Zaven: For those of you who have played Greater Rifts in Diablo III, you might know that there is like a timer there; and one of the side effects of doing things like that and you have learned a lot about this, is that it makes you want to rush through, skip things, you start to get very specific about what you want to kill and what you want to do.
Here He Comes Here Comes Speed Racer.
So for the Dungeon Key end-game experience we can talk about right now, the plan is that since we have all these various dungeons, and they will all have different objectives, you need to do a different thing to complete each of those dungeons. It is going to mean that the pace of combat, and the exact thing you are valueing in everyone of those dungeons, is going to be very different. Particularly when you add dungeon affixes.
This almost sounds like a bounty within a dungeon with an affix, this should be interesting.
Zaven: What do we look for in a Diablo end-game? What would we be excited to play? When we started thinking about this, like Ok, varied content. That’s critical. I don’t want to be just doing just one thing over and over again in end-game. Making powerful, unique builds as a core part of Diablo; and we need content that encourage that level of strategic depth; and honestly, player agency is super important. Random dungeons are awesome. I love them; but I don’t want to just feel like I am reacting to what the game is giving me. I don’t want to feel like I am on rails. So how are we doing this?
Is this a direct jab at D3s mundane reparative nonsense.
Not just D3, but D2, and D1. Everything was mundane repetitiveness. Also Keys at some point will be mundane and repetitive. That being said, I love it.there is so much that can be don to spice things up.
I don’t mind needing a key or token or whatever they choose to call it. I just want it to be rewarded naturally through doing something fun - not by doing some mandatory mundane activity like bounties. As long as they can achieve that, I’m fine with keys.
I have no issue with the idea of Key Dungeon; however (and I say this a lot), I’d like there to be more endgame activities that are of nearly equal reward and/or challenge as the Key Dungeons.
Imo, Diablo 3 Greater Rifts wouldn’t be so mundane, if there were other content that players could run, without them feeling as though they’re wasting time or efficiency because they’re not running greater rifts. If Diablo 4 Key Dungeons end up being the sole endgame, I don’t see my experience with it being all that different from Diablo 3 greater rifts, as I can see myself getting bored of it just as I get bored of greater rifts occasionally. (Although at least in Diablo 4 case, I’ll probably have pvp to go into for a bit during those times).
In short, having some variety in endgame activities would go a long way imo.
I don’t really mind the idea of keyed dungeons, as long as getting keys is not tied into one thing, that ends up making getting them a chore. No more doing Rifts to get GR keys.
Make keys come from a wide variety of things:
Gaining an achievement will give 5 keys
Killing an Elite the first time 3 keys, and 1 key every time you kill that named after that
Killing a world boss 10 keys
Exploration; get 1 key for each new area you explore.
Random drops; let mobs randomly (rarely) drop a key.
OR
Make keys a crafted item, requiring a recipe for each unique dungeon. Make keys be called seals, and have seal fragments drop as I have listed key drops above. Have an NPC who will combine certain types of fragments together with other raw materials into a complete seal for the dungeon you want to visit.
Perhaps be able to combine more fragments to make a seal for truly elite difficulty level dungeons, or just a few for a normal difficulty level dungeon. Maybe recipes can be locked behind completing the storyline quests, or other tasks in the area the dungeon is found. Something like a faction lock. Nothing like WoW’s flying faction nightmare, but just something you would naturally do with a little extra work during your normal gameplay.
Add more actual RPG elements so that keys are something that is more of an organic part of gameplay, rather than “OK next 5 hours running rifts for GR keys”.
Hell I’d like to see some sort of collection mini game like the shiny “?” in EQ2, that can give you shards/fragments or other items to keep thing interesting. Just spice it up a bit.
Pretty much this. One thing I would like to see that comes with the world exploration is repeatable expansive quest system; pretty much have a few quests that, depending on how you handle them, can have different outcomes and/or unlock a hidden quest line. Have some of which possess objectives that makes blitzing through it difficult.
It’s fine system overall but would prefer mobs get tags/upgrades on individual level (somewhat). I’d like to see things that are tricker on more individual level, much earlier during gameplay tbh
Instead of all game nothing and then in a dungeon “all hell breaks loose” all out of a sudden
A mix of the old D3 GRs when you needed to actually have a GR stone and Mythic Dungeons in WoW: BFA.
Talk about good times in D3. LFG GR 35. YUS! I’ll go. Oh wait, crud, I only have a 23, 27, and a 34. Oh wait I can use my GR 38 stone. No, I’ll save that one for later. I know, I’ll run a fast trial for one. YUS! I has GR 35 stone woot woot. IT’S GO TIME!
Talk about bad times in WoW: BFA. Good grief I hated doing mythics. It didn’t matter if my Arms or Fury Warrior could do 12+. Keep that far away from D4. Thank You!
Here He Comes Here Comes Speed Racer.
