its insanely simple: 1. in D2, they opted for a much more shallow power curve. hence, using low level items doesnt necessarily cost you that much damage, let alone the upgrade mechanic which allows you to "up" the base item to your difficulty. 2. in D2, the items are designed to be... items. Not just number carriers. The gull dagger is the gull dagger. Nothing does what the gull dagger does. Its unique, not only in name, but in form and in use. This, coupled with point 1, allows items to STAY useful and STAY interesting. 3. Due to point 2, D2 isnt about chasing numbers, its about chasing items, and the items bring the numbers. And item choices arent just number choices, they are play style choices. The items force the user to play differently, not just trading a number for another number.

In D2, I love finding items with bizarre use cases. If I find something that looks interesting, I'll build a whole character around it

Totally agreed. Its absolutely annoying to "know" that everything you find is trash until you are in endgame. It feels like wasted time!

The redundancy of affixes, and diluting the pool of affixes on an item decreases your overall odds of potentially re-rolling an affix that you actually want on an item. So you grind, farm, salvage, re-roll, repeat. And I can't help but feel as though it's a scummy form of player retention to make up for the honest fact that there isn't much else keeping someone in-game long term or otherwise. I agree with you entirely and appreciate that you put it exactly how I feel in general on the topic.

Huge shoutout to you my friend for trying to provide quality content and ACTUAL content instead of jumping on the D4 is trash bandwagon for views and do these stupid react videos all the time which is basically lazy content. I really think your channel should have more subscriptions. You stay true to what you believe and like and it is greatly appreciated.

D2 has literally the best itemisation. Developers of good games know how to manage player's expectation. D2 let you build with Rares via gambling, or sets or rune words, all of them are viable and fun. There are no Legendary Set to Ultimate ability or whatever. Players are still finding never found drops til this day which makes creative builds more viable

I always loved that I could find super strong early game items in D1 or D2 that would follow me through the game. I didn't feel forced to replace my gear and that most drops mattered unless you were farming for something specific like uniques/sets.

>Me: Just wanting to go to bed early today >*saw this video about a 2 hour rant on Diablo itemization* >Me: "well I guess there goes my healthy amount of sleep for tonight"

D2 is king. I’m surprised other games haven’t really come close to it since then. But enigma and spirit did a lot to hurt it, you’re right about that. I wear enigma on my sorc. Its ridiculous.

Thank you, GGM, for being a voice of reason on itemization. Wish D4 would listen to you, and Raxx, et al. Predict big fail with D4 itemization 2.0.

More two hours talks, perfect for HT grind!

i literally wasted a night crafting a video exactly like this, you got all the right points and it feels good that the game goes in the right direction, thanks for this

Hands down diablo 2 has the best itemization. The fact that magic, crafted items, and rare items can be best in slot over uniques and runewords makes the itemization way more interesting and makes it so that nearly every drop has potential. The crafting system is amazing as well because it gives you rolls that dont naturally spawn on that item type. D2 nailed it

1 million likes for this video! Yes I wish devs would have kept D2 itemization. I went back to playing D2 because I love the itemization and still have a ssf Holy grail to complete

When the community understands the genre better than developers. 😅

In D2 if you find something cool and it is not elite level, you can upgrade it if you wish. I like to build characters in D2 around specific items. There are pretty interesting builds that way.

Wise words from a Veteran Player

One thing that helps D2 itemization is the over lap of damage types across class. Multiple classes care about lightning, fire, poison, and so on. In D4 there is significantly less overlap, I mean who cares about fire or lightning besides sorc? Who cares about bleed besides barb? . At least so it seems.

Of all the reason I did not like D4, itemization was the one that made me stop playing the game, I would spend 10-15 minutes playing to come back to town loaded with uniques and spend 45 minutes to an hour going thru the stats until I got bored and quit playing, it really doesn't matter if they eventually fix them, I got all my friends ready to play the game before launch, I even bought the game for one of my friends that had never really played diablo before as a hardcore gamer just played D3 a few times, I even went to the hell's ink event and got a tattoo of Tyrael because I was that exited about the game. But they ended up leaving the game from boredom, I'll never get them to play again and this ruined the experience for all of us. Again you can trace this back to WOW and every greedy corporate decision to copy WOW's success, I guess I need to move on because no other Diablo game will give me the excitement and joy D2 did for me and the franchise that I loved so much over the years is dead! R.I.P Diablo. BTW this isn't a criticism of anyone who likes D4, you like what you like but D4 just didn't do it for me.

Super interesting listening as always. I would hear more like these on other aspects of arpgs if you're feeling ranty again.

One thing I wanted to note regarding item power....they arent useless until they are....for instance, I wanted to start my claw build at lvl 60 and found the greststaff of the crone. It carried me another 20 lvls until I needed that to drop again at a higher item power. So, eventually its useless yes. But for those in between lvls its not if that makes sense.

with POE2 and Last Epoch on the horizon, D4 better start upping their game as they may be left behind.

First! Thanks for the great indepth review!

Peak GGM content. As always sir! This is why i sub and send you my prime

I wish more d4 critiques were like this. I think many bad decisions get made because the player base can't articulate the problems properly.

Great video, ty

I relate this itemization idea to the borderlands series. I love borderlands 2 but one of my main gripes is that endgame felt like there was no creative freedom. Everyone uses grog nozzle and unkempt harold. I always hated that feeling that if i wanted to have any chance in endgame i had to use a very specific class set up. Games should not make feel trapped to use a very specific set up to compete. Diablo 2 makes me feel that many different classes and playstyles are viable in end game or hell difficulty. Thats why i love that game even now

i really enjoyed this video. it's broken down so anyone can understand it also. anyone developing a new game (ie, mrllama) would be well served to give this a thorough watch as well.

D2 itemization was at its best in patch 1.09 and below. Patch 1.10 introduced too many overpowered runewords that kinda ruined rare items, yeeted them out of meta completely. I mean, look at this: -Grief is basically the best weapon in the game. It completely negates the item base because its damage is flat, not percentage. So you just use a base with highest attack speed. It's a relatively cheap runeword that outclasses even RMT Andy options like Last Wish. -Enigma does the same thing for armor, it adds a lot of flat defence rating rather than a percentage value. Also a lot of strength, a lot of MF and teleport. It's really really really difficult to beat this item. -Call to Arms is just an aurabot for everybody. A mandatory buff item you HAVE to get because it's fucking +50ish% HP and mana. -Infinity on A2 merc is mandatory if you're any character that deals elemental damage, you get free resistance pierce aura that amps up your damage by like 60% and pierces annoying immunities. This is kinda ridiculous, you should never have items that are flat out best in slot. Or technically BiS - you MIGHT get something better but chances of that are basically equal to a ruthless serial killer being granted parole in his life sentence. This is where Path of Exile truly shines with its itemization and extremely advanced crafting systems. I don't think they have a truly Best in Slot item in there. Maybe Watcher's Eye because everyone uses many auras. Ye, that might be the one. But Watcher's Eye is an item that's extremely well designed - it's not really possible to get a PERFECT Watcher's Eye. You're usually settling on two good mods, even if you're wealthy.

Some good insights on itemization here. The only point I contest is that open ended items allow for player creativity. While it is true in a vacuum, the reality of modern meta gaming is that folks will still lookup the best cookie cutter OP build and just work towards that. It's nice to have the options to play with, but it's just not the reality of how modern gamers play. People might say that they still use non-meta builds and get creative, but that's the exception not the rule. Just like players that enjoy the early level grind, versus players focused solely on hitting that level 100 endgame build is the exception not the rule.

Awesome vid, really appreciate that you explain it clearly without hating and spitting venom on D4.

Thanks for the video. You make a lot of good and fair points but there are a few of things that I disagree with. 1. Ilvl: I think that the benefits of adding ilvl to items are not being considered enough in your analysis. One of the main benefits of ilvl is that it is very new player friendly. I remember playing D2R when it was released with some friends and the players that were new to D2 (but not to gaming) got pretty confused with a lot of the decisions that they were supposed to make (even when looking up a bunch of guides). The new player experience is very important to growing the playerbase of a game and should not be overlooked. 2. Item Scaling: Sacred items being invalidated because scaling exists in the same is not a hard problem to solve for and I think is worth solving instead of removing. Finding an item in WT2 or WT3 and lasting until the end game was not a good experience for a lot of players and they actually posted about being tired of using something they found in WT3. I think crafting can be updated with some mechanisms to upgrade the item level of gear to keep the WT3 stuff relevant (maybe with some materials found in WT4). 3. Guided Chaos Philosophy: I don't think that the game needs to follow this philosophy for the whole game experience. I think starting in WT4, it can be a bit more chaotic after the player has had some time with the systems. I think at the beginning, a more guided approach will ease the experience for a new player.

Another small gripe, they need a jeweler down by the test dummy so you can test the options without running back and forth to resocket.

9:14 that "level 75 and nothing is worth" reminds me more to PoE tbh, everything under level 83 or 85 is useless for crafting or as a base item (influenced) so you just ignore it, thats the part I hate about mapping in poe in d4 I consider one of the worst thing they could've done is to add tier 3 and 4, tier 3 is totally useless, doesnt add anything valuable to the game, and it last like 10 level maybe? its totally pointless a lot of the problem with specific items and stats its because of the smart loot system introduced in d3

Such a fantastic in depth breakdown of the itemization in the system in D2 compared to D4. Everything is so on point and i really hope the D4 team is really taking this into consideration too. Not just making every affix better but creating a system where items found in tier 1-3 can be viable for end game mechanics. Of course D4 needs to work on that too with end game, but one step at a time.

d2 dmage types. physical, elemental, magic phyiscal mods: + damage / enhanced damage, attack speed, + to +% attack rating, crushing blow, deadly strike, -target defense, ignore target defense, open wounds, (critical strike in mastery skills for barb n zon) magic mods: cast speed/ +skills Elemental mods: Cast speed / + skills. Random mods: stats/chance to cast/resist's/run walk speed. dont need a deep bucket to have good itemization. thanks diablo 2 ill never stop playing you

D2 had great itemization because it really felt like the uniques and sets all had their own uses at different stages of the game. My biggest gripe with D2 was not having enough stash space to collect the cool as hell items you come across that would allow for some cool niche builds. D4 has cool endgame builds but the journey to getting that gear is so much more of a drag than it feels like in D2. You can create your own gear through crafting with the cube and runewords or you can luck out and find something crazy good even if its a rare or magic item. D4 just doesn't have that kind of variety with staying power. There are way too many pitfalls that stop you from creating that unique experience and just keep you grinding mindlessly.

I shared this video on diablo forums, everyone who watched it thinks this video is excellent, now only if we can get the Devs to watch this. Maybe D4 should hire you to help/guide itemization rework

another issue with ilvl style items is the moment you get an item, it starts getting worse. as long as you are gaining xp you are behind the curve on your items and it feels awful.

You mention some very good points! But I would like to interject with comments now and then. For example (and I've only watched half of the video currently) I would point out that while runewords ruined most rares in D2, THEY ALSO MADE WHITE ITEMS RELEVANT AGAIN. This is amazing. Another point, I think the Aspect system of D4 is its downfall. It homogenizes loot and makes it boring. Another thing about the D2 itemization: can you divorce it from the free trading and rune system? I am super interested in EVERY Druid pelt that drops whether it is white, blue or yellow, because I MIGHT BE ABLE TO SELL IT FOR AWESOME RUNES. This is another fantastic element in D2. I feel like you and I could sit down and have a long ass conversation about this topic. Great through provoking video.

Fantastic video. I really hope they drop incremental item power in the S4 itemization rework. I hope they finally try to learn why D2 itemization is beloved. Sometimes it feels like Blizzard still resents all the Blizzard North people for leaving, and they only begrudgingly acknowledge D1 and D2 as a result. It's like D3 and D4 were designed in a universe where D2 didn't exist. The D4 team has been more open to looking back at D2, but perhaps not early enough in its early design. Now they're paying the price by hastily overhauling everything. I hope they get it right, because I think they do care. The game needs someone with a strong and good vision at the helm.

Watched just hear what a ranting Ginger sounds like. Listened, because it’s a fascinating game design discussion. It’s the thrill of finding something cool and useful. At least d2 has the three level concept. I play my characters like they are geared to survive each level in hc, while avoiding complete respecing of skills.

Don’t forget about you can trade anything in Diablo 2, as well.

im surprised no one asked for this reddit post link... ^^ great rant btw

I wouldn't give them too much credit for 'guided chaos' when, as you explained at the start of the video, there are legendary aspects and uniques that only work with one skill. There's no chaos in using every HoTA aspect when you're playing HoTA, you're funneled into it. This applies to most skills too.

I just don't know why devs for games like this are so afraid of adding in items that are both fun and strong. I still remember farming to help and back in D2 because I wanted whatever the run sword was that not only gave you great stats, but also gave you the Word teleport ability. Why? Because teleporting around was damn fun, especially when it gave good stats too.

So I play with a small group in D4. I play on PS5 and they play on PC. I am so frustrated with D4 itemization (among other things) I've told my buddies: "Just go play Last Epoch. It's going to be a better game. The itemization is like 100 times better. There's a LOOT filter (OMG - imagine a modern ARPG having a loot filter, what a MIND-BLOWING concept😝) and it only costs $35 on Steam. I still play D4 because I like the set up of my PS5, otherwise I would probably move to Last Epoch right away. As it stands right now when Dragon's Dogma 2 drops I'm done with D4. As an example (which i think you covered on this channel) of how bad some of the items I present to you...Flamescar. Right now I'm bored in the game so I'm running a fun build that can clear Vault 100's by Wisermill. It features Flamescar and he goes over in the video how BAD this item is. In fact, the first HALF of the video is giving out all of these disclaimers about why he's using Incinerate and Flamescar. It's a FUN build. You can't kill bosses with it, but it looks visually spectacular. And he's right. It's ludicrously fun and satisfying to play as long you IGNORE how terrible Flamescar is a weapon. It must have the single worst affix of any unique item...ever. In any ARPG. And as a min/maxer it's KILLING me not to run a regular wand and put multiplicative damage bonus there. So why not just MAKE FLAMESCAR GOOD?? How about instead of shooting out embers that do basically nothing how about "Flamescar increases your Fire DOT by 100%x for every rank of Incinerate" and since it gives you ranks of Incinerate this INSTANTLY becomes a powerful weapon. It also aligns with the Blizzard philosophy of 'let's not be creative, let's just add bigger numbers.' Anyway...

Make sacrifice work with bows btw. At least. Just a QoL - No reason certain melee skills shouldn't work at range, that being one of them. (Charge technically has a reason since I know it's meant to be used with a melee weapon)

The developers looked more towards Diablo Immortal then Diablo 4 when they created the item system for Diablo 4 and that is for shame :/

I agree for everything you said nice work.. The question remains , how developers of diablo 4 doenst have required knowladge to do things right

Fuck yea great stuff ty ginger for excellent content ❤

So to summarize this video in a couple of lines, current D4 itemization issues are following: - item power is tied to ilvl (matters a lot on weapons) - most of item stats and affixes are close-ended, meaning they're designed and work only in a specific situations And the good thing about D4 itemization is that dev use "controlled chaos" paradigm, which is the best.

wt3 to blizzard is like nightmare on d2. but there is no chance to get an soj from andy, titans from diablo etc. its just sad. i playd sorc in d4 this season the first time. but getting futher after like 55 is just annying af. especially when you know im just in a timewaste-zone just to collect everything again with better iLvl.. not sure if im willing to get back this season

What if the class specific or closed ended items were about as rare like grailers?

This guys knowledge is incredible. You should be on the dev team. I don’t understand how it can go from d2’s winning formula to d4’s?

Back in the old days they actually had to use their head to add stats to items, to make them interesting and fun. Meanwhile, random bullshit go is the way to go, much easier and time saving. Money please! 💰 Coming to D3 from D2 was very strange for my now boomer brain.

Another small gripe, there's no gear imprints for Cold Imbued Rogue skills. Gimme a 15-75% chance for something extra. Otherwise Shadow and Poison rule the day.

I completely agree with you on the itemization in D4. It seems that it is getting better, but it does still have a long way to go to make right. DRvC, DRvD, DtC, DtD, and all the niche damage reductors are not great to have. I can understand a couple being there meant for you to not use, kind of as a method of not getting completely GREAT items ALL the time, but there are entirely too many that can pop on gear, especially amulets. It really needs to be dialed back and made done a different way. I like the guided chaos method you mentioned, that makes complete sense, and adapt as players see things that work and things that don't. It's why we saw BL Sorc become such a viable build last season and Charge/HoTA Barb this season. I like those changes and how they make me interact a different way with the game every season and try something new. D3 did that as well. Some seasons, strafe/Hungering Arrow was the build to go to for DH, sometimes it was Natalya's. I like having that customization even though it was more guided. D4 can do this as well, to a point, while keeping the freedom. D3 was great because there were so many sets, you could play certain builds that you wanted. Want to hold one button and move fast? Strafe/HA. Want to play more methodically? Trap/Sentry. There were very unique ways that the itemization worked to give you new ways to interact with your abilities. Diablo 4 does that as well, but in a way that really isn't working very well at this particular point in time. I like having more generic uniques in D4, and that level of freedom to tailor builds to my playstyle really works well and will only get better as they move forward. I think there are a couple different ways you can look at this, and I would love to see crafting items become a big thing for D4. The way the game is designed really suits this type of itemization. Where I can take a base item, craft it up, and make it something that is more viable for me. Or brick it. Something similar to POE, but maybe not AS intense because it is a different audience, after all. The ideas you presented were really good, and I really enjoyed watching the video! Thanks for doing this and going as in depth as you did!

My friend has farmed uber duriel over 1000 times, no shako or grandfather. Duplicates of ones and even triples … he wants to quit, and only has enough to craft one of the two he wants. He basically hasnt played the season, just stuck on uber duriel. Just let the guy have his shako already

I tried to build a Lightning Storm Human Form Druid last season, and it was rough. They clearly layed out a pathway for the build in development, but all the gear seemed directed towards Werebear and Werewolf Druids. It felt like they forgot to do the other half of their homework or something.

Blizzard had a winning formula for game itemization to expand upon. Unfortunately, they decided to ignore it completely. Thus, I can't even play D4 for more than 2 hours without wanting to smash my own keyboard into my face.

D4's problem is items are too tightly dependent on clvl. And this gets aggravated by leveling char being super fast. This makes items obsolete on drop. D2-style discrete item types (small sword, big sword, etc.) are not the necessary solution. The solution is to have item power more decoulpled from character. so that a level 10 char will find mostly level 10 items, but also has a chance to find level 20 or 30 items but with diminishing chance. Magefist is nice, but this isn't really about scaling but about unique properties. A rare D2 item found in normal will be worse than a rare found in hell, there's no avoiding it.

PoE has the best itemization IMO. Core item affixes are very fundamental to item identity. Then you can get crazy boss mods for rares. And each unique is actually unique as opposed to some OP item. You have to build around the pros and cons of the unique it’s not just make this skill better type. In general D4 suffers from too many clear upgrades for skills. If I’m making specific build it’s usually get all skill legendary aspects, maybe the unique aspect, and whatever generic damage scaling aspects I can find. The generic damage scaling aspects not tied to a skill are interesting. But the ones that modify a skill outright are kind of lame because it’s not really a choice if you use them or not. IMO aspects that modify a skill belong as an aspect socket in the skill tree, next to the two existing options for said skill. Then generic aspects belong on gear. This alone would solve one major downfall of itemization in D4 where it’s too specific.

Does that mean aspects and uniques are being reworked?

There is a place for specific generic set unique crafted legendary or any kind of item in the game as long as they are balanced and not overly powerful compared to the other imo. Having many options diversifies the amount of builds you can do in a game but like i said it needs to be balanced (looking at you d2 runewords and d3 sets😂) D4 is very slowly going to the right direction question is though are they fixing it fast enough to keep players in the game since there are many options to choose from nowadays and not like at the time of d2. Ps. the ilvl and overly complex affix pool are garbage in d4. Hope they fix it to S4

Also Stats bonus on items are relevant cause items has stats requirmennt.

Seriously. Did the recent patch for d4 make things better across the board. I don’t play enough to play seasons or ladder

Don’t developers understand all this about itemization…hopefully you’re right and they are starting to learn more about itemization because at the end of the day, all of these points are valid and if they would just watch this video and take your advice, it would be good for players and the developers (i.e. more fun for players; more sales for developers) You should just create your own game GGM 😂

I liked a lot of stuff in D2 as far as itemization is concerned but it also has some glaring issues. I liked that there are items, runes, charms, jewels that you can find and it made the grind more exciting because you had more stuff to find. Some of these were added after the expansion and they made the game more interesting. The bad thing about D2 itemization is that after the powerful runewords were introduced most of the uniques and rare items paled in comparison so they are never used and the other is that a lot of items have bad stats. Like level 3 charged bolt charges in hell difficulty. This is a joke. This it literally zero damage and useless. Why does it exist and ruins my item? Or +stamina, no one cares about stamina after the very early game, no one, this stat should be completely removed from the game.

D4 Devs really wanted to prove a point that they can out-do D2, by using the D3 as the template.

Itemization is important, but i dont believe it should be analyzed on its own. It also depends on how the game brings said itemization to life. How are items acquired? how do they combine with character builds? Trading system? D2 kind of nails it, but I believe it has more to do with how the item system interacts with the rest of the game than the item system itself.

i normally do 3 chars each season , i personally grind my first 1 or 2 chars cus i know sooner i hit endgame sooner il be bored, after my first or 2nd char i rush to WT4 level 80 then sort out my char cus everything befor that is junk . i do 3 chrs cus i get bored after i hit 100, all exp is pointless, 99% of items are junk cus im looking for exact stats which are an increase of what im wearing maybe like 3% more cooldown for example , i killed all bosses n can clear tier 100 dung, ubers are boring to farm and i dont even need them to kill bosses or do tier 100 (depending on build).

He basically sums up what i have been trying to state ever since d3. Item scaling sucks and it is incredibly lazy! Type of item doesn't matter, early game doesn't matter, recognition doesn't matter etc. It is so freekin lazy! There should be a dedicated competent team for item design but it is apparent that blizzard skipped that whole part and just ripped everything bad from d3 and modified it to be even worse.. He also talks about early game being pointless and that is so on point! I bet that d4 or d5 will have an option to skip leveling completely soon. Mark my words if nothing big changes soon.. The incompetence and careless nature of blizzard is just incomprehensible! I'm rooting for moonbeast so hard!

The major problem with d3 creativity comes down to the games competitive nature. Even though you could create many different builds it always boiled down to how affective it was in rifts. Rifts ruined diablo3 in the same way it's itemization did. In d2 you don't care as much if the build is top tier or not. As long as you can farm some areas somewhat efficient. D3 was always about how high you could climb. The same way ilvl is lazy so is scaling map/world tiers. Lazy lazy lazy and d4 is using it all.

Kinda avoiding the elephant in the room here that is PoE, D2's modern day successor. There's also Last Epoch coming.

Question: Can we run TWO versions of D2R at one time? Can we run two games with only one PAID Account? Can we run two games if we have Two Paid Accounts?

just a quick add to this amazing video! in d4 everything scales… not only items (which is the topic however). just to mention: even scaling monsters is althe absolute deathblow! it essentially removes all fun in farming, it makes the game boring already before endgame! but you know what? - i’ve said it again and again - this is why d4 sucks in almost all regards except visuals! they did it all on purpose to get more casual players and tried some crazy fusion of newage-online kiddies with older and real gamers. they did totally forget about the core audience of the game! and somebody who is hopefully fired already long time and never gets a job in games again, did the worst job and essentially confused the “lets play d4 casual dads” with post-gaming casual kids! but when it comes to d4 every casual dad is a hardcore dad and the only true audience! that is what we love about the franchise! but worst, and then i am done, they did all this shit scaling on purpose and this is why the game is bad! aaaand… unfortunately the way the systems are, this is also something that can NEVER BE FIXED! so the game is lost! we can only hope for d5 in another 10 years!

Very long video so apologies if you talked about this. One simple question here to @Ginger Gaming Mentor. Uber Unique system in D4? Is that good system or bad? To me the Uber Unique system is a game destroying system and those items should never have been in the game in the first place. Not only have these items now caused massive amount of duping, RMT and pointless, boring grind that rewards groups 400% because of summoning mats. THey are also items that some classes can use 2-3 off - while another class uses at most 1. And these items roll with MAX stats and are now also craftable. What the hell are the devs thinking THIS is a great itemization for the game?

I HATE itemization in most RPGs because most items are incredibly closed-ended.

The problem with d2 is two fold though, first the rarity of some of those drops makes it a nigh impossible task to collect some of them (hence the holy grail status), and the joint drops mechanic, essentially encouraging solo play. Also runewords literally destroyed/fixed that games itemization entirely...

I want to know who is responsible for the concept design for the human whale Druid form in D4…Brendon Fraser called and wants his body suit back!! 🤣

Imagine wanting to release a new class and expansion when your base game is still unfinished and in shambles. 🤔

Nice rant, I've always hated Enigma because it feels like it's a forced item, it has almost everything you'd want, I have felt they either needed to tone down a few of the runewords or up some of the uniques in D2, D3 failed on so many levels it's not worth even talking about and D4 for me is just boring unfortunately.

I stopped playing d4 before making it to 60. Decided try d2r hardcore instead

Well, they had 10 years to get itemization correct, and failed so far. Season 4 will be the last chance they have to prove they are trying to do so. I dont hold out much hope, as resently it shows that they have been out of touch with the Diablo community and they dont seem to actually play to understand what itemization changes we are looking for though. As for the itemization to be worthwhile, the skill system also has to be up to par....For example, without runewords/Uniques we can turn 90% of D2R builds into something able to beat Hell Baal (at variable player counts even). I dont believe the same can be said for 90% of D4 builds beating WT4 endgame bosses.

13:45 The Chinese..... The idiom is amazing with sweet and sour sauce.

D2r classic mode is whereit's at. . Your missing out

I always wondered why old timers argued about “Skinning a cat”. Turns out it was a fishing reference. Cat was short for catfish.

Why is my ilvl so bad even in level 85+ areas in *HELL*? I'll get newbie unique and legendary gear... From Hell Andariel or Hell Diablo...

As already had been said many times over, d4 itemization is bad by design. Items can only roll 4 affixes which means the whole system is way too compartmentalized and very restrictive. As a result, most affixes are redundant.

I found it peculiar that our ginger sensei didn't know how to spell "niche" word :D

Damage on Tuesday 🤣

D4 needs loot 2.0, and many, many things to get better.

World Tier I, II, and III sucking is intentional: to encourage micro-transactions to skip the meaningless grinds?

Great video! Definitely too many affixes and class specific gear. Personally, I'd like for gear/affixes to level up with you. As a casual player who isn't concerned with end game, T100, Uber Duriel, Lillith, etc, I'd just like to have a robust crafting system to interact with while I play the game.

I can't wait for the expansion to change item level cap to 950 and completely invalidate every item we currently have. Uber uniques included. God knows why Blizzard thought item power was a good idea.

I think D4 has the worst itemisation I’ve ever seen in any ARPG. I was so hopeful when D4 was announced. They kept promoting it as a return to darkness which we all read as a return to D2. So I was praying for a D2 clone with prettier graphics and new blood injected into it every three months. It was looking like a dream come true! But the itemisation and journey through the game is so bad that when I start a season I can’t wait till I’ve unlocked all the cosmetics just so I can stop playing! It fees more like a chore then an enjoyable game that I WANT to play. Next season is the itemisation update but there’s just so much that needs changing that I don’t think I have faith in the current team to pull it off. And knowing blizzard these days they will save all the big decent changes to the paid expansion. I never thought I’d see the day but I feel like I’m going to be putting down Diablo for good and finding my fix elsewhere. And with Last Epoch and PoE2 round the corner we’re spoiled this year! I think alot of people are going to fall off and find a home somewhere else. Whether Diablo can win them back only time will tell.

D2 itemization is great but not perfect. Every itemisation has strengths and weaknessess. D3 and D4 scale everything off of flat weapon damage, which of course make it so, that an early weapon is trash compared to a later. Most items in D2 scale naturally, that's why they can keep their value. Magefists fcr is even better late game when you can break multiple fcr breakpoint. Gore rider crushing blow scales really nicely with bigger monster health pools. String of ears damage reduction is irrelevant in the early game, but important in hell etc. But the weapons in D2 have the same problem as in any other game, early weapons are never or very very rarely lategame viable. Heck, even late game weapns are trash, only Grief or high-end runewords are comparable to casters really. I really don't have that much problem with that. A game must me fun while you are progressing. That is the issue, most games just aren't. You see players also rushing D2, most of the time.

I just dont understand... how Blizzard Owns diablo 2... Has diablo 4.. and doesnt STEAL THE BEST PARTS OF DIABLO 2 FOR DIABLO 4.... like the items and finding the items and the grind of diablo 2.... thats what i miss.. runewords.... runes.. i can compare running chaos sanctuary to running a dungeon... except. I had fun running chaos sanctuary 10,000 times.. finding stuff.. i run a dungeon twice and i hate it

Diablo 2 have runes charms