16 tiers of gear, will the best gear in Inferno be attainable in Act 1?

**theody** · 05-04-2012, 23:13

Correct me if I'm wrong but there are 16 tiers of weapon and armor, 4 for each difficulty. Now, are the tiers dropped corresponding to the act? Example : First tier = first act, second tier = second act, etc. Or is it just a huge toss of tiers in each difficulty where you can find say, an Onyx Chestplate in Act 1 and in Act 4 as well?

**Loriku** · 05-04-2012, 23:43

Item pools are not limited by Act, or Boss, or anything like that. While you’ll have a better chance to get better items in Act IV Inferno, you could get those same items in Act I, or even Hell.
Our item pool philosophy is that you can break an urn and get the best item in the game – it’s all a matter of chance. Running more difficult areas and taking on more difficult enemies will not always be the most efficient way to find upgrades.

From Bashiok himself

**imthedan** · 06-04-2012, 01:36

It's similar to D2. You CAN find the better items in the game anywhere. You just have a better chance of finding the better items during the end-game, especially Inferno. While they're not saying, I'm sure there will be a few items that ONLY drop in Inferno as well.

**Apocalypse** · 06-04-2012, 02:05

sometime after release i am 100% sure that inferno only items will be patched in. but for now you can get the best of the best in act 1 inferno, even act 4 hell though i will have to see that to believe it

**imthedan** · 06-04-2012, 02:35

Alright, I watched the video of the armor tiers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z783Ttu2BU

I have a question, though. I like the Barbarian's tier 13 set. If I took a dye to that, I could make it look ridiculous. My question is if I like the set, will I have to settle for lesser stats on it, or do you think they'll have top leveled stats, but on the tier 13 armors. I guess I just don't know how it works. In my head, I'm thinking that the tier-16 will be the best statistically in the game, but I don't know.

Thanks.

**bazinga** · 06-04-2012, 02:47

I gotta admit, the armor in D2 looks much better than D3's armor. D3's looks so over the top, it looks like it came out of a Final Fantasy game. Diablo 2's gear looked nice and classy, while looking more realistic.

**Apocalypse** · 06-04-2012, 02:48

would not doubt if in time we get the option to use the look of lower tier items while still using our tier 16. i mean they do it in wow so it will have to be in d3 right? RIGHT!

**TheDestructor** · 06-04-2012, 02:56

Originally Posted by bazinga

I gotta admit, the armor in D2 looks much better than D3's armor. D3's looks so over the top, it looks like it came out of a Final Fantasy game. Diablo 2's gear looked nice and classy, while looking more realistic.

It's definitely more intricate, but that's because we went from 2D to 3D, so artists tend to want to take advantage of that, and get a little "crazy". I much prefer it to looking like a permanent hobo that we get in PoE. Also going to have to disagree on the Final Fantasy comparison: http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy...6/Tidus_CG.jpg <---- LOL

**bazinga** · 06-04-2012, 03:02

Also why did they switch the inventory look? Things looked more bad *** when they were at an angle. Like this:

diablo32-3302009-1.jpg

The frontal look doesn't look all that badass.

**bazinga** · 06-04-2012, 03:10

Originally Posted by TheDestructor

It's definitely more intricate, but that's because we went from 2D to 3D, so artists tend to want to take advantage of that, and get a little "crazy". I much prefer it to looking like a permanent hobo that we get in PoE. Also going to have to disagree on the Final Fantasy comparison: http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy...6/Tidus_CG.jpg <---- LOL

On second thougt, after googling it, Final Fantasy has much classier armor styles.

These for example are really sexy, this is what I was hoping for in Diablo 3.
http://technabob.com/blog/wp-content...neilbombad.jpg
http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/2...h_artwork1.jpg
http://angryweb.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/CLOSE1HyurM.png
2423_L-champion-knight.jpg

The medieval gothic looks made Diablo 1 and 2 badass, now its like some designer with ADD designed the armors.

Merging with Activision is probably what ****ed everything up, that's probably why Diablo 3 has a completely different and ugly art direction.