The pace of Diablo 2 has kept me loving the game. It’s a game that I can casually play over the course of several months. While the 2.4 blog changes look very nice, I want you to keep a tight leash on the powercreep train as much as possible to avoid faster progression and/or the addition of higher difficulties to compensate for the powercreep. Do what you can to preserve the difficulty curve of the game! I’d rather not have a repeat of what happened with Diablo 3.
If nerfs are needed to maintain the games difficulty curve and keep the powercreep train from running wild, I AM FINE WITH THAT DECISION!
i am fine with nerfs too (looking at you, hammerdin!) but as far as i have seen the buffs only affeect builds that were unviable in the first place. if they balance the buffs correctly, there should be no need for nerfs.
Yeah, the “pearl clutching” is a bit hilarious, honestly.
Balance changes were only a matter of time. They knew fully well with the last patch 1.10 they dropped the ball years ago and never finished the balancing. Blizzard has shown although they are willing to change the game, they’re unwilling to nerf (yet), by first buffing underperforming builds/classes.
I’d fully expect the second (or third) round to have some nerfs included to smooth it all out.
Well the one thing I know that can happen with balance changes and addition of new items is that overlooked combination of items/skills that makes a character stupid overpowered, sometimes very easily. Sometimes they are discovered and kept secret for as long as possible. (For example the dual-dream merc stacking glitch… I know its a bug, but it was kept secret for a long time.)
This is something we should all be concerned about folks. While skill balancing in Diablo 2 is something that has been needed/wanted for a long while, buffs will ultimately result in faster progression. Do we want another repeat of D3’s faster progression power creep train?
I think it’s too early to tell if it’s going to be comparative to D3.
D3’s problem was that Sets and Uniques were so powerful because of the omission of Runewords, the Skill and Attribute system is completely different, etc.
what are you talking about ? they specifically mentioned buffing the crap skills that nobody uses anyway , unless its some weird niche build for duels. Thematically speaking, FOH is supposed to be a high powered skill in PVM but in reality its hot garbage.dare i say useless. same for the summoner druid. both paladin and druid need more thematical skills that are viable. hammerdins and the like will still be top dogs. they aint getting nerfs.
Did you ever play Diablo 3? Over the timespan of the current 24+ seasons, they also buffed the crap skills that nobody used, as well as the crap items that nobody uses. Over time, that progressed into a leapfrogging power creep trainwreck that turned Diablo 3 into what it is today… An ultra-fast progression button mashing rift treadmill designed to push the limits of the 64 bit signed integer with the greater Rift Guardians health pool.
While I agree with your post, it IS too early to judge, you’ve misidentified why Diablo 3 was broken. The problem was itemization, and particularly skills, were basically set out for you in a predetermined way.
Hence my “etc”. There are many examples where it’s not directly comparable… too many for me to list out without making this into a new thread topic. (which we already know has been discussed ad nauseum already)
I could just sum it all up as it was an entirely different design departure/direction.
two completely different games. besides what is your point again? power creep issues…ah yes never a problem in d2! (sarcasm)
a hammerdin comes a long and makes everyone look like hot trash. hammerdin can do it all naked and makes every other paladin build obsolete. come on man.
for god sake. as a… not so great but only viable comparison i can think of, EQ time locked progress servers run 3 month xpac unlocks or 2 months depending on if there is a max level increase. and there’s WAY more crap to accomplish in that timeframe.
after TWO WEEKS ppl are gonna be complaining about mule space even more than usual.