DiabloFans

While we are constantly working to improve Diablo III, we have no plans to add temporary holiday-themed events at this time.

cant even give the barb a little santa hat and coat?
This effect can easily be achieved through the careful application of stickers and Post-it notes to one's monitor.

Oh, yes. That theory.

While there are a number of factors which can influence what kind of loot you get (Magic Find, MP level, # of NV stacks, etc), they're all character-based. Which server you play on -- or what game you join -- doesn't really have any bearing on your likelihood of seeing a Legendary item drop.

Sure, you might have an easier time farming some games than others based on what monsters spawn, which means you'll probably progress a little faster and kill more things (killing more things = more chances for loot to drop), but that's about it.

Thanks for the input Lylirra, what about if your dead when they die? also what about if your in town?
In order to be eligible for loot or experience you need to either a) tag the monster in combat or be in proximity when the monster dies.

So, you could technically hit a monster, die, TP back to town and flirt with Leah a bit, and you'd still be eligible for loot when that monster dies (even if it dies when you're not nearby). Similarly, you could charge in headlong into combat ahead of your friends, die before they get there, and when your friends saunter up and kick the monster's bucket, you'd all be eligible for any loot the monster drops.

The blues are simply reporting the coders' solemn belief that they correctly executed the design they were given. Of course, just because the coders believe they successfully implemented the design team's vision doesn't mean that they did. If that were the case, there wouldn't be bugs. But there are.
It certainly possible there may be an issue we're unaware of. If that's the case, players need to post in the Bug Report forum and provide as much evidence as possible so we can investigate.

The design intent, however, is as I stated before.

If you hadnt put that "really" in your statement you could have squashed a rumour right there.....but now its still open to interpretation.
The "really" applies to this statement in my post:

Sure, you might have an easier time farming some games than others based on what monsters spawn, which means you'll probably progress a little faster and kill more things (killing more things = more chances for loot to drop), but that's about it.

Only Need 5 Stacks of NV on Killing Blow
Confirmed with our developers: you only need the full five stacks when you kill the target. The game checks for that requirement when the target dies, not when it's first engaged. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Legendary Minimap Ping to be Extended in Duration
We agree, and we're looking into making the mini-map ping more visible. While I don't think we'll change the graphic or add in an alert dialog (we might, but it hasn't really come up in discussion), we definitely do want to make the ping last for a much longer period of time. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Staff of Herding and Hellfire Ring Plans Can't be Dropped
The intent is for players to be able to drop the Staff of Herding plans on the ground as a means of removing the item from their inventory...however, there's currently a bug preventing that from happening. Our QA team has already documented the issue and passed it along to our developers (who are looking into the matter currently).

I'm unable to say if the issue can be resolved via hotfix, but at the very least we're looking to address it in an upcoming patch. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Getting rid of the plans for the Infernal Machine (and the Staff of Herding) is currently not working the way we want, so right now it’s a little hard to do. We didn’t intend to create a situation where players would have a difficult time getting rid of these plans, so it’s considered a bug and we’re looking into fixing it in an upcoming patch. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)