Thoughts on move speed for S29

PTR Feedback
1

For S29, the patch notes say:

“Movement Speed: We changed Movement Speed to 0.125% per point because the old value would have provided players with 100% Movement Speed, which was too much. Players now have the option to place points into this stat, allowing them to surpass 25% Movement Speed from item bonuses.”

I thought this made sense as I read the patch notes, but then I played the PTR and quickly realized how wrong this is.

Even at the old .50% move speed per paragon point, it’s hard to imagine many people foregoing 1000 mainstat to put 200 points in movement speed. I expect many who tried would discover that 100% movement speed is unplayable. Too much move speed is hard to control, and the sped-up visuals cause a kind of motion sickness. What if some players can handle 100% move speed? I’m not sure we should care. Will that really have an effect on par with 200 points in CHC or CHD? In AD?

At only 0.125% move speed per point, it doesn’t feel worth it vs. 5 mainstat. We’re looking at 104 of 200 paragon points in move speed plus 12% on boots just to get back to the old 25%. For a lot of builds, boots are the only item with move speed as a possibility. Hard to imagine swapping in a lesser item to get a second item-based move speed bonus. The result is I’m at +12% move speed from boots, and it’s painful.

Slow is not fun. There has never been a point since release where I’ve thought, “You know, it would be fun to go slower.”

We’ve just spent S28 with an additional 25% movement speed (plus CC immunity). Just slowing from 50% back to the usual 25% already feels bad. Slower is painful.

If we grant the need to make 100% move speed impossible, there are better ways to fix this. A few possibilities:

  • Keep the old .50% move speed per paragon point, and cap the item+paragon move speed at 50%.
  • Keep the new .125% move speed per paragon point, but change move speed on boots from the current +10-12% to +20-24%.
  • Make it .25% move speed per paragon point, but change move speed on boots from the current +10-12% to +15-18%.
  • Keep the new .125% move speed per paragon point, but increase base move speed to the pre-patch +25% speed.
12 Likes
2

You’re fighting over a decade of balancing tradition.
Overbuff > Overnerf > balanced

It takes 3, always 3.

3

Tilting at windmills, I suppose. They did ask how the changes made us feel, though, and this one feels bad.

1 Like
4

Still honorable if the windmill is particularly ugly, as in this case. Just as I suggested in a post about losing QoL features from the altar this season - people don’t want to feel as if the game is going backwards. I get that the major damage scale back is enough to dissuade most people, but things like movement speed and item collection slow down make players feel like their time isn’t as valuable as it was previously. All psychological, sure, but the general consensus is going to be that the game feels worse.

1 Like
5

Yes, that does not feel good. especially since Movement Speed as at least a semi-QoL Affix, similar to Pickup Radius.

It would totally be fine if these Affixes were granted automatically for each Paragon Level, up to P800.

If you gain +0.0375% increased Movement Speed per Paragon Level and +0.625 Yards Pickup Radius for all 100 Paragon Levels automatically, then P800 you had +30% increased Movement Speed and +5 Yards Pickup Radius and you could use all your Points for non-QoL Affixes.

1 Like
6

Definitely worth it for speed content. At T16 you really don’t need the extra mainstat. I’m sure you can forgo it even higher, but if things stays as they where in the PTR I expect a lot of time will be spent in the overworld hunting fissures.