Loot sources have focused item drops
- Gems often drop from rocks
- Spells often drop from book cases
- Uniques almost always drop from bosses, special reward chests or chests
- Barrels are the biggest source of scrolls
How often will I need to go back to town to sell?
Answer: About ten times per act if you don't make use of your pet. With about 20 quests per act, this means you will never feel so inundated with loot that you are forced to go back mid dungeon. I think that's a big improvement over TL 1 where I had to sell at least one or two times per level.. Here' is how I calculated this info:
Spoiler: show
Reward Chests don't Disappoint
In the game, Reward Chests were a prime source of Uniques, Blue Items (Magic / Set), Gems and Spells. The biggest point of interest is that they never dropped scrolls or potions. They seem to be universally filled with good stuff and never crap. I can imagine people doing chest farming runs instead of just sticking to bosses only.
How many Bosses are there per Act and how does that Compare to TL 1?
Considering Adam has just started Act 3 and already encountered 15 main Bosses, this means there are at least about seven Bosses per act. This is perhaps not even including side bosses like the Sphinx in Act 2 that we could potentially skip if we didn't do a full clear. Considering that Torchlight 1 had eight total bosses, this means that each act is about as dense story wise as Torchlight 1. As an aside...
How often will we encounter champion / boss packs?
It looks like we will fight a champion / boss pack around every 14-15 groups of monsters. That means that at average game speed you are likely to run into a unique monster every few minutes. Here's how I calculated this:
Spoiler: show
How good will quest rewards be?
Adam got thirty-two Blue Items as rewards for a total of fourty-one quests. This means that you will be able to get significant gear upgrades from quests as you go along and they will almost always be worth attempting. For those of you who are worried that quest rewards will overshadow the loot game, quests didn't give any uniques, spells or gems and only accounted for about 1/3 of the Blue / Purple items.
Gems are precious
Adam only found thirty-seven gems in the first two acts. They are actually rarer than unique items and will be precious commodities. Luckily you won't have to save gems to later combine them like you did in Torchlight 1. You will be able to use them right away. My guess is that Adam does not religiously flip over every rock he encounters. If so, he would have most likely looted more gems.
Where are all the sets?
I believe both Unique and Blue items can be sets. We have seen them offered as quest rewards in previous videos.
Can we buy Spells?
If you notice, Adam did not purchase any spells or gems. He bought some blue items, but that is all. If this is so, considering how rare spell and gems are, people will likely get excited each time they come across a bookcase (about 1 in 4 drop a spell).
Potions?
It looks like Boss monsters drop an average of three potions each and champions drop between two and three. Other than that, the best place to get them is chests, with monsters rarely dropping them. It is interesting to note that Adam does not seem to have bought any potions. This most likely means he was not playing on Very Hard during this playthrough.
What will the item game over Torchlight II look like?
We will have to farm different areas in Torchlight II depending on what we are seeking. If we are looking for unique items, Bosses and Reward chests will be the places to hunt. If we are seeking gems or spells, though, we will want to primarily hunt champions, bookcases and rocks. Overall this seems like it will have a varied feel to it.
How does this compare to the Diablo III loot game?
From what we know about Diablo III, the developers are trying to deincentivize boss runs. After the first kill, uniques will primarily drop from normal monsters. This means that loot will be much more spread out and less focused. If I was to make a mining analogy... Diablo III will be like strip mining and Torchlight II will be more like mining ore veins.
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