I play 16 hrs a day, so i have the time for ladder grinds.
Still i have no intention of playing ladder, because i also want to play with friends that cant put as much time into the game.
Looking forward to having full access in non-ladder.
You can do “fresh econ” in NL - just don’t trust fund the new character at all. The gaming experiences offered in Ladder and NL are now identical. Both offer the identical amount/variety of playstyles.
Which, for me, removes a great incentive to play.
So, Blizz needs to find some new incentives to drop people to ladder. Cosmetic changes would be better, but at least something. The “race to 99” ain’t enough.
Not exactly. NL is lower difficulty still.
Ehh, not just a fresh start* for me but for everyone. It’s more interesting to trade and share major drops while leveling, it gives me a much better sense of community when everyone is working towards the same goal.
(I don’t usually trade but will give drops to those who need stuff or while leveling, drop items my char doesn’t need for another class)
NL is just a wealth trove and, yeah, at some point, everyone is loaded. Totally fair. I love SSF grail, and would do that on NL but ladder is a different experience for me; more greed, more need, more community, more group play while leveling (before everyone gets g-rushed).
I like being able to give away things (mark them on my little grail sheet first of course), and all be going from rags->riches together. NL only stays like that for so long that major drops/trades stop mattering so much.
1 Like
I can see them adding cosmetics, maybe some kind of aura or title for reaching 99 during a ladder season. I doubt they’ll ever add ladder only items and runewords that directly affect player power again, however.
Do we know if this still true in D2R?
1 Like
Not sure if it’s 100% confirmed but what I have read so far it seems so.
It’s happening. Get over it.
1 Like
it does quite a bit for player retention. there is a reason its cliche because its a model that works
they can either drip content in in balance patches, or by the season. season is better for keeping an even playing field during, and giving more incentive for players who inevitably burn out a reason to come back. Diablo 2 pioneered this concept.
I think no one played the “race to 99” because of all the bots that flooded d2c ladder. Hopefully with D2R those bots will be eradicated and the “race to 99” will again feel like a small achievement lol. I do however support the use of NL runewords because literally the only other benefit to playing ladder is the race to the top lol. I would prefer to stick to NL where I can continue to play the characters I took my time creating and trying to reach that sense of “end game” … especially considering they lowered the duration of ladder seasons to be shorter than they used to be.
I thought noone did a race to 99 cause after you beat the game you still have to grind out 30-40 more levels.
For sure, the Cow King does have the best chance of any Super Unique to drop Shako. But the best farm spot is quest bugged Hell Andy, about 5 times more likely from her than Cow King % chances. I guess it evens out if you can kill Cow King 5 times faster than Andy.
This website has all items drop chances by monster:
https://dropcalc.silospen.com/item.php
|The Cow King - The Cow King (H)|The Secret Cow Level|1:8923|
|The Countess - The Countess (H)|Tower Cellar Level 5|1:17745|
Quest bugged Andy:
|Andariel (Q) - andariel (H)|Catacombs Level 4|1:1774|
Non-quest Meph:
|Mephisto - mephisto (H)|Durance of Hate Level 3|1:1819|