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D3's Biggest Problems?
Every now the same old discussion resurfaces: what are the biggest problems with Diablo 3 right now? It gains strenght usually between big content patches, precisely when the devs are working on the next big thing. And while every time it comes back the context and end-game content are kinda different, some specific points always end up appearing.
Over at the official forums, Freezy has started a discussion on a few of the game's current problems and suggesting some solutions from a competitive player's perspective - check the preview below. MeatHeadMikhail has also made a long video talking about what he thinks are the biggest issues on the game right now - watch it below as well.
Do you agree with these? What would be the biggest things you would change on D3's current iteration? What is the single biggest problem you would solve with D3 if you had the resources?
Original Thread's Preview
So after a long commitment to being super shy and procrastinating about writing something like this up. I decided it’s finally time and I’ve had enough. In this write up I’ve decided to mention and explain as well as hopefully give some adequate examples of combating these flaws/ideas. I’m fully aware that some if not most of these idea’s have and are being worked on currently. Note that most of these are coming from a competitive player bias so keep that in mind.
Also I apologize for the huge wall of text.
ITEMISATION
Experience Gear
People who play non leech classes are forced into other classes to compete otherwise they have a disadvantage in highly competitive play. One tier can mean the difference between paragon 800-900, or 1100-1200. So if you only want to play DH you’re forced into a position to either leech or fall behind the pure leechers that are 100-200 or more paragon ahead of you.
Ancient WeaponsI’m still unsure if ancient weapons were actually a good idea or not. The power behind just a single slot giving that much more dps than the rest of your gear hinges on how lucky you are. When you spend over 1.3million shards and not see a SINGLE ancient item that you’re looking for, it’s depressing. Using Kridershots as an example, the chance of you getting the just the correct affixes is an 8.88% chance. Then an ancient item which I think is 10% chance, you’re looking at 0.888% chance, then you have to consider all of those rolls have to be average or above average and you’re looking at an extremely low chance of getting the krider you’re looking for. Things like discipline should always be rolled on weapons, also things like primary stat (Fist of Azz, Blade of Prophecy). Maybe even increase the percentage chance for weapons to be ancient or reduce the cost to gamble, it’s outrageous to spend so much and get nothing in return.
Old Sets
I know they’re being worked on over time but like this video mikhail had posted (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQEFMle-I3U), equalizing the power of each set each season will lead to much more enjoyable competitive scene.
Unused Legendaries
There needs to be legendary affixes for every single legendary there is so that every item can be looked at rather than just thrown away immediately. It will open up build diversity and create more unique builds rather than forced into mainstream items.
New Hellfire Items
In this video alkaizer talks about some idea’s for a new hellfire item (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAgTbejzxCg). The idea was that maybe you do some sort of hellfire quest where you are rewarded with an enchantment that gets applied to some pants. And what it does is gives you a random rune to a random skill of your class giving you some awesome combinations. Anything like this will help improve the game even though you’d be forced to get the perfect rune for the perfect skill. At least it’d give you more options.
Legendaries OP
Allow some certain legendaries to be OP. A good example was Mortiks Bracers, it was going to shake the standard 4player meta a crazy amount then they were removed thinking they were too strong. Ok they were strong yes but it would of made things very interesting. If every class had an item like this to combat a standard setup it would give more options. The changes to Focus/Restraint were a great example. (continues...)
The issue is that endgame is only 1 thing. Yes D2 endgame was boss runs, but at least there was variety. NM Andariel, speed farming NM Chaos, Pindle Runs, Nilathak run, Baal runs, Ubers, Trav runs (for gold/gambling), crafting, Meph. The leveling process (minus the Ancients exploit) also took a while.
I don't mind the quick leveling (well, it's a bit excessive now but whatever), or the lack of a skill tree, or even that pre-70 stuff is worthless, since the game has been modified to accomodate for all that by rushing you through it.
What I mind is really twofold: 1) Endgame is a single thing with no variety. None. There are like 5 map layouts. At least T6 has some cool maps, but of course T6 is garbage. 2) Too many garbage endgame items/sets.
You could EASILY take something like Frydher's Wrath and add 'Condemn also deals 5x more damage' and BOOM Condemn build is back, right up there with Roland's.
Something to keep in mind is that it's pretty much impossible to keep D3 as a truly competitive game. The main reason is that it's a loot hunt game, meaning loot has to be worth farming for. Same goes with paragon exp. At the same time, anytime players stats are no longer equal, skill become less and less important, while luck and amount of time played becomes more and more important.
When you look at competitive games, the playing field is nearly even for all players. Differences go as far as cosmetics, and that's about it. D3 has too many layers of separation between player base. Looking at just armor you have:
No set
Wrong set
Right set non ancient, wrong rolls
Right set non ancient, right rolls, low rolls
Right set non ancient, right rolls, high rolls
Then on top of that you have the whole thing in ancient form. And then there's weapons, following a similar pattern. Paragon levels is one more level of character disparity between players. Realistically people can't compete out of their own gearing category, which leaves that game so better gear = gets further. Skill only really matters assuming gearing requirement is met.
Basically every time the loot hunt is improved (hellfire amulet, ancient items, etc) the competitive aspect of the game is worsened due to the larger gear disparity. Improving the loot hunt and making the game more competitive really can't go hand in hand unless there is a competitive aspect that doesn't account for player gear and paragon points. And if something like that were to happen, there likely would be no point farming gear.
I think leveling should be completely removed from seasons. However, if leveling is staying in the game than it should be relevant, and about finding the right gear and skill to level. The start of the season went like this:
Spend like 5-7 hours to level
Take like 3-5 hours to gear enough to farm T6
Do Grifts over and over again
The leveling right now wastes more time than gearing your character for the highest content outside of GRifts. It's clear that the whole game revolves around GRifts. So if leveling is going to be a thing, it needs to be relevant rather than just a pointless time sink. Otherwise they would be better off just starting players at 70 and just let them start GRifting.
Problem - Still Bind to account item / No trades
You can still go to kadala , buy only one bow and get the best weapon in game. Or clear a GR01 and get a ancient krider dropped for you...
People here are not saying ancient weapons being so rare is the problem. Problem is even if you have a full ancient armor set with the best rolls , if you have a weapon that is not ancient or an ancient with bad rolls , you are out of meta game.
That is the problem they are talking about : 1 item being the sole indicator of player power.
Why the comments about usefull sub lvl 70 weapons? Ofcourse low level weapons are useless. The equivalent of useful low level items are items dropped in low lvl rifts.. Which are EXACTLY the same as the ones dropped in high level rifts.
That's actually a problem I have with the game. A higher level rift should give BETTER gear than lower rifts. No, not a higher chance to get good gear but simply better gear. Then suddenly farming lvl 50-60 rifts isn't a waste of time compared to 42 speed farming.
Take the example from World of Warcraft.. How many people would farm the latest tier if Ragefire Chasm dropped the same gear.
Lots of words and walls of text, but in practice this game got one big problem and its not related to game mechanics, its more about how this game is seen by developers.
Diablo 3 has to offer alots of fun but for very short period of time. Depends of player type it can be week or two, or even a month. We as a players who love this game want that fun to exist for much more than that, but does developers want that too ?
I think developers are ok with how the game works, and that it gives fun for short period of time and that in my opinion is MAIN PROBLEM OF THIS GAME.
I like that the game has a strong loot/RNG component. I simply don't have enough time to do "gated" content like raids in MMOs. With Diablo 3, i can log on, do a rift, and possibly find an upgrade in five minutes.
The problem is that legendary powers on items in D3 are too macroscopic. You have the legendary, you have the power. Done. Yes, you want a legendary item with good rolls as well. But in some cases like a Condemn crusader, even a "meh" Blade of Prophecy can be better than a good any-other-weapon. If you don't have the item, the build is severely hobbled and sometimes even unplayable past T4~T6 (depending on your gems, rings, paragon level, spec, etc.)
I definitely don't want to make this game a clone of PoE. But i do like in PoE that you equip many many gems which each give a relatively minor bump to a stat, skill, etc. Thus, you've lots of room to make small upgrades to your character as you play. And if you're still missing that one optimal gem (or have one item with slightly less than ideal coloring/linking), you're only a few percent DPS below optimal. You're usually not crippled.
I like the idea of items/equipment directly buffing skills (as opposed to skill points). The issue is that everyone needs access to "Item X" in order to not be locked out of a build. But not everyone should have instant access to "Item X +9" with nice extra stat modifiers. Those extra modifiers should come from playing the game. I think both PoE and Diablo 3 have taken different approaches to this problem and it will be interesting to see how both games evolve/tweak their concepts over time.