Blizzard Quote [source]

During the development of patch 1.0.7, a Wizard bug relating to Arcane Power on Crit was introduced when we fixed a bug that was causing Blizzard to not proc it at all.

The good news is, as of patch 1.0.7, Blizzard can now trigger Arcane Power on Crit! The bad news is, by fixing the bug with Blizzard, we introduced a new bug that was causing Archon: Disintegration Wave, Disintegrate, Energy Twister, Meteor, and Ray of Frost to trigger Arcane Power on Crit twice per proc rather than once per proc, resulting in a higher than normal proc rate. We plan on fixing this bug very soon, and wanted to give you a heads-up about it.

Blizzard Quote [source]

>Welcome to the Diablo III Ask the Devs global Q&A. In this thread we'll be collecting your questions regarding itemization, having the community vote for their favorites, and then posting the answers we receive from the developers approximately one week later.

[STATUS]
OPEN! Please submit your questions and/or vote up your favorite submissions from other players.

[TOPIC]
The topic for this month is itemization.

To view our latest update on itemization in Diablo III, click here. We also encourage you to check out recent posts made designers Wyatt Cheng and Travis Day for more information.

[HOW IT WORKS]

• On the date and time specified in this post, we'll unlock the thread and you'll be able to submit your questions regarding itemization (as well as vote for questions you'd like to see answered).
• After 48 hours, we'll lock the thread. At this point, you will no longer be able to submit questions or vote.
• We'll then look for the posts with the most votes in participating regions and pass them on to the Diablo III development team.
• The following week, we'll provide you a list of answers delivered directly from the developers. Depending on how many questions the developers answer, we may break their responses into multiple parts (posted on different days).

[RULES]

• Only one question per post.
• Stay on topic. Questions that don't relate to the chosen topic (even if highly-rated) won't be sent to the developers.
• Discussion posts are not allowed. We ask that you only post questions in the Ask the Devs thread. If you would like to discuss related topics, please do so in another thread.
• You can vote for questions at any time while the thread is unlocked.
• A highly-rated post does not mean it will be answered, but we'll do our best to answer as many questions as possible.
• "Dislike" votes don't count.

[TIPS]

• Please don't post or vote for questions you know we won't answer. We're not going to use these Q&As to announce new projects, expansions, or release dates. By the same token, we're also not going to answer questions that touch on subjects outside of the game and its design.
• Keep your question concise. One to three sentences should be plenty to explain background and ask a question.
• All "Like" votes count. While you can't see the vote tally, we can. Even if a post is already highly rated, your vote still means something to that question (potentially) being answered.
• Vote for as many questions as you like, keeping the above tips in mind.

For more information about Ask the Devs, click here

Blizzard Quote [source]

That’s one of the reasons we added the Monster Power system: it allows players to further tune how challenging enemies are in each difficulty setting, regardless of level. Also when Travis Day spoke about allowing Legendary items to scale up in our recent Developer Journal: Itemization Update, that means they will be able to drop at lower levels too. We’ll be looking not only at letting low-level Legendaries drop at higher levels, but we’ll also be allowing higher level Legendaries to drop at lower levels. In addition, the targeted drops we mentioned in the Itemization Update are intended to improve the level up game as well.

Below are some specific examples we’re considering which we feel will benefit all players, regardless of level:

• One idea that we have discussed is “targeted Legendaries,” where named NPCs have an increased chance of dropping specific legendary items. For example, The Butcher could have an increased chance of dropping The Butcher's Carver.
• Another idea is that we introduce a system that will help alleviate some of the bad randomness players encounter by ensuring that at least some of the Rare and Legendary items you find will be something good for your class.
• We've also discussed allowing bosses the first time you kill them in each difficulty to have a guaranteed chance to drop a Legendary.

Blizzard Quote [source]

We are looking to improve co-op farming efficiency in 1.0.8. Co-op play in general is a big focus of the 1.0.8 patch and efficiency is definitely one component of that. Co-op is already more efficient for some players, but this is the exception rather than the norm. The degree of co-op efficiency depends heavily on the co-ordination of the party, skill builds, and the relative gear level of the teammates. Since launch we've made some modest changes to encourage co-op play but there's still room to go farther. At the same time, we don't want to go so far as to make multiplayer feel "mandatory" for those who prefer to play solo, but we still want to err on the side of being co-op favorable.

There's also a number of hurdles to co-op play beyond raw efficiency, so we'll be looking to alleviate/solve some of those hurdles too. The Identify All feature in 1.0.8 is an example of this. Sometimes the trip back to town to sort through a bag of gear is enough of a hurdle to make somebody feel playing co-op isn't worth it. Nobody wants to be in the dungeon fighting monsters while your teammate is off in town identifying a full inventory.

Blizzard Quote [source]

Lots of good comments here! Just a few quick points

1. As a point of clarification, "dropping less loot on the ground" is not slated for 1.0.8. It's part of our general philosophy for beyond the 1.0.8 timeframe.

2. I really like the suggestions that don't make multiplayer feel mandatory. Suggestions along the lines of "I don't want to feel penalized for playing with my friends" or "provide a small bonus to overcome the logistical overhead" are in the scope of what we're thinking.

3. We totally see the appeal of having more than 4 players in a game, but it has its downsides, and the big one is that the screen becomes so crowded you can't tell what's going on. It's important that a player can discern important information from the game world and make tactical decisions based on this information. We know some of you may disagree and you'll always want 8 players, and I can respect that. This is something we've debated heavily though, and feel strongly about.

4. We've discussed the "leecher" problem. Nothing to share yet but it's definitely rough when it happens.

Thanks for all the great discussion thus far!