The question was framed in a way like… are you thinking of additional aspirational content that most people won’t mind not doing or cannot do as it requires lots and lots of grinding. His answer referred to AoZ being that and being a success because it started late in season and they warned people of it’s difficulties. But, I think he omitted the real key why it wasn’t a negative experience for most people…
To me AoZ was OK in principle and doing it or not doing it did NOT matter to what else I could do in game. Yes, you level a glyph higher, but at level 1 or 10 or 20, it made little to 0 difference on my ability to clear every other content in game (except it was only mandator to progress in AoZ). So, I did about 10-20 aoz runs, got my glyphs to level 10 and was OK with stopping. To me, that satisfied the definition of aspirational content. HOWEVER…
If AoZ provided something that I could not get anywhere else easily or offered a much more efficient way of getting it, such as higher IP drops, or higher stat rolls, or say if you pass anything over aoz 15, u get 3-4 duri sets or higher chance at uber unique - then it would not be aspirational content, but just a real hard mandatory content, that you felt that you had to do, or u’d miss out on the best items in the game.
So, as long as AoZ, or other things like weekly speed things stay as is, to fill this definition of aspirational content, I am all for it, but as soon as it becomes mandatory in order to get more power, then it’s no longer aspirational , but semi mandatory and it enters a very different arena.
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AoZ just added another layer of borrowed power - poor design.
Add challenges without the need for another layer of BS. For example they have a ‘Stronghold’ system that is pretty cool but effectively forgotten about. Just mega-buff one of those each week, or add more Uber bosses into the game.
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AoZ is good idea but they executed it poorly. They showcased a broken and bugged Ball Lightning Build which is just a major no no. If you showcase it then you balanced for it. Balancing AoZ on a broken bugged build is not something you should ever do and its part of the reason AoZ was so brutal on other builds. There was only a handful of builds that could do anything in it esp at the first before nerfs.
I can’t help but want to ask… What is an “AoZ”?
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They have The Pit, NMD’s and Gauntlet why do they need another end game dungeon system exactly? They would be far better just adding more depth to what they already have.
Where the game is lacking is character development, boss encounters and social systems. The last thing we need is yet another end game dungeon system to compete with what already exists.
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the gauntlet can be easily improved by varying the difficulty week to week, so many different people can ‘win’ with different buolds.
so can the pit, if they scale it enough so after 150, it becomes more like aoz 20, then it gives people goal… it doesnt have to be attainable in this season or the next 5 seasons… just eventually
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Abattoir of Zir. It was a random endgame dungeon in season 1 that rewarded a special glyph. The dungeon and the glyph are gone now.
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To add a little more detail to what Kalam mentioned above, it’s been the hardest content to date so far in the game. Pits and Lvl 200 bosses may beat it though. They actually encouraged people to bring their best broken builds at the time and didn’t expect anyone would be able to complete all 25 tiers.
As any dev knows though, players not only know how to break your game, but will go to great lengths to complete everything in it too. The glyph exp was amazing in AoZ but it was also designed for the glyph that you could literally level up 210 times. The glyph itself just got increasingly more powerful to help you in the highest tiers of AoZ.
It had mixed feelings when it came out. Some loved it, some hated it, others like myself were indifferent to it. It was definitely built for the more die hard crowd.
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No one made a rift higher than level 150 for many seasons and we were fine with that. And it had a power reward. The content is at level 160 or 200 doesn’t matter. Not all buildings will make 200 and not all players even with the best build. That’s how it should be
From the standpoint of Reward-first ?, yeah, was a good one, don’t think their model of designing and introducing difficulty in game fits though
I get it, they want to introduce something new (and they have in D4), but monster HP scaling is just not it, let it rot
