- Stats that are specific to a class on an item that cannot be used by that class
This was a problem, but it wasn't fixed just on legendary items. They had a completely random assignment of affixes for items. That has changed, for the most part. (and for the worst IMO, as I can no longer farm gear on my Wizard for my DH)
Nobody said it was just on legendary items. Its a plague all around. And I'm not talking just about finding STR on a Wizard weapon or that kind of thing. Loot 2.0 has made it less frequent, and supposedly the new artisan in RoS will let you re-roll certain stats (though the extent of what you can do is unknown still). But theres even more idiocy on the way. New set items (as in ones that will be available in RoS) can be seen on the Items pages on the D3 website. Some of these set items are clearly geared toward certain classes (to the extent that most/all of their set bonuses are class specific), yet the item page is showing that they can roll class specific bonuses FOR OTHER CLASSES (these are primarily single skill damage boosts, which are not in any way effective enough to make up for using a set that doesn't provide your character with any other bonuses). This is the kind of laziness in item design that has plagued this game since day 1, and its inexcusable.
- Completely obviously useless stats (miniscule amounts of damage reflect, which btw is sadly not limited to the Nailbiter weapon in the graphic, I've seen several others since Loot 2.0)
Some affixes aren't great? How is that a problem? Actually, early in the game, reflect damage stacking wasn't uncommon. Regardless, your point is "well, this affix doesn't fit my playstyle, and therefore is useless". Should every affix be equally as good as every other?
You are looking at it too shallowly and I think you are doing it on purpose. The problem sure as hell isn't "it doesn't fit my playstyle so its useless". If you really want to discuss this, how about you don't put words in my mouth and how about you acknowledge what everybody already knows. The problem is "it doesn't fit any playstyle because the damage numbers are too low and Blizzard hasn't implemented enough synergies to make it a viable source of damage, and is especially useless when compared to pretty much any other possible mod that the item could roll". This game is about the end game. I don't give a fuck if damage reflect MIGHT be useful from level 1-59 if you can manage to stack enough of it. I leveled a new DH from 1-60 in less than 8 hours with all self-found gear. With any decent amount of stash gear I could probably do it in less than 4 hours. Nobody, including Blizzard, cares about level 1-59, and there is no reason why some crappy stat that MIGHT be useful for level 1-59 should be plaguing my level 60 rares/sets/legendaries. It's lazy. It's boring. It's inexcusable. Blizzard has had 2 years to make damage reflect viable in the end game. Either they don't want to or they can't. Get rid of the fucking stat, it's a plague on the game. It does nothing but irritate the majority of players. To answer your loaded question, no every affix does not have to be as good as every other affix. But they should all be useful to SOME build. Every affix should contribute to SOMETHING viable. Damage reflect does not. And if you insist on having some shitty affix in the game that is clearly subpar to every other affix, I expect Blizzard to do something about it, or remove it, or at the very least don't make it a feature affix on your set and legendary items. Is that really so much to ask? I'll answer that for you - NO. It's basic item design, and I hold Blizzard to a higher standard. I don't even want to get into the rest of the poorly designed and poorly implemented affixes in this game. This post will become 15 pages long.
- Legendaries/sets that have literally no unique stat on them at all, not even a common stat that usually can't be found on that item (I have 8 of these in my stash atm, and a number of others that have been salvaged already, all found since the start of Loot 2.0)
This isn't a huge deal. Legendary items don't need to contain a unique stat or affix or anything. They can literally just be a better version of a rare, having a higher roll ceiling on the stats they get. How is that bad? Plus, a lot of them have set bonuses that trump having rares anyway. Inna's set is now really good. Does it matter they don't have some silly unique stat when I can get the effects of all the mantras at once?
Rares with big stats disguised as legendaries is boring. Its lazy. If Blizzard wants rares with big stats, then actually make rares with big stats drop, but at a rate similar to the legendary drop rate. It's as easy as adding another tier of stat rolls on your rares, but with a much smaller chance to roll it. Legendaries and set items should be something to get excited over. Why? Because its fun. Because it allows players to piece together unique synergies based on the unique affixes that you can find on legendary and set items that you can't get with rares. It deepens the game, it creates customization. Rares with big stats are just bigger numbers to look at on your character sheet. Do I appreciate finding an upgrade, regardless of whether its a rare/set/legendary? Sure I do. But am I tired of finding legendary after legendary that is so inferior that I wouldn't consider using it on ANY character? You fuckin bet I am. I have a problem with it because every one of these crappy items is a missed opportunity for Blizzard to make this a more interesting game, a better game. And its either because they are too lazy to do any better, or because they lack the creative talent. Either way, I and everyone else, is perfectly within their rights to ASK more of Blizzard, and to expect more, and thats what the graphic is all about.
BTW, the new Inna's set bonus IS an example of a new unique stat. This is the direction Blizzard should be heading. They are just getting there way too damn slow.
- Legendaries/sets that have a single unique attribute that is completely worthless (gold find, magic find, and damage reflect are the biggest offenders here, and they are quite prevalent among legendaries and set items these days)
Again, just because you don't value a unique attribute, doesn't mean others won't. Gold find is probably looked at very well amongst the group of people without a billion gold.
It's only looked at very well amongst people who don't understand it, and that is even more of a problem than the stat itself. Torment 1 gives you a base 300% gold find bonus, and is easily doable by people in even mediocre level 60 gear. Torment 4 requires some higher end stuff, but gives an 800% gold find bonus. If you are lucky, you might run anywhere from 100-300% gold find on your gear (not multiplicative on the gold find bonus from the difficulty level by the way, its additive), but chances are if you managed to stack that much gold find, it was at the expense of wearing much better items that don't have any gold find. In all likelihood, you are almost always going to be better off just wearing the most powerful gear so you can kill monsters faster in the higher difficulties, rather than stacking gold find at the expense of slowing down your monster killing. Does this sound familiar? It should. It's the exact reasoning given for Blizzard's decision to try to remove magic find from the game (or at least severely tone it down, compared to D2). It's just more fun to be able to improve your gold and magic find rates via more killing power than to have to make a nebulous decision about whether sacrificing 5% dps is worth 20% magic find. And yet, here we are, right smack in the middle of Blizzards newest attempt to nerf magic find to hell (it now only works at 10% of its sheet effectiveness), and gold find is more prevalent than ever. And magic find, despite being almost completely useless, is still a hardcoded stat even on re-designed sets and legendaries, and its still the socket bonus for topaz's in helmets. Once again, this is sheer unadulterated laziness, and I hold Blizzard to a higher standard than this. It. Is. Not. Acceptable.
- Sockets on weapons being the absolute top tier affix, to the point where it outweighs the usefulness of every other affix on the weapon combined, and is basically mandatory for a weapon to even be considered top tier
If it wasn't socket, it would be something else. There will always be something that is considered top tier. If everything could be considered top tier, then there really isn't tiers are there? This sounds a lot like "all items aren't created equal"... D3 isn't communist.
Clever, putting words in my mouth and straw manning me. Oh wait it isn't, and its now the 3rd or 4th time you've done it. Of course you decide to focus on the less relevant part of my argument. The primary issue isn't that it is required for an item to be top tier, because a truly top tier item requires a combination of multiple stats usually, and thus all of those particular stats are also just as mandatory. The real problem is that the power of a socket, relative to all of the other stats, is severely out of whack. I can use a 1100 dps sword with 350 str, bonus attack speed, a socket, but no vitality. I can't use a 1100 dps sword with 350 str, bonus attack speed, 350 vitality, but no socket. Neither one of these weapons is 'top tier', they are both missing something. But the socket missing from the second weapon makes it essentially worthless, while the vitality missing from the other one is merely an inconvenience. If you put together the ideal stats for any given weapon for any given build, the socket is almost always the most valuable mod on the weapon, and in many cases, is literally a deal breaker for whether the weapon is even useable. Again, the problem isn't so much that the socket is the most powerful mod, its the fact that its the only mod that could be missing from an otherwise perfect weapon that would literally render it useless. Every other stat is optional to some degree. This is poor design. I expect more of Blizzard.
- Even the good legendaries/sets are, for the most part, regular rare items with boosted main stats (str/dex/int/vit/damage) and a single unique attribute (this is BORING)
Boring to who exactly? They have a unique art and are the better items. Nobody is requiring you to use them, btw. You can use all of those extra special, unique, non-boring legendaries. And even then, the majority of the best items had some sort of special stat on them. EF's were only the best because they had increased APS.
Boring to everyone who wants more interesting items? What kind of question is that. If you are satisfied with the art and inflated stats, good for you. Go on and play the game, pay no mind to the rest of us. We are trying to add some more flavor to the game, make it a better experience, heck you might even enjoy it too. Nobody says you need to get involved in our fight though, so get on your merry way and stop trying to bash everyone who has a bone to pick with the game.