Not much of an issue in all honesty. The whole purpose of season was for players to start fresh and compete with one another on a leveled playing field; just like hardcore is for players who want to play with their character’s life on the line. Tacking special rewards or incentives exclusively into any of the modes only serves to have players feel forced to play in them and have some players outright hate said mode.
Now while I have no expectations of Diablo 3 changing it’s method of incentivizing players to participate in season, I do hope that Diablo 4 forgoes of such method and instead just change seasonal themes into just massive but temporary events that spans across the entire servers and affects all players equally (be they normal, hardcore, and/or seasonal).
Yeah, I don’t expect it to be made permanent either; and honestly if it is temporary, I won’t have any issue with that. However, if they do decide to make it permanent, then it should to be for both seasonal and non-seasonal players.
This is where the 4th cube slot rises to the top…A step to enhance the balance that is live right now, is the single-most simplest way to add some balance and a tremendous diversity for all classes to a point.
Game balance has been sorely lacking, is time/cost intensive, and this cube slot is so simple and all ready to go.
For the good of the game it should be considered…
As noted, game balance still can be improved dramatically in upcoming patches. Considering the time it has taken to get to the current level of balance, introducing another variable (i.e. the 4th cube slot) would make it even more difficult to balance and less likely to achieve good balance while simultaneously introducing more power creep that trivializes the game even further for group play,.
Blizzard does not have the capability, funding, or desire to continue to sink resources into enhanced game balance, to any significant extent, for an 8 year old game.
This cube slot can carry diversity, increased play, and new options for every class in the game.
It would be a tremendous enhancement, at this time, to roll this option into the game…
The problem is that some builds will become mega-powerful and potentially make game balance worse. If this happens, the non-OP classes will be weak in comparison, disenfranchising a significant part of the player base.
This is exactly what we have now, poor balance across the board.
Every class-build will perform better with the added cube slot. Bliz can then target the balance issues as they see fit, in their timeline, with whatever resources they choose to commit, without disrupting the major benefits of this slot for all.
If I accept that this is true, then making another variable (i.e. differential class-specific build power effects caused by a 4th slot) will not improve things in terms of balance. Blizzard’s blog post is clear in their thoughts about game balance. See:
It will probably go like the last event that had a cube buff. In other words, I doubt it will be permanent sadly. The last one at least you were able to choose any power across the 3, whereas this is a variation allowing you to choose any power as a 4th.
As long as the max GR is 150, the only metric that matters is if a given set, with all of its supporting legendary items, can run 150 effectively. The answer, currently, is no, most cannot. SOME can, but not most, and certainly not all of them. While an extra cube slot would make the few that already can run 150 effectively that much more powerful, it would also allow those that couldn’t before do so or get closer to it. As far as I’m concerned, that’s closer to ‘balanced’ than what we have now.
On the diversity point people are making. Is the 4th slot really bringing diversity or just making builds different from the past? If it does become permanent will it really be diversity since we still have that one top build, just that extra cube slot but still filled with the same item if you want to reach the maximum potential.
Or am I entirely wrong and there is more diversity than “You need these 4 rings, equip the two you find with the best rolls” where it would be the same thing but with 3 rings in the past?
Diablo community is well-known for its patience and cautious approach, so I’d say literally during this season they’ll ask for 5th slot.
Necro however becomes extremely strong with fourth cube, by far the biggest gain among classes. It’s simply outrageous that my WW rend NS, good items overall P2200 speedfarms 103 at 2.30 and in season, my Necro bone spear almost P800 with mostly crappy gear, unaugmented does 108 at 3 mins.
Bone Spear is extremely strong without the 4th Cube slot. A big ol’ buff will do that for you. But Rend is still fantastic at speed runs and one of the strongest builds in the game. The devs may continue to tune Bone Spear and Necro, but Rend is fine where it is. It’s okay for certain builds to be a little stronger in Seasons due to Season gimmicks; if they were to make the 4th slot standard for non-Season play, they’d likely need to re-tune certain builds accordingly.
I want the 4th slot perm too. I think it adds a lot. I’m starting to theory craft old builds as potentially viable again. It WILL create power creep but if blizzard would stop nerfing things it wouldn’t matter and we could all just enjoy powerful stuff again without having to only play META builds.
How much of that difference is down to the clones though? Because my idea is that the clones are just going to help us reach the level we would have faster. Since they decimate everything on screen at lower levels you are definitely able to speedfarm higher levels than before.
So just wondering how much you would say they are influencing? I have done up to 70’s speeds and can’t remember how my current paragon/items stack up to what previous seasons required for that level.
no, you’re right. a fourth cube slot doesn’t really add any diversity unless it takes builds from literally non-functional to functional. more likely, it just makes existing builds better which isn’t diversity. real diversity would require balancing so that the “optimal” build is only marginally better on paper than several other builds (preferably all of them, but that’s not realistic).
