Difficutly settings

Official message posted on the Blizzard forums:

Quote:

I know there is some confusion on the forums about how Easy, Normal (Medium) and Hard modes affect adventure stats, so I'm going to try and help clear that up. Those modes (Easy, Normal and Hard) do NOT alter Magic Find, Gold Find or XP Bonus in any way, and are just there so players can adjust the difficulty to their liking.

Once you are ready to handle something more challenging than Hard difficulty, however, those bonuses quickly ramp up. Here's what you can expecet from Master I-V difficulties:

Master I: +60% Magic Find, +60% Gold Find, +120% XP Bonus

Master II: +70% Magic Find, +70%, Gold Find, +140% XP Bonus

Master III: +80% Magic Find, +80% Gold Find, +160% XP Bonus

Master IV: +90% Magic Find, +90% Gold Find, +180% XP Bonus

Master V: +100% Magic Find, +100% Gold Find, +200% XP Bonus

How far along into the game are you? I saw legendary items start dropping for me probably around the middle or later part of Act I.

I have a level 54 Monk and I've played on both Easy and Medium/Normal and have found no differences as far as loot and XP. In fact, I would say I have a Legendary (or had) a Legendary equipped in all of my slots. My followers even have Legendary items that I can't use or when I upgrade. I have played some co-op, but 98% of my play time has been solo.

I just started my Hell run and I'm playing on Easy. Yeah, it might sound lame, but if there is no benefit unless selecting a Master difficulty, I see no point in upping the monster power if all I'm looking to do is speed run Hell so I can reach Inferno. 

My plan is to finish Hell and see where I am with my character. If it's decent, I may try a Master difficulty Inferno run or a Master run in one of the lower difficulty settings (Nightmare or Hell). 

I think it's similar to borderlands where the more peeps you have, the better chances of getting good loot to drop will be.  Also, see what percentage to magic find you have.  When I'm playing solo, I'm at 69% magic find.   When I jumped into Strike's game it went up to 79%, and when Onesimos joined, it jumped up to 89%.  I found about 5 legendaries within a couple hours of playing.