I hope that you reconsider the drop rate of ethereal items. If they are to be half way between legendaries and primals. Then you might have the problem where the majority of the players will see this season as an extension of season 23.
You past seasons that had a real impact on players were felt from day one. Why should ethereals be different. I understand what you are thinking. We put these awesome items for players to chase after. Thinking that players will sink more time into season 24 than any other season chasing after them.
But the problem is that players might not have as much fun with them if they are only able to use them for a few weeks due to getting lucky enough to find one near the end of the season.
They are not gonna be around after season 24 ends. So why not make them impactful from day one like you have other seasons.
I would suggest you make their drop rates where they are around 1 out of 15-20. This way somewhere around 1 out of every 15-20 legendaries an ethereal drops. Players will have a much higher chance of finding what they want. Also you might reconsider and let players gamble for them as well as making a cube recipe for them as well.
Using the DH as an example. Upgrade a rare crossbow will give you the ethereal version. The same is true for the one handed DH crossbow and the two handed bow. Keeping the cost for the upgrading low similar to how it is for legendary items.
There have been good seasons that were so good you extended them. Players played more in those seasons because the season buff was felt the whole time. Instead of being felt for only a little while.
I hope that you will reconsider ethereal drop rates and maybe add in the other ways as well. My real fear is that this season could be a meh season where you would have to jack up the drop rates of them to insane numbers during the season just to handle the complaints of not seeing enough to find what they are wanting to find.
Guaranteed drop of one every 10 levels while leveling for a ‘taste’ but not one at 70 having max level guaranteed one tied to first GR of a certain level even if below the 70 one would make it immediate and usable by all high end players and casuals.
This is while leaving the drop rate alone and they still drop.
@Grev so the one at level 70 is sure to be the one that players will want. The one that makes the huge impact where they get the most enjoyment out of the season. I don’t think so.
Mind telling me about all of your useful primals at GR70 unlocks in seasons. After all you must’ve got a ton of them to talk about right. Like they are guaranteed to be that great. Since Primals that are guaranteed are mostly turned into Forgottten Souls. Only with maybe a few that are great to have. The same would happen with ethereals. Where if you are extremely lucky you will find one.
I guess you don’t mind season 24 being seen as an extension of season 23. I guess you think like Blizz and say that if players stay playing the season they will be able to find them if that guaranteed one is not good enough.
An ethereal weapon is guaranteed to be useable where as primals are like 1/100 to be even considered. Yeah the LP and the passive roll like crap, but it’s still very usable until you get something that will be better. You won’t ever toss out an ethereal unless you’re hunting for a good one. Given once you do find all the items you need, it will be significantly harder to get what you want, but I’d say there’s no real comparison to primals. They are on average, better then primals.
who ever mentioned any kind of guarantee of them being good or useful? I just said leave the system as is and add in guaranteed drops during leveling and 1 at 70 for a GR threshold. No guarantees implied other than it will drop. it’s not to make a specific end game build, it’s to allow players to play the season buff consistently in some fashion should they choose
Estimates at the moment are they drop 1 out of 100 legendary drops. So that’s a significant increase. While it’s certainly problematic for the drop rate to be too low, because these things salvage into so many mats (including DBs and Keys), making the drop rate too high would essentially make nephalem rifts pretty pointless outside of gold. That means you can stay in GRs an even larger percentage even further maximizing the effective drop rate.
Given the devs have historically encouraged play in all 3 types of end game activities, I dont think this is a behavior they are wanting. So it’s a careful balance of making the drop rates not too low that you can’t find the things you need but not too high, either.
Tbf, we’re not only talking about an item type whose presence in the game is temporary, but also only available during the duration of season. On the other hand, if Ethereals were permanent and available for non-season, then I’d be completely for them being hard to get (as in even rarer than primals), but as it currently stands I wouldn’t have a problem if they did up the droprate.
with what we know about drop rates on ptr, the 1/100 is not even close to what it is, i.e. I level a toon and got to para 107 before I got the first 1, and it was for another class then what I was on, so I don’t think the 1/100 is right!
the next ETH I got was at para 130 was a good 1 for the class I was on, but then the next 1 I got I was over para 350, then I got 2 back to back!
We didn’t have to grind to feel the impact of the past seasons themes like season 19 or 21 or any other season. No, instead they were present the whole time.
It is fine that you have an item grind when it is not part of the season theme. Now if the season theme wasn’t based around ethereal items. Where ethereal items were just a small part then I would understand it.
I will still stand by my statement of my concern. If the drop rate is too low for the most casual of players then the problem will become that you will have players that will never be able to find what they are looking for.
Forcing players to play like others. Where they have to play the most efficient way possible just to have a chance at getting what they want may still cause Blizz to jack up the drop rate during the season. Even though they don’t like making such changes. They might not have a choice but to do so if they don’t hit the target for the drop rates of ethereals. Now if they decide to add other ways of getting them as well as drops then you will not have the problem.
Personally I have never played the most efficient way possible. I have played to have fun. Now if I choose to play the most efficient way possible to achieve a goal during this coming season which is what I will likely do then that will still be fun for me. I have fun experimenting, trying out things that I have never done before with D3. All just to see what happens. Watching the experiment progress to completion is what is fun for me.
You are probably closer to the way that I play. Which is very casually, I don’t play the most efficient way possible. Although this coming season I just might have to do that in order to see the full potential of not only ethereal items. But also how much paragon I can earn in a season.
That one out of a hundred is probably tested by running a lot of speed GR90s where they only pick up the ethereals. Most players that play efficiently use speed GR90s to get geared up quickly, They also no doubt have a system of what they personally do with the gear that does drop so they are not spending a lot of time in town, think town is lava here.
Alas that is not how we normally play though and forcing others to play that way is not a good idea for them to get what they are looking for. For some, yes even the most casual just getting the right ethereal of the three will not be good enough. They will want one with good rolls on the stats as well as the right legendary power and passive.