I think that people will, initially, be disappointed in Loot 2.0 gear because even with a lowly MP2/3 barb, it took me a few hours to start finding upgrades. Often, I was finding pieces that were comparable, but had high mainstat rolls instead of Crit and CD. If you're already at high levels of either of those, they can be hard to give up - especially crit, since certain skills gain a benefit from critical strikes (like Overpower's cooldown reduction). So, I found myself passing on a lot of marginal upgrades because I didn't want to lose crit.
The passive tree is really overwhelming at first. But once you learn where all the big keystones are, it starts to make more sense. There is definitely a big learning curve there though that is unkind to new players.
It's not that it didn't make sense to me - I just felt no desire to get involved in it. I'm past the point in my life where I'm willing to get the equivalent of an advanced degree just to play a video game.
I really like the skill gem and support gem combinations. It allows a lot of freedom in creating new abilities and changing how your character functions.
I guess I didn't get to the part where you can use them to create new abilities - do you combine them at some point or something? It just seemed like I had to have the gem in the right color slot in order to use the skill, which was a hassle.
First of all, I'll warn you that I don't think you'll be getting a very warm reception for a post like this. It just comes across as a thinly veiled "D3 sucks, POE rules" post. Especially if your understanding of D3's mechanics is so shallow that you don't understand why certain stats were tweaked.
But, I think it's interesting to talk about PoE, so I'll answer.
I played PoE for about 4 hours, so I imagine you'll tell me I didn't give it enough of a chance, but I stopped because it's boring. It reminds me a lot of Titan's Quest in terms of how it feels when I'm playing, which wasn't bad but wasn't exciting like D2. Similarly, the combat in D3 is just way more exciting that PoE. D3 Barb's Furious Charge, for example, feels way better than the Shield Charge gem I had.
Speaking of, I was immediately turned off by the fact that certain skills require certain weapons to work. It was frustrating to have to give up using a cool 2-handed club because the Cleave gem requires bladed weapons. I also hated the gem-skill system in general; having to re-gem my gear every time I put on a new item was a pain in the ass.
Having to chug potions again was also lame, although I thought it was cool that the potions could have stats.
And finally the skill tree system they have for passives is just a mess. I wasn't interested in sitting down and reading everything to try and actually plot a course so I just went step by step, not looking very far down the line. I didn't find anything especially cool, just +10% damage, +5% dual wield damage, etc. etc., and was turned off when I was getting to the point where I had these dual wield bonuses that were useless if I found a cool 2-hander.
the rest went through the most enjoyable experience that is leveling a new character, using different skills and progressing at a natural and pleasant pace (gear wise).
I just wanted to chime in and give you a forum high-five for this statement. People get so wrapped up in the whole end-game content nonsense that they forget this. Leveling up in D3 is awesome, and it's going to get even better in 2.0/RoS. I sincerely wish they had implemented a prestige system instead of a paragon system to encourage more leveling from scratch.
I don't know why you think they should fix it, to be honest. Care to elaborate why you think it needs to be fixed? It's a decision you make yourself, whether to level up repeating the story, level up playing bounties, or level up by getting dragged by a highlevel player.
If the "guaranteed legendary from the first-time boss kills" stays in the game, you might be able to abuse it that way. Similar to Hellforge rushing in D2; power-level a character just to get his drops. I guess it depends on how long it takes to get from 61-70, but if you had a level 70 game and a lot of +exp, those last nine levels might go very quickly.
In my opinion, the removal of the AH button and the fact that they are still figuring out a lot of basic, pre-expansion patch relevant balancing issues, are strong signs that 2.0.1 will hit exactly on AH removal day. It's only 4 weeks anyways.
I think this is the most likely scenario. However, they need to figure out a way for players to get their items out of the AH interface once the auctions have expired, since they don't go to the stash until the player sends them there. That new 2.0 AH button may have a use after all.
From what I've heard and read from PTR players (non-beta), 2.0.1 pre-level 70 is kinda underwhelming and does not really help to make the game more appealing; RoS content (Mystic, bounties, Crusader, new loot that replaces gear, new playstyle due to the removal of life steal) however does. So, if they release a rushed pre-expansion patch, some people might be frustrated and go so far as to cancel their RoS pre-orders or just not buy it. There's nothing to gain for them or us in releasing 2.0.1 sooner than later (maybe some paragon progress but really... save that week or two of crazy playing for when RoS hits the shelves).
Gear wise, I can understand people saying it's underwhelming because legacy 60 gear competes very well with 2.0 60 gear. However, I think they need to give players some time to check out the massively revised skills and difficulty settings in order to smoothly launch into RoS.
You can not get to lvl 60 in D2 in under 15 minutes. impossible. big dif. In no way shape or form can u jump in a game in D2 and be lvl 42 in 3 minutes.
So what? In either case someone else is playing the game for you and you're just sitting there soaking up XP. It doesn't matter if it's a couple of minutes or a couple of hours, and it's not somehow more justifiable in D2 because it took longer.
(also i never power lvled on any of my characters. would never exploit or use hacks. never have)
this was simply a test on the PTR because my buddy jumped on my TS and said I got to check this out. I can get new toon to lvl 60 in under 15. I since deleted it.
It wasn't a personal attack, you don't have to defend yourself. I don't care if you power level. I'm just pointing out that D2 suffered from the same problem, but you're only criticizing D3 for it.
made new character. torment6. my buddy came in game he was lvl 60 WD fire bats everywhere. I was lvl 42 before i even went threw the gate to get in tristram. lvl 60 in less than 15 minutes. (ptr)
is it going to be like this when live?
And I wanted to mention, it's not like you couldn't power-level in D2. I just don't get it, why people are so quick to compare D3 to D2 in some ways, but not in others.
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In all honesty. I think gaming has lost it's appeal to me. i getting To old i guess. find myself spending money aimlessly in search of game to grab my attention. To much time on my hands. Diablo is like crack. can't stay away from it no matter what you tell yourself.
The same thing happened to me and I'll tell you what - Diablo 3 is actually a *better* match for you because all of the "no endgame" complaints don't apply to you, since you're not dumping thousands of hours into the game. You can actually play for a reasonable amount of time and still experience high-end cool stuff that took obscene time investment in D2.
I'd like to see any discussion on the two-hander vs. one-hander balance issue, the unequivocal dominance of emeralds in weapons, or the damage of generators vs. spenders.
I don't think low level set plan transfer to RoS after being learned. In PTR my lower set Asheara's and so on do not show up at the blacksmith.
Not to be the tech support guy that asks you if you've tried restarting your computer, but do you have any of the crafting filters turned on (like "Have Materials" or "Highest Usable")? I only ask because I remember reading that people would just know how to make the new version of the crafted legendary instead of the old one (if they'd already learned it), since those items don't scale in level.
Quote from daisychopper» Maybe I'm just crazy, but I just don't feel like modern gamers are as interested in "making their own fun" as they used to be. And I think gaming companies in general prefer it this way and are much more interested in controlling the experience for the player as well (especially Blizzard), so that just compounds it.
Why let players create content and share it between themselves for free when you can forbid them from doing so and then sell them your own content?
Obviously this is a much smaller point in what has become a pretty large conversation so I don't want to belabor it, but I thought since you quoted me that I'd mention you're missing the point. While I do acknowledge that companies probably prefer to control the player experience for a variety of reasons (including profit), the main point I was trying to make is the point you've chosen to ignore, i.e. that it seems to me that most players nowadays also prefer the company to control the player experience, rather than having to make up their own fun with the game, be it by playing less-than-efficient builds or coming up with their own mini-games.
Tbh it would have been kinda nice to have viable gear that isn´t max level. worked for d1,d2 and path of exile.sadly the gearing is the way it is and the whole "only max level counts" wow mentality plauges it.still, not being allowed to enchant legacy gear is just another lame ass reason for hating. Im more upset that we have yet to hear a single word on ladders for RoS.
For what it's worth, the piece of the equation that you're missing here is that legacy gear doesn't drop anymore. So the problem is less that it's a mid-level piece of gear being effective at top-level, but that that piece of gear no longer drops anymore. And if you allow it to continue to drop, you have this really weird niche item that doesn't follow modern legendary patterns and is only useful if you know to enchant it.
Not only is it a bit stupid that so-called "rare" items are by far the most common ones, but I could also do with the increase in white and blue crafting mats.
I think they just need to update the nomenclature. The magic/rare dichotomy doesn't work anymore; I don't think I can remember a single instance of replacing a rare item with a magic item in D3. Like maybe it should be magic and really magic. That'd even leave room for a future really really magic tier.
I'd like magic items to have similar Primary stat rolls to rares, and rares just get more Secondary rolls so that at least from a basic damage perspective, they'd compete.
I totally agree with this statement. However, I think that a good community can extend the life of a game. A productive community can come up with new ways to play the game and extend the life of the content. If the devs partner with the community, then they can build patches in that drive the efforts in the community.
I think this is a very big factor in player satisfaction that often goes unseen when it comes to longevity. Maybe I'm just crazy, but I just don't feel like modern gamers are as interested in "making their own fun" as they used to be. And I think gaming companies in general prefer it this way and are much more interested in controlling the experience for the player as well (especially Blizzard), so that just compounds it.
This always comes up in my mind when people reminisce about D2 PvP, which was entirely a community thing. There were literally no PvP rules other than "your spells now hurt players," Blizzard made no PvP gear, and made no changes to skills based on PvP feedback. The community developed its own PvP etiquette, and had fun with the tools they had. I don't think you'd see that in D3. I think you'd just have a lot of people rage-quitting and saying horrible things about the game until they balance whatever class turns out to be the most OP. Which I guess they are doing anyway, so....
While I generally agree that the "everyone's a winner" approach is detrimental to a child's development when it comes to competition and sportsmanship, I don't look to video games as a source to develop those values. So, I'm not going to criticize a video game for adopting the everybody-wins mentality (especially not one whose only opponent is the AI).
You also have to recognize that a lot of the people who play video games are not children but adults, who get plenty of lessons from the school of hard knocks without pre-nerf Inferno Bees. I pay taxes, I don't need Blizzard to teach me life lessons.
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I guess I didn't get to the part where you can use them to create new abilities - do you combine them at some point or something? It just seemed like I had to have the gem in the right color slot in order to use the skill, which was a hassle.
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But, I think it's interesting to talk about PoE, so I'll answer.
I played PoE for about 4 hours, so I imagine you'll tell me I didn't give it enough of a chance, but I stopped because it's boring. It reminds me a lot of Titan's Quest in terms of how it feels when I'm playing, which wasn't bad but wasn't exciting like D2. Similarly, the combat in D3 is just way more exciting that PoE. D3 Barb's Furious Charge, for example, feels way better than the Shield Charge gem I had.
Speaking of, I was immediately turned off by the fact that certain skills require certain weapons to work. It was frustrating to have to give up using a cool 2-handed club because the Cleave gem requires bladed weapons. I also hated the gem-skill system in general; having to re-gem my gear every time I put on a new item was a pain in the ass.
Having to chug potions again was also lame, although I thought it was cool that the potions could have stats.
And finally the skill tree system they have for passives is just a mess. I wasn't interested in sitting down and reading everything to try and actually plot a course so I just went step by step, not looking very far down the line. I didn't find anything especially cool, just +10% damage, +5% dual wield damage, etc. etc., and was turned off when I was getting to the point where I had these dual wield bonuses that were useless if I found a cool 2-hander.
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I think this is the most likely scenario. However, they need to figure out a way for players to get their items out of the AH interface once the auctions have expired, since they don't go to the stash until the player sends them there. That new 2.0 AH button may have a use after all.
Gear wise, I can understand people saying it's underwhelming because legacy 60 gear competes very well with 2.0 60 gear. However, I think they need to give players some time to check out the massively revised skills and difficulty settings in order to smoothly launch into RoS.
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It wasn't a personal attack, you don't have to defend yourself. I don't care if you power level. I'm just pointing out that D2 suffered from the same problem, but you're only criticizing D3 for it.
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And,
The same thing happened to me and I'll tell you what - Diablo 3 is actually a *better* match for you because all of the "no endgame" complaints don't apply to you, since you're not dumping thousands of hours into the game. You can actually play for a reasonable amount of time and still experience high-end cool stuff that took obscene time investment in D2.
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While I generally agree that the "everyone's a winner" approach is detrimental to a child's development when it comes to competition and sportsmanship, I don't look to video games as a source to develop those values. So, I'm not going to criticize a video game for adopting the everybody-wins mentality (especially not one whose only opponent is the AI).
You also have to recognize that a lot of the people who play video games are not children but adults, who get plenty of lessons from the school of hard knocks without pre-nerf Inferno Bees. I pay taxes, I don't need Blizzard to teach me life lessons.