To make leveling more meaningful, consider this straightforward change: every item in the game is inherently item level 800, though this value remains unseen. The item power stat is removed from tooltips, and all level requirements for using items are eliminated. However, the actual effectiveness of these items – their damage, health bonuses, and stat contributions – will scale dynamically with your character’s level. Once you reach level 60, this scaling stops, and items provide their full power. This simple adjustment could significantly enhance the leveling experience!
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But in the meantime items generally drop level-appropriate… so idk what the difference would be, other than wanting to hold on to a sweet sweet early find, late into endgame - which sorta goes against an underlying assumption in arpgs (“upgrading” gear by replacing or fundamentally altering it).
And Mythics already come level “capped”, which is a huge boost to alts, right?
Yeah true, but leveling is just leveling, doesn’t matter that much, it just starts slower. You need to farm those greater affixes in torment anyway. Keep in mind that all the power scales with character level. As for Torment difficulty, if an item drops without a greater affix, or if it’s a legendary with an aspect you already know, it’ll just turn into crafting mats instead, this would be awesome too to have as a feature.
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I’ve never understood with the stat squash why they just did not make item levels the same as player character levels…item level 60 being max.
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You just brought back level scaling, except it now applies to gear. So essentially during the early to midgame there is no actual gear progression. Which can make the game feel even more stale during these earlier stages. You could potentially gear out your character at level 30 for example and never have to worry until you start to get Ancestrals to start dropping.
We had the same issue at launch, where you could gear your character out early upon reaching T4 and getting your base items. You just hit 90% of your potential power with that build far earlier in the game. So now that 10% grind is present from an earlier level rather than later. You’ve just taken the loot finding out of a loot finder game.
Not entirely sure this was your intention, but it’s the inevitable reality.
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I think so too. Just find a Legendary pair of pants with speed movement and you would never change it again, it’s ancestral. It seems like an automatic replacement of weapons, since with IP you become outdated at some point and with a new weapon you feel the power grow.
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Slow down leveling and gear replacement is no longer a problem
Though wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a certain item type that allows self-upgrade of sorts
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wouldnt the fix be to make leveling slower?
items are meaningful while leveling. its just that leveling became so fast that noone cares.
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Eh, lvl scaled items would be solving one issue with something even worse.
Still, they should try to make lvling items potentially useful throughout the game.
How about a recipe at the blacksmith allowing you to upgrade lvling items to ilvl 800. For a very substantial cost, but something you might decide to do for a few very well-rolled items you found while lvling.
Indeed.
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Personally, I don’t care about leveling at all. It was fun the first 15 times but now it’s just a hurdle.
If it takes 20 minutes or 10 hours, whatever. But more than that and I’ll start to lose interest fast.
i cant understand that in a way, but the seasonal questlines are also bound to leveling a character.
personally i think this whole “we blast through and are suddenly in the endgame, which we finish in 3 days” is nothing a game can keep up with.
I mean… lets take poe there for example, imagine the uproar if people here had to reply the story every season. Itd be an angry mob here ^^
now im not saying d4 should take this route, but im certain that early, and midgame needs more meaning, and that wont be achieved by speeding it up.
We dont conquer against each other. we all want the best possible d4 in our own imagination, which of course can differ.
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The fact that every single piece of gear you find while leveling will be worthless eventually is what kills it completely.
They like to talk about the “item journey” but that journey only starts when you find ancestral gear after lvl 60.
That makes the entire leveling process pointless to me.
You should be able to find something at a low level and think "that’s going to be so good when I’m done with it. "
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Sure would be nice to have the option at least. As in campaign being completely viable to lvl up in. Even better, a viable endgame activity too.
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The gear you get while leveling matters, it helps you kill mobs while leveling.
You’re asking for leveling gear to be as good as max level gear, which has positives and negatives, but is a different discussion. The biggest negative for me is sometimes it becomes better to farm lower level mobs for certain endgame items.
Gear for ALTs is just a perfectly viable option, whether or not you stash it is totally up to you
The problem is that entire leveling process is trivialized, and that helps no-one. Literally no-one is “excited” to hurrying up to get to the Pit repetition… I mean it looks/feels cool like the first 5-6 runs, but then after ?, same old same old, nothing cool is gonna happen and you just KNOW that the only reason you’re “torturing yourself” is simply to click a few times at the altar at the boss chamber
Secondly if the game revolves around leveling-up more (as opposed to Pit or Boss run repetition), the “endgame” can be something not designed with expectance to be 200 times beaten (i.e. better drop rates and rewards)
The very fact that they DIDN’T keep the leveling phase relevant they had to invent the Pit as well as introduce MW
I mean darn it, would you rather want to play a nice-evolving game or do stuff over and over for the sake of Pit upgrade and RNG at MW ?
The gear you find while leveling is useless. You just try to get something good enough, with the right aspects imprinted on.
Then you upgrade your weapons for dps every now and then, but mostly you just push through the process as quickly as possible because everything needs to be replaced.
I’m asking for gear to be relevant and have potential. Not at all the same thing.
Yet another problem, why does the DPS have to like double every 4-6 levels or so ?, why have so high DPS increase over IP all the time ?
Find a way to give more power via mechanics, via skill upgrades and augmentations, and less so with sheer DPS increase at all times possible
A flawed game with so much problems does not mean that everyone has to “bend over” backwards, fix the issue (though frankly it’s not that big of an issue, not ATM, would much rather invest into events and rare encounters on the way than gear upgrades tbh)
I’m sorry but it all comes to the same mistake over and over:
- Games are NOT designed to be efficient (they’re designed to be playful)
Games designed around efficiency are just simply put absolutely terrible - case in point 6.5 seasons in D4
You HAVE TO provide incentives for people to follow sometimes ways that are let’s say not most optimal (otherwise game is dead before you even know)
With scaling reduced (especially between levels 50 and 60) it would be the case so
Efficiency and fun are not mutually exclusive. D4 is a looter. Farming efficiency is fun in a game like this.
First of all for a game designer this premise is ABSOLUTE (yes, fun and efficiency are mutually exclusive to one another). For players can differ
Secondly for players power = fun is not an equation either (in fact is the fastest way to suck fun out of a game tbh)
That being said - MUCH LESS DAMAGE would be done to reduce efficiency cap than sacrifice the ENTIRE GAME in assumption that everything becomes obsolete (eventually)
Imagine any other game, literally ANY other - say Mortal Kombat having that “philosophy” of yours - why do we need 40 characters when all players need to fight is Shao Kahn. And there it is - your MK “destiny” is now Shao Kahn after Shao Kahn (cause everything else and every other fight is inferior)
Is that what you want ? 
D4 is a looter. To progress you need to find good loot and level up. To find good loot or level up you need to kill monsters.
If you kill monsters slowly you find less loot and level up slowly. If you increase your efficiency, you kill monsters more quickly. You then level up more quickly and find more loot.
I really don’t get your argument at all.