[hazzen]

Another thing, related but not frequently discussed, is the change in how important gear is vs. other factors. For instance, in Diablo II a high level item would give +20 vitality. Your character got 5 stat points per level which you could, if you wanted, put all into vitality. This high level item was roughly equivalent to only 4 character levels (of which you got 99).

In Diablo III, a high-level item is giving you 200+ vitality. I don't know about other characters, but I believe my Monk is getting 2 vitality per level (and there are 60 levels). A _single_ item can give me more of a stat than I gain from leveling all the way from 1 to 60. As such, leveling up doesn't do much other than allow equip items with better stats.

Because items in Diablo II gave, comparatively, closer benefits to gaining another level than those in Diablo III, I felt like I was making progress with either a level up or a nice item drop. If my character was getting decimated in Act IV of Nightmare, I could go back and gain a few levels and maybe get some new items in the process. In Diablo III, not only do your levels not increase your survivability or killing power in any way (besides new skill runes), by the time you feel like you aren't strong enough to defeat an encounter you'll most likely have few or even no more levels left to gain. The only tangible measure of progress is "phatter lewt" at this point.

[Bud]

This isn't really entirely accurate:

First, a single item of, for instance, 200 vitality, is not giving you a +200 to your vitality at lvl 60. Instead, it's giving you the difference between 200, and what ever the bonus would be on average eq that you can get easily in the game by being level 60 and killing a few things.

Second, levels do increase your survivability, in several ways:

1. You get vitality, every level, at +10 life per point plus any percentage bonuses you have 2. You get your key stat, every level, which increases your damage directly and indirectly 3. You become able to wear higher-level equipment when you gain a level, and of course, that equipment improves based on its own level. 4. You learn new skills, not just new skill runes, and both are quite significant. The higher-level skills are more powerful in many cases.

[idle_processor]

Diablo II's levels provided more than just stat boosts: there were skill points, and likely changes in level-based mechanics underlying damage taken by player characters.

D2's uniques and runewords were more common and reliably useful than D3's legendaries. Finding good uniques (e.g. Stone of Jordan[0]) led to big jumps in character power unmirrored by a level or two.

I don't agree that items were less important in D2 than in D3, but suspect they're presently much harder to obtain in D3 without turning to using the auction house. This is probably intentional.

[0] http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/normal/urings.sht...

[guard-of-terra]

This is actually a good thing. Diablo II spoiled you with unique items so no magical and almost no rare items could ever be useful. In Diablo III, a very simple item can be very useful because of stat bonuses.

[mziulu]

This is not entirely correct. While several Uniques could be considered Best In Slot, a good magical (especially true pre 1.10 path with Cruel weapons) and more commonly a good rare would be the best choice for a given build. Rare (or Crafted) Gloves, Amulets, Belts, Boots and Tiaras could spawn with extremely good properties, often surpassing Unique items.