Do Diablo 3 Bosses Drop Legendaries?
Posted 6 December 2012 by FluxI misread this question at first glance, but I’m going to stick with what I thought it said, since that’s a more interesting question. First, here’s the quote:
Vaeflare: While I’ve not been lucky enough to experience it firsthand, Diablo III bosses do indeed have a chance to drop Legendaries and Set items. 
Nice of Vaeflare to cement his “noob” status but perhaps he read the post as I did at my first glance, when I thought the OP was asking about Act Bosses dropping legendaries. But yes, regular bosses can drop legendaries. In fact that’s where I get maybe 2/3 of mine now that I’m playing with max MF, with the other 1/3 coming from white “trash” mobs (who aren’t actually so trashy, as they provide most of your exp and plenty of gold and other loot).
Zunimassa’s Vision from one of the minions of an Unburied boss.
What I had not seen, until fairly recently, was a legendary drop from one of the supposedly bigger-dropping quest bosses such as the Skeleton King, Magda, Ghom, etc. They’d pop 4 or 5 rares, but never a green or orange. (I’ve since seen this a few times.) I still have not ever personally seen a legendary drop from an Act Boss, and I often tack Azmodan or The Butcher onto the end of an item or key run just to give it a try. Diablo 2 this ain’t.
I know it can happen though, since I’ve heard others report it and I’ve even seen it in video; most recently when Green Pants drop from Azmodan in the 3rd kill in that video about how the Barbarian’s off-hand weapon’s DPS doesn’t matter when using WW.
So the question to you guys; where do you get your legendary and set items?
I have had the game since day 1, and my highest level is a DH level 60 (paragon 15).
I have never had a legendary item drop from ANY bosses or chapions or rares. The second time I killed Diablo on normal a green blacksmith plan dropped (Captain Swash items). That was the only green item I have ever found.
I have maybe found a total of 15 legendary items. Two have came from chests (and NOT resplendant chests), while the rest have come from normal/white monster drops.
pretty much my experience too
act bosses are just so anticlimactic
that to me is the biggest problem with the game
there is just no reason to kill Azmodan or Diablo or any other Act boss
think about it, the Alkaizer run is to start near the Act Boss and go in the OTHER direction !
the suggested end game run is to go BACKWARD and SKIP the act boss
lame
When I do Alkaizer I do the Arreat Core last just so I can go down and do Azmodan. It’s never yet been worth it, in terms of loot, but it’s another minute of game and I’m not that min/max on my time expenditure while playing, so I don’t mind the exploration. And at some point, I’ll surely break my streak of no-luck.
I hadn’t ever seen a legendary from a golden chest until fairly recently, but then I found like 3 in a week, so either I was unlucky for a long time, or overlucky for a short time.
It would be more efficient to clear core of arreat first even if you have to come back for azmo after your run. The reason core of arreat is first is because it gets your NV stacks up so quickly. Usually at least 2 packs and often times 3. By the time you make it to arreat crater you will normally have 5 stacks. This is really important since the mobs here are so dense, you want 5 stacks before clearing them all. Getting those 5 stacks asap is one of the most important things for both mf and paragon.
My first legendary was dropped by Diablo (nightmare).
In my personal and highly random experience, act bosses are a much better source of legendaries than goblins or big chests, but not quite as good as keywardens.
Same here, around 30 legendaries and 3 sets item and every one of them from trash mob. None from boss or elite pack.
One of the main reasons I don’t farm act bosses has nothing to do with item drops. It’s due to the bizarre quest-linked checkpoint / waypoint system. If I kill Azmodan (for example), I mess up my checkpoint, and my next run doesn’t start at the right location anymore. It’s much easier and somewhat more efficient to do runs that avoid completing quests.
If they changed item drops, I’d rather see bosses drop more items instead of higher quality (so more chances for a legendary but no more likely for each item). Theoretically you could balance the profit level with either approach, but I think psychologically, if the bosses dropped legendaries more often, it would turn into D2, and you’d farm them exclusively.
It’s not bizarre at all, in fact it is implement very well for the problem it is designed to solve: people stopping the quest / storyline at a specific point, and wanting to carry on forwards from that point for their next game.
The fact that people playing this late after release, particularly in inferno, aren’t really playing for the storyline, doesn’t make the system “bizarre”. It just makes it inappropriate.
I thought about that some last night after I posted my comment, and I would argue that you’re half right.
It is a good design during questing. I really liked it while leveling, but that’s not the game. Not even according to Blizzard themselves.
Read any of their quotes, and they’ll tell you how it’s all about the item grind, the item slot machine, getting quickly to maximum level and farming for items. You can reach level 60 in a matter of days or perhaps hours. Once you’ve done that, the checkpoints are pointless at best, horrible at worst.
So basically, it works great for about 1% of the time and makes no sense for 99% of the time. I don’t think Blizzard can claim to be surprised that people are playing “this late after release.”
Side point: Not completing quests during your farming runs also helps avoid the (also annoying and pointless) forced cut scenes and dialogue, which is another good reason not to kill Azmodan.
This:
“Side point: Not completing quests during your farming runs also helps avoid the (also annoying and pointless) forced cut scenes and dialogue, which is another good reason not to kill Azmodan.”
-One of the bigger reasons why I don’t farm Act bosses. I honestly have never used the Esc key so often in a game before.
Almost all of my legendaries have come from elites — which is pretty boring and expected.
I’ve gotten a few off of whites or resplendent chests, and I think I may have gotten one from a goblin once, but in general, my 25 or so legendaries/sets that I’ve found have come from the most predictable place.
The Butcher dropped me a Skorn once.
The next day 1.04 came out…
Have not seen one since.
I’ve got all my legendary drops from trash mobs / champ packs. Most of the time it drops around a champ pack, but I often cannot be certain who dropped it (as everything is dieing at once). I have had 4 or 5 legendaries drop from Goblins.
First ever legendary was a crappy might belt from I think NM Skeleton King way back before the RMAH was online. Up till 1.05 I had found maybe three others, mostly from trash mobs.
Since 1.05, I see about one every 6-8 hours of playtime. Of course, most are junk. Pretty much all of them are from yellow elites, with the odd one from random whites or other mobs. Never from chests or goblins, and never again from a quest or act boss.
To be honest, bosses could use a slight drop buff. There’s just too much time investment vs rewards. Rather then fight an act boss with my 5 stacks, I always would much rather A) continue with whatever farming I’m doing or B) exit and re-enter and rebuild up my stacks for a second try on a key warden.
—
From day-one until today, I’ve only once gotten a legendary from a boss, and only 2 from elites. Whites drop these things it seems. They die in great masses vs how often elites die so I suppose it makes sense that most people would get legendaries from normal mobs.
I had Depth Diggers drop from the Siege Breaker on MP2 Inferno with no NV stacks and somewhere around 180 MF. This was about a month or so ago. But all the other bosses have dropped nothing worth a hoot for me other than what the Siege breaker did.
I’ve actually found most of my legendary items from Treasure Trolls or just a random regular monster. But my total number found is about 6 or 7 since I started playing back in the middle of June.
The game system trains us to seek out our five stacks by killing off champ/elite packs, but it’s been my experience that they drop, at best, equal to every other source.
I’ve found seven set/legendaries in the past week. Two were from the Butcher (my first ever from an act boss… peak scaled!), two from randomly generated purples (not ones you see every time in an area), two from white trash, and one from a champ pack but I don’t know if it was from a minion or the last guy standing.
It’s a small scale, but really… champ packs suck. I’d like it if drops were balances so that we have targets to run, not to blast your way through half an act and kill off as much as you can since everything seems to drop pretty much the same. It’s all about mob density, not mob quality. Don’t like that much, personally.
I got one just last night from Azmodan. And I got even more from Ghom, preety often even.