I just listened to the latest podcast, and it got me thinking... (prepare for a long read)
As some of you may know there were 18 tiers of armor announced before Inferno was announced.
Let's assume for simplicity's sake that inferno will have a new couple tiers, 19 and 20. (I will refer to these as inferno1, and inferno2)
Now let's assume the first expansion is coming out.
This expansion will obviously include new tiers of gear for act 5 Hell. (we can all agree on this right?)
So, the expansion maybe has 2 to 4 new tiers of gear.
We suddenly have this new 5th that fits between every difficulty level.
This causes two questions to come up.
Will they use the old inferno gear to help fill in the tiers? (My guess is no)
Reasons:
1. This would outrage many people.
2. It would de-value the inferno gear greatly.
What is my speculation?
-The 5th act of normal will have a mix of gear that from Act 4 Normal, and Act1 Nightmare.
-Basically, drop rates for items will lie somewhere in Between Act4 Normal and Act1 Nightmare.
I am not aware of whether you can get Nightmare level drops in Normal, but I believe it is so.
I am inclined to believe this because Blizz made sure to state that Inferno gear could not be gotten anywhere else than in Inferno. (implying that Hell gear could at times be received in Nightmare, and Nightmare gear could sometimes be received in Normal)
What about the act 5 gear in Hell?
The 5th act of Hell will have new tiers that are separate, and eventually superior to those of inferno. (tiers 21 to 24)
It is possible that your Inferno gear carries you through the first 3rd, or half of inferno. (but eventually the act 5 gear will be better.
and
The inferno level cap will be raised to include New inferno gear. (tiers 25, and 26)
This is the only logical conclusions I have to this problem that I am sure Blizzard has foreseen.
An additional Side point that is supported by this theory:
Theory: You will not be able to play just once through each level of difficulty level to reach the recommended level for the next difficulty.
i.e. Your character won't be level 30 by the end of Normal if you run everything once. (30 is the recommended level for nightmare)
Why do I believe this?
Well, if you finish Normal at level 30, and can start nightmare reasonably easily at that time. Then what will happen once the first expansion comes out?
This would happen if they had you finish normal at level 30 by doing just one run.
Expansion D3 (the levels are not exact, just speculation)
Normal lvl 1-30 (act 1-4)
lvl 31-32 (act 5)
Nightmare lvl 30-50 (act 1-4)
lvl 51-52 (act 5)
Hell
lvl 51-60 (act 1-4)
lvl 61-65 (act 5)
What I want you to notice is the "overlap" between the difficulty levels. This overlap will cause the game to get easier once you get to the next difficulty level. (because you will be a higher level than what you should have been)
How will Blizz handle this?
Probably somewhat like in D2. They won't let you get to the level of your choice in just one run.
I remember often times being level 24-26 near the end of act 4. I would beat Diablo around that level. The expansion would bring me to about level 35 in a single run. Then I would grind to level 45-50 before nightmare.
Basically: They will leave enough of a gap between difficulties so that they can add in expansions with as little overlap as possible.
Counter points to my argument:
1. Blizz stated that they wanted you to level "smoothly", and this contradicts my case to some degree. "Smoothly" means you will level without much grinding.
My opinion about this: If it is too easy to level it will cause some overlap with the expansion, as in the example above. I
2. If each difficulty setting is decently harder than the previous, most people probably won't mind a couple extra levels.
My opinion about this: If the difference in difficulty really is that big, then I agree with counter point #2. But I still believe there will be at least some grinding involved between the difficulties.
---------------------------------
This issue of overlapping will only get worse as Blizzard is planning on more than 1 expansion. So imagine this issue with 2 or even 3 expansions.
I think the expansion will add act5 but only add gear ties to inferno the endgame
because it must be about endgame when everyone is 60 (at least one year after release, everyone can make it right?)
I think the expansion will add act5 but only add gear ties to inferno the endgame
because it must be about endgame when everyone is 60 (at least one year after release, everyone can make it right?)
Hehe, yeah sorry about that. When I discussing I always want to explain things in detail.
What you mean is: They will not raise the level cap. They will just add new inferno gear tiers? hm... interesting...
1. I can't say I agree with you, because I can't see Blizz being that lazy. (I believe they will add regular and inferno gear)
2. Additionaly people will need to clear Act 5(Hell difficulty), and for that they will need better gear. (because Act 5 should be harder than act 4)
3. Also I feel it would be strange for people who are decked out in Inferno gear to clear act 5 in Hell mode, and have it be a walk in the park. (This is just my personal belief on what Blizz would consider would be the most fun, having to beat act 5 in Hell, and then making it to inferno would take up more time, and it would be fun I think)
The expansion may very well higher the level cap. As of today the player is expected ti reach lvl 60 at end of Hell, with a new act he/she should reach lvl 60 way before, so it is expected to higher up the cap to 70 or something like that.
About the tiers, that's difficult to foresee, since we don't even know the game yet. D2 LoD introduced elite items and new uniques/affixes/item features. We should expect something similar with exception of elite items that could be exchanged by some new tiers, but that's all, I think they will focus more on item features.
Skill/Stats will get altered such that the old top end gear will no longer be as valuable.
They will probably do a combination of nerfing old stuff, changing the way certain mechanics work (to devalue old gear), and also adding stuff with higher/better stats. It'll be exactly how they "balance" wow every expansion, by completely breaking the old stuff.
New expansion = new content, old content will hopefully be replaced, maybe the next "inferno" difficulty of the expansion will be relative to the raised level cap or something.
I think it would be similar to how they did it going from D2 to LoD. Inferno Act 1 gear will still be better then Hell Act 5. The basic way that Inferno is setup, is that you can get any item on any part of Inferno because it is a flat difficulty, so if they add act 5 to inferno with expansion, total difficulty of Inferno will increase to whatever Act 5 is. So if they raise cap to 70, then they will probably raise difficulty of Inferno to 71+. Some items will obviously pbe patched. I think they will add more inferno gear, but it will be a different variation, not necessarily superior.
Alternatively they could add more content without adding more character levels and simply create more gear choices rather than higher-power gear choices. Truely horizontal iteration would require more precise implementation, but it would help them avoid the problem of power-creep.
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I just listened to the latest podcast, and it got me thinking... (prepare for a long read)
As some of you may know there were 18 tiers of armor announced before Inferno was announced.
Let's assume for simplicity's sake that inferno will have a new couple tiers, 19 and 20. (I will refer to these as inferno1, and inferno2)
Now let's assume the first expansion is coming out.
This expansion will obviously include new tiers of gear for act 5 Hell. (we can all agree on this right?)
So, the expansion maybe has 2 to 4 new tiers of gear.
We suddenly have this new 5th that fits between every difficulty level.
This causes two questions to come up.
Will they use the old inferno gear to help fill in the tiers? (My guess is no)
Reasons:
1. This would outrage many people.
2. It would de-value the inferno gear greatly.
What is my speculation?
-The 5th act of normal will have a mix of gear that from Act 4 Normal, and Act1 Nightmare.
-Basically, drop rates for items will lie somewhere in Between Act4 Normal and Act1 Nightmare.
I am not aware of whether you can get Nightmare level drops in Normal, but I believe it is so.
I am inclined to believe this because Blizz made sure to state that Inferno gear could not be gotten anywhere else than in Inferno. (implying that Hell gear could at times be received in Nightmare, and Nightmare gear could sometimes be received in Normal)
What about the act 5 gear in Hell?
The 5th act of Hell will have new tiers that are separate, and eventually superior to those of inferno. (tiers 21 to 24)
It is possible that your Inferno gear carries you through the first 3rd, or half of inferno. (but eventually the act 5 gear will be better.
and
The inferno level cap will be raised to include New inferno gear. (tiers 25, and 26)
This is the only logical conclusions I have to this problem that I am sure Blizzard has foreseen.
An additional Side point that is supported by this theory:
Theory: You will not be able to play just once through each level of difficulty level to reach the recommended level for the next difficulty.
i.e. Your character won't be level 30 by the end of Normal if you run everything once. (30 is the recommended level for nightmare)
Why do I believe this?
Well, if you finish Normal at level 30, and can start nightmare reasonably easily at that time. Then what will happen once the first expansion comes out?
Here is what will happen:
Regular D3
Normal 1-30 (act 1-4)
Nightmare 30-50 (act 1-4)
Hell 50-60 (act 1-4)
This would happen if they had you finish normal at level 30 by doing just one run.
Expansion D3 (the levels are not exact, just speculation)
Normal lvl 1-30 (act 1-4)
lvl 31-32 (act 5)
Nightmare lvl 30-50 (act 1-4)
lvl 51-52 (act 5)
Hell
lvl 51-60 (act 1-4)
lvl 61-65 (act 5)
What I want you to notice is the "overlap" between the difficulty levels. This overlap will cause the game to get easier once you get to the next difficulty level. (because you will be a higher level than what you should have been)
How will Blizz handle this?
Probably somewhat like in D2. They won't let you get to the level of your choice in just one run.
I remember often times being level 24-26 near the end of act 4. I would beat Diablo around that level. The expansion would bring me to about level 35 in a single run. Then I would grind to level 45-50 before nightmare.
Basically: They will leave enough of a gap between difficulties so that they can add in expansions with as little overlap as possible.
Counter points to my argument:
1. Blizz stated that they wanted you to level "smoothly", and this contradicts my case to some degree. "Smoothly" means you will level without much grinding.
My opinion about this: If it is too easy to level it will cause some overlap with the expansion, as in the example above. I
2. If each difficulty setting is decently harder than the previous, most people probably won't mind a couple extra levels.
My opinion about this: If the difference in difficulty really is that big, then I agree with counter point #2. But I still believe there will be at least some grinding involved between the difficulties.
---------------------------------
This issue of overlapping will only get worse as Blizzard is planning on more than 1 expansion. So imagine this issue with 2 or even 3 expansions.
I hope this hasn't been too confusing to you all.
I really tried to express my thoughts clearly.
Let's Discuss!
-ZTZaorish
I think the expansion will add act5 but only add gear ties to inferno the endgame
because it must be about endgame when everyone is 60 (at least one year after release, everyone can make it right?)
Hehe, yeah sorry about that. When I discussing I always want to explain things in detail.
What you mean is: They will not raise the level cap. They will just add new inferno gear tiers? hm... interesting...
1. I can't say I agree with you, because I can't see Blizz being that lazy. (I believe they will add regular and inferno gear)
2. Additionaly people will need to clear Act 5(Hell difficulty), and for that they will need better gear. (because Act 5 should be harder than act 4)
3. Also I feel it would be strange for people who are decked out in Inferno gear to clear act 5 in Hell mode, and have it be a walk in the park. (This is just my personal belief on what Blizz would consider would be the most fun, having to beat act 5 in Hell, and then making it to inferno would take up more time, and it would be fun I think)
I guess we will have to see what happens heh?
Thanks for the contribution willimye.
-ZTZaorish
About the tiers, that's difficult to foresee, since we don't even know the game yet. D2 LoD introduced elite items and new uniques/affixes/item features. We should expect something similar with exception of elite items that could be exchanged by some new tiers, but that's all, I think they will focus more on item features.
They will probably do a combination of nerfing old stuff, changing the way certain mechanics work (to devalue old gear), and also adding stuff with higher/better stats. It'll be exactly how they "balance" wow every expansion, by completely breaking the old stuff.