Constructive Feedback from long time Diablo fan

PC General Discussion
1

Hello. I wanted to give a bit of constructive feedback while quickly explaining where my feelings are coming from on these topics and a few of the big hits and misses from D1-2-3 to see what D4 can expand upon at this point.

Everyone has different tastes and a different gaming experience which will impact their appreciation of D4 here (I’m not making any judgement here, simply a fact that someone who’s younger and grew up with D3 as their first and main game in the franchise will possibly have a different take on what they expected from D4 than someone who grew up with D2 or D1). I’m well aware that the current Blizzard isn’t the same one it was 25 years ago when D1 came out and things change.

If it may help understand my personal biases towards D4, I’m currently a 38 years old teacher who grew up with D1 as one of his first more serious/better quality video games. I’ve worked for 4 different QA companies as a video game tester in the past (so I have a bit of knowledge about the industry works) and have always been a big Blizzard fan although I must admit I have unfortunately rarely been impressed with most of Blizzard’s games beyond Wrath of the Lich King… but D4 may be the first one I’m actually excited about since.

(Text too long turned into bullet points to make it faster to read)

D4:
1- Atmosphere
(horror, gory looks) but a true cinematic at the end of Act 1 would have help a lot to keep this tone (the current in-game one makes it feel like WoW or Kerrigan from SC2)

2- Gameplay
Dynamic, skill trees are back, many build options.

3- Issue with skills
A lot of them are too weak and straight up bad options without special items to improve them which makes the early game builds feel very limiting. It would be nice for each core skill to be viable on its own (like Werewolf 50sec CD ultimate can’t even kill 4 regular skeletons)

4- Concerns with legendary power extractions
I was only able to extract and transfer it to 1 item in the beta (not doable more than once). In a game where you’ll constantly be upgrading your gear and need many powers synergizing together for a build to work, this could quickly become a problem as you’ll find upgrades and not want to use it because losing a power you had will break your build.

5- Tank vs DPS ratio concerns
Not new to D4 but this game is made to be soloable. This means that any DPS should be able to survive if played right (and any “average” DPS player, not elite ones) which means that sacrificing a lot of dmg to be tanky often turns out to be useless. Then it creates a cycle where faster killing classes clear content a lot faster so they get more drops, gear up better and faster and push their advantage ahead even further in an exponential way. It also can be a problem in group play if the dmg of a tanky character isn’t that great and the group forces him to focus purely on defensive and utility skills while the actual good dmg dealers kill the stuff (we saw it happen with D3 with “zero damage” builds from Monks and WDs).

Overall, I’m still excited for the game right now, a lot of nice QoL changes and seems fun at early level at least.

2 Likes
2

I honestly did not read your whole wall of text there. I doubt anyone will bother to read all that either. I would try to find a way to condense it, specially if you want the devs to read it. I did see a couple of good points.

We are on the same age range, we both played Starting Diablo 1, I also hated Diablo 3 with a passion. I do have some complaints about D4 but they are minor and still feel, this is the best Diablo to date.

I know a lot of those complaints will be addressed by launch and if not shortly after.

3

You’re right, here’s the short bullet point version.

4

My understanding is that druid was missing access to their exclusive class perks. Which is what makes the classes strong. The barbarian was on the same boat, but it’s not as noticeable as the druid because the druid is specifically made to make the werewolf and werebear stronger. You collect the spirit orb thingies that dropped from mobs and you invest them there.

It would have been like Necro missing book of the dead. I ended up making a pure caster druid and my druid was actually quite strong. But I got lucky and found a bunch of legendary drops to boost cyclone, the lightning storm, I forgot the name and basically storm skills. I got this legendary that would make additional lightning bolts drop on enemies for every crit and the perk kept stacking and you could make it last like a minute. But during that whole time lightning bolts would drop on enemies and around you the entire time.

I also found this other legendary, that boosted companion damage by like 256%, so it made the crows AOE hit like a truck. I didn’t bother to play with Werewolf and Werebear, because of this reason.

Legendary gear, I’m not that concerned about because it looks like eventually we’ll have most of the legendary effects available at all times. Then we can add them to any piece of gear we want. However, my concern is that once unlocked they only unlock for that character. I feel this should be account wide unlocks specially so it’s not a chore to level when seasons come around.

5

  1. If you get a aspect that is “core” to your build just put it on a ring or something and keep it til you get a better one.

  2. Welcome to the real world? If someone kills faster, they get loot faster. If you don’t want to be “forced” to play a defensive build, then don’t.

6

So cool to see all this thoughtful feedback. I had blast playing the D4 beta and am excited for release. Here is my feedback for the devs.

Class balancing
Druid’s summons are weak compared to Necro, need to be buffed and have better AI. Crows and Vines need to attack regularly (not every 5-7 seconds) and all summons need to be more aggressive. Druid’s vines are really hard to see, and crows are impossible to see. Make them more visible. Barbarian needs better mobility, survivability, and/or 1 ranged option (charge, weapon throw, spear throw, etc.).

Sorceress: Make the three basic fire, cold, and lightning attacks more distinct and different. They are basically all the same just with a different element. And Lightning orb damage seems low compared to other core skills.

Technical Problems
Necro’s skeletons randomly start “jumping” around instead of walking. This seems to be reset by a loading screen. Sometimes items drop and are floating slightly above the ground.

Itemization
Normal and magic items are irrelevant and so are weapon types. If drop rates are adjusted, this may be fixed. But any rare is better than any magic. The affixes on magic items need to be more significant than rare items for them to be worth taking. Like a +1 to a skill on a magic might make it more appealing than a rare, particularly if the damage values on them are the same.

Item drops should not slightly improve with every level I get. It means every level up I am looking for all new gear that is slightly better than the last. It also means for weapons I pay the most attention to the damage values and not affixes, which simplifies itemization. I much prefer D2’s way of having item types with set level requirements, damage values, and attack values that get modified by affixes. It means there are weapons and armor out of reach that I am aspiring to get, which is great.

Monster Level Scaling
The scaling feels bad and takes away a sense of progression through the world. To fix this, have limited monster scaling in WT 1 and 2 so monsters can spawn in a range of levels for a given zone, like 10-20 for parts of the Fractured Peaks and 20-30 for other areas. In WT 3, which unlocks at level 50, the level ranges get increased to keep most/all of the world relevant. And in WT 4 all zones are at or near max level. This gives a sense of progression through the world and gives players the option to go to a “weaker” zone when things get too difficult and a more challenging zone to look forward to and work towards. Lowering a WT to make the game easier or raising a WT when you are finally powerful enough is what D3 did and it felt bad. And, if monsters always get more powerful when you do, there is no point to getting more powerful other than power for the sake of power.

User-Interface
Needs a lot of updates. More easily seeing certain stats would be nice, like resistances. Overlay map would be nice. Quest tracking improvements to track multiple quests and distinguish them more easily. Change the fonts to be more in keeping with the Diablo fantasy. Fonts aren’t a giant issue, but each departure from the fantasy (which the fonts do) pulls players out of the immersion of the game. Diablo is a dark, gothic horror fantasy and the fonts should reflect that. And of course, there needs to be options for accessibility.

7

Thanks for your feedback. Personally after playing both closed and open betas, I really like the game overall and can’t wait for the launch! The graphics are beautiful. The atmosphere and story are very dark (as they should be). The main game characters seem nuanced, not manichean (which is good). The skills are not perfect but OK for me. I am not crazy about the legendary power extraction system, but it just takes some time getting used to it I guess. The gameplay is not as smooth as in D3 but still fun. I didn’t enjoy much the dungeons so far, but they are acceptable. The paragon system which is unlocked at level 50 is really well designed. Finally, my only serious concern is the respec costs, which increase with levels and will make it almost impossible to switch regularly from a dps to a support character, which makes D4 not well adapted for group play, which in my opinion is a pity. I hope they will remove respec costs in the future.