Preface
Let me begin by stating that I grew up only being able to play Diablo I and II at my friends house; so I don't have an expansive background in the series. I have spent close to 500 hours on Diablo III and for the most part I have really enjoyed it, flaws and all. I would like to thank MrMonstrosity for his “Loot 2.0” post as it inspired me to share some of my ideas as well.
BLUF
The bottom line up front if you're not interested in reading the wall of text:
Introduce new dungeons that randomly appear in Acts I-IV.
Within these dungeons, a demonic is boss guarding a heavenly artifact that fell to Sanctuary during Diablo's invasion of Heaven.
Artifacts found in Act IV are ones that were damaged during the conflict.
Demonic bosses are 2 MP higher than MP level set, for example if you're farming MP3, demonic boss will have MP3 HP, but damage is scaled up to MP5.
Guaranteed drop rate for heavenly artifacts since the dungeons are randomly populated with a low spawn rate.
Heavenly artifacts are reforged in Act IV into a Relics.
Relics have a small curve when rolling afix stats and for the most part are predetermined to insure you know what your farming for and that they are above average.
Motivation behind refarming is for obtaining near perfect rolls.
Bringing Back A Sense of Adventure
For the most part, Diablo III lacks an enjoyable loot grind that fails to reward the player for his or her efforts. The biggest compliant that I read on a daily basis is “I have played for 4 months and haven't found anything that I can use?!?!”
I would like to remove that feeling from the grind and build upon the concept of crafted items that use demonic essence and build on it. For example, Keywardens are close to achieving a desired outcome, however, unless you're gear is above average, the farming for keys/organs to craft a Hellfire Rings is extremely tedious and I believe misses the mark of what the player base wants.
But what does the player want? In my opinion, the player base is deprived of getting a positive return out of our time, which is loot that we want. After crafting a couple Hellfire rings, I was left wanting and I stopped farming for keys/organs because it was tedious to farm and I was never satisfied with the end result, ultimately feeling let down with a mediocre ring that I had invested hours to get.
Based off the aforementioned premises on the lack of loot gratification; my ideas use a tighter curve on rolled affixs, incorporates Diablo lore and brings back a sense of adventure. But what is that sense of adventure? In my opinion the maps in Diablo III are stale where very little happens that gets the pulse going. I fix this by incorporating random dungeons that spawn in Acts I-IV, where when you happen to see one, you get excited because you know your one step closer to an awesome piece of gear.
An example of a randomly spawned dungeon in Act II where a heavenly artifact has fallen.
Within the dungeon there is a buffed demonic boss guarding the heavenly artifact which has fallen to Sanctuary during the defense of Heaven. The boss in the cave would have it's damage scaled up 2 MP higher than what the character is currently playing at. For example if you are farming MP3, the boss' damage table is based of MP5, HP would remain the same. By creating a challenging event you feel a sense of accomplishment and may continue to encourage multi-player games. Once you have farmed enough artifacts, you can then forge them into a Relic.
An example of a demon guarding an artifact.
Loot
So now we know how we obtain heavenly artifacts, how do we turn them into relics? By reforging them. Here is an example of what I propose; now I am not a big number cruncher, but I think for the difficulty, they are justified and hopefully this can spark a good debate.
Here is Auriel's Hope, you can craft one with your desired primary stat. As you you can see, the stats are already at desirable levels for a player that puts forth the grind and minimizes non desirable stats. Eventually, players will be at the point where even a 1k DPS increase is a solid upgrade and this process could be appealing in that regard.
But what's it going to cost me? This is the breakdown for Auriel's Hope:
2 Heavenly artifacts
20 Demonic essences
1 Radient Star Gem for corresponding primary stat
10 Brimstones
Cost to reforge 1.5M
Just an idea, but here you would be able to craft a ring with your desired primary stat that also has the desired combat stats.
Resource balancing probably will require a little more thought rather than plucking numbers out, but essentially it creates a bit of a time sink in farming essences, gold sink in the gems (if you're like me I buy them instead of crafting them so 20 M on average) plus it put to use all the salvaged legendaries that don't make the cut. It also keeps the commodities market healthy in return, since tombs and gems will continue to be in demand. In return, you will be able to obtain an item that you would actually use on your first go. After that, you can keep trying to up the rolls.
Other items I have in mind:
Itherael's Judgment 2H Mace (1050-1150) (1200-1750) +143–286 Minimum Damage +191–381 Maximum Damage +45–50% Damage One of the Follow Stats (Your choice) +290–340 Intelligence +1 Random Magic Properties (can be a socket) +290–340 Dexterity +290–340 Strength Plus Critical Hit Damage 170%-200% +1 Socket Critical hits have a chance to imprison your target, imprisoned targets deal no damage and receive double the damage taken.
Yaerius' Vestment of Light Chest +200-400 Vitality One of the Following Stats +150-300 Intelligence +150-300 Dexterity +150-300 Strength Plus + 50-75 Resist All Sometimes when struck in combat, Yaerius' Vestment of Light will burst with holy light healing you for 100% of your maximum health over 3 secs and blinding your enemies for 1.5 sec.
Malthael's Wisdom Helm One of the Following Stats +150-225 Intelligence +150-225 Dexterity +150-225 Strength Plus + Magic Find 15-25% Crit Chance 4-6% Socket Critical hits have a chance to double your primary stat for 3 secs.
Imperius's Talisman of Valor Amulet Average damage (15-40)-(50-100) +150-300 Vitality One of the Following Stats +150-300 Intelligence +150-300 Dexterity +150-300 Strength Plus Crit Chance 7.5-10% Crit Damage 65-100% Sometimes when struck in combat, Imperius's Talisman of Valor will make you immune to all crowd controlling affects for 5 secs.
Hadriel's Greaves of Haste Boots +150-300 Vitality One of the Following Stats +150-300 Intelligence +150-300 Dexterity +150-300 Strength Plus 60-80 Resist All Increased Movement Speed 12% Periodically you will move double your movement speed for 3 secs creating whirl winds in your wake that will deal 40% weapon damage.
Tyrael's Burden Shoulders +150-300 Vitality One of the Following Stats +150-300 Intelligence +150-300 Dexterity +150-300 Strength Plus 60-80 Resist All Extra Armor 150-300 Sometimes when struck in combat, you will burst with holy energy dealing 150% of your health as holy damage. Enemies struck will be stunned for 1.5 sec.
These are just ideas that I find interesting and think would bring some much needed diversity to the game. It would also help keep players from feeling dependent on the AH for gear, since you farm for this gear on MP0 since the drops are 100% and rely on dungeon spawns to limit the access to the artifacts. It also provides a gold sink and keeps the commodities market healthy, lets face it once you buy your Radiant stars for your gear, you don't need to keep buying new ones. With incorporating them into the crafting process you may be able deflate the gold market.
Thoughts?
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Let me begin by stating that I grew up only being able to play Diablo I and II at my friends house; so I don't have an expansive background in the series. I have spent close to 500 hours on Diablo III and for the most part I have really enjoyed it, flaws and all. I would like to thank MrMonstrosity for his “Loot 2.0” post as it inspired me to share some of my ideas as well.
BLUF
The bottom line up front if you're not interested in reading the wall of text:
For the most part, Diablo III lacks an enjoyable loot grind that fails to reward the player for his or her efforts. The biggest compliant that I read on a daily basis is “I have played for 4 months and haven't found anything that I can use?!?!”
I would like to remove that feeling from the grind and build upon the concept of crafted items that use demonic essence and build on it. For example, Keywardens are close to achieving a desired outcome, however, unless you're gear is above average, the farming for keys/organs to craft a Hellfire Rings is extremely tedious and I believe misses the mark of what the player base wants.
But what does the player want? In my opinion, the player base is deprived of getting a positive return out of our time, which is loot that we want. After crafting a couple Hellfire rings, I was left wanting and I stopped farming for keys/organs because it was tedious to farm and I was never satisfied with the end result, ultimately feeling let down with a mediocre ring that I had invested hours to get.
Based off the aforementioned premises on the lack of loot gratification; my ideas use a tighter curve on rolled affixs, incorporates Diablo lore and brings back a sense of adventure. But what is that sense of adventure? In my opinion the maps in Diablo III are stale where very little happens that gets the pulse going. I fix this by incorporating random dungeons that spawn in Acts I-IV, where when you happen to see one, you get excited because you know your one step closer to an awesome piece of gear.
An example of a randomly spawned dungeon in Act II where a heavenly artifact has fallen.
Within the dungeon there is a buffed demonic boss guarding the heavenly artifact which has fallen to Sanctuary during the defense of Heaven. The boss in the cave would have it's damage scaled up 2 MP higher than what the character is currently playing at. For example if you are farming MP3, the boss' damage table is based of MP5, HP would remain the same. By creating a challenging event you feel a sense of accomplishment and may continue to encourage multi-player games. Once you have farmed enough artifacts, you can then forge them into a Relic.
An example of a demon guarding an artifact.
Loot
So now we know how we obtain heavenly artifacts, how do we turn them into relics? By reforging them. Here is an example of what I propose; now I am not a big number cruncher, but I think for the difficulty, they are justified and hopefully this can spark a good debate.
Here is Auriel's Hope, you can craft one with your desired primary stat. As you you can see, the stats are already at desirable levels for a player that puts forth the grind and minimizes non desirable stats. Eventually, players will be at the point where even a 1k DPS increase is a solid upgrade and this process could be appealing in that regard.
But what's it going to cost me? This is the breakdown for Auriel's Hope:
Just an idea, but here you would be able to craft a ring with your desired primary stat that also has the desired combat stats.
Resource balancing probably will require a little more thought rather than plucking numbers out, but essentially it creates a bit of a time sink in farming essences, gold sink in the gems (if you're like me I buy them instead of crafting them so 20 M on average) plus it put to use all the salvaged legendaries that don't make the cut. It also keeps the commodities market healthy in return, since tombs and gems will continue to be in demand. In return, you will be able to obtain an item that you would actually use on your first go. After that, you can keep trying to up the rolls.
Other items I have in mind:
Itherael's Judgment
2H Mace
(1050-1150) (1200-1750)
+143–286 Minimum Damage
+191–381 Maximum Damage
+45–50% Damage
One of the Follow Stats (Your choice)
+290–340 Intelligence
+1 Random Magic Properties (can be a socket)
+290–340 Dexterity
+290–340 Strength
Plus
Critical Hit Damage 170%-200%
+1 Socket
Critical hits have a chance to imprison your target, imprisoned targets deal no damage and receive double the damage taken.
Yaerius' Vestment of Light
Chest
+200-400 Vitality
One of the Following Stats
+150-300 Intelligence
+150-300 Dexterity
+150-300 Strength
Plus
+ 50-75 Resist All
Sometimes when struck in combat, Yaerius' Vestment of Light will burst with holy light healing you for 100% of your maximum health over 3 secs and blinding your enemies for 1.5 sec.
Malthael's Wisdom
Helm
One of the Following Stats
+150-225 Intelligence
+150-225 Dexterity
+150-225 Strength
Plus
+ Magic Find 15-25%
Crit Chance 4-6%
Socket
Critical hits have a chance to double your primary stat for 3 secs.
Imperius's Talisman of Valor
Amulet
Average damage (15-40)-(50-100)
+150-300 Vitality
One of the Following Stats
+150-300 Intelligence
+150-300 Dexterity
+150-300 Strength
Plus
Crit Chance 7.5-10%
Crit Damage 65-100%
Sometimes when struck in combat, Imperius's Talisman of Valor will make you immune to all crowd controlling affects for 5 secs.
Hadriel's Greaves of Haste
Boots
+150-300 Vitality
One of the Following Stats
+150-300 Intelligence
+150-300 Dexterity
+150-300 Strength
Plus
60-80 Resist All
Increased Movement Speed 12%
Periodically you will move double your movement speed for 3 secs creating whirl winds in your wake that will deal 40% weapon damage.
Tyrael's Burden
Shoulders
+150-300 Vitality
One of the Following Stats
+150-300 Intelligence
+150-300 Dexterity
+150-300 Strength
Plus
60-80 Resist All
Extra Armor 150-300
Sometimes when struck in combat, you will burst with holy energy dealing 150% of your health as holy damage. Enemies struck will be stunned for 1.5 sec.
These are just ideas that I find interesting and think would bring some much needed diversity to the game. It would also help keep players from feeling dependent on the AH for gear, since you farm for this gear on MP0 since the drops are 100% and rely on dungeon spawns to limit the access to the artifacts. It also provides a gold sink and keeps the commodities market healthy, lets face it once you buy your Radiant stars for your gear, you don't need to keep buying new ones. With incorporating them into the crafting process you may be able deflate the gold market.
Thoughts?