Time to call it: Ethereals are a Fail

PTR Feedback
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If you thought THIS is what would bring players back and keep existing ones playing for longer by levelling & gearing 7 classes (practically forcing people to buy the Necro) in order to get the lame Ethereal feat of strength - you are sadly mistaken.

Let me count the ways.

  • Ethereals are only weapons, and only spawn with weapon/offhand powers.
  • they disappear after season ends.
  • they don’t unlock any transmogs UNLESS you find all 21 ethereals in the game, 3 per class, practically forcing you to buy the Necro DLC if you don’t already have it and want those transmogs.
  • they don’t include set weapon bonuses like the “Slanderer/Little Rogue” or “Flail of the Charge”, so you can’t mix & match for new possible builds or tweak existing ones.
  • most of them don’t even look like their item icons. And others like Khalim’s Will are copy/pastes of existing D3 items.

Khalim’s Will - https://i.imgur.com/cQ5KM6s.png

Que-Hegan’s Will (white transmog item that drops in Halls of Agony lv3) - https://i.ytimg.com/vi/N7xNCBJxJZM/maxresdefault.jpg

  • they still don’t compete with the existing cookiecutter builds.

Example:

https://i.imgur.com/uFeCqmU.png

:boom: the ethereal Bow, even with that oh-so-wonderful 150-200% damage bonus to Multishot, does NOT spawn with that beloved 40-50% resource cost reduction that Yang does, which two-fold greatly benefits Crimson wearers.

Sure, you might get a few extra grifts’ worth of damage from that thing, but your survivability will suffer big time, making such a squishy lil class even squishier than custard.

:boom: and then you have the Steed 2-pc that grants you 400% increased damage during + 5 seconds after Steed. No ethereal can compete with that.

Those are just 2 examples right off the top of my head. If ya’ll can rebuke me with new collected evidence showing existing builds performing even better with Ethereals, I’m all ears.

  • they mostly benefit the Necromancer, because this is simply a last ditch effort to milk that mediocre DLC before the D3 playerbase dwindles further due to D2R and other games (time spent playing those games is time spent not playing D3).

But as a whole, Ethereals make a tedious season journey even more tedious, making a lot of players either quit the season early or skip it completely.

Then again, that’s pretty much the norm of D3 patches nowadays. 1 step forward, 2 steps behind. Cherrypicking which builds/classes to nerf while completely ignoring others both over and underperforming.

I feel sad for the future of D3’s playerbase once mods start appearing for D2R, because we’re all sick to death of this painful see-saw of patching that routinely breaks builds that needed buffing instead.

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Why create a second thread that is a copy paste of the first?

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Alright. Ignoring that you just completely reposted a topic after it was clearly deleted, you haven’t changed any arguments, so I’ll go through your points to the best of my ability.

Ethereals are only weapons, and only spawn with weapon/offhand powers.

Fair. It would be pretty cool to see more options. But then, it’s a seasonal bonus. It’s not some major content patch.

they disappear after season ends

See above statement. Seasonal bonus. I lost my fourth cube slot when that season ended too.

they don’t unlock any transmogs UNLESS you find all 21 ethereals in the game, 3 per class, practically forcing you to buy the Necro DLC if you don’t already have it and want those transmogs.

Okay, I actually agree with this one. Especially the Necro DLC part. Some people aren’t interested in the necro, and never bought it. I can understand Blizz wanting to add a little incentive to do so, but… Maybe have it so instead of needing 21 eths to unlock the transmogs, make it so you need to find the ones relevant to your class, and have 7 unlocks instead.

they don’t include set weapon bonuses like the “Slanderer/Little Rogue” or “Flail of the Charge”, so you can’t mix & match for new possible builds or tweak existing ones.

Having them include the full set would be kinda OP imo. But, having it so they can FILL a set would’ve been pretty nifty. Like, have an ethereal that counted as part of the Slanderer/Little Rogue set, have one that fills an Inna set, IK set, things like that. But at the same time, I can understand having them limited to legendaries.

most of them don’t even look like their item icons. And others like Khalim’s Will are copy/pastes of existing D3 items.

Another one I actually agree with. It would’ve been pretty cool to have them import/update actual pieces from D2 for it.

the ethereal Bow, even with that oh-so-wonderful 150-200% damage bonus to Multishot, does NOT spawn with that beloved 40-50% resource cost reduction that Yang does, which two-fold greatly benefits Crimson wearers.

Well, then you would just use Yang’s for that set. Or maybe find an alternate setup that’ll help it work. A flat 200% bonus is still a strong bonus, I’m sure there’s ways someone could find to make it work, just have to do it different. I admit, I don’t play a lot of Demon Hunter, so I’m not the guy to look to for fixing this one. I can try, but I can’t guarantee. But it may be possible.

and then you have the Steed 2-pc that grants you 400% increased damage during + 5 seconds after Steed. No ethereal can compete with that.

Actually, you 100% CAN compete with that. Steed uses shield AND weapon to give you a flat x5 multiplier. Every eth gives you a flat x2 for sader. Depending what you’re doing, you have raised chc/chd/cdr, or an increase to holy damage if those aren’t that important. Plus, assuming light build, it lets you throw back on your shield of Fury, which scales up to another x4 bonus (we’re up to potential x8). Even at 5 stacks (2 casts of Fires of Heaven), that’s a 150% bonus, which is x2.5, combined with our prior x2 makes it even with Steed, with more room to grow, and completely discounting any additional bonuses from the weapon itself.

they mostly benefit the Necromancer, because this is simply a last ditch effort to milk that mediocre DLC before the D3 playerbase dwindles further due to D2R and other games (time spent playing those games is time spent not playing D3).

Necro absolutely benefits. But so does EVERY other class. WW Barb, as an example, is able to DRASTICALLY increase their damage with ethereals. Wizard is able to do nice things with theirs. Does every BUILD benefit? Nope. In fact, eths are 100% useless for Shadow Impale builds, because that requires a melee weapon.

But as a whole, Ethereals make a tedious season journey even more tedious, making a lot of players either quit the season early or skip it completely.

Diablo is a game about grinding ad infinitum. Get the right gear. Farm mats for rerolls. Push that GR ever higher. Tedious is part of the playstyle.

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Feedback is supposed to be constructive and you’re just complaining that a 10 year old game with zero sub cost is reusing models and slightly encouraging people to buy a dlc that has been out for years through an optional tmog unlock. Honestly, I would wager only a few of us committed D3 junkies haven’t bought the DLC by this point. We should be so lucky to get regular updates, tweaks and seasonal themes for a game this old with no sub. Respectful suggestions are likely to be considered over calling something a failure after less than 24hrs of its release.

I think ethreals are a great way to provide a buff to a lot of builds (I’m loving the buff it adds to almost every WD build) and they’re also interesting in that they are drop only so the whole “group bounties yield more materials” becomes a bit less of an issue for casuals like myself. The sheer amount of RNG needed to find a great ethereal makes it even more exciting than finding a primal, and they have a better drop rate.

If I could downvote this thread, I would. Maybe it’ll get deleted again.

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I agree with WittyGem with the majority of his points.

It seems like a pretty rushed idea before the release of D2R, they chose some of the most forgetful items in D2 to use. Would of been nice to see HoZ or Homunculus (shield / offhands) also as these are pretty iconic to D2.

Most seasons we get the reward / benefit from the start, with the ethereal season the majority of the players won’t get the see / use 75% the new items. Lets hope the drop rates are decent since the chance of rolling a really good one are pretty rare as it is.

Also it has absolutely nothing to do with ethereals in D2 and will probably cause some confusing with new d2r players. Not sure the choice of name for the season makes sense.

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I watch a lot of D3 experts talk about how great this theme and how excited they are, guess not being an expert all I see if countless hours of farming to get the right item that will disappear.

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I agree that this season will be an epic fail along with the past few seasons

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If this so called “updates and tweaks” leads to different nerfs so I’m not need that. The same with current “seasonal theme”. Yes, followers rework is a massive job, but call it as seasonal theme is nonsence.
Btw followers not worth that nerfs.

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Precisely my point.

Tinkering with numbers and breaking builds to justify calling it a patch, I’d rather have no patch at all. Ask all the Inna Monks if they’d rather have this patch or no patch at all. All the Ulianas are still weeping after all this time, and rightfully so. They can’t even make it past GR135.

That’s where modding will come in re: D2R. We’ll no longer be subject to that kind of ridiculousness. MedianXL was practically a new game and was/is universally beloved.

Laz laid out the ground work, and I believe he moved on from the project when he was hired by a dev studio. But others kept up the good work.

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…I wouldn’t be surprised if they pulled the same crap with Warcraft 3 Reforged and said “if you make a mod, it belongs to us”. If they even allow for modding, even.

But anyway, back on topic.

There’s problems like those who play chicken builds with witch doctor. Because they’re only weapons, there’s no chance it can be incorporated into a chicken build. And I primarily play chicken build. So… Sadly, it’s quite useless for me.

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Lol if they want D2R to tank as well, by all means. No skin off my nose.

And the WD is not a DLC class, so of course it will hardly benefit from Ethereals.

PTR has been live for 5 days now, still not a single blue post to even acknowledge all the great feedback people have gathered so far. That won’t change by the time it has ended.

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Aside from the lack of content, and balance changes over the years…That’s probably their biggest downfall.

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Players ask for: more content, more challenges, less of the same old stuff.

Devs: okay!

Players: ugh more content, too much challenge, this new stuff is terrible!

Personally I like having something to grind for with a unique reward. Ethereals will elevate some b tier builds to enjoyable for the season and help Tier 1 builds push, to me this is good.

Additionally, I appreciate why this is not going to non-season right away if at all. As stated consistently the state of non season balance is ridiculous, this would only make it worse…

Lastly (this is the dreamer in me) I’m sort of hoping that the dev team is using D3 seasons as a test bed at this point for D4 implementations and tuning. Ethereals and Mercs are awesome (even if far from perfect) attempts at positive changes. My gut instinct says this is more about being creative in the time left with D3 and looking to the future of D4.

Enjoy the ride! Good luck and happy slaying all!

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“Do it right or don’t do it at all”.

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Nothing would ever get done. Plus your right may not be the same as mine.

“Better to have tried and failed then to have not tried at all.”

Yeah random quotes!

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“Not everything you read on the internet is true!” - Abraham Lincoln

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Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.

Serial failers should stop after attempt #2. And these boys have years of patch fails under their belt.

Hold on, let me count how many blue posts the PTR Feedback section has had in the last 7 days…

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I don’t know what game you’ve been playing, but every season has had something different since the advent of seasons. Could Diablo be improved? Absolutely. Does it warrant a sh**ty attitude towards the developers (which haven’t been the same ones even) who are working on a game that really nets nothing for the company? Not really. I get just as frustrated with the obvious imbalances as the next person, but it doesn’t make the game any less playable. Everything is relative and not everyone has to be top meta to enjoy the game. What does keep people interested is new themes, sets, legendaries and concepts like Ethereals. The bitterness in these forums is toxic and not conducive to improvements in the game.

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i would like to have eth for every season, but i dont think they are a fail, i like this seasonal theme very much. hope in future seasons they make eth dye to aply on the sets as a seasonal reward

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ethereals are a FAIL!! don’t even start this season…I won’t be playing