Another thing i noticed was some of the quest loot changes-
i think in ED, you only had "Legendary" grade equipment as the best you could find... in DKS, you had Elder, Unique, and Epic grades after that. [in my first game of DKS, i found a legendary buckler in a barrel in tutorial town, and later a Legendary sword in a barrel near the first Bellagar-encounter ruins.]
also, george, the guy near the South Valley Shrine had Legendary equipment as a reward for helping him in ED- but in DKS, he just offered generic quest loot- exp, gold, and random stuff.