Limited Skill Slots
Recommendation
Remove the limit on skill slots by default and/or as an option in settings. Empower players to play how they want to.
Details
This is the thing I dislike the most. Other than Diablo 3, other aRPGs let me choose to “go wide” with several skills, spreading my points, or “go deep”, focusing on a smaller set of skills that I can more heavily invest in. They empower me to choose how I want to play.
This coupled with how the skill trees and resource generation work forces me to put points into a basic skill and then a core skill unless I find a build that ignores core and I like the passives instead. So now I really only have 4 skill slot options if we’re being realistic.
This was made far worse when I was on my Necromancer as, unless sacrificing, the class mechanic takes up to 2 skill slots. That leaves me with 4 skill slots … though 2 in actuality after you consider the obligatory Basic and Core skills.
This also reduces the level of customization allowed when creating/selecting builds to play.
Respec Costs
Recommendation
Remove the cost for respeccing as it penalizes players for trying to have more fun.
Details
Personally, the free respecs in Diablo 3 are why I play it more than other aRPGs like Path of Exile and Grim Dawn as I don’t want to continuously re-level characters beyond doing so for the current season.
Overall, there are multiple scenarios where players have a desire to respec which should be encouraged as they improve player enjoyment, but the current respec cost discourages this behavior. Respeccing already has costs in the form of time and mental load that are further exacerbated if trying to play with others as the player wants to be quick about it to not keep their friends waiting or be left behind.
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Trying out different builds: Players like to try different builds to see what they would enjoy more. By penalizing this behavior with a cost, you are pushing players away from trying things and thus from perhaps finding builds they would enjoy even more that would inspire them to keep playing the game; not to mention those who simply enjoy tinkering with builds (fairly common in [a]RPG communities).
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Different builds for single-/multi-player: Different builds are better/worse for single- and multi-player. This has players choosing between having less fun or spending time and resources to change specs when they swap from single- to multi-player.
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Different builds for different activities: As players have seen in past aRPGs, different builds are more/less ideal for different activites. Using Diablo 3 as an example, there are builds better for farming bounties, rifts, etc. solo or in group as well as builds better for pushing greater rifts. If respecs were not free, we have to choose between constantly paying to respec or playing multiple different characters that are the same class; especially since the loot system is designed for loot to more often drop designed for the character you’re currently playing on.
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Adapting to gear drops: what gear drops is random. If playing build A but you get drops for build B, it should be a positive experience where you are excited as you can simply respec to the build that would be fun with that new gear as opposed to feeling punished for doing so or not respeccing at all due to wanting to avoid the punishment of the respec cost. Personally, I simply didn’t respec multiple times this weekend because I didn’t want to spend the cash and I was playing multi-player; the deck was stacked against me respeccing. I later saw videos using that gear and was saddened by missing out on trying the builds that would have used that gear.
Minions - Following Player
Recommendation
When not in combat, have minions follow player more closely (like in Diablo 3).
Details
The minions in Diablo 4 seem to lag behind the player far more in Diablo 4 than they do in Diablo 3. This simply diminishes quality of life for builds leveraging minions; particularly those relying on them as a frontline to help keep the player at range.
This is made worse due to the lack of control abilities for minions (seems to affects Necromancer the most).
Minions - More Control
Recommendation
Provide more control over minions for both targeting and movement.
Details
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Targeting: it does not feel good to be unable to get your minions to focus on a target or targets in a particular area. It would be a quality-of-life improvement to have better control over what minions are attacking. Just adding this as an option while keeping the current AI would suffice. NOTE: this is not an issue for minions such as Druid Wolves which can use the skill to activate and put them on a target.
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Movement: during fights with AOEs, it is very frustrating to watch your minions just stand in AOEs and die with nothing you can do about it. The worst example was the boss fight where I stood in the bubble to not die to the AOE that covered the rest of the room. As I stood there, my skeletons were just standing still outside the bubble and died . Me moving around inside the bubble did nothing to alleviate this issue. Healing them with the priest was having no impact either. In hindsight, I could just not use my corpse explosion at all until I have 10 corpses resummoning my whole minion army … but that’s a pretty poor experience. It would have been nice to be able to tell my minions to Move Here to get in the bubble for that fight or out of AOEs in other fights.
Camera Control
Recommendation
Empower players with more control over the camera (zoom, centering, following the player, etc.)
Details
Not everyone enjoys the current level of zoom. Moreso, it can be aggravating having the camera adjust its zoom and even centering on/off character during world boss fights.
It would be nice if players could choose how zoomed in/out they are with a higher value for zoom out than the current limit (at least for world bosses), and the zoom stays at what the player has put it instead of auto-adjusting. This makes ranges a bit odd to eyeball and just doesn’t feel good when the camera adjusts in a way you were not wanting/expecting.
Basically, empower the player with more options for control over the camera. Keeping the current as a default and adding additional settings would suffice.
Open World - Other Players
Recommendation
If keeping this, improve rates for respawn of mobs, events, etc. based on population density in an area.
Details
It feels horrible to go to an area for a quest to kill mobs just to be a few steps behind someone else who is killing them; causing you to wait for them to finish AND the mobs to respawn.
Similarly, it feels horrible to see an event on your map and excitedly run to it just for it to have just been finished by some other player(s).
Open World - Loading Adjacent Areas
Recommendation
Provide some visual indicator of progress loading the adjacent zone when forced to wait on it instead of just having us rubber band continuously.
Details
Multiple times I was stuck waiting on an adjacent area to load so that I could stop rubber banding at the border. Sometimes I would be dealing with this for minutes and would eventually just gave up and teleport somewhere else and then run to where I wanted to go. There was no indication of loading needing to catch-up nor of it making progress in catching up.
As far as the worst place for this load issue, it happened most often, particularly with the scenario where I eventually had to teleport somewhere else, when trying to leave outside the large bridge on the east side of the main town.
Crowd Control Heavy Builds vs Bosses
Recommendation
Improve the impact of CC on bosses; improve their effect on filling the boss’s CC Bar.
Details
Comparing …
- a Minion Necromancer with Skeleton Ice Mages
- a Flay/Rend Barbarian whose only CC was the 10% slow on their bleeds
- a CC Heavy Brawler Barbarian with Bash, Kick, Leap, Ground Stomp, and Iron Maelstrom that also applied bleed with a 2H Sword and had the 10% slow from bleeds
… I did not notice the CC bar raising that much more quickly (if any quicker at all) for the CC Heavy Brawler than for the other two builds that I was paying attention to this with.
That feels pretty bad as one is obviously heavily invested in Knockbacks and Stuns on top of the Slow from Bleed of the Flay/Rend build and it was not noticeable on the boss.
Balancing Skill Damage
Recommendation
Damage balance should fall into this simple formula with DOT = Damage_Over_Time and DD = Direct Damage and the difference should be noticeable.
[Melee_DoT] > [Melee_DD] >= [Ranged_DOT] > [Ranged_DD]
Details
Melee attack inherently has more challenges and risk in landing the attacks in comparison to Ranged attacks. Due to this higher risk and higher challenge, there should be a higher reward. Otherwise, why bother dealing with the higher risk and higher challenge?
DOT should do more damage than DD as well as the player is “paying” for it by having to wait 5+ seconds for 100% of the damage from a DOT to be applied versus DD where 100% of the damage is applied immediately. Furthermore, except in cases like the Barbarian using their Capstone, DOTs cannot crit so have less ways to increase their damage and thus their overall DPS.
Comparing my Necromancer using Shadow DOTs via [Blight & Blighted Corpse Explosion] to my Necromancer using DD via either [Blood Surge & Corpse Explosion] or [Bone Spear & Corpse Explosion], it seemed that my damage was drastically better with the two DD setups both for clearing groups of enemies (including elites) as well as when fighting bosses.
It seemed the same as well when comparing my Berserk Barbarian Frenzy/Double_Swing build versus running a Flay/Rend build. In this case, the damage appeared to be the same.
Particularly when playing with a friend that was doing the same or better damage directly on his Druid, it left me wondering why even bother with the DoT builds.
Finally, when comparing the Ranged Bone Necromancer with both the Barbarian builds, the Necromancer appeared to easily be doing more damage.
So I came away feeling that the risk-to-reward ratios are with regards to Melee vs Range and DOT vs DD as Melee DOT felt the least powerful/rewarding while Ranged DD felt the most powerful/rewarding.
Barbarian Survival Talents - Combat Frenzy / Combat Flay
Recommendation
Improve the survival traits to be more in-balance with other classes.
Details
- Barbarian’s Combat Frenzy requires 3 hits to max out at 24% Damage Reduction for 3s that, if not refreshed, can then fall off after 3s and then require another 3 hits to max out again.
- Barbarian’s Combat Flay is worse in that it requires 4 hits to max out at only 12% Damage Reduction for 3s that, if not refreshed, can then fall off after 3s and require another 4 hits to max out again.
- Druid’s Storm Strike immediately gives 25% Damage Reduction for 3 sec after 1 hit; providing 1% to 13% more Damage Reduction for 2 to 3 less hits.
- Necromancer’s Reap immediately gives 25% Damage Reduction for 2 sec after 1 hit; providing 1% to 13% more Damage Reudction for 2 to 3 less hits, though with a 1 sec less duration.
Barbarian Survival Talents - Raid Leader
Recommendation
Improve the survival trait to be more in-balance with other classes and/or fix bug (if what I experienced was a bug).
Details
- Barbarian’s Raid Leader has your shouts heal allies for 1% / 2% / 3% of their max life per second. NOTE: This did not heal me during this weekend’s open beta … only my friend I partied with.
- Druid’s Preserving Debilitating Roar has your Debilitating Roar heal you for 4% of your max life per second.
So Raid Leader requires a minimum of 3 points just to get the 1% heal (1 for a shout, 1 for the passive pre-req [Booming Voice], and 1 point into Raid Leader. This compared to Preserving Debilitating Roar which is 3 points to gain 4% max life per second.
Perhaps only being self-only and the other being party is the balancing feature? Perhaps one being a passive that can apply to 3 separate shouts (though requiring more point and skill slot investment) is another balancing feature? But it’d be a minimum of 5 skill points to be have one shout and 3% heal vs 4%, and, again, Raid Leader was not healing me (bug?).
Skill Tree UI
Recommendation
Make the Skill Tree UI more compact; quicker and easier to navigate.
Details
Despite being on a widescreen monitor, I spend most of my time with the skill tree up dragging around my view of it. I found this quite aggravating.
Necromancer Decompose Corpse Generation QoL
Recommendation
Retain the timer for 2-3s for the 2.5s channel to create a corpse (or have it work like Acolyte’s Reap) or give more indication for when the corpse is generated such as a graphical effect on the enemy (small animation of something dropping from enemies body to form a corpse on the ground?) and/or an audio cue.
Details
It was frustrating in fights where I had to move quite often to generate any corpses with Decompose as I’d often have to move before the full 2.5s of channel. This made it frustrating to use for corpse generation and resulted in me swapping to using Skeletal Reapers instead of Skirmishers strictly for their corpse generation so I could more reliably have corpses for replenishing my minions, buffing them, and blowing up corpses for damage and resource generation.
This was made worse by the fact that in fights with several minions and enemies of varying sizes as well as pools on the ground from Blight, Blighted Corpse Explosion, and enemy attacks, the corpses generated by Decompose were non-obvious. It resulted in times where I thought I saw a corpse generated and interrupted my channeling of Decompose to consume that corpse only to find that I was mistaken and had ended the channel prematurely so was reset back to needing to channel for 2.5 for the corpse.