Pretty sure my first post was in the wrong forum but here we go. Lol.
Hey everyone,
If there is one thing I love to talk about with anyone who has ever given me the chance, it is the game of Diablo II. throughout the years I have played it off and on and have probably put more time into this game than in any other list of games COMBINED. I have always been passionate about this game and seeing that it still has a community today is quite remarkable. This game I really think to this day is still slightly ahead of its time without knowing it. I still have 3 full accounts of characters that I try to put time into at least once a week. I have told all the people close to me " how f*****g amazing would a remaster of this game be?" and it has always sparked a great conversation. That being said I would like to discuss and post this on a couple websites and forums to gather some sort of consensus on what people think. I want to hit a lot of topics on this game, state my opinions, and maybe this can be big enough to make an impact on the game’s release (I can only hope).
Before I go much further, let me state that these are my own thoughts and opinions on how I think this game could really be perfect coming out the gate. I will put a TLDR at the bottom for those who really don’t care. But to those that do, please know that I would love to have a real discussion about any of these topics or other things I could add to my list in PM’s and maybe you can change my mind in some way, shape, or form. Alright, here we go. Lets talk Diablo II - Resurrected.
I have been seeing a lot of thoughts and opinions of how this game which has led me to putting my own out into the world. Over the last couple weeks with watching tons of alpha gameplay from countless streams of people with experience, and some people that have zero experience, and then getting access to part of the game first hand, I feel like there’s a lot of thoughts and opinions that either don’t get talked about enough or just completely missed due to lack of care for the game’s core. It makes me wish I got a lead foot on streaming and posting videos so that I could have a more positive response in this game earlier. I feel like a lot of the bigger streamers that play any Diablo miss a lot of things that need to be asked or discussed with the dev’s when they got the chance to do so.
So, first thing’s first -
Character design:
Character design and skill animation overall was one of the first things that anyone hearing about a remaster was going to get REALLY excited about. I will say that the over-critical thoughts on the amazon’s face was the first thing that made me worry about the player-base thoughts vs the dev’s listening to input. I would think that would be the last subject of things to look into when we are looking at game mechanics, but I was wrong. Personally, I think the design of the amazon overall looks great, but after addressing more important mechanics first, then MAYBE we could look at changing the face. I personally worry more about the way the paladin walks around with his shield or when charging, or the characters look when they teleport, it looks out of sync. Or barbarian when they whirlwind seems too slow and looks like they are “dancing”. Which leads me into my opinion: They need to address how some skills work with the character rather than the art of an amazon’s face. Here are a few -
Barb WW animation - Make the motion look faster. Less of a dance.
Paladin Charge/Smite/Holy Shield ALL need looked at, The shield hiding behind the Holy Shield looks very gross to me, Smite just doesn’t look right when its not swung like in old version, and Charge doesn’t seem to look fast at all, even if you are going fast it doesn’t seem like it. and some of his aura’s too. Holy Freeze and Conviction are the ones that could use a different look in my opinion.
Necro could use some love in looking at Bone Spear and maybe Bone Armor. Spear looks like a lightning bolt, and bone armor looks more like mud than bones.
Amazon abilities looked great to me.
Druid’s abilities looked great except for the Wolf animation, it looks really underwhelming when compared to the Werebear.
Sorceress could use some looks at Blizzard and other Cold skills to look more scary rather than “cute”.
Assassin looked good except for the WW animation. Also could make it faster.
Environment and map design:
Overall I think this was the coolest part about the remaster so far. The new and improved monster looks and the way act 1 and act 2 look so far look AMAZING. Kudo’s to them for nailing this. My only worry is when you teleport a lot or far in a quick amount of time, or firestorm proc on torch gets laggy. But that being said, I think they know this and will work on it for sure. After all, it was an Alpha beta.
Items:
Where to start on this one… Probably one of the scarier topics to talk about right now, but here is my opinion.
Enigma and Teleport in general: This NEEDS to stay in the game to keep every character viable in their own way, whether it’s PVP or a good magic finder. HOWEVER, I would not be opposed to seeing Teleport being put on a class specific item to make them have more options than “just” Enigma. Which leads me to my next opinion on this topic.
Buffing/Nerfing and changing itemization: I am going to try to tread lightly here but this is what I think. Also note that I would not like to see these changes before the launch, this would be something for extra content later. I would approve of SLIGHT changes in items and itemization, however we do not need to nerf anything that is currently best in slot. I do think we should give some love to items that really don’t ever get used. It would be cool to see all the unique two handed weapons actually be the preferred item’s for a certain barb build, or a cool dagger for a poison dagger necro build, etc. The list goes on. I cannot stress this enough about this topic, if a dev team ever did see this, PLEASE TREAD LIGHTLY WHEN CHANGING ANYTHING. That is all.
New or edited rune words: My opinion on this is very simple but effective. Do NOT touch any of the current rune words that are widely used, like Enigma/Hoto/Spirit, etc. INSTEAD, maybe look into giving class specific rune words some love. If new rune words seems like a better option, think long and very hard about how much that ONE rune word would change EVERY character if it is not class-specific.
Charm inventory: I am still in the middle on how I feel about it. Most of my mfing chars are specifically to MF so I don’t stack a lot of charms on them. So to me adding a charm inventory is just making my mfing faster than it already is. I don’t think it’s that necessary I guess?
Rolling over old items from Bnet into D2R: No. Let’s all start fresh. Keep it simple. Next topic.
Skills:
I kept this separate from the character design topic for one specific reason, that reason is - Skills that are not used as a main abilities I would LOVE to see get some changes. I would love to see a Poison Dagger Necro, a Fire Druid, a Vengeance Pally, a Frost Nova Sorc, the list goes on. Making builds like these that are viable in PVM and PVP would add SO much more complexity to the game that is ALREADY there!! I don’t think any abilities need nerfs at all being that mostly every build has items that counter them. (Thundergod’s + Wisp for lightning damage, etc) This game is 20 years old, lets make some changes to it AFTER THE INITIAL LAUNCH OF RESURRECTED.
Leveling:
Yeah… So my opinion on this is going to be simple as well. KEEP IT THE SAME. The grind to 99 should NOT be easy. I can hit 85+ in one day, the last 14 levels you should definitely have to work for. Sorry casuals. (Not really)
Magic find:
Same opinion here. Keep it the same. Don’t make it easier. If anything this should make you want to work on doing other things to get the items you need, like rushing someone for forge or other items, or trading, or wagering in a duel with items. There are plenty of ways to make consistent currency.
Botting and duping:
This is going to be an issue no matter what. We know that they know about all the issues that go on with it. The only thing we can hope and pray for is that the dev’s really keep a close eye on this. Bot’s and stuff are in literally every single game we play. If this was the thing that was going to make or break you playing D2R, I don’t think you should play any multiplayer games in general. Sorry.
Extra content: I think this is a great idea to look into, looking at different mini bosses or events to keep the game entertaining rather than just ladder reset… Different styles of Ubers would be fun to see, or instead of Diablo walking the earth, maybe seeing Baal or two bosses walk the earth. Also making them harder than the originals would be fun to see. I am sure there are other fun idea’s that could be added to this mix.
PVP:
My love of this game was mostly due to this as well as the grind to make your best character. Which co-exist in my world. I think SO many streamers and popular people miss out on talking about PVP WAYYY too much. PVP is a HUGE drive for this game and it needs to be addressed just as much as all of these other topics. GM dueling lobbies are the most fun I think I have ever had in a video game. BM lobbies are also super fun some days when you are in the mood. I would love to be able to play in tournaments for GM dueling and seeing communities being rebuilt around this. 1v1 ladders, 2v2 ladders, maybe even objective based battles, PVP arenas or Guild houses, or even new game mode styles like quest battles, like taking over the catacombs, beating Andariel and then killing the paladin hostiled to you, etc. All of this is so good for the game. That being said…
C/T Teleport - I think this needs to be taken out of the game MOSTLY due to lack of seeing your character actually playing in the game. If it stays, it doesn’t bother me at all.
Desynch and Invisible abilities - I think that maybe this could be toned down to an extent just because it’s hard to counter something you cant exactly see, but again. This doesn’t bother me at all.
WSG - Need’s to stay in the game otherwise their will be way too much lockdown on stun abilities.
Widescreen monitors - Need to have a set base resolution that you cannot go past, seeing a Sorc Blizzard you from 5 screens away would be unfair.
There’s a specific post that covers all the other things and some I have already mentioned in this link - DHA Review - Bugs/issues report
There are a few other PVP specific things that are in the game but I don’t have much more that comes to mind that needs to be discussed or changed right off the bat. Maybe after launch.
TLDR for all of this: I think this game is going to be amazing to play and if you don’t like too many things that are subject to change or not change, don’t buy it! No one is forcing you to play it. EZ.
Conclusion:
Thank you for taking the time in reading this. I hope this spurs a lot of discussion and information for me to keep gathering. If there is anything I missed which I am 100% sure I did, please let me know and I will add it or at least discuss it with you. I really do think D2R is gonna be a HUGE hit for old and new players alike. I can’t wait to play it at launch. If anyone is looking to play in my group or do PVP with me at launch, PM me! I’ll gladly add you.
See you in Hell,
Zero