"Longevity. We know people really want goals to work towards and challenges to overcome. We made Act III and Act IV really, really brutally hard, for the most elite players only. It felt wrong to make ALL of Inferno that brutally hard."
In the second quote Blizzard reveals the original design intent - that inferno would be really, really brutally hard across but that it felt wrong. The reasons for this is outlined in the first quote - and hence the reasoning behind why they made Act I (at least) easier.
Oh, alright. I won't say I totally agree with this. It would have been fine if they brought down Act I just a bit, that might make sense. At least keep Act II and III the same, and perhaps even ramp up Act IV a bit, you know, for the really insane players. That would have made sense, but to make the early acts easier and keep the rest the same. Sounds a bit like a downer.
I'll be honest, if Act I in inferno taxes me and makes me use my skills to the best of my abilities, I'm not going to care if it's easier than Acts II - IV. It's still going to be harder than Hell mode.
It really makes sense that the game gets harder in later parts of the story. Even though I really liked the idea of picking any Act to farm in, I don't think this system is any worse. I think that if Act IV was just as easy as Act I then that epic feeling of beating the game on its hardest difficulty mode might get cheapened slightly.
This is obviously just my opinion. I have found things to like about both systems. I think this one will be fine as I thought the last one would be, but when I think about logical progression in a game I have to side with Blizzard's current choice.
If the final difficulty ends up really being hard, even after a nerf, then I think everyone's going to forget all these arguments and just enjoy the game. The problem is that there's so many wild accusations about something we've never seen. Just because we see the word "nerf" we automatically think it's a bad thing.
Same thing happens when a skill's power is brought down, players instantly cry "nerf" and say it's a bad thing even if that skill was originally overtuned. That's really what this is, a tuning pass, and Blizzard's internal testers gave them feedback that the roadblock on Act I was just a bit too high.
I think we are looking at "Farming Inferno" int he wrong sense, we are so stuck on how Diablo 2 was to "farm" and its simply wont be the same.
Specificly it won't be the same pace that Diablo 2 was.
I'm guessing inferno is tuned so that you are spending lets say an hour or 2 clearing 1 area maybe more based off the comments of "even elite players taking weeks / months to finish acts". Therefore you can't look at it as "im forced to farm only act 3 and 4" because it simply wont be looked at on that scale. Come Inferno you won't be messaging you friend saying "Lets go clear act 1 Inferno" I think it will be "Lets go smash our face on The Weeping Hollows for an hour".
This essentially nullifies being forced into end act's for farming think much smaller scale which actually in turn makes every section of the entire game now a farming spot and not a generalised act.
Yes the best of the possible best items will now drop from the very end act's but you will have SO MUCH choice even within those acts for farming spots. People are talking as if all the sudden they are stuck farming just Azmodan and it's Baal runs all over again.
I think we are looking at "Farming Inferno" int he wrong sense, we are so stuck on how Diablo 2 was to "farm" and its simply wont be the same.
Specificly it won't be the same pace that Diablo 2 was.
I'm guessing inferno is tuned so that you are spending lets say an hour or 2 clearing 1 area maybe more based off the comments of "even elite players taking weeks / months to finish acts". Therefore you can't look at it as "im forced to farm only act 3 and 4" because it simply wont be looked at on that scale. Come Inferno you won't be messaging you friend saying "Lets go clear act 1 Inferno" I think it will be "Lets go smash our face on The Weeping Hollows for an hour".
This essentially nullifies being forced into end act's for farming think much smaller scale which actually in turn makes every section of the entire game now a farming spot and not a generalised act.
Yes the best of the possible best items will now drop from the very end act's but you will have SO MUCH choice even within those acts for farming spots. People are talking as if all the sudden they are stuck farming just Azmodan and it's Baal runs all over again.
I agree. Everyone's perception of farming comes from their time spent doing Baal runs in D2. Any boss run start to finish shouldn't be comparable in time spent within Inferno. That being said, Blizzard knows that not everyone has hours upon hours to commit to a play session every day. By making the different Acts vary slightly in difficulty, it has something for everyone. If I have an entire Sunday to kill, I can run through all of Act 4. If I have an hour, maybe I'll stick with a portion of Act 1. In both scenarios, I get a reward that was worth my time spent.
Personally, I love the change. I had an unsettling feeling about being able to beat act 4 Inferno with the same gear I beat act 4 Hell. I don't mind if the best gear drops in Acts 3 and 4 in Inferno, and actually it seems more natural that they do.
In the second quote Blizzard reveals the original design intent - that inferno would be really, really brutally hard across but that it felt wrong. The reasons for this is outlined in the first quote - and hence the reasoning behind why they made Act I (at least) easier.
Previously, Inferno difficulty was mlvl 61 across all of Inferno, and now it starts at mlvl 61 and ramps up quickly in Act I and ends somewhere around 65 (?) in Act IV. We've only increased the difficulty.
In the second quote Blizzard reveals the original design intent - that inferno would be really, really brutally hard across but that it felt wrong. The reasons for this is outlined in the first quote - and hence the reasoning behind why they made Act I (at least) easier.
Previously, Inferno difficulty was mlvl 61 across all of Inferno, and now it starts at mlvl 61 and ramps up quickly in Act I and ends somewhere around 65 (?) in Act IV. We've only increased the difficulty.
yep. to all the idiots crying nerf. it was only INCREASED in difficulty.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"once the pretty hardcore gamers we had testing inferno found it fairly difficult, we then we doubled it" -trolololol jay wilson
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It really makes sense that the game gets harder in later parts of the story. Even though I really liked the idea of picking any Act to farm in, I don't think this system is any worse. I think that if Act IV was just as easy as Act I then that epic feeling of beating the game on its hardest difficulty mode might get cheapened slightly.
This is obviously just my opinion. I have found things to like about both systems. I think this one will be fine as I thought the last one would be, but when I think about logical progression in a game I have to side with Blizzard's current choice.
If the final difficulty ends up really being hard, even after a nerf, then I think everyone's going to forget all these arguments and just enjoy the game. The problem is that there's so many wild accusations about something we've never seen. Just because we see the word "nerf" we automatically think it's a bad thing.
Same thing happens when a skill's power is brought down, players instantly cry "nerf" and say it's a bad thing even if that skill was originally overtuned. That's really what this is, a tuning pass, and Blizzard's internal testers gave them feedback that the roadblock on Act I was just a bit too high.
Specificly it won't be the same pace that Diablo 2 was.
I'm guessing inferno is tuned so that you are spending lets say an hour or 2 clearing 1 area maybe more based off the comments of "even elite players taking weeks / months to finish acts". Therefore you can't look at it as "im forced to farm only act 3 and 4" because it simply wont be looked at on that scale. Come Inferno you won't be messaging you friend saying "Lets go clear act 1 Inferno" I think it will be "Lets go smash our face on The Weeping Hollows for an hour".
This essentially nullifies being forced into end act's for farming think much smaller scale which actually in turn makes every section of the entire game now a farming spot and not a generalised act.
Yes the best of the possible best items will now drop from the very end act's but you will have SO MUCH choice even within those acts for farming spots. People are talking as if all the sudden they are stuck farming just Azmodan and it's Baal runs all over again.
I agree. Everyone's perception of farming comes from their time spent doing Baal runs in D2. Any boss run start to finish shouldn't be comparable in time spent within Inferno. That being said, Blizzard knows that not everyone has hours upon hours to commit to a play session every day. By making the different Acts vary slightly in difficulty, it has something for everyone. If I have an entire Sunday to kill, I can run through all of Act 4. If I have an hour, maybe I'll stick with a portion of Act 1. In both scenarios, I get a reward that was worth my time spent.
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
yep. to all the idiots crying nerf. it was only INCREASED in difficulty.