Only certain areas in HELL difficulty can drop "good" stuff

General Discussion
1

Why o why o why?

I think this is one of worst design choices in the original game, if i remember right, drop rates are tied to monster levels but why? in hell difficulty escpeacially.

In the current system players are forced to run only certain bosses or area over and over and over, while neglecting rest of the game which is pretty much 99%, because of this, that 99% of content is pretty much visited only when leveling and then erased from existence, to me this is well, pretty dumb.

Wouldnt devs want people visit more of the areas while magic finding? could we have more high level areas and foes in hell difficulty? what would be the harm in this, that people actually play the game, not skip it?

I doubt this would have any affect on certain runs, people would still do those runs because they are faster, or maybe even add to those runs who knows, would this be insanely less boring and actually much much more fun in the long run, now with the updated visuals and all?

EDIT: currently there are 14 lvl 85 areas in the game, scattered trought acts, some are pretty hard to reach places, for example why couldnt all levels of maggot lair be lvl 85, not just the lvl 3?

I have played this game literally thousandā€™s of hours during the past two decades, and i have never seen Tal Rasha of Immortal King chest armor drop in solo game, increasing the number of lvl 85 areas would engourage people to visit more areas and actually enjoy more of the game, but it would have minimal or zero affect to economy.

I think this is something defo worth of discussing.

/cheers

2 Likes
2

Yes should be and i think it will be changed/rebalanced. Also isnt it weird that these highest-level areas are not in Act5 hell but weirdly scattered from A1-A5?

1 Like
3

no itā€™s not weird and no it doesnā€™t need to be changed, iā€™d rather have a few quick areas to run, pindle, meph, ancient tunnels etc then the whole game

itā€™s the point of magic finding. kill speed >>>>

4

Itā€™s on purpose to give reasons to go to the various acts/travel around. The 85 areas are mostly out of the way (or the worldstone keep floors). This gives a bit of variety in the farming (Although Pits is generally most popular for density/space I personally prefer AT)

5

Then just stick to your areas.
Why the hell should the rest of the game be ignored? There is literally NO reason at all to limit certain parts of Hell.

You canā€™t think of any good reason either because youā€™re full of it.

3 Likes
6

they are not limited, you are welcome to play them lol

and anyway, only time mlvl/area lvl really matters is if you are looking for high high tier items like tal armor, griffons, etc

you can find a shako off andy and you can find a shako off baal

7

Thereā€™s multiple design choices in D2 that did not age well. Two decades have proven such, since every ARPG has since never repeated a lot of the bad qualities of D2.

  1. Enemies with elemental/physical immunities. Aged badly. Few ways to break themā€¦ just look at all the butt hurt purists that cold mastery worked as intended for a few weeks.
  2. Bad drop rates. Srsly, I have all the best gear but thatā€™s because I farmed high level runes with character rushing hellforge. I let you guys do the work, while I slept.
  3. Tying game mechanics to framerate (this was more of a hardware thing, but still deserves a spot on the list)
  4. Losing experience on death

Plenty more, but Iā€™m bored now. Gonna play a game.

1 Like
8

I think is actually one of the better points that other ARPGs have gotten wrong. VERY HIGH resistances (which is what immunity is) should exist in these games as it gives incentive to either gearing/leveling specifically to break them but still be inefficient or improves the incentive in hybridizing outside of ā€œnumbers go up!ā€ synergy.

I do think Cold Mastery at 20 points should ā€œbreakā€ immunity as it was doing but just barely so you need even more gearing and dedication for it to really matter. (Same for the other breaks like Lower Resist, etc.).

Seems like all of us here either donā€™t find it enough to quit or enjoy the carrot enough to keep grinding. Could they be improved some? Maybe, but Iā€™d be also concerned about the opposite swing which is D3.

Agree

There should be a penalty for death that actually matters. Essentially all the ARPGs have this in some form and since, arguably, D2ā€™s end game is level 99 that penalty is seen with this. Even in SC I feel like you should be rewarded for NOT glass cannoning the entire thing.

9

Then explain to me why the majority of people who played D2 quit after a few years?

10

I feel like that sentiment holds for most games in general unless theyā€™re constantly releasing new content (expansions, etc.)

Most games in general I donā€™t play as much as D2 unless they have constant new ā€˜stuffā€™ to play with such as expansions (MMOs), new content releases (card games), etc. It isnā€™t like I am playing 3 years straight of Civ 6 even though I like it. A majority of most playerbases from my experience eventually leave unless there is constant content updates (and balance updates) and/or competitive elements.