Back to the OP’s topic…I do think we do deserve access to at least some of the other forums. There’s been plenty of times I’d just like to ask a General Question or one in specific Character Topics…I feel sometimes we’re treated and looked upon as the Black Sheep of Diablo where we all have spent $$$ and countless time with the game like everyone else…
1 Like
I wouldn’t either, but they’re welcome to pickup the idea if they want. Just a reflection on what a creative game designer could bring to the problem that they’re all failing with at the moment.
Agreed. Like starting a topic in console about a specific Wiz build and 2.6.10 item changes is quite in the wrong place and doesnt get the attention of most who would be interested in the topic. Probably proving to be a complete waste of time to try to engage.
It’s very disappointing the partners haven’t made the effort to work with them to integrate the license validation component of the forums. It’s not like they struggle for resources.
That’s nice you don’t care about where you end up. Most people playing do and push their limits. You are in the rather rare spectrum of players. I imagine you play a lot of solo which wouldn’t be surprising. Not sure what exactly you do if not to push your highest clear. /Shrug
2 Likes
And still no official statement here. Is there any official statement via Twitter, Facebook or similar social medias?
1 Like
None…it is disrespectful and flies in the face of the only blue post in here.
2 Likes
I’m with you, partially. I like to solo a lot. I also duo once in a while and I like seeing where I can get on the leaderboards. But I can’t agree that grouping to get yourself higher is abusing the feature in any way. It’s a game designed to be played as a group if you wish. And it makes sense that you should progress faster and further as a group if roles are played properly.
well we’ll just have to disagree. Solo should be solo. Not solo with group earned stuff. I guess for those who currently abuse the solo LBs with group earned stuff, they don’t wanna lose that, cos they know that they’ll drop ranks on the LBs without that extra “help”. meanwhile, real solo players do it mano a mano and kick bootie.
3 Likes
I’m kind of on the fence here. While I can definitely believe that some players would be dishonest enough to do what you describe, I also believe that some players just play the game as intended. I’m one of them.
I do play with my significant other occasionally, and a friend from my last job joins in about once or twice a week. We putter around in low GRs (they’re not that interested in climbing), gather materials, joke around and tell stories from the past mostly. Their builds are improving and I do want to see if we can at least place somewhere decent on the multiplayer boards. I wouldn’t exactly call that “abusing”. However, I do use the same characters in my solo GR pushing.
Would there be some way to separate characters by classification, or would that be too much hassle? Flag a character as Solo Only?
The game is designed for solo and group play and offers incentive for group play like exp bonuses which is all fair enough.
But dpastern has a point in that players that group are not just getting paragon they are getting rewards that are then used in solo leaderboards that cannot be matched by a player who plays solo and never groups.
If the difference was just paragon that would be fair enough but the fact a solo clear can use higher Legendary Gems that the rank they did in solo because they cleared a much higher clear in a group is unfair.
The solo player loses out to the paragon bonus but then also to the solo leaderboard clear of group players using much higher Legendary Gems than the solo person.
That is not right…I accept group players need an incentive to play but that should be getting more gear per hour and more paragon, not getting Legendary Gem ranks that then can be used in a solo clear.
2 Likes
gear only thank you. I can’t compete against the no lifer group players on the solo LBs with their 4.5k paragon…that’s 3.3k more paragon that I typically get in a season. That’s a pretty massive advantage (more in toughness/recovery than DPS).
The higher augments and lgems is a real issue too I agree. If you’re clearing a GR123 solo, there is no way you can get a lgem to rank 150! it’s impossible. After 10 GRs higher, it’s 0% on an upgrade. So, in that example, the max a GR123 would give you in terms of lgem upgradeability is rank 134. And that’d be at 1%, so a very very very tiny chance of success. You’d have to typically do 30 empowered (without deaths; SC)+ GR134 clears to typically score that “1%”. Trapped gives you around 0.3% more DPS per rank, so a 150 gem vs my 120 gem is 10% DPS differential. That’s nearly a full GR. And that’s just for 1 lgem. Some builds will have 3 dmg lgems, others will have a mixture of toughness and dmg lgems. Even 110 rank augments vs 150 rank augments is a nice difference in main stat - 40 ranks 5 points PER item slot - (405*13 main stat). 2600 main stat by my maths. For me at paragon 1200 or so, my main stat is just under 19k. Assuming a player with p1200 but rank 150 augments for each of the item slots, that’s a 10% dmg differential right there. nearly a full GR clear. Those potential buffs giving a 2 GR clear advantage [to me] could mean 10 ranks on the LBs.
As an example, my NS DH with p2700 did a 123 clear with 7 minutes to go. I haven’t pushed with it, but I’d say I can clear at least a 126, possibly a 127 with fishing. Given the seasonal bonus gave a 2-3 GR advantage last season, that could end up with me having done a 128 (on average). Just for an extra 1500 paragon points. That would have taken me from rank 19 with my 124 clear, to probably in the top 4. How am I, as a solo player, meant to compete on the solo LBs when I’m at such a large disadvantage?
To those who argue that I’m disadvantaging myself by choosing to play solo, I’ll counterargue that group players currently get a MASSIVELY unfair advantage [over solo players]. The maths don’t lie.
A SSF LB would keep solo players like me happy, and so called “solo” group players happy too with the existing “solo” LBs. It’d be a win/win. and it wouldn’t be hard for Blizzard to do this. Blizzard simply dislikes solo players and is going out of its way to screw us. That’s discrimination.
1 Like
But that is not group play…solo players can now achieve this with the builds in the game. Streamers playing D3 are doing it solo and are matching the paragon nearly to group play.
Whether group or solo is now less relevant compared to previous, it is now the amount of time, whether solo or group that will dictate if you can compete when in context of Paragon.
The LG’s are the biggest issue…Paragon disparity between solo and group has diminished because of builds like WW Rend Barb, GoD DH etc where you can earn good amounts of paragon per hour even solo.
This season after a week I’m doing GR115 in 4 mins in HC on Bone Spear Necro solo…that is insane exp and Paragon solo…I’ll be able to compete at the Paragon level the group players but I can’t compete with the LG’s at rank 150 where as mine are significantly lower.
The answer to your point is SSF leaderboards.
There is also the possibility that some players aren’t choosing to play solo, but that they are forced into it by one of two unavoidable conditions (potentially both):
-They simply do not have anyone else to group with
-They don’t want to try random matching because 99.999999999% of players will instantly kick them from the game for not “playing the right build”
That second one is the reason I don’t try public games. I’ll decide how to play my game, thank you very much. If a player is that concerned about being held back by an ineffective build, then that player can group up with others in a private game. Once you open to the public, you’re going to get whatever you get, and should just let others play the way they want.
I know that the immediate response to that will be “but…but META”. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My Wizard isn’t “meta”, but I just cleared 120 the other day. I know that’s not even close to the top scores, but give me a week and we’ll see where I am then.
One of the group advantages that doesn’t get discussed enough is that some players have access to a regular group of others who synergize well with each other, and who have every pixel planned out in advance. They have more time to play, and they all understand each and every click is preprogrammed. Some of us don’t have that, and some of us don’t want that.
If you’re saying that the game seems biased toward group play, then I definitely agree. The multiplayer difficulty increase should be adjusted to compensate.
1 Like
…and what game isn’t biased towards group play? That not just games either. That’s real life as well.
Why would you want to punish 4 players that agree to work together and run most efficient/effective team composition, and reward some lonely nekbeard with no social skills? That doesn’t make any sense.
Eh. I don’t have time for a six-hour forum war today, so you get a pass. I’ll just block and move on. If someone wants to raise a legitimate point about solo play without resorting to insulting solo players, I’ll listen to them. 
I very much doubt it. a 4 man group doing over and over GR150s will get far more paragon than a solo playing clearing GR115s all of the time…
even then, both ww rend and god ha are OP AF and should be nerfed to balance them to the rest of the builds.
that’s cos nearly all group players in this game are toxic AF…
As we just saw from an earlier post.
It is a really enjoyable way to play. I’ve done it with groups of friends over long periods at different times in non-d3 settings with different focuses. Sometimes it’s more social, other times it’s more about pushing access to all of the content the game offers and optimising the team’s capability. Each rewarding in their own way.
Schedules don’t always align, and I’m not always putting the same amount of time and dedication to gaming.
I’ve enjoyed exploring D3 with bits of time here and there as a purely solo game initially, and later starting to look at some of the community research when I had to start making choices about what to salvage… ie needed a view to the future. Eventually I ended up here. It’s given a small game with what I think are elegant design features a significant play duration. I’m still engaged on that basis and just enjoy trying out different builds and seeing how far I can push them.
Careful … 
You’re quite right that the game gives significant advantage to group play.
Whilst d3 has a really solid solo game play capability… all credit to it, d3 and many games in this genre (all of them that I’ve played) are designed for combinations of capabilities between multiple players to enable content access not achievable by soloing.
This is a good and fair point.
I could observe that in any of the group settings of other games, we would have had advantage in terms of equipment accessed from higher end game content, but those games also never really made an effort to design solo play to be the legitimate feature that it is in d3.
Of…? 
1 Like
We had Rax and SVR at Paragon 2,300 and Leviathian at Paragon 2,100 where Leviathian was SSF.
Point stands in that the issue with group play is now not so much about Paragon but about the Legendary Gem’s.
Groups will have more Paragon but SSF players can compete with it is the point.
I suspect they are aiming to have one of these OP builds per class that can do their target of GR145 at P4000 in nopn season. Seasonal is all about creating a mechanic that enhances a build temporarily…like Bone Spear Necro and 4th Cube slot making that OP AF!