'Casual' Gamer PTR Feedback

PTR Feedback
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So before I get any hate and the eye rolls, this is just my feedback as i see it.

Long standing fan of the whole Diablo franchise from D1’s Gharbad the Weak - to Wirt’s useless peg leg and the legendary Cow level, but i have to say that D4 is seriously testing my patience for the franchise.

I consider myself a casual gamer these days, not having the time or possibly even the inclination to grind the full end game mechanics to be able to one shot Tormented bosses or run a Lvl 200 Pit. But i still want to have the option to engage both as a solo player and with friends to have a laugh and actually see some rewards.

I avoided Season 1 like the plague and only really picked D4 back up in S3, which I throughly enjoyed and subsequently stayed around for S4 which has been much improved. So i had hope for the PTR for S5.

Sadly it appears my optimism is so far misplaced.

I play Sorc main, because i enjoy it, plain and simple. Ive run Necro, Barb and tried Druid (but lets be honest here…whats the point).

In regards to the class changes in PTR - in my humble opinion, unless you are running a broken Sorc build which will inevitably get patched out come go live, Barb (and possibly Rogue) is still the the class to run if you want to engage with the higher levels of the End Game.

The nerfs to Teleport and Ice Armor on Sorc just make the experience for an already very squidgy class almost untenable. (and this is after trying several builds)
I think Blizzard need to take a long hard look at the classes and put them in some kind of sync damage/surviability wise because as it stands, I dont really want to have to run another Barb build in S5 just to keep up. So will likely avoid.

Season 5 Quest Line:

Found this very short and not that interesting. S3 as a comparison, I found very interesting and it introduced a companion and the vaults, as well as the Guildhall which was amazing as a hub for everything you needed and actually lasted more than 10 mins.

So unless they are planning to flesh this out more, it really is only a means to an end in accessing the Infernal Hordes End Game mechanic.
Again this is just my opinion, it just lacks any depth for me and I ended up skipping most of the dialogue.

Game Mechanics:

The new Infernal Hordes content. I see what it is trying to do but:

Very repetitive (yes i am aware that most of the End Game is the same).
Drop rate for Aether is shocking in my experience - not even getting close to 250 needed to open the main chest (maybe im missing something here)

Rewards from the equipment chest - 1 item per 25 Aether - ok I wasnt expecting loads given the cost of opening, but feels like a kick in the nads.

Drop rate on the Infernal Compasses is very very low - if you want people to engage, especially more casual gamers, then this needs increasing.

Rest of the PTR:

Lets be honest, nothing else has really changed - no new boss fights, Pits are the same, Hell Tides are the same, World Bosses are a little harder, Legions are the same. Its all very much the same, just with nerfed classes.

Some of the new uniques look good on paper, but as other people have commented, alot of them dont really translate into viable builds and no changes to existing uniques that no one ever uses.
Havent been lucky enough to see any of the new uniques drop out in the world, so cant comment on the purple beam etc.

So overall in conclusion - very disapointed with all the class nerfs - Sorc and Druid need alot of love, (like seriously - Druid is terrible) to bring them in line with Barb/Rogue.
Disapointed with the addition to the ‘Story’ you may as well drop this for how interesting it is.
No new boss mechanic - unless your counting the Infernal Council - but this is largely mute given the poor drop rate of the compasses, its not like you can farm them reliably like you can for the other bosses.

Given the success that is Season 4, this feels like a big step backwards in a lot of ways. I will reserve final judgement until it goes live to see if they address any of the issues that alot of people are raising, but as it stands right now, for me - I wont be playing season 5 and probably wont sink another £50/£60 into the new expansion unless changes are made.

Again, this is my humble opinion and does not speak for anyone else.

God speed.

13 Likes
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Bro didn’t you hear Sorcs are fine because of bad programming that everyone will of course want to play because none of us value build diversity we only want to lead the Pit latter at all costs.

Bleh.

The same couple dudes will come in here and tell you that you’re a bad gamer because you don’t love the crappy intended mechanics or exploit the crappy unintended mechanics required to make any progress.

But fear not. Blizzard has said that Pit 61 is the end game now, so as long as you can farm (pitiful amounts of) neathiron everything must be ok…

5 Likes
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Haha…Im fully expecting the odd troll, but I havent got the time for it and couldnt care less.
But jeez…Pit 61 - I mean that positively makes me a Diablo 4 god right now!

Sadly, it looks like ill have to come crashing down from my godly heights come season 5 haha.

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So why do a casual player care so much about for what, end game contents above T61?

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haha, thats one shovel of gravel at a time for building a 12 storey apartment.

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have to ask whether blizzard is charging cheaper on casual player with the same piece of merchandise.

otherwise casual player has all the rights to care for what they patronised.

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I think thats the issue here. Blizzard doesn’t want people to enjoy sorc

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so a casual player isnt allowed to engage in the top content? even if he only makes one char the whole season but still tries to optimize. Casual doesnt neccesary means bad, there are a alot of different playertypes even in this category. You really need get off your high horse here.

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Trying to enlighten ignorant people like this guy (quoted above) is futile. Fools will stay fools, most of the time.

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For me personally I don’t want to play my favorite Class all the way to 100 with full leveled Glyphs and have it just be completely boring and bland, just for me to get a couple good vibes of getting a good roll on Tempering on the only few 2 GA I’ve been able to find and then, it’s back to being boring again pushing into the Pit after just doing all the boring NMD’s to get to where I’m at.

For me it all comes down to the Leveling Journey, Skill Tree and my Skills, and how does the game feel if I do not follow a Build Guide.

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Not speding time to improve playing skills, knowing game mechanics and doing researches, and want everything that uber players can achieve?

Ppl are uber because they are genius and/or work hard. Otherwise why is messi playing for Argentina in worldcup, not some random “casual” netizen?

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The only success of S4 is that the most loved thing of DIII is back … apart of that and the new gearing system that makes you IMPOSSIBLE to swap specs , it was hard enough before , now its impossible … and about The Pit is FAR of how good felt the GRIFTS of D3 , it needs more tanky mobs and less tanky bosses . Because this is a Dungeon Crawler and it feels like a boss fight now . What is good in S4 …level up fast? … i dont like that …its the easy mode for real , do the broken spec of the season in 4 days?.. thats casual shieet

I remember back in 2014 … there was an special oneshoot coming offscreen that they had to fix with a pendant . Then by 2019 there was not one shoots at all , just more and more damage depending your pushings on GRIFTS never a oneshoot in a 79 , maybe yes in a 99 .

That makes easy the farming option, today is like … i die oneshoot in a 79 so if i have the DPS i go a level 99 …

Because its the SAME but 20 levels ahead!!! … now go farming 99s …

If you play glass cannon specs … be happy if they remember you at all , with the glass but without the cannon .

1 Like
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Bottom Line:
The Ceiling is set too high.
If tryhards, attention span disorders and hard-cores get bored in a week - so be it. The 5% will go elsewhere.

The ceiling is creating a balancing nightmare for the game.
I just said this in another post and it applies to ALL Classes/Skills/Builds and the Game at large.(side note: I’ve tried to inject how to fix everything(skills) and to achieve a parity vs disparity while maintaining skill identity, utility and functionality to allow for different playstyles but with similar power results… :cricket: 's - ppl just wanna complain).

It doesn’t matter what the class or build is…
Balance must be achieved with Skills first - a Solid foundation.
THEN apply - using the threshold of established balance - Content that is challenging.
Presently the game is being ruined by the following and we’re on a numbers roller coaster because of it - this “catering” nonsense has to stop:

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Because they still want to play and upgrade their gear. Pit 61 gives minuscule amounts and they are usually called casual because they lack time. Couple time constraints with minuscule drop amount and you get boring af gameplay.

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What makes it deflating, I think, is when you engage with these OP builds in the open world and instead of being able to pitch in, the mob(s) are already dead before you can even get your projectile to it. Otherwise, would there really be any decent reason for players to care if their favorite class cannot out pace some random person playing barb/rogue/other?

Maybe, MAYBE when their friends join up with them and they’re playing that OP class, with the OP build it can also be deflating.

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As a casual player myself but cant be bothered to even try PTR. Just feelslike waste of time and i am not about to be a free test dummy. We have the content creators for that.

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I logged in, went to 100. Began gearing up a little, then thought to myself why am I doing this here just to try to test some stuff. I could be playing Live and have it be more productive of my time.
So I left.

I don’t think I have ever played a PTR where I had to go hunt everything I need, before I can get to test anything.

There should be a Vendor where for some token amount, you can buy a bag with everything you need for your class.

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Exactly this. As i said, ive played all the Diablo games, bought the early access for D4 etc and probably sink 12hrs a week into it, but by many standards that is casual, because i have a life outside of D4 and it is getting boring. Alot of effort to keep respec’ing, tempering/masterworking for what feels like minimal reward. Just because i class myself a as a casual gamer these days, doesnt mean i dont want to engage in top tier content. Some people apparently dont get that. Appreciate the comments! Thanks.

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Just a little bit correction, they are worse thanks to “you can´t brutce force this soulsgame mechanics boss with you gear” addon we all know and love from uber bosses.