I wanted to open a discussion regarding the dungeon system. As of now, I'm sure blizzard has implemented many dungeons to make the game fresh every time we play. That includes tons and tons of randomization. But what worries me is the "difficulty" factor of the game. Once we get to a certain point, I think the game will just feel "slicing through butter". Maxing level 60, with Level 14 Gem with unique gears. What next?
Assumption
"I will assume, through tons of grinding and trade you have succesfully gained all these gears. Perhaps you had to kill Diablo 1000 times. The point is, you can walk through hell. After all, why couldn't you? Blizzard is adjusting this game so that people with moderate gear can finish it. So you should easily wipe out Diablo and his minions in act 4". Problem
What I find troubling is Blizzard has laid out 14 different gems, and 10 tiers of sets and more. I'm sure Blizzard intended us to finish through act 1 ~ act 4 with moderate gears, and not the best gear you could possibly find in the game with max level 14 gems all socketed in your gear.But what if, you do obtain all these epic gears. With level 7 Skill runes, and level 14 gems, with one of the best items that the game has to offer. Do... I just PvP?
Is there no more PvE part of Diablo 3 that I can resort to?
Solution
I personally think WoW succeeded because it had that "Motivation" factor. People wanted the best gear, but yet it was still hard. And even if they had obtained the best gear in the game, the game by no means becomes "EASY".
While I like to kill those pity demons in 1 shot, it always shouldn't be that way.
My small idea on end game
Hell monster in act 1 ~ 4 randomly DROPS 4 Player CO-OP Dungeon Key:
- Level 50
- Level 55
- Level 60
P.S - These keys are very rare, and only drop from bosses/champions/unique bosses
The "Party Leader" and his team will stand by the gate of hell or wherever the Key says to go in the description.
When the party leader enters, the group will automatically put inside these co-op specified only dungeon.
These hell cards are equivalent to "Ubers" from Diablo 2. Meaning, intensified strength of monsters and health.
There are generally more "swarm" feeling and are often very hard. You would need a great team of 4 players, serving each of their critical character role very well.
Why Dungeon Co-op is important:
Firstly, Blizzard has all the freedom in the world to scale them seperately from the normal act 1 ~ act 4 story line.
These dungeons may or may not have story line, but it does not matter. What Blizzard should focus is bringing the best monster design, so that each class will have to perform at their best. Even with the top gear, this dungeon will seemingly be "hard" and not easy by any means.
Just like "Uber Tristram". Not many classes could finish them, except for Paladin because he was OP.
I didn't have enough time to write the details, which are currently lingering around my head.
But you get the point.
End game need not be so "EASY". There are many ways to make the end game more appealing than killing the same boss 10000 times. Which is probably what Blizzard has already done.
Kudos
P.S - The reward of killing monsters and bosses in this dungeon is not to give better lewts. I don't encourage the system where, Higher level = More lewt because of these dungeons. But the reward will be "Honor points". Blizzard has told us that there will be something that players will strive to reach.
I personally do not want any content that I cannot solo.
The term "solo" is defined by what gear you have.
You prob can't "solo" diablo in hell without a decent gear.
Perhaps, these dungeons could be "soloed" but you'd need a very good gear. Which is the reason why its only 4 players only, no more or no less. Encourages group play and rewards are sufficient enough to be desired.
Honor points make you stand out more.
Who says there wont be something like the ubers? I'm no expert, but I think that was soloable by some absolutely insane people. They have plenty of practice making things difficult to the point of being almost impossible. The co-op idea just feels too much like instances and raids, and then you'll anger the WoW-haters.
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"Never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes, because then you're a mile away, and you have his shoes." - Douglas Adams
True, but since difficulty increases with the amount of players in the game they could just make it like, exactly possible with the amount of players you're playing with.
Though a 4player co-op dungeon would be very good for teamplay which i believe they're trying everything for to get.
Again I left out a lot of precise detail in my original post.
The scaling factor in difficulty will be easier to adjust within these 4 player co-op dungeons.
Heres a reason why:
There is a level cap for these special dungeons. (Lvl 55+)
You have a good idea of whose going to be playing them. (Not level 30's)
In addition, these dungeons are known to be "hard". Some groups may fail at finishing them in time.
The point is, you can scale it to a fixed point. To a point where it does x damage to players.
This approach guarantee a much more difficult stage, rather than an act itself.
which is balanced for a player with nooby ~ epic gears.
This particular dungeon is only hard because it's aimed at 4 player co-op. Which is different from the regular
act 1 ~ act 4 monsters. Blizzard can implement
mechanics within monsters that will motivate more group plays, with variety of character.
Maybe combination of different runes could play a big role here. Do you choose fire vs poison? or maybe longer stuns?
In general, monsters and bosses will have more attributes, and resistance boost to them.
You are essentially talking about raids, but raids don't work in D3. There's no healers or tanks really, so as the monster damage goes up players start to die instantly. They really can't make hard encounters without healers and tanks. Every class is basically DPS. Sure you can get more survivability items so you can last longer, but I'm not sure Blizzard wants player to even worry about those different roles. I think they want every to be mainly DPS.
Assumption
"I will assume, through tons of grinding and trade you have succesfully gained all these gears. Perhaps you had to kill Diablo 1000 times. The point is, you can walk through hell. After all, why couldn't you? Blizzard is adjusting this game so that people with moderate gear can finish it. So you should easily wipe out Diablo and his minions in act 4".
Problem
What I find troubling is Blizzard has laid out 14 different gems, and 10 tiers of sets and more. I'm sure Blizzard intended us to finish through act 1 ~ act 4 with moderate gears, and not the best gear you could possibly find in the game with max level 14 gems all socketed in your gear.But what if, you do obtain all these epic gears. With level 7 Skill runes, and level 14 gems, with one of the best items that the game has to offer. Do... I just PvP?
Is there no more PvE part of Diablo 3 that I can resort to?
Solution
I personally think WoW succeeded because it had that "Motivation" factor. People wanted the best gear, but yet it was still hard. And even if they had obtained the best gear in the game, the game by no means becomes "EASY".
While I like to kill those pity demons in 1 shot, it always shouldn't be that way.
My small idea on end game
Hell monster in act 1 ~ 4 randomly DROPS 4 Player CO-OP Dungeon Key:
- Level 50
- Level 55
- Level 60
P.S - These keys are very rare, and only drop from bosses/champions/unique bosses
The "Party Leader" and his team will stand by the gate of hell or wherever the Key says to go in the description.
When the party leader enters, the group will automatically put inside these co-op specified only dungeon.
These hell cards are equivalent to "Ubers" from Diablo 2. Meaning, intensified strength of monsters and health.
There are generally more "swarm" feeling and are often very hard. You would need a great team of 4 players, serving each of their critical character role very well.
Why Dungeon Co-op is important:
Firstly, Blizzard has all the freedom in the world to scale them seperately from the normal act 1 ~ act 4 story line.
These dungeons may or may not have story line, but it does not matter. What Blizzard should focus is bringing the best monster design, so that each class will have to perform at their best. Even with the top gear, this dungeon will seemingly be "hard" and not easy by any means.
Just like "Uber Tristram". Not many classes could finish them, except for Paladin because he was OP.
I didn't have enough time to write the details, which are currently lingering around my head.
But you get the point.
End game need not be so "EASY". There are many ways to make the end game more appealing than killing the same boss 10000 times. Which is probably what Blizzard has already done.
Kudos
P.S - The reward of killing monsters and bosses in this dungeon is not to give better lewts. I don't encourage the system where, Higher level = More lewt because of these dungeons. But the reward will be "Honor points". Blizzard has told us that there will be something that players will strive to reach.
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The term "solo" is defined by what gear you have.
You prob can't "solo" diablo in hell without a decent gear.
Perhaps, these dungeons could be "soloed" but you'd need a very good gear. Which is the reason why its only 4 players only, no more or no less. Encourages group play and rewards are sufficient enough to be desired.
Honor points make you stand out more.
Again I left out a lot of precise detail in my original post.
The scaling factor in difficulty will be easier to adjust within these 4 player co-op dungeons.
Heres a reason why:
There is a level cap for these special dungeons. (Lvl 55+)
You have a good idea of whose going to be playing them. (Not level 30's)
In addition, these dungeons are known to be "hard". Some groups may fail at finishing them in time.
The point is, you can scale it to a fixed point. To a point where it does x damage to players.
This approach guarantee a much more difficult stage, rather than an act itself.
which is balanced for a player with nooby ~ epic gears.
This particular dungeon is only hard because it's aimed at 4 player co-op. Which is different from the regular
act 1 ~ act 4 monsters. Blizzard can implement
mechanics within monsters that will motivate more group plays, with variety of character.
Maybe combination of different runes could play a big role here. Do you choose fire vs poison? or maybe longer stuns?
In general, monsters and bosses will have more attributes, and resistance boost to them.