Why do we even have level 85 areas?

PTR Feedback
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There are over 120 areas in the game… At hell difficulty, these areas range from level 67 to 85…

Because of the way XP and item drop rates work, level 85 areas are the most sought after areas for farming…

But there are only 31 level 85 areas in the game now (before patch 2.4, it was only 16). This means that up to 75% of the zones and content in the game are never worthwhile to revisit after you play through the game, and once you reach a high level…

We are buffing and creating some new level 85 zones. This is a very good step, but maybe we should do more?

If we are changing so many things in D2R, why not make ALL AREAS EQUAL TO FARM? More fun, longer games, play with large clans or groups of friends, stay in games longer, spend less time waiting in loading screens, spend less time typing game names and passwords, spend less time in lobbies looking for games…

What if Blizzard adds a new feature to the game:

  • Once you complete Hell difficulty, all zones in games created by you become level 85. you can make open world zones level 84 if you still want players to focus on farming dungeons only…
  • If you have not completed hell difficulty yet, games created by you will spawn with the current area levels… This keeps the dificulty level of a standard game playthrough the same as it is now…

Would this be good for the game, or bad?

I think it would be good :+1: .

My computer has low CPU and graphics, so loading times are slow for me… Games that only last 2 minutes are a waste of time for me… When I join a game, I don’t have time to type “hello”, because everyone is racing to farm the best zones before each other. If a game is older than 2 minutes, it’s not worth joining. The game would be more chill and enjoyable if this mechanic was changed :+1:

The more 85 areas in the game, and the less trash areas, the better in my books. The only reason I can think why it is good to limit the number of 85 areas is because then you have some control on game balance between the character classes… For example, Hammerdin is very strong, so adding areas with magic immunes will make characters that don’t deal magic damage more viable. Maybe the game is unbalanced if all areas are level 84/85? I don’t know :man_shrugging:

What do other people think?

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Because high level monsters are more difficult so having it in all zones would not be that good i guess.

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Yeah, its a problem they don’t really have a good solution for at the moment. The endgame of D2R becomes repetitive, because there are few areas that can give good items and good experience.

I like the idea of more possibilities opening up once you have beaten Baal on Hell difficulty. They won’t add a new difficulty, but maybe some changes to existing content is not a bad idea. With that being said, the problem with suddenly making all Hell difficulty level 84 or 85 is that you might make it “unsafe” for players. In other words, imagine you scrape through Hell difficulty and manage to beat Baal, and then you want to go back to farm the Cold Plains, and suddenly the mobs are too difficult for you. It might be a bad experience.

Maybe what they could do is lessen the experience penalty at high levels, and turn the areas where the mini ubers are found into level 88 areas. Not to mean that they can drop new classes of items, but to mean that the mobs are slightly tougher but give more experience that will make it worth your while.

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Ye because Pit is ultra hard :smiley:

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I really like this idea. Just make sure to not beat hell baal on an attack rating based character until you are level 85 yourself :laughing:

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It actualy is not easy, dark archers are very deadly.

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They should make all areas level 85 once you beat baal act1 to 5, everything.

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The purpose of lvl 85 areas is to incentivize going to areas that you normally would never go to (e.g. dungeons). If all areas are lvl 85, people would just farm the blood moor forever which just exacerbates all the problems mentioned.

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Why farm blood moor with like 20 monsters? Mathematically a bad decision

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Exactly

All that matters is kills/time
Sure mew meta farming spots would pop-up but this is not necessary bad

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People do runs to kill 1 mob (Pindle, Countess, Mephisto, etc.). Not having a hundred mobs to kill in a lvl 85 area isn’t going to stop anyone from running it as long as they can get to it quickly and the mobs aren’t immune to their build. Blood moor mobs are the fastest to kill and right outside of town. Depending on the build it might not be the blood moor per se. People don’t like running pits because you have to pass through an entire map to get to it… But if you make every area lvl 85, then it doesn’t matter anymore where you go so you’re gonna go for the easiest mobs that you can kill, which is gonna be in some EZ ActI area.

Making specific unvisited areas lvl 85 incentivizes people to go to areas they would normally never go to. Making every area lvl 85 removes that incentive.

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And this is where you’ve missing out.

An area doesn’t have to be level 85 to be worth visiting.

Hell Cows are level 81, for instance, but make up with density. So does Flayer Jungle at level 80 (a little less density, but much weaker monsters, easier to kill with many builds).

Lower Kurast is 80 but it has so many containers and super chests, so people clear it. Arcane Sanctuary is level 79, but it has tons of ghosts, hence is very good for finding runes.

Plains of Despair is 83, but killing Izual instantly kills everything around him, which is a fine strategy got get lots of drops.

And even after all that, level 83 and 84 areas aren’t just much worse than 85. You get full XP from bosses in there till levels 92 and 93 respectively, which is usually far past the game completion. And you actually get more XP there before level 88 than in level 85 areas (many people don’t know, but there is XP penalty for being underleveled, it’s equal to characterLvl/monsterLvl).

Even the Durance of Hate level 2 is very good, apart from having dolls (but depending on your build, you might not care about them). Lots of containers, many bosses, high enough level to drop lots of good stuff. And it’s a crime not clearing the Durance level 3 when you go for mephisto if you can, the unique vampires there it’s always worth it, not to mention tons of containers and a pack of council members.

Personally one of my favorites is Halls of Pain. Waypoint area that has lots of density and bosses, level 84 so you gain great XP till character level 93, and unique bosses\minions can drop all the items in the game.

3 Likes
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that too classifies as farming in my book. Also in a high player game it’s worth popping every single object. There are so many hidden stashes, bodies, logs there (yes it’s less efficient than doing 6 super chests in 20 seconds, but that’s just not fun).

So maybe lead them on the paths before you kill them? it’s not hard. Arcane Sanctuary is a proven good place.

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I am sorry that I confused you. I thought that it was obvious what’s good about Lower Kurast, especially that I have mentioned it specifically:

it has so many containers and super chests

And besides, you see a juicy boss pack there, you kill it just as well, why not? Level 83 bosses can still drop you tons of good stuff, and give good XP till character level 92.

While I am not saying that tower is bad, it also has issues:

  1. same exact issue - monsters can die over graves, leaving no loot.

  2. Less super chests

  3. Overall less density

  4. it’s not a waypoint area, looking for the tower on an undiscovered map adds that precious time which you are so concerned about.

  5. IMO it’s just fun and satisfying to line up enemies IMO, on a hero that does piercing damage in a straight line - Lightning sorc, Bone necro come to mind

Chaos sanctuary is ofcourse “the best area in the game”, but for some reason people still go to other places. The venom lords are very tanky, the oblivion knights are very deadly.

I think you are missing the point of my comment. What I am conveying is that there are many areas that are not “S tier” but very much “A tier”, and people just tunnel vision past them, which gets in the way of actually having fun and being creative instead of complaining

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First of all, if they did this it would have to be a new difficult such as Inferno.

Second of all, this impacts various aspects of the game, making those extra areas feel kind of useless to bother going through. While on the surface I kind of like it, I also recognize it may make the game a bit monotonous just going through the whole game without looking for anything specific. I think they should instead increase monster density across all level 85 areas and they could go a step further in a number of ways. Two of which I think could be

  1. Make Act VI and make it all level 85 (or higher) and make it really difficult. Could be set in a nightmare or alternate reality of Tristram from Diablo 1 (before being destroyed), with tons of varied areas and randomized quests/events, so it serves as Act VI + optional end-game area. I say optional, because it should not mean you HAVE to do it and only it vs the existing 85 areas.

  2. Add some form of adventure mode, though this could be done poorly if not careful. If done correctly it could be quite fun. Maybe incentivizing playing multiple level 85 areas and act bosses, or full clearing x amount of areas, or whatever. I don’t necessarily like rewarding you to play the areas they specify, taking out your say, so I would rather it be a more generic quest, like “Kill 20 elite mobs in level 85 areas”.

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Lol, I’ve gotten multiple high runes from Arcane Sanctuary. Actually got my first Jah and Ber there in D2R so thanks for the Enigma, Arcane Sanctuary! Takes some time to make sure ghosts are on platform, but has been worth it for me. You might not like the area, but it’s still a good area for high runes.

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Think you need to read again, I said it’s a good area, not best. Clear difference.

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No, you didn’t. However, you’re claiming that it’s a “terrible place to farm” and a “not proven good place” which are both false. DarkHumility did the math on Arcane Sanctuary, it’s not “terrible”. That’s why I said: YOU might not like the area, but it’s still a good area for high runes.