Part 10

Understand Diablo III loot drops, from common to legendary, and how item rarity affects your character's power. Learn about set items and rare items.

Diablo III offers an extensive loot system with 17 tiers of armor art styles, each featuring randomized stats. Hundreds of unique set pieces and several hundred distinct legendary items are also available. The 17 armor tiers represent different visual appearances, with stats varying for each piece. While these tiers appear progressively, higher tiers are not guaranteed to be superior. The first tier lacks shoulders and helms, but subsequent tiers cover (press the cover button to crouch behind walls or objects) all armor slots.

Set items and legendary items are uniquely designed by Blizzard with specific looks and stats, though one or two stats may still be randomized. Regular loot is categorized by rarity, indicated by font color.

When an item drops, its rarity is immediately identifiable by the color of its font. This color coding is the first indicator of an item's potential value.

• Common: White font. Generally useless unless very early in Act I of Normal difficulty. They offer only raw armor and damage without bonus effects. Junk items, with grey font, are even less valuable. Neither is worth much when sold.
• Magical: Blue font. Rarer than common items, these are a significant focus due to their frequent drops and beneficial bonus magic effects. They are also relatively inexpensive to craft. However, their base stats are only adequate, and they can have only a few bonus effects.
• Set: Green font. These are uniquely designed by Blizzard and fit together with other items of the same set. They have a couple of randomized effects. Set items are very rare, harder to find than rare items but not as rare as legendaries. Acquiring a good set often requires trading or purchasing on the Auction House (AH) with gold or real money. Class-specific set items can be very powerful and worth the effort.
• Rare: Yellow font. These items are highly sought after and can drop once or twice over several hours of play, especially with good magic find gear. They are less difficult to find than set or legendary items and offer excellent stats. Rare items require identification by right-clicking them after they are found.