[Feedback] Vengeance, Epiphany & WotB need a visual update

General Discussion
1

Many Monk, Demon Hunter and Barbarian builds use Vengeance, Epiphany and Wrath of the Berserker and have it active 100% of the time, which means that you do not see your Character with its original appearance often, even if you would want to.

On top of that, the visuals for Vengeance and Epiphany do look very bland and just dark, with the visuals for Vengeance dating back to a time where every DH build used the Natalya Set, which is why the DH in Vengeance form uses the silhouette of the Natalyaā€™s Sight Helm.

Vengeance (current version, dark and bland):
https://imgur.com/Kko3EEz

Epiphany (current version, dark and bland):
https://imgur.com/kuBhmGS

To me, these visuals do not look very satisfying (and I know that many others feel the same) and thereby make the game less satisfying to play, so improving these visuals in one way or another imo would be a great Evergreen / long term change and not just something that last through one season.

The visuals of Wrath of the Berserker look more sophisticated than Vengeance or Epiphany, but still many people in the community do not like the ā€œSuper Saiyanā€-look and that the Barbarianā€™s armor and appearance is disappearing / overwritten while the skill is active, so maybe these could be adjusted as well.

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Now that I mentioned the problem, I wanna suggest one possible improvement to update the visuals of these skills and one alternative way of dealing with it:

One way of adjusting this could be that when you activate these skills, the character keep their original appearance, but simply add something like a more transparent layer of moving particles (like a glowing aura) around it. Think about some variation of the aura you get from wearing a Full Set in Diablo 2, just with different colors and a different glowing effect.

D2 - Aura from equipping a full Set:
https://imgur.com/61yEHDr

Another possible solution is to allow players to toggle on and off the visuals for these skills.

But that are just some suggestions, so maybe the devs can come up with better solutions.

Thank you!

2

I wouldnā€™t hold my breath, and tbh thereā€™s plenty of issues I rather they spend those resources on than something purely cosmetic.

3

The purpose for the ā€œsuper formsā€ of the heroā€™s ultimate abilities is so that the player can easily establish by looking at the hero whether the ability is still active or not without having to look away from their hero at the buff list, and try to find the icon, or at their ability bar. On a Barb, itā€™s incredibly easy to differentiate between Wrath of the Berserker being active or not based on whether the Barb looks like Thing from the Fantastic Four or not.

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4

The people who create the art assets are different people who do the coding. Sometimes it overlaps, but they definitely have some people that more predominantly or even exclusively deal with art assets.

Just about a month ago, Kimberly LeCrone was promoted to Lead Art Designer of Diablo 3. She was talking about that on twitter and maybe some Diablo-specific news sites have mentioned it.

https://mobile.twitter.com/KLeCrone/status/1511059604523782144

She was the one who did the design of the Ethereal Weapons from iirc two seasons ago, so they definitely have a small team or small group of people working specifically on art.

What I am trying to achieve with this post is to ask the devs to allocate some of the Artā€™s Teams resource and time to visually improve these ā€œTransformation Skillsā€.

Yes, but that can be done in imo different and better ways than it currently is.

In fact I would say that with Vengeance and Epiphany it actually makes your char harder to see when he is in a crowd of enemies.

Some variation of the Aura from equipping a full set in D2 is an optionā€¦
https://imgur.com/61yEHDr

ā€¦ or something similar to the Kaioken from Dragonball could also work.
https://dragonball.fandom.com/wiki/Kaio-ken?file=Kaioken+high+quality.PNG

5

berserker or crusader are the weakest links and berserker looks dragonturdz enough already.

6

I am not saying to add an aura to Berserker, but rather to replace the current visuals of WotB with some form of aura. It even could be a Diablo 2-style aura like the one you get when you equip a full set, just with different colors and another animation.

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7

There will be no such update or ā€œfixā€ for such an old game, that only runs on updated seasons.

8

But you do know that in several of the latest seasons there has been new art stuff?

As I said in one of my previous posts in this thread, they even have a new Lead Artist (or even Lead Art Designer) since about a month, so there are definitely people dedicated to art, graphics, visuals who still work on D3.

9

I do like how the Veng rune color lets me easily know which one I am running. That said, I always transmog my helm to sage so that I can actually see my DH face. I would love it if they can adjust those transformation effect to be an exterior aura/effect so that the character appearance remains visible. I would also include the Akkhan transformation in this, as I hate that my pretty crusader girl turns into whatever the hell that thing isā€¦

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10

Should probably just add a toggle similar to ā€œHide helmetā€ etc. Allowing people to choose if they want to see those spell effects or not.
Doesnā€™t help with the ā€˜bland lookā€™ of course, but relatively easy to implement at least.

1 Like
11

I truly wish they would add hide helmet, so I donā€™t have to transmog every helm I own.

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12

Honestly rather than updating the visuals, it just seems more better to just add a toggle-able option that would either hide the transformation effect, or even replace it with the aura effect. Personally, I dislike aura effects like the ones given from some the Diablo 2 class sets. So having it as an option would be preferable rather than it forcibly added.

13

Some of the vengeance & epiphany runes look pretty cool. The main ones everyone use are just a little drab.

14

Not really no. And this is a game heading to be replaced. Hence my comment. It will stay as it is. Cause their focus is at d4 now. Where it shoudl be.

15

If this toggle on/off option is in the Skill Window, then it also requires a bit of new art.
If it is in the option menu, then it probably requires less.

I remember that in Median 2008 or Median 2009 (a Diablo 2 mod), there was a skill called Blood Fury (a buff that drained your life but also increased Damage) that used the D2 Full Set Aura but in blood red and it looked really great.

I sadly couldnā€™t find an image of that aura, but I definitely would have preferred to use that as an example to illustrate the idea.

There also is the Aura from D2ā€™s Valkyrie, that has a slightly different shape that is broader as it goes towards the ground.

Imagine one of these, in a shape that looks good and fitting, but with a different color that also fits the skill (e.g. some sort of red for the Barbarianā€™s Berserker, as he turns red with anger).

And yet there are people still working on it. A small team for sure, but still they do things about it.

A small team continuing to work on D3, while the rest of the team has its focus on D4 is nothing that is mutually exclusive.

I think it would look cool if the effects for vengeance would be more like a dark, shadowy glowing, transparent aura around the body of the DH (with some color variations per rune ofc), instead of something that turns the DH completely black.

That would also allow the original appearance of the char to remain while Vengeance is active.

And Epiphany could get a golden glowing aura, which also would fit perfectly.

16

Ofc. there are. They make new season themes and so forth. Just cause someone new came along, does not mean they are reworking the game nor itā€™s graphics in the way this subject is about. They will not remake the vengeance and other forms.

17

Iā€™d just have it in the options.

Honestly, Iā€™m just not a fan of auras like that. Imo, they look even more ridiculous than the transformation abilities that people sometimes complain about.

18

My point is that they already remade some of the graphics.

Kimberley, the Lead Artist has made the Ethereal Items for one of the past seasons:
https://twitter.com/KLeCrone/status/1405607433150468096

She and the art team also worked on stuff for the current season:
https://twitter.com/KLeCrone/status/1511870272558678021

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It is a great ā€œEvergreenā€ thing to do and making it a simple glowing effect is by far not as hard as making something sophisticated as WotBā€™s or Akkaratā€™s Championā€™s current visuals.

They have done something similar with the 21 Ethereal Weapons from a recent past season, so I donā€™t think that making a simple glow effect with color variations is out of the scope.

Iā€™d be fine with that as well.

19

These are seasonal themes and has nothing to do with the baseline of this game. Seasons are the only thing they focus on. Thinking they will change apperance will not happen.
D3 runs on a lifeline, only support is to season themes and nothing more.

20

With the latest patchā€¦

  • you can close Rifts before the timer has run out
  • Orekā€™s Dream are GR Maps that have a visual adjustment

These are Evergreen Changes that are not just for one season.

Which is why they made changes to GRā€™s and implemented Orekā€™s Dream?!

It is even being speculated by some that the Echoing Nightmare are gonna become a standard feature, who knowsā€¦

Making Evergreen Changes that improve the overall quality of the game is nothing that the devs havenā€™t done in the recent past.