Forget the fact that all builds have been nerfed across the board (with few exceptions being the opposite). Yes, a fact. “Not my build, bruh. I’m stronger now lul.” Shut up, thx.
Anyway, the nerfs haven’t remedied the problem: endgame is unchanged in any meaningful way.
For anyone playing regularly and efficiently (take note of boths words and their denotation please), you should be lvl 100 by now with most glyphs maxed. If you played the game differently, grats? You haven’t accomplished these things. Somehow, even playing an hour a day since release or just on the weekends, you’re lvl 65 and currently stuck in WT3. You weren’t playing META. This thread isn’t for ultra inefficient casual brown knights.
To those playing META, you’ve leveled to 100 maybe multiple times, cleared NM T75-100 perhaps more than once, and may have killed Uber Lillith. You might also have BiS for essentially every gear slot.
For me, that’s Game Over. You win!
Right? What’s left to do if you are extrinsically motivated in your gaming?
Intrinsic reward–or value derived from an activity rather than what its outcome is–is something missing from the endgame due to lack of new experiences. For META players, they have essentially “tapped the keg” and are out of exciting and fun things to do.
The new patch offers an additional side quest storyline and novel temporary gems that provide passive bonuses unobtainable elsewhere. While the gems and corresponding effects are a fresh element in the upcoming season, what exactly does it add to the endgame experience? I say, it adds jack sh*t.
The essence of the problem with D4 and the new season is that the same old experiences ingame are not augmented or altered in a way to provide intrinsic reward. Seasonal content should be designed to dramatically altar normal gameplay in an interesting and fantastic way, resulting in FUN. However, Blizzard has not designed fun for this season, it simply made the endgame experience longer with exp nerfs and handicapping several “overperforming” skills/affixes in the game.
The game was already extremely boring after grinding to 90+ and obtaining BiS gear. But let’s be honest for once: Is there actually a significant difference between gameplay in WT3 and WT4? No. “The mobs are stronger and beefier. There are larger packs.” Kay, but that’s not significant enough to differentiate gameplay in a meaningful way. Weak builds get weaker in WT4, and strong builds merely adapt easily to the difficulty change. The same applies to NM sigils ranging from 21-70 (the majority of tiers). T71+ has that challenge element as does Uber Lillith (a very stupid level of challenge unlike PoE’s bosses). Listen, those are the same 2 activities at the pinnacle of endgame that were experienced in preseason.
In the end, there aren’t going to be major differences between preseason and S1. S1 players will recoup most of their lost power but not all of it, and then will basically be playing the exact same game as when it was preseason. Meanwhile, Eternal players should probably just uninstall or be happy with playing easier content.
Brown Knights I call them; they’re covered in brown from sticking their face in Blizzard’s as*. Brown knights will be ignored. Feel free to reciprocate.
Also, learn the difference between whining and criticizing. These are distinct terms. You may cry about how I’m actually the cry baby whiner whatever, but I only care enough to ignore you.
Anyone who shares my sentiments, this thread is for you only. Others should simply not waste their time replying to me.