Am I the only one who’s dissatisfied or annoyed that in an already basic and frankly simplistic game from an actual gameplay rather than pretentious “theorycrafting” perspective like this one I have to dedicate at least one of only four available slots to an ability that amounts to nothing more than an obligatory button press every x seconds? For example, I play Rogue. There’s an Imbuement node that seems essential. However, all it does is apply an effect on the next two other skill uses.
The fundamental problem of this game is that it’s boring. The combat is boring, the difficulty is boring, and the progression is boring. Most people seem to focus on the third aspect but the other two are very much present and arguably more significant, imo. The Diablo team seems terribly challenged in design and execution so something like this - Loot with Abilities? - may be too much to ask for. So why not tap deeper into the existing skill tree? No need to add extra slots and abilities to the game, just do what you’re good at and bake stuff into the game to open up more space for more exciting things. Tie it into itemization progression/reward/chase.
So how this would work is that on Legendary or Unique items, maybe starting at the Sacred or Ancestral tier, in addition to an aspect there would occasionally be a proficiency (or whatever). This proficiency would constitute the unlocking of an ability as well as x number of ability points exclusive to that particular part of the skill tree. The ability pool would be comprised of abilities that lend themselves to what is essentially auto-casting. The Imbuement proficiencies would simply auto-imbue weapons every 13 seconds. This will open up a number of more exciting or additional choices on the available slots.
Adjustments may/would need to be done around this but that’s what the job is, and it should be exciting. Perhaps Diablo IV is boring because its designers and developers themselves are bored. One objection would be that by tapping deeper into the skill tree you reduce the number of distinct combinations. That is true, but the far more pressing problem is that each combination is too shallow. The game is not fun to play and it needs to become funner if it is to turn its fortunes around. Get to working on actual core aspects of this game (e.g. proceed to expand the tree or make more interesting items independently that people can both look forward to and actually improve the game [active component implied, in case that is still unclear - players play the game, not your background math]) rather than wondering what marginal things you can waste your times on. The clock is ticking, and saving stuff for expansions is only something your dumb glorified bean counters would think is a great idea.
The devs tried to address this, but it was a swing and a miss. There are many Legendary aspects which encourage you to think about your button presses. Unfortunately, they’re all mostly useless.
I’m sure they’ll take another swing at again at some point.
They aren’t counting beans, they’re counting $$$. If saving stuff for the expansion makes the most $$$, then that is what they’ll do.
It doesn’t matter if you or I like it or not, if it works it works.
The point here is ability displacement. As long as these lame to use abilities can be delegated to automation without significant loss of utility the real effect is that players will be able to insert more exciting or dynamic to use abilities into their gameplay. For instance, if I could have an Imbuement go onto an item then I can use Smoke Grenade to temporarily negate a clump of dangerous ranged monsters or elites, pick an Ultimate, or use Blade Shift as a second Basic ability along with its enhancements. h ttps://d4builds.gg/skill-trees/rogue/ Dark Shroud could also be easily automated.
The Rogue I play uses Invigorating Strike, Flurry, Shadow Step, Dash, Caltrops, and Cold Imbuement. Relatively speaking it’s quite dynamic but the gameplay is still very simple and repetitive. There are standard builds like Pulverize Druid and HOTA Barbarian that are a disgrace to all of gaming, reducing players to more or less slamming the ground like incensed demented monkeys for hours on end. This idea has the potential to change or ameliorate that. By opening up space for more dynamic abilities opponents can in turn be made more challenging and dynamic. This is the sort of thing that affects the game at its core where it’s presently deficient, costly so.
This is the sort of fallacious bean counter logic that leads to worse products. The primary appeal of expansions is traditional content - the world getting bigger, more story, characters, monsters, dungeons, levels, etc. A game players already like has no problems selling an expansion, not to mention stands to make more during the “live service” seasonal content phase. A game players already are soured on, as well as the people behind it, treads on more precarious ground. That is why you improve the game aggressively. Only the weak and stupid - and those whose knowledge is limited to money - think they’re clever by holding back a sub-par product.
At the end of the day, the goal is abilities that aren’t lame to use. If they made the current abilities not lame to use, (which seems like what they’re going for) it will do the same thing as moving the current abilities aside and replacing them with ones that aren’t lame to use.
Truth.
If worse products sale just as well as good products, why spend the time and resources to make them better? Until aggressively improving games because a requirement to make money, there is no reason to do it.
Not quite. The other goals are relative ease of implementation and involving itemization that ties into reward and progression. I have no idea what you’re referring to in terms of them trying to transform a bunch of abilities into more engaging versions. I’m not even sure how realistic that is. Perhaps you’re reading too much into some things.
Except they often don’t. Diablo IV initially sold well because people didn’t really know what to expect and were buying the name as much as anything. As you have seen since then perception has swerved dramatically into the negative, and interest in the game has plummeted.
So, fun skills and rewarding itemization are your goals. Got it.
Icy Alchemist’s Aspect, Toxic Alchemist’s Aspect, Aspect of Unstable Imbuements, Aspect of Noxious Ice. All of these aspects encourage you to mindfully push your imbuement skills. They just didn’t work. I think it is more likely that they’ll make changes to these aspects than it is to automate imbuement skills.
Negative perceptions and plummeted interest are metrics that may lead to plummeting profits, but logically, are not the same thing as profits.
Lucky Hit: Damaging a Chilled or Frozen enemy with a Shadow Imbued Skill has up to a 75% chance to release an explosion that deals [9 - 3,629] Cold damage to the target and surrounding enemies, Chilling them for 25%. (Rogue Only)
Lucky Hit: Damaging a Poisoned enemy with a Shadow Imbued Skill has up to a 75% chance to create a toxic explosion that applies [4 - 1,452] Poisoning damage over 5 seconds to the target and surrounding enemies. (Rogue Only)
When casting an Imbuement Skill you trigger an explosion around yourself, applying the Imbuement effects and dealing [11 - 4,990] damage of the same type. (Rogue Only)
Chilled enemies Poisoned by Poison Imbuement will be further Chilled for 20% per second. You deal [14 - 29]% additional Poison damage to Frozen enemies. (Rogue Only)
My reading of most of these - I had encountered the first one and thought the same thing then - is that they are practical if you’re combining Imbuements. If another ability applies another effect, e.g. Poison Trap, you won’t be running Shadow Imbuement ahead of Poison Imbuement. So I would argue these aspects were anything but an attempt to transform these abilities into something more active. Indeed, my interpretation of them is that they passively reinforce exceptionally lame builds with multiple Imbuements taking up slots. They basically add damage onto damage modifying a single Core skill. The spirit of this is in the opposite direction of what I strive for. I envision mobility and other interesting abilities with utility being the primary beneficiary of what I suggest, but active damage of a different ability is also better than this passive stacking. Ultimate abilities would benefit as well.
I think Blizzard are receptive to putting two and two together by this point. They can ignore their name being dragged through the mud only for so long.