Power affixes is a HORRIBLE IDEA

[UngivenFame-1419]

@Utukka-1683

If say, fire/crit strike is tied to demonic, whereas lightning/crushing blow etc is tied to ancestral, that has HUGE potential impacts to diversity.

Is that even the case though? A lot in this thread, OP included, seem to think so. I went back to read the blog and I do not get that impression… and hopefully it is not the case. For instance, the examples show fire resistance with demonic power and cold resistance with angelic power. I highly doubt they would make it so that stacking one power eliminates the potential for obtaining a certain resistance.

[GeminiEclips-1766]

@Joat-1701

Instead, what I’d prefer they do is re-envision the mechanic as an inherent character trait that you can change in some semi-permanent way. This way, it still forces interesting choices in skills, build, and items, but doesn’t punish the player when an upgrade drops. There are many really creative things they can do with this core concept, so I’ll leave the devs to their brainstorming, but please, don’t lock this up in the itemization which is so heavily dependent on RNG.

Making the 3 powers base stats could help. So there’s inherent player control there. So it’s split between character choice and item choice.

[Utukka-1683]

The point is, we don’t fully know, but that is the implication. along with this line: “Each of the three powers will have a list of affixes that are attuned to it”.

Doesn’t bode well.

[Lolli42-2538]

i think, by binding certain affixes and +skill levels to powers they are again somehow prebuilding builds for us
maybe not forcing them but still making them BiS, due to the synergy of stacking 1 single power
like: yea the critical build will always be best with fire damage

[UngivenFame-1419]

hmmm okay seems I missed that twice. Well, if that is the case, then there is some cause for concern there.

Blizz, this is how I would do it… one of two ways.

Generate affixes as normal and have a 10% chance or something for each affix to spawn as a “power affix” requiring one of the three powers chosen at random. The affix value could be a higher than normally available value.

Or, have a list of affixes associated as you have done now (apparently) but allow all those affixes to spawn normally as well.

[Lolli42-2538]

if they also spawn normally, theres just the primary effect of the powers left, to make any difference

[nvvr-1663]

Balancing requires a lot of play testing and it’s still too early in development to assume itemization won’t evolve.
Removing attack and defense on every item is a step in the right direction and it’s obvious the developers are taking this discussion seriously.

Most of the changes I feel are positive so I won’t jump to conclusions just yet.

@Skelos-2150

I think it ultimately boils down to whether we have more fun with an itemization forcing us to replace affixes having not reachable requirements or such that allows us to find any combination of randomly rolled requirements if we play long enough.

With no limitations all items and affixes will function the same for all characters and builds.
People will make choices for what works best instead of what works best for their character. Either system will require balancing.

[Diabolical-11427]

If they have a massive amount of affixes, it could certainly work. But you’re right in the sense that only 3 will pigeonhole everyone into 3 main builds.

[Skelos-2150]

@GeminiEclips-1766

Making the 3 powers base stats could help

I already addressed in another thread why the current implementation of the 3 powers as itemization parameters is better than as base stats parameters:

@Skelos-2150

This is better than a stat system since the powers occupy item properties. And one could immediately re-spec his character stats or roll another hero to deliver the needed requirement for an item, but one can’t find immediately a new item with more tuned stats.

Ultimately the system could be extended with all things you wrote like vitality, wisdom etc buffing one’s character stats.

For example, let’s say a player stacked 10 powers on items for a total of 150 points. Then in our system if the player weighted 50% to procs and 50% to wisdom, half of these 150 points would serve for proc buffs and half for wisdom buffs. Then when the player finds and equips a new item without particular power losing 20 Demonic points, the weight would still be 50/50 to procs/wisdom, but these would have with 10 less points each.

@nvvr-1663

People will make choices for what works best instead of what works best for their character.

Their current system forcing us in paths/ranges just creates an illusory “what works best for a character” attitude.

To explain this: If we look from a broader perspective we have X stats as item properties. Some of these stats have power requirements. Each of these X stats has its range of how it could roll - for example a resistance stat might roll from 10% to 40%. When they force the brackets on us due to the fixed power requirements you would be able to go from 10% on a particular resistance to say 20% for a specific character path you choose. This simply means shorter stat range.

So what we have is this:

1. Stats
2. 1 + power requirement
3. 2 + roll range
4. 3 + sub-range

You see, we can push this more to 5), 6) etc with more sub-ranges if we want, but this achieves nothing by itself.

The whole current system is like telling an MMA-fighter to use a martial art from a PARTICULAR pool that is already selected for the fight instead of giving him the possibility to CHOOSE the optimal martial arts himself for each fight.

Related to the above this is:

1. MMA
2. 1 + weight categories
3. 2 + martial arts choice
4. 2 + fixed martial art

So, in case 1) it would be wild - we would have 100kg fighters crushing 60kg fighters for seconds, which is not a good entertainment. In 2) we have the current MMA structure where fighters from specific weight categories are matched to fight with each other. In 3) we would allow the fighters themselves to choose particular martial arts depending on their opponents. In 4) we would choose the martial arts pool that could be used during the combat instead of the fighters.

There is no need we go to step 4). It doesn’t deliver anything meaningful.

[Immhey-6192]

This actually is a great system. Improved D2 attributes. Instead of hard requirement like D2, it’s soft requirement which means new players won’t brick their characters because they can equip everything regardless. Itemization becomes a game of trade-off which is just a good design really. It allows for more nuanced decisions like intentionally ignoring certain affixes on certain items just to take advantage of those that benefit you or trying to balance the new attributes across your whole character to hit breakpoints for various stats.

[keikakujin-6377]

When Blizz wants to try something new, people especially D2 diehards are so eager to trample on it, not knowing the full details yet. These people should go back, sleep in the cryonic bed and wait for D2 Remastered to get released.

Remember, D4 balance team comes from SC2, a game that has to be as balanced as possible to become a world tournament, unlike the casual D2 or D3. You guys can contribute ideas, but thinking you know better about balancing than these people is outright arrogant and stupid at the same time.

Why something added should fix another thing? Can’t it be a completely new thing? Or imagination and innovation is completely unnecessary according to these people? They should go and live in Stone Age.

[Lolli42-2538]

It has nothing to do with attributes, but the requirements

[Immhey-6192]

Attributes act as req in D2. That’s the similarity.

[Lolli42-2538]

The only one
Exactly
No way to customize your characters traits with each level up

[Naoki-2731]

[D4] The problem with legendary powers (and solution)

Hi there. Legendary powers were introduced in D3/RoS. They brought a lot of espectacularity but also made the whole character building revolve exclusively around them, making the magic and rare items absolutely trash. Only worth picking if you are in need of salvage materials otherwise just skip them. This added to the fact that finding legendaries was far more common than the original iterations, rendering them quite common, and thus not exactly legendary. My concern is that D4 will revolve…

[Immhey-6192]

But that’s beside the point.

[Lolli42-2538]

Its just no improvement at all
Its an other system, that gives u restrictions and choices but related to items, not to point allocations

[Immhey-6192]

I think it’s an improvement on the requirement part.

[Lolli42-2538]

Its indeed an improvement, to go from a hard to a soft cap (sacred 2 has that as well)
But when you lock specific important stats behind a system like that it becomes impossible to balance your char around things like your elemental resistances etc.

[Immhey-6192]

That’s details to be ironed out and playtested. Which affixes are tuned to what stats will be changed a lot even post-launch.