It should probably deplete itself automatically when not getting hit for a while (like, more than 1 sec since you were last hit).
If you are getting hit regularly, maybe it should not deplete by default, but some ‘tank talents’ etc. could of course let it deplete at some speeed, even when being hit. So like if you are a barb who have taken a -5% stagger/sec talent, you might be able to facetank a few small enemies forever without getting staggered. Without that talent, you would get staggered eventually, unless you move away from them to make the stagger meter begin to deplete.
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Yes, that is exactly what I am describing.
Your character gets microstunned for ~1 second or 1.5 seconds and then the Stagger Meter depletes to 0.
However, unlike Boss Stagger in D4, your Character Stagger would decay over time so that it goes back to 0 on its own - which is something that Boss Stagger does not do to my knowledge.
And your XP Bar could move to the bottom of the Hotbar, and the Stagger Bar would be there where your XP Bar is currently (above the skill icons in the hotbar), so you can keep track of it better.
I would separate CC and Stagger.
CC’s are things like Hard CC’s like freeze, stun (from things like ground stomp), charm, fear, maybe blind, etc and Soft CC’s like slow and chill. In general Hard CC’s would only come from very specific attacks like Frost Nova, Ground Stomp etc.
Stagger on the other hand comes from almost every attack (of which some apply more and some less) and it accumulates over time. Then, once the bar is full, you get microstunned.
So they are manageable in different ways.
That is what I am trying to say and suggest all the time.
Stagger and CC being separate.
There are CC’s that do not fill up your Characters Stagger Bar, like Hard CC’s like Frost Nova, ground Stomp, stun, freeze, charm, fear, blind, etc. and Soft CC’s like Slow and Chill…
and Stagger is gained with almost every attack you take a hit from, but it would accumulate over time.
Some attacks might just add +1 to your Stagger bar, while others add +2/3/4 Stagger and others may add even +8 or +10 to it and once your Stagger Bar reached the maximum, which maybe could be 200 or 300 or whatever, then you get stunned.
So even a small enemy would add like +1 Stagger with a normal attack and and 10 small enemies are obviously more dangerous.
A large Golem can either stun you with a special attack that could get teased, and/or he has a heavy attack that adds +xx Stagger.
Mentioning Knockback:
I would make knockback a separate CC.
At least in D3, Knockback on enemies should have its own “Stagger Bar” so to speak.
In D3 applying a Hard CC like a stun on an enemy give it passives CC Resistances which also decays over time, and when it reaches 100%, the enemy becomes CC immune.
I would separate knockback and the other CC’s from each other and maybe something similar could or should be done in D4.
The Chill would count as a Soft CC and the Freeze would count as a Hard CC.
I thought about this for a while.
Maybe each Frost skill has adds a certain amount of a Chill Debuff on an enemy.
Some skills may add +2 Stacks, and others may add +5 Stacks with every attack, etc and once the Stacks reach 100, the target gets frozen for ~3 seconds and the stacks go down to 30 or 40.
After that, you can add new stacks of the Chill Debuff, but for let’s say 3 seconds after the target was frozen, it can only have a maximum of 65 Chill Stacks applied on it and after this 3 seconds it can go above that number to 100 again.
This would prevent you from perma-freezing enemies too easily.
This can also work with weapon attacks that have things like Frost Damage on a weapon.
This idea could maybe get refined a bit, but I like how the Chill-Freeze Mechanic works in D4 so far.
Yeah, it could even decay by a rate of e.g x per second, without requiring you to not take a hit for a while.
What I mean is that it should not work like the Barbarian’s Fury, which firsts starts to decay after x seconds, but rather decay all the time, like a reversed Mana or Arcane Power.
Then, staying away from enemies a bit, even when you hit hit during htis process a few times, would deplete the bar enough for you to rejoin the fight with a lot less Stagger.
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Yes i done some high grs back in the day “when it was considered high” but i have to disagree, The only things that bothered me often were affixes on the monsters, specifically reflect which i love as an affix!
perhaps just my builds and experiences but far less noticeable and memorable than D2 monster variants
I feel like that still wont matter as much, Especially with the HUGE amount of CC recovery time % we see on D4 items and got in D3.
Although I noticed +Crowd Control% duration on items in d4 which looks great for pvp, Its great in pve if the cap % is not too high for sure
First of all, We have Diablo Immortal and netflix series for new players, Classes from Diablo 2 Amazon Assasin etc…are new…to new players and loved by old.
I really really think its bad if 70% of the game is made for “new players” and to be honest, no one new to gaming is likely to pick up diablo and if they do, it would e a great experience if its difficult and requires thought, unlike D3…I mean… anyone understands this…
If you are walking by and get punched in the face, this will make you react flinch move and say ouch, Its ridiculous to get stabbed in a game and your character not even flinch haha.
Stuns slows freeze chill confuse etc were all in diablo 2 along side HR and Block…
CC is great but so is being staggered every now and then actually noticing our hp bar or globe.
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Yeah, honestly, the only affixes that really could change things, ended up getting nerfed or removed.
While there are some monsters that behaves differently, as those examples given, they generally dont really change how you respond. Either you fight them the same way you fight all other mobs, even if they are slightly more annoying for your build, or you skip them. Since our build toolboxes consists of exactly one tool.
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I checked your profile, and you only have P764, so I really doubt you ever run GR110 and above where all the monster combination that I just listed can easily one-shot you which prompt you to learn about them so you can dodge them.
Well your just proving my theory right man, Monsters do not matter in diablo 3 to anyone…Untill you hit a certain GR level so yes thanks for your validation xD
Also, Inspecting peoples profile is a cheap way to assume things just because my current paragon is low does not mean i never done high content.
My best Gr push was probably Solo 70 back in 2017 i just seen on my account in game, Yes, 3 years ago i dont really play d3 anymore so pretty rude comment my dude 
For me, Diablo is not meant to be rift runner 3000 no crit chance and damage scrap item, just my opinion hence why i dont enjoy GR’s, Its the same with Breath of the wild Shrines, Its all the same.
You are wrong again. GR110 zombies are not threatening compare to the monsters that I just listed, By the way, do you know what Accursed monsters do?
Cheap way? I thought it is pretty solid way to determine whether you are being honest here or not.
GR70 is not considered as high content, even for 2017.
I never asked how you felt on D3. I am simply telling you are wrong about D3 monsters not being important.
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play a higher greater rift level
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I could say i never asked for your input also but thats rude and i like to discuss things about diablo and am new to the forums, If doing what you call “high content” in diablo 3 is the only thing that will give me credibility in posts then maybe i should hide my profile like you?
We can easily agree to disagree my man but im fully open to discussion to have my mind changed, this post is not about singling out peoples in game achievements or content levels its an idea about hit recovery and my thoughts on monsters not being important.
Yes (Had to google to remember what they are) but i can honestly say i never really noticed too many monsters uniqueness other than in story mode whilst leveling up through the acts although im going to play some diablo 3 tonight to refresh my memory about some monsters that are unique and cool.
Please list more monsters from diablo 3 that are important and why, i am very interested and its great for the topic
I will set a goal to do this, I hope off season characters count?
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And I am telling you that certain monsters are dangerous at a high level due to their innate ability and characteristic.
Because they are weaksauce in story mode which you probably killed them before even realized what they can do on your character or their damage is too low for you to even care with. Things became different in high GR because monsters being randomly mix-match with other monsters thus it may create a lot of dangerous synergies that can easily kill your character, especially if the map has small path or limited layout for you to maneuver.
And i believe they should be dangerous all throughout the progression of the game, We need to have times where we cant win and we die with penalties this is diablo 
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They still dont make a difference in GRift 110+ either. Maybe they oneshot you (which is bad gameplay design), but they still feel very similar. You handle pretty much all the monsters the same way.
In D3 vanilla, monster affixes really mattered. Not so much these days.
There is literally no difference between GR70 and 110 other than HP/dmg multipliers. So if your gear is that much better/worse, a GR70 and GR110 can be exactly the same for a player.
The very few exceptions to the rule basically.
I agree. There needs to be some kind of stagger or faster hit recovery mechanic in the game to make the combat feel more visceral; that its not just numbers going up or down on a health bar. A stagger mechanic or hit recovery mechanic bar that fills up from monster hits depending on how much “stagger reduction” you have can slow it down and even recovery from it.
This also means that we would need block recovery too. Building up defensive affixes in an ARPG is a big part of itemization in the “item juggle”. There is a good emphasis on making your character robust in D2 that was missing in D3. ARPG’s are funny enough a puzzle game as far as mixing and matching items/affixes.
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imo block recovery could get integrated into the Stagger Mechanic as well.
Every time you block an attack, you gain +x Stagger.
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Fun fact: D2 has a lot of crowd control skills. I guess you haven’t played it.
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There would be a risk of ending up being staggered by a fallen at the end of a fight, which would feel a bit silly. ^^ With a constant depleting rate, fast enough to absorb hits from a small enemy but not sufficient against a big one or a horde, that should not happen. Affixes and talents would only increase the bar’s max like Clueso said, with a few exceptions maybe.
Also, ranged characters should have a slower depleting rate than melees since they don’t get hit as often.
I agree, though I would make the stagger a bit longer by default, like 3 seconds, to make the mechanics matter more. 1-1.5s is not long enough imo, or it would happen so often it would get annoying like in D2.
We don’t completely agree on that, which is fine. At the very least I would replace Stun by Stagger.
Me too, I would just add a tooltip to indicate how far the target is from getting frozen, like the hitbar getting blue.
Never said there were no CC skills in D2.
Guess less. Read better.
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