I'll repost it here, maybe you agree and help that post get read like the feedback from the "important" guys
Scroll down to the bold line to skip the introductions
I'll try to keep the suggestions bold and the reasoning in regular text.
Hey all and dear Blizz, please forward this somehow if you agree.
I don't post here often, so I want to give a very short introduction to put things in perspective. I've spent a whole lot of time with about every decent fantasy based rpg and mmo there was since Diablo 2, so I think to know my stuff and I'm familiar with many different systems.
I'm personally fine with the game as-is -though there are many flaws- simply because I have enough things left to do in my limited time and I'm rather dull, I can grind act2 all day long if I find a reason to do so. I'd do this now, but given that several friends have already quit and the others are only talking about doing that too, whom I try to keep then with promises of it getting better, I decided to post in order to make that happen sooner
I'm not touching the gameplay, a lot of skills and specs need attention, but there are viable and fun specs and combined with the champion hunt that's more gameplay than D2 had, so I'm cool with that.
PvP will also make a lot of people stay/come back, but that's on the way, just don't wait too long.
To the core of this post, I've been thinking a lot about the whole itemization in itself and compared to all the other games. Here are my thoughts and suggestions.
1.Nephalem Valor, the bonus rares and MF
I'm aware of the intention with this buff, to keep players in a game for extended periods of time, so this will stay and that's ok, but I have severe issues with the current incarnation. I've written several ideas about this buff when it was first announced and it mostly went in this direction, except for one vital aspect. The buff should not be a flat % mf, but rather relative based on your present mf. Like +20% mf per stack. The guaranteed bonus rare should also be removed. Maybe guaranteed bonus item of random, mf-affected quality. Seriously, I consider that better for the game. The amount of rares that is generated via the buff in this form is way to high relative to that generated via mf on gear. Adding 75% mf onto my gear(Barb pov) would cost me multiple millions if I wanted to keep the combat stats. The buff is free, so I get 1.75 as many rares already +1 more on every elite pack. That's way too much in relation to the regular mf. With my version of the buff, I'd have to get mf gear first before I would profit from the buff. In the current game that would be desastrous to my farming, so I also suggest, to give the mf% stat on items a much higher value range. That would balance the generated amounts of rare items between item mf and buffed mf to a much healthier ratio and give a high incentive to have mf on gear, which means long term motivation, because you progress from only combat stats to combat stats + mf, which is currently possible but to a much lesser effect which makes it unreasonable.
2.ilvl 63 vs the rest of the world
I consider the gap between them and even ilvl62 too big. Better base stats are fine but that should be it. For weapons ilvl62 vs 63 is like exceptional vs elite in D2, but there were multiple elite items. For example Berserker Axes used to be a little better than the other elite axes, but not so much that they weren't viable(as in worthy to pick up). Sure I pick up every blue and yellow item(partly because I don't know all those stupid(!!!) names yet, but every weapon below 63 is an auto-disenchant/vendor.
For armor pieces it's a little better but not enough. Again speaking from a Barb-pov I must say that 71+ all resist and similar mods shouldn't be ilvl63 only. They already have higher base stats plus more affixes, so at least have the Inferno tier items have access to the maximum values of them. And while you're at it, spawning all resist on an ilvl63 doesn't have to automatically mean 71+ either, use the whole range like in D2, just give more items the chance to be good. There is no joy identifying all those rares when you know, they won't be useful in any way(=>AH, let alone equip). I'd rather have 20 unid rares with all of them having a small chance to turn out great than 20 unid rares with 1 of them having a big chance at that and 19 being auto-dis. Only steals time to id them before. The chance of a low ilvl non jewelry item to be actually competitive is way too small, the overlap blue post that was just made recently is far from the truth, showing like a 50% overlap
3.a)Legendaries and Sets
I know, you're working on them and I hope you know, how needed that is. Items like Windforce or the Grandfather are literally Legends of Diablo and you made them lose to vendor crap. Were there no vendors in the internal tests? Did no one loot blue items past hell? Please make the *big* items of the franchise ilvl63 and competitive. I think it would be fair if the high Legendaries were about as powerful as rares of comparable lvl, which spawned with 4-5 perfect out of 6 affixes. So they would be generally powerful, but this one ultra, super, monster, rare "rare item" could still beat it, which was your intention, I guess. And that's a very good intention, I know I've complained in LoD about Uniques completely taking over and Rares being not worthy to even id. So, give Rares a chance to beat Windforce, let some unknown smith craft a better sword than the Grandfather, somehow, somewhen, it's name shall become as glorious. Rares are in a great spot when people know the names of the prominent ones and when you generally use them until you find this Grandfather you've been dreaming of. Did anyone ever dream of such things? If so, did you ever dream of a rare? What was it's name? Just joking Currently they're so boring, they lack the lore and the special feelings of the Legendaries, yet they're better.
3.b)Legendaries and Sets
Now that they're sought after again given my own 3.a) patch notes, please increase their drop rates. Farming currently nets me like a Rare per minute and a Legendary per 20-30 hours. That carrot is faaaaar to far away to even notice, even I as a dull grinder couldn't find a reason to hunt for them and I'd really want them after those other changes. Given my suggestions from 1. the ratio would recover a little without that guaranteed Rare from NV and only mf-based items instead, but it's still not good. Let us find a Legendary for every 100 Rares, maybe even less.
4.Diamonds Diamonds? Yes, diamonds! You said, you didn't have any more ideas which stats to put on additional gems. Has one of you worked on or played D2? Remember the one and only gem type used before LoD? Holy crap, ALL RESISTS! And there are enough possibilities for weapon and helm effects, either. Sure, this is nowhere near as important as the previous points
So, I've spent some time on writing this down now when I could have played instead. I'm really serious with my intention to help this game improve(or survive..)
I agree w/ all but one of your ideas and it is the Nv idea. Not everyone has the hour upon hours in the days it takes currently to farm an upgrade w/ NV and the guaranteed rares but, you think they should nerf it! Just don't think it is a good idea.
I agree w/ all but one of your ideas and it is the Nv idea. Not everyone has the hour upon hours in the days it takes currently to farm an upgrade w/ NV and the guaranteed rares but, you think they should nerf it! Just don't think it is a good idea.
That's not my intention, maybe the current generation of rares is a bit too fast, but mainly I want to balance the buff vs mf gear, which is -relatively speaking- pointless.
Repo, I'd say it's more than 20 hours, too, but I didn't play enough post 1.03 to give a serious figure, so I think 20 is drastic enough, yet no way exaggerated.
edit: sad way to prove a point.. Just read the flavor text. Remember Diablo 1...
Just found it, my second Messerschmidt's actually, my Enchantress used to have the first one for a while, but she has long since upgraded
I agree w/ all but one of your ideas and it is the Nv idea. Not everyone has the hour upon hours in the days it takes currently to farm an upgrade w/ NV and the guaranteed rares but, you think they should nerf it! Just don't think it is a good idea.
That's not my intention, maybe the current generation of rares is a bit too fast, but mainly I want to balance the buff vs mf gear, which is -relatively speaking- pointless.
Repo, I'd say it's more than 20 hours, too, but I didn't play enough post 1.03 to give a serious figure, so I think 20 is drastic enough, yet no way exaggerated.
edit: sad way to prove a point.. Just read the flavor text. Remember Diablo 1...
Just found it, my second Messerschmidt's actually, my Enchantress used to have the first one for a while, but she has long since upgraded
Whoever decided that we would only have one, maybe two, Uniques at lvl 60 per item class needs to be fired. Out of a cannon. Into the sun. I mean, I get, and kinda like, that there are uniques throughout the whole game (I just wish they had a higher drop rate, because they usually drop LONG after they would have been useful), but they had to know that most of the serious item grinding would be end game. And since everything is based on weapon damage, then at least weapons will never ever be useful if they aren't ilvl 61+.
Also, I don't like the idea for NV. I prefer the guaranteed drop aspect to the +mf aspect. Maybe because I love lootsplosions. Don't know.
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http://eu.battle.net...opic/4849015568
I'll repost it here, maybe you agree and help that post get read like the feedback from the "important" guys
Scroll down to the bold line to skip the introductions
I'll try to keep the suggestions bold and the reasoning in regular text.
Hey all and dear Blizz, please forward this somehow if you agree.
I don't post here often, so I want to give a very short introduction to put things in perspective. I've spent a whole lot of time with about every decent fantasy based rpg and mmo there was since Diablo 2, so I think to know my stuff and I'm familiar with many different systems.
I'm personally fine with the game as-is -though there are many flaws- simply because I have enough things left to do in my limited time and I'm rather dull, I can grind act2 all day long if I find a reason to do so. I'd do this now, but given that several friends have already quit and the others are only talking about doing that too, whom I try to keep then with promises of it getting better, I decided to post in order to make that happen sooner
I'm not touching the gameplay, a lot of skills and specs need attention, but there are viable and fun specs and combined with the champion hunt that's more gameplay than D2 had, so I'm cool with that.
PvP will also make a lot of people stay/come back, but that's on the way, just don't wait too long.
To the core of this post, I've been thinking a lot about the whole itemization in itself and compared to all the other games. Here are my thoughts and suggestions.
1.Nephalem Valor, the bonus rares and MF
I'm aware of the intention with this buff, to keep players in a game for extended periods of time, so this will stay and that's ok, but I have severe issues with the current incarnation. I've written several ideas about this buff when it was first announced and it mostly went in this direction, except for one vital aspect. The buff should not be a flat % mf, but rather relative based on your present mf. Like +20% mf per stack. The guaranteed bonus rare should also be removed. Maybe guaranteed bonus item of random, mf-affected quality. Seriously, I consider that better for the game. The amount of rares that is generated via the buff in this form is way to high relative to that generated via mf on gear. Adding 75% mf onto my gear(Barb pov) would cost me multiple millions if I wanted to keep the combat stats. The buff is free, so I get 1.75 as many rares already +1 more on every elite pack. That's way too much in relation to the regular mf. With my version of the buff, I'd have to get mf gear first before I would profit from the buff. In the current game that would be desastrous to my farming, so I also suggest, to give the mf% stat on items a much higher value range. That would balance the generated amounts of rare items between item mf and buffed mf to a much healthier ratio and give a high incentive to have mf on gear, which means long term motivation, because you progress from only combat stats to combat stats + mf, which is currently possible but to a much lesser effect which makes it unreasonable.
2.ilvl 63 vs the rest of the world
I consider the gap between them and even ilvl62 too big. Better base stats are fine but that should be it. For weapons ilvl62 vs 63 is like exceptional vs elite in D2, but there were multiple elite items. For example Berserker Axes used to be a little better than the other elite axes, but not so much that they weren't viable(as in worthy to pick up). Sure I pick up every blue and yellow item(partly because I don't know all those stupid(!!!) names yet, but every weapon below 63 is an auto-disenchant/vendor.
For armor pieces it's a little better but not enough. Again speaking from a Barb-pov I must say that 71+ all resist and similar mods shouldn't be ilvl63 only. They already have higher base stats plus more affixes, so at least have the Inferno tier items have access to the maximum values of them. And while you're at it, spawning all resist on an ilvl63 doesn't have to automatically mean 71+ either, use the whole range like in D2, just give more items the chance to be good. There is no joy identifying all those rares when you know, they won't be useful in any way(=>AH, let alone equip). I'd rather have 20 unid rares with all of them having a small chance to turn out great than 20 unid rares with 1 of them having a big chance at that and 19 being auto-dis. Only steals time to id them before. The chance of a low ilvl non jewelry item to be actually competitive is way too small, the overlap blue post that was just made recently is far from the truth, showing like a 50% overlap
3.a)Legendaries and Sets
I know, you're working on them and I hope you know, how needed that is. Items like Windforce or the Grandfather are literally Legends of Diablo and you made them lose to vendor crap. Were there no vendors in the internal tests? Did no one loot blue items past hell? Please make the *big* items of the franchise ilvl63 and competitive. I think it would be fair if the high Legendaries were about as powerful as rares of comparable lvl, which spawned with 4-5 perfect out of 6 affixes. So they would be generally powerful, but this one ultra, super, monster, rare "rare item" could still beat it, which was your intention, I guess. And that's a very good intention, I know I've complained in LoD about Uniques completely taking over and Rares being not worthy to even id. So, give Rares a chance to beat Windforce, let some unknown smith craft a better sword than the Grandfather, somehow, somewhen, it's name shall become as glorious. Rares are in a great spot when people know the names of the prominent ones and when you generally use them until you find this Grandfather you've been dreaming of. Did anyone ever dream of such things? If so, did you ever dream of a rare? What was it's name? Just joking Currently they're so boring, they lack the lore and the special feelings of the Legendaries, yet they're better.
3.b)Legendaries and Sets
Now that they're sought after again given my own 3.a) patch notes, please increase their drop rates. Farming currently nets me like a Rare per minute and a Legendary per 20-30 hours. That carrot is faaaaar to far away to even notice, even I as a dull grinder couldn't find a reason to hunt for them and I'd really want them after those other changes. Given my suggestions from 1. the ratio would recover a little without that guaranteed Rare from NV and only mf-based items instead, but it's still not good. Let us find a Legendary for every 100 Rares, maybe even less.
4.Diamonds
Diamonds? Yes, diamonds! You said, you didn't have any more ideas which stats to put on additional gems. Has one of you worked on or played D2? Remember the one and only gem type used before LoD? Holy crap, ALL RESISTS! And there are enough possibilities for weapon and helm effects, either. Sure, this is nowhere near as important as the previous points
So, I've spent some time on writing this down now when I could have played instead. I'm really serious with my intention to help this game improve(or survive..)
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Sol77-2972/hero/66110450
That's not my intention, maybe the current generation of rares is a bit too fast, but mainly I want to balance the buff vs mf gear, which is -relatively speaking- pointless.
Repo, I'd say it's more than 20 hours, too, but I didn't play enough post 1.03 to give a serious figure, so I think 20 is drastic enough, yet no way exaggerated.
edit: sad way to prove a point.. Just read the flavor text. Remember Diablo 1...
Just found it, my second Messerschmidt's actually, my Enchantress used to have the first one for a while, but she has long since upgraded
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Sol77-2972/hero/66110450
Whoever decided that we would only have one, maybe two, Uniques at lvl 60 per item class needs to be fired. Out of a cannon. Into the sun. I mean, I get, and kinda like, that there are uniques throughout the whole game (I just wish they had a higher drop rate, because they usually drop LONG after they would have been useful), but they had to know that most of the serious item grinding would be end game. And since everything is based on weapon damage, then at least weapons will never ever be useful if they aren't ilvl 61+.
Also, I don't like the idea for NV. I prefer the guaranteed drop aspect to the +mf aspect. Maybe because I love lootsplosions. Don't know.