Single player and Ladder should ONLY have Ladder only runewords. Non ladder should not be allowed. There will be no reason to play ladder. No one plays that to “race to 99”
5 Likes
It’s already been done and the majority of the community wanted it. The incentive of ladder is a fresh economy and yes, lvling to 99 for now.
38 Likes
Thank god this has been changed.
30 Likes
I’m glad for the change. I don’t have time to make much headway in Ladder at this point in my life, and I was seriously considering refunding the game due to so many items being off limits. The decision to share Ladder-only features with all modes of gameplay put a stop to that. I’m now looking forward to launch day.
20 Likes
I don’t care either way as long as we can make ladder runewords at launch.
1 Like
Too late, it’s done.
I always hated having to start over just to get the full game / all items. If you want a fresh start ladder is there for you. Otherwise stop trying to control how I play.
8 Likes
There’s a possibility of other “incentives” to play ladder that have not yet been announced.
5 Likes
Real sick of every post using the terms “no one”, “majority”, “everyone” “all”. Every issue and rant on this board never has room for the gray areas.
Case and point, I do ladder not for items or to race but it feels nice to see that I’ve made it to hell and high level and haven’t died once. Yes this is unique to HC. Cause as we ALL know EVERYONE who plays SC is a coward.
2 Likes
Has to be a few new things imo. Would be nice as I like restarting ladders for the fresh progression and economy but the ladder only stuff was always a nice bonus. I do agree singleplayer should have access to all content.
There’s nothing wrong with people remaining in non-ladder. Ladder is a 3 month race event, not a ‘come here and build runewords that don’t exist elsewhere’ event.
I expect the meta will be most people play non ladder as standard item progression and use ladder seasons as a means to try new toons and do a little racing.
4 Likes
This is Blizzard’s stated goal for ladder since the beginning. Notice how it does not mention exclusive item rewards as a reason.
“What’s the advantage to creating a Ladder Character?
This is similar to starting out on a brand new realm. Players will be able to experience Diablo II like when the game was first released. When the Ladder Season first begins, players start at Level 1 and do not have powerful items. They also cannot use powerful high-level items or other high-level characters to help them level up faster. Players create a character in a brand new world (Ladder Character world) where everything (economy, levels) starts from the beginning. The main advantage of creating a Ladder Character is being able to join in on a totally new economy where powerful items are very valuable.”
“What if I don’t play ladder or don’t want to compete on the ladder?
Although they are called Ladder Characters, players do not have to compete on the ladder to play. You can simply play at your own speed and not worry about how you are ranked on the ladder.”
This is what was promised. To be able to play at our own speed and not worry over ladder. However Blizzard contradicted themselves by at the same time doing this…
“Yes there are some items that can only be obtained with a ladder character such as some [class specific and elite uniques]. There are also some [ladder-only rune words] as well as [cube recipes] that can only be created by a ladder character.”
Understanding human psychology you can see that while a person could play non ladder at their own pace, they will worry about the ladder and what they are missing out on. In a way that feeling of missing out psychologically forces them to ladder thereby breaking the promise of “at your own pace” and “not worry about ladder”.
Blizzard is finally rectifying this inconsistency.
6 Likes
One of the best changes in D2R.
8 Likes
Nah dude, best change was letting us kill the cow king. Best change by a mile.
10 Likes
Best change was not deleting accounts after 90 days of inactivity 
4 Likes
It is worded very kind of weirdly but after reading it 20 times it becomes clear,
Blizz is saying all of the old Ladder items and content are basically in offline / vanilla version of D2R. They did not really say anything about whats in ladder or what //will// be in ladder in d2r.
It seems likely season 1 will be the same as offline. But it seems equally likely season 2+ will have its own content as a hook.
Trueeeee lol good point.
It would be nice (and perhaps solve the problem), if Blizz adds some kind of “ladder only” incentive beyond a mediocre “fresh start” and the “race to 99” that almost no one will ever achieve.
Even if it’s only a cosmetic trifle, like naming a piece of gear (ala Anya quest), drops a random “middling” rune when you hit 80, 85, 90, 95, etc.
A creative, non-game-breaking reward to making progress in ladder would go a long way towards compensating for ungating ladder-only content.
Anyone have any ideas?
1 Like
they absolutely will do this. I expect there to be unique items, runes etc. and likely cosmetics in future ladders. Encouraging ladder play is absolutely key to long term retention, they just dont necessarily have to do it on season 1 (and they still havent said they wont).
But effectively the end of D2 ladder content, is the start of D2R content in all modes. We will see what comes next when they confirm launch of S1.
1 Like
I would be okay with completely cosmetic rewards. Actual exclusive items would be a huge mistake to reintroduce.
One version I have mentioned before could be;
Each ladder period a few of the rarest items have a minor reskin/recolor. So if you are running around with a reskinned Griffons eye, it must have been found in ladder period 3 or whatever (not necessarily by you of course).
Speaking of whether you found it, could be a bit of fun if all uniques (if not all gear) showed the player name of who had found it. And Runewords showed who had found all the runes.
4 Likes
Recoloring sounds like a pretty cool way to add some “exclusivity” to ladder play, especially once that item moves into non-ladder play.
I hate to go there, but… 
POE “names” its leagues various scary names. Perhaps they could name some of these rare items after that? For example, the name of the ladder is “Baalslayer” - and you find an Arachnid’s, so it would now be called “Baalslayer’s Arachnid’s Mesh” or something like that.
Would be interesting to track items after they revert to non-ladder gameplay to see exactly how “old” they are.
Interesting…
1 Like