I absolutely hate trial runs. Hate 'em .....hate 'em..... hate 'em. Feels too much like work to me.
The keys feel like an unnecessary step in the Grift process, which is already a headache due to the horrid lack of density within many rifts, as well as the utter lack of large tile-set maps. Most Grift maps are long, narrow corridors. I prefer the big open areas, like Oasis,Weeping, and Fields of Misery.
The trial keys are only part of what was a poorly sussed-out Greater Rift implementation. It seems the "race" aspect was leaned on too heavily by Devs, as is apparent by the long, narrow tile-sets, as well as the many new items they introduced with movement speed bonuses. To that end, I would say that the sparse density is actually by design, as it is apparent they wanted part of the challenge to be how fast you can run from pack to pack, an aspect of Grifts I abhor.
Entrance into a Grift should be determined by the player upon clicking the Rift Obelisk, based on the highest Grift completed by a given character. If that char has completed a tier 30 Grift, he should be able to select any level at or below that tier.
It is my hope that in the near future we'll be saying "Remember when we had to do trial runs"?
Also; "Remember when it would take you 5 minutes to get through a floor level, only to have 15% of the Grift cleared"?
- Rebjorn
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Member for 17 years, 11 months, and 22 days
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ruksak posted a message on Trial system - no more! Choose the GR level you want instead.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion -
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russell3773 posted a message on Super rare items should ALWAYS be at least decent!I agree with what is said above. I think it time for them to add that next tier of items. Being Epic or Exotic whatever they would call them. But the only thing about this that doesn't fit, is the set items and bonus's. They take up to many slots. Nobody wants to see there time and hard work finding gear and than see it become obsolete. I think it would be better to go a route kinda like The Gift item(gems) finding these super rare items That add and turn the item you already have into something even more powerful. Special Affix's, more props, higher roll stats,ect. Something of this nature. But you can only have 2-3 on at a time.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
Just for a plain out of the world Example.
Imagine your A Firebird wiz and you have a Furnace or any weapon. Furnace would make this EPIC. You have been playing for say 150 hours. This Item* drops.. That gives you the Special affix like a Serpent Sparker to have more than one hydra or are able to cast two black holes back to back. Plus the stats on the weapon are increased by 25%, all dmg is increased by 10% and all incoming dmg is reduced by 10%. Finding that super rare item Would knock your socks off and open up your build diversity. It would give you such power you would feel like a new character. Now at first you say well that would be insane you would wreck anything. Which is true but other classes would have runes also class specific-non class specific. Final point this is where they could also bring Grifts back into the game and other harder end content. People would be able too keep progressing forward and feeling more powerful than ever. That's only with one Item*! I know its not as simple as boom boom done. But I hope they are working towards something like this down the road. Just my two cents -
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Rayden_Weiss posted a message on Super rare items should ALWAYS be at least decent!I've got the most crappy Wand of Woh ever.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
I wanted it to drop since RoS release...
So disappointed... -
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chrispbacon177 posted a message on Super rare items should ALWAYS be at least decent!@Autocthon You don't care now, but when you get a trash tier super-rare you might not be so blasé.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion -
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Shiroiro posted a message on Super rare items should ALWAYS be at least decent!Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
You dont see the point? Let me explain. If you drop tnt or furnance you are like "OMG OODMOGSDL OLOLO LLL im fucking luckiest guy on this planet omagod im going to jerk off right now jlkasdf". When you drop star of azkaranth, rechels ring of lacerny or lacunis you are like "meh im SOO excited i just got rarest item in game >.>". And thats not cool. We have enough proper items that are nothing but forgotten souls, rare items should be amazing.Quote from Firecrest
So, let's assume your numbers are correct (if they're not, it's irrelevant - this is just an example). 1.6 in 1000 legendary amulets will be a Star of Azkaranth and, of those, only 1/3 will be "good". What this means is that Blizzard wants "good" Star of Azkaranth's to drop at a rate of roughly 0.48 in 1000. Your request is to change the rate from 1.6 in 1000 to 0.48 in 1000 and cause only "good" ones to drop.
I don't see the point. Is this a "warm and fuzzy" feelings thing? The only people this would help is someone who doesn't understand odds.
Unless, of course, your idea is that the droprate stay the same and all of them should be made "good"... In which case, stop being greedy. If anything, Blizzard has gone too far in handing out everything everyone could ever want. Most builds can be completed (to the point where only ever so slight upgrades can be obtained) in under 100 hours of playtime - that's low enough. -
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PsykStrike posted a message on Idea - Checkpoints for Greater RiftsI like this suggestion. The point about penalty reduction is a good one, and to this I would also add that it removes some of the focus upon speed based skills, which may not be present at the moment, but may very well become essential at a later point. Due to the current structure of GR, the only method to advance would be to farm elites ONLY (this is looking ahead to GR 50+ etc), skipping everything else by use of movement skills, such as dashing strike, vault, teleport, etc.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
For the record, I am not against elite farming so much as being pigeon-holed into selecting a speed focused build. -
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Reborndiablo posted a message on Idea - Checkpoints for Greater RiftsPosted in: Diablo III General Discussion
I think you are on to something here. i like the idea of a progress checkpiont system... I was also thinking of a sort of Pylon/Shrine type of Checkpiont system. but then youl get peaple then will rush towards them to make a new check piont in the middele of the map, and work their way from there. But your idea is a better one.Quote from rebjornJust had a thought that I'd like to share.
The debate over RNG attached to Greater Rift maps has been raging since patch 2.1 was released. Some maps are compact enough that one can "afford" a death or maybe two and still beat the timer.
And then you have those maps which seem to go on forever.. long, winding tunnels, intricate cave systems, the aqueduct map, etc. The penalty for dying is potentially much larger for those maps.
Now, Blizzard did do one adjustment by lowering the chances for those long aqueduct maps to spawn, but they still do on occasion, and those aren't the only troublesome "culprits" anyway.
Now, the thing is actually balancing this out by removing certain map types is a process that involves a lot of work and in any case it's probably not a good thing to keep removing stuff just for the sake of balance.
So, I would suggest that a good checkpoint system could be involved instead. No good reason why the entrancesneed to be the only checkpoints.
Imagine this; a new checkpoint system is live. You're running through one of those long, winding tunnels. A subtle graphical indicator that there's a checkpoint here is in place after clearing 33.3% of the map, and then there's also one at 66.6%.
Yes, I think a graphical indicator would make sense. It wouldn't have to be something major, just a coloured fog or something, with the UI message "Checkpoint" attached. Just for the sake of letting the player know what to expect.
All right, so there it is. Just a thought. -
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wudijo posted a message on Unavoidably, instantly owned by game environmentWell said, Bagstone. I'd very much like to actually "fight" monsters on my DH again, instead of hiding in smoke smoke all day. Most likely Blizzard has recognized the issues and they are working on it silently, but I think they should come out with at least some info soon, before too many players become fed up with the greater rifts (or the even the game) entirely.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion -
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Bagstone posted a message on Hackers on D31) Multiboxing does not give you any advantage at this point, you're better off in creating an efficient group with your friends. High Greater Rifts (45+) are virtually impossible with multiboxing, and T6 is significantly slower with multiboxing, and the higher amount of legendaries barely makes up for it. It's a matter of preference if you have the technical equipment, knowledge, and want to play a more "complex" system. It's absolutely not an easy "let me install this program, buy 3 licenses, and gear my character out" card. Not at all.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
2) Multiboxing is not illegal, and the fact that it requires a 3rd party program is within the grey area of Diablo 3. Citing the ToS/EULA is meaningless here, as they're not updated to reflect Blizzard's stance on multiboxing yet. Also see Blizzard's bluepost regarding multiboxing for clarity:
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
For Diablo III, multiboxing walks the strange line of being something we technically allow, but don’t officially support.
For clarity, players are allowed to have multiple Battle.net accounts, and each of them can have a Diablo III: Reaper of Souls license (one per account). There is no limit to the number of Battle.net accounts a single user can have, so long as no more than three of them have Battle.net Balance*. There is also no restriction to how many of these accounts can be online at once, but the methods to do so may not be supported. We do not support third-party software, and third-party software that automates gameplay is not allowed. Accounts found to be using third-party software that automates gameplay risk being closed, possibly permanently.
In other words, you can have multiple accounts, and you can be online with all of them at one time. We don’t support multiboxing in Diablo III, however, and some software used to facilitate multiboxing may violate our policies, so do so at your own risk.
* Please note that this clarification is not reflected within the EULA and TOU at this time. We will be updating both documents in the near future to correct this.
http://www.diablofans.com/blizz-tracker/topic/55205-why-is-multiboxing-not-illegal
Feel free to discuss this topic further, but refrain from equating "multiboxing" with "hacking" or "cheating" as this is plain wrong. Besides, at least one of the Blizzard developers themselves (Travis Day) admitted to be multiboxing as well. -
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Bagstone posted a message on Unavoidably, instantly owned by game environmentI think Blizzard had good intentions for why they did this, but it kind of backfired. Here's John Yang talking about those affixes. He's essentially saying that unavoidable, direct damage like Thunderstorm and Jailer is supposed to make up for the fact that ranged classes can stand around corners and avoid certain damage whereas melee classes are standing right in front of mobs and therefore have to soak up all the damage - and keep an eye on toughness.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
Personally, I like this a lot. I think it's a good move that toughness is an important stat and it was one of the things that was really bad about D3V, people going "full glass canon" on MP10, because more damage translated to more life steal, and you could basically skip a lot of mitigation requirement that MP10 would've had otherwise. In the beginning of RoS, it looked that that approach was successful: I remember that we were initially running Torment 5-6 with up to 25 million toughness (on my wizard). In the very beginning, there were many different builds available and many classes could participate in high-level content. Then, over time, clearing T6 became so fast that people went back to glass canon style, and with the help of tank monks and jade WDs T6 became a similar thing to MP10 farming in D3V. Mobs were just dying too fast to deal damage, so toughness was not an important stat anymore for fast and efficient groups. Once more, 2.1 attempted to change this by giving us higher levels, equating to T7, T8, T9, and so on; it was not possible to instantly kill everything anymore, so toughness requirements were higher once again. Until people realized that there's a tipping point.
On Greater Rift level 40 and beyond, it becomes almost impossible to have both the DPS necessary to complete the rift in due time and have the toughness to withstand a couple of hits by mobs. Maybe it's possible for certain classes (Crusader) on early 40s, but certainly not on GR48+, and that's where endgame resides for many top players right now. There is absolutely no way you are going to clear GR48 by having both the DPS and toughness required. It's only one or the other. And thanks to playstyles that allow you to kill stuff "off screen" (Sentry/Hydra/Blizzard) or cheesy tactics to avoid damage altogether (Smoke Screen on DH, Tiklandian Visage on WD, Serenity on monk, Furious Charge on barb) you can go for high DPS and still avoid being killed by mobs. But this is just a way to "exploit" game mechanics to get around toughness. I can't blame any player for doing this; as soon as I saw the opportunity for perma Serenity when all the new CDR items surfaced I thought this might be a nice thing, and I was surprised that Blizzard didn't prevent this (just like they prevented perma Archon). So I went for it. But I would much rather go back to a more balanced character of having a mix of DPS/toughness rather than having a glass canon DH and a zDPS monk and WD for all my GR45+ attempts.
Anyways, I disgress. Unavoidable damage is a necessity to force players to go for toughness - this is what John Yang said in the video. He said they don't want to see players going for high Greater Rifts with something like 5 million toughness. Well, if that's the case, then why are they not doing something about it? Demon Hunters are clearing GR48 solo and GR51 in groups now with 2-3 million toughness. It's exactly the opposite of what they want to achieve. The unavoidable damage is canceled out by a CC witch doctor, dangerous packs are being kept away from the DPS by a CS monk, so toughness is something you need to give up completely in order to compete in high-end content. This was apparent from day 1 on PTR and yet went live, and there's no word from the developers about potentially changing this for season 2.
My proposal for potential solutions:
1) Itemization 3.0 - splitting stats in primary and secondary was nice, but giving players a trade-off between DPS and toughness for the same stats completely backfired. No one in their right mind uses any kind of toughness stats on any of their jewelry or gloves, for example, it's all about DPS. Therefore, I suggest (and this has been suggested many times before) to separate stats into offense, defense, and utility.
2) Just like the first change to crowd control in response to the CMWW wizard, further iterate on diminishing returns. Give mobs a fixed limit of 75% of time to be CCed, make them go crazy for at least 0.25 seconds every seconds. Just end all the dreams of perma-CC through fear, immobilize, Furious Charge, or freeze. Similarly, put a hard cap on CDR that makes more sense (75% or 66% instead of 90%) or re-iterate on skills such that even high CDR doesn't allow for invincibility or perma-use of skills that are meant to be situational (Akarat's Champion, Epiphany, Serenity, and so on). It would make those skills less mandatory, end cheesy game tactics, and maybe (I'm just being very optimistic here) open up build diversity once again.
3) If damage is meant to be unavoidable, make it so that it is avoidable through toughness. There is no point in forcing people to ramp up toughness "because we don't want glass canons", but at the same time design the endgame in a way such that it is impossible with given itemization to not be killed by a single hit (unless you run around with zero DPS, which defeats the purpose of this game). In addition to point 1, one potential solution could be an inherent Forced Armor mechanic for every class.
There's really no easy way to solve this. All of the aforementioned solutions are not enough to change how game mechanics currently work - although there is "unavoidable damage", the only way to get to rank #1 is to hope for RNG and a 15 minutes streak of not getting hit by any such "unavoidable damage". Any of the aforementioned changes needs to be accompanied with even more aggressive mobs, e.g., a Frozen/Jailer range of 200 yards or a density such that getting hit is virtually impossible to avoid. In return, the initial hit of such abilities should hurt, but not kill players, such that part of beating a high rift is to avoid the continued ticks of those affixes. It's very much like WoW; I haven't played it since Vanilla but there was certain damage that was impossible to avoid, and you had to gear for it (I remember many such encounters in Ahn'Qiraj like C'Thun's stomach or Huhuran's poison darts), and lots of damage that was possible to avoid when you payed close attention (void zones in multiple encounters). [Oh, and of course I forgot to mention - what the hell is that stupid change to channeling spells supposed to mean for wizards, when you need to stand still for ~5 second to deal respectable damage, but the only way to not die in GR40+ is to never stand still for more than 1 second? I mean, WTH were you thinking, Blizzard? Thanks for killing my class and forcing a kiting playstyle on everyone and giving us spells that only work if you never kite anything...]
TL;DR: Unavoidable damage wouldn't be an issue and would actually be good game design if there was a way to mitigate such unavoidable damage, at least until you can react to it. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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Just came across this article, may be old news for some but here you go:
https://screenrant.com/diablo-2-resurrected-alpha-mods-cease-desist-blizzard/
I think that one concern for many D2 players have been whether or not Blizzard will encrypt the game files and deny the community the opportunity to make modifications to the game. Looks like we might actually be able to enjoy those awesome D2 mods after all - and who knows, perhaps they'll even take it one step further and provide the community with some real tools for the job (modding D2 can be very cumbersome and what one can actually do is limited because many bits and pieces of the game code can't be accessed).
“We acknowledge that a big part of Diablo II’s longevity is the modding community and we appreciate their enthusiasm for the game. Classic Diablo II and its mods will continue to exist and we’re going to do our best to continue to support the mods for Diablo II: Resurrected as well .."
According to reports, Blizzard Entertainment sent cease-and-desist orders were sent to creators who build mods based on Diablo II: Resurrected's recent alpha. Blizzard hosted a closed technical alpha for the Diablo II remaster in early April, allowing only a select number of players to try out the title's first two Acts.
Many members of the modding community got their hands on the alpha build despite not receiving an invite. Some modders gained access thanks to a Belgian programmer named Ferib Hellscream, who managed to invite himself into the technical alpha by bypassing Diablo II's anti-cheat parameters. Upon successfully manipulating the system, Ferib shared his tool, D2ROffline, with friends and other modders. Trouble arose when someone leaked the tool, opening the door to people charging money for access. To combat this, Ferib open-sourced his work; naturally, more players and modders poured in. Blizzard has now made a few moves of its own.
Speaking with Kotaku, Ferib and another modder said they received cease-and-desist letters from Blizzard, effectively putting the kibosh on their Diablo II: Resurrected mods. One person who goes by Shalzuth claimed a private investigator delivered their warning. In compliance with Blizzard's request, both creators deleted Diablo II: Resurrected projects from their respective websites. Ferib additionally removed YouTube videos related to his work; meanwhile, Shalzuth shuttered his Diablo II-centric Discord server. When reached for comment, a Blizzard spokesperson shared the following statement with Kotaku.
Blizzard's response to the ordeal is expected and understandable given the circumstances. After all, some of these mods were based on a hacked version of Diablo II: Resurrected's alpha build. At the very least, it seems as though Blizzard plans on fully supporting the modding community whenever the full game actually goes live later in the year.
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'Wilderness' from Diablo II is a Masterpiece
The Diablo II Soundtrack has no equal. When I decided to do this I wanted to do it right and not just copy/paste a cover image with some music. I wanted it to look and feel right. I wanted to make it something that I could enjoy again and again. The tracks are all absolutely fantastic. I went out of my way to find the highest quality sound files that I could find, I used lossless FLAC whenever possible. I scoured through many websites, digging in deep to find good concept art. I ended up spending a lot of time piecing this thing together, I had to start all over many times with some segments but I think that in the end it was well worth the effort.
Credit to Matt Uelmen for this unprecedented muscial legacy. This is real art. There's nothing like it. This will never happen again. I sometimes play D2 or D3 muting the in-game music and I keep this one playing on my second screen. Call me a narcissist. And now we have Diablo II Resurrected incoming .. what can I say .. good things come to those that wait. † † †