- Itemization (eg. gear enchanting, imprinting etc) in pre Torment:
Here is what I felt in general about itemization before Torm 1:
a. Lv1-30: itemization is abysmal, there is minial to zero itemizaiton needed, most aspects are locked behind especially for the 1st char of that season. For me doing NMDs to get the aspect doesn’t seem to be worth, they can take some time and just isn’t that fun compare to Helltide, thats for me. Stat changing on gear is not necessary since I update my gear very frequently during this time. So the gameplay from Lv1-30 is pretty simple, you play with whatever the skills your class have, itemization is not the concern at this point, which makes the game feels boring tbh since there’s very limited meaningful actions to do to improve my char while I’m only allowed to play the basic class style determined by class skills. But the good news is that it won’t last too long since Lv1-30 is fairly fast to level through. What I like to see is that we can use some aspects from maybe Lv10, unlocked free when we get there. For example, I like to play the hydra sorccer this season, just give me serpentine aspect on level 10, even with lowered power % on that aspect I’m still happy with that. The point is that I want aspect unlocked earlier in the progression so players can actually get a taste of different builds earlier, power/numbers can be lowered, but gameplay should be raised in early season.
b. Lv30-45 and onward: Legendray items start to drop during this period (especially if I can go penitent at around Lv30 on first char of the season), though not alot. Imprinting is available and I can feel my char getting some special powers from aspects. This is the period I start to feel the game is getting fun after 30 levels of boredness. Though gear enchanting is in a weired place - the only 2 stat I found worth enchanting is to get Armor and Resource gen per second to make you tankier and be able to spam your resource spending skills (if my build’s dmg is rely on spending rescource). Getting Resistence to XX Element can be done by tempering. Again, there’s very limited actions I can do about Enchaning at this stage, and since updating gear is still relatively fast during this time, I still would skip this itemization process bcos I (if not everyone) hate loading screen.
c. Summerize for Itemization in pre torment - my general feeling is that Itemization offers very minial contributions to char progression at this stage - aspects are locked behind in early stage. Enchanting can be redundant - only few useful stats worth enchanting, lack of material/gold to enchant on early stage and frequent gear update makes this action annoying since players have to TP back to do it from time to time.
- Torment 4 Loot - GA or not
We all get that Greater Stat is awesome and it should be shiny and rare, but the current setup really makes the loot in mid to late Torment game not satisfying, like REALLY NOT SATISFYING. How many times you finish a high level pit, or opened a mystical cache in Helltide, or after defeating a lair boss, you see they drop a ground of items with orange rays but none of them have even one red star. This is actually very ridiculouis bcos why I get the same quality of loots just as Im in T1 as I defeat a torment boss in T4 or finishing a lv120 pit, whats the point of my effort to progress my char?.. This design has been confusing me for several seasons now, and everytime I saw something drops like 10 legendarys but no GA I just felt discouraged to play the game (although I would still play). Please CHANGE THIS! Like adding a IP 800 no GA item tier, 12 lvls of masterworking, same max aspect power as current IP 800 items, etc, you get it.
- Lair boss
Lair Boss is in a weird place too, my general feeling is that, it would be either too hard to kill so I won’t even bother (bcos I would spend my time getting that OP unique item with that Omega dmg multiplier) or it is too easy just like I flush my toilet with water (we all do it multiple times a day aye?) In my general impression of bosses of this type in a RPG game, it meant to be an encounter with few mechanics that players need to master and they are expected to put some efforts to win and get the rewards. Idk if this is what the designers think the role of what lair boss is, be or be not, my point is that lair boss feels just like flushing the toilet - it doesn’t give me the challenge as it would expected to have when my char is progressed enough, and when not progressed enough, it can be avoided anyway. So my expectation is that lair boss should be set right between these two poles - not difficult for elites as it is one major passway for players to get Mystic and given the low drop chance of Mystic from these bosses, but not too easy down to like a flush as well. So… eh, weird position for this piece of content. BTW, world bosses seem to do better job for this role (except for the Mystic drop thing, fndles Avaraice’s head)
Also, just want to rise the ATTENTION, Lair boss should not cost the same amount of materials in T1 as T4, as in T1 it drops less items, lower chance for GA and Mystic, though actually harder to kill for a char just got into T1!
- Mystic item
Getting the right Mystic item feels like you suddenly won a one million dollar lottery in real life - item itself is not the problem, but the RNG and suddenness are. For the shinniest, most awesome gear to appear, a sudden drop out of blue doesn’t seem fit. The no-control for which Mystic to drop also can drive players paranoid especially for the very first Mystic in the road of char progression. Getting 6 legendary runes to craft one doesn’t seem to be practical enough to solve this problem (unless they play the ‘market’). Then players have to go back to flush the toilet a dozen times more, agh… But this is just my personal opinion that, making everything based on pure RNG, don’t matter it’s a good gear/stat or bad gear/stat, is bad - it’s too flat and random in terms of gameplay feeling and not fair for the effort players have made. How about designing a saga story for each of the Mystic item and let players play through like a mini seasonal quest series, which requires players to collect some trophies only drop from lair bosses (sure if you want lair boss to be part of it). Or, you can simply link seaonal theme to Mystic crafting, make a Mystic progression roadmap for us to go through so you can adapt this to every future season. Anyway, getting 2 sparks + 50 million gold just to earn a chance of gambling one Mystic that have to fit the build doesn’t seem to satisfy most of the players. BTW why the Mystic drop chance is SO LOW this season, I got only 1 Mystic so far and thats from Belial among at least 50 + lair boss kills (wtf). Guess more toilet flushing…
- Cost of Itermization
I think this has been an old topic and Im still struggling with itevery season. Enchanting simply cost too much gold, especiall on specific item or stat (eg. amulet, all resist on armor/ring, CDR on helm, even armor can be hard to roll if I’m unlucky). Every season im gold starving at some point and forced to play the market and trade. There’s nothing wrong with it I’d say but why can’t we jusy play a game inside a game and not have to deal the 3rd party website, and why the game can’t reward what players need without spending 4hs a day sitting there and farming like a robot. Just get the gold cost down, you don’t rely on players to play your game by farming gold and this should be quite frank. Tempering cost, material cost for all upgrade system seems to be okay in later part of the game (T3 onward), but in early game (pre torment and T1&2) is still quite high as I mentioned before. Just get the cost down, otherwise you are stopping players to use their creativity to try different styles of play, which is really the essence of playing this type of games.