Design Philosophy of Affixes

For a less suggestiony, more philosophical look at the same issues, check out this thread. Highlights include actual scientific studies of habitual behavior, Blizzard devs whose names aren't Jay Wilson giving (good!) insights into how drops work, and why item diversity is key to preventing forum users from flinging poo.

That said, I think some of these suggestion leads to situations which are slightly counterintuitive and/or nonproductive — for example, "Armour while moving" and "Armour while still" strike the player as a bit odd at first glance, and "while still" is by far the superior option. That doesn't mean I think they're flat-out bad, it just means that I think there might be less clunky ways of implementing similar tradeoffs (perhaps "armour vs projectiles and traps" and "armour vs melee attacks").

You also missed what I consider to be the most glaring example: have you noticed that the generalist % Spell Damage affix gets mad love, while the % Fire Damage (and its other elemental brethren) are given the shaft? What's up with that shit?

Lastly, I'd really like to see a "mugging" affix along the lines of "Enemies have a x% chance to drop an additional item when hit by a Melee Attack." For two reasons: it would open up a distinctly different mechanical method for MF compared to the group status quo of dedicated Culling MF support; and melee characters need a little extra MF love.

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

You also missed what I consider to be the most glaring example: have you noticed that the generalist % Spell Damage affix gets mad love, while the % Fire Damage (and its other elemental brethren) are given the shaft? What's up with that shit?

The ele dmg rolls are like max 30%, whereas the max spell dmg is over twice that!

I suspect GGG intentionally made item progression simple. That would explain the dearth of useful affixes and weak 'filler' affixes, within a specific build. Unfortunately it makes for a shallow gear progression outside of planning to use a specific unique. In Diablo 2 you would find uniques that had general purpose, albeit difficult to assess properties, leading to tough item decisions and even influencing builds. While in POE uniques aren't useful unless you've built around them or they are powerful relative content, neither of which promotes tough decisions. I would say rares, and their affixes, feel a lot more like ordinary nodes than notables. I have no complaints regarding uniques, they fill an integral itemization role analogous to passive keystones.

One thing I've noticed in TitanQuest is less generalist damage properties. Instead of +% Spell Damage you may find +%Bleeding or +%Cold Crit Damage. It's important to recognize affixes of that nature can become redundant, so care is required. Finding a powerful item with a damage different than the one being used might encourage a player to change their main skill, change their style and perhaps inject some novelty. That is good for engagement and encourages players to learn the game to make wiser decisions.

It's also not lost on me GGG puts a great focus on passive progression. You could say item progression revolves around passive progression. Make of that what you will.

On weapons, an affix counter attack speed would be welcome
-15% attack speed, +30% increased damage (apples to apples, generalist)

Weapon
+20% Damage to Chaos Skills, specialized and may encourage a skill switch

Armor
+100% increased evasion on full life, at first glance a boring pure EV roll but actually an excellent roll for ES/EV hybrids

Boots
+20% movespeed on low energy shield, useful for escapist casters

In summary, I don't think POE has bad item progression. It just needs a nudge so players are actually confronted with decisions: Do I switch to poison arrow to take advantage of this bow? Do I take HP regen instead of more HP? Do I look for cold and crit items to take advantage of my cold crit weapon?

Of course we don't want players spending 5 minutes staring at item affixes either. Terse and direct affixes are best.

1. Updated the OP to address Scrotie's concerns (see section "The Forgotten Affixes")

2. Updated the OP to include Scrotie's and Veta's affix ideas.

For Reference:
TitanQuest Affixes
TitanQuest IT Affixes
Grim Dawn Affixes .zip file
Dungeon Siege Suffixes Prefixes
Median XL Affixes
Diablo 2 Affixes
It's of note D2 affixes are pretty close to POE. What made D2 itemization different was multi-purpose uniques. POE took the right approach specializing uniques but it left a gap in interesting non-specialized itemization. Additional rare affixes can fill that gap.
Diablo 2 Special Modifiers
Torch Light 2 Item Maker

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Veta321 wrote:

It's of note D2 affixes are pretty close to POE. What made D2 itemization different was multi-purpose uniques. POE took the right approach specializing uniques but it left a gap in interesting non-specialized itemization. Additional rare affixes can fill that gap.

What PoE has that D2 doesn't, is the way to craft rares in the way you want.

This lets GGG improve upon D2's rare system and make rares more specialized, thus making most BIS items rare instead of uniques/sets/runewords.

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Novalisk wrote:

This lets GGG improve upon D2's rare system and make rares more specialized, thus making most BIS items rare instead of uniques/sets/runewords.

This.

Also, bump for a thread that's better than everything else in the top of Suggestions currently.

What I also liked about D2 affixes was that some of them were magic-only, which was actually quite the step for specialization: either you get more of everything, or you're betting on 1-2 particular things to make your character efficient. Of course, that also lead to a kind of shoehorning in particular cases, such as virtually all PvP Barbs preferring the Cruel Colossus Blade of Quickness over any rare, but the idea was there regardless.

GGG have stated they don't want to introduce more numerically powerful affixes than what's in there currently, in order to preserve the existing items' balance and value, but maybe if they had introduced more powerful magic-only affixes, that actually wouldn't break anything at all and kept more people happy.

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moozooh wrote:

What I also liked about D2 affixes was that some of them were magic-only, which was actually quite the step for specialization: either you get more of everything, or you're betting on 1-2 particular things to make your character efficient. Of course, that also lead to a kind of shoehorning in particular cases, such as virtually all PvP Barbs preferring the Cruel Colossus Blade of Quickness over any rare, but the idea was there regardless.

GGG have stated they don't want to introduce more numerically powerful affixes than what's in there currently, in order to preserve the existing items' balance and value, but maybe if they had introduced more powerful magic-only affixes, that actually wouldn't break anything at all and kept more people happy.

What stops a player from crafting a powerful magic into a much more powerful rare?

I'm not against the idea of more various weaker affixes being possible on rares though, thus increasing the chances a blue rolls something useful.

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moozooh wrote:

What I also liked about D2 affixes was that some of them were magic-only, which was actually quite the step for specialization: either you get more of everything, or you're betting on 1-2 particular things to make your character efficient. Of course, that also lead to a kind of shoehorning in particular cases, such as virtually all PvP Barbs preferring the Cruel Colossus Blade of Quickness over any rare, but the idea was there regardless.

Magic-only affixes were introduced after Blizzard realized magic items were useless. This is not the case in PoE, as magic items retain their value well into the end-game due to the crafting system.

Introducing magic-only affixes is not only difficult to implement due to regal orbs, it also removes a lot of depth and customize-ability from weapon slots.

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GGG have stated they don't want to introduce more numerically powerful affixes than what's in there currently, in order to preserve the existing items' balance and value.

I'm not suggesting higher-tier affixes. I'm suggesting alternative ones that apply to less builds but are more powerful as a trade-off.