Arcane Sanctuary - Endgame Mega-dungeon (99 floors)

PC General Discussion
1

I wanted to share an idea for an endgame mega-dungeon for D4. This would be based on Arcane Sanctuary in D2, and would be a vast floating platform in emptiness, surrounded by stars. This mega-dungeon name was chosen to pay homage to lore. To gain entry into Arcane Sanctuary, you need to find the Ancient Portal.

First, treasure hunting! You need to collect Ancient Map Fragments and are exceptionally rare. It takes 3-5 distinct fragments to create an Ancient Map, and players can work together and trade different fragments (e.g. duplicates). Once distinct fragments are collected, player goes to Occultist to craft an Ancient Map. This map gives you the general location for the Ancient Portal. If a person in the party has map in their inventory, it will share with party members.

The Ancient Portal is found in a random Cellar across Sanctuary, just like D2 was found in Palace Cellar. This gives Cellars more incentive to explore them as they’re underwhelming and skipped content.

Once portal is activated, player teleports to Arcane Sanctuary. Arcane Sanctuary is a mega-dungeon with 99 floors consisting of three separate wings. Just be on the lookout as Butcher can spawn on each floor. To understand scale, imagine taking all of D4’s 100 dungeons and combining them into one singular massive dungeon complex. There are specific “Boss Floors,” that contains a random dungeon boss. On Floor 99, you encounter final boss, The Summoner. There are also “Blacksmith Floors” that are safe zones whereby players have access to a Blacksmith Anvil to repair, salvage gear, temper, etc.

Total clear time for Arcane Sanctuary is 5 Hours (est. 3 min per floor) for entire mega-dungeon. Once you enter dungeon, you cannot leave until completed. You can log in and out as many times as needed, but you will always be in dungeon. If you choose to leave via TP, you will have to start entire process over again and find another Ancient Portal. However, that’s why the mega-dungeon has a Blacksmith Floor every 15 floors (safe zones).

Arcane Sanctuary unlocks at level 60 and has associated leaderboard that ranks all players with highest floor achieved. At beginning of each week, the leaderboard resets, along with randomizing floor layout for Arcane Sanctuary. Upon completion, player is rewarded with a super chest that contains one Random Mythic Unique along w/ various goodies.

Arcane Sanctuary Quick Facts

  • Zone: Mega-dungeon w/ 99 Floors (details listed below)
    • Unlocks: Level 60
  • Leaderboard: Resets Every Week
  • Gaining Entry: Ancient Portal (spawns via Ancient Map)
    • Ancient Map crafted by Occultist via collected Map Fragments

Arcane Sanctuary Layout

Arcane Sanctuary Architecture Floor Number Description
Wing 1 1 Wing 1 Entrance
Infinite Staircase 11 Boss Floor - Random Dungeon Boss
“Staircases that crisscross in labyrinth-like platform” 15 Blacksmith Floor - Arcane Anvil
22 Boss Floor - Random Dungeon Boss
30 Blacksmith Floor - Arcane Anvil
33 Wing 1 Final Boss
Wing 2 34 Wing 2 Entrance
Labyrinth of Gates 44 Boss Floor - Random Dungeon Boss
“Labyrinth-like platform with endless gates” 45 Blacksmith Floor - Arcane Anvil
55 Boss Floor - Random Dungeon Boss
60 Blacksmith Floor - Arcane Anvil
66 Wing 2 Final Boss
Wing 3 67 Wing 3 Entrance
Maze of Portals 75 Blacksmith Floor - Arcane Anvil
“Floating platform with maze of portals” 77 Boss Floor - Random Dungeon Boss
90 Blacksmith Floor - Arcane Anvil
99 Wing 3 Final Boss, The Summoner (sorcerer)
99 Super Chest Rewards: Random Mythic Unique, Legendary Runes, Crafting Materials, Cosmetics, and Titles
9 Likes
2

Please lets get some new ideas and not rehashes from D2. D2 is 25 years old.

2 Likes
3

The idea is completely new for going treasure hunting for map fragments and search in cellars. The dungeon is only in name only to pay homage to lore, everything else is new.

4

Calling it Arcane Sanctuary is more marketable than creepy space dungeon.

1 Like
5

Honestly… Dont know if we need something new… Id just like to see Diablo back. I get it, played through all storylines, but lets just bring him back and some good content around that.

6

The whole point is this isnt something new.

…
I dont hate the idea. Its… something

3 Likes
7

All the wait will be worth it by the time the 6th expansion has come out and you can go all over the map and fight all the bosses within the storyline and all the expanded areas and we have more classes and the game is bal…bbbaaa…bbbb…Balaaaaaaaaaaa. Balding.

8

Pros:
Makes a use for cellars
Players like leaderboard stuff
Earnable cosmetics are popular

Cons:
Too easy to get mythics especially in Arcane Sanctuary rotations = 4 mythics per series.
Structured like citadel.
More stuff to clog inventory.
Leaderboards favor speedy heroes

Overall a slight nod to not quite there yet as idea but keep working on it.

9

I clarified OP. Collecting enough Ancient Map Fragments to craft a single Ancient Map would be difficult as they are exceptionally rare. This would make it almost impossible to farm mythics as collecting enough map fragments (with no duplicates to craft) would be a difficult undertaking. The map fragment rarity would prevent farming of mythics.

In terms of layout, it would be structured differently than citadel as there are a total of 99 floors with three different wings with different map layouts…

  • Zone: Mega-dungeon w/ 99 Floors (three different wings below):
    • Wing 1: “Infinite Staircase”
    • Wing 2: “Labyrinth of Gates”
    • Wing 3: “Maze of Portals”
10

Just don’t call it mega, sounds awful, but I like the idea itself.

Would be nice to have a loooong dungeon kinda rogue likeish, and the theme of arcane sanctuary pretty much fits more than anything else.

2 Likes
11

While new ideas are nice even old ones that help add to end game would be welcome.

2 Likes
12

True, but didn’t have a better word than “mega-dungeon.” Actually, name was taken from D&D as a massive, multi-layer dungeon complex. To understand size, imagine taking all of D4’s 100 dungeons and combining them into one singular massive dungeon complex. That’s what is being proposed with Arcane Sanctuary, albeit is a floating platform in space.

2 Likes
13

25 years isn’t even close to how dated this idea is. It’s basically cramming games like Moria on Plato from the 1970’s or Rogue from Unix in 1980 into Diablo… so it’s more like 50 year old ideas. Rogue likes can be fun but they’re a totally different genre and trying to pound that peg into Diablo IV is likely to break more than it fixes.

However the fact that it even sounds remotely appealing to do something like this says more about the sad state of D4 than anything else.

1 Like
14

I’d say instead of forcing everyone to do every single level it should be a randomized (that’s why arcane sanctuary is perfect for this) layout with increased difficulty each level. You can have your little town hub like you mentioned like every 5 or 10 levels where you have the option to either end the run and get the rewards based on the level you just did, or continue, but if you die, your run is gone without rewards.

Or go the easy way for dad gamers and you get the reward of the last 5th/10th level you didn’t die.

Edit: Last Epoch does something similar with arena runs and it works great, but can be boring very fast, but that is a fixed arena map with waves and not full dungeon maps like here.

15

Good feedback, all these details could be iterated upon for making mega-dungeon awesome. OP was just a premise, but wanted a mega-dungeon that you have to collect map fragments to access and utilize cellars as they’re lackluster.

16

99 floors? This is not going to ever function. Devs can barely fix 1 ring. We really have to tone down our ideas I think to reality and even I am trying to do this which is why you see me making much less creative posts. ITs just not feasible.

1 Like
17

Understand where you are coming from, but I could generate alot of fun ideas for D4 if they needed help and hire me as contractor. Seems dev team lacks imagination to be honest as Seasons are mostly recycled content.

1 Like
18

I don’t see their problem as a lack of imagination. It’s the inability to deliver on their ideas. That’s why Urza was mentioning the Ring of Mendeln. It’s been broken since it was realized and multiple users were able to a better and more thorough job of testing it than the dev/QA team were. Verdict: Better but still badly broken.

That’s why we can’t have nice things in D4: so many things – even basic things – are broken and instead of the higher ups admitting the problems exist and should take a season (or two) and fix things they keep through more stuff in the game. Often stuff that’s badly broken on release. Will see if they actually do anything about fixing such problems quickly in S8. Their track record says it’ll be unlikely.

19

Here is my take on this idea for your viewing criticism.

You have rarities of ancient map fragments that drop and each dungeon sigil now comes with 2 slots in it to place map fragments. Prefixes and suffixes change how the dungeon works. This idea is much more simple than the original but still provides fun and variance. 4 examples of each rarity. Perhaps there are small set type bonuses for say combining the same type of prefix with a suffix as they have tags to easily identify what goes to what and trying to line up bonuses for more than 1 set at the same time could be fun. Fragments are tradable as well.

Common Map Fragments
Goblin Den - Area contains 1 goblin (goblin prefix)
Minor Meteoric - Area has a 25% to contain a Starfall Coronet on a pedestal or drop items with + meteor ranks. Area has meteors rain down from sky rarely. (sorc prefix)
Of Merchant - Area has 1 random merchant NPC that sells items for a random currency like obols or forgotten souls. (economy suffix)
Of the Restless Dead - Area monsters are all undead or corpse bows with 10% more enemies. (undead suffix)

Uncommon Map Fragments
Goblin Hive - Area contains 2 goblins (goblin prefix)
Meteoric - Area has a 50% to contain a Starfall Coronet on a pedastal or drop items with + meteor ranks. Area has meteors rain down from sky sometimes. (sorc prefix)
Of Merchants - Area has 2 random merchant NPC that sells items for a random currency like obols or forgotten souls. (economy suffix)
Of the Hungry Dead - Area monsters are all undead or corpse bows with 20% more enemies. (undead suffix)

Rare Map Fragments
Goblin Town - Area contains 3 goblins (goblin prefix)
Major Meteoric - Area has a 75% to contain a Starfall Coronet on a pedestal or drop items with + meteor ranks. Area has meteors rain down from sky commonly. (sorc prefix)
Of Many Merchants - Area has 3 random merchant NPC that sells items for a random currency like obols or forgotten souls. (economy suffix)
Of the Dead Legions - Area monsters are all undead or corpse bows with 30% more enemies. (undead suffix)

Legendary Map Fragments
Goblin City - Area contains 5 goblins (goblin prefix)
Star Meteor - Area has a 100% to contain a Starfall Coronet on a pedestal or drop items with + meteor ranks. Area has meteors rain down from sky frequently . (sorc prefix)
Of Four Merchants - Area has 4 random merchant NPC that sells items for a random currency like obols or forgotten souls. (economy suffix)
Of the Endless Dead - Area monsters are all undead or corpse bows with 40% more enemies. Area contains extra 3 sets of undead elites (undead suffix)

Unique Map Fragments
Goblin Megaopolis - Area contains 7 goblins (goblin prefix)
Falling Skies - Area has a 100% to contain 1 GA Starfall Coronets on a pedestal or drop items with + meteor ranks. Area has meteors rain down from sky all the time. (sorc prefix)
Of Five Merchants - Area has 5 random merchant NPC that sells items for a random currency like obols or forgotten souls. (economy suffix)
Of the Neverending Dead - Area monsters are all undead or corpse bows with 60% more enemies. Area contains extra 4 sets of undead elites (Undead suffix)

Mythical Map Fragments
Goblin HQ - Area contains 10 goblins and a bandit shrine (goblin prefix)
Meteor Showers - Area has a 100% to contain 2 GA Starfall Coronets on a pedestal or drop items with max meteor ranks. Area has meteors rain down from sky endlessly. Meteors can spawn fire elementals. (sorc prefix)
Of the Merchant Guild - Area has 10 random merchant NPC that sells items for a random currency like obols or forgotten souls. Area has 1 guild NPC that sells elite items. (economy suffix)
Of the Bottomless Dead - Area monsters are all undead or corpse bows with 100% more enemies. Area contains extra 5 sets of undead elites and 1 undead boss called The Summoner. This boss can drop mythics. (undead suffix)

Goblin Set - Combine a goblin prefix and goblin suffix in one map. At least 1 of the goblins in this map is the split one with a chance for more based on overall high rarity of the map fragments used.

Sorc Set - Combines a sorc prefix and suffix for a 20% damage, cooldown, and movement speed bonus.

Economy Set - Combine an economy suffix and prefix for 25% bonus gold find per rarity.

Glyph Set - Chance for 2 upgrade pedestals at the end based on fragment rarity. If there is not 2 then you have a better chance to successfully upgrade.

XP Set - Gain 5% more XP per party member. (so at least 5% more if just you)

One example of a duel tag suffix:
of Learning - Gain 25% more XP in dungeon for you and your glyph. (Glyph / XP rare suffix)

One example of a wild fragment:
Wild Goblin City - Area contains 5 goblins (wild prefix). Whatever suffix is chosen will be a set.

Please rate this version if you like it everyone especially CharlesJT! :pray:

1 Like
20

I do like this simple solution of ancient map fragments as you suggested above, but if it takes more development time to implement as a seasonal mechanic, I would rather see a fully fleshed out Arcane Sanctuary and you gain access via treasure hunting activities for ancient map fragments while also making cellars relevant content. I think what is in OP would make a solid endgame loop, albeit takes more time to implement.