I have a differing perspective on what makes this game a disappointment - underwhelming combat and lack of challenge. A popular issue is lack of reward/progression, which is valid as well. Ideally big changes would address these issues but true to recent form for Blizzard you have to aim lower - it takes them a lot of time to implement even seemingly basic things despite Diablo IV being a recently released live service game that initially sold well.
So how about loot with abilities at later levels that is both a power spike and an expansion of combat? Kind of like the boots with the ice effect except active rather than passive with some creative thinking involved? Maybe some of these items could be the reward of a specific set of challenges while others would drop randomly. To accommodate the extra power the environment should be tuned up, which would in part coincide with a coming World Tier V. Seasons provide a perfect ground for experimentation aimed at advancing the game.
Would need more skill slots to make this viable. Would hate to have to choose an ability found on an item over an ability I get through the skill tree.
It’s already bad enough to find good gear with good legendary aspects. Now we need to find good affix on top of good aspects with good abilities? No thanks. Less RNG is better.
Imo there should simply be one extra skill slot specifically for item skills.
Then have skills on items in a similar way to how Grim Dawn does it imo. Oh, and the skills should not be existing class skills, that reduces class identity. Skills from items should be new skills.
What would be more interesting however, is introducing the rune system Blizzard showed early on for Diablo 4. It was basically “design your own skills” with its trigger and effect system.
It has Malignant Hearts… Brutal, Devious, Vicious and Wrathful.
That’s Penitent Greaves. It belongs to a Non-Class Specific Uniques that when you added to your build, it changes it into something different.
Uniques on this Category are: Temerity, Frostburn, Fists of Fate, Razorplate, Butcher’s Cleave and Mother’s Embrace.
And there are Seasonal Uniques. For Necromancers, it’s the Lidless Wall Shield. It allows us to fill the whole screen with Bonestorms around 5 at a time… continuously unlimited as long as there are new mobs to hit. I call it Advance Hammerdin.
Strictly speaking you don’t need to find anything. It’s a reward and something to pursue. You can play with different things.
Too conservative. No need for a limitation short of four imo (could also invigorate PvP, which is supposed to be an aspect of the game [some of these additional abilities should be movement-based]). As much as I disrespect gamers I’m a believer that treating people like total idiots in game design - like this game does imo - is the wrong and less rewarding way to go for everyone involved.
Correct. There probably will be some level of overlap.
What is this? Might be too ambitious or a long term project at this point but I’m very curious about this description.
Active abilities rather than passive effects?
Again, passive versus active. The point is to expand what a player does, not what background effects do. These extra abilities can come on top of the existing layers.
Among them, is the return of runes and runewords, an item upgrade system that Diablo 2 popularized.
No surprise there.
Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo 4 will feature two types of runes:
Condition Runes
Effect Runes
The two rune types will only work in tandem, combining a condition rune with an effect rune resulting in Diablo 4’s take on runewords. The way they were described to work is fairly simple. The condition rune determines when the effect rune activates.
For example, combining the Fal rune which activates the next rune when a pet dies with the Thul rune which gives you a barrier that protects the user from 500 damage will result in a runeword that grants you a protective barrier that absorbs 500 damage every time one of your pets dies.
Here’s another example of a result:
When you freeze an enemy, reduce a random skill cooldown by 15%.
In practice, Runewords in Diablo 4 essentially act as an enchantment of sorts, granting an item of the player’s choice an extra desired effect on top of those that the item already comes with.
One, this is either something they scrapped or simply cut to the chase and inserted the effects directly. There are probably analogous item aspects. Two, this is on the passive side. It’s almost like there’s a Diablo design philosophy that bakes power into the system rather than giving it to the player. I think that’s a bizarre choice.
There are Basic Skill, Core Skill, 3 Class Specific Skills and 1 Ultimate. There are 4x Active Skills to choose from Basic Skill. There are 5x Active Skills to choose from Core Skill. There are 9x Active Skills to choose from Class Specific Skills and 3x Active Skills to choose from Ultimate. There are like 21x Active Skills per Class and you want more? How about play another Class to experience a different set of Active Skills?
I know we can only use 6 Active Skills at a time becoz of limitation of Keyboard/mouse controls/console controls. Playing 6 Active skills is enough.
In World of WarCraft, I have like 40 buttons but I only use around 6 buttons most of the time.
I’ve felt this way too, and then I changed my build and the combat was way better. It really is class and build specific. Some are just more fun than others. Adding more actives might be cool but that’s not really Diablo.
Are you like taking some Diablo IV quiz or something? The game is mind-numbingly simple, and even among the four ability slots you get many that are active-passive. It’s not unusual for gameplay to be basically about one core ability. This game is an insult to its players and you’re rattling off some ability names and numbers to prove what fallacies are?
Here’s the reality. The game is failing because at its core it’s stupid. It’s stupidly designed. What needs to happen is for people to take their heads out of their heinies and realize that Diablo II is older than many of Diablo IV’s players. Those were simpler and gasp bygone times. People need to finally grow up and stop treating ancient games like their goshdarn daddies who substituted for their real daddies who went for a pack of smokes and forgot to come back.
One, please take a picture of your keyboard and post it. Two, have you heard of World of Warcraft? There are literally mice with 12 buttons on one side of them, let alone keyboards that contain the entire English alphabet, plus the ten digits, plus F keys, plus operators, and like a few other buttons. Three, apparently through the use of toggle buttons there is no 4-6 active skills limitation on consoles. If consoles present an enormous headache you do something else for them and stick to your PC roots.
The f… you can use more, you know?
In case anyone is wondering, this is the mindset I was referring to earlier in this comment.
What’s worse? The “this is tradition on how the game is played” or “I’m a young boy and I want the game, with a long history, to conform to what I want it to play like instead of playing a different game that already caters to my wants.”
What is the failure? That you’re 34 and still get this upset over videogames? Or the bonecrushing entitlement you feel is necessary to enjoy such games?
D4 is designed/made for consoles. FYI. There would be no D4 if they would only make D4 for PC only. Big corporations wont finance a game with limited market.
And BTW, mouse with 12 buttons. Really? Do you memorize 12 abilities on your finger… or 60+ keys on keyboard. When you do Mythic Raid, you have under a second to react. Figuring out which of your 12 buttons or 60 keys to use would always kill you on that game. Stop being stupid. You only need few buttons.
D2 has just left mouse button and right mouse button. And WoW Classic, you spam only 1 button. And they were great back then.
Fair enough but keep in mind, Diablo is a particular game. So is PoE, Grim Dawn, Titan Quest, etc… asking for an entire revamp to the tradition of Diablo and the four ability slots is going to lead nowhere.
I suggest trying different builds and if your extraordinary mind and cognitive acuity is found to be underutilized, you might need to move to a game that is a little more engaging and challenging.
You’re not revamping anything. You’re adding onto it, which is what you should have done in the 20 freaking years since Diablo II. You are nowhere right now.
Dog, I already play “my build” on rogue with one core and two agility skills with one imbuement. I have seen what other builds on rogue and other characters are. The situation ain’t good.
As much as i loathe consoles they single handedly saved PC video games
PC’s were becoming to expensive and complicated so most casuals didnt waste time or money on them.
consoles were cheap and EZ to use so a large % of customers with money were suddenly avaliable.
That console money is what allows us to have PC games, even if alot are just ports based on lesser equipment and functionality
Yes there are likely dedicated studios that make oustanding PC games but even those due to economics have to port/design their games with the console in mind.
console money is just to big to ignore or walk away from.
