First I would like to address the response by Joe Shelly to the question “Does Diablo 4 plan to add pay for power?”. Joe’s response was that they don’t plan to add any “pay for power” to Diablo 4 which extends to paid stash space. This curbed some fear of P2W, but it still doesn’t address “pay for convenience” which can be indirect “pay for power”.
A type of “pay for convenience” which was on the “leaked” survey was a pet that has some sort of functionality such as stash access. Having pets that have stash access, auto salvage, or gold pick up is fine as long as there are ways to obtain pets with the same functionality in the game for free by killing some rare spawn or completing an achievement. That would turn it from a “pay for convenience” option to a skin option.
Next thing talked about was Midwinter Blight. The only thing I have to say to this is that it looks like a fun seasonal event. I hope that there are more seasonal events like this in the future. Maybe some time limited events like the Diablo 1 event in Diablo 3. Could be cool to add a D2 event in the new expansion.
After that they did a Live Demo of Abattoir of Zir. I really enjoyed the live demo of the content. It was very informative and entertaining. I hope that they do more Live Demos in the future.
As far as Abattoir of Zir itself, it is essentially a Diablo 3 Greater Rift with a unique glyph needed to progress farther into it. While I am not opposed to Greater Rifts, no loot drops until the end of the dungeon run and a timer, I think it may be too soon to revisit Greater Rifts. Maybe make the timer a little faster and add in 3x effigies, pillars, or elites that the player can kill, each time the player kills 1, it gives the player more time to complete the dungeon. Killing all 3, stops the fail timer completely and lets the player kill at their leisure. For leaderboard reasons (if AoZ makes it into the main game in some form), the run time is still tracked for completion time.
Another interesting take would be 3 pools of power that are encased in corruption, destroying the corruption and mobs guarding a pool will grant 1 of 3 power ups that last until the end of the key run: Damage Boost, Defensive Boost (Armor Boost or Strong Healing Over Time Effect), or Speed Boost (movement speed and attack speed). The pools can create a risk reward hunt in the dungeon besides just kill fast as possible until Blood Seekers appear. A player can go for the pools of power as an option, but the player can still just kill until Blood Seekers appear.
I do like the randomized tile sets and monster families, however, lets add some protection against getting the same dungeon twice in a row and monster families twice in a row.
I will have better feedback for AoZ and Midwinter Blight after I have a chance to play it in the game, but this is just my initial feedback for these two events.
The “Damage on Tuesdays” t-shirts were funny. I like that Blizzard can take a meme and run with it.
Itemization: I am glad that the number of useless affixes is being addressed. A little disappointed that we have to wait until Season 4 to see those changes, but it’s understandable considering it is going to be a big revamp.
When they announced more ways to get 925 gear, I was relieved. Only Duriel and World Bosses as sources was a bit tiring.
I am glad that there will be balancing in Season 3. Damage output is getting out of hand. No one wants Diablo 3 in terms of insane damage numbers.
Helltides: I am glad they are taking the good things about Blood Harvests and implementing them into Helltides.
Q&A: There was a question about bringing a “Loot Filter” into the game. The response was Blizzard wanting to wait until after the Season 4 itemization changes.
I think that players understand that itemization changes are coming and implementing an elaborate Loot Filter before then isn’t feasible. However, I think that players just really want a more basic loot filter in the meantime until the itemization changes can occur and a more elaborate or enhanced Loot Filter can be completed.
A Basic Loot Filter that would make most players happy until the itemization changes: item slot, item quality, and item level. If I had a way to tell the system: Hey I want only chest pieces, boots, and two-handed maces to drop at Rare quality at item level 920 or higher (anything else is turned into mats that I can pick up off the ground), I think this would go over well. Of course Legendary and Unique items can go untouched in the basic loot filter meaning they will still drop regardless of choice.
Unless the itemization changes are so radical as to change the basic concepts of item quality, item slots, and item level, this sort of basic loot filter should be doable.
An enhanced version would be this loot filter plus the ability to target certain affixes on the gear that drops. For instance: I would like to see only Rare Chest Pieces that have the Total Armor % and Maximum Health affixes that drop at an ilvl of 920 or higher. The enhanced version could also effect Legendary and Unique drops as well.
Another question was “Any plans for more Butcher style bosses like Blood Seekers?” My answer to this is YES PLEASE. Having strong enemies ambush you is the best part of my Dungeon runs. Most of the time, I do dungeons with sleepy eyes. The only time I get excitement is when I get ambushed and it is a tough surprise fight. Ambush during a World Boss? Hell yes. If there is a way to break up predictable fights like World Bosses, I am in favor of it.
These are just my thoughts on the Campfire Chat topics. Hope this feedback helps.