Ideas for making Combat less braindead

PC General Discussion
41

Yah I agree here. I thnk the answer is more powerful skills that have high cooldowns. I was a huge fan of archon. Its shame sorcs dont have that.

I would up the skill bar to at least 7 with 1 reserved for ultimate. Even 8 would be useful but we need powerful skills with cooldowns to slot into those.

42

It’s very doubtful that they’ll allow more skills to be mapped due to the console crossover. There’s only 8 inputs on a controller, so you get six skills plus evade and health pot.

There are methods that could be used to expand the skill mapping (hold RT to change the function of the four primary buttons, for example), but I don’t see Blizzard going there. And that’s OK, IMO. In a faster paced game like this, I personally don’t want or need 20 options. Managing four or five cooldowns is plenty as it is, and having multiple spenders is relatively pointless given typical resource restraints and the fact that the game design incentivizes specialization.

43

Remapping retains the inputs while multiplying the outputs. The ideas I discuss are beyond toggle buttons. The pace of the game is meant to be retained. You don’t get 20 options at the same time, you get cycled groups of relatively few options. I did not consider it necessary to involve this “builder spender” thing and cooldowns are for the most part not necessary either. You’re thinking within the framework of what exists, which is typical.

44

With their design of combat, boss mechanics are pretty limited.

  • Don’t stand in puddle to avoid damage
  • Stand in puddle to avoid damage
  • Avoid homing missles and run in circles evading periodically
  • Avoid pizza slices
  • Hide behind pillars for big attacks
  • Kill adds
  • Move adds to certain spot to kill them
  • Evade big telgraphed boss attacks
  • Get X stacks of a debuff to avoid wipe attack
  • Do high damage to Stagger boss to avoid wipe or big attack
  • Break out of prison or use unstoppable
  • Destroy portals or blood boils to prevent being overwhelmed or big damage
  • Memorize sequences to take bubbles
  • Follow animation cues for movement to avoid attacks
    Etc.

There is A LOT of depth they can add, but have not. They should take a cue from Lost Ark in this department. The only things you cannot do in D4 are:

  • Counter Attacks to create stagger windows or avoid big damage
  • Stagger to prevent wipes or big damage (Stagger works differently in LA and is more controllable)
  • Weakpoint damage to open up attack windows

The biggest issue preventing D4 from having any meaningful mechanics however is that Bosses can be 1 shot which is ABSOLUTELY BANANAS. Boss fights shouldn’t be 10 minute battles of attritition but should at least be 2-4 minutes long.

One of the ways LA achieves this is by having multiple health bars for bosses and having triggers at varying points. This would be a great way of handling it and scaling Bosses appropriately. Also, I would like to see Stagger actually being a viable alternative Boss strategy.

Herp derp spam Overpower Crits is just dumb.

1 Like
45

I’m guessing they’ll have more interesting boss fights, especially with an expansion now only a couple of seasons away. The skill twig will get a little spruced up as well. Not big thinking, however.

46

I wasn’t commenting on your idea. I’m not actually very interested in your ideas, sorry. I was replying to the expressed desire for more skill selections in the current system.

47

You may not be interested in my ideas but I’m interested in your criticisms. My ideas tend to develop in part based on criticism. Case in point, my ideas have multiple advantages over more skill selections in the current system. Keep in mind people like you are not very imaginative and can’t be expected to move things forward. This genre is due for a move forward.

48

Yuck. Cooldowns suck.

I think the thing that would make combat better is more engaging environments and monster actions. Thus certain skills and items can be better in certain situations, and not ideal in others. This makes ypu make interesting choices, especially when these engaging things come together in unexpected ways.

1 Like
49

I would have loved more MMO/social elements, but at this point it’s clear that is not what they were going for. They want us to play with others yet have very few reasons and/or ways to do so other than randomly seeing people out in the world.

As time goes on I realize I just wanted a Diablo MMO more than anything. Player housing would be cool in a Diablo game, but not Diablo 4 that is extremely unsocial.

50

Yeah, so one of the reasons I’m not that interested in your ideas is that you have this habit of casually insulting anyone who doesn’t acknowledge how amazing they are. “People like you are unimaginative” and all that (as if you’re in any position to know). That sort of arrogant conduct strictly limits my interest in seriously engaging with you or your ideas. In that sense, I feel that I’ve erred by commenting on this thread, the purpose of which after all is to discuss your ideas. Therefore, I apologize for posting something irrelevant here. Have a nice day.

51

I don’t think you understand what serious engagement means. I accept your apology, and wish you a nice day as well.