The developers of Diablo 4 have announced plans to make changes to the items. They are primarily addressing the issue of numerous affixes, also modifying some aspects. In the last Campfire Chat, they specifically explained how this will look in Season 4.
On March 20, a “Campfire Chat” livestream was held with the developers of Diablo 4. This time, they talked more about the item system, which is set to change fundamentally in Season 4. There will be new crafting mechanics and revised affixes.
The new system also has a huge impact on the Codex of Power. Until now, you could extract aspects from items to either store them or apply them directly to other items. However, in Season 4, legendary aspects will be transferred to the Codex of Power.
What will improve loot? The developers’ goals regarding loot are quality over quantity and the uniqueness of items.
- There will be fewer item drops, but they should be of better quality.
- Players should be able to enjoy loot drops.
- Players should feel a sense of progress through crafting.
- Items should become more of a journey that doesn’t end when you find just one item.
The leaderboards were introduced in Season 3 of Diablo 4 and will remain in subsequent seasons:
Smaller affix pool with stronger, “noticeable” values
What is planned for the affixes? The developers are making numerous changes to the loot system. Many players criticize that the system is “arbitrarily complex” due to the affixes and that the whole process is boring. Some joke about it as “the ultimate ‘damage on Tuesday’ add-on.”
If you count all possible affixes that can appear on items, you come to over 200 different properties.
In Season 4, there will be a smaller pool of affixes, which will remove many duplicate or conditional effects. The overall values of the affixes will be increased.
The number of affixes on items will also be reduced. Legendaries will have only 3 affixes, and rare items will have 2. The values of the affixes will be stronger, making them noticeable, as stated by the developers in the stream.
Items will then receive affixes when “rolling” that are related to their class. For example, staves will have “Intelligence” and “All Stats”, but not “Strength”, “Willpower” or “Dexterity”.
What will happen to old items? All items will keep the affixes they currently have and will be labeled as “outdated”. This specifically means that to obtain items with the revised affixes, you must get them as a drop in Season 4 and pick them up – just as you will need to do if you want to use the new systems.
No more aspects clogging chests and inventory
What will happen to the aspects? Until now, you extracted aspects from items to store them until you applied them to other items. In Season 4, legendary aspects will be transferred to your Codex of Power when you dismantle items. Previously, players assumed that this would probably not happen.
In the Codex, you will find a search function and a filter for aspects. You can also mark aspects as favorites. Once you find aspects that are better “rolled”, they will be upgraded in your Codex.
Less “useless” loot
What about loot drops? The drop rate will be generally reduced, but more useful items should drop. The goal is to spend less time sorting and more time slaying monsters. In the stream, the developers emphasized that you shouldn’t come out of a dungeon with 25 useless items.
- Legendaries dropped by monsters above level 95 will always have an item power of 925.
- At World Tier 1 and 2, there is a chance that some uniques will drop.
- At World Tier 3, all uniques can drop.
- Uber uniques could be dropped with a small chance from monster level 55 and will always have an item power of 925.
At World Tier 3, only “sacred” items will drop, and at World Tier 4, only “empowered” items. From the chests of the Tree of Whispers, you will also receive “Forgotten Souls” starting in Season 4, as well as with a small chance from elite enemies.
In Season 4, a new boss, Andariel, will also be introduced in Diablo 4. According to the developers, she will drop the same items as Duriel.
What about trading? Trading will also be revised in Season 4. You will be able to trade legendaries and uniques, except for:
- they are Uber uniques.
- you bind the items to your account through crafting.
Two new crafting options for customizing equipment
What changes with crafting? Crafting in Diablo 4 will also be revised with Season 4. You will then have two options to adapt your items to your builds. With “Tempering”, you add new affixes to items. You can obtain the materials for this as drops from most activities.
“Masterworking” is another system for upgrading items, which will include 12 ranks. This will improve the values of your affixes. Most ranks will slightly increase the value of all affixes, and every four ranks, one of the affixes will be massively upgraded.
The gold costs for rolling items will have a cap and will no longer scale “infinitely”. A loot filter is currently not planned by the team – they want to see how the changes to loot are received.
The changes to loot are set to come with Season 4 in Diablo 4, and according to the developers, everything should be available from day 1 after the season starts. Originally, the season would have started in less than four weeks, but now it has been postponed.
More on this can be found here: We now know when Season 3 of Diablo 4 ends – When does Season 4 start?
