The D4 potion system (same as in D3 apparently) seems really dull to me.
I love the Diablo franchise, but the potion systems have always been on the weak side of things.
I would really enjoy a system with belts, which give you more potion slots, like in D2, but you just unlock 1-4 slots, which you then can fill like in old school PoE (not as in PoE today!).
Just have some simple health and (non-overpowered) ressource potions and some utility potions, like increased fire res for 5 secs, or increased crit chance for 2 secs. That way, you can’t spam utility potions, but it still creates depth and versatility for your build.
Refilling potions with globes (like health globes), that drop from monsters merge the best from the potion systems of D2, D3 and PoE imo.
Also you could re-implement charms with that! Instead of potions, you could equip charms in the belt slots, granting you small passive bonusses, if you only need 3 potions for your build or even none at all.
Also you could drop potions as items but only let you equip them on your belt slots and not put them in your inventory because they would break luluullul
Make potions rare? And every character can only carry a few at a time before having to go back to their stash for more.
Example: Each player can carry a maximum of
1 Rejuve potion (heals hp and resource to full instantly) Very rare find
3 Major Healing potion (heals to full over time)
6 Minor Healing poition (heals 33% over time)
2 Mana potions (100% resources over time)
I think it feels weird to artificially restrict what you can carry around
Give the player a belt and let them choose
Obviously different tiers of the same potions wouldn’t make sense then
But different kinds of potions would
How bout a group heal potion with AoE regen for more difficult team content , or a potion that doesn’t need to be clicked but by having it equipped constantly heals you for a small amount. There’s room to play here I just don’t want PoEs piano mini game.
Potion system has been bad in every diablo game. In POE it just become a complex extension of gear. It should be simplified but at the same time it should be a calculated choice by the player.
I really, really don’t want a system where you need to make sure you have a stack of 99 potions so you won’t run out halfway through an area. I much prefer the infinite potion with a cooldown (which also prevents potion spamming). I would not mind having a couple different types tossed in with seperate cooldowns for extra effects beyond just healing. Perhaps one with a move speed boost, etc.
I agree
Limit the carry possibilities to the slots on your belt and make them drop very rarely so they actually become a panic button and not a temporary buff before every encounter
That’s D3 and tbh, then please rather remove potions completely… having “the potion button” is the most boring thing in the world.
Yeah it is really the worst thing about D2 (although I like D2 a lot)…
And I think, PoE in its early days found a very nice potion system, to have different potions, to make potions a ressource, but at the same time you don’t have to manage big stacks in your inventory or at the vendor.
I’m honestly not a fan of the D2/PoE systems. They both feel like I have 4-5 extra abilities to press but not super meaningful abilities, just mandatory non-thematic extra generic abilities.
D3’s system can definitely be improved on but I would honestly much prefer they stick with the single button consumable with a cooldown than go up to 4 buttons.
To me this lets the devs make consumables powerful and a meaningful aspect of the fight, you use that consumable at the right time to get more value than using it at the wrong time.
The idea of replacing the potion slots with charms is effectively the way modern PoE works when you use certain flask enchants; and they introduced this system precisely because there were a massive amount of complaints about the flask system. (notably, they were not meaningful to use, you always wanted them up so you just pressed them on CD)
I think what you’ll find with a lot of these potion systems is that they become a chore, just another button in your rotation so the majority of players will opt to use the charms instead and then you have to think why did you even make a system where the majority of the players immediately try to move the system out of their way.
If you were trying to fix an already established system then the charm fix makes a lot of sense (it’s why PoE opted to effectively do it) but if you have the option of designing from scratch then I think it introduces too many problematic design and player experience issues so should be avoided.
In PoE I agree and I would rather like potions to behave more situational, and NOT like your standard abilities, which you usually spam during fights.
That gives depth though… I mean, that’s the same as saying “I rather have 1 ability than 6”… If it is a good system, it grants depths and customizablity.
I mean that is kinda my argument, I don’t think the extra buttons are a good system. Sure it adds customisation but sometimes adding those things for the sake of them don’t improve the experience.
If you give them too little power then they are not meaningful to press and become a chore in your gameplay pattern or in the case of the charm solution a frustration that the player seeks to solve.
If you give them too much power then they are basically full scale abilities and become mandatory - at that point I’d rather just have an actual class ability instead of a generic power consumable.
I’d argue I’m saying here “I rather have 1 meaningful ability than 6 boring spam ones”.
Yes, I am saying I’d rather have less buttons to press if 4 of those buttons are doing the exact same thing or really similar but complimentary things.
I’d love instead to see custom consumables that can replace the potion, like imagine you can take a consumable that instead of healing provides a big shield for the party - Now if you give the players 4 consumable slots, what happens is every player takes healing and they take the cool shield - but if there is only one slot then this choice is big. You lose a massive source of healing so you have to ensure you cover your recovery elsewhere in your build and it’s rare to see players do this because they had to take time and investment to make it work.
In some ways, the extra “depth” of being able to take more things reduces the impact of some decisions.
I prefer they keep the consumable slot impactful and recovery in general more restricted than it has been in D2/D3/PoE.
Since D4 has MMO elements it might make sense to add consumable crafting and have potions/elixirs that are consumed/single use. That would also add another market you could trade in if there is going to be any form of in-game trade center/system.
I don’t really want 4 consumable buttons, but I could see maybe having two, a health restore consumable slot and a utility consumable slot.
That would then bring up the issue of out of combat recovery. Would consumables be focused on in-combat use only and we’d have other methods of faster recovery out of combat, or would you also want out of combat recovery to be limited as well? If you did that, certain classes might have healing abilities and then there would be a out of combat balance recovery issue or a feeling like you were being pushed into wanting a person with healing/support abilities in their build in your group.
Even though we haven’t seen a monk or pally/crusader yet, they did mention in a video interview that skeleton priests would be an option for necromancers (they didn’t say in what way, maybe via a legendary power?). No idea what those look like, but it sounds like something that would provide some degree of health recovery. Also possible the druid has something in that category even though they didn’t in D2 (other than for themselves).
If they’re gonna do charms, I feel like it should just be a charm inventory.
I think what I’d want to see if having a belt of up to 4 consumables with a lot of different potion types to find. They have charges rather than 1 off use and can recharge from monster kills or health globes(basically the PoE system).
However in higher difficulties for dungeons, I would restrict how much you can recharge them to the point of possibly making it so that you can’t recharge them and you just have what you come in with. Make it more of a strategic choice of when to use the potion rather than just spamming them as you constantly recharge them like what happened in PoE.
Even in the overworld, I wouldn’t let it recharge as fast as it does in PoE.
I have been going back and forth on which kind of potion system to use (my position is basically; Anything else than D2, considering how terrible potions are in that game).
But currently I think Dark Souls potions are best. Also the system (kinda) that Lost Ark and, gasp, afaik Diablo Immortal uses for some of their content.
As in, you enter a dungeon, a boss fight, etc. and then you have X potions for the duration of the activity. No way to get them back until you either finish it or abandon/reset it.
Potions refill in town, but only when you dont have an current activity going (so no porting to town to refill obviously)
As for potions more generally than health potions, it would be nice to see some other potions in the game. As long as they can avoid the potion hell that is PoE.
Maybe more like Buff potions. Like you can use one buff potion when entering a dungeon, boss fight, camp etc… It lasts for the duration of the activity (or until death), whatever comes first. With different kinds of potions to pick from, like MF potion, dmg potion, life leech potion etc.
Since they are long buff potions, they dont really need buttons or a UI, they can just be used when entering the dungeon. Maybe the game asks if you want to use any of your available buff potions, with a list.
A major reason for having these would of course be for having a crafting system, basically Alchemy. As well as having a system for targeting gear (focused MF buff potions for example).
