Item Hunting

Item generation must follow some rules, I will attempt to summarize most of the rules, so you will have an idea of where you may find the items you are looking for.

What is dropped from ordinary monsters?

• Gold - 30%
• Item - 10%
• Nothing - 60%

What are the chance of finding a magical item?

• Unique monster - 100%
• Armor or Weapons Rack - 99%
• Monster or Other - 17-27% (depends upon character level)

What are the chances of getting prefixes and/or suffixes on these drops?

• Prefix - 21%
• Suffix - 62%
• Both - 17%

What are the chances of finding a unique item from one of these drops?

• Unique monster - 15%
• Monster, chest, barrel, body - 1%

How does the monster level determine the item you get?

• Base item: 1- monster level
• Unique item: 1- monster level
• Prefix or suffix: monster level/2 - monster level

Note: Unique monsters also get a +4 bonus to the item level generated.

I'll give some examples to attempt to explain:

Royal Circlet (item level 27) can only be dropped by unique monsters rated 23 or higher, normal monsters rated 27 or higher. Although, that unique monster may drop anything of course, Civerb's Cudgel (item level 1) or a regular magical item.

Awesome (item level 28) Full Plate (item level 25) of Sorcery (item level 17) may be dropped by any boss in hell and 2 bosses in level 12. It sould also be dropped by Hell Spawn, Soul Burners, Steel Lords, Blood Knights, Cabalists or Advocates.

Emerald (item level 31) Long War Bow (item level 19) of the Heavens (item level 25) can only be dropped by the 9 bosses rated 27 or higher. Good luck! I would recommend shopping at Wirt for that one, and if he offers a smaller version of it, buy it!

Looking for Thinking Cap (6), Civerb's Cudgel (1)  or Helm of Spirits (1)? I would recommend the bosses in the church, since they won't be dropping items rated in the 20's, this should improve your chances.

Looking for Windforce (17), Naj Light Plate (19), or Mindcry (20)? These can be found in the caves, but i would look in hell anyway, because you might find some of the next group of items.

Looking for Royal Circlet (27), Stormshield (24), Dreamflange (26) or Eaglehorn (26)? These items will mostly be found in hell. Although, SS could be dropped on level 10 by The Flayer.

The secret to finding the best items IMO, is to go to hell (any difficulty) and kill everything (also search all bodies, chests and barrels) except Diablo. After identifying and keeping what you want, Wirt/Griz/Adria surf and leave the game. Normal Difficulty goes much faster and has no effect on item generation, but if you want to gain some experience along the way, no one is stopping you from doing Nightmare or Hell. Repeat. .

Partial listing of Items and Item levels