Equipment

[eisprinzessin]

There is a good balance of finding items in the world vs. wanting to buy stuff off merchants. [1] Vendors, chests, monsters, and quests are potential sources of magical items. Chests and monsters are basically the same thing and don't interfere too much with one another since chests exist primarily to supplement enemies that it doesn't make sense to drop a lot of loot from. [2]

The best stuff will drop off enemies or out of chests but you'll likely end up buying a lot of lower to mid-level magical stuff off the merchants to fill slots where you haven't found anything particularly good for a while. [3]

There should also be the possibility of occasionally finding a really good piece of gear on vendors but not better than the best stuff that drops off enemies. If the frequency of finding good items on a vendor is about equivalent to that of one dropping off an enemy, then vendor farming is just a more boring way to obtain loot while not earning XP. [4]

It's planned for some types of equipments to primarily be obtained from merchants vs. drops. Weapons and most armor will probably be best dropped from enemies and chests while you might have a better chance of finding an awesome belt, gloves, boots or whatever on a merchant. [5]
__________________

1. State of the Game Address Mar 2012
2. external Enchanté! Nov 2009
3. From zero to hero? Apr 2012
4. external A real economy? Sep 2009
5. On "Farming" Aug 2010