Why set items never drop ethereal?

I played D2 a ton and stopped shortly after LoD released. Since Resurrected I've played non-stop in a totally different way, with a much more mature brain lol.

Anyway one thing I haven't quite figured out is why set items cannot drop ethereal. It must be such a simple design choice that the developers made and hence why I'm going nuts trying to figure it out. I guess it would be power creep in that you could

Zod something epic or give your mercenary something overpowered? But that seems weird to me. I never did the research to see if that's even true it's just hypothetical. Everyone on this site is expert in D2 so curious what people know about this design decision. Thanks!

Confirmed, contrary to uniques, set items never drop

Eth and that's a pity in some cases like Sazabi which is a great merc set for a5 merc, or GFace.

Necrarch wrote: 3 years ago

Confirmed, contrary to uniques, set items never drop

Eth and that's a pity in some cases like Sazabi which is a great merc set for a5 merc, or GFace.

Still dumbfounded by the decision.

Set items are a separate set of items (hah, puns!), bringing their own set mechanics and even visual effects to the game. They probably had to be coded in such a way that would not allow them to deviate in any way, nor spawn ethereal. They didn't used to be upgradeable either, likely for similar reasons, but that was added in with a d2r patch. So there might still be a chance they also add in ethereal versions at some point, if they feel like it.

Can you imagine upped

Eth Sigons? I'd

Zod every piece :p

Set-items desperately need a boost to make them an interesting alternative to runewords, hopefully there are plans on how to do that. Upgrade old ones, add new ones or change the mechanics of how they work (ethereal, adding multiple sockets).

Ravoc wrote: 3 years ago

They probably had to be coded in such a way that would not allow them to deviate in any way, nor spawn ethereal.

Unique items are also pre-defined, yet they can both have variable stats within given limit (like set items) and be ethereal (unlike set items). I think the devs just overlooked that (among many things) and it was not changed for decades, rather than being a deliberate design. But since D2R brought fixes to many of the bugs old as much, there is hope for sets to be improved.

I'd be on board for upped

Eth sets. They need to tweak them a bit more on the stats/bonuses side though imo to make them viable alongside runewords.

Yeah, for example, they should add also more item bonuses on partial items everywhere.

Example with Nat set, when I switch to CtA, I lose my 50 res because my weapon is in there. Partial bonuses would be welcome.

Same for Disciple set where partical bonuses could be put on all items except

Laying of Hands (what about fhr, ias, maek...).

And some sockets opened on at least one of the set items would help customize them.

And M'avina Caster with a default Cold

Pierce.

And... well, the list is too long ^^

Trang Oul wrote: 3 years ago

Ravoc wrote: 3 years ago

They probably had to be coded in such a way that would not allow them to deviate in any way, nor spawn ethereal.

Unique items are also pre-defined, yet they can both have variable stats within given limit (like set items) and be ethereal (unlike set items). I think the devs just overlooked that (among many things) and it was not changed for decades, rather than being a deliberate design. But since D2R brought fixes to many of the bugs old as much, there is hope for sets to be improved.

Well, there's a decades-old (well, pretty much) article on

Arreat Summit that specifically mentions what kinds of items can be Ethereal, and Set items are not mentioned.... sooo, I think it was deliberate, not that it really proves anything. Here's the link if you're curious: http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/it ... l#ethereal . There's a bullet point about it.

ShadowHeart wrote: 3 years ago

Trang Oul wrote: 3 years ago

Ravoc wrote: 3 years ago

They probably had to be coded in such a way that would not allow them to deviate in any way, nor spawn ethereal.

Unique items are also pre-defined, yet they can both have variable stats within given limit (like set items) and be ethereal (unlike set items). I think the devs just overlooked that (among many things) and it was not changed for decades, rather than being a deliberate design. But since D2R brought fixes to many of the bugs old as much, there is hope for sets to be improved.

Well, there's a decades-old (well, pretty much) article on

Arreat Summit that specifically mentions what kinds of items can be Ethereal, and Set items are not mentioned.... sooo, I think it was deliberate, not that it really proves anything. Here's the link if you're curious: http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/it ... l#ethereal . There's a bullet point about it.

There's clearly a flag in a *.dll somewhere for allowing ethereal to roll on normal, magic, rare and non-indestructible uniques, and specifically not set items, which seems both weird, and shows us a little of how affixes are actually handled by the game.

Modding set items in *.txt files reveals that an unidentified set item dropping will indeed list the ethereal modifier, but the moment you identify it, that ethereal modifier disappears from the list while keeping the enhanced damage attribute and discarding the reduced durability. The item cannot be repaired at a blacksmith as you might expect. Modding Indestructible into the partial or full set bonuses doesn't work, on either ethereal set items, or normal set items.

It's a damned mess.

Oh wow, that sounds convoluted as hell lol.

ShadowHeart wrote: 2 years ago

Oh wow, that sounds convoluted as hell lol.

The convolution is exactly what makes D2 magical