Just read with interest the developer insights and i have to say it sounds like the Diablo Team still has a great passion for what is really a game in its final chapter, all I can say is thanks, Season 19 has been the best season ever for me and some great people I have played with (my first season online have all agreed) So thank you for all the hard work over the life of this game, looking forward to a few more seasons and the release of Diablo 4. it’s still the best game I have ever played and the longevity out of this game has been amazing. It’s like a long-departed friend you can not say hello for a year and then just talk like it was only yesterday you last saw each other, D3 is the same and that’s scarce with any game.
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We’re glad you’re enjoying yourself, and thanks for reading our many, many words!
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Hello Diablo 3 Team. It was a good read. I agree with most of your thoughts.
- Don’t raise anymore the GR level cap, we don’t need more power creep. But what i’m curious about now is, will this mean that nerfs will be possible in the future? Or you will continue just to buff underperforming classes and leave the overpowered ones as they are?
- Good thing that you want to better the gameplay and add new stuff, that’s always welcomed for me. But if i may, the new additions you intend, are only new legendaries (and their powers) or also some totally new items?
- I am mostly a solo player, and i find it really difficult (and time consuming) to do or finish the seasonal journey, just by playing casually in my spare time (like 3-5 hours a week maybe) without the help of some overpowered player that plays Diablo like it was a job. Would you introduce some items, or a new legendary gem, something that could help more the solo player (or maybe something to buff significantly the followers and make them more helpful)?
- About making the game experience better, and about “reading us”. Can you at least confirm that you read the threads created by Gimpzor and Evil (i reposted them here) with their list of ideas and also pictures with QOL improvements for the game? If yes, could we at least know in some future blog posts what are you considering to introduce in the future from that list, OR what is totally not possible for you to do and why, so we at least won’t be asking again and again for the same things?
I really love Diablo series so i would like at least to have a better experience (if possible) until I’m waiting for D4.
Thank you for your attention and keep the good job going 
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I agree with #3. I do not mind group play but I only do the Journey for the rewards and it feels like a job, now. A leg gem that doubles SOLO DPS when not in a rift or something like that. Also, the single worst part of the Journey is leveling gems. Can you slide those to 1-15 3-25 3-35 3-50?
On another note, I hope this means the Necro and DH are up next for new sets.
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The long answer is that continuing to expand the end game through additional Greater Rift levels hasn’t been the healthiest approach for Diablo III.
Acknowledgment is the first step 
Sounds good. Especially if you take a step away from 150 as you say, and not just push everyone to 150.
zDPS is a style of gameplay that some players like, but not all do. We ultimately decided that it’s good that there are unique ways to play the game, and we don’t want to take that fun away from those who enjoy it.
There is nothing inherently wrong with zDPS builds. There is something wrong with how powerful they are vs. “normal” builds.
Our first area of concern will be disabling animation cancellation on certain skills.
I guess it is a fix. But kinda seems like removing an important gameplay element, to prevent abuses. Isn’t it possible to address the abuses more directly.
Other than that, yeah, you should look at balancing solo better vs groups. Maybe buff the follower? Bake in immortality to allow for using another follower legendary. Maybe add a few more items that makes the follower more useful, like oculus ring. Oculus ring is kinda nice because it is not just a straight dmg boost (like so many other items in D3), but tries to alter how you play.
I don’t think a NEW DH set is an answer, but something like a RROG buff may help, if we can say, ditch helm for that unique helm and therefore use an extra ring in cube = 5+ levels of increase without a new set with weird gameplay.
question - when you guys look use paragon 5000 as a benchmark, do you include augments, or just 5000 points worth of extra stats?
im a solo player and boredom kicks in way before i even get anywhere near 5000 paragon. dont even think i have half that non season. there is no balance between solo and group at all. solo play is not rewarding.
i have never played a season to the end as it becomes more and more difficult to keep up with those at the top of the leader boards or even place on them. power creep group play and high paragon have increased the gap between people like me and those who are able to place gradually making that part of the game a pointless exercise for us.
cant even do public bounties cos paragon gate kickings. not the meta build gate kickings.
the game was more fun when it was difficult than it is now with more dps from meta build is the only way to progress. solo “levelling” is moot and the disparity is why so many solo playerslast 2 weeks max per season
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Am still worried after reading the blog post about balance. It looks like next season is still going to be where that 1 optimal build that EVERYONE is going to use to climb leaderboards. I’m still very confused what balance means to them. Every build/set for each class should be enjoyable and able to compete with others at around the same GR range. All i have are worries and concerns now.
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It’s kind of hard to put faith in the base of 5000 paragon when the teams lead is only 800.
Though I am not a fan of plans for the sets. All this does is promote having more then your main which leads to as many have stated a huge storage limit. (mind you my opinion is for others and not my team as it doesn’t effect our game play no matter what happens)
One thing I’m not a fan of is the lessening of the skill it needs to use these sets. It seems like it’s being dumbed down to a point that you can play while writing a paper for school.
We do look at, and consider, everything. It’s part of why averaging is so important, as well as why we have a sliding scale we can measure up or down to.
I think some folks are taking the scale as “Oh, this is what I should be at.” I knew that was a risk, as people have a tendency to latch on to numbers as truth. It may be more helpful to think of it as a fixed point that lies between the most common level of player and the most visible/highest performing players that we can then adjust up or down to in order to provide similar comparisons.
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Well, this didn’t say that much new to be perfectly honest, but it’s good to have an official word about the devs’ thoughts on the GR150 cap, overall attitude to z-builds, their plans with regards to balance, and what are (some of) the numbers that they’re looking at.
What I specifically missed, however, was even just a comment on the bot issue in D3. Wasn’t there a blue line in one of the threads here recently saying that “the cheaters’ time will come”?
Also, this is a great point:
Out of curiosity, does the dev team have an opinion on “one-rune” skills? So Land of the Dead + Frozen Lands, Akarat’s Champion + Prophet, Laws of Valor + Unstoppable Force. Runes that feel so powerful its hard to think of a situation where you would prefer another one instead.
I’m wondering what you guys think about them. Are you OK with there being some skills like this, is this something you hope to work on in future patches, or is this not really a priority at the moment? Thanks if you get the time to respond!
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Btw, are you at all looking at changing skills that are too weak (or too strong), or is it all set item galore from here on out?
Solo players have been crapped on since launch.
At least give us automatically all three followers at the same time, it requires almost no extra coding and its showing some love for solo players.
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good to know. thank you.
With Diablo 4 coming out, I am not opposed to seeing every class attaining 150 solo grift with enough paragon, skill, and gear. Obviously not today, or even next year, but by the time the next game is released it would be great to get some closure before moving on.
The reason people think you balance around groups is because from an optimization perspective, it’s been many years since playing solo has been the best way to do anything.
If I had to try and ballpark it, I would say that farming in a group is about 5x more XP than playing solo. This is including both the intrinsic XP buff for being near group members as well as the ability to farm higher GRs faster. Group play is also much more effective at key and bounty farming.
If you want to min-max your character, time spent playing solo is quite literally time wasted.
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The issue is still the massive disparity between solo and group. Groups get higher Legendary Gems ranks which they then use in solo clears…that is not fair.
Groups get far more progression with Paragon…yes they should get more but not the significant amount more to mean a player who is 100% solo cannot compete on the Leaderboards with a group player who then uses his build/gems/paragon to compete on the solo leaderboard.
The disparity is still far too big and needs sorted…or do a SSF leaderboard.
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Blizzard are bums. They aren’t doing anything besides adding new gear sets and changing existing ones. They aren’t doing anything to to get us outside of Greater Rifts or revamping the Torment Difficulty system.
I have a question @Nevalistis how come you guys never thought of changing the way builds work in D3? my favoritte I have ever seen is in Path of Exile, basically the skills work of gems and gems can be linked and socketed which feels like a lego system like you can build any kind of build you can think off, its so cool.
In D3 there are specific skills you have to pick and you can’t make your own builds, is there a reason for this?
If you had your way would you put in a similar skill tree in D3?