Outline added, May 2. (incorporates feedback)
THE PROBLEM:
- Natural power progression means maxed-out glyphs.
- Glyph leveling is confined to one type of activity:
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- this one activity becomes extremely tedious very quickly.
- A contributor to this extreme tedium is the allocation of xp at the stand:
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- it feels unsatisfying because you donât see results for âlevelsâ 1-14 and 16-20⌠theyâre fake;
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- this makes the preceding NMD runs feel like a waste of time⌠and the actual effort of manually clicking xp into the glyph feels like a waste of time. (Psychology!)
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- placebo of âfakeâ levels between 1 & 15 and between 15 & 21 only works superficially. (Psychology!)
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- In practical terms, glyphs should be leveled up sequentially during the 50-100 window, almost at the exclusion of other activities, for efficiency:
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- so thereâs no practical avoidance of this tedium;
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- donât bother telling us to frolic.
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A SOLUTION:
- Move glyph xp from glyphs to glyph nodes:
- the xp is persistent: if the board is removed, the xp stays, it just gets âpausedâ;
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- VERSION ONE (minimal): glyph node xp still confined to NMDâs & the like (e.g. The Pit), but is gained passively from killing mobs & the completion bonus;
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- VERSION TWO (bold): glyph nodes passively gain xp in any activity that grants xp (kill the fomo), but reduced rate outside NMDâs & the like (e.g. The Pit).
- Change the UI accordingly:
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- get rid of the stand (it florking sucks and is probably holding you back creatively);
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- on-screen ding alerts at 15 and 21;
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- on NMD completion (assuming a chunk of glyph node xp for completion) glyph node xp progress bars fade in & out on-screen - but only in dungeons;
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- point to a glyph node to see its progress;
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- get creative with color schemes, pulsing filaments connecting glyph nodes, distinct from the trail of activated nodes, etc.
- get creative with color schemes, pulsing filaments connecting glyph nodes, distinct from the trail of activated nodes, etc.
- If VERSION TWO⌠Make NMDâs & the like (e.g. The Pit) the âtotally bestestâ source for this xp (so NMDâs stay in the mix);
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- NMD monster scaling/density makes them optimal for leveling anyway;
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- start dropping duplicate glyphs in NMDâs⌠pickup = bonus glyph node xp (credit MageCraft):
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- make these auto-pickup ofc, unlike surplus construct stones in S3.
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- (retire the blue glyphs).
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- A glyph node could start gaining xp from the time itâs activated⌠OR:
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- a glyph node could start gaining xp from the time the board is attached (this is where âfilamentsâ communicate whatâs going on);
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- add a moderate glyph node xp bonus for each additional board attached.
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- âfilamentsâ pulse a bit more intensely? âŚcolor shift?
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- Add a mechanism (repeatable questline?) which rewards a transfer of a level 21 glyph nodeâs full xp to an under-21 glyph node:
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- this benefits alt builds;
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- make this reward repeatable, stackable, and usable account-wide (benefits alt characters);
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- could be a unique/legendary mat, is placed in materials inventory;
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- only a level 21 glyph node is eligible for âdrainingâ this way, and itâs drained completely;
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- a dormant/unused glyph node is also eligible to receive the xp transfer.
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- possible candidate: T4 strongholds ⌠could act as a soft cap, slightly incentivizing players to level up alts for the âglyph node resetâ reward if they use it up⌠& restores the utility of strongholds;
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- â T4 strongholds are now âsouped-upâ, possibly level 154+ mobs, etc.
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- â in T4, an already-completed stronghold has the option to reset (via NPC on the outskirts?), yielding a âsouped-upâ version of the stronghold;
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- â âsouped-upâ strongholds can be completed once per character;
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- possible candidate: sigil affix (upon completion)
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- â maybe T100 only;
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- â boooriiiiing.
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- reward mat could be a fragment⌠combining 3 fragments yields the cost of transfer;
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- 15 strongholds â upto 5 transfers earned per character;
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- Sigil route = infinitely repeatable per character.
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WHAT IT SOLVES:
- Disrupts the tedium, with smoother NMD runs that let us at least skip the stand () if not venture more into the game world with less fomo ().
- Removes the mind-numbing & time-wasting ritual of manually âfake-leveling up a glyphâ for literally no result over and over and over⌠until that one time we get âresultâ. Itâs like the worst day in Vegas⌠times 2⌠times 6 or 7⌠plus alt builds⌠times however many characters you level up in a season. (Psychology!)
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- also removes: interacting with the stand every run, manual allocation of glyph xp every run, tracking unequipped glyphs, planning glyph xp distribution, fretting over glyph selection, etc. (Psychology!)
- Encourages build experimentation (since glyphs are now more swappable).
- Will inspire me to max out⌠gulp⌠4 or 5 characters/builds per season without dying of boredom! (seriously, glyph fatigue is what stands in my way)
WHAT IT DOES NOT DO:
- Does NOT make NMDâs obsolete (see above).
- Does NOT (necessarily) speed up âglyphâ leveling, since âglyph node xp rateâ, just like âglyph xp rateâ, is calibrated separately from other xp sources, and can be slowed down or sped up arbitrarily;
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- the point is to reduce tedium (see above).
- Does NOT remove depth (whatâs âdeepâ about clicking a stand monsieur?)
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- may even spawn new & bizarre leveling builds, since glyphs are more swappable.
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- may even spawn subtle new in-build variants for different encounters, since glyphs are more swappable.
WHAT IT ADDS THATâS TRULY NEW:
- An intuitive, hassle-free system for prepping paragon boards for alt builds, which also benefits alt characters.
- A âcomfortable middleâ between the status quo & making glyph levels account-wide.
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Original post (ignore)
Glyph leveling is dispiriting. I suggested before that leveling up glyphs should work like skill points or paragon points: store up the xp for me & let me distribute it at my leisure from wherever (get rid of the stand). This is a no-brainer imo, and only needs a UI tweak.
But the glyph leveling itself is mind-numbing. While the devs think of ways to make it interesting (adding ways to level up glyphs, adding glyph xp bonuses etc) hereâs a basic idea which I think would help fix the underlying problem: level up glyph nodes instead of glyphs.
Make it so when I unlock a glyph node, from that point onward - regardless of what other sources of xp or xp bonuses you implement - the glyph node itself is gaining âglyph node xpâ & leveling up. This frees up your imagination for endgame activities that are useful to us. You want us to focus slightly more on NMD for âglyph node levelingâ? Thatâs where âbonus glyph node xpâ comes in. Maybe even as a sigil affix.
A glyph node dings 15? Have an alert pop up. A glyph node dings 21? Have an alert pop up. Want to see level-up progress of a node? Point to it. It should show a progress bar in the info pane. Easy.
It does NOT feel rewarding or a good use of time to pump up each glyph manually, the xp always feels like Iâve wasted my time, and feels worse for having forced me into a NMD loop. You want us to do other activities more often? Hereâs an easy way to diversify our grind, even before you expand the endgame. Iâd still do NMDâs for the xp bonuses, âglyph node xpâ bonuses(*), +chance for unique drops, etc. - whatever you can think up. But Iâd be doing other activities without the casual-gamer dread of âshortchanging my glyphs if Iâm doing anything other than NMDsâ.
I think this is a no-brainer at this point.
WHAT ABOUT WHEN I SWITCH OUT PARAGON BOARDS & THEN SWITCH BACK? The game should preserve the level of the re-implemented boardâs node. Easy.
IT WILL ALTER MIN-MAX STRATEGIES ON MAXROLL! Yes, but that happens anyway every season & even mid-season. This way thereâs no more need to juggle leveling order of glyphs, as all glyphs are now equal - only the node-leveling order matters. This should make for slightly more streamlined, less tedious (some of them) guide strategies.
(* âGlyph node xp bonusesâ would add stealth diversification to the grind. Right now, the balance of paragon-to-glyph grind is arbitrary & depends on playstyle. Some dev thought this was a good way to steer us into âactivity lanesâ, and it sucks balls. Bad dev. More is better: by letting our grind decisions also extend to âglyph nodesâ, you give us the freedom to diversify our playstyle. Incentivize me to do NMDs, for example, if I want to âboostâ glyph(node) xp rate. Donât lock glyph(node) xp itself behind a specific activity: itâs too core to character progression/power for such lane mentality. Thatâs just bad game design. But itâs easy to fix.)