Most characters wear a mixture of rare and legendary gear while leveling up, but once they reach the end game at level 70, the goal becomes finding or crafting legendary or set items for every slot, since legendaries have higher potential stat rolls, special legendary affixes, and set bonus properties that make better than any Rare items can possibly be. This is no longer true and Legendary items are now always better at the top end, when found with a good combination of affixes on the item. Back in Diablo 3 vanilla, rare items could spawn equivalent or better than legendaries in many slots. Legendary gear (legendary or set or crafted) is designed to be the top quality of gear in Loot 2.0 (the system operational in D3v2 and Reaper of Souls). Set Items are another type of legendary item and act just the same, except their beam coloration is green and they appear as an asterisk * on the minimap. Legendary items are orange in color and announce themselves when dropped by 1) creating a loud *clang* sound effect, 2) sending up a beam of orange or green light, and 3) creating a star or asterisk icon on the minimap. Legendary (AKA 'leg') items are the (potentially) highest quality items in Diablo 3 and Reaper of Souls. Legendary boots and 2 leg crafting plans drop.
