Negative Modifiers

[onishin]

I think D3 should bring back negative mods (like -10 life). That way, choosing if we should wear an item would be much more interesting! Do I need that nifty bonus to my attack speed? Oh, it lowers my mana regen! Whatever, I'm a barbarian!

[phool]

Negative modifiers makes for interesting uniques. Balance wise, Blizz would have to be careful about attempting to balance a significent positive mod with a significent negative mod however.

[5zigen]

I think it's an ok idea, IF blizzard gets rid of the plethora of OTHER useless mods on items.

[Grunthex]

I think it'd be interesting if there were some serious negative modifiers possible, but each time one was added to an item, an additional positive modifier of equal or higher level to the negative modifier was added.

"With great power comes great chance of blowing yourself up"

[Jcakes]

That was one of the things I liked about the uniques in Diablo 1, they had good modifiers that were balanced with negative modifiers.

[lionheart]

Yea and most people would avoid them leaning more towards the items that are just "good"

[jamesisbest]

It would be cool. I'm sure people would be searching for items with good modifiers that help their class and with negative modifiers that don't affect their build if having negative modifiers boosts the items in a way. They just need to make sure having - modifiers don't have the nasty bugs it did in diablo 2 before they got rid of nearly all of them.

[DBaron]

I say no. No negative modifiers on my items please.

[Intolerance]

There are enough worthless mods on rare items that you don't need negative mods to keep them in check. Godly rares are extremely, well, rare.

I'm all for negative mods on uniques. Or at least better balance so no unique is the absolute best option. I like Goblin Toe is this respect- you can get a non-boot mod (crushing blow) by sacrificing any other good boot mods- r/w speed, resists, str dex, life.

Many uniques in D2 are overpowered and I hope to see them fill a niche rather than be the end-all-be-all items that many of them are.

[Cwicseolfor]

I'm all for it!

I was annoyed when Blizzard removed negative mods in Diablo 2. It's not even so much about balance - just interesting items and tough decisions; variety is the spice of life.

[onishin]

I think d2 had one item with negative mod. Andariels visage or griffons eye..something like that

[Betrayal]

Andy's hat had -30 Fire Resistance.

To be honest I don't think 'negative modifiers' are entirely necessary, if an item is too good that it need negative mods attached to it then just make it weaker.

But then again it will make gearing up much more interesting, but I doubt neg. mods will impact the gameplay too much so I wouldn't really care.

[Mcwhopper]

A negative modifier would add a lot of taste, as long as they dont go overboard.

I'd like to have a character that will be uber powerfull, but can be so with multiple different gear setups.

[Sein Schatten]

Nah. Why have negatives? There are so many completely useless modifiers that a negative is overkill. Rather then making some overpowered and balance with negatives just balance them without negatives.

[kavlor]

I was playing Dungeon siege on the PSP when I came accross an item that had negative life replenish,I was curious so put it on and my life bar dropped rapidly till my char died in town which I thought was amusing since it would normally be impossible to die in town.Im not sure if items could be fun that way in D3 unless it was extreme like an item that freezes the wearer or stuns them of course they'd have no practical use except to confuse unknowing players.

[onishin]

Items with negative life regen would be so cool! If it had a big running/attack speed bonus, it would make me kill faster to regain life (orbs)! and I couldn't stop killing or I would die :)

[fledgeling]

Imagine finding a "cursed (dmg to player), broken (-dex), cracked sash" or something like that. I think I would find a lot of them. Just like now - I always find grim scythes. The sad part is that I never found a GOOD grim scythe (-requirements and high damage).

[5zigen]

Nah. Why have negatives? There are so many completely useless modifiers that a negative is overkill. Rather then making some overpowered and balance with negatives just balance them without negatives.

Negatives could actually add a ton of flavor if they did it right. I agree they would have to toss all the "of the sun" items and such.

But as an example of how cool negative mods COULD be, imagine that in D3 the highest ED you can get on a sword is 250%, let's call this mod "honed"

So you have a Honed broadsword, 250% ED.

Add in another mod, Cruel (I know it's taken) Let's say it's 300% ED, but comes with -10% health penalty. Now would you rather have a Honed Broadsword or a Cruel Broadsword.

Another example might be "Massive" 300% ED, -20% attack speed.

Something like Spiked armor could increase damage taken by 5% and return 15% damage (before DR calculations) to enemies.

In this case I'm talking about combining them with positive mods, which I think would be awesome and give people a slight dilema, do they go for the best items and try to make up for the loss, or go with the slightly worse item and not have to make up for the item penalty.

It would go a long way to making characters more customizable and balancing them out a little too.

[Angel_of_Wrath]

I support this type of suggestion, as it serves a better purpose than generic negative modifiers that can spawn on anything. Seems a little more realistic too.. like the extra big sword that does more damage but swings slower.

Having a list of negative modifiers in the pool just for the sake of having them is not beneficial to the gameplay I dont think... like a Sword of Regret that has -dmg. Consider the imbue, you could get a real **** rare... even worse than regular imbues you get now! =P Uniques could make good use of of it too obviously, but something like the Gotterdamerung is too negative for these days (highest armor class at the cost of 0 resists and low low light radius). It adds interesting flavour but still needs some good balancing.

[ArielJade]

lol, negative mods....they should have a "binding on pickup" option! Most people are dumb as it is. More things for them to think about just confuses them.
Now, if they add a ton of new gear/wep then it would be interesting but in the end people will still make builds and mention the best gear for it and there will still be cookie cutters.

[uzurpator]

Negative mods should be used to balance 'ubercool' positive mods. For instance we all know that Frostburns come with 40% extra mana. This makes them extremely useful and, imvho, narrows choices for sorc gloves quite considerably (read: if you don't go for max FCR, use frosties).

However if frosties were
+40% mana
-40% life
Then you would think twice before using them. Think Messershmidt's Reaver in Diablo 1. 200% ed, but considerably lowered life. That is how negative mods should work.

5zigen: That is perfect illustration - with extreme power should come the price.

[Sein Schatten]

Negative mods should be used to balance 'ubercool' positive mods. For instance we all know that Frostburns come with 40% extra mana. This makes them extremely useful and, imvho, narrows choices for sorc gloves quite considerably (read: if you don't go for max FCR, use frosties).


Then decrease the positive value.
With negative modifiers you decrease the possible chance of good items further. Except, if you bind the negative modifiers to extraordinary good positive modifiers. Example:
if (extra mana >= 40%)
add -10%max HP

[Gigashadow]

I liked negative modifiers, but if they do that they should maybe tweak drop rates a bit.

[a brick]

There are other ways to go for customability.
Has anyone ever found a rare, and started reading everything down the list of mods and specifications of it?
You read down it, see a few things you like. maybe IAS, dmg, fcr, blah blah blah.

And then, you see something that ocmpletely ruins the rare. str requirement is ridiculously high, ur a melee character and theres no ias. too slow. etc...

It crushed me at least. so imagine finding everything u wan on an item but something that completely ruins it like a neg mod. if they put that then ok i accept it but i like this idea better which would i think make no need for neg mods:

I vote for the eradication of the idea of DII's "uniques". How the hell are they unique anyways? Stormsheild is a unique item, very good one, but almost every single person who plays on bnet has at least one.
I think the "rares" system should be expanded and put into DIII. Have rare be the highest type of item you can get but make it possible for them to be reallyreally good. the range between crap and really good rares should increase but also the total amount of modifiers, useless and good, too. This would make everything truly customizable, and itd be virtually impossible to make two builds the same.

that could just be me tho, and if it is then ok, but unqiues aren't unique in DII. theyre "standarized good items". being able to have really good rares (or whatever other name thed like to call it) sounds better imo.

my two cents, sorry its so long

[DBaron]

...
I vote for the eradication of the idea of DII's "uniques". How the hell are they unique anyways? Stormsheild is a unique item, very good one, but almost every single person who plays on bnet has at least one.
I think the "rares" system should be expanded and put into DIII. Have rare be the highest type of item you can get but make it possible for them to be reallyreally good. the range between crap and really good rares should increase but also the total amount of modifiers, useless and good, too. This would make everything truly customizable, and itd be virtually impossible to make two builds the same.

...theyre "standarized good items"....

Getting rid of uniques would be a bad idea IMHO. Like you said, they are standardized good items, so they are useful in establishing trade values. Plus I find them useful in building a character, so you can plan your character around them.

Maybe they should start calling uniques something else, like named items or something, because it stupid to have everyone wearing the same 'unique' items.

[a brick]

Getting rid of uniques would be a bad idea IMHO. Like you said, they are standardized good items, so they are useful in establishing trade values. Plus I find them useful in building a character, so you can plan your character around them.

Maybe they should start calling uniques something else, like named items or something, because it stupid to have everyone wearing the same 'unique' items.

Good point. But I'm glad u see mine in that it's not a good name. Maybe standardized items are a good thing, but don't make them uber i guess is what im saying

If not that, then actually make them hard to find. They're too common to be called "uniques" at least, but I'm just complaining. Personally, having a whole lot of really good rares sounds a lot better than uniques. "style points" lol.

OT: Even my web browser says "uniques" is wrong because its not supposed to be plural.

[deadpooldx]

i liked the few negative modifiers from D2 the 2 i can remember most were on runewords though. Nadir gave a minus to light radius (not a big deal really) and Malice have life drain on it which acted like the pallys sacrifice. i think there should be a reason for negative modifiers though. like say you want to put on a piece of armor that you don't have the strength to use. then you either can't run or your stamina takes a hit. or if you don't have enough dex your AR would take a hit. having negative modifiers without a purpose is lame.