As of the new patch implementation they're claiming to have entered something called "smartloot" which basically gives the loot rolls accordingly to your class / stat orientation so you can grab better gear faster, however after I've played the PS3 version where this was present since the beginning, and now playing the PC version with the patch that introduces this, I can tell at least in my opinion that the loot is still pretty bad, despite the rolls being a little better in terms of basic stats, but it's still hard as hell to grab a nice piece of gear if we compare the time spent with the ps3 version..

Let me know your thoughts on this.

I thought smart loot would give us better stats and indeed we have an increase on VIT + primary stat with most items. Pre patch, we'd get rolls of around 200 max, now it's like 300.

However, they balanced that out by introducing categorization of affixes. We could in the past get AR,VIT,Main stat with trifecta's (CC,CD and AS). Now that's not possible because we will always get 2 secondary affixes which are rather rubbish (like health globes etc).

Also, I've noticed they halved the max attack speed again. New items can only roll up to a max of 5%.

Indeed, I mean, I get the need for the new rolls they've implemented in the yellows for instance, the dmg increasing per skill is pretty nice, on my monk I'm pulling +20% dmg on my spirit generator as well as +13% on my Exploding Palm which is already top notch, this is nice indeed, but having to prey to all of the gods to get a crit chance roll for instance wasn't in my plans lol.

bknight wrote:... +20% dmg on my spirit generator as well as +13% on my Exploding Palm which is already top notch, this is nice indeed, but having to prey to all of the gods to get a crit chance roll for instance wasn't in my plans lol.

Ah yes, I forgot to add that items have +% damage modifiers to certain skills which wasn't as readily available pre-patch.
Bracers can roll with an elemental based +% damage mod as well.

Critical still plays a large part of things like before but we can get some via the new paragon points system as well.

Patch 2.01 really did completely change a lot of game mechanics and I'm still getting used to things.

Some of the new loot looks quite good; while the random rolls can be pretty bad, I'm keen to try on a full Immortal Kings set for the perma pets. I think that's where the new NPC comes into play for enchanting these items into something that's worthwhile to use (ie. reroll a single affix with gold)

I play hardcore exclusively, so my perspective on things could be in the minority.

I vaguely remember reading something on the Diablo 3 website about how they didn't make the loot "too smart" for instance I can be on my wizard, but still have a Barb only item drop - it is just less likely to happen now, and those stats will be *real* Barb stats (strength/vit/etc) rather than have intellect on a Barb only item.

So far it does look like quite the difference from the console version loot, but I think they intended for it to be easier on the console from the get go. Not entirely sure on their reasoning's. I haven't really minded the new loot 2.0 though, it is still a nice change even if upgrades can be few and far between and once RoS is released I am sure we will see a bigger difference.

I think it might be worth noting that it might also take into play the type of gear you already have. When the patch was released most my gear was terrible (barely pulling 30k DPS on some characters) so I have gotten a lot of upgrades. I am sure those of us who played more intensely with already good gear pre-patch will have a harder time finding an upgrade.

I did notice that legendary items that drop always are better than what I have equipped and there have not been any duplicates for a set piece dropped. Its always a new slot that it drops for and have not gotten a bad legendary yet. I think the smart drop has been going pretty well and the drops do usually seem better than normal.

Yeah I really don't like the way they 'balanced' this 'smartloot'. It's not too smart to be honest, to me anyway. Plus there's the factor of more legendaries dropping on PS3 anyway, so PS3 is still getting the better loot while PC users are getting the wrong end of the stick here.

I have noticed a difference between the console versions and the PC even after they announced this change. I don't expect 1:1 parity with other editions of the game but it is still dissatisying to see the % of loot dropped in the PS3 version compared to the PC. I guess its just the videos I have seen but the distribution seems completely different last time that I compared both games in same scenario/difficulty.