I agree. I can't imagine why they wouldn't convert some of the runes for the various skills into more permanent summons. I mean, they're working so hard to make thorns function, and that's just as passive as using minions.
I think the dogs and the gargantuan are looking good, and the Fetish Army should be combined with the passive that lets you randomly summon them. The WD already has plenty of variety, it's just that there are no runes to make certain "summons" (spiders, bats, zombies, zombie bears, ghost (haunt/manitou)) stick around permanently.
It's clear they wanted to try to capture the summoner vibe without letting the WD be as idle as the Necro could be if you look at the super-short-duration summons I just mentioned. I think a better way to handle it would be to have them more permanent but die more easily.
I seriously doubt the existence of trading had anything to do with the existence of hacks and dupes. Bots, maybe (although they are also used to advance one's own characters); spam, certainly. But not hacks and dupes.
Well, there's no point in duping a BoA item, since you can't give it to another player and you can't equip two of the same Legendary (as far as I know).
Salvaging. You can dupe the mats themselves too probably, but duping in general still has it's place.
I hadn't thought of that, but we were talking about D2, which didn't have the whole materials thing. There, the primary use for duping was to trade away items, which you can't do under a BoA system.
EDIT: Actually, runes would probably be a good equivalent of duping "materials" from D2. But I maintain, I think a large part of the incentive to dupe is linked to being able to trade away the duped items.
I don't care too much about high-end trading being gone. What I hate is that you cannot even share items in a group of friends or in the same game.
As far as I know, the current iteration is that you can share items with the other players who were in the game when the item dropped (for a period of 2 hours). I can appreciate that you want to be able to give items to friends even if they weren't in the game with you, but that ultimately goes against the BoA philosophy because it would allow you to help that player skip ahead on the item progression curve.
I seriously doubt the existence of trading had anything to do with the existence of hacks and dupes. Bots, maybe (although they are also used to advance one's own characters); spam, certainly. But not hacks and dupes.
Well, there's no point in duping a BoA item, since you can't give it to another player and you can't equip two of the same Legendary (as far as I know).
The SoJ is a very rare drop which would make it a bad base currency, however it was duped a whole lot which inflated the supply of it.
I guess that is why it became a sort of currency.
Just a fun fact for you, another thing that contributed to the rise of the SoJ as currency was the fact that for a long time, they were really easy to gamble for. Basically, the game would not let you gamble a unique if it was already in the game (i.e., if a player had it somewhere on the character or stash). So you could keep a Naglering and a Manald Heal in your stash, and whenever you gambled a unique ring, it had to be an SoJ. Then you'd mule off the SoJ and go back to gambling for rings.
EDIT:
To comment on the OP, I had the same experience in D2 with p-gems, which were a sort of pauper's currency. I liked it a lot, because in a game like Diablo, any Diablo, it's very hard to farm for one specific item. You kinda just have to keep playing and hope it drops, even if it's D2 and you're running Meph over and over. It could be the first drop, it could be the 500th.
With a currency, you can see yourself building up progress toward that specific item. It feels good because a ) it's visible progress and b ) you have some control over it. I'd really like to see them do more of that in D3.
Also, there will never be and should never be a way to engage someone in any pvp activity without their prior consent.
I completely disagree with this sentiment, but I don't think we'll ever see traditional PKing again because most players hated it. I'd bet you that PKing comprised a huge number of Blizzard's customer service complaints.
So basically your idea of fun is ruining someone else's game and you'd like Blizz to allow you to do it?
Sorry if I'm misunderstanding your point, but I loved it when people would drop into my game and go hostile. It was a total rush trying to get away if I was on a character that couldn't fight back, or trying to ambush the aggressor if I was on a character that could. PKs were way more interesting than anything the game ever threw at me. Lost plenty of HC characters that way.
But, like I said, I get that a lot of people hated it and I don't expect to see it ever added back to the game, but that doesn't change my opinion on it.
Hey guys, I was just looking at my Battle.net account and under Diablo 3, at the bottom, there's a little box that says "New content and updates for Diablo III are available for you to preview on the Public Test Realm!"
Is that always there? I didn't hear anything about a new PTR being available. Can't check it out until I get home from work.
Also, there will never be and should never be a way to engage someone in any pvp activity without their prior consent.
I completely disagree with this sentiment, but I don't think we'll ever see traditional PKing again because most players hated it. I'd bet you that PKing comprised a huge number of Blizzard's customer service complaints.
PvP is insanely tough to balance with PvE. Just look at WoW, they change it every month or so. People also have much higher standards nowadays than they did - I can't remember ever doing PvP in D2 and surviving more than one or two hits, but I know people still did it and had fun in that environment.
All I'm trying to say though, is that it's not as easy as "remove crit" or "reduce player damage by 90%."
Theoretically, at least. Of course, after a few hundred hours, you'll never need to pick up a rare again, which is sad.
This perspective is so interesting to me because I feel like after a few hundred hours of play, I've earned being decked out in Legendary items.
I mean, there's got to be a top-end somewhere, and that top-end has to be Legendary, otherwise Legendary isn't the top tier in the game and people call them lame.
I had the chance to play console and was looking forward to the better drops and upgrades but as soon as I got to 60 and finished Inferno I now struggle to find a leg or even one thats an up grade. I can not even play above Hard mode with out being raped.....is this the direction how D3 is going?
I'm not really sure what to tell you - I have two 60's on the console and they both switched to Master I after completing Hell mode with no trouble. I can't even imagine what your experience is like if you're struggling in Hard.
After I'd done Inferno (Master I) a few times, the drops did become more sparse, but that's the nature of the game. All players get to that point, and it's just up to you how far you want to go.
For what it's worth, Easy / Normal / Hard don't have any bonuses associated with them on the console (Master I-V adds MF/GF/EXP bonuses) so if you're having trouble on Hard there's no harm in going back to Normal.
So I was in another thread talking about BoA and its impact on trading, and I wondered what it would be like if BoA only applied during the ladder season, and then when the season ended and the ladder characters joined the pool of other characters they became unbound.
I sort-of like the idea because it adds to the competitive nature of the ladders, knowing the players on the lists are playing with only the gear they've found themselves.
I'm not sure if I'd eliminate the 2-hour trade window, since it'd be cool to have people forming "ladder squads" to help each other along the way; conversely, you'd end up with people selling carries like you have now for the ubers.
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I think the dogs and the gargantuan are looking good, and the Fetish Army should be combined with the passive that lets you randomly summon them. The WD already has plenty of variety, it's just that there are no runes to make certain "summons" (spiders, bats, zombies, zombie bears, ghost (haunt/manitou)) stick around permanently.
It's clear they wanted to try to capture the summoner vibe without letting the WD be as idle as the Necro could be if you look at the super-short-duration summons I just mentioned. I think a better way to handle it would be to have them more permanent but die more easily.
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I hadn't thought of that, but we were talking about D2, which didn't have the whole materials thing. There, the primary use for duping was to trade away items, which you can't do under a BoA system.
EDIT: Actually, runes would probably be a good equivalent of duping "materials" from D2. But I maintain, I think a large part of the incentive to dupe is linked to being able to trade away the duped items.
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As far as I know, the current iteration is that you can share items with the other players who were in the game when the item dropped (for a period of 2 hours). I can appreciate that you want to be able to give items to friends even if they weren't in the game with you, but that ultimately goes against the BoA philosophy because it would allow you to help that player skip ahead on the item progression curve.
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Well, there's no point in duping a BoA item, since you can't give it to another player and you can't equip two of the same Legendary (as far as I know).
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Just a fun fact for you, another thing that contributed to the rise of the SoJ as currency was the fact that for a long time, they were really easy to gamble for. Basically, the game would not let you gamble a unique if it was already in the game (i.e., if a player had it somewhere on the character or stash). So you could keep a Naglering and a Manald Heal in your stash, and whenever you gambled a unique ring, it had to be an SoJ. Then you'd mule off the SoJ and go back to gambling for rings.
EDIT:
To comment on the OP, I had the same experience in D2 with p-gems, which were a sort of pauper's currency. I liked it a lot, because in a game like Diablo, any Diablo, it's very hard to farm for one specific item. You kinda just have to keep playing and hope it drops, even if it's D2 and you're running Meph over and over. It could be the first drop, it could be the 500th.
With a currency, you can see yourself building up progress toward that specific item. It feels good because a ) it's visible progress and b ) you have some control over it. I'd really like to see them do more of that in D3.
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Sorry if I'm misunderstanding your point, but I loved it when people would drop into my game and go hostile. It was a total rush trying to get away if I was on a character that couldn't fight back, or trying to ambush the aggressor if I was on a character that could. PKs were way more interesting than anything the game ever threw at me. Lost plenty of HC characters that way.
But, like I said, I get that a lot of people hated it and I don't expect to see it ever added back to the game, but that doesn't change my opinion on it.
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Noted, thanks.
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Is that always there? I didn't hear anything about a new PTR being available. Can't check it out until I get home from work.
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I completely disagree with this sentiment, but I don't think we'll ever see traditional PKing again because most players hated it. I'd bet you that PKing comprised a huge number of Blizzard's customer service complaints.
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All I'm trying to say though, is that it's not as easy as "remove crit" or "reduce player damage by 90%."
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IF you had a PC that didn't lag during the death-quake! (or the item snipe mod).
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This perspective is so interesting to me because I feel like after a few hundred hours of play, I've earned being decked out in Legendary items.
I mean, there's got to be a top-end somewhere, and that top-end has to be Legendary, otherwise Legendary isn't the top tier in the game and people call them lame.
0
I'm not really sure what to tell you - I have two 60's on the console and they both switched to Master I after completing Hell mode with no trouble. I can't even imagine what your experience is like if you're struggling in Hard.
After I'd done Inferno (Master I) a few times, the drops did become more sparse, but that's the nature of the game. All players get to that point, and it's just up to you how far you want to go.
For what it's worth, Easy / Normal / Hard don't have any bonuses associated with them on the console (Master I-V adds MF/GF/EXP bonuses) so if you're having trouble on Hard there's no harm in going back to Normal.
0
I sort-of like the idea because it adds to the competitive nature of the ladders, knowing the players on the lists are playing with only the gear they've found themselves.
I'm not sure if I'd eliminate the 2-hour trade window, since it'd be cool to have people forming "ladder squads" to help each other along the way; conversely, you'd end up with people selling carries like you have now for the ubers.
What do you guys think?
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Thorns was something I just never understood how they could balance, it always seems like it's overpowered or negligible.