As a predominantly SSF player this happens to me every season. To make progress I have to farm SOMETHING be it mats, ancients, something and then face the mercy of RNG until it relents and I manage to craft the perfect shoulders or find that ancient (or primal) I can actually use. I think that’s what made this season so much fun… with crucibles I could easily make one primal for every toon I played. That, more than the angelic powers, was a way bigger deal than I realized.
But eventually the game stops being a game and turns into a job. Hours of farming mats to try crafting a set of Guardian bracers or Aughild’s chest that I can augment only for the RNG to burn thru thousands and thousands of mats and give me nothing but forge fodder. Knowing that I’ll make no progress without another 4-5 hours of mindless farming really sucks the joy out playing. And after finding myself facing that decision for the 3rd (or is it 4th?) time I think it’s time to call an end to this season. It was my favorite season since I returned during Season 19 but it’s finally come to an end.
A final thought. I mentioned this earlier in a different thread that I’d like some form of these crucibles to move forward. I’m leaning towards something like a “Blessed Token” that can convert any legendary to a primal but you can only equip one “blessed” item. No special powers – just the ability to get a useful primal – this would be huge boon to players who don’t spend 12 hours a day playing in groups in GR90 speed runs. And unlike primals you wouldn’t have to wait until you can clear GR70 solo to unlock them either. Lower the drop rate a ton… maybe 10% of the current rate… and they’d still be useful. And those folks that do farm GR90 day-in, day-out, will STILL be way further along in power and paragon but the rest of us will get a bit more enjoyment from the game. Shouldn’t that be taken into consideration?
Yes, items rain from the sky. But 99.9% of them are merely forge fodder. That has been and apparently always will be the way itemization works in Diablo. I expect more of the same in D4.
I’m going to say it again. One thing that’s rare in this game is “OH MY GOD! IT DROPPED!!!”
Primals are the only thing in this game other than the rarer cosmetics that give that feeling and it cheapens that feeling when folks want to shortcut it with stuff like this.
I spent 6 hours yesterday trying to get a set of H90 shoulders for my barbarian. 10,000+ blood shards at Kadala’s… dozens and dozens of cube upgrades and not a single damn shoulder. – NOTE – not ancient shoulders but ANY shoulders for the set. That happens every damn season I try to play more than a couple of different builds. Every. Damn. Season. And it’s how the game works unless you’ve got three other people feeding you items in an endless stream of GR90 runs.
Which is part of the problem. The game is poorly designed for solo play AND group play at the same time. It makes it too hard for solo players and too easy for groups. The worst of both worlds. Congratulations Blizzard.
Well, as a fellow SSF player, I’d say: just don’t play the game that way. Yes, some things, like bounties, are just terrible. But, you really don’t need to run that many bounties in order to get a decent Crimson/Aughild/Guardian set. Yeah, maybe that chest has vit instead of elite reduction, but that’s not going to make or break you.
As for running rifts, I personally find running endless 2 minute speed pretty mind numbing after about an hour or so as well. Instead, I’ll often switch to just running what I call “10-in-a-rows”, which is basically as high a tier as I can clear 10x in a row with no failures. It’s difficult enough to keep my brain working, but without the endless fishing of real pushing.
Also, you are probably not really unable to progress. You may just need to fish a bit to beat that next tier. And since they changed the GR odds, fishing is a hell of a lot less painful than it used to be.
Anyway, my point is just that you probably don’t need to do those things you seem to hate nearly as much as you seem to be doing them. A lot of the gains you get from getting a perfect pair of gloves or a rank 150 gem or a rank 150 augment are pretty incremental, not the sort of thing that makes or breaks your ability to progress.
Funny! I usually get items I need even Primals. It’s a time investment. If you don’t have the time, then don’t play. Don’t cheapen the game because you don’t have time to play. That’s as selfish as it gets!
That’s just unlucky. Personally I usually buy/craft whatever piece has the least competition if I’m going for a set and then buy/upgrade that until I have 6 pieces and then reroll set in the cube. Generally that makes it quite quick to get a viable build going, more so this season when you have a “free” primal weapon.
I’ve hit a wall around GR130 with my wizard so starting playing other classes to see if I could find something else. Fishing is just another form of farming. Farming GR keys over and over again to fish for that one in hundred rift is different how?
Well, it doesn’t need to be 100 keys, it can be however many keys you feel like spending. I mean, I generally farm about 70-80 keys per hour, and spend them at maybe half that rate when pushing, so a decent 80 key push for me is maybe a 3 hour activity.
But, that’s just me. You obviously need to decide for yourself what parts of this game you find enjoyable.
It sort of seems as though you find nothing about this game enjoyable, since you don’t like farming (T16 keys / bounties), don’t like grinding (speed GRs for XP/Loot/GemUps), and don’t like pushing (“fishing for that one in one hundred rift”).
In which case the solution is super simple: quit this game, and find a new one.
I was trying to get either the chest or the shoulders for the H90 set. Basically I’d farm 1500 or so blood shards on my wizard or DH who can run speed 110’s then hop on the barbie and gamble at Kadala. Tons of Raekor’s, Spirit of the Earth, WW, and useless leggos and never the H90 ones. Finally, on the 7th dump I got a pair of shoulders and then crafted an OK Aughild’s chest. But it was hours of time and eventually I had to can the Aughild’s and switch to Guardian which was more farming and… yeah… All that so I can crawl from GR104 to GR110… maybe. That stops being fun.
It’s a grinding game. If you stop having fun grinding then it’s time to stop playing season or whatever.
I’m SSF too and decided to play Crusader this season. The crucible powers are pretty lackluster for that class, so the only thing that’s useful is the free “primal” aspect.
But that comes with a drawback. Once you make your “primal” weapon, the item hunt for that item goes bye-bye. Even a really good ancient won’t replace it. So, I only play this Season a little each week.
On the other hand, when I switched back to non-season, and picked up my Crusader (I usually play DH), I went from a decent normal a week ago, to a mediocre Ancient, on Friday, to a perfect Primal Blade of Prophecy just the other night. That feeling was awesome and I can’t get that feeling this season.
I have an primal quiver in my stash that I plan to use instead of my sanctified one, however I’ve must have angered the RNG gods since I’ve spent over 200 crucibles on a neck so far and not gotten what I want.
Thinking about this some more this might be the real answer I was looking for. Only play an hour or so at a time and maybe not every day. Trash some demons, squish some bugs and spiders, stash whatever loot I can for non-season and log out for a day or two.
I was getting so caught up in “I must get that better (fill in the blank)” that it made the grind for resources and the failure of RNG so frustrating.
Thanks for a bit of perspective, I wasn’t expecting to find that here.
I still would like to see SSF checkbox when creating a new character. That way you can play both with friends while have a SSF that is independent of anything else you run.
Change things up. When I’m tired of one activity, I do something else.
Pause and relish the moment when something worthwhile happens. (Other day I got a perfect Karlei’s primal. I augmented it, rerolled the worst stat, gifted it, equipped it, and exited the game.)
Try different builds!
Try different classes!
Watch videos on youtube. I recommend wudijo’s channel. (ymmv, I don’t see ads)
Come to these forums and see what’s up.
Stop playing the game for a few days.
Read guides. See if there’s something I can do better. I’m always fascinated by funky mechanics that are not obvious or intuitive.
Most importantly: I don’t worry about pointless things, like my leaderboard rank, or my paragon. Those things will come naturally at the appropriate level.