As we could see lately there turned out to be quite a few debates inspired by the Dev-Update stream/campfire for S8, so will try to give my personal feedback to the biggest problems (IMO) with the game and probably easiest ways to improve
First of all, what kind of player am I ?, if I were to define myself I hate the farm and I like the challenge… I want to unlock the harder stuff as early as possible even when undergeared if need be… That’s my “take” not just with D4 as a game but with all of them (LE, PoE2, e.t.c.)… I want to progress faster than the “loot” catches up with power
So that being said what I hate ?, the opposite, whenever the game goes into a “stalemate” mode for long times (i.e. can’t progress until “insert powerspike X” happens)
For example I barely played S7 but noticed something, when unlocking T3 at Paragon 130 you get one-shot, go back to T2 you one-shot everything and barely anything scratches you… Ok, I get it, that’s a scaling issue, but still => ISSUE
That being said, balance is not the only problem, but in general the gameplay-design of type what I like to call “accumulation of power time sinkers” is a big NO
Again, not talking about everyone, just talking about me, therefore some other people but probably not all. This also means that I hate all the “forced grind” with D4
What is a “forced grind” in D4 ?, well first and foremost the system/s of
- Glyph upgrading
- Masterwork
BOTH of those need some kind of a revisit/rework (at least IMO)
Keep in mind that there will be periods where the Glyph requires another IDK 20 levels to a next upgrade, and MW will require say 3 NMD runs or 2 Horde runs to do another “roll”…
Now, THAT is what I hate, being stuck in spot and having to “grind” to unlock a reward… In general my personal opinion is that:
- Rewards should come with a surprise (of sorts)
Not always but rewards should be surprising, they should feel like, whoa, look at that, I can use this for my X, or Y, or Z, whatever… A “reward” should never come with a FINALLY, DAMN IT “that took forever” reaction/thought
The other part (which I’ve talked about like 20 times already) is => replace as much of those TODO’s with something that just happens inherently by playing the game (i.e. reduce the “wild goose chase” for acquisition of X, Y, Z material or X, Y, Z resource)
I GET that the game is designed that way, but unless reworking MW, stray away from that “separate lane for every acquisition” at least more somewhat
Now that I talked about the PROBLEMS, let’s talk about potential solutions (or relatively easy solutions) so to speak
1 => You cut/sped-up Glyph leveling to Pit 50, well why not just cut the Glyph max level to 50 instead ?, again, why the long “accumulation of power” source… In meantime can (and frankly IMO should) develop a new type of Socket (call it an Ornament or whatever) that can go into both Gear and Paragon, and on lvl50 unlock a Socket in the Glyph
- The impact ? => Instead of being forced to “grind” 10-15 more levels until a next Glyph or Lege-Node (or whatever impactful unlock) to “proceed” into the “next phase”, can allow people to experiment and try things out on the run (EVEN BEFORE the “unlock”)
A couple examples:
- Item that hosts this socket (or adjacent Rare nodes) gain +5% damage vs Elites per every 20 points of Strength on them
- Item that hosts this socket (or adjacent nodes) gain additional 5% potency of any kind (LH, OP, Crit) if they also affect a Physical-damage multiplier
e.t.c.
THAT will feel more interesting than… Gee, I need to play 3 more hours to gain 15 more paragon levels so I can gain (again, remember the reaction from above ?) “physical damage vs close enemies is increased [x ] 25%” and then FINALLY, DAMN IT, go further
2 => Rework MW… There are 20 Mats in the game already, think of a random Offensive, Defensive, and Utility stat for each Material, and have some “recipes” based on those… For example:
- Abtruse Sygil:
** Fire damage, Damage over Time, Fortify generation, Life on Kill - Obducite:
** Physical damage, Armor, Lightning resist and Max. Lightning resist - Tormented Soul:
** Non-Physical damage, Vulnerable damage, Barrier generation, RCR
e.t.c…
There are like 20 Mats in the game ALREADY, use them to make a more flexible system instead of:
- Play a NMD
- Gather Obducite
- RNG
Don’t do those… Don’t do the “reward-based” game design, it is bad and it is exhausting or boring, or both
Perhaps the question might be, what of NMD usage when MW becomes a less of a thing then ?, well => that’s where “surprises” come from
- A butcher that casts Firewall that drops a +3/4/5 to Firewall
- A big Khazra dude that casts Blizzard that drops a +3/4/5 to Blizzard
- A bunch of Gorgers that drop each can drop an item/socket that empowers a skill that they use (be it charge, be it leap, be it Upheaval)
e.t.c.
You get the idea:
- LESS Strength (in fact remove most of that “strength” as much as possible) and MORE Int (that’s where the “surprises” and “playing around with sockets” comes from), at the cost of less “raw power” gain overall
Other things and other sorts of feedback CAN BE useful (not that I’m saying not) BUT chances are they’re gonna be either an OVERKILL or miss the mark
Skill Tree is fine… It is the PARAGON and MW that suck (A LOT)… Same with Itemization, can it be improved ?, sure, but it is the Sockets that are just too “strict” and too “raw”
Yes, you can still offer “dumb and strong” builds to people, but ALLOW US to get (and experiment with) exactly what we want (don’t force or single-file everyone of us to HAVING TO find an Uber/Unique that is FotM)
NEVER do that, don’t waste our time into “wild goose chase” to find the “GG and done” item, make the journey less of a ladder and more of a puzzle
And one more thing, an reduce (yes REDUCE) the “smartness” of loot a bit, even if 75% of loot is for the class we play won’t be bad if there’s some 15-20% chance that we got something that we can use on an ALT
Which comes with another “small” recommendation => reintroduce bits and pieces from previous seasons (in the form of Events, even if rarer) and give a bit of chance that we get some “themed” stuff (Fire tempers or sockets from a Horde tunnel, Lightning tempers or sockets from a Construct ruins or Vault, Shadow tempers from a roothold, e.t.c.)
THAT will make the journey more interesting (and fresh, and new, and IMO enjoyable)… Make it so that the “secondary” rewards can be decent and surprise people (at least for a while), don’t force us “farm” or “grind” for the GG items in the game (those will happen eventually for those that play or plan the most)
It is the “second” tier of gameplay that needs some love, treat people as intelligent beings and not as obedient robots that just need a “precooked” meal given to them if they “try hard” enough… Think of it that there are SOME of us that want to experiment and experience the “unknown” even at the cost of not ending up in a necessarily “powerful” spot
TLDR ? => don’t waste time on rethinking/redesigning things that already work. Focus on fixing what doesn’t work and that is reduce the “powercreep” i.e. “raw” power accumulating “time sinkers”, and allow some place for experimentations in return, or in other words if you like:
- Offer players Specialization before Optimization
I want to see my build work cause I made my build work, not cause I equipped a “GG” item and now it’s doing 300%[x ] than it otherwise normally would or because I replayed a “thing” 100 times to have it reach to lvl100… Offer flexibility at the cost of accumulation of that “raw power”
That’s it (from me at least)… See you in S8 and GL to you all 
