What are your favorite alternatives to D3?

General Discussion
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Hey, I quit D3 for now because I don’t have the time for a fresh start every 3 months and NS is broken without the altar (no need to discuss this here, everyone can have their opinion about it :slight_smile: )

Now, I’m looking for an alternative, can be an arpg can also be some other type of rpg. I liked the fact that D3 has an endgame, so the game is not over once you complete the story, also the little diversity we have is nice, with visions, GRs, NRs etc.

So what are your favorite alternatives? What do you recommend for an rpg with an engame, optimally a diverse endgame which is not like farming the same boss a million times and nothing else.

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2

Then dont bring it up, but since you did:

If you actually enjoyed D3 you would find that seasonal with the altar is a huge improvement of boring NS mode. Leveling is vastly sped up via the first two altar nodes, and you get many QoL improvements.

You trolls act like leveling from 1-70 is some huge time sink investment. “I don’t have time for reset” is a tired, lame excuse. If you have time to play then you have time to level up.

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Personally I’ll try D4 when season 4 comes out and play it a while. Hopefully they made some improvements, if not, I’ll come back to D3.

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Last Epoch is a lot of fun. You kind of run out of stuff to do once you level up all the characters you like, but good news, there are a lot of them. Lots of interesting content coming too in the future. Def a game to play inbetween D3/D4 seasons. Elden Ring is another super cool game.

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If endgame is a requirement, then Last Epoch, Grim Dawn, and PoE are likely your best bet. There is also Diablo 4 obviously, but that pretty much is D3.

Last Epoch is supposedly bucking the trend, by having new content come both to their Season Realms and Non-Season Realms.
Grim Dawn dont have seasons in the first place.
PoE is as season-infected as D3.

In a “kinda Diablo-like, but also feels different” category, there are Nioh 1 and 2, with lots of endgame content, similar to Diablo. But with a more Souls like combat system.
Tbh, Diablo fans are sleeping on those games.

Now, if it doesnt have to be super long endgame like in A-RPGs, then the options increase significantly. Like, lots of JRPGs around with substantial, but definitely not endless, endgame content. Many of the Final Fantasy games, Xenoblade Chronicles, Dragon Quest and what not. On the flipside, they tend to have fairly low replayability after that endgame. Starting a new character will be the same experience again.

And of course, if endless content is important, there are all the various MMORPGs (WoW, Final Fantasy 14, ESO, Lost Ark (more Diablo like than the others) etc.

Personally though, I would rate a good base game, rather than just a good endgame, higher.
Like, Baldurs Gate 3 might not technically have any endgame. Instead it has enough game in it, for many playthroughs.
Or Elden Ring. It does have some endgame, but the focus is on the base game. Which is just good enough to carry its own, over and over, without needing to mostly “artificially” split the large amount of content into separate categories.

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Great replies, thanks everyone :slight_smile:

Also cool to see the non arpg games you mentioned, like elden ring, it looks really nice :slight_smile: Baldur’s Gate 3 is a great option as well.

I won’t be playing D4 because of how it went with D3, at least not now, maybe in a few years when the game is finished and on sale. But I agree, it definitely looks interesting.

I’ll check LE and GD then, PoE is not for me at the moment if it is mostly based on seasonal play.

Forgot to mention MMORPGs, generally I like them, like WOW, but in the last years I made the experience that the majority of the player base has way more time to invest in the game than me and as most content is based on multiplayer it’s stressful for me to keep up with the raid schedules, raid preparation and then the new content releases which happen to fast for me. So for now, not an option unfortunately.

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Grim Dawn is an amazing game. The developers still support and it is getting a third DLC late this summer! Can’t say enough good things about this one.

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Not broken… just unsatisfying to play… and having to work for the Altar benefits every 3 months is even less satisfying. I kinda wish that the better themes such as soul shards, crucibles and ethereals lasted for 6 months now.

To me there’s no alternative. Not even D4.

AFAIK, there’s not too many ARPGs that allow respecs at will and allows you to sort out your economy or gear up a working endgame build in as little time as D3.

So I’m focusing on non-ARPG games atm.

I’m loving C&C Remastered, and I’m enjoying the life is strange series again.

Though, I might play Victor Vran again… your skills are defined by your weapons in that game. And it has a jump button… an ARPG with a jump button! This is actually how I imagine hack n slash/beat em ups to play like in 3D.

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:+1:

For how simple the old C&C games are, yeah, they held up really well in my opinion.

And Life is Strange, probably as far away you can get from A-RPGs, some of my favorite games (well, second game is bad imo).

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I’ve only completed the first game but I really enjoyed it.

Currently playing through Before The Storm. It’s a little bit tragic knowing what happens to some of these characters.

Agree. I actually prefer the simplistic RTS design… like D3, I play games after a long day at work to unwind… don’t want to work up the heart rate before going to sleep :rofl:

And the units/structures in the original C&C and Red Alert are so iconic.

The updates to the UI such as build queuing and how the build window is organised does help though.

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Candy Crush.

And the forum isn’t a airport, no need to announce a departure or arrival

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Some may not like my alternative. Reading books.
Re-reading The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin right now.

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Dune here, for the umpteenth time

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14

My son texted me today that he just started reading The Wheel of Time…
I gave him a big :+1:. Jordan and Leguin, along with many others, set the stage for many of our Fantasy Games

edit: Without TWoT, would Diablo have Portals, Channeling and wearables that augment our powers? And are the Goatmen and Evil Cows not Trollocs?

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Diablo Immortal, and it has a ton of endgame activities which isn’t for people that have no time to play.

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I game I used to enjoy and felt like D3, just as 3rd person shooter, was Outriders, before the last expansion. It was so great.
But in ARPG genre I hope D4 will as great as D3. Last Epoc didn’t really do it for me

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I highly suggest that you try Asheron’s Call. The player run servers are pretty stable and it’s 100% free.

For a game that is 20+ years old…it has a lot of depth and can keep you busy…I play on the Coldeve server. The graphics are old would be the worst thing.

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Nioh/Nioh 2. Much better then Dark Souls or Elden Ring.

Combat is miles better and it has diablo style loot drops.

Story is only meh at best though.

But the game is about killing stuff, not the story so…

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Right now Hades 2 is a banger. Not exactly a D3 alternative but is is an isometric action roguelike and it’s pretty fun.

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not really, since you don’t get gems until clvl 19. I didn’t get the necessary gems for node 2 on the altar until clvl 33…