What I loved most about Diablo was probably 'set items'. If gathered set items and equipped them, they gave even more benefits. Which kept them even worthwile on higherlevels even if they would have been outleveled otherwise.

What I hate most about D:OS: Items are two random. Yay, I found a found a purple crossbow. But turns out it is garbage because it gives +2 for One handed.

A unique item should not last for the entire game, but it should last at least for a longer part of the game. Gear from Bracchus is so old, it is understandable, that it is not uptodate and lost it's strength through aging. But because gear influences to heavily damage for physical fighters, it can't be to strong either.

I kind of liked the idea of improveable items in the first game, but the implementation was flawed sadly, because it was to difficult to improve them, without exactly knowing were to find. What I also remember is spotting a unique items in a birds nest or something like that and going to get it for my friend, which was a really good item and recrafting Swords of the Planet every few levels, which kept it relevant for the rest of the game for our Madora tank. Though calling it 'unique' was quite a stretch in that respective.