Diablo 4 players demand “less loot and better quality drops”

While fans were hopeful for change in Season 2, Diablo 4’s itemization continues to disappoint some players.

Much of the joy of fantasy RPGs like Diablo 4 is following your hero’s journey to greatness. The sense of progression is much more fulfilling when you can witness your character ascend from a puny novice to a champion of combat, and a master of slaying demons from Diablo’s army.

While there has to be a constant degree of challenge to keep players engaged, too much arbitrary challenge can wear away at their sense of enjoyment. A key part of maintaining this delicate balance is developing effective itemization. Unfortunately, according to some parts of the player base, Diablo 4 has continually underperformed in this area.

Itemization remains a sticking point for Diablo players

Despite promises of change from Blizzard, accusations of itemization problems persist. One player took to the Diablo 4 subreddit to express that while they felt Season 2 was an overall step in the right direction, the game’s itemization is still in need of “big overhaul”.

Delving into the root of Diablo 4’s perceived itemization problems, one commenter explained that they felt the game’s overly involved suffix system bogs down its loot: “They need to get rid of 80% of the modifiers. I don’t need to read through every item and have it tell me that this only works on Tuesdays. Way too many conditional items, balance it around some main attributes and make upgrades actually help you progress in content.”

Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo 4 itemization problems include an overly complicated modifier system and poorly balanced drop rates.

Not only did Diablo 4 players criticize how conditional they be many of the items’ effects to be, but they also called out the off-kilter drop rates of high-level gear. As one commenter put it, “It gets tiring getting an inventory full of useless yellows [rare items] after 10 mins of anything. We need less loot but better quality drops”.

As a result of this perceived weak itemization, some of those playing Diablo 4 have expressed a feeling of stagnation: “I am finding myself burned out, I am still just running around killing the same mobs with the same core ability in the same locations for the same items”.

Of course, a complete restructure of Diablo 4’s itemization is a massive undertaking for developers. In the meantime, it seems that an option to filter loot could ease the strain of bloated inventories. “I honestly just want a loot filter […] it takes longer to scan for upgrades than it takes to farm them”, one player complained. Thankfully, this is already on the agenda for the game’s development going forward.