hey there,
first off, i am from germany but i fear you do not get to hear whats written in the german forums so i will try my best to state my points in english.
I played D1 and D2 with my brothers back in the days. Our parents counldnt use our phone anymore :D. We simply loved it. When Blizzard announced D3, i was so stoked, i had the sickest nerdchills when the lights on the blizzcon-stage went off, and you could just hear the guitar play the theme. that was truly a great moment!
But the concerns started off rapidly. I do not know the name of that guy on the stage, but he said something VERY VERY WRONG. He pretty quickly stated out that diablo is all about loot. and that is just wrong. plain and simple. just wrong. Diablo is about your sole character in a very dark world with pretty much no hope for a happy ending. While you try to save the world, you develop your character. Not to be shiny, but still that is what sanctuary deserves. That characers development is mainly determent by your talentchoices, which are COMPLEMENTED by items. Yes, everyone trys to get the best items to make the character as strong as possible, but that is NOT the core part of any ARPG. Loot should improve your character, not determine its strength by close to 100%.
Every level you have to make a choice. a choice that matters, because it is permanent. This is your character, it is unique and the playstyle you chose is what you have to live with. When online play became the standard, d2 LoD was just great. People played what they liked to play and it was good, no matter their talent-choices. We played in 8-player partys which complemented themselves. Oh dear, my armymancer loved those paladin auras. And those people who chose talents that werent as strong as others? No one cared. The goal was to save Sanctuary, not to have to have to highest damage. Characters complemented eachother. Wether it was by providing a meath-shield (summons), Auras, Curses or just Freezing the enemys so the Melees could kill them without getting hit too hard. THAT was part of the fun. Every character-class excelled in a different portion of the game. They all had their flaws. Everyone knew, and everyone was fine with it, becasue they hadnt to compete in a race with eachother.
In D3 endgame was later turned into riftrunning. In my honest Opinion rifts harm the characters variety. You want to be fast, so every player will need (and use) a movement skill, which results effectively in an active skill reduction by 1. I hope you get my point there: if endgame is funneled into just one aspect (speed), you will have to give every class a mobility-ability, but there are only so many possible ways of cohesive mobility models. As a result, classes will look different, but play the same.
This brings my to the party-size. Given my dream, that character-classes complement themselves, there should be at least 5 player partys, if not 8, like in d2. Auras, shouts and curses make it possible to overcome VERY high obstacles in d2, because they can even remove immunitys from enemys, but also buff the group. So even back in the days when necromancer-minions were garbage in terms of damage and survivability, you still loved to have a necro in your game. and that i what i hope for d4. Unique character abilitys that are recognised by other players as helpful (and maybe) needed. No matter the character-build. Bigger partys reduce the need of characters that excell in everything. It opens up lots of space for UNIQUIE classes.
Respecialisation: I feel like the Path of Exile way of respeccing is the most interesting way to go. Leveling up and skilling your character hast to be meaningful. I want my character to be as strong as possible, BUT with MY playstyle, MY ideas, MY talent choices. When i “mess up” i know better next time, but i will think about my character. dive deep into his fantasy and skillset. what items are the best i can get for my skills, what alternatives are there (high price, cheaper version) and so on. I do not accept the “casual-argument” of playable hours, because with the higher importance of your choices you will browse other peoples builds, plan your next character, even when you are outside the game. THIS makes people come back. Deep characters. “I have my movement skill, i dont even know how its called, on button 3 on all my diablo characters” is NOT whats connects people with their characters.
In d2, no character could even think of competing with the sorcs when it comes to a speedrun. but no one cared, because it was no requirement, it was just nice to have.
Ok, this are my firsts thoughts and wishes after seeing the DIV announcement. I understand that you guys do not want to copy d2, and that is a good thing, even though it was (is) a great game. I tried not to tell you what to do, but rather what should be the feeling of the final game in my honest opinion. “Not even blizzard soon” is fine to me, but PLEASE be more creative than building this game around items and speed-runs. And why the heck dosed d3 have damage-numbers? If you take a close look, they are completely unnecessary information. Just turn on a stream or youtube video of some1 grinding a d3 rift. then ask yourself, WHY are there damagenumbers that completely take the spotlight off the very mob that is faught? Damagenumbers destroy your guys good work in terms of modelling and designing enemys, because epople wont look only at their numbers. in my opinion there thoundt even be an option to turn them on.
Regards
ScarPe
