Blizzard's Diablo III Legendary Item Improvements in 1.0.4

With the massive 1.0.4 patch just around the corner, Diablo III developers finally spill the beans regarding the highly anticipated Legendary item changes. Since its launch Diablo III has been heavily criticized for its lackluster "Legendary" items and after three months of listening, it seems like the developers are finally ready to make some big changes. But is it already too late?

With PvP far from sight and a lack of additional content to keep players coming back, it's no surprise the amount of Diablo III players are dwindling. But perhaps the upcoming changes will be enough to pull players back into the game. Now it looks like the developers are finally taking some notes from the success of Diablo II:

Many of you commented, rightly, that the Legendary items in the game didn’t feel unique enough. Something that Diablo II did really well was to create some very memorable items, and they were called “Uniques.” While we call them Legendaries now, the word “unique” was something we tried to keep in mind when making these changes. The rarity of Legendary items combined with their color means that when they drop you should feel like you’re getting something special, something that isn’t just another sword. A truly legendary item should have history behind it, something that you can imagine a powerful wizard imbuing with special magics from within the depths of his musty library.

In addition to making legendary items much more powerful (see screenshots), Blizzard will be adding unique abilities to a number of them such as the Lidless Wall, now with "You have a chance to be shielded when hit by enemies", or Firewalkers now with "Burns the ground you walk on". Another change that is sure to make many happy is a promotion of build diversity through a number of legendary items.

Since the first Diablo game, a number of brave souls have dedicated their entire gaming experience to experimenting with unconventional builds such as the melee wizard or the range barb. Unfortunately, Diablo III didn't leave much room for too many of these builds, but now a handful of legendaries will encourage them. For example, melee wizards can have a weapon that gives a bonus to Spectral Blade damage while barbarians can have a weapon that gives bonuses to Weapon Throw and Ancient Spear.

For all of the juicy details, head on over to the official developer's blog. Are the upcoming changes enough to bring you back to the game?

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Tuan Mai
Tuan Mai is a Los Angeles based writer and marketing manager working within the PC Hardware industry. He has written for Tom's Guide since 2010, with a special interest in the weird and quirky.
  • oraygungor
    omg Tom`s Blizzard has started to advertisement again...
    Reply
  • Kami3k
    Oh a article about a patch for Diablo 3!

    Where were the articles for the patches for Rift, BF3, Mass Effect 3, Shogun 2, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, etc.

    Articles about patches on a site like Tomshardware is stupid.
    Reply
  • dalethepcman
    Next article will be about how WoW has gone free to play, you just need a battle net account and you can play for free. (until level 20) Huge news for the tech world!

    Oh wait they just did that, but remove WoW and replace with Diablo. Totally news worthy...
    Reply
  • AznCracker
    So they all glow now... cool
    Reply
  • alidan
    Kami3kOh a article about a patch for Diablo 3!Where were the articles for the patches for Rift, BF3, Mass Effect 3, Shogun 2, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, etc.Articles about patches on a site like Tomshardware is stupid.
    diablo 3, a VERY major game that was what, 10 or so years sense the last one. yea... keeping up with the early game patches is a waste of time...

    patches that are major changes in a game that sold as well as this... it broke pc only records didnt it, is to be expected.
    Reply
  • bebangs
    still a boring game...
    Reply
  • teamcarlisle
    I was done with diablo 3 after about 2 1/2 weeks after it was released. I was really dissapointed with the game. If they want us to come back to it, tell them to stop tweaking the stats and nerfing everything (other than the infamous error 37, I preferred the game the way it was at release), and actually make new content. Until then, I feel no need to reinstall the game and play more. Unfortuntely Blizzard got my money for diablo 3, but i will remember this experience next time a Blizzard game is released and choose not to buy it. Oh, and I thought Diablo the boss looked retarded
    Reply
  • mortsmi7
    alidanpatches that are major changes in a game that sold as well as this... it broke pc only records didnt it, is to be expected.Unfortunately, number of sales doesn't equate to game quality.
    Reply
  • jn77
    People actually still play this game? after beating it 4 dozen times its old news...... no new content...... this really should have been a stand alone game with an online portal.
    Reply
  • Kami3k
    alidandiablo 3, a VERY major game that was what, 10 or so years sense the last one. yea... keeping up with the early game patches is a waste of time...patches that are major changes in a game that sold as well as this... it broke pc only records didnt it, is to be expected.
    Look at the URL of this site.

    What does it say? HARDWARE. The recent apple spam actually makes sense.

    Good job at also not countering my point. Failure.
    Reply