It’s especially bad for Diablo 1 because a belt of full healing potions means the only reason you should ever die is because you went from 100% HP to dead before you were able to react. Potions are hilariously overpowered in Diablo 1.
Diablo 2 I originally beat on a Paladin with primarily just Charge and an aura. If I ran into something with a physical damage immunity, I’d use Vengeance.
The games were great because of their atmosphere and character building, not because of any notion of challenging gameplay.
Ironically for all the people going on about how “hard” Diablo 1 and 2 were, the hardest the series has ever been was probably Diablo 3 Vanilla which ultimately just promoted cheese strategies like chaining damage immunity effects.
Have to say I really liked part of early D3 combat. It was terribly balanced of course, and the itemization was a joke. But the slow, tactical combat, is very much my style. Not a fan of murdering screens of enemies in super-fast combat (even if it might be challenging - the challenge is not really the most important aspect).
Probably why I like Souls game so much too. That (relatively) slow combat, where you got time to consider your moves, and getting greedy is going to cost you.
For all the hate it gets, I do think Diablo 3 had some really solid gameplay in the way of combat as well. That’s the main thing I think Diablo 4 ought to be looking at Diablo 3 for. Particularly earlier D3 like you note and not the modern screen clearing.
Taking that kind of combat and putting it on character building and itemization inspired by Diablo 2 with atmosphere inspired by Diablo 1 would be amazing.
Personally I never got into Dark Souls since I went full on PC gamer after my Xbox bricked itself over a decade ago, and the PC port of Dark Souls is unfortunately rubbish.
I felt like I was fighting terrible controls more than I was fighting the enemies on screen.
What. No! I mean, the first Dark Souls was, until you installed a mod that fixed it. The new’ish “HD remake” got all those fixes baked in however. But the other games have all been best on PC from the start.
It makes me happy there are others as excited for this games release as I am, whether or not we agree. I hope that we all get a memorable game that does the Diablo franchise justice and gives me a reason to pick up a new PC.
I haven’t properly gamed in 5 years and I’ve been waiting for a title to reel me back in. I’m just happy that others care about the end product as much as me and hope the devs do it justice. Look forward to hearing more from blizzard in the future
Im on a 3 year old laptop. Havent had a proper desktop since I left home almost 10 years ago. Been waiting until I felt like there was a new game coming out worth investing in. Fingers crossed its D4 and we get a new left 4 dead sometime soon as well.
Well thought out post. I can see the need for a limited high cost respec. What if they implemented a testing area so that you can change up stats if you find a new piece of gear. Then you can make the stat changes permanent with a limited redo.
But it’s to a degree and more true than you want to admit. There may be some valid reasons why it was better, but many, many of the arguments have been that it worked in D2, no reason it should have been changed in D3.
It has nothing to do with what Diablo has done in the past and everything to do with making meaningful decisions for your character, and restrictions that make combat and builds more balanced and diverse.
lol just reading this during quarantine cause I’m bored. I don’t even play Diablo 3 anymore cause it’s pooo. Any way any one who attacks others opinions on why they believe a game is crap and calls it whiny sounds to me like a keyboard warrior who just wants to start a keyboard war! Don’t worry O’ll check back for a response in a few months year or so why…because at D3 vanilla is was more fun to play forumablo than Diablo 3, back then there was really funny post that would keep you entertained for hours.
Youtube video emerges of a character build that is awesome and you want to try.
If that involves
Starting a new character
Making new decisions when leveling and allocating points differently
Going to find gear with similar stats and abilities.
You are doing it right.
If you
Push the redo button and reallocate all of the points.
You are doing it wrong.
To find optimal builds should take time because you explore a path, If it doesn’t work out then you scrap the character and start another. It shouldn’t be possible for player xyz to post their uber build on Sunday and 97% of players are identical on Monday.
I don’t think the community is going to be happy with what will be produced.
I suspect and I do hope i am mistaken, but i suspect it will be over simplified.
There will be a stat called “How hard do i hit” and a stat “How hard am i to hit”
both of those are increased by putting all of your points into a stat called “My main stat”
Ill probably be able to switch any specializations faster than a coke’d up squirrel with an identity crisis. Im lord of fire , no ice, no arcane no wait … all by using the respec token that can be purchased for $5.00 .
If only it costs something
Like 50.000 gold or what ever
People would have to farm for their identity crisis. But as it’s planned right now:
Active skills: catch em all
Passive skills: switch em around whenever you want
I don’t think that a single missclick should force you to remake your character, just as I don’t think that you should be master of everything by reaching max level
I prefer the middle ground
I’m probably being a broken record at this point, especially regarding this topic. But when it comes to respecs, then I would personally look no further than how Diablo 2 had handled it (especially if we’re talking about a middle ground). To which would involve something akin to giving every character the ability to freely respec their entire skill tree for a set number of times (possibly 2-3 times) at no cost. After the free respecs are used up; any further respecs would require an item that is obtainable through normal gameplay.
But as it currently stands, it’s planned that players will eventually be able to max out all of their skills via skill tomes.
I mean, the first Dark Souls was, until you installed a mod that fixed it. The new’ish “HD remake” got all those fixes baked in however. But the other games have all been best on PC from the start.