Back when they asked for our feedback on MF swapping, I gave some feedback on blizzards forums. This was that feedback. Figured I would post it here since I wasted the time to write it out and it was probably never read. Here it is in its entirety:
My feedback suggestions on MF, the blacksmith, and itemization. I am going to use these 3 mechanics to solve each other or solve 3 birds with one stone.
I would like to see improvement with all 3 mechanics and I think while this could take sometime to implement, I feel the final implementation would make everyone’s Diablo 3 experience better.
Suggestion A) Itemization with the blacksmith. As of right now, we are paying the blacksmith like 50k to craft and identify junk items for us when it comes down to it. What if the blacksmith could take a stat from one item and put it on another item. Item with removed stat is used up in transfer. Also, we must put new stat over an already existing stat on item we wish to keep. I thought about allowing both items to still be maintained after item swap, but lets face it, there is a huge amount of lvl 50-60 items out there that are worthless except for one or two nice stats. This could be a nice item sink. Also, items can only have a stat applied once. At that time they change colors to look kind of like the crafted items in D2. This will allow people who buy off the auction houses to make the proper decisions with items.
The rules for stat transfer with the blacksmith go like this:
1) Items have to be within 10 levels of each other.
2) Items can not break their stat budget. (if the max intel on item is 200, putting 220 stat on it would make it 200)
3) Only same type of items can be used. Swords and swords, not swords and axes or boots.
4) Legendaries need other legendaries. Rares need rares. Can’t transfer with magical blues.
5) Items are only allowed 1 transfer after which time they are changed to red-orange like D2 crafted items.
6) The transfer will cost gold, tome of secrets and crafting mats of highest item.
This could allow items missing one stat we want to become desirable. This will make items with one good stat desirable as well. We can put our class main stat or vitality over worthless stat. We can add MF/GF to items we already have that have less than desired stat. This could solve the gear swapping problem many people have.
Also how does the blacksmith suddenly gain this ability? Maybe we find a new spawn in game that drops the "Nephalem Cube." Or maybe we can call it the Nephalem Hammer. Kind of like Charsi’s imbue hammer from D2. Rare spawn should be in Act 4 Hell or inferno Act 1 my opinion. Or maybe, we have to find pieces of the hammer throughout many different acts. People want endgame content, something else for them to chase after.
Suggestion B ) ALL MF/GF lost when switching gear during fight. That is right. 0%. No bonus from from NVB either. (NVB = Nephalem Valor Buff) No loss of NVB stack, just no bonus on current monsters. If you can’t identify when a player is in combat or not, make a gear swap cooldown on MF/GF of like 3 minutes. (this one later became a suggestion from blizzard.)
Suggestion C) Class specific items will automatically role class main stat or vitality before non main stats can appear on item.
I think the BS thing is quite interesting, not sure how/if possible for Blizz to implement, but good idea, none the less.
As for the other two... not sure if I like the MF deal...seems harsh for a regular player (what if I find an upgrade...my MF is dead for 3 mins?! ..not cool)
And the class specific deal, yes that is a great idea!
Interesting Idea ... kind of like the mechanics in WoW.
I think the issue though is that they don't want you to "make" the perfect piece of gear ... they want you to find it. If you could have a mechanic that allowed you to "re-make" an item, the game would swiftly lose it's appeal.
I am not sure how they are going to solve the gear swap issue. Gear swapping is a pain in the ass ... of course, if they made is less of a pain in the ass, that would almost solve it. Gear Sets are the easiest solution ... 1 button swap to a different gear set.
I think the BS thing is quite interesting, not sure how/if possible for Blizz to implement, but good idea, none the less.
As for the other two... not sure if I like the MF deal...seems harsh for a regular player (what if I find an upgrade...my MF is dead for 3 mins?! ..not cool)
And the class specific deal, yes that is a great idea!
Gj
I could see your issue with the 3min Dead MF. Personally, I doubt I would run into the problem because while I am farming, i don't identify anything. I wait until I get back to town. Although if they buffed legendaries, I could see myself going ahead and identifying them.
I love this idea of swapping one stat, could create some really beasty items without having to farm for 50 years to buy/find one. This would also bring down the value of items with amazing stats to a more realistic price. ie: instead of 100 million, maybe around 10-20 million. This would also take fair bit of game time and focus off the AH, as we can get the stats we need by finding not so good items with one good stat.
Pro's:
- Cheaper items
- Better items
- Interesting item stat combos
- Less Auction House focus
- More in game (action) playtime
- More accessibility to inferno acts 3 & 4 for players that may be discouraged.
Cons:
- Game will be more easily finished by more people. (not sure that is a con tbh)
- You could completely max out single stats that would make your char very OP (eg. a demon hunter with 3008 dexterity etc)
Top idea though, i think the good outweighs the bad.
I think the BS thing is quite interesting, not sure how/if possible for Blizz to implement, but good idea, none the less.
As for the other two... not sure if I like the MF deal...seems harsh for a regular player (what if I find an upgrade...my MF is dead for 3 mins?! ..not cool)
And the class specific deal, yes that is a great idea!
Gj
I could see your issue with the 3min Dead MF. Personally, I doubt I would run into the problem because while I am farming, i don't identify anything. I wait until I get back to town. Although if they buffed legendaries, I could see myself going ahead and identifying them.
Not sure if I didnt understand your post correctly. But an items stats are determined when the item drops. No matter how long, when or where you ID it, the stats are pre-determined. So the MF de-buff would still affect your loot, even though you dont ID it right away.
I believe what he means is that he wouldn't be switching gear anyway since he doesn't id till later on. He wouldn't get the debuff because he wouldn't know if anything better has dropped till his run is completed.
A) Not really a fan of the ability to change stats on items. The entire point of the game is the item hunt. By allowing people to "forge" so-so items into a relatively decent item, you will basically kill the game (economy, longevity, etc.). In WoW it made sense, because there is a definitive set of "best gear" (epics) with set stats. That's not the case in Diablo. Inferno difficulty doesn't require the best gear in the game to farm, so nobody is going to pay for "perfectly rolled gear" when they could just buy one-off items and change them instead. Only itemization changes I think they need to make are legendary and set items making you feel like you're using the best of the best again -- which they're already doing.
Gear Swap = 0% MF Cooldown -- I agree with this. I'd probably make it closer to 1-1 1/2 minutes. That way, it won't be a significant impact on your ability to move forward if you do find an upgrade but make it incredibly inconvenient for someone to swap gear back and forth. There's plenty of gear out there that both the offensive/defensive stats you need AND MF. I don't understand how anyone thinks having a separate set of crappy gear with MF on it and swapping it back and forth during fights, whether Blizz were to make it easier or not, thinks that's a fun way to play. Gearing is a conscious choice, and if you want the best of both worlds (survivability/damage & MF) you should have to find/buy that gear that has both.
C) This is another one of those "it would ruin the game" things for me. If you automatically had any of the right stats on certain gear, it wouldn't make having the gear with the correct stats feel as good. So what 9/10 of the Fist Weapons I find has + Str and no + Dex on them. Other aspects make them good, and keeps those with + Dex and other useful stats feeling as powerful as they do.
Bottom line is that Diablo III is meant to take a long time to get the right gear, and that means adding short cuts to get there is only going to hurt it in the long run for all players, both hardcore and casual.
My feedback suggestions on MF, the blacksmith, and itemization. I am going to use these 3 mechanics to solve each other or solve 3 birds with one stone.
I would like to see improvement with all 3 mechanics and I think while this could take sometime to implement, I feel the final implementation would make everyone’s Diablo 3 experience better.
Suggestion A) Itemization with the blacksmith. As of right now, we are paying the blacksmith like 50k to craft and identify junk items for us when it comes down to it. What if the blacksmith could take a stat from one item and put it on another item. Item with removed stat is used up in transfer. Also, we must put new stat over an already existing stat on item we wish to keep. I thought about allowing both items to still be maintained after item swap, but lets face it, there is a huge amount of lvl 50-60 items out there that are worthless except for one or two nice stats. This could be a nice item sink. Also, items can only have a stat applied once. At that time they change colors to look kind of like the crafted items in D2. This will allow people who buy off the auction houses to make the proper decisions with items.
The rules for stat transfer with the blacksmith go like this:
1) Items have to be within 10 levels of each other.
2) Items can not break their stat budget. (if the max intel on item is 200, putting 220 stat on it would make it 200)
3) Only same type of items can be used. Swords and swords, not swords and axes or boots.
4) Legendaries need other legendaries. Rares need rares. Can’t transfer with magical blues.
5) Items are only allowed 1 transfer after which time they are changed to red-orange like D2 crafted items.
6) The transfer will cost gold, tome of secrets and crafting mats of highest item.
This could allow items missing one stat we want to become desirable. This will make items with one good stat desirable as well. We can put our class main stat or vitality over worthless stat. We can add MF/GF to items we already have that have less than desired stat. This could solve the gear swapping problem many people have.
Also how does the blacksmith suddenly gain this ability? Maybe we find a new spawn in game that drops the "Nephalem Cube." Or maybe we can call it the Nephalem Hammer. Kind of like Charsi’s imbue hammer from D2. Rare spawn should be in Act 4 Hell or inferno Act 1 my opinion. Or maybe, we have to find pieces of the hammer throughout many different acts. People want endgame content, something else for them to chase after.
Suggestion B ) ALL MF/GF lost when switching gear during fight. That is right. 0%. No bonus from from NVB either. (NVB = Nephalem Valor Buff) No loss of NVB stack, just no bonus on current monsters. If you can’t identify when a player is in combat or not, make a gear swap cooldown on MF/GF of like 3 minutes. (this one later became a suggestion from blizzard.)
Suggestion C) Class specific items will automatically role class main stat or vitality before non main stats can appear on item.
As for the other two... not sure if I like the MF deal...seems harsh for a regular player (what if I find an upgrade...my MF is dead for 3 mins?! ..not cool)
And the class specific deal, yes that is a great idea!
Gj
I think the issue though is that they don't want you to "make" the perfect piece of gear ... they want you to find it. If you could have a mechanic that allowed you to "re-make" an item, the game would swiftly lose it's appeal.
I am not sure how they are going to solve the gear swap issue. Gear swapping is a pain in the ass ... of course, if they made is less of a pain in the ass, that would almost solve it. Gear Sets are the easiest solution ... 1 button swap to a different gear set.
I could see your issue with the 3min Dead MF. Personally, I doubt I would run into the problem because while I am farming, i don't identify anything. I wait until I get back to town. Although if they buffed legendaries, I could see myself going ahead and identifying them.
Pro's:
- Cheaper items
- Better items
- Interesting item stat combos
- Less Auction House focus
- More in game (action) playtime
- More accessibility to inferno acts 3 & 4 for players that may be discouraged.
Cons:
- Game will be more easily finished by more people. (not sure that is a con tbh)
- You could completely max out single stats that would make your char very OP (eg. a demon hunter with 3008 dexterity etc)
Top idea though, i think the good outweighs the bad.
I believe what he means is that he wouldn't be switching gear anyway since he doesn't id till later on. He wouldn't get the debuff because he wouldn't know if anything better has dropped till his run is completed.
Gear Swap = 0% MF Cooldown -- I agree with this. I'd probably make it closer to 1-1 1/2 minutes. That way, it won't be a significant impact on your ability to move forward if you do find an upgrade but make it incredibly inconvenient for someone to swap gear back and forth. There's plenty of gear out there that both the offensive/defensive stats you need AND MF. I don't understand how anyone thinks having a separate set of crappy gear with MF on it and swapping it back and forth during fights, whether Blizz were to make it easier or not, thinks that's a fun way to play. Gearing is a conscious choice, and if you want the best of both worlds (survivability/damage & MF) you should have to find/buy that gear that has both.
C) This is another one of those "it would ruin the game" things for me. If you automatically had any of the right stats on certain gear, it wouldn't make having the gear with the correct stats feel as good. So what 9/10 of the Fist Weapons I find has + Str and no + Dex on them. Other aspects make them good, and keeps those with + Dex and other useful stats feeling as powerful as they do.
Bottom line is that Diablo III is meant to take a long time to get the right gear, and that means adding short cuts to get there is only going to hurt it in the long run for all players, both hardcore and casual.
get back with charms making more interesting have MF from them.
example:
1 charm = 5% mf
2 charm = 10+2 % mf
3 charm = 15+6% mf
.
.
.
n charms = (the sum of all individual bonus) + n*2 % mf
or the formula could be similar of the one who calculate resist and defense.
the math could change but the idea is the same.
sorry for the bad english.