Are bosses guaranteed to drop two yellow items the first time I kill them on normal?

Question

A comment here suggests that

Whenever you kill a boss for the first time (on normal difficulty only), it is guaranteed to drop at least 2 rares: One general rare and one specifically suited for your class

Is this true?

I'm fairly sure I didn't get anything but blues the first two times I killed the Skeleton King (although my friends got yellows), however the Spider Queen, the Butcher, and Maghda all dropped me two yellows. I can't remember if one was class-specific in all cases, however it was true in at least some cases.

Edit: I've verified that the Skeleton King does not always drop two yellow items, and am trying to determine if A) this quote is correct, incorrect, or partially incorrect and B) if correct or partially correct, does this only apply to end-of-act bosses?

Asked by Rachel

Answer

It's true... sort of.

The rare drop rate is substantially higher for first time kills of major bosses on normal mode, but it isn't necessarily two drops guaranteed - the specific bonus and which bosses it applies to hasn't been laid out explicitly. For what confirmation does exist, see this post by Bashlok:

The bonus to drops for first-time boss kills only exists in Normal difficulty.

Whether the 'bonus to drops' is 'guaranteed class-specific yellow', or simply 'twenty percent increase to the chance to drop' is unclear, and without a very large data set or some (very unlikely) additional candor on the matter from Blizzard, it's difficult to say. Anecdotally, people seem to be citing the '2 rares, one for your class' fairly widely, and I'm yet to personally have any experiences that contradict that - at least on major bosses. If I had to guess, I'd wager the Skeleton King doesn't qualify as one however.

Answered by LessPop_MoreFizz

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