Legendary Build Changers
Travis Day came to the forums and posted several very interesting and informative posts, starting out with Legendaries that act as build changers!
So first I want to touch on the Serpent's Sparker really quick. The item that people saw screen shots of at Gamescon was not a final version of the item, that item was changed to be "Allows you to have 1 additional Hydra active".
One of the most important things about expansion legendary effects is that, as much as possible, they are designed to change how players interact with the game. That could mean they make a skill you don't currently use something you want to use, you interact with the environment in a different way, you interact with monsters in a different way etc. An example of this is one of the legendaries we added recently gives players a speed boost every time they destroy something (barrels, barriers, etc) suddenly you find yourself wanting to break random crates you may have ignored previously.
Jawbreaker was another example people saw at Gamescon, it makes your Dashing Strike free when you hit a target more than 25 yards away. When people get their hands on the new and improved version of Dashing Strike I suspect they will appreciate how awesome that effect is
There will also be some items that exist just because they are cool. For example The Cow King's Halberd is one that I made just because I wanted to make something that captured a really cool element from D2. It deal's lightning damage (and yes elemental damage types have effects associated with them now) because it's a nod to the Cow King himself and also has a chance to summon a herd of murderous cows to fight with you. That effect isn't really changing any gameplay... but cmon it's just awesome!
There is still a tremendous amount of work from now til the expansion releases and we are still coming up with and implementing awesome ideas on a daily basis. Given the philosophy point I listed above I would love to hear what kind of cool things you guys would like to see. Things that change your gameplay, big or small, and class agnostic things are the best. For example "Knockback skills now deal more damage and knock targets back further". That is an effect that opens up build possibilities for more than one class and gets people thinking about how a single item can change the way you interact with the game or what skills you want to use.
Travis Day on Paragon 2.0
In this post Travis reveals that it's still not decided whether already dead Hardcore characters are getting their experience used for the upcoming Paragon levels conversion.
I see this question popping up in several places, including my email inbox from coworkers so I thought I'd chime in.
When the Paragon 2.0 system is released our current plan is to take all the experience players have currently accumulated and sum that into a single value, well two values really, HC and non HC. If you have 5 paragon level 100 characters on your account in soft core that we will add that total experience earned into a single value and your soft core paragon level will be equal to whatever that amount of experience translates to into levels.
The current plan is to do the same thing with all of your hc characters. We are still discussing what we do with dead vs active characters but I'm leaning towards including experience of dead hc heroes as well.
The purpose of the paragon 2.0 system is the reward players who want to invest lots of time as opposed to specific characters. Under that philosophy I don't see any reason to deny hc players experience they previously earned. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hey folks,
I'm here to answer some questions about Paragon 2.0.
Paragon levels are account bound, they are also segregated between HC and non HC characters. This means you will have a paragon level associated with HC characters that can not be increased by playing non HC characters. We didn't want players to feel like the "right way" to level their HC paragon was outside of HC.
The intent of account wide paragon is to reward the player, not the specific character. Paragon experience and levels are fun to earn, but they currently have the draw back of making people feel tied to a specific character. We want to let players play the game however they want when possible and this was one case where we felt the right thing to do was let you play any character you want and have them all work towards the same rewards.
In the case of spending paragon points, if you are paragon level 50, you will have 50 points to spend in the assorted categories. Each character that has access to this pool of points will get to allocate them for that character. So your barbs 50 points can be allocated differently than your wizards 50 points.
Lastly yes paragon levels do not have a cap. The amount of experience required to gain a paragon level increases every time you earn a new one so progress becomes slower the higher you are, but if you theoretically played all day every day for the next 10 years you would still be earning paragon experience.
That is currently the plan. Paragon experience will be account but will also be broken out by game play mode. Players who play in Hardcore will have a separate hardcore paragon level from their non hardcore characters.
When a season ends all of the paragon experience you have earned will be rolled into the appropriate pool of paragon experience for the account and you will be able to start at 0 again in the new season.
This is all still a work in progress and subject to change but that is what we are currently intending.
Lylirra on Datamining
Lylirra gave some information regarding datamining the game's PTR clients.
Blizzard employees are currently testing various aspects of Reapers of Souls, and some of those elements appeared on a PTR as part of that. This was intended (in order to make those elements available for testing, they also became datamine-able).
Information taken from the PTR is not final, though, and we encourage everyone to keep that in mind when reviewing datamined content--and also to be mindful to avoid potential spoilers! While we're not going to be commenting specifically on any discussions regarding datamined info (as it is often not reflective of the final product), we'll definitely be updating the community and sharing more delicious details as development of ROS progresses and features start getting locked down.
Where is the PTR ?
We're currently only conducting internal testing right now with employees, but we're using PTR functionality to help facilitate it. By making the game build available for testing, this also made it available for datamining.
While we certainly want to give players the opportunity to test out these changes before they go live and provide feedback, we don't have any details to share right now regarding a public PTR (yes, that's redundant, I know :P) or Reaper of Souls beta.
Sounds like someone made an "oops"
Nah. That's just how uploading game builds to CDNs roll.
It's great to know that the Paragon system 2.0 will add up all the paragon levels of our characters to a sum.
Paragon 2.0 will add up all the paragon EXPERIENCE of your characters is what he said. BIG difference because P500 today will be more more than likely be something like P200 in RoS because of the level curve.
I'm still curious, can anyone answer if this is it for the datamined updates? (until they load new stuff up?) Or are there still things you guys are trying to flesh out?
I wonder that too. Also, earlier this post had a disclaimer at the top saying something like "Important: For the next hour, diablofans is going into read-only mode! Stay tuned!". It showed up until five minutes ago, then I rebooted my router and after refreshing the page it was gone, so must've been a cache bug... but when did the post actually say that and what was it that we were staying tuned for?
I wonder that too. Also, earlier this post had a disclaimer at the top saying something like "Important: For the next hour, diablofans is going into read-only mode! Stay tuned!". It showed up until five minutes ago, then I rebooted my router and after refreshing the page it was gone, so must've been a cache bug... but when did the post actually say that and what was it that we were staying tuned for?
For being able to log in and post again. We had a short maintenance.
It's great to know that the Paragon system 2.0 will add up all the paragon levels of our characters to a sum.
Paragon 2.0 will add up all the paragon EXPERIENCE of your characters is what he said. BIG difference because P500 today will be more more than likely be something like P200 in RoS because of the level curve.
Just one small thing to add: we have also no idea if they keep the scaling the same, like an insane exponential curve, or if paragon levels equal paragon points in paragon 2.0. The idea is that two players who have similar paragon experience get about the same paragon points, that's it. So, if you have one paragon 100 char and your friend has 5x paragon 50 chars, you'll probably end up with about the same paragon points in paragon 2.0 (roughly). Note: since Travis informally confirmed ladder including resets (see OP) today, it might very well be that paragon 1.0 experience doesn't matter after all. Those people who are interested in a rat race right now will probably enter ladder anyways.
(Btw, there are some hilarious videos by some streamers who did funny Excel charts "predicting" the paragon 2.0 experience curve, and I feel it's important to let people know that for every citation of these curves as "fact" an innocent kitten will die.)
I'm still curious, can anyone answer if this is it for the datamined updates? (until they load new stuff up?) Or are there still things you guys are trying to flesh out?
I wonder why the diablofans guys are avoiding this question so intently... It's as if they're afraid they're going to give some sort of surprise away.
Stupid question: How will the ladder work?
Do you create a ladder character or are all your characters automatically part of the ladder? The reason I ask is, I'm a slow player, I enjoy taking my time, and I have no intention to rush through paragon levels, not now, not when RoS launches. So the idea that they will periodically scrape the paragon leveld I've been accumulating is a very disconcerting thought.
Stupid question: How will the ladder work?
Do you create a ladder character or are all your characters automatically part of the ladder? The reason I ask is, I'm a slow player, I enjoy taking my time, and I have no intention to rush through paragon levels, not now, not when RoS launches. So the idea that they will periodically scrape the paragon leveld I've been accumulating is a very disconcerting thought.
It's not a stupid question, it's a very good question!
Thing is, before Travis's post no one at Blizzard even went so far as to mention the word "ladder", afaik. So there is absolutely no word on that.
I, too, hate to lose progress just for some kind of artificial reset once every few months; I don't play 24/7 so the game doesn't wear out as quick as for those who reached p100 on one (or multiple) chars.
The worrying question that needs to be answered if there is ladder-only content, though. The low-level runewords were the reason why I played ladder in D2, even though I dislike the concept of progression reset, which is against RPG concepts.
From the wording on how ladder works, it sounds like the problem of Diablo 3 will still be there. The only thing that will reset is Paragon experience, the characters and their items will remain. Basically, the same players will always be at the top of the ladder.
From the wording on how ladder works, it sounds like the problem of Diablo 3 will still be there. The only thing that will reset is Paragon experience, the characters and their items will remain. Basically, the same players will always be at the top of the ladder.
I'm pretty sure it'll be a complete reset. You'll start a level zero and paragon zero. If it's not like that then there's no point in a seasonal ladder.
As I understood, Paragon LVL/XP will be the only one to reset in Ladder.
By the way its' stated Ladder is a 3rd game mode, hence I believe we will have 8 additional character slots. 1 character slot for each class for ladder, 1 for crusader softcore and 1 for crusader hardcore.
So are legendary items build changers only on the expansion or do they have these affixes on the vanilla as well? Are they actually the loot 2.0 items, or only new legendary items in RoS will have these abilities?
The way I understand it, its a complete reset. You create a ladder character and that character starts off fresh. Any paragon exp you gain during that ladder season will be added to your non-ladder paragon after the season is over. The chacter will then be transferred to non ladder.
I just hope they dont have ladder only items. I would hate to be forced to play ladder.
I'm still curious, can anyone answer if this is it for the datamined updates? (until they load new stuff up?) Or are there still things you guys are trying to flesh out?
I wonder why the diablofans guys are avoiding this question so intently... It's as if they're afraid they're going to give some sort of surprise away.
Nah it's more likely that we're still figuring out if there's anything else worth sharing.. and that can also take some time (you know, double checking stuff). Good for now?
incorrect, the datamining revealed multiple information including seasonal ladder winners and paragon ladder winners. When the ladders reset everyone goes back to zero as with all ladder events. This information in particular was strictly talking about how paragon leveling will be like in ladders.
However I'm still curious how they will determine best seasonal ladder rank
Wow, people are really quick to jump to conclusions and make videos these days.
If Josh Mosquiera tweets "Loot 2.0 is coming". People be posting videos 5 minutes later talking about how loot 2.0 is just around the corner.
Yeah, exactly.
If people would just watch "Game of Thrones" and get the reference... they've been saying "Winter is coming" for 3 seasons now, yet the sun is shining every day in King's Landing.
I'm still curious, can anyone answer if this is it for the datamined updates? (until they load new stuff up?) Or are there still things you guys are trying to flesh out?
I wonder why the diablofans guys are avoiding this question so intently... It's as if they're afraid they're going to give some sort of surprise away.
Nah it's more likely that we're still figuring out if there's anything else worth sharing.. and that can also take some time (you know, double checking stuff). Good for now?
Boooo! What, are you working for Blizz now ??
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Legendary Build Changers
Travis Day came to the forums and posted several very interesting and informative posts, starting out with Legendaries that act as build changers!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
So first I want to touch on the Serpent's Sparker really quick. The item that people saw screen shots of at Gamescon was not a final version of the item, that item was changed to be "Allows you to have 1 additional Hydra active".
One of the most important things about expansion legendary effects is that, as much as possible, they are designed to change how players interact with the game. That could mean they make a skill you don't currently use something you want to use, you interact with the environment in a different way, you interact with monsters in a different way etc. An example of this is one of the legendaries we added recently gives players a speed boost every time they destroy something (barrels, barriers, etc) suddenly you find yourself wanting to break random crates you may have ignored previously.
Jawbreaker was another example people saw at Gamescon, it makes your Dashing Strike free when you hit a target more than 25 yards away. When people get their hands on the new and improved version of Dashing Strike I suspect they will appreciate how awesome that effect is
There will also be some items that exist just because they are cool. For example The Cow King's Halberd is one that I made just because I wanted to make something that captured a really cool element from D2. It deal's lightning damage (and yes elemental damage types have effects associated with them now) because it's a nod to the Cow King himself and also has a chance to summon a herd of murderous cows to fight with you. That effect isn't really changing any gameplay... but cmon it's just awesome!
There is still a tremendous amount of work from now til the expansion releases and we are still coming up with and implementing awesome ideas on a daily basis. Given the philosophy point I listed above I would love to hear what kind of cool things you guys would like to see. Things that change your gameplay, big or small, and class agnostic things are the best. For example "Knockback skills now deal more damage and knock targets back further". That is an effect that opens up build possibilities for more than one class and gets people thinking about how a single item can change the way you interact with the game or what skills you want to use.
Travis Day on Paragon 2.0
In this post Travis reveals that it's still not decided whether already dead Hardcore characters are getting their experience used for the upcoming Paragon levels conversion.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
When the Paragon 2.0 system is released our current plan is to take all the experience players have currently accumulated and sum that into a single value, well two values really, HC and non HC. If you have 5 paragon level 100 characters on your account in soft core that we will add that total experience earned into a single value and your soft core paragon level will be equal to whatever that amount of experience translates to into levels.
The current plan is to do the same thing with all of your hc characters. We are still discussing what we do with dead vs active characters but I'm leaning towards including experience of dead hc heroes as well.
The purpose of the paragon 2.0 system is the reward players who want to invest lots of time as opposed to specific characters. Under that philosophy I don't see any reason to deny hc players experience they previously earned. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hey folks,
I'm here to answer some questions about Paragon 2.0.
Paragon levels are account bound, they are also segregated between HC and non HC characters. This means you will have a paragon level associated with HC characters that can not be increased by playing non HC characters. We didn't want players to feel like the "right way" to level their HC paragon was outside of HC.
The intent of account wide paragon is to reward the player, not the specific character. Paragon experience and levels are fun to earn, but they currently have the draw back of making people feel tied to a specific character. We want to let players play the game however they want when possible and this was one case where we felt the right thing to do was let you play any character you want and have them all work towards the same rewards.
In the case of spending paragon points, if you are paragon level 50, you will have 50 points to spend in the assorted categories. Each character that has access to this pool of points will get to allocate them for that character. So your barbs 50 points can be allocated differently than your wizards 50 points.
Lastly yes paragon levels do not have a cap. The amount of experience required to gain a paragon level increases every time you earn a new one so progress becomes slower the higher you are, but if you theoretically played all day every day for the next 10 years you would still be earning paragon experience.
Hope this helps clear up the air about the new system. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Travis Day on Paragon in Ladder
Finally Travis talks about Ladders and the role Paragon levels will play in them.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
When a season ends all of the paragon experience you have earned will be rolled into the appropriate pool of paragon experience for the account and you will be able to start at 0 again in the new season.
This is all still a work in progress and subject to change but that is what we are currently intending.
Lylirra on Datamining
Lylirra gave some information regarding datamining the game's PTR clients.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Blizzard employees are currently testing various aspects of Reapers of Souls, and some of those elements appeared on a PTR as part of that. This was intended (in order to make those elements available for testing, they also became datamine-able).
Information taken from the PTR is not final, though, and we encourage everyone to keep that in mind when reviewing datamined content--and also to be mindful to avoid potential spoilers! While we're not going to be commenting specifically on any discussions regarding datamined info (as it is often not reflective of the final product), we'll definitely be updating the community and sharing more delicious details as development of ROS progresses and features start getting locked down.
Where is the PTR ?
We're currently only conducting internal testing right now with employees, but we're using PTR functionality to help facilitate it. By making the game build available for testing, this also made it available for datamining.
While we certainly want to give players the opportunity to test out these changes before they go live and provide feedback, we don't have any details to share right now regarding a public PTR (yes, that's redundant, I know :P) or Reaper of Souls beta.
Sounds like someone made an "oops"
Nah. That's just how uploading game builds to CDNs roll.
Ha. Bagstone.
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
At last!
That was something I've been hoping since release.
Me happy
Diabloprogress: http://www.diablopro...reacherman-2596
Battle.net: http://eu.battle.net...eacherman-2596/
For being able to log in and post again. We had a short maintenance.
Ha. Bagstone.
Just one small thing to add: we have also no idea if they keep the scaling the same, like an insane exponential curve, or if paragon levels equal paragon points in paragon 2.0. The idea is that two players who have similar paragon experience get about the same paragon points, that's it. So, if you have one paragon 100 char and your friend has 5x paragon 50 chars, you'll probably end up with about the same paragon points in paragon 2.0 (roughly). Note: since Travis informally confirmed ladder including resets (see OP) today, it might very well be that paragon 1.0 experience doesn't matter after all. Those people who are interested in a rat race right now will probably enter ladder anyways.
(Btw, there are some hilarious videos by some streamers who did funny Excel charts "predicting" the paragon 2.0 experience curve, and I feel it's important to let people know that for every citation of these curves as "fact" an innocent kitten will die.)
Stupid question: How will the ladder work?
Do you create a ladder character or are all your characters automatically part of the ladder? The reason I ask is, I'm a slow player, I enjoy taking my time, and I have no intention to rush through paragon levels, not now, not when RoS launches. So the idea that they will periodically scrape the paragon leveld I've been accumulating is a very disconcerting thought.
It's not a stupid question, it's a very good question!
Thing is, before Travis's post no one at Blizzard even went so far as to mention the word "ladder", afaik. So there is absolutely no word on that.
I, too, hate to lose progress just for some kind of artificial reset once every few months; I don't play 24/7 so the game doesn't wear out as quick as for those who reached p100 on one (or multiple) chars.
The worrying question that needs to be answered if there is ladder-only content, though. The low-level runewords were the reason why I played ladder in D2, even though I dislike the concept of progression reset, which is against RPG concepts.
I'm pretty sure it'll be a complete reset. You'll start a level zero and paragon zero. If it's not like that then there's no point in a seasonal ladder.
By the way its' stated Ladder is a 3rd game mode, hence I believe we will have 8 additional character slots. 1 character slot for each class for ladder, 1 for crusader softcore and 1 for crusader hardcore.
I just hope they dont have ladder only items. I would hate to be forced to play ladder.
However I'm still curious how they will determine best seasonal ladder rank
Yeah, exactly.
If people would just watch "Game of Thrones" and get the reference... they've been saying "Winter is coming" for 3 seasons now, yet the sun is shining every day in King's Landing.
Boooo! What, are you working for Blizz now ??