Is Diablo Dead? Thoughts on upcoming changes?

[TwoCigars]

Seems to be a thought on everyone's mind. I figure this would be a great time to have an open dialogue about it.

Here are my thoughts on what's coming and what should be done to fix some issues in the game.

There are some great changes that I see coming in the future:

• Armory: Store up to 5 gear/skill sets on a character. This saves massive time and stash space. Will be massively easier to judge gear upgrades.
• All crafting materials, dyes, infernal machines, hopefully rift keys and gems stored in the UI instead of stash
• Increasing monster density (more like, less dead spots)
• More consistent Greater Rift map sizes
• Incentive to finish GRifts without dying (additional gem roll)
• I would argue Necromancer isnt a priority because we still have massive heaps of useless gear that will NEVER be used.

Things being added that we dont need:

• "Challenge Rifts"
• Transmogs, achievements that give you zero benefits, portrait frames, pets, wings, and any other cosmetic garbage.
• Diablo 1 inside of Diablo 3, only available for 1 month of the year.
• New game zones that are basically just more eye candy crap that doesn't change gameplay

Questionable "NEW" items:

• Manald Heal: Enemies stunned with Paralysis also take ~2700% weapon damage as Lightning.
  • Ooooookay... Isn't the point of this ring to leech life?
• Faithful Memory: Each enemy hit by Falling Sword increases the damage of Blessed Hammer by ~50% for 5 seconds.
  • Is this really going to buff the LightHammer build to LoNSader levels?

• Rabid Strike: Spirit Spenders that teleport you while Epiphany is active are also mimicked on a distant target for free.
  • ...What build does this go with? Is this going to buff LTK so that it casts a second time on a distant enemy?
• Hellcat Waistguard: Grenades have a chance to bounce ~5 times dealing an additional 50% damage on each bounce, 800% on the final bounce.
  • Strafe demolition build?
• The Barber: Instead of dealing direct damage, your Spirit Barrage now accumulates on the target. When you stop channeling, it explodes dealing ~250% of the accumulated damage within 15 yards.
  • *sigh*
• Saffron Wrap: Increases Overpower damage by ~50% per enemy hit on the previous Overpower, max 20 enemies.
  • Wait, don't we already have too many barbarian belts to choose from?

Things that should have been taken care of:

• Pet AI for all classes. Obviously this idea is on their plate because Necromancer can control pets. Why don't we get it for all?
• Epic mob density based on difficulty level.
• Massive increase of density in narrow maps. Should feel like enemies are funneling to you.
• ZDPS Characters in groups
• An Endless Dungeon mode
• Remove requirement in non-seasonal to complete the basic quests.
• Massive useless items.
• Sets that need buffs to be competitive.
  • There should be a standard that all sets when perfectly geared should either be epic fast T13 clears or match high GR clear times with completely different skill sets.
  • Crusader has 2 thorns builds (I get it, it's a Sader), but what about Roland, Light and Akkhan?
  • How many Monks use Inna's for anything but ZDPS, all other inna's builds are junk? Ulianas takes too long to play for the DPS since EP is no longer a DPS bomb it was.
  • Wizard still using Firebirds for Archon instead of the VYR ARCHON set.
  • WD Zuni set is useless. Helltooth and Arachyr overlap too much. Jade harvester needs some DPS improvements to make it a true DPS bomb spec.
  • DHs have UE or a wonky LoN build spec. Natalya's is mostly worthless, should be the speed build. Marauder and Shadow set?
  • Barbarians actually have a good spread of specs to use that work well and are entertaining. Unfortunately the class doesn't do enough DPS and is relegated to a ZDPS only class.
  • Blackthorne's anyone?
  • Craftable Sets need a buff based on their crafting material requirements. They should be your option as soon as you hit 70 while gearing sets.
    • Aughilds is basically Blackthorne Lite.
    • Demon's Hide should be a craftable thorns set
    • Born's needs to cooldown on 2 piece
    • Sage's should be 2 piece not 3
    • etc
• PvP Oggy2k5
  • They added it to town for the simple sake of having it there, but nothing has ever been done with it. It's completely lame and useless in current funciton.
• Clan Tournaments Oggy2k5
• Trading Oggy2k5
  • Current iteration of trading with just your group for 2 hours is better than nothing but it should extend to your entire clan or 2 hours with anyone

 

[Defqon]

I think the Blizzcon announcements for Diablo were quite lame especially for a massive 20 year anniversary. An event that people will do once a year and a paid class that is coming out at a minimum 8 months away will not save the game.

They really needed to announce an expansion.

 

[TwoCigars]

I think the Blizzcon announcements for Diablo were quite lame especially for a massive 20 year anniversary. An event that people will do once a year and a paid class that is coming out at a minimum 8 months away will not save the game.

They really needed to announce an expansion.

Agreed. All this hype for the past month about what could be happening. All we get is a bunch of fixes that should have been in the game years ago and a new class that we will have to pay for in the second half of next year. If this is their attempt to keep people around and prevent the game from dying, they better take a long hard look in the mirror.

The community has been giving thousands of ideas and suggestions that could have been put into place while the game was still really active.



I am still not sure why they had to cut season 7 short unless they are trying to fit in a full season 8 before releasing the next round of combat and changes. Would have made more sense to just let s7 go long.

 

[Defqon]

The 2 new zones will be useless too. Look at ruins of sescheron, it's just a chore to go there, everyone runs through there as fast as they can to get the cube and never go back

 

[Oggy2k5]

I agree, the feature I most like, will be the gear swapping/armory, it is a much needed feature, that I feel should have been implemented more than a year ago. I remember the time where we would use autoit programs, to gear swap for MF gear, and so fourth. Sadly, I don't feel the things mentioned at BlizzCon will save the game, I don't think it'll draw people back for more than a season or two, maybe to try Necromancer out, but that'll be it.

I like Progression, so much so, that I'll usually try to be a high ranked player on the Leaderboards, however you can only do that for so long before it gets repetitive. The game lacks the PVP of which D2 had, and while many say "Don't compare" It is hard not too compare, PVP leads to further gear progress, further build design, one which will differ greatly than the PVM set ups we all run. PVP not only allowed you to prove you're the best, it also allowed you become one with a clan/guild, and allowed that clan/guild to prove they were the best. Massive community events were held, many clan vs clan tourneys which brought the community together.

Lack of trading/item diversity.

Kevin Martens, Lead Game Designer
"They want people to not need trading, since getting an item from a monster is much more memorable."

Also, I miss the Lobbies from D2, they are far better than the community chats.

 

[Defqon]

Also, I miss the Lobbies from D2, they are far better than the community chats.

Yep, D2 is still far better in just about every core aspect of the game compared to D3. The only thing D3 has over D2 is the graphics and some quality of life changes.

 

[NoLongerAwayBoss]

Seems to be a thought on everyone's mind. I figure this would be a great time to have an open dialogue about it.

Here are my thoughts on what's coming and what should be done to fix some issues in the game.

There are some great changes that I see coming in the future:

• Armory: Store up to 5 gear/skill sets on a character. This saves massive time and stash space. Will be massively easier to judge gear upgrades.
• All crafting materials, dyes, infernal machines, hopefully rift keys and gems stored in the UI instead of stash
• Increasing monster density (more like, less dead spots)
• More consistent Greater Rift map sizes
• Incentive to finish GRifts without dying (additional gem roll)
• I would argue Necromancer isnt a priority because we still have massive heaps of useless gear that will NEVER be used.

I agree with most of your thoughts.
I am afraid that in the next season or two, that a great percentage of players will quit game for good.
I feel it is wonderful about the mats UI thingy.. All my NS accounts have at least two stash tabs full or rares/blues/white/and keystones/jewels etc. I Will Love This !!!!

In my estimation, like TwoCigars, the new Necro will be like all characters at start, weak and ineffective. It will take years to tune Necro to be normal part of game.

Diablo 3 is dying partly because PvP may have made D3 an e-sports game, and thus give D3 some extra room for a bigger more up to date team.

 

[NoLongerAwayBoss]

The 2 new zones will be useless too. Look at ruins of sescheron, it's just a chore to go there, everyone runs through there as fast as they can to get the cube and never go back

LoL. so true. How many times have you been asked by a friend in early season to run to the cube for him?

It is one of the slowest maps in game to for botting or manual play.

 

[NoLongerAwayBoss]

I am still not sure why they had to cut season 7 short unless they are trying to fit in a full season 8 before releasing the next round of combat and changes. Would have made more sense to just let s7 go long.

Yeah, it makes no sense, looking back on things.

I'll bet it was a meeting with the big dog (that is completely out of touch with everything) who woke up in the middle of some situation D3 related and big dog just said, "Fuck this, shut down current season! That will take care of it!"
When in reality, that effected nothing, except pissing all of us off for no reason.

Most of what happens to us client end players makes no sense even when explained. lol

 

[NoLongerAwayBoss]

Blackthorne's anyone?

• Aughilds is basically Blackthorne Lite.
  

TwoCigar you got me ROFL with the Aughilds is basically Blackthorne Lite.....give me a beer and lets watch the aughilds beer commercial!

Blackthorne's is like going behind someone else's code and seeing all the trash (commented out code for various reasons, never explained well).

It used to be powerful and the set to do certain things. Not any more

 

[TwoCigars]

Official Patch Notes are out.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20362179

---

Clearly they want us to use a Barbarian Overpower build.

Barbarian Changes

• Overpower
  • Now has 3 charges
  • Cooldown per charge remains 12 seconds with a chance to be reduced slightly by critical strikes
• Saffron Wrap
  • The damage of your next Overpower is increased by 40-50% for each enemy hit, up to a maximum of 20 enemies

Current Barbarian Overpower Skill

• Cooldown: 12 seconds
• Deal 380% weapon damage to all enemies within 9 yards.
• Critical Hits have a chance to reduce the cooldown of Overpower by 1 second.

Current Barbarian Overpower Runes

• Storm of Steel: The bolt now also throws up to 3 axes at nearby enemies. Each of these axes will deal 380% damage as Physical and travels up to 40 yards.
• Killing Spree: Damage type changes to Lightning. In addition, the Barbarian's Critical Hit Chance is increased by 8% for 5 seconds after activation.
• Crushing Advance: Damage type changes to Cold, and 35% of all melee damage taken is redirected back to the attacker for 5 seconds after activation.
• Momentum: All enemies hit by Overpower now generate 5 Fury for the Barbarian.
• Revel: Damage type changes to Fire, and the bolt's damage is doubled (to 760%).

---

Crusader: Armor of Akkhan

• Talisman of Akkhan (Amulet)
• Has been added as a 7th piece to Armor of Akkhan
• The set’s current bonuses and powers remain the same
• This amulet will always roll with Critical Hit Chance in addition to 3 other random affixes

They are also trying to pull us back to Akkhan set? They are going to make it easier to get the 6 piece bonus but are not actually buffing the set... weird.

The current Akkhan meta is the condemn build with Blade of Prophecy. That build does not have a required amulet or RRoG. The extra piece could function to make set mixing easier. However, both Roland and Light sets would require use of RRoG, dropping endless walk set just to add a 2p bonus to drop cooldowns 50% with akkarat's active.

In the Akkhan set, the amulet would allow you to replace one of the current set slots without using an RRoG, or 2 slots with RRoG. I could see changing the helm to Leoric's Crown which would effectively make Akarat's 100% uptime. You would still be required to use Frydehr's shield due to the 200% condemn damage.

If you include the Faithful Memory sword changes, it would seem that they want a spec that uses the akkhan+light sets? WTF.

Anyone have an idea here?

 

[Defqon]

I did the anniversary event today on PTR and damn it was quite boring. People will do that once also and never do it again. These developers have no idea about this game...

 

[Oggy2k5]

"Illusory Boots - Will now properly allow Crusaders using Steed Charge to pass through walls"

Interesting, might cause some havok with the bot, but I'm sure it'll be an easy fix. (Tick box to run wild)

Barbs will be able to use Overpower for more fury gain, for their Boulder Toss builds, but I don't see any massive improvement.

 

[1piece]

1. It's an incentive to bring people back to this game (especially those that left after RoS 2.0), and I'd say there has been a lot of changes since RoS 2.0
2. Despite of all the negativity, it is a blizzard game, and as long as you're playing this game, you'll buy it for sure. b/c no body wants to be the NOT-haves...
3. If you truly dislike blizzard and its creation, you probably won't be reading this post anyway.