So it's not supposed to be customer characterization, but endgame bot-friendly grinding? What? If they're sticking it on rails, they're already admiting "hey, go on <IcyVeins, ElitsitJerks, etc Diablo equivalent> and just read up on which order to stick your points in!" And if they're going to do it this way, just give Elites/bosses a 100% drop chance of a BoA crafting material that you take to the mystic who gives you the equivalent of Lam Essen's Tome. Something to change it from pure, unadulterated time sink into more of an objectives based risk/reward system.
How is what they're doing different than having freedom over each tab, when bots are concerned? Or theorycrafting?
Travis Day on Paragon 2.0
D3's game designer Travis Day posted a pretty big description of what he and the team envision for Paragon 2.0. It's a must-read due to the several key points made in it.
I've seen a lot of assorted questions floating about so I wanted to take a little time explaining some of the current details of the system. As always this is not completely final and is subject to change.
First let me start with the intent of the system so everyone has a bit of context. The initial implementation of the paragon system was meant to help provide players a form of end game progression. The primary end game progression is items, Diablo is all about finding awesome items and using them to murder the hordes of evil. Sometimes though you may go for a while and not find a new exciting item, paragons primary goal is provide you with some form of tangible benefit for killing lots of monsters even if you didn't find new items.
The initial system accomplishes what it set out to do but unfortunately there comes a time when you have maxed out that progression and suddenly you start losing out of part of your reward for killing monsters (experience). The first change to the paragon 2.0, removing the cap, is intended to ensure that no matter how much or how little you play you will always be earning that experience.
The next thing that we wanted to address with paragon 2.0 is that since paragon experience was associated with a specific character it had the unfortunate side effect of making players feel more tied to a specific character than we wanted them to be. If you have a paragon 50 Wizard it makes it that much harder to convince yourself to try a new character because some people would feel like they are "wasting experience" either on the Wizard or on the new character they wanted to try out. We want the players to feel that they are being rewarded for their time investment regardless of what character they are in the mood to play or experiment with. This is the primary reason we are changing paragon levels to be account wide instead of character specific. We want people who have invested time earning paragon experience to be able to enjoy all the changes and new content the expansion introduces without having a sense of loss for "wasting paragon levels" on a character, especially since the Crusader is so awesome I expect 200% of players to just reroll
Lastly, spendable points. Anyone who has played Diablo games in the past has some fond memories (or not if you ever misclicked the wrong stat) of picking how they wanted to spend their points whenever they leveled. While giving players more character customization options isn't the core intent of the system, it did present itself as a good place to introduce the mechanic. Players already earn bonus stats, magic find, and gold find when they earn a paragon level but we thought giving players more options and letting them choose what they wanted their bonus to be was just better all around. When you gain a paragon level in the new system you will receive a paragon point to spend, what category that point can be spent in is determined by what paragon level you earn. Paragon level 1 gives you a point to spend in a core stat, Paragon 2 gives you a point in the offensive category, 3 is defensive, and 4 is utility, each level past that folows the same pattern. At present all categories other than core stats (Str, Int, Dex, Vit) have a cap on the number of points that can be allocated to them which also means there is a cap to the total number of points that 3 of the 4 categories can have. If you reach paragon 800 you will have maxed the number of points that can be allocated to the offense, defense, and utility categories and all future paragon levels will grant you a point in the core stat category.
Hopefully this covers the majority of questions that people have. While I am incredibly busy working on the expansion at present I'll do my best to answer whatever remaining questions people have about paragon 2.0.
In addition Lylirra continued to answer Paragon 2.0 related questions, so it's a good thing to check her posts as well.
So just to get this straight. if i have 2 paragon level 100 characters, when 2.0 comes out i will be somewhere around Paragon level 140 rather than paragon 200. the conversion rate is adding up all EXPERIENCE not just total levels correct?
Yes. Currently, the idea is to up add up the Paragon experience on each of your characters. Based on that combined total (the total amount of Paragon experience you have, not the total number of Paragon levels), we would then determine your Shared Paragon level. We're still tinkering with the Paragon 2.0 leveling curve, so I can't give you an exact conversion just yet.
Also, just in keep that you'll have a separate Shared Paragon level for your Normal characters and one for your Hardcore characters.
Edit: typos
I was wondering if I can get a clarification on "... adding up Paragon experience across all your heroes of specific type". Is there a limitation on the number of heroes of a specific type? For example, would there be a penalty of any kind if I have more that two Witch Doctors at P100 when calculating the shared Paragon 2.0 experience?
Game type = game mode (i.e. Normal and Hardcore). So, you'll have a separate Shared Paragon level for Normal characters, and a separate Shared Paragon level for Hardcore characters. Says so right in the post just a few paragraphs down.
To quickly address your second point: under current design, all characters will be able to contribute to Shared Paragon levels equally. There are no bonuses or burdens for Paragon leveling multiple characters of the same class. This is all subject to change, of course, and I'll make sure to pass along the feedback I've seen on this topic to our developers.
Blizzard Won the "Top Community Management Team" Award
Congratulations to the Blizzard Community Management team for winning this year's Dragonslayer Award for "Top Community Management Team." The Dragonslayer Awards are a prestigious award voted on by the player community (rather than industry insiders, like virtually all other awards in gaming.)
There's more information here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/9/prweb11102712.htm
These CMs here put up with one of the most passionate (read: often hostile) communities in gaming. I think it's awesome that, despite the unusual challenges these CMs here face (especially for Diablo 3), the Blizz CMs still came out on top when the players voted. Good job, Blizz CM guys and gals! =)
Thanks for the kind words! It was really awesome for our team to be honored by such a community-driven award (for the second year in a row, to boot!), so thanks to to everyone who voted!
For anyone who's curious, the award acceptance video is here and our section starts around 10 minutes and 26 seconds in.
(P.S. - I feel like my cat being in an awards acceptance video somehow wins the internet.)
So is the woman in front on the left that's wearing a skin tight shirt part of the team or did you guys just throw her into the picture for some eye candy? lol, sorry no offense (I don't know all the CMs faces... or any for that matter), but her posture and pose just made her seem out of place
Every person in our section of video are members of the Community Development Department, and the woman you're referring to on the far left is Zeriyah, one of the Community Managers for Hearthstone.
And under what name does that cat you are holding posts?
She won't share her BattleTag with me, so I'm actually not sure. I suspect she plays a Monk when she's not at the office with me.
It was Bashiok speaking.
Or Zarhym.
One of those two for sure.
Actually, it *might* have been Drysc. I'll have to go back and look again.
There are a lot of challenges in Diablo III, and while some players have been busy testing their mettle against other players in Brawling or earning every last achievement they can muster, others have heeded the call to push their characters to new heights and achieve Paragon 100. But some especially passionate players have gone above and beyond striving to reach Paragon level 100 not once, but on all five character classes on every available gender and class combination to achieve the prestigious "Paragon 1000."
In this Player Spotlight, we catch up with Glow, who was one of the first players in the world to hit the elusive "Paragon 1000." He was nice enough to take the time to answer some questions about the experience and the challenges he faced on his personal quest for glory.
Q. What name do you go by in-game, and what country are you from?
I go by Glow. I'm from the United States. Q. Which hero class was your first Paragon level 100 character?
My first hero class was a female Monk.
Q. What made you decide to go for Paragon 1000?
Personal interest and the enjoyment of reaching max levels on everything available. I did the same thing in Diablo II with eight 99s, completely legit. Only a few screenshots remain from that however. Also, I was in a race with another player, but it was a hidden race. Q. Which hero of yours do you consider your “main?”
Female monk. Q. How long did it take you, on average, to level your characters to Paragon 100?
150 hours on average. MP0-MP1 speed runs using the Act 3 "Roaha Route". Barbarians were 75-80 hours due to spider farming. Also, these hours are clocked in before the "serious boost exp patch" (patch 1.0.8) which was released just days after I finished. Q. When did you hit Paragon 100 on your 10th Diablo III character, and what class and gender were they?
May 5th, but it may have been May 6th. I'd like to go with May 5th! Male Demon Hunter.
Q. What did you do to celebrate this impressive feat?
Break! Haha. (It's quite possible had a few drinks.. Nothing that amazing unfortunately. I was 100% out of the stress circle, and was relaxed!) Q. Did you prefer to level solo, with friends, or in public games?
I did a LOT of my leveling solo, then towards the end I had to party up with people to give me strength. Towards the end, I'd say 2 characters in total was mostly circulated from group play. Q. What was your most memorable moment of this entire experience?
Achieving something no one has achieved yet! Q. What was your favorite Legendary item or set piece you found during your journey? Chantodo's Will. It was my highest seller for 2 billion gold that I found it on MP10 in Act 3, Arreat Crater 2, on a white monster. I also have an Oculus I picked up for a bargain... it is one of the favorite items I have.
Q. What about your favorite non-Legendary item?
Mainly all those 666's, and 777's lol.
Q. What else did you do to help pass the time and encourage you on your journey to Paragon 1000? Did you watch TV shows, movies, listen to music, or watch livestreamers?
Music, music, music. And some Ventrilo. Q. What was your favorite change to Diablo III since it launched?
ID ALL (patch 1.0.8)! Q. What are you most looking forward to in the future of Diablo III?
Getting it for the Xbox 360. I hope one day Diablo decides to think about an MMO. Starcraft as well! I'd probably prefer a Starcraft MMO more, but that's just me. Q. What tips do you have for players looking to achieve Paragon 100 (or 1000) in Diablo III?
Be persistent! Don't lose hope! Q. Any closing thoughts?
I'm glad to have accomplished such an amazing task!
Curious to find out more about Glow’s journey? Make sure to check out his Diablo III videos on his YouTube channel!
Are you working towards Paragon level 100 on you first character or are you perhaps finishing up "Paragon 1000" on your tenth Hero? Let us know about your experiences and personal quests within Diablo III in the comments below!
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Wise ElderHow is what they're doing different than having freedom over each tab, when bots are concerned? Or theorycrafting?
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Wise ElderD3's game designer Travis Day posted a pretty big description of what he and the team envision for Paragon 2.0. It's a must-read due to the several key points made in it.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
First let me start with the intent of the system so everyone has a bit of context. The initial implementation of the paragon system was meant to help provide players a form of end game progression. The primary end game progression is items, Diablo is all about finding awesome items and using them to murder the hordes of evil. Sometimes though you may go for a while and not find a new exciting item, paragons primary goal is provide you with some form of tangible benefit for killing lots of monsters even if you didn't find new items.
The initial system accomplishes what it set out to do but unfortunately there comes a time when you have maxed out that progression and suddenly you start losing out of part of your reward for killing monsters (experience). The first change to the paragon 2.0, removing the cap, is intended to ensure that no matter how much or how little you play you will always be earning that experience.
The next thing that we wanted to address with paragon 2.0 is that since paragon experience was associated with a specific character it had the unfortunate side effect of making players feel more tied to a specific character than we wanted them to be. If you have a paragon 50 Wizard it makes it that much harder to convince yourself to try a new character because some people would feel like they are "wasting experience" either on the Wizard or on the new character they wanted to try out. We want the players to feel that they are being rewarded for their time investment regardless of what character they are in the mood to play or experiment with. This is the primary reason we are changing paragon levels to be account wide instead of character specific. We want people who have invested time earning paragon experience to be able to enjoy all the changes and new content the expansion introduces without having a sense of loss for "wasting paragon levels" on a character, especially since the Crusader is so awesome I expect 200% of players to just reroll
Lastly, spendable points. Anyone who has played Diablo games in the past has some fond memories (or not if you ever misclicked the wrong stat) of picking how they wanted to spend their points whenever they leveled. While giving players more character customization options isn't the core intent of the system, it did present itself as a good place to introduce the mechanic. Players already earn bonus stats, magic find, and gold find when they earn a paragon level but we thought giving players more options and letting them choose what they wanted their bonus to be was just better all around. When you gain a paragon level in the new system you will receive a paragon point to spend, what category that point can be spent in is determined by what paragon level you earn. Paragon level 1 gives you a point to spend in a core stat, Paragon 2 gives you a point in the offensive category, 3 is defensive, and 4 is utility, each level past that folows the same pattern. At present all categories other than core stats (Str, Int, Dex, Vit) have a cap on the number of points that can be allocated to them which also means there is a cap to the total number of points that 3 of the 4 categories can have. If you reach paragon 800 you will have maxed the number of points that can be allocated to the offense, defense, and utility categories and all future paragon levels will grant you a point in the core stat category.
Hopefully this covers the majority of questions that people have. While I am incredibly busy working on the expansion at present I'll do my best to answer whatever remaining questions people have about paragon 2.0.
In addition Lylirra continued to answer Paragon 2.0 related questions, so it's a good thing to check her posts as well.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Yes. Currently, the idea is to up add up the Paragon experience on each of your characters. Based on that combined total (the total amount of Paragon experience you have, not the total number of Paragon levels), we would then determine your Shared Paragon level. We're still tinkering with the Paragon 2.0 leveling curve, so I can't give you an exact conversion just yet.
Also, just in keep that you'll have a separate Shared Paragon level for your Normal characters and one for your Hardcore characters.
Edit: typos
I was wondering if I can get a clarification on "... adding up Paragon experience across all your heroes of specific type". Is there a limitation on the number of heroes of a specific type? For example, would there be a penalty of any kind if I have more that two Witch Doctors at P100 when calculating the shared Paragon 2.0 experience?
Game type = game mode (i.e. Normal and Hardcore). So, you'll have a separate Shared Paragon level for Normal characters, and a separate Shared Paragon level for Hardcore characters. Says so right in the post just a few paragraphs down.
To quickly address your second point: under current design, all characters will be able to contribute to Shared Paragon levels equally. There are no bonuses or burdens for Paragon leveling multiple characters of the same class. This is all subject to change, of course, and I'll make sure to pass along the feedback I've seen on this topic to our developers.
Blizzard Won the "Top Community Management Team" Award
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The Dragonslayer Awards are a prestigious award voted on by the player community (rather than industry insiders, like virtually all other awards in gaming.)
There's more information here:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/9/prweb11102712.htm
These CMs here put up with one of the most passionate (read: often hostile) communities in gaming. I think it's awesome that, despite the unusual challenges these CMs here face (especially for Diablo 3), the Blizz CMs still came out on top when the players voted.
Good job, Blizz CM guys and gals! =)
Thanks for the kind words! It was really awesome for our team to be honored by such a community-driven award (for the second year in a row, to boot!), so thanks to to everyone who voted!
For anyone who's curious, the award acceptance video is here and our section starts around 10 minutes and 26 seconds in.
(P.S. - I feel like my cat being in an awards acceptance video somehow wins the internet.)
So is the woman in front on the left that's wearing a skin tight shirt part of the team or did you guys just throw her into the picture for some eye candy?
lol, sorry no offense (I don't know all the CMs faces... or any for that matter), but her posture and pose just made her seem out of place
Every person in our section of video are members of the Community Development Department, and the woman you're referring to on the far left is Zeriyah, one of the Community Managers for Hearthstone.
And under what name does that cat you are holding posts?
She won't share her BattleTag with me, so I'm actually not sure.
It was Bashiok speaking.
Or Zarhym.
One of those two for sure.
Actually, it *might* have been Drysc. I'll have to go back and look again.
Player Spotlight: Glow's Quest for “Paragon 1000”
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
In this Player Spotlight, we catch up with Glow, who was one of the first players in the world to hit the elusive "Paragon 1000." He was nice enough to take the time to answer some questions about the experience and the challenges he faced on his personal quest for glory.
Q. What name do you go by in-game, and what country are you from?
I go by Glow. I'm from the United States.
Q. Which hero class was your first Paragon level 100 character?
My first hero class was a female Monk.
Q. What made you decide to go for Paragon 1000?
Personal interest and the enjoyment of reaching max levels on everything available. I did the same thing in Diablo II with eight 99s, completely legit. Only a few screenshots remain from that however. Also, I was in a race with another player, but it was a hidden race.
Q. Which hero of yours do you consider your “main?”
Female monk.
Q. How long did it take you, on average, to level your characters to Paragon 100?
150 hours on average. MP0-MP1 speed runs using the Act 3 "Roaha Route". Barbarians were 75-80 hours due to spider farming. Also, these hours are clocked in before the "serious boost exp patch" (patch 1.0.8) which was released just days after I finished.
Q. When did you hit Paragon 100 on your 10th Diablo III character, and what class and gender were they?
May 5th, but it may have been May 6th. I'd like to go with May 5th! Male Demon Hunter.
Q. What did you do to celebrate this impressive feat?
Break! Haha. (It's quite possible had a few drinks.. Nothing that amazing unfortunately. I was 100% out of the stress circle, and was relaxed!)
Q. Did you prefer to level solo, with friends, or in public games?
I did a LOT of my leveling solo, then towards the end I had to party up with people to give me strength.
Q. What was your most memorable moment of this entire experience?
Achieving something no one has achieved yet!
Q. What was your favorite Legendary item or set piece you found during your journey?
Chantodo's Will. It was my highest seller for 2 billion gold that I found it on MP10 in Act 3, Arreat Crater 2, on a white monster. I also have an Oculus I picked up for a bargain... it is one of the favorite items I have.
Q. What about your favorite non-Legendary item?
Mainly all those 666's, and 777's lol.
Q. What else did you do to help pass the time and encourage you on your journey to Paragon 1000? Did you watch TV shows, movies, listen to music, or watch livestreamers?
Music, music, music. And some Ventrilo.
Q. What was your favorite change to Diablo III since it launched?
ID ALL (patch 1.0.8)!
Q. What are you most looking forward to in the future of Diablo III?
Getting it for the Xbox 360.
Q. What tips do you have for players looking to achieve Paragon 100 (or 1000) in Diablo III?
Be persistent! Don't lose hope!
Q. Any closing thoughts?
I'm glad to have accomplished such an amazing task!
Curious to find out more about Glow’s journey? Make sure to check out his Diablo III videos on his YouTube channel!
Are you working towards Paragon level 100 on you first character or are you perhaps finishing up "Paragon 1000" on your tenth Hero? Let us know about your experiences and personal quests within Diablo III in the comments below!
Ha. Bagstone.