Recently created a document of what I thought D2 and D3 did wrong and which feature should be inherrited from which game, i.e. this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UY7SZdujyEW3NDN9sFEzsT7V2V3K3uo2
However did some suggestions for D4 near the end, something about End-Game and how it would/could work, as well as how CC should be working kind of thing, so time to talk about those things a bit:
- Stagger Meter: Just as bosses have a Stagger meter, so should characters. No “chance to hit”, a hit is a hit, no “chance to dodge” either, use Dodge (spacebar) and you dodge the hit. Hit recovery is BS (especially if it’s RNG), BUT having not caring about being hit at all by any non-CC melee attack monster or Player is ALSO BS I think
Explanation
SO, in order to deal with things like that in a relatively good/non-RNG way I think there should be “Stagger Meter” on characters
WHY do I think this is important ?, 2 things:
- Recently saw the “ATK” affixes that create/compose your ATK rate. Some of them were things like % chance to slow on hit, % chance to stun on hit
- And vice-versa for DEF rating had a % dodge as well as % reduced amount of CC
I’ll be honest, DON’T LIKE the RNG aspect of it, it’s not good design. Say you get mopped by a Frenzy Barb that has 15% chance to stun you per hit but he’s at Max fury so does double attacks. That would cause something like IDK 6-8 attacks a second maybe. That would be a nightmare to play against, don’t make CC-procs be a result of RNG % cause depending on Attack speed that would be a nightmare-ish experience tbh
PvP aspect of the game should represent more “counterplay” of things, therefore a stagger meter where you can actually see you’re about to being CC-ed and KNOW it’s coming. ALSO would be a nice mechanic vs PvE, being hit by a fallen 10 times without attacking back would also cause you get staggered, after all it’s fair, no ?
Stagger per hit (by default) IMO should be something like
- 10% per melee hit
- 5% per projectile (ranged attack)
- 8% per projectile with enhanced ability
- 15% per DoA or 2 hand ability
- 2% per proc for channeled abilities
- Also, there should be a “First hit” mechanic that double procs the proper engage-attack %
For example: first hit (engagement) in your face by regular melee attack should do 20% stagger, a Meteor in your face without engagement should do a 30% stagger proc
Stagger bar should ALSO have a natural decay when not being hit, something like 10% reduced stagger per 1 second
And REMOVE chance to dodge (it’s complete BS), instead introduce “Increased Stagger reduction rate”. So instead of 10% per 1 sec reduction, make it that stagger reduction rate is procced faster, so for ex:
- 20% increased stagger decay is 10% stagger reduction per 0.83, not per 1 second
- 50% increased stagger decay is 10% stagger reduction per 0.67 sec, not 1
- 100% increased stagger decay is 10% stagger red. per 0.5 sec, not, i.e. procs twice per second
So, let’s say a Barb has 25% chance to stun per hit, what should instead be the case is 12.5% stagger per hit, and say an engage-hit should do a 25% stagger instead of the usual 20%. IF he has a 50% stun chance then a melee attack should be
WHY would this be important ?, it introduces potential counter play AND MORE IMPORTANTLY - less (NO) RNG. The ONLY rng that remains would be if say a Barb has one weapon with % to stun per hit, and another of % to slow per hit kind of thing, so which procs first ?,eh ?, IDK
Skills should INTERACT with stagger bar in variety of ways:
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Character alteration skills (Whirlwind, Werebear, Werewolf) should have 50% reduced incoming stagger rate. i.e. 2.5% instead of 5% per ranged (non-enchanted projectile) hit, 5% per melee hit, 4% per projectile hit
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Dis/Engages should shave-off 15% of stagger rate (Dodge, TP, Leap)
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Peel abilities should have 30% shave off (Upheaval with knockback, Bear form attack, Wave of Force ?
) -
Ultimates should completely STOP stagger bar progression at moment of cast (75% staggered Barb casting Wrath has 75% staggered rate for the entire duration of it, can’t be CC-ed, same with Conduit, same with Wolf/Bear form Enrage if there’s such a thing)
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Battle cries should also reduce/shave off Stagger rate
The stagger meter would easily work against PvE too, standing still to being hit by a fallen 10 times would cause your character be unconscious for a very brief moment (0.1 sec :D), a slight unconscious animation kind of thing
Things like that, make CC be PREDICTABLE and see it coming (not Ability-based CC, the proc-per-hit type of CCs) with potential counter play
CC effects should increase stagger bar growth rate, (not % to Proc based), and vice versa CC red. should increase your rate of natural stagger decay as opposed to “nah, I’ll cancel this”
- Alternate how TP (Town Portal, not Teleport lol) works
In the open world is fine as is (D3 style) TP, channel for X sec (10 might be too much a bit, 8 mbe) and you go to town, BUT in dungeons should be a bit different. D2 used to be buy TP scroll, go in-out whenever not under CC. So having that in mind, D4 (IMO) should resemble BEST of both worlds like this:
Explanation
TP in dungeons should work like this:
- No longer channeled (D2 style), BUT have a bit longer creation/animation delay (think like Pylon in the making)
- Cannot buy (D3), instead every dungeon gives you X TP in total (can be per player, or per party total if all 4, 5-12 per player depending on dungeon Diff, 20-80 per party depending on dungeon Diff)
- Can reposition semi/often (think of 15-ish sec CD), charge counts as used only when entering in it so summoning TP won’t count as used TP, just when entering. Use “T” key to reposition your TP closer to where you are currently
- Can STILL use the regular TP (so you won’t need to hesitate whether or not to use your last TP charge lol) BUT - regular TP closes the dungeon and resets your dungeon progress completely (exiting closes, can no longer go in again)
- Regular TP will no longer be bound on the “T” (standard hotkeys) key anymore, instead there would be a button on the Inventory “quit dungeon and go to town” which procs the (D3 style get-out) TP
WHY is this important ? = simple, DON’t think that D2 folk were disliking the potion CD as much (though they say they do), BUT it’s completely obvious having potions spam be allowed is a BS thing. What I DO however think is that people didn’t take into consideration that D3 style TP doesn’t allow you “emergency exit”, i.e. you’re not allowed to “escape” from dungeon in D3 unless being OOC completely
Having alternated the TP scrolls (and the way they work) from inside dungeons would bring the best of both worlds kind of thing (AND potentially a way to have no longer your HC character stuck in dungeon be killed on DC)
Also, having the TP “spam rate” being bound per dungeon is ALSO a very nice way to sort of “Define dungeon difficulty”
This could (MAYBE) work on regular (bounty) dungeon types, BUT might be better to consider these as the type of unlocked dungeons with affixes/keys for late game ONLY dungeons, that would/should have increased difficulty
- Cursed dungeons
Weekly challenge (“Cursed” dungeons), think of this like “weekly mutation mission” (SC) sort of thing. Think THIS is a very nice/co-op kind of a “Twitch” thing that you might wanna try as extra-challenge for extra-loot (weekly stuff). THIS should substitute the completely Retard GR mechanic
Explanation
Have X dungeon cursed per week with extra mutations (let’s call them Curses), can be random (say 15 of them in total), each week 5 of them randomly rotating on a random bunch of dungeons (ofc. a “accidental” tresspasser would get the warning/s before entering)
Here are some potential Curses
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Non elite melee monsters hit prevent your lifesteal and regen procs (not your potion lol) for X
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Each X consecutive hit (say 2nd or 3rd) by the same monster does X% more damage, Elites not affected by this
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Standing still for X (2 - 3) seconds summons a champion monster of a duelist type (think of Phase beast from D3 kind of thing)
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Each non-elite mob resses back after X seconds automatically (say could be between 20 and 30)
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Each casting mob does X% increased damage based on distance
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Each mob of type X in the dungeon has unlimited leash range
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Elites have double spell cast and leash range
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Ranged mobs have doubled vision, their projectiles pierce through non-terrain and have unlimited range
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Each non-elite melee monster gains frenzy (increased movement and attack speed)
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Your vision radius is reduced by 50%, but have X torches in your inventory to put at some places to grant you certain-area vision increased
Those are just a bunch I thought of at the top of my head, each week 5 of them will rotate and X random dungeons (that would have a warning before entering) would have their mobs altered in any of those ways
- BRING BACK main stats but TIE THEM to skill tree strengths instead
Instead of having to “use skills to level them up” (WoW style ?), or “grind endless hours to find tome” (for a free upgrade ?), have primary stats (Str, Dex, Int) empower skills (each skill in it’s own way)
Explanation
Have primary stats be included back (Str, Dex, Int) BUT have them be related to skills, sort of something like this:
- Magic missile = Skill lvl damage + 10% int
- Meteor = skill lvl damage + 50% int
- Whirlwind = Skill lvl damage (per proc) + 10% Str
- Leap = Skill lvl damage + 25% Str
That sort of thing. Let’s say Druid MIGHT be a problem cause he probably has to use BOTH Str (shape form) and Int (human). Something further to think about 
Maybe increase those % bonuses of your primary stat (10%, 50%, 25%, and so on)
[not much a fan of this but maybe have only 2 levels available at max level for each and if wanna go further only certain items increase these past Max lvl maybe]
- Try Mode (for testing your build/s)
Explanation
Make a “try mode” (either vs a Mob of your own choice, a bunch of dolls, HotS-style, or even a certain NPC, say you challenge some Angel to “test your might” at the edge of a town), and you have ONE re-spec when achieving max level
I don’t think the problem about investing Skills is in the fact you can’t re-spec, but rather the fact that there’s no way to try it before actually committing to it
[Skill shrines kinda did this somewhat nicely in D2, BUT you could still only use for skills that were already invested]
Should've MAYBE made a separate thread for each of these, BUT as is would like to add up one after another good Ideas I find (or think of myself) as I go
Anyway, would like some feedback about these 