I don't really get the "but we're getting content for free so we shouldn't complain".
No, we're not getting anything for free. We paid for the game, we will pay for the Necro DLC, what we got is what we paid for.
The problem is not that. Not at all.
The problem is that there's nothing new. A zone with some bounties is nothing worth doing - we're going to farm Grs no matter what because they're the only thign worth to do in game.
Challenge rifts are a novelty thing which i suppose will wither fast because why in the hell should i play another character and race against other people in an hack and slash game. I can get rewards for my char but imho it goes against the ARPG premise where the main goal of the entire genre is MAKING YOUR CHARACTER STRONGER. I want to play my char and make it stronger, end.
It just looks like to me that the game as a whole revolves around ladders of some sort which tbh are the very least thing only the really dedicated and interested people do.
The whole issue is that Blizzard is simply not interesting in changing anything in the game, because it's much easier to manage. Adding a new class is good and fun and i support the idea of class DLCs but i want the revenue from it translated in some new REAL content, not some random zones which have next to zero sense to exist and i see them a couple of times because the Season Journey tells me to complete a round of bounties.
Just to give to all a perspective of what Blizzard really thinks and offically answered:
Talk about entitlement and overreacting. "broken mess" because your fancy keyboard lòeds don't work? Lol, totally game breaking. I suppose to each its own.
I am not against this kind of monetization. A new class (until expressely and incredibly OP - which may impact on ladders) is not something game changing and truly optional stuff, but still worth to buy since it's new gameplay. Pricing needs to be tuned really good however.
I just hope that it's a new way to make D3 remunerative and worth more time investment - while a new class is cool we need deep changes to systems like paragon, which currently is very lackluster, and a new class or ten new classes won't chnage that anyway. If new classes are made to get more revenue so they can work on features/systems and give them to evryone via content patches, i'd be happy.
Yet i didn't see anything of this during Blizzcon and i'll have to wait 6 months/a year before necro; my interest in the game is already at minimum and waiting is not something i'm ready to do.
I just prefer to actually play the game for my loot than to go with a shop-list and buy stuff from an interface.
What reason does this have. To beat any challenge for gear you don't need to upgrade and you're obviously planning to sell? Well, it's one aspect i really hated about D2 too.
I mean. The trading "metagame" may be entertaining for some, but it ultimately collides with the main goal of Diablo, which is the item hunt. Not saying that now it's perfect (itemization system and speed of getting loot are both a problem imho) but trading wouldn't accomplish nothing to be honest. especially at this point.
Given the info we have, i'm completely clueless at his point. Multiple occasions for an expansion for D3 have passed with literally ZERO news, so if i have to imagine something about the future of D3 i think they will reveal some sort of big-ish patch with a revamped paragon system and maybe something else than GRs to progress with a character (not tied to ladders). Or better it's what i hope for without going too high with expectations.
Other than that i don't know. Given the lore and story of Diablo, it makes sense for a game with an environment like Dark Souls/Bloodborne due to the grimdark setting. Also the cliffangher we have now about Nephalem being so strong and easily corruptable can open up some sort of two-factions environment that opens up to PvP, while all Nephalems can fight together both Angels and Demons to protect Sanctuary.
Overall i think it's a good setting that covers both single (becomes like a Skyrim/DS) and multiplayer (MMO or co-op) options. Combat/gearing would need to have a MAJOR role howwever, since they're the trademarks of a Diablo game.
But in the end, i really expect nothing but some sort of "meh" things like a retrospective due to teh anniversary of the franchise and while D2HD would be nice, it won't be anything relevant due to its archaich gameplay system which will be appealing only for a small subset of players.
While i like d3 completely, i find myself playing for a while every season to do the journey and then i'm done, and that doesn't take really much. However, i don't want long grinds (making guardian objectives stuff like "reach 2k paragon" are even worse than current iteration).
Current gripes i have with the game:
- sets over sets over sets. Everyone like sets, but making them the source of builds doesn't look like the right strategy for me. Making one small set buff one/two abilities or create a synergy is awesome - having a set covering nearly all the inventory that makes the decisions for me is not exactly what i expected to become. Theroycrafting and best builds will always exist, and independently from the itemization system. Anyway taking out players choice towards a predetermined skillset is simply not appealing.
- paragon. I like the idea of infinite progression but having +damage and +defense until you cap at 800 then having +5 mainstat to inifnity is not an interesting progression, period. Also, the only actual reason to effectively grind paragon are ladders, otherwise they are a complete passive increase of power that is gained by doing something else and have next to zero purpose.
- lack of long term obejctives. Ladders are a fun competition for people who's interested in them, and GRs are fun until you realize that either you do GR or do nothing since they become very fast the only and best way to progress with your character. Fastest way to get XP/Paragon, gear, only way to level up gems and so on. Really, people do bounties only because they need to cube stuff and this season is just a little more due to the "cube 50 stuff" thing. And story mode is there forgotten and ignored. And then...nothing else basically. While GRs have a very definite and specific scope (ladder competition) there's a) stuff in game that has little (or no) purpose to be and nothing else for people not interested in ladders.
Well, i expected the nerf to be honest. RoE/Wormwood + haunt as generator was something too strong to pass over and basically any WD build with a sense would have used that. I'm still not convinced by the fact that Zuni and HT/Garg have basically the same playstyle and HT wins due to bigger multipliers.
HT/Gargs is still strong, what you did last season is completely doable this season, so i don't see any issue. Meta will change, but hell i assumed everyone wants to avoid another stgnant situation like S5 and S6 where it was dominated by a single class.
I think that forbes article is full of crap, honestly.
Anyway, the worries of the community are real - it's been a long time without major announcements and important people of the team just left. Plus all this "unannounce Diablo project" obviously drags a lot of resources form D3 for sure.
Anyway, Gamescom and Blizzcon are just there. Instead of going "the sky is falling" mode, i'd just wait and see what they have for us. Quin at Gamescom is an indicator that something is or will be happening, however we don't know the scale.
If D3 goes maintenance mode, well, doesn't change much for most people who just log in for seasons and do the journey. Ladders are a thing for a very small elite while everyone seem to be just "they guy who plays a lot and should be #1".
1
Gems are baseline - boss mode is easy to do - years of war prolly the easiest choice. too bad ill need two chars for that.
1
I don't really get the "but we're getting content for free so we shouldn't complain".
No, we're not getting anything for free. We paid for the game, we will pay for the Necro DLC, what we got is what we paid for.
The problem is not that. Not at all.
The problem is that there's nothing new. A zone with some bounties is nothing worth doing - we're going to farm Grs no matter what because they're the only thign worth to do in game.
Challenge rifts are a novelty thing which i suppose will wither fast because why in the hell should i play another character and race against other people in an hack and slash game. I can get rewards for my char but imho it goes against the ARPG premise where the main goal of the entire genre is MAKING YOUR CHARACTER STRONGER. I want to play my char and make it stronger, end.
It just looks like to me that the game as a whole revolves around ladders of some sort which tbh are the very least thing only the really dedicated and interested people do.
The whole issue is that Blizzard is simply not interesting in changing anything in the game, because it's much easier to manage. Adding a new class is good and fun and i support the idea of class DLCs but i want the revenue from it translated in some new REAL content, not some random zones which have next to zero sense to exist and i see them a couple of times because the Season Journey tells me to complete a round of bounties.
Just to give to all a perspective of what Blizzard really thinks and offically answered:
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20507565/developer-chronicles-qa-follow-up-24-01-2017
Read the answers and tell me what they're saying. All i can read is "We're fine, we're not making any changes, buy Necro DLC".
1
Talk about entitlement and overreacting. "broken mess" because your fancy keyboard lòeds don't work? Lol, totally game breaking. I suppose to each its own.
1
I am not against this kind of monetization. A new class (until expressely and incredibly OP - which may impact on ladders) is not something game changing and truly optional stuff, but still worth to buy since it's new gameplay. Pricing needs to be tuned really good however.
I just hope that it's a new way to make D3 remunerative and worth more time investment - while a new class is cool we need deep changes to systems like paragon, which currently is very lackluster, and a new class or ten new classes won't chnage that anyway. If new classes are made to get more revenue so they can work on features/systems and give them to evryone via content patches, i'd be happy.
Yet i didn't see anything of this during Blizzcon and i'll have to wait 6 months/a year before necro; my interest in the game is already at minimum and waiting is not something i'm ready to do.
2
I just prefer to actually play the game for my loot than to go with a shop-list and buy stuff from an interface.
What reason does this have. To beat any challenge for gear you don't need to upgrade and you're obviously planning to sell? Well, it's one aspect i really hated about D2 too.
I mean. The trading "metagame" may be entertaining for some, but it ultimately collides with the main goal of Diablo, which is the item hunt. Not saying that now it's perfect (itemization system and speed of getting loot are both a problem imho) but trading wouldn't accomplish nothing to be honest. especially at this point.
1
Given the info we have, i'm completely clueless at his point. Multiple occasions for an expansion for D3 have passed with literally ZERO news, so if i have to imagine something about the future of D3 i think they will reveal some sort of big-ish patch with a revamped paragon system and maybe something else than GRs to progress with a character (not tied to ladders). Or better it's what i hope for without going too high with expectations.
Other than that i don't know. Given the lore and story of Diablo, it makes sense for a game with an environment like Dark Souls/Bloodborne due to the grimdark setting. Also the cliffangher we have now about Nephalem being so strong and easily corruptable can open up some sort of two-factions environment that opens up to PvP, while all Nephalems can fight together both Angels and Demons to protect Sanctuary.
Overall i think it's a good setting that covers both single (becomes like a Skyrim/DS) and multiplayer (MMO or co-op) options. Combat/gearing would need to have a MAJOR role howwever, since they're the trademarks of a Diablo game.
But in the end, i really expect nothing but some sort of "meh" things like a retrospective due to teh anniversary of the franchise and while D2HD would be nice, it won't be anything relevant due to its archaich gameplay system which will be appealing only for a small subset of players.
3
While i like d3 completely, i find myself playing for a while every season to do the journey and then i'm done, and that doesn't take really much. However, i don't want long grinds (making guardian objectives stuff like "reach 2k paragon" are even worse than current iteration).
Current gripes i have with the game:
- sets over sets over sets. Everyone like sets, but making them the source of builds doesn't look like the right strategy for me. Making one small set buff one/two abilities or create a synergy is awesome - having a set covering nearly all the inventory that makes the decisions for me is not exactly what i expected to become. Theroycrafting and best builds will always exist, and independently from the itemization system. Anyway taking out players choice towards a predetermined skillset is simply not appealing.
- paragon. I like the idea of infinite progression but having +damage and +defense until you cap at 800 then having +5 mainstat to inifnity is not an interesting progression, period. Also, the only actual reason to effectively grind paragon are ladders, otherwise they are a complete passive increase of power that is gained by doing something else and have next to zero purpose.
- lack of long term obejctives. Ladders are a fun competition for people who's interested in them, and GRs are fun until you realize that either you do GR or do nothing since they become very fast the only and best way to progress with your character. Fastest way to get XP/Paragon, gear, only way to level up gems and so on. Really, people do bounties only because they need to cube stuff and this season is just a little more due to the "cube 50 stuff" thing. And story mode is there forgotten and ignored. And then...nothing else basically. While GRs have a very definite and specific scope (ladder competition) there's a) stuff in game that has little (or no) purpose to be and
nothing else for people not interested in ladders.
Just my 2 cents.
1
Oh god the salt. I'm drying.
Well, i expected the nerf to be honest. RoE/Wormwood + haunt as generator was something too strong to pass over and basically any WD build with a sense would have used that. I'm still not convinced by the fact that Zuni and HT/Garg have basically the same playstyle and HT wins due to bigger multipliers.
HT/Gargs is still strong, what you did last season is completely doable this season, so i don't see any issue. Meta will change, but hell i assumed everyone wants to avoid another stgnant situation like S5 and S6 where it was dominated by a single class.
1
Uhm, this looks a lot similar with my Firebird idea.
If i link the d3planner, are you willing to try it for the lulz? No guarantee of it being better, but i think it's viable.
http://ptr.d3planner.com/212179722
Hope you like it.
1
I think that forbes article is full of crap, honestly.
Anyway, the worries of the community are real - it's been a long time without major announcements and important people of the team just left. Plus all this "unannounce Diablo project" obviously drags a lot of resources form D3 for sure.
Anyway, Gamescom and Blizzcon are just there. Instead of going "the sky is falling" mode, i'd just wait and see what they have for us. Quin at Gamescom is an indicator that something is or will be happening, however we don't know the scale.
If D3 goes maintenance mode, well, doesn't change much for most people who just log in for seasons and do the journey. Ladders are a thing for a very small elite while everyone seem to be just "they guy who plays a lot and should be #1".