Can we take a moment to appreciate how in tune this guy is with the community?
Sure the livestream was cool. Ya the DIV team is making good moves.
But when Colin said, “We took a step back look at the paragon nodes… like f-ing potion healing” I felt HEARD.
Ok- I deleted a topic draft yesterday, because I wanted to make sure I understood what was being said. It was Colin on ‘Systems’ Q&A point #1 (51:40):
…ton of feedback from the PTR, and we took a look at Paragon. That was one of the bigger changes that we made, where we capped the boards …we feel like that gives us a lot more space to increase the power of each of these boards, and make the choice more about “what is the board you’re looking for”.
So what we’ve done here is, we’ve added a bunch of Normal nodes… to upgrade that Legendary glyph radius. It’s kinda sad: there weren’t actually a lot of nodes to flesh it out and, sort of, build up that Paragon - that extra glyph range that you’re gonna get from upgrading it to Legendary… we’ve added around 8 to every board… starting board… 12.
(emphasis added)
I stopped listening right there because I was a bit dumbfounded. Live stream still paused.
(Coincidentally, the recent changes to Paragon touch on 2-3 elements I’ve been vocal about…)
But
That last one touches on the whole philosophy, as reinforced by Colin’s answer to systems Q&A point #1: systems are being shaped by a lackadaisical approach that tries to “manage” individual balance problems rather than being guided by a strong overall vision.
HOW, if ‘dusty cellar’ Paragon is where base attribute-tinkering is stuck, and HOW, if multiplicative dmg on glyphs remains top dog (despite supposed shift to “board power”) did the PTR build end up having ‘not enough’ Normal nodes to reflect the increased Legendary radius that’s supposed to showcase this fundamental redesign (since Colin agrees with this feedback apparently)?
How does a fundamental revamp to a system have such a fundamental ‘oversight’?
Two overlapping answers seem reasonable to me:
Also compatible with ‘staffing issues’ ofc, but that’s the charitable angle.
Note: the clues are in multiple system designs… this impression is an overall impression. It’s bigger than Paragon.
Limiting the boards and giving more points at same times is bewildering. They have no idea how to actually balance paragon and instead put this bandaid limiter in place. Then they made them completely over the top busted in PTR and then nerfed then 50% after. They are just making this stuff up. They need a real gameplan and roadmap to make progress on this in a meaningful way that does not limit player choice like just remove glyphs from boards and redo the whole thing in a new way with glyphs a separate system.
I’m pretty sure a Paragon 2.0 is on the way. The recent changes go against the original intent of the Paragon Boards - freedom. By limiting them, the boards are becoming more of a copy-paste build template. It’s a shame because I really enjoyed creating my own Paragon Board layouts. Maybe I’m in the minority, though.
ya, colin is awesome. always has a smart and informed perspective to share whenever he talks on streams. smart and talented guy
He swore a couple of times, it was pretty funny each time.
Punchy and to the point.
Colin has the affect & diction of a knowledgeable, on-top-of-it guy. I think it helps brand perception.
What’s the “f-ing potion healing” doing there in the first place, Systems Lead? How did it make it past 1st review internally, onto PTR?
(One of many hilarious discoveries players & Colin will make on this journey, apparently arm-in-arm.)
Oh but… he swore!
This was one of my first questions when he said this. What led to Healing Potion appearing on the Paragon boards in the first place? I said this on Discord as I was watching. When the game first came out, this made more sense (not much more sense, but still, more sense). Now that the game has evolved past that slower-paced format they originally envisioned, potion healing now makes zero sense.
Just remember that Colin is also the guy who said “we want to give eternal players something to do” and shortly after it was revealed that all eternal gear is going to be nerfed out of existence.
He is also the guy who said “Get Gud” for the shadow bosses in pits that were one shotting players.
He may “get it” on some things, but he can also give us some good kicks where it hurts, and for no good reason.
Eh… I mean… some of that is about attitude.
I’m more interested in competence. There’s a product, and there’re the people working on it. Do they understand their product? Are they the best people to be working on it? When you get down to nuts and bolts, the right questions are pretty easy.
So they are giving you something to do by having you re-farm all your gear. Both statements are clearly adding up here. 
Noooooo… nooo… no feels. 
Competence only. Feels is how chitty systems stay chitty.
Ok, I don’t see a more appropriate place to put this…
(2:21:55) …Party Finder was originally a discussion that we had for how to support the Dark Citadel… but it is now benefiting all the other activities in the game as well.
They first discussed a party finder only once Citadel was under development. Not when they first added Uber bosses + boss mats on rotation. Not when people clamored for a more practical way to form pugs. Oh ok then.