Dear all,
I’ve really enjoyed engaging with so many of you, whether it was through serious debates, light-hearted trolling, friendly bickering, or simply trying to understand the different viewpoints shared here.
Personally, I believe that once a player perfects an item, they shouldn’t have to refarm the exact same item in the exact same way for the exact same build. They’s why I dabbled in the Eternal Realm (as well as playing on the Seasonal Realm). However, my stance on item integrity ends there. I fully support the introduction of new items that replace current best-in-slot (BIS) gear, as well as new builds that arise from much-needed class balance changes.
Here’s why: The ability to perfect an item for a specific purpose gives players a long-term goal, motivating them to keep farming until they achieve that ideal gear. However, that “perfect” gear won’t be suitable for most other builds, aside from exceptions like the Shako (which Blizzard can easily adjust with new affixes or aspects). While it might work for a few builds, it definitely won’t be optimal for others.
I wanted to bring attention to a post by another player, Eisenhorn, that really resonated with me. It masterfully captured the frustration many Eternal players have with recent itemization changes, while offering a thoughtful perspective that also considers Blizzard’s motivations behind these adjustments. The post highlights the evolution of the game from Diablo 3 to now, and touches on the growing divide between Seasonal and Eternal Realm players on this forum:
"I think this is a really fair set of observations.
I don’t know why they’re arbitrarily moving Level 100 Eternal Players to 50 instead of to level 60 and just giving them level 800 items in place of their 925 GA items. IIRC, one Dev said they wanted to give the Eternal players something to do but I don’t think Eternal players see it that way. I think part of the appeal was always that you didn’t have to do the leveling grind and could just jump into the new endgame (maybe weaker because of intra-season power creep but still competitive) and farm new uniques or better items/new Mythics, etc.
If the biggest part of the player base is Seasonal, it shouldn’t hurt their metrics on engagement if they throw Eternal players a bone – but I suspect that while maybe a lot of commentators here and elsewhere are seasonal players, there are actually still plenty of players on Eternal and Blizzard wants to engage those players just as much as seasonal players. We don’t really know because Blizzard doesn’t share stats like that.
Anecdotally, you can see that this might be the case in the hub towns and World Boss events. There are still lots of players there and trade is active and it’s not hard to find groups in Eternal if you’re so inclined.
I don’t actually see why they can’t just make Level 100 players level 60 players when 2.0 hits. They are actually giving you this option on the PTR: when you copy your current characters over, you have the option to go to the dancing demon vendor and boost your character from level 50 to level 60 instantly – so it’s technically feasible for them to do it. This is a decision the Devs are consciously making so it’s fair for Eternal players to bring this up and hopefully they can sway the outcome before 2.0 hits.
But just to give the Devs the benefit of the doubt: I guess one reason they’d need to default everyone on Eternal to 50 is because it’s vital for your character to be at level 50 so you can play the Expansion zones in the way they’re meant to be played – or maybe some new zones are restricted/locked to a specific character level and by making Eternal 100’s level 60, it’ll break the game because the questline demands that you play it to start at level 50?
Blizzard does have precedent for rendering Eternal gear superfluous. Prior to RoS, everyone playing D3 was actually on its equivalent of the Eternal Realm. It wasn’t until the expansion that seasons were introduced – and IIRC it wasn’t even immediately afterwards but several patches into RoS – after they’d introduced a bunch of new sets – that D3 Seasons came along.
In RoS, they raised the cap to level 70 and also the item level caps so that basically, all the gear pre-RoS became legacy/sub-optimal/crafting materials.
So, they’re basically just doing it again now if they insist on making Eternal people come in at level 50: when the expansion hits you have to level 10 levels and then all your gear is a step or steps below max power level until you get to the top difficulty level and get to farm max level gear again.
I think where a lot of Eternal people are pissed off is because:
They just introduced a massive itemization rework with 1.04 that necessitated farming new gear; and They introduced a further re-work (of Uniques) with 1.05 that necessitated farming new uniques and non-uniques that worked better with updated builds.
And now, all the new gear they farmed in 1.04 and 1.05 are getting the shaft again. Basically, Eternal players have been co-opted into seasonal mode these last 2 patches (and into the upcoming one) – even though they explicitly didn’t want to participate in season-like resets to begin with.
I get it. This is a fair complaint. I don’t know why seasonal people are so triggered by it that they have to have really toxic opinions about it. This is a far more legitimate complaint than the bellyaching about Obese Druids or not having infinite re-tempers. By their own admission, these players wouldn’t touch Eternal with a 20-foot stick so why complain over something that doesn’t affect them?
Seems weird."
I hope this perspective adds depth to our thoughts on item integrity in the Eternal Realm, helping us move past repeating the same taglines and arguing until we’re blue in the face. Thanks to all who engaged in thoughtful discussions with me over the past 5 days. Turns out I just needed a perfect post to exit from these discussions.