I know, I know - inflammatory title. But bear with me. I’m helping out on a research paper for one of my old friends, we used to play D2 together and tried to get into D3 but couldn’t really get past all of the terrible design decisions to make it work for us. I know lots of people enjoyed it, I’m not really looking for an argument about D2 vs. D3 - if you like D3, that’s cool, different strokes for different folks.
I’m building a list of the most annoying / hated things from D3 players - either those who still play, used to play, or never really got into it like they did D2 - which I’m going to ship over to him via email in a few days, and would like to get your quick thoughts - one sentence or paragraph. Just let me know what really quarked your phasons while jumping into D3.
For me:
Exploding mobs on delay - watching loot drop, running out of the blast radius only to run back in so you can grab the loot. I feel this one decision really defined the lack of understanding that the D3 core team had about what makes an ARPG fun to play - and instead their design philosophy seemed to center around an arcade-style bullet hell game with ARPG elements. This one aspect of the game was such a huge turnoff that I switched over to ranged characters to try and escape the feeling that I should just shut the game down. It didn’t work, I quit playing, and I blame a large part of that on this single gameplay decision which shows a complete lack of understanding by the game designers of how a great ARPG should feel. People hype up D3 because it “plays well”, but because of this (and of course other aspects like laser tag and poison cloud dancing) I feel the opposite is true.
So, hop on in and toss me some of your least favorite aspects of D3 which I’ll relay back. If there’s any interest, I’ll share the research paper once he’s published it. From what I know, he’s doing a deep-dive into the behavioral psychology of players who enjoy the loot pinata that games like Diablo, Path of Exile, Grim Dawn etc. provide.
12 Likes
Easy…
The fact that to compete on a solo leaderboard… you need to progress in a group.
Plenty of other things, but this takes the cake.
42 Likes
That’s a great point and it seems like that feature could be easily tweaked by a developer who manages the progression tuner and who understands XP and reward mechanics.
Noted.
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The over the top obsession with the need for speed.
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That it’s more like a rythm game and boosting up shear numbers and less tactical. It feels like a race game. All of the activities are : go from A to B as fast as possible and kill whatever is between these two points. That is dictating which classes / sets are good and basically what’s playable for end game. Also this endless paragon farming which is the only end game deal. I love the game but also I can recognize the flaws.
16 Likes
Indeed, here’s hoping we’re not left in the dust again in D4. 
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The D2 failtrolls who come on the D3 forum claiming D2 is better…yet they spend more time on here instead of playing the game they claim is better.
12 Likes
Balance/itemization. Diablo 3 is HORRIBLE in this regard. 4/10.
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For me, the loot is the worst thing about D3.
Absolute rotten garbage from start to finish. Hard for me to name another game that has items front and center so poorly designed and executed.
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The facts that its a loot game, and you always end up with limit stash space.
I know how to clean up my stash, but spend too much time on “cleaning up”, more than i like…non-season wise…
8 Likes
the punishing of people for playing solo.
39 Likes
The only thing i hated the most in Diablo 3 was the atmosphere/graphics/feel…it never felt like Diablo to me (maybe a little)… it didn’t had that dark atmosphere and the lonely creepy feeling that Diablo 1 and 2 had…(especially 1)
I wish they had approached it like how they’re approaching Diablo 4 now. Diablo 4 is going back to its dark roots and i love it. (i hope they don’t mess up)
ps. the funny thing is that Diablo 3 alpha/beta looked darker…
8 Likes
The account wide stash and paragon.
For me, if I wantto create a new character i non season, then I already have access to several legendary gems and ancient legendary weapons since they are just lying around in my stash. The addition to paragon being applied to a new character as well just means I cannot really create a new character since they get a major boost at the start.
I wouldn’t mind a dedicated shared stash space, where I can remove items I don’t want other characters to have access to, or the ability to toggle whether paragon is applied to the character at least until the character can earn their own paragon.
3 Likes
Dead ends, esp’ in bounties.
5 Likes
You can’t upgrade your skills. The closest thing that D3 offers for skill upgrades is, you figure-out if your favorite skill benefits more from damage or attack speed, and you (hopefully) find a suitable weapon. (Elemental damage barely counts, you are essentially “matching colors” pairing elemental affixes with the respective runes.) You can’t rush to get a certain skill if you want, you just wait 'til level X like everyone else. I could go on but I won’t.
6 Likes
#1 Problem:
HC player completes 100+ gr, as they are upgrading gems they are killed by monsters that should not be there.
This can happen minutes after RG dead.
#2 Problem:
Stuck at 13 stash tabs.
My main PoE Account has 100 stash tabs.
there should be a happy medium for D3.
I don’t need 100 tabs in D3, but 20 would work.
11 Likes
Every class has a cheat-death passive. If you’re not familiar with that, then you got no business playing HC.
1 Like
Cheating death passiv, does not mean death-immune…
10 Likes
lol, I’m talking about the monsters that still spawn after RG is dead.
Cheat Death passive proc’s once and then you’re dead.
You don’t play much HC is my guess.
12 Likes
I would’ve narrowed it down to “the forum”. 
There are some really great wee pockets here and there (thinking the barb and DH communities even if they can be a bit insular) but otherwise it’s been a pretty hostile place for a number of years.
I do appreciate that it seems to have turned a corner with the extra community managers that have made this a much nicer place to be in recent times (I even got muted for pretending Baltimore was a fairy kingdom!). Thank you for that.
1 Like