Affix Comparison D2 to D3
Posted 8 November 2011 by Azzure
As a follow-up to our previous article about item stats and interesting items being the determining factor in how successful the Diablo 3 Economy will be, I have taken a closer look at the Affixes of both Diablo 3 (which are unfinished mind you) and the Affixes of Diablo 2 for comparison.
It is worth noting that Blizzard are currently in the process of a major Legendary / Set items development pass, in which many new affixes and stats will likely make an appearance, as well as the replacement of “placeholder” data that was present on the official site.
What I found interesting however was that while Diablo 2 easily had a wider range of Affixes that were more than merely stat points, it was actually less diverse than I remembered in my head, in comparison to Diablo 3. What was different however, was that in D2, the nature of stats being not equally useful for all classes and specs was the reason why D2 items feel so much more diverse. However it should be emphasized that we have potentially not seen the majority of end-game item affixes in Diablo 3. This is all based on what we have seen so far. I will be using the most up-to-date item for this article, the one presented at Blizzcon 2011 and other recent events to give the most accurate comparison. Click more for… well more.
The item I want to compare is the most recent and most likely item to have final stats in Diablo 3: The Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac.
Why is it likely to be the closest thing to final that we have seen? Because it was shown just a few weeks ago at Blizzcon 2011 in response to placeholder items fiasco.
So this ring has MF, +DMG %, +all Attributes, +all resists and finally + extra life from health globes. Out of all those stats, there are two, lets call them “feature” stats (stats that are kind of unique and have flavor): The health globe stat, and the +dmg % stat (because it is a ring).
Now lets compare those stats to some Diablo 2 rings of similar power-level:
Surprisingly, the biggest difference with these rings is NOT the amount of interesting stats (the Diablo 3 ring compares nicely in that department) but rather the flavor of the rings. By that I am referring to who would choose to equip them. For example, every class and virtually every build benefits exactly the same by the Diablo 3 Obsidian Ring. Not every class benefits from the D2 rings. In fact, Raven frost’s usefulness varies greatly depending on class and spec, such as being highly beneficial for a Lightening Fury Javazon, Hammerdin, while not so great for a Sorc or Necro.
Bul’Kathos ring benefits Melee classes mostly due to the life leech, but is well rounded, while Carrion Wind is a very niche ring that benefits a less common custom spec.
To be quite blunt, I am not at all a fan of the homogenization of item stats in Diablo 3. I don’t like that every single affix equally benefits every class and spec. I don’t like that Obsidian Ring benefits every single class and spec equally. Why? Because it’s uninteresting, boring and simplified to the point of having little to no diversity. It’s trivial and basic, turning a complex and interesting item system into a simple and basic decision that you can’t possibly get wrong. It leads to items being so generic that their value is just a matter of taste, rather than being actually superior for X spec. In short, it’s boring and very MMO-like.
I am hoping that when the new Legendary stats are published we will see interesting and diverse stats, that make choosing your gear a more interesting task than automatically equipping any item that has a higher ilvl than your current.
I agree with your hopes for more individualized stats on uniques, but as you point out, we can’t draw too many conclusions from one semi-final unique ring. As bliz said many times, they were still working on the item mods and the stats they listed on their website were temporary. One hopes they’re putting in more variety and flavor in this final balancing period.
On the other hand, we don’t want uniques with entirely customized stats that are just perfect for one build or type, ala WoW. That would defeat the whole randomization of stuff that we like in our diablo games.
Azzure, I share your concern regarding over-homogenization of item stats in D3, but perhaps this particular item is more of an homage to the D1 Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, which was good for all classes if I’m not mistaken.
What a great rseuorce this text is.
A lot of people seem to have a skewed view of item diversity. In particular, because specific types of diversity that were present in D2X are not returning, Diablo 3 would then be less diverse. Let me show you that items were not as diverse as you remembered in D2, even looking at the above example; there will be a lot of new diversity in other ways in D3 and on top of that D3 stats may not be as universally useful as we think.
As for the diversity of items, Azzure picked three nice examples, but remember in D2C on release there were only 3 unique rings:
Nagelring: Mag. Dam. Red. 2; Att. Takes Dam. 3; 15% MF - equally useful for everyone
Manald Heal: 4% Mana Steal; Life Repl. 5; 20 Life – only useful if you needed the Mana Steal
Stone of Jordan: 20 Mana; 25% mana; 1-12 light. dam.; +1 skills – about equally useful for everyone; the ring everyone had two of in end game.
Not exactly shocking, diverse or interesting. If you think back on it though, was this really such a problem? I don’t remember many complaints about the lack of rings.
You might argue though that this is a skewed comparison, because it was a different time back then and we should at least compare to D2X, after all, you can’t very well release a game that’s worse than the one you already have lying around. Even if we look at the D2X rings though, Azzure missed three others that were commonly used right from release:
Nagelring: Mag. Dam. Red. 3; Att. Takes Dam. 3; 50-75 AR; 15-30% MF - just a MF ring that everyone used for that. Technically, the AR makes it a bit more useful for melee, but that’s marginal.
Stone of Jordan: 20 Mana; 25% mana; 1-12 light. dam.; +1 skills – even in D2X the most common ring, still pretty boring
Dwarf Star: 100% GF; useless stamina stuff; 40 life; mag. dam red. 12-15; 15% fire absorb – about equally useful for everyone; not many exciting stats there
Also interesting to note is that Raven Frost wasn’t even melee oriented until patch 1.09 and even now it is still commonly used by – for example – Sorcs for the Cannot be Frozen, cold absorb, dexterity(for blocking) and mana. So sure, you may be able to find some weird and diverse rings, but really, a lot of them are at least as boring as anything we’re seeing for Diablo 3.
Now for the diversity in Diablo 3. There is of course the point about Blizzard adding all kinds of new stuff before release that will make things better etc. etc. More important though, is that one of the new things already implemented may be pretty huge as well: random properties. People usually gloss over this as ‘sure, it may be important, but we won’t really know how much until release.’ We do have one point of comparison though, in a few similar items from Diablo 2.
Take Ormus’ Robes for example. It has a whole bunch of decent stuff and then grants +3 to a random sorceress skill. Does anyone remember the difference between that +3 being a crappy skill and finding +3 meteor Robes?
But more importantly, can you imagine every Diablo 2 item having one or two random properties? It could be +defense, but it could be +resist all! It could be extra mana or it could be Magic Find! Just think of a Stone of Jordan with +20% resist all thrown on, or a Duriel’s Shell with 50% Magic Find.
And that’s just one randomization mechanic we know of. For example, we haven’t even looked at how powerful rares could be.
Arguably, all this is moot though, if item stats are too homogeneous. If it doesn’t matter what stats you get, because all of them are about equal. The idea is that in Diablo 2, some stats did nothing for certain classes, like life/mana steal and AR for casters, +class skills for anyone but that class and faster cast rate for many non-casters. But in Diablo 3, stats supposedly do something for everyone. Not only is this not true, but some stats are also a lot more useful depending on your class and build, let me give some examples of each:
Some items give +% damage for wizard/witch doctor only.
Some items are class specific. A lame point maybe, but these are basically items that are completely useless for any other class, while they’re potentially awesome for the class that can use them.
Some items give +resource regen for a specific resource (like +mana or +spirit regen).
Some items give Hit adds +Life, depending on the implementation, this may be physical hits only.
On top of that, there are a fair few stats that may be ‘of some use’ to everyone, but that will be a lot more useful for specific builds, to name a few:
From my 2 hours of playing the beta at a friends’ house, health orbs granting more life, like from the ring of the zodiac above, will be a lot more useful for melee classes. Since collecting the orb requires you to be in the thick of things.
Anything to do with +crit damage/+crit/+precision will be a lot more useful for certain classes and certain builds. In particular, setups that have lots of effects on crit will be looking for crit/precision, while those that have lots of ways to increase crit chance will be looking for crit damage.
Anything to do with attack speed will depend hugely on your ability cooldowns and how fast you go through your resource (hatred, mana etc.) If the limiting factor is your resources or your cooldowns, you won’t have too much use for speed.
In short, D2C was extremely limited in items and even D2X was a lot less diverse than we remember. Diablo 3 on the other hand will be a lot more diverse than most people seem to realize and the stats are not as universally useful as we may think. So really, I expect the item system will be better than it ever was in Diablo 2.
I think it’s somewhat hyperbolic to conclude from one ring that all items are similar in value and only item level will decide. All the skill stats are gone for obvious reasons, as are mana and life steal, for less obvious but no less valid reasons. Once you take those out, it becomes much more difficult to create items that are only useful in very specific builds/circumstances and I actually believe that is a good thing.
I really did not like the fact that a) certain specs pretty much required very specific items or otherwise they simply would not function, in my opinion that is sort of screwed up, there should always be a choice of items and it should be defined by your playstyle, not your spec.
And b) I absolutely disagree with your sentiment that useless stats should exist to make good items rare. It’s a good thing that you can win a roll and get that uber item, it’s not a good thing to make almost every single rare item absolute trash with a ridiculously low chance of being the best you can get. Why? Because in D2 I never actually managed to find such an item and as a consequence I didn’t even get excited over rare items anymore. I did pick them up and I did identify them, but I never even expected it to be anything but trash, and I was always right. I much prefer a system where most rare items are pretty good and you still have that very low chance to get the best possible.
Besides that, as Frostlion mentioned, we still have diversity in stats that are more or less useful to players, depending on class, spec and most importantly playstyle and personal preference. Even if you had only 2 stats, attack and defense, you’d still have diversity and they have many more.
u do know this ring is a homage to the d1 ring right? which was meant to be good for each class