.e. "Rare Items" with 6 random affixes, often comes with a combination of 2 or more of these "+ X Damage" "+ X % Damage" "+ X STR" "+ X DEX" "+ X% ATK SPEED" "+ X Max Damage" "+ Socket"
Real Game Example:
"The Grandfather"
Legendary Two-Handed Sword
592.3–726.9 Damage Per Second
(439-541)–(638-780) Damage
1.10 Attacks per Second
+66-132 Minimum Damage
+88-176 Maximum Damage
+31-35% Damage
+78-83 Strength
+78-83 Dexterity
+78-83 Intelligence
+78-83 Vitality
+5-7% Life
Increases Damage Against Elites by 7-8%
Ignores Durability Loss
+2 Random Magic Properties
Now keep in mind do NOT roll twice, "The Grandfather" only has 2 random affixes and they can NOT be "+ X Max Damage" "+ X % Damage" "+ X STR" "+ X VIT" "+ X DEX" "+ X INT"
The only useful affixes that "The Grandfather" can roll will be something like "+ X Fire Damage" and "X% Damage is converted to life". You may see the problem of that.
Compare to this Rare Crafted Weapon: (Some in game lv60 weapons have better basic DPS)
"Exalted Grand Oni Blade"
Rare Two-Handed Sword
433.4 Damage Per Second
317–471 Damage
1.10 Attacks per Second
+6 Random Magic Properties
Crafted by: Blacksmith (Level 10)
It may have 6 out of or a combination of "+ X Max Damage" "+ X % Damage" " + X STR " "+ X VIT" "+ X DEX " "+ X INT" "+ X% damage convert to life"
The stats can be higher as for example the, it can have "+ 50% Damage" + "+ 180 STR" "3% Damage is converted to life"
You may now know the reason why there are many 900 / 1000 + weapons on the auction house making "The Grandfather" and "Windforce" much less attractive. Even these elite weapon fall so hard, think about the rest of the Legendary stuff...
From what I can tell the Legendaries only hold their name to two aspects:
1) Unique Appearance
2) Unique affixes (i.e. a wrist piece with "+ % ATK Speed" & + "% MOV Speed")
Legendary ONLY affixes suggestion pool: (Your constructive suggestion welcome)
The goal here is to make "Legendary items" more interesting and competitive. This hopefully will add on another excitement to a Legendary loot while differing them from the general "Rare items" and hopefully not breaking the balance. Let's hope this will help these Legendary items, the ones we loved.
Let's gather our ideas and we'll feedback to Blizzard. Anyways you may have fun making up your ideas
or reading others.These following Afflixes, are Legendary ONLY, they can only be rolled up by a Legendary item.
| Defensive | Recommended/Inspired by | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Immune to slows, movement impairing effects | Benegesserit | ||
| Break jail after X second | Diablo 3 | ||
| Can not be frozen | Diablo 2 | ||
| When below 20% HP, gain 100% over X seconds | N/A | ||
| When below 20% HP, gain 10% movement speed X seconds | N/A | ||
| When below 20% HP, cast Frost Nova, last X seconds | Diablo 3 | ||
| When below 20% HP, cast Teleport to random location | Diablo 2 | ||
| Offensive | Recommended/Inspired by | ||
| X% Chance on hit to create a 10 yrd explosion for Y% your weapon damage | Benegesserit | ||
| X% Chance on hit to dispel target sheilding effect | Diablo 3 | ||
| X% Chance on hit to cast fear which last Y secound | Diablo 2 | ||
| X% Lower resistsance on hit to Y element | Diablo 2 | ||
| Deals X% additional damage to illusions | Diablo 3 | ||
| Fun/Other | Recommended/Inspired by | ||
| X% Chance on hit to teleport target to your location | Diablo 3 | ||
| Upon death, deal X amount of damage in 10 yrd radius, X is your total HP | Diablo 2 | ||
| When Below 30% HP, resurrect follower, teleport him/her to you | N/A | ||
Thanks for reading, your suggestion please. Let's gather our ideas and we'll feedback to Blizzard.
Edit: Fix a few typos
Edit: Updating "Legendary" ONLY affixes suggestion
Authentication issues? Oh technology... Did no one learn from Jurassic Park that an over-reliance on tech can be a bad thing? I imagine Denis Nedry stealing gems from the Auction House and later being eaten by a corpse sitter inside a Jeep Wrangler.
Official Blizzard Quote:
auction house
1
After this post, definitely the Zombie ladder /Zombie stage dive
Edit: this was from the discussion of the WD's spider summon btw.