This could go hand in hand with difficulty. First off, brainstorming!
== Re-introduce Elemental Damage [Enkeria Edition] ==
While some sites have datamined information it is still a theory that we could perhaps in a near future see changes that fuse monster power and difficulty into one ingame setting that might allow us to change difficulty before a game or even in mid-game if Blizzard choose to do this.
== Let's Brainstorm ==
If difficulty was something we could change before or under a gameplay we could use elemental damage as one of many different cores to make the game more interesting. Others would be the amount of enemies, the loot-rate, how your lifeleech is handled and how hard the monsters actually is equal to the difficulty.
We could play around with the idea of once we hit level 60 or 70 with our first character we unlock 5 difficulty-modes that will change the game almost to the core.
Normal - Nightmare - Hell - Torment - Inferno
== Elemental Damage ==
- Ice-Monsters dislike fire-attacks from our hero. An attack will result in greater deal of damage.
- Ice-Monsters dislike ice-attacks from our hero, even if its the same elemental. They just take same damage as a "black weapon" or a "neutral" weapon.
- This is VERY important. There are NO immune monsters, except "Shielded" which is just a timed affix.
- Elite monster would have up to 3 different "resistance" (take notice; NOT immunity). Difficulty: Hell - Inferno. Hell = 1 resistance, Torment = 2 resistance, Inferno = 3 resistance.
- Champions will share up to 2 different "resistance". Difficulty: Torment - Inferno. Same theory as above.
- Rare will have up to 2 different "resistance" too. Difficulty: Torment - Inferno. Same theory as above.
== Elements Matter ==
Some are greater then others, but in the end its all about balance. Like mentioned before an Fire-demon would hate to get Ice all over him, but how about Ice-beast? Would he dislike fire? In a perfect sense he "might" and thus make elements one vs one -or- make it a bit more complicated.
== One vs One ==
Poison - Electric
Holy - Arcane
Fire - Ice
== Complicated Version ==
Fire > Ice
Ice > Poison
Poison > Holy
Holy > Arcane
Arcane > Electric
Electric > Fire
== Difficulties Makes Us Choose Wiser ==
I know we do not want to change weapon under a fight, it's not very attractive towards the flow of gameplay, but it's always about making choices and having elemental damage is just one of many things I hope to see in Diablo III. With this bonus we can perhaps take down enemies we usually would not if we have the pure luck of having a Holy dagger when we meet the Arcane-spitting Imp running around in the dark catacombs of Old Tristram. At the same time rewarding if we clashed on a Holy ghost with our Holy Dagger.. This would end up in "Rest in Peace".
== Rest in Peace, what is it? ==
Killing a monster with a weapon elemental equal to what that monster have in resistance means Balance. Something Diablo III is all about, gamedesign and now even in Lore (the whole Malthael thingy).
Rest in Peace would bring monsters to end. A fallen would not rise again because his souls isn't there anymore. A bonus would reward us with more experience in the killing. Rest in Peace would make us continue to strive on killing monsters equal to the element, which would make the struggle a bit harder, but fair.
Update / Edit: Dual weapon would not be a huge deal. Since I believe off-hands could give us elemental damage too.
== Thank you ==
This idea is far from finished, but I leave this as is for now. Thanks for reading, and as always - May epic loot shine your path.
Actually, I think I saw in some of the dataminings (really need to actually locate it, I reference it quite a lot) that elemental damage might have elemental "effects." For instance, ice or cold damage will innately slow enemies...poison and fire damage have some kind of damage over time aspect...lightning damage would chain a percentage of damage to other enemies...one that I was particularly intrigued with was arcane, which may add an innate chance to confuse enemies. I don't know if holy damage has an effect, I would think if the others have an effect, holy should...maybe on undead, or something along those lines.
Anyway, I'm inclined to believe that this change to elemental effects may happen as a number of skills in the expansion, mostly the Wizard's, are being revamped to include more elemental choices, similar to what the Sorceress had in D2, obviously with more elements involved. Though I do believe some skills in other classes are including more elements in as well. But this would be an incredible way to diversify builds:
-You could supplement a lack of black damage with a weapon that adds a fire or poison element
-You could supplement a lack of AOE skills with a lightning element weapon
-You could supplement a lack of crowd control skills with an ice or arcane element weapon.
However....in regard to your idea about each enemy having an innate element, and there being a countering element to add damage...truthfully, and with all due respect, I think the game has enough ways to stack straight damage. Clearly you weren't a fan of D2's elemental immunities that get added on in Hell difficulty, I wasn't either...I felt like it pigeonholed a lot of builds to be more standard, with some minor gear difference or switching needed to get around those brick walls of immunities...overall, it was just a monumentally dumb idea on the devs' part. It added difficulty, but was just such a pain in the ass to get around.
Though, it would be rather interesting if enemies had particular resistances, and I don't think it needs to be as complicated or spread out by difficulty...why not attach a slight elemental resistance to particular elemental monster affixes on elites?
Doing it this way would mean a couple things:
1) Resistances can occur earlier in the trip from level 1 to the level cap.
2) Certain combinations of affixes in monsters will be feared more than they are now. Most of us fear seeing an elite with Molten Frozen Plague or Molten Plague Desecration...now, not only would those elites do seriously stacked damage to folks walking over those places on the ground, but it'd be harder to kill them, without being too much of a brick wall. It would strengthen those elites without making them OP.
Edit: Added Lightning, one of my favorite elements, I knew I left something out, :-)
Though, it would be rather interesting if enemies had particular resistances, and I don't think it needs to be as complicated or spread out by difficulty...why not attach a slight elemental resistance to particular elemental monster affixes on elites?
Though, it would be rather interesting if enemies had particular resistances, and I don't think it needs to be as complicated or spread out by difficulty...why not attach a slight elemental resistance to particular elemental monster affixes on elites?
As long as we're nitpicking here, don't Arcane Turrets technically do Physical damage also? They shouldn't, but I know I've heard from people that they do.
Desecration, much in the same way, even if it does do Physical damage, shouldn't do Physical, it should do damage in some other element.
In retrospect, I wasn't thinking of Physical Resistance when I put my little list together, but most normal enemies could do physical damage, to place importance on that particular stat. Elites would just feel more specialized and particular single element resistances for our characters would have more use.
Though, it would be rather interesting if enemies had particular resistances, and I don't think it needs to be as complicated or spread out by difficulty...why not attach a slight elemental resistance to particular elemental monster affixes on elites?
bad idea. They are bringing back single-elemental wizards, and have mobs to be highly resistance to that element would break it down. I don't like this at all.
I think there IS an already -damage reduction from poison based spells/ plagued type champions, fire based spells to molten monsters, so the whole thing is just unnecessary.
As long as we're nitpicking here, don't Arcane Turrets technically do Physical damage also? They shouldn't, but I know I've heard from people that they do.
Desecration, much in the same way, even if it does do Physical damage, shouldn't do Physical, it should do damage in some other element.
In retrospect, I wasn't thinking of Physical Resistance when I put my little list together, but most normal enemies could do physical damage, to place importance on that particular stat. Elites would just feel more specialized and particular single element resistances for our characters would have more use.
I don't know about any bugs with Arcane Enchanted, but Desecrator is definitely intended to do Physical damage, since Fire and Arcane/Holy are taken by the other affixes. Most enemies do Physical damage with their regular attacks, and damage from those attacks are mitigated both by Armor and Physical Resistance. The only reason Physical Resistance as a gear affix isn't more emphasized (not to mention the other elemental resistances) is because of how effective All Resist is by comparison.
We will likely see all that change in 2.0, since All Resist will probably be harder to come by than it currently is.
bad idea. They are bringing back single-elemental wizards, and have mobs to be highly resistance to that element would break it down. I don't like this at all.
I think there IS an already -damage reduction from poison based spells/ plagued type champions, fire based spells to molten monsters, so the whole thing is just unnecessary.
Highly resistant is very different from Immune, which was the big problem in D2. Being weaker against certain types of enemies is the price you pay for being super-powerful with just one element, as it should be. D3's skill system makes it much easier to have 1 or 2 skills outside your chosen element to help with those situations. But as long as monsters aren't 100% immune (or at least no higher than say 75%), it won't be as crippling.
Trust me, I have bad memories of trying to play a single-element sorc in D2, but so do the D3 devs. They know not to mess it up that badly, but bringing back emphasis on particular elements will only add variety to the game.
Actually, I think I saw in some of the dataminings (really need to actually locate it, I reference it quite a lot) that elemental damage might have elemental "effects." For instance, ice or cold damage will innately slow enemies...poison and fire damage have some kind of damage over time aspect...lightning damage would chain a percentage of damage to other enemies...one that I was particularly intrigued with was arcane, which may add an innate chance to confuse enemies. I don't know if holy damage has an effect, I would think if the others have an effect, holy should...maybe on undead, or something along those lines.
This is the kind of thing I would like to see implemented, but to have it be minimal. The skills you choose and legendaries should be the real game changers. The Holy damage effect could possibly be a 1 second blind, with a 3 sec DR. Good ideas
Actually, I think I saw in some of the dataminings (really need to actually locate it, I reference it quite a lot) that elemental damage might have elemental "effects." For instance, ice or cold damage will innately slow enemies...poison and fire damage have some kind of damage over time aspect...lightning damage would chain a percentage of damage to other enemies...one that I was particularly intrigued with was arcane, which may add an innate chance to confuse enemies. I don't know if holy damage has an effect, I would think if the others have an effect, holy should...maybe on undead, or something along those lines.
This is the kind of thing I would like to see implemented, but to have it be minimal. The skills you choose and legendaries should be the real game changers. The Holy damage effect could possibly be a 1 second blind, with a 3 sec DR. Good ideas
Ooh! Now that you mention it, that might've been it for Holy effect, I do remember. Not often, but an occasional chance to stun or blind. There we go.
But yeah, minimal, like you said, but mainly come from skills and weapon choice, which is mostly where elemental output comes from anyways. I think it'd be a great way to add more to builds.
on that note... if they like us using testing out different builds why do you lose you stacks if you switch a skill... I mean it's not like that could be remotely useful anyway if you are trying to be 100% efficient >.<;
They like people testing out new builds, that's why you're not locked in to a build you choose almost indefinitely, and don't have to use a limited respec or start over from scratch to work with a different build. Instead, you lose an easy to reacquire BONUS. Really not a huge penalty.
Obviously, when I'm on an official run, I stick with whatever build I'm working with, quirky or common as it is, just to get accomplished what I'm looking to do. But when I'm just XP grinding, farming, experimenting with builds, I kill my stacks all the time when skills aren't working well. Sometimes, I'd rather kill 5 stacks, have a better set of skills to play with and kill more monsters easier, than die repeatedly with skills that don't mesh well just because I want more reward.
Clearly you weren't a fan of D2's elemental immunities that get added on in Hell difficulty,
Main reason was that I notice blueposts or was it even Josh that stated that he would love to see elemental usage being a part of Diablo III but was clear on not having "immunity" since it would break the flow.
I can't find this post, but if anyone else can I would be very much appreciate to see it here with a source!!
And sorry not for discuss any other topics regarding this, I haven't read your whole post yet.. Feelt the urge to answer this first before I forgot!
Edit:
Travis: Eventually, I actually do want to make elemental effects do things again. I loved that about D2 myself back in the day, I think it really added a lot to the game. So there’s definitely been a lot of talks about how in the future we can reintroduce those, and what we can do to make them interesting, beyond the obvious like Frost makes things sloooow, and herpaderp.[Source]
Will elemental effects do something again? Travis: Yes, we’d like them to do things again at some point. That was a very cool thing in D2. It’s nice if they have effects, more than just cold slows things. But no concrete details at this point. [Source (1:08:00)]
I like the direction this thread (and its idea) are going /thumbs-up
I'd be happy with anything that makes the combat deeper, to be honest. But I like the idea of having deeper "in combat" decision making, not "pre-combat" setting up (where you can be prepared for virtually anything by having "x" build). As that also throws a straight jab at build diversity, and we can't afford any more hits on that area.
Actually, I think I saw in some of the dataminings (really need to actually locate it, I reference it quite a lot) that elemental damage might have elemental "effects." For instance, ice or cold damage will innately slow enemies...poison and fire damage have some kind of damage over time aspect...lightning damage would chain a percentage of damage to other enemies...one that I was particularly intrigued with was arcane, which may add an innate chance to confuse enemies. I don't know if holy damage has an effect, I would think if the others have an effect, holy should...maybe on undead, or something along those lines.
Ooh! Now that you mention it, that might've been it for Holy effect, I do remember. Not often, but an occasional chance to stun or blind. There we go.
I can't find it either, but I think it was:
Fire: heavy damage dot, short duration
Cold: slow, with a small chance to freeze
Lightning: chance to chain damage
Poison: low damage dot, long duration
Arcane: chance to charm
Holy: chance to heal/regen player
I like the direction this thread (and its idea) are going /thumbs-up
I'd be happy with anything that makes the combat deeper, to be honest. But I like the idea of having deeper "in combat" decision making, not "pre-combat" setting up (where you can be prepared for virtually anything by having "x" build). As that also throws a straight jab at build diversity, and we can't afford any more hits on that area.
That's the big problem I had with building characters in D2. Especially after the first few deaths in Hell difficulty. Every time I'd start a new guy, I'd think, "okay...Hell difficulty, I'm gonna be facing enemies with immunities...how do I best figure this out?" And of course, I not being a theorycrafter, I'm sitting there staring at my level 1 skill tree trying to think on my feet in the Rogue Camp...all the while, killing absolutely nothing. I'd get to Normal Act 3, and in all my trying to plan ahead for Hell's immunities...I wouldn't be powerful enough to get past Mephisto.
I want the same thing as you, though, things that get people thinking on their feet in battle...where people think they have a really tight build, then some monster affix combo jumps them from out of nowhere and they die. It'd make Softcore way more fun, and Hardcore far more rewarding.
Fire: heavy damage dot, short duration
Cold: slow, with a small chance to freeze
Lightning: chance to chain damage
Poison: low damage dot, long duration
Arcane: chance to charm
Holy: chance to heal/regen player
This kinda mentions it a bit. This snippet doesn't cover all of them, but it certainly makes clear some intentions:
ItemPassive_Unique_Ring_582_x1 - Double the number of enemies that Lightning elemental effects jump to.
ItemPassive_Unique_Ring_583_x1 - Double the damage of Poison elemental effects.damage.
ItemPassive_Unique_Ring_584_x1 --- Double the chance for Arcane elemental effects to charm the enemy.
ItemPassive_Unique_Ring_585_x1 - Double the healing amount of Holy elemental effects.
Definitely want elemental effects to get factored into peoples' builds in the expansion. I'll bet there are a few dedicated Demon Hunters and Witch Doctors who don't even realize a few of their skills deal Arcane Damage. That's how bad elemental damage is now, not many people really care about it.
But I'd love to hear people, post-expansion going live, saying to each other that they use X skill because it deals damage in a particular element, or changing to a skill they didn't realize they had, simply because they discover it deals elemental damage.
Totally agree with that Cardinal, and that's exactly my concern too.
On the fly decision making that requires you to "counter" with a specific element or type of skill is good gameplay in my book; but that feeling of "if I don't start doing this now, I'm dead/useless in 'x' hours".
As I said in another thread, some wannabe competitive gamers like to pretend that this is a "hardcore" way of gaming, but quite frankly it really is just a way to force people who wanna enjoy the game research the "public knowledge" (by visiting forums, watching streams, relying on the information of people who can play 10 hours a day) in order to play.
I'm glad D3 got away with "some" of that (even though I do have the knowledge, time and means to actually do said research). It's definitely for the best.
Ultimately they need to change items, incoming damage vs healing, and balance skills sufficiently that people aren't afraid to have more than one school of damage on their bars (think D2 sorcs BEFORE the synergy patch).
Right now the game basically tells you to take one main damaging skill and buff it to the hilt and then take a few support skills (Pestilence for Cloud of Bats builds, for example) that really aren't your primary damage sources. Once they break that paradigm such that we're not really penalized for having two, or maybe even three, types of damage on our bars.... then the idea of having a monster that resists <type> wouldn't be so horrible.
I think what they plan to do now with elemental damage is enough; Give each element a different side ability when attacking, such as arcane has a chance to charm, ect.
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This could go hand in hand with difficulty. First off, brainstorming!
== Re-introduce Elemental Damage [Enkeria Edition] ==
While some sites have datamined information it is still a theory that we could perhaps in a near future see changes that fuse monster power and difficulty into one ingame setting that might allow us to change difficulty before a game or even in mid-game if Blizzard choose to do this.
== Let's Brainstorm ==
If difficulty was something we could change before or under a gameplay we could use elemental damage as one of many different cores to make the game more interesting. Others would be the amount of enemies, the loot-rate, how your lifeleech is handled and how hard the monsters actually is equal to the difficulty.
We could play around with the idea of once we hit level 60 or 70 with our first character we unlock 5 difficulty-modes that will change the game almost to the core.
Normal - Nightmare - Hell - Torment - Inferno
== Elemental Damage ==
- Ice-Monsters dislike fire-attacks from our hero. An attack will result in greater deal of damage.
- Ice-Monsters dislike ice-attacks from our hero, even if its the same elemental. They just take same damage as a "black weapon" or a "neutral" weapon.
- This is VERY important. There are NO immune monsters, except "Shielded" which is just a timed affix.
- Elite monster would have up to 3 different "resistance" (take notice; NOT immunity). Difficulty: Hell - Inferno. Hell = 1 resistance, Torment = 2 resistance, Inferno = 3 resistance.
- Champions will share up to 2 different "resistance". Difficulty: Torment - Inferno. Same theory as above.
- Rare will have up to 2 different "resistance" too. Difficulty: Torment - Inferno. Same theory as above.
== Elements Matter ==
Some are greater then others, but in the end its all about balance. Like mentioned before an Fire-demon would hate to get Ice all over him, but how about Ice-beast? Would he dislike fire? In a perfect sense he "might" and thus make elements one vs one -or- make it a bit more complicated.
== One vs One ==
Poison - Electric
Holy - Arcane
Fire - Ice
== Complicated Version ==
Fire > Ice
Ice > Poison
Poison > Holy
Holy > Arcane
Arcane > Electric
Electric > Fire
== Difficulties Makes Us Choose Wiser ==
I know we do not want to change weapon under a fight, it's not very attractive towards the flow of gameplay, but it's always about making choices and having elemental damage is just one of many things I hope to see in Diablo III. With this bonus we can perhaps take down enemies we usually would not if we have the pure luck of having a Holy dagger when we meet the Arcane-spitting Imp running around in the dark catacombs of Old Tristram. At the same time rewarding if we clashed on a Holy ghost with our Holy Dagger.. This would end up in "Rest in Peace".
== Rest in Peace, what is it? ==
Killing a monster with a weapon elemental equal to what that monster have in resistance means Balance. Something Diablo III is all about, gamedesign and now even in Lore (the whole Malthael thingy).
Rest in Peace would bring monsters to end. A fallen would not rise again because his souls isn't there anymore. A bonus would reward us with more experience in the killing. Rest in Peace would make us continue to strive on killing monsters equal to the element, which would make the struggle a bit harder, but fair.
Update / Edit: Dual weapon would not be a huge deal. Since I believe off-hands could give us elemental damage too.
== Thank you ==
This idea is far from finished, but I leave this as is for now. Thanks for reading, and as always - May epic loot shine your path.
- Enkeria / www.Diablo3pvp.se
:: Enkeria [Twitter / Twitch / Website / Tattoos]
Anyway, I'm inclined to believe that this change to elemental effects may happen as a number of skills in the expansion, mostly the Wizard's, are being revamped to include more elemental choices, similar to what the Sorceress had in D2, obviously with more elements involved. Though I do believe some skills in other classes are including more elements in as well. But this would be an incredible way to diversify builds:
-You could supplement a lack of black damage with a weapon that adds a fire or poison element
-You could supplement a lack of AOE skills with a lightning element weapon
-You could supplement a lack of crowd control skills with an ice or arcane element weapon.
However....in regard to your idea about each enemy having an innate element, and there being a countering element to add damage...truthfully, and with all due respect, I think the game has enough ways to stack straight damage. Clearly you weren't a fan of D2's elemental immunities that get added on in Hell difficulty, I wasn't either...I felt like it pigeonholed a lot of builds to be more standard, with some minor gear difference or switching needed to get around those brick walls of immunities...overall, it was just a monumentally dumb idea on the devs' part. It added difficulty, but was just such a pain in the ass to get around.
Though, it would be rather interesting if enemies had particular resistances, and I don't think it needs to be as complicated or spread out by difficulty...why not attach a slight elemental resistance to particular elemental monster affixes on elites?
Molten/Fire Chains = Fire Resist
Frozen = Cold Resist
Electrified = Lightning Resist
Arcane Enchanted = Arcane Resist
Plagued = Poison Resist
Desecration = Holy Resist
Doing it this way would mean a couple things:
1) Resistances can occur earlier in the trip from level 1 to the level cap.
2) Certain combinations of affixes in monsters will be feared more than they are now. Most of us fear seeing an elite with Molten Frozen Plague or Molten Plague Desecration...now, not only would those elites do seriously stacked damage to folks walking over those places on the ground, but it'd be harder to kill them, without being too much of a brick wall. It would strengthen those elites without making them OP.
Edit: Added Lightning, one of my favorite elements, I knew I left something out, :-)
Interesting idea. Although, Desecrator is Physical damage, not Holy. Arcane/Holy are treated the same for resistances.
http://www.diablowiki.net/Desecrator
http://www.diablowiki.net/Holy_Damage
/nitpick off
As long as we're nitpicking here, don't Arcane Turrets technically do Physical damage also? They shouldn't, but I know I've heard from people that they do.
Desecration, much in the same way, even if it does do Physical damage, shouldn't do Physical, it should do damage in some other element.
In retrospect, I wasn't thinking of Physical Resistance when I put my little list together, but most normal enemies could do physical damage, to place importance on that particular stat. Elites would just feel more specialized and particular single element resistances for our characters would have more use.
Early release builds already had resists based on affix. I remember my wd taking longer to kill plagued elites die to the poison dagger I had.
I think there IS an already -damage reduction from poison based spells/ plagued type champions, fire based spells to molten monsters, so the whole thing is just unnecessary.
I don't know about any bugs with Arcane Enchanted, but Desecrator is definitely intended to do Physical damage, since Fire and Arcane/Holy are taken by the other affixes. Most enemies do Physical damage with their regular attacks, and damage from those attacks are mitigated both by Armor and Physical Resistance. The only reason Physical Resistance as a gear affix isn't more emphasized (not to mention the other elemental resistances) is because of how effective All Resist is by comparison.
We will likely see all that change in 2.0, since All Resist will probably be harder to come by than it currently is.
Highly resistant is very different from Immune, which was the big problem in D2. Being weaker against certain types of enemies is the price you pay for being super-powerful with just one element, as it should be. D3's skill system makes it much easier to have 1 or 2 skills outside your chosen element to help with those situations. But as long as monsters aren't 100% immune (or at least no higher than say 75%), it won't be as crippling.
Trust me, I have bad memories of trying to play a single-element sorc in D2, but so do the D3 devs. They know not to mess it up that badly, but bringing back emphasis on particular elements will only add variety to the game.
This is the kind of thing I would like to see implemented, but to have it be minimal. The skills you choose and legendaries should be the real game changers. The Holy damage effect could possibly be a 1 second blind, with a 3 sec DR. Good ideas
Ooh! Now that you mention it, that might've been it for Holy effect, I do remember. Not often, but an occasional chance to stun or blind. There we go.
But yeah, minimal, like you said, but mainly come from skills and weapon choice, which is mostly where elemental output comes from anyways. I think it'd be a great way to add more to builds.
They like people testing out new builds, that's why you're not locked in to a build you choose almost indefinitely, and don't have to use a limited respec or start over from scratch to work with a different build. Instead, you lose an easy to reacquire BONUS. Really not a huge penalty.
Obviously, when I'm on an official run, I stick with whatever build I'm working with, quirky or common as it is, just to get accomplished what I'm looking to do. But when I'm just XP grinding, farming, experimenting with builds, I kill my stacks all the time when skills aren't working well. Sometimes, I'd rather kill 5 stacks, have a better set of skills to play with and kill more monsters easier, than die repeatedly with skills that don't mesh well just because I want more reward.
Main reason was that I notice blueposts or was it even Josh that stated that he would love to see elemental usage being a part of Diablo III but was clear on not having "immunity" since it would break the flow.
I can't find this post, but if anyone else can I would be very much appreciate to see it here with a source!!
And sorry not for discuss any other topics regarding this, I haven't read your whole post yet.. Feelt the urge to answer this first before I forgot!
Edit:
Travis: Eventually, I actually do want to make elemental effects do things again. I loved that about D2 myself back in the day, I think it really added a lot to the game. So there’s definitely been a lot of talks about how in the future we can reintroduce those, and what we can do to make them interesting, beyond the obvious like Frost makes things sloooow, and herpaderp. [Source]
Will elemental effects do something again?
Travis: Yes, we’d like them to do things again at some point. That was a very cool thing in D2. It’s nice if they have effects, more than just cold slows things. But no concrete details at this point. [Source (1:08:00)]
:: Enkeria [Twitter / Twitch / Website / Tattoos]
I'd be happy with anything that makes the combat deeper, to be honest. But I like the idea of having deeper "in combat" decision making, not "pre-combat" setting up (where you can be prepared for virtually anything by having "x" build). As that also throws a straight jab at build diversity, and we can't afford any more hits on that area.
I can't find it either, but I think it was:
Fire: heavy damage dot, short duration
Cold: slow, with a small chance to freeze
Lightning: chance to chain damage
Poison: low damage dot, long duration
Arcane: chance to charm
Holy: chance to heal/regen player
That's the big problem I had with building characters in D2. Especially after the first few deaths in Hell difficulty. Every time I'd start a new guy, I'd think, "okay...Hell difficulty, I'm gonna be facing enemies with immunities...how do I best figure this out?" And of course, I not being a theorycrafter, I'm sitting there staring at my level 1 skill tree trying to think on my feet in the Rogue Camp...all the while, killing absolutely nothing. I'd get to Normal Act 3, and in all my trying to plan ahead for Hell's immunities...I wouldn't be powerful enough to get past Mephisto.
I want the same thing as you, though, things that get people thinking on their feet in battle...where people think they have a really tight build, then some monster affix combo jumps them from out of nowhere and they die. It'd make Softcore way more fun, and Hardcore far more rewarding.
This kinda mentions it a bit. This snippet doesn't cover all of them, but it certainly makes clear some intentions:
Found it on this page here.
Definitely want elemental effects to get factored into peoples' builds in the expansion. I'll bet there are a few dedicated Demon Hunters and Witch Doctors who don't even realize a few of their skills deal Arcane Damage. That's how bad elemental damage is now, not many people really care about it.
But I'd love to hear people, post-expansion going live, saying to each other that they use X skill because it deals damage in a particular element, or changing to a skill they didn't realize they had, simply because they discover it deals elemental damage.
That'd be fun to see. :-)
On the fly decision making that requires you to "counter" with a specific element or type of skill is good gameplay in my book; but that feeling of "if I don't start doing this now, I'm dead/useless in 'x' hours".
As I said in another thread, some wannabe competitive gamers like to pretend that this is a "hardcore" way of gaming, but quite frankly it really is just a way to force people who wanna enjoy the game research the "public knowledge" (by visiting forums, watching streams, relying on the information of people who can play 10 hours a day) in order to play.
I'm glad D3 got away with "some" of that (even though I do have the knowledge, time and means to actually do said research). It's definitely for the best.
Right now the game basically tells you to take one main damaging skill and buff it to the hilt and then take a few support skills (Pestilence for Cloud of Bats builds, for example) that really aren't your primary damage sources. Once they break that paradigm such that we're not really penalized for having two, or maybe even three, types of damage on our bars.... then the idea of having a monster that resists <type> wouldn't be so horrible.
Edit: Link to page 1, post 14
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