So I've been compiling a list of feedback and bugs to report for the Beta, but I just wanted to quickly share this as a QoL suggestion.
Cooldown Reduction, Resource Cost Reduction and +Skill% are all fantastic additions to the game, but I feel their benefits need more succinct representation in the UI. I really love that we can now view stat ranges on items when holding CTRL, so I thought, why not apply a similar function to Skill tooltips that shows their effective values. I made this quick mock-up as an example of how this display would function and what it would look like.
I feel this type of direct presentation makes those stats feel more tangible, while allowing for much more efficient theorycrafting.
Any thoughts on this? Or perhaps alternatives?
Edit: Dude, terrible spelling.
- Serpenth
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DamienJohn posted a message on "Advancing" Advanced TooltipsPosted in: Diablo III General Discussion -
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Zero(pS) posted a message on Tired of hearing "loot 2.0"Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
This part really makes me scratch my head.Quote from TheRabidDeerI haven't learned anything new about itemization in the last.... 4-5 months.- Changes to Legendaries and possible affixes on items (such as the datamined info on "ring" affixes, and much bigger bonuses to certain skills, like that 9% bonus to Meteor Jaetch reported). Insane affixes that have the craziest effects and could potentially provide enough "fun factor" months after the xpac has been released (provided you don't get them all via trading).
- Changes to Set Bonuses that will cater to specific playstyles (like the "Ninja" set bonus shown), and hopefully make class-specific Sets a lot more interesting.
- Drop Ratio Tuning which means that less items overall will drop, but they will be more meaningful. More valuable materials for Crafting and Enchanting, and less supply means that picking up "useless" items is probably a good idea if you plan on min-maxing. Also, less Greys/Whites and more Legendaries.
- Stats Tuning means that even if you roll an extremely bad "Vit" roll on your item, it's still going to be useable (and much higher, unlike the current, for instance, 10-200 range). 30 STR isn't really meaningful in the end-game, and this tuning is to acknowledge that.
- Smart Drops will also kinda affect itemization, by making sure at least the main primary stat of the item is tailored the the class you're playing (you still have to roll a 6 affix rare, and good affixes and rolls on those). You still need to roll good support stats, but at least you won't farm for 5 hours with a Demon Hunter without having a _single_ decent DEX item drop.
- Enchanting has the potential of greatly improving itemization and item hunting. You'll always be with eyes open for that mediocre item that is 1 affix away from being amazing. That is now a viable item, but you will need to invest quite a bit of gold to get that one affix that you want, and probably even more to maximize its roll (it can still range from a-z).
- We learned that "Primary" affixes and "Secondary" affixes will be officially split (they were always meant to be separate categories from the start). So now you don't have things like secondary resists competing in "affix slots" with Critical Hit Chance. To me this is a hugely positive change (I even talked about this idea on an article that I wrote some time ago).
A lot of small changes together have the potential to cause HUGE changes to how enjoyable a game can be. And the nail in the coffin: the AH/RMAH removal. -
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Jaetch posted a message on The Wizard at BlizzCon's RoS DemoMy friend Melkor and I are at BlizzCon testing out the wizard class, amongst other features available in Reaper of Souls.Posted in: Wizard: The Ancient Repositories
This is a messy post that we've put together on the official forum, but this is what we've found out so far:
Written from Melkor's perspective:
So disclaimer first: I'm doing this all from memory. If I say that someone said something, you can't turn around and count that as gospel. Sure, I know what I heard, but that doesn't mean I haven't made an error AND we all know how rapidly the intent of a statement can change based on the utilization of a single word. I promise you all to tell the truth- but I'm NOT a blizzard employee and I'm NOT the press. Also, the quotations used in these posts are for separating who said what, not to be used as a word for word quotation. I'M PARAPHRASING.
Now that that's out of the way.
11/8/13 13:46 PDT
We played ROS! Here are preliminary notes. Give me time and I'll clarify:
We only were allowed to play level 33 characters.
Melkor:
- Mistral breeze deals cold damage - seems good for Procing cold blooded.
- Power hungry is OP. Being healed by a health globe makes your next arcane spender FREE. Stacks 5 times! Tried it with meteor lightning bind. Rained lightning hell down "CM" style. By the time my 5th free meteor landed, I had enough AP to cast another for a total of 6 chained lightning meteors. Insane
- GLACIAL SPIKE (Magic Missile) is effective. Froze enemies once every 3-5 shots. Animation VERY similar to D2 ice missile.
- Many channeling promoting passives. - There was a passive that increases your armor/resists/damage the longer you stand still. (Capped at x time)
- Spectral blades rune increases all fire damage duration - interesting because certain fire damage skills have 3-5 second durations. Fire spells are def an interesting build choice.
- Items have primary and secondary stats. Items show range of stats possible.
For example - a source has 7-13 damage but next to that damage range there is a parenthetical reference showing you what you COULD have rolled. (Ie: 5-20)
- Dropped blue boots that had 9% meteor damage bonus...
- Global waypoints - port anywhere and everywhere. Simple enough.
- Arcane orb Spark rune uncontrollable but - buffs next lighting damage - you can not control anything other than the direction of the orb. Its range is fixed but all enemies that get hit by the orb buff your next lightning spell by 1% per enemy hit (no cap mentioned)
- Slow time casts at location - imagine this- cast slow time at location. Lob an above mentioned arcane orb at slow time point, drop a couple of meteors..run in to the fray with DS popped, pick up all those globes...cast nova, chain drop meteors for freeeee. GG.
- Teleportation animation is amazing...screen doesn't just snap to, moves with you
- It seems that the percentage damage of spells are off the chart. Time bomb does 1592% weap damage...at level 33
- Wave of force...has a rune that states that all enemies affected by WOF buff arcane damage by x%. STILL seems like were gonna hate it but we shall see.
- 4 passives at level 70
- Channeling not only looks focused, it looks viable. Skills that provide shields (animation is much like the shielding affix currently on E's) that increase armor/damage when standing still. Stackable elemental damage bonuses from passive.
- E had a affix called "poison enchanted" affix. Imagine the molten animation...change color to green)
- From a dev yesterday regarding THE MYSTIC:
- Re-rolls are "categorized". So let's say you have a bifecta ring with int/vit/cd/CC and say...cold resist. Just because you wanna re roll that cold resist, you'll find that IAS is NOT in the option list. I won't go as far as to say, "Like for like", but it seems that is the direction of the mystic.
From Jaetch:
- Archon's AR/armor buff is 50%
- Archon's bonus damage (12% sheet DPS boost per kill) seems to be limitless. Reached 5K+ DPS at level 33 with blue items
- Archon lasts 20 seconds. All damage boosts wear off as soon as Archon wears off
- Sparkflint reduced to 10%, Familiar itself is 110% damage
- RoF has a base of 440%+ damage
- Black Ice residue is 1100%+ and stacks... OP...
- Prism's AP reduction effect snapshots
- Got Magefist off Ghom. Had a special affix that doubled fire spell durations (Fire spell damage boost unchanged)
11/8/13 17:09 PDT:
- In Westmarch, I found a monster was immune to channeled abilities, but it seemed more like a bug because no "immune" message showed
- Discovered a legendary amulet that had a chance to "cyclone" enemies within an area of the attack point. Results were similar to how a Cyclone monk vacuums mobs together. And FYI, amulet came with vitality, cooldown reduction and regen. Seems like a decent follower/support class item.
11/8/13 18:35 PDT:
- Nephalem Rifts are completely random, as in... you have no idea what's left and right. They're opened by Rift Keys which are obtained through mini-quests in which you hunt for bounties (unique bosses that spawn randomly in different parts of Sanctuary)
- You're required to kill X% of total mobs in the Rift before you fight the Rift boss
- Within the Nephalem Rift, there are special Rift shrines that last 30 seconds, which include:
» Speed Shrine: pretty sure this shrine maxes out your movement speed. You move stupid fast.
» Power Shrine: your sheet DPS is increased by 400%
» Channeling Shrine: ALL spells cost ZERO resources and have ZERO cooldown
» Shield Shrine: your character is invulnerable
» some kind of lightning shrine that I can't remember: you constantly shock nearby mobs for huge damage
- Nephalem Glory (the same buffing globe from consoles) is now available on PC
- CLOSED BETA POSSIBLY BY THE END OF NOVEMBER
- OPEN BETA POSSIBLY BEFORE THE END OF THIS YEAR
From Melkor:
During the ROS panel I asked Josh Mosqueira, "with the removal of the AH, we have heard that Blizzard is potentially going to be giving us an alternative, perhaps even limited model for trading. What, if anything, can you tell us about that?"
As BDF pointed out from watching the virtual tour, my question (like everyone else's) was addressed in a somewhat vague, philosophical context. Josh made mention of the conflicting nature of the AH to the spirit of Diablo. He did not directly answer my question. Hey, I tried! Please see above for my one on one with Josh yesterday that produced similar results. I don't personally see any model being developed...not even a commodity exchange.
11/9/13 11:15 PDT:
From Jaetch:
- It seems Mirror Images inherit the buffs from your wizard. For example, casting Arcane Orbit and then casting Mirror Images give each Image the Arcane Orbs. The Arcane Orbs can detonate on impact, but the number of Orbs do not decrease.
- That said, Mirror Images do full damage (I can AFK and have 2x images take out a whole wave of mobs on their own).
- Obtained a legendary ring that granted 100% immunity to incoming poison damage and doubles outgoing poison damage (non-CoB WD rejoice or... the return of Venom Hydra? Poison-based main hand weapons?)
11/9/13 12:17 PDT:
Holy hell. Just attended the gameplay systems. Saw footage of the new skill black hole. Looked cool...everything gets sucked in to the cast point. But that's not what was most interesting:
Loot 2.0 - by now we all know the philosophy of loot 2.0 - less is more, what you get is very powerful and should be rewarding/game changing. What we saw today were some items. So you may have read above about the break down of item stats into primary and secondary stats. Primary was classified as damage/life/armor section while section 2 is described as "extra curricular stats" such as MF/GF/PUR, etc.
Also, my original deduction about how you will not be able to mystic things like cold resist into say, a socket, is not as "linear" as I originally described. For example, we saw a shot of someone re-rolling life regen for attack speed. This does not mean that I was misinformed...it simply implies that Blizzard's definition of "like for like" is not necessarily the same as ours... -
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Bleu42 posted a message on #1 Six crit Mempo reaction!Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
The fact that you just used that line makes you a complete idiot in my eyes. Plus the obvious money grab for your stream isn't very good, either. -
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Mehsiah posted a message on #1 Six crit Mempo reaction!Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
This would be more impressive if it was a self found, not a "lets buy 100 mempo's on stream and ID em live".
1/10 -
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CardinalMDM posted a message on Is anyone still playing this game?.Okay well, here's your first problem...Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
The most disrespectful thing anyone can do to a fellow poster is not read the things they say. Calling someone's posts "walls of text" is a fancy way of saying "I don't have the attention span to listen to what anything you have to say, but please, take my word seriously." I've had debates with other folks on this forum, who wrote insanely long posts, and at least before I got completely exhausted, I respected them enough to read their posts and respond to as much as I could.
In regard to the rest of your request...
GLADLY!!! Here are the last batch of topics you've started, according to your profile.
Here's a link in which you simply post a meme, comparing D3 to Pokemon, implying Pokemon "legendaries" are more legendary than D3 legendaries.
http://www.diablofan...77#entry1205677
Memes, in case you're unaware, are an unintelligent way of contributing to a conversation. Not saying what the meme said was necessarily wrong, but letting other people do the discussing, while simply posting a meme, is not contributing. It's throwing fuel on a fire you already know is raging. Next...
Here's a link from September 13, where you ask about followers:
http://www.diablofan...34#entry1220334
Could be seen as a conversation starter, though to be honest, you didn't really ask anything besides "anything new happening." Besides which, you trail the vague question with "quite a dull addon." Making your question pretty much a loaded platform on which to flame. Next...
Here's a link where you post yet another meme where you imply the reaction by Blizzard to all the players' suggestions. I'm sure you were spot on.
http://www.diablofan...07#entry1200407
Finally, a post in which you say you pick the game up again for another 30 minutes (seems like an awfully masochistic pattern), and were met by the "match summary" screen.
http://www.diablofan...33#entry1195633
For a moment, I couldn't figure out what you meant, then I realized you were talking about PvP. Well, there's something original and thought provoking...and also completely out of nowhere. I'd keep going, but I'm not clear on how to search for topics farther back than that via your Dfans profile. Though, I think the point is proven. -
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EleSaturate posted a message on Loot 2.0, discovering its true potential.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion -
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MrMonstrosity posted a message on Loot 2.0, discovering its true potential.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
Rarity
If you ask any veteran Diablo player what their most memorable moment was from a past Diablo game, more often than not it will involve a story about the time when a certain rare item dropped for them. Whether that drop was a legendary (unique) item which was statistically next to impossible to find, a high rune needed to craft an amazing runeword, or even just a legendary item with perfect stats, the feeling was pretty much all the same (alright.. finding something like a Windforce, Zod rune, or Tyrael’s Might was a little different haha). Players could probably even go as far as recalling the time of day, act, zone, or monster that dropped that particular item, it was that memorable. How can we give this same nostalgia feeling back to the items in Diablo III?
Drop Rates
Drop rates have changed dramatically since release. I remember when the game was first launched I had almost leveled up two characters to max level before seeing my first legendary drop. I didn't really mind the low drop rates (even though the items were usually worse than rares), but it was a huge change compared to Diablo II where you couldn't finish the first Act on normal without seeing one drop. Where Diablo II had all items available in the hardest difficulty, Diablo III did things differently by splitting them up between four difficulties. This severely limited the amount of legendary items which could be found.
The good news is there is a change coming in loot 2.0 which which will make all legendary items available in every difficulty. I don't need to dive into all the details regarding this as many people are already aware of them, but what I want to talk about is the new possibilities this opens up. Possibilities in regards to drop rates. What I'd love to see now is the shift back to different drop rates inside each item type. I wouldn't mind the statistically impossible drops if it was offset by the fact that there were other, more common items available.
For example, let's take a look at legendary two-handed swords. Currently in patch 1.0.8 if we were to find a legendary two-handed sword in Inferno difficulty it would could only be one of 4 possibilities. With the new change that number will now increase to a possible 9, more than double the previous amount. We now have enough items in the same item type to afford to have substantially different drop rates.
(numbers are just for show)
The difficult part is balancing drop rates alongside the Auction House. In Diablo II the rarest item of them all, Tyrael's Might, had the highest chance to drop from the last boss in the game. Do you know what that drop rate was? A staggering 1:409,739 (0 Magic Find / 1 player game). Considering there was no Auction House available in Diablo II, even seeing one on another player was a feat of it's own. If Blizzard tried to make an item equivalent to that in Diablo III the drop rate would probably need to increase to something in the millions due to the Auction House.
Something could also be added to increase the excitement and also help people recognize the rarity of the item visually. Something as subtle as a different particle effect in the legendary's beam of light would go a long way to recognize when something truly special dropped. I don't know about you but if I saw an unidentified two-handed sword on the ground with a sparkling beam like The Grandfather's below I'd be jumping out of my seat in excitement.
How cool would that be, especially for new players or the less informed to know how rare their drop was without running to the Auction House to check the prices. What do you think the order in rarity is of the legendary helms below?
In one of the recent developer interviews Travis day is heard saying that he wants to create items that will be remembered. He even goes on to compare the impact of the items he hopes to create to that of World of Warcraft's Legendary sword, Thunderfury. I just pray that the reason he's using Thunderfury as an example isn't just for the sole reason it was powerful but also that not everyone had one and that it took not just a lot of hard work to get but even just plain luck. It wouldn't have had near as much impact if everyone on the server was running around with it, people knew of you and your guild if you were lucky enough to receive one, that's the reason it was remembered.
While I'm on this topic I'm going to also going to mention my own opinion in regards to the transmogrification system which might be making it's way into Diablo III. Don't include legendary items. The unique models are just as much of the reason as the unique properties as to why they can be labeled as a legendary. Do what you want with rares, but please leave legendary items out of it. If you absolutely think legendary items need to be included than at least connect the ability to do so with only the items your character has personally identified, at least that would help keep the integrity of the rarest items.
So please Blizzard, I beg, move away from the only thing rare about an item being the combination of random properties to the actual item itself.
Rewarding the Hunt
At the heart of the Diablo series lies the single most important aspect of the game, the hunt for items. It's the search for rare items which makes us stay up all hours of the night killing demon after demon, hoping for that one special drop.
Since the introduction of the Auction House the hunt for items has changed, instead of hunting for items in the game world we're now instead supposed to hunt for deals on the Auction House. Players are rewarded more for sitting outside the game than actually killing monsters. The Auction House isn't going away, so how can we give incentive to those that actually play the game?
Recognition for Discovery
This idea I haven't seen pop up anywhere and I've had stuck in my head since my days of playing Diablo II and I think has a lot of merit as a feature in terms of both game play longevity and progression. The idea first came to me doing Act 3 Mephisto runs one night playing Diablo II a long time ago. As cheesy as it might be I used to keep a pen and paper at my desk to write down what unique items I'd find during my play session, something that I could not only use to brag about to my younger brother but also something I could use to record my own collection of items (pen and paper achievements...lol).
The idea would be to connect a bonus, most likely in the form of small stat increases, to the discovery of items. It's such a simple idea and one I feel would change the game for the better. In the example below I used the achievement layout to showcase the idea.
Notice how I used the word "identify"? This would be such a simple way to ensure that people couldn't just buy every single item off the AH to reap all of the benefits, players would now rewarded for playing the game not the Auction House. The bonus wouldn't have to be huge, just a little something to be recognized for the effort (or luck) put in to obtaining items. Sure someone could buy or trade for unidentified items outside the AH but it would be much harder to do, especially if they adjusted the drop rates accordingly.
So maybe you're rocking a Maximus and you find a Warmonger, wouldn't it be cool if by just finding a weapon of the same type you just increased your two-handed sword damage by 1%. Better yet, if the bonuses were account wide similar to achievements, you could find something on your Barbarian that could potentially give a small boost to another class. I think this idea is great in terms of progressing your character as you play the game. As another added bonus for identifying an item, and if the transmogrification feature existed (which I hope it never does) would be to allow that item's model to be applied to another item of the same type.
This next addition is for all you lore junkies and collectors out there. With being a game designed completely around cool items why don't we know more about the history of them? There's an entire in-game journal which for the most part is completely ignored. Why not make a section for all the cool items we find?
I don't know about you but there's so many items like the Grandfather that I'd like to know more about. I'm sure the writers at Blizzard could throw us a bone, the Diablo story is rich with lore.
Magic Find
Ah, the stat everyone loves and hates at the same time. Just like it was in Diablo II, Magic Find is a very valuable stat. So much that people were actually switching to an entirely different gear set just to boost it as high as possible before landing the killing blow on elites and champions. Blizzard's fix, the addition of Paragon levels to slowly make the need for Magic Find on items obsolete as a player progressed to level 100. Sure this was a great bonus to have and fixed the need to swap gear but it also created an entirely new problem, punishment to play anything other than your character with the highest Paragon.
Something that struck me by surprise is a recent quote taken from the recent Blizzard Developer Interview with Diablofans:
Originally Posted by Travis Day (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We've definitely talked about things like taking Paragon and decoupling it from your character specifically and making it something that is more account-over working. So that any time you invest in the game is rewarded and you don’t feel like we’re taking anything away from you if you want to try new characters or try out different play styles within the game.
I used to think the same way as Travis, I've always wanted to try out some other classes other than my barbarian but there was something always holding me back, something called Paragon levels. Was it the slight boost in primary stats stopping me from switching to a different character? Nope, it was the thought of all the loot I would be missing out on if I didn't have my valuable Magic Find which Paragon levels granted me. I would easily trade 300 of my primary stat to jump on a different character for a night, but when it came down to missing out on the potential for loot, nope not a chance.
I think it would be completely wrong of Blizzard to make Paragon levels account wide. Paragon is meant to provide players who've reached level 60 an extended progression system, don't shorten that to 1/5th of the time needed by requiring only one character to reach Paragon 100. Instead, bare with me on this one, why don't we remove Magic Find from items and Paragon levels. Wow, do you feel that? That's called freedom, the freedom to play any character you want now and not have to sacrifice loot.
So, if we no longer get our beloved Magic Find from either items nor Paragon levels where do we get it now? Well, what if we moved it all into Nephalem Valor and tried something like this:- Remove the NV cap size of 5
- Cap Magic Find at 500% for every character
- Award different values of Magic Find per stack of NV depending on the Monster Power
- Earn NV at any level, not just at level 60
- Lose a stack of NV for every death
- De-emphasize the need for Magic Find in general
Simple changes right? But lets look at what issues we may have just solved:- Rewards players for playing at a higher Monster Power (reach MF cap faster)
- Rewards players for staying in one game and playing through all acts
- Lower level characters have the same chance at finding legendary items
- No longer punished for playing low Paragon characters (No MF)
- Stops high MP leachers (if they keep dying it's not worth it)
- Might help somewhat to combat bots
- Players shouldn't need to get to max MF to find good items, sure it should help but not as much as it does currently.
(the new "Magic Find"?)
Crafting
Crafting has such huge potential to be one of the most interesting parts of Diablo III. Not only that but it might be the only way to fix the economy in it's current state. A little over a year into the game and we can already see the hyper inflation resulting from a game with no proper item or gold sinks. So, what can be done to crafting to get and keep a healthy economy?
Salvaging
Something absolutely needs to be done to make salvaging items more desirable. Yeah there's Brimstones, but I'm not sure why Blizzard decided to make them have a 100% chance of being salvaged from legendary items. I guess It probably made sense back when legendary items were actually hard to find at release, but when they increased the drop rates they should have also removed the 100% salvage chance.
I've already suggested this idea before regarding new types of Brimestone's but I'd like to mention it again. The idea is that by salvaging legendary items they'd have a small chance to produce a type of Brimstone depending on the elemental type of the item that's being salvaged. Maybe even tie in the rarity of the legendary item being salvaged to the chance of producing one.
Make these also be part of crafting recipes for all of the artisans. Obviously crafting recipes as a whole need help before this could even be implemented but I'm sure we'll see that happen along with loot 2.0. It would definitely increase the amount of legendary items being removed from the economy.
Legendary Crafting Materials
In Diablo II we had Runes which were the primary crafting reagent. Runes ranged from the very commonly found to the near impossible to find. Blizzard really needs to introduce similar crafting reagents in loot 2.0. They obviously can't be called runes, as those already exist in the form of Skill Runes, but they need to exist in some other form. They need to be something that we can find out in the game world by killing things and more importantly be highly valued in the crafting system.
I think I've found the perfect place for them to drop.
You may recall coming across monsters with purple name plates and unique names during your play sessions. What are they you ask? Your answer is as good as mine, the only thing they're linked to right now is an achievement. Sure some of them are obviously in the game for a laugh, Jay Wilson comes to mind, but for the most part they just exist for no reason at all. Why don't we give them a reason to exist? Blizzard could toss those rare crafting materials on their loot table with a very tiny drop rare and put them to good use. Beef them up a bit in terms of health and damage similar to Keywardens and they'd be perfect. Give them a little bit more randomness in their spawn locations so they can't be easily farmed and you'd have a very nice feature.
There's 82 named unique monsters as part of the acheivement "A Unique Collection", giving them all a chance to drop a unique crafting reagent would be an amazing way to spice up crafting. Throw on a Bind to Account similar to Demonic Essence and you'd really have people out in the world playing the game like it was meant to be played.
If you're anything like me your stash and bags are already really full of items that you couldn't possibly fathom the idea of more crafting materials. This next idea is to help all of us hoarders get a little breathing room.
This would be so welcome, having separate inventories for weapons and armor, crafting materials, gems, and the upcoming mystic artisan. Make picking up items automatically place them in the right inventory and you would have probably one of the most welcome features to many people alike.
While we're at it let's go ahead and clean up something I wish was never implemented in the first place... 15 gem versions. Blizzard should reduce the number of types found in the first 3 difficulties to one each, there's not really any point in having more.
Removing these steps in gem progression could be countered by just decreasing the drop rates accordingly. While we're talking about gem drop rates I don't see why we can't just have all gem grades be drop-able, but with increasingly low drop rates. At least that would give self-found players a chance at getting to the higher versions. It's not like upgrading gems is good gold sink anyways, we can definitely find a better one.
The Mystic
Everybody knows she's coming in the expansion but just how she'll work is still a mystery. The mystic might have features like crafting elixirs or potions, but she'll most definitely be involved in some type of item upgrading or enhancement feature. I tried my best to come up with a solution that not only works in terms of item progression, but also something to become the main item and gold sink for the game.
It was very hard trying to come up with an idea on just how her features should work. You obviously want to avoid making it so players only have to find one item and then just keep upgrading it until it's the best item in the game. That's why I didn't include a way to reroll item properties in my version of the mystic. I think by not allowing the re-roll of item properties it should at least still give reason for players to seek out upgrades. Instead my version focuses on only upgrading the originally rolled stats on an item. These stats could be upgraded to it's max potential value, but only for an increasingly amount of gold as it gets near max value. Take a look at the example below to see how upgrading this helm's Critical Hit Chance would work.
If you noticed above by placing the item you wish to upgrade in the mystic's menu you are shown the max value of the properties which already exist on the item. By clicking on each property you'd be presented with the required materials and cost to upgrade the stat. The idea is for different stats to be upgraded using different crafted materials, materials being a combination of both Bind on Account and tradable materials. This would ensure someone couldn't just buy all the crafting materials off the AH and upgrade to a perfect item, they'd be forced to play the game in order to collect the BOA items similar to Demonic Essence.
The next thing you may have noticed is the cost associated with upgrading the Critical Hit Chance on the helm by .5%. The number is meant to be big, this cost will be the main gold sink in the game and most likely a cost most min/maxers would be willing to pay to upgrade an item. The most interesting concept however is one that you can't see in the picture above. The concept being as you gradually upgrade your stats on an item the monetary costs associated with the upgrades also increases.
In the example above you can see how the closer the value moves to it's maximum potential, the higher the cost associated with the upgrade. This in some way mimics how the current gem progression system works that we all use Diablo III.
Legendary Items
This is the biggie and one of the additions I'm most excited for from loot 2.0. The developers, more specifically Travis Day, have already stated that they want to make game changing legendary items. Game changing in terms of the way items interact with skills, passives, and gearing choices.There probably will be a couple different types of items that will make up the this whole concept, lets explore some.
Class specific legendary items and set bonuses have the most potential when it comes to items that change the way skills and passives work. Really, it's the only option since putting skill changing properties on an item type available to all classes would be pointless seeing how skills are unique to each class.
In the expansion I can't see any classes getting any additional Skill Runes. What I could see though is a new empty rune slot being added.
What rune belongs to this slot you may ask? Well the answer is, it depends on the items you're using!
When I was originally trying to determine just how adding new Skill Rune effects on items should work I didn't have the empty rune slot. The problematic scenario I kept running into was, what if someone didn't want to use the new Rune Skill being offered by the item? Would they have to just shun that item out of their possible gear choices and find something else? That's where the idea of an empty Skill Rune slot came from, now when equipping an item with a new rune variation they wouldn't be forced to use it anymore, they'd have the choice of turning it off/on just like any other Skill Rune.
The beauty of a system like this is that it offers a huge depth in game play compared to the current system. Currently in the game once you hit level 60 you're done discovering your skills. With a system like this even at level 60 you could keep discovering new builds depending on what items you've found. Remember the idea of super rare items I talked about above? Imagine playing the game for a year and finally getting your hands on one of those super rare items with a sweet new Rune Skill, your entire play style or build could change to something completely different. It would make the game feel so fresh, people wouldn't be able to just run to the forums, look up the best build, and be done with swapping skills forever. Instead new builds would constantly be discovered that not everyone would have access to right away. This idea could even go further, what if a new build needed not only 1 but even 2 or 3 new Rune Skills only available on items. Combining gear to make new builds, who'd have thought? If Blizzard added even one new item to the game at a later point it could have the potential to create entirely new builds.
The next type of item I'll touch on is the also made to be for class specific items.
These could directly add new bonuses to passive skills or skills themselves. In the example above I gave a direct bonus to the Barbarian passive skill, Brawler. That seems pretty simple on it's own but what I hope you all noticed is the twist at the end which reads "within Pickup Radius". Hmm did I just make a once useless stat potentially sought after by the Barbarian class?
What I hope you all take away from this example is that we don't need to be so focused on making every single affix as good as one another. Lets make items do the work in making this happen. Imagine if there was a shield that changed the way Thorns damage worked and allowed stacking it to be viable, or a mace that made stacking as much armor as possible increase the damage of one of your skills. The possibilities are endless here and I really hope these are the type of ideas Travis Day is working on.
The next, and final type of legendary item that we could see wouldn't really have anything to do with Runes or skills at all. Instead these items would focus on providing unique new ways to play and gear your character. Imagine if you found the Girdle of Giants below.
Pretty cool eh? Some might think it doesn't change much because of the reduced damage, and really it might not do much in terms of directly increasing your overall damage. It might not even look like it would be better than today's Witching Hour which has amazing damage stats. It instead does something else, it opens up how many choices the Barbarian has in possible weapon choices. This one item added hundreds of different combinations of weapons. Maybe some of these combinations have the potential to create a new build, the possibilities could be endless. This is just the result of one new belt, imagine if other similar type items existed.
[saving this area for showcasing my legendary item thoughts]
In Conclusion
If you made it this far in my crazy long post I salute you and thank you very much for taking the time to look over my ideas. As you can see I'm very passionate when it comes to Diablo in general, especially when it comes to the hunt for items. I think by working together, the Diablo community and Blizzard, we'll finally get to the point where we can call Diablo III the greatest ARPG every created.
Thank you.
If you haven't checked out my other posts please feel free to look them over and let me know what you think.
http://www.diablofan...review-a-dream/ (old ideas, but still an interesting read)
http://www.diablofan...-dream-fanmade/ (pretty cool idea for a variation of the classic ladder system)
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shaggy posted a message on [suggestion] radical reduction of AH influencePosted in: Diablo III General DiscussionQuote from Elendiro
I think just making things BoE created more hurdles and problems than it solves.
You are 275% right on that. It's completely against the spirit of the Diablo franchise (and even ARPGs in general). The devs are absolutely aware of this and I'm confident that they will be taking this strongly into account when going forward. I think the 1.0.7 crafting stuff was really just a stopgap thing to address self-found playstyle as well as to provide another, semi-viable, moneysink and not an indication that BoA is here to stay.
They definitely want people trading because that was a huge part of D2 online. They also want everyone who fires up the game to feel that they "have a chance" without trading (among friends or strangers).
They're not going to achieve that by going on some kind of anti-flipping crusade, though. Or any means that dictates that people who want to trade gold for items cannot do so. D2 managed to appease both traders and self-found people despite the clusterfuck of duping. I have the absolute utmost confidence that they can do the same with D3, at least enough so that we all feel like they're listening to us and doing their best.
The first step, though, is changing the itemization (and drop rates). We cannot possibly assess the rest of the situation without seeing first-hand the repercussions of those changes. -
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Lezard_Valeth posted a message on RE: The Endless Dungeon TopicI just posted this on the official forums, but seeing how it's likely to be drowned out by all the yammering whines on there, I decided to repost it here. This is off the Endless Dungeon thread that seems to be picking up speed.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
While the idea is more original and creative than most, the very idea of an endless dungeon seems to me to smack too much of Jrpg's, a category that I've begun to dislike over the past several years - lots of meaningless, repetitive and artifically added content.
While you could argue that running the same route over and over is equally meaningless and repetitive, a dungeon that keeps spawning floors is basically the same thing, dumbed down, plus you're forced to commit to it which is the biggest thing that turns me off.
I would humbly suggest that instead, some focus be given on the side-dungeons in the game - better monster density, more interesting layouts, events, and traps, and maybe minibosses - stronger than elites, weaker than full bosses, spawns with and can spawn more trash, with interesting scripted combat elements a la Heart of the Swarm.
Furthermore, for those who still want an 'endless grind' experience, the end of the dungeon would have TWO portals - one outside and one that ports to another random side dungeon in the same act. Some kind of bonus should be given for clearing a side dungeon and moving on to another one, perhaps as simple as another neph stack or even gold and exp bonuses that multiply by the number of side dungeons cleared in a row. In my honest opinion, this sounds better and truer to the Diablo style than some procedure-generated cave that just keeps going deeper.
The danger of this would be that the above ground maps might become obsolete. So there should be some thought given on the kind of rewards done by dungeon hopping, and it should be different from that of normal grinds. For example, specific achievements and BoA item rewards, maybe even BoA dungeon-only legendaries and sets, maybe even recipes and mats for new BoA gear. This would make the 'endless dungeons' slightly more geared towards the self-found crowd, while above world and normal grind routes will cater more towards gold, sellable gear, and exp.
It's Diablo, not a roguelike, and I don't ever want it to be some kind of hipster indie game clone. The solution should be dungeon content quality, not quantity. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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Nobody is going to sit here and try to convince you why you should play.
If what is being presented isn't pleasing then don't continue to play, don't buy the expansion. It's really not that hard.
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1.) Useless YouTube Guy
-Posts video guides of a build that is all over the internet and provides no unique look at the build however believes you should subscribe and like all of his videos.
-Posts on various forums starting a topic then simply just links his 20 minute video of him rambling on about this said topic
-The female character will be slightly attractive yet incredibly ditzy but has thousands of subscribers just to look at boobs
-Will not utilize runes and just has 1 skill called "Please subscribe" 1 second cool down, begs targeted creature to subscribe
2.) Boring Streamer
-Main ability is promoting his/her stream
-Class flavor text: Gaze into the mindless stream with billion gold giveaways and shoutouts every hour why do it yourself when you can watch someone else do it
-The only part of the world this hero can explore is his/her bedroom. The only monsters it occasionally battles are mom or dad.
-This hero thinks it has a job yet could make way more money mopping the floor at McDonald's.
-Immune to Adblock
3.) RMAHer
-This hero can only be unlocked after 3,000 hours of gameplay
-This hero is not fun to play
-This hero only is playable to make real life money. Having fun is not allowed.
-This hero only plays games to make real life money - getting an actual job is hypocrisy
-Scratched from development after announcement to remove AH. Blizzard felt that people should play the game to have fun and not complain about how bad the game is yet continually post "I just play to make real money cause I probably make SOOO MUCH"
;p ;p ;p ;p hehe.
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What I'm referring to is the suggestion many have made that there should just be a trading post where people can list items and either negotiate a price or even suggest a price. This is to similar to an AH it just slows down the process but ultimately here is my problem with any type of trading system:
If items are searchable, able to be filtered through, available in mass the AH may as well remain. The problem with the AH is all of these things, it creates the ability for a player to simply choose the items they want without a progressive gearing up process therefore diminishing reward value in finding items and really doing anything in this game.
Ultimately, in my opinion, and I think some other posters in this thread are eluding to this, is that there should be NO alternative.
With trading being a pain in the ass, items will be more valuable because you won't see an Echoing Fury with a socket and CD all the time like you do now. Sure items will be better, but less plentiful because players will be looting less, keeping more, and trading less.
Notes: Bold is just to emphasis, my opinion isn't the end all, just saying hey it's mine! Also using bold on this site huge pain in the ass could we look into fixing it? If you don't know what I'm talking about try it!
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In terms of BoE discussion I actually am starting to support this more. As my post history would indicate, I'm very against the idea of limiting trading. However all I really believe that I want and think is totally fair and reasonable - is to make the choice of what to do with the item once it is looted. If I primarily play a Barbarian and get a killer Demon Hunter item, I shouldn't be stuck with it. Ultimately this is a problem the AH created and it appears their experiment failed in dramatic proportions. While I support the AH I believe it is simply uncontrollable and would likely be best just eliminated. Again, as long as I have to the choice upon discovery to bind, sell, trade, or whatever - that's fine. I don't really buy items thinking about the resell value. In fact I usually don't resell items I buy for leveling up alts, although I could make the few mil I spent back, the selling pace is too tedious and discouraging and I just vendor/salvage the shit.
In regards to the PvP arenas - I honestly don't see this anywhere in the near future. I know it's disappointing for some but there is just no news. I don't think we will see this until the second half of next year at the absolute earliest - even with a blizzcon presentation. We may very well not see PvP arena's until the second expansion (if there is one, which indication is that there are two expansions planned). There focus is clearly on revamping itemization and reigniting a decimated playerbase. PvP arena won't salvage this disaster. However it would be a nice added bonus.
Finally as far as ladders are concerned I do not believe they were ever a promised feature at any point. I could be wrong because I didn't avidly follow the development cycle until the beta began.
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I haven't logged in for 3 weeks but now I have a desire to play again, just because of how much potential this game could have. Please suggest this on the battle.net forums and once again thank you for not manipulating us with your photoshop skills.
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So yeah I hope it's good.......
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(Note: Distance measures the time between the last event listed in the timeline)
Diablo Released: December 31, 1996
Diablo: Hellfire Released: November 24, 1997
Distance: 11 Months
Diablo II Released: June 29, 2000
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction: June 27, 2001
Distance: 1 year (12 Months)
Diablo III Released: May 15, 2012
----------------------------------------------------------
Starcraft Released: March 31, 1998
Starcraft: Brood War Released: November 30, 1998
Distance: 8 months
Starcraft II Released: July 27, 2010
Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm Released: March 12, 2013
Distance: 2 years, 8 months (32 Months)
----------------------------------------------------------
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans Released: November 23, 1994
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness Released: December 9, 1995
Distance: 1 year (12 months)
Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal Released: April 30, 1996
Distance: 5 months
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Released: July 3, 2002
Distance: 6 years, 2 months
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Released: July 1, 2003
Distance: 1 year (12 months)
World of Warcraft Released: November 23, 2004
Distance: 1 year, 5 months (17 months)
World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Announced: Blizzcon 2005, October 28-29
Distance: 11 months
World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Released: January 16, 2007
Distance: 1 year, 3 months (15 months)
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Announced: Blizzcon 2007, August 3-4
Distance: 7 months
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Released: November 13, 2008
Distance: 1 year, 3 months (15 months)
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Announced: Blizzcon 2009, August 21-22
Distance: 9 months
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Released: December 7, 2010
Distance: 1 year, 3 months (15 months)
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Announced: Blizzcon 2011, October 21-22
Distance: 11 months
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Released: September 25, 2012
Distance: 11 months
----------------------------------------------------------
Ok now that the timeline of releases, and announcements in the case of WoW have been established. There is really no reason at all to believe that the expansion will not be announced at Blizzcon 2013 with a release sometime in the second half of 2014. Based on recent patterns and the fact that playable versions of games have been at recent blizzcons, I think it's very safe to assume that the beta for the expansion will begin sometime in Early 2014 after the November 2013 announcement.
Wait, what about pvp? I know a lot of people think that pvp needs to be put in this game before we can even think about an expansion. Sorry, pvp is not important. We may never see pvp in this game. This game needs so much more than pvp it's comical to think pvp will delay an expansion release. Blizzard promises things all the time, and the fact that the arena format was scratched completely with no set timetable on a new design tells me in it's in the back of their minds until other priorities are straightened out.
The game needs an image change, a new boost to morale. I very well hope that an itemization preview is before blizzcon, otherwise there will be unhappy campers, including myself. An expansion is a perfect way to get people excited for this game again. I don't know anyone would think this won't be happening as soon as possible.
Lastly, here's this:
http://titanfocus.in...13-and-more-r65
Info regarding Blizzcon 2013
EDIT: Lol, right after I post this thread I read this
http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/11/blizzard-delays-diablo-iii-expansion-until-2014-exclusive/
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They should be randomly found in the game just like other dungeon. How the system is designed well I had a suggestion in the news thread and don't want to type it again, it's not really important. I just think how they are found will be the most important part of the feature. I don't want to just go get 5 stacks and talk to an NPC in town. I want to find it. I want it to be random. I want it to be Diablo.
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Video games are supposed to be fun, yes that is about your only valid point. However you were not having fun playing Diablo III yet can justify playing 1600 hours by saying you were hunting for item worth a few hundred dollars. I helped me neighbor clean his office for 3 hours and he gave me $100. A minimum wage retail job will give you about $120 for like 20 hours of work per week.
By the way gold on the RMAH has been worthless since last July. People have claimed gold sales have not moved in months because the RMAH was far more expensive than 3rd party sites. 25 cents for 1 mil is a joke. That's why they moved it up to 10 million. You could have put your 1 billion up and you still would have been angry.