so firstly i wanted to say i like a variety of the improvements and QoL additions to this season such as the wardrobe being in the character sheet. this was a big improvement especially with the introduction of pets. but seeing as how this was a PTR i will try to put a comprehensive list of all the bugs, issues, and segguestions i noticed while playing. lets get into it.
so this will be a rant about things.
i love that you devs read and impliment feedback. hands down one of the best things ive seen in a live game EVER. your quality assurance could use some work but overall happier with the fact that the game is constantly improving. i understand that you had a nostalgic vision for this game based more on Diablo 2. but had to sacrifice that vision due to restrictions of being a seasonal game and that that has presented challenges as well as the players avarice and playstyle. that said you and your devs need to take a hard look at how you want to progress this game forward. i fully suppor the stat squish for this season and its an appropriate time. that said you really need to look at your data about things. firstly look at skill trees and points. if players only put 1 skill point into a skill, why are they doing only 1? is it because they are trying to get to whats beyond that node? or is it because they dont need more then 1? if its the first thing then you need to adjust the pathing. move the node(s) beyond it. if a stat or ability is limited to 1 class you should probably evaluate it. an example of this is overpower. 3 of the 5 classes can use overpower actively. sorc and rogues have nothing in their skill tree to enhance or utilize this stat. now what that doesnt mean its unusable for them it means it not worth the effort to try. i mean what rogue is going to stack willpower to get more overpower? a sorc might add willpower but not a rogue. so maybe you need to rebake some unused skills to coerce players to use these. such as maybe incorporate overpower into melee rogue builds.
thorns can only REALLY be used by Barb and Necro. and even that is limited. the barb has the most access to it. but theres no reason you couldnt bake thorns into other classes/builds using passives. I.E. an iron maiden build that increases in damage based off thorns. a rogue build where daggers are thrown in response to attacks that are amplified by damage of thorns. etc… need to open your minds to more possibilities. your too busy focusing on nerfing meta builds at the end of a season with your changes or enhancing another build to make it meta. but really you just need to remove some limitations and this will open things up to a much more diverse build base.
also really feel the need to point this out but if PTR’s are going to continue to be a thing you need to maintain the PTR systems as well as you do the live systems. having to change my settings everytime i reloaded into the ptr this time around was hands down one of the most annoying things. you should just bite the bullet and make a robust testing enviroment server. things this should include is the ability to inpuit how much of a material you want generated from MRAK. such as gem fragments, gold etc… or give an option to max out everything. also add single double and triple greater affex legendary caches to allow players to really be able to test. im sure most would choose the triple GA but the ones that want to test things in general will like the variety and control. you should also allow players to press a button from character selection screen to get a fresh snapshot of their live account. then add a time delay for doing this such as 20-30 minutes that way it doesnt crash the system but lets players know they will have their current in game live snapshot copied to the PTR which will allow for better testing as some players already have a build setup and some prime gear they farmed.
Runes-
firstly i love the addition of a socket item that isnt just gems. gives us some variety for playstyles in that regard. that said most of the runes were…not very good. the reason the rune system in D2 worked and was so popular was firstly because they could make a yellow item one of the strongest items in the game. or take a strong item and make it more powerful. this was appealing because it changed gameplay, gave you something to grind towards/hunt for. and made that yellow you had been holding onto for a long time much more worth its value. that said diablo 4 is lacking in both of these aspects. yellows are literally only useful at the very start of the game till you can get legendaries. due to the lack of affex rolls on yellow. obviously there is a stark difference between D2 and D4 and this is something the devs really are having a hard time accepting and dealing with. that said ill discuss yellows further down.
the runes you have are seperated by purpose. this isnt a terrible design. but is limiting. and then you also put additional limitations in place. so let me put a few things in here. 1 thing i do like is that because of how you have it setup theres no way to mess up your runeword. that said its a moot point when you can extract them without any diminishing returns.
-some of your runes dont make much sense and you probably need to rephrase. the AHU rune is a good example of this. it gives you 10 offering. and says “Lucky Hit: up to a 100% chance against injured enemies.” are you saying that i need to get 100% lucky hit against injured enemies to meet this condition? or that it gives me a 100% lucky hit chance against injured enemies? hows that gain 10 offering? how do i fulfill this requirement to get offering?
ritual runes-
the design of these is to fuel the secondary run. and while this is nice it is limiting you especially if your trying to work within the same number of runes that D2 had. then you further limit things by only allowing for 2 “runewords” or 2 sets of runes. you should allow ritual runes to be placed inside of gear seperately(such as jewelry.) this way if resistances and armor requirements are met then it allows for additional “offering” to be generated if you are wanting to stay with this system and just have it be a resource.
then you limit ritual runes to only fueling the 1 effect and not both making them either slow or not as useful as they could be. offering should be a bar/number display below buffs/debuffs area between the resources or something like that. and allow them to universally fuel things. that or allow for ritual runes to select a invocation rune to fuel making it simpler to associate them.
that said you need more ritual runes. not enough variety of them if this is the route you want to pursue. you also should adjust some of the numbers to make them more useful. because like travel 5 meters giving 10 offering i think it was is not enough if you choose a 800 power rune.
-should allow ritual runes a limit of 2 of the same usable.this would be more useful to things such as mobility builds that want to try to be as mobile as possible. so they can double down on traveling 5 meters. to trigger both runes.
-need more ritual runes such as hit 10 times gives 2 offering. or something to encourage players to try a wierd build such as pure thorns, or iron maiden.
invocation runes-
firstly love the idea of being able to use spells with enhancements on other classes. you should specify though if this includes the “enhanced” node along with the variable affex or not. this makes a big deal like for iron maiden curse. the enhanced gives free essence(change it to resource) and the affex on it gives heals on death both of which are very useful especially for how the system triggers them.
that said the decrepify rune is using the wrong affex. noone i know of uses the “kills when below 10%” on decrepify. the cooldown reduction is far more useful to every class then the other. or allow for players to somehow select the affex. kind of like maybe a pop up window when socketed.
the other thing is other classes skills might sounds cool and may even be cool. but more practical usage of the game is more appreciated. so being able to enhance things such as critical strike chance, cooldown reduction rate, and so on feels more important. so i would focus on maybe 2 skills from each class but then focus more on base mechanics.
-rune ideas-
dungeons-
-now i didnt get to delve into this part as much as i wanted especially since i boosted to 60. i do feel obducite dropping from dungeons is more useful then glyph exp gains. this was a healthy change. but 1 thing id like to focus on is elites should always drop obducite encouraging players to kills more mobs in the dungeon rather then just blasting through the dungeon to the end objective. it would also reward players that explore more of the dungeon.
that said you have some major changes that need made to dungeons. so i will list what i can here.
-firstly dungeon layouts are probably the most boring thing about dungeons in this game. generally speaking they all stay roughly about the same. the thing was was most appealing about d2 and d3 was the procedurally generated dungeon layouts. d2’s dungeon floor maker was a masterpiece and really needs to be brought into this game desperately. another good example of a procedural dungeon floor map generator would be dark cloud 2. they used a system that would have preset tiles made. it would assemble them in certain ways using guideline principles such as “if this tile is made then any of these can be added to it.” “if this tile is made these tiles cannot be attached” “this object is required to gain access to this area so it cannot be on tiles made past this point.” etc… highly reccommend your devs take and review both these as they will help make dungeons far more enjoyable and not so stagnant. this is a primary reason players dont enjoy dungeons as much.
-still too much backtracking going on in the dungeon maps. with procedural generation you could easily prevent back tracking more then a 30meter run or so. far too often i find myself staring at the map trying to understand what area i missed only to see it was the 1 corridor i didnt check yet but wasnt a very visible area since i hadnt trekked down it at all so it just looked like a wall for the most part.
-objectives in dungeons need to be less strict and more freelance. what i mean by this is if it says “free 5 prisoners” put in 10. if it says you need this much animus(which btw a number value would be far more appreciated for these types of things then just a bar for those annoying times when you missed 1 ball of animus) then put in twice as many animus carriers. then reward players for going above and beyond and getting all of them with like additional obducite. also like that you removed the other 2 materials as they were unneccsary but i do think a tier 9-12 upgrade is a bit cost heavy for obducite. might wanna tone those numbers down slightly.
-should really bring back old bosses to make butcher apperances. like the son of the herald from season 3 i think it was. or even give the butcher a random set of preset abilities that he could appear with really spice it up. butcher should always award at least 1 ancestral item.
QoL-
in this area i want to talk about some of the QoL things added and things that should be added.
-for the love of all that is holy and hellish why is it that everytime you guys introduce new items they take up every inch of inventory space when you have so many other options available? runes do not need to have a tab. they do not all fit in the socketable tab! this is going to be the consumables tab all over again if you guys do it this way. its totally unneccesary. what in the world keeps compelling you guys to continue to do this? you want inventory management to be this big thing but it shouldnt and doesnt need to be. this was hands down and is still one of the biggest complaints about both D3 and D2. why would you carry on this? is it stockholme syndrome? it already is enough of a thing if people are playing alt characters and classes. for the players and for your devs please stop doing this. you have a materials tab. make runes like gems. fragments or ingredients that are needed and make it so players can craft them and more rare runes cost more materials. with every rune it literally takes almost a full stash tab space…how do you justify this? you could literally make a whole other tab similar to stats and materials that is socketables. then make a pop up window interface for socketing items where it displays all your ritual runes on the left with invocation adjacent to it and gems on the right. like there are 100 different ways to do this but it always turns into an inventory battle with you.
-a tab that should be added to the game is a seasonal tab. that way anything added for the season can fit there if needed. this also gives your devs a chance to evaluate how to incorporate the seasonal item(s) into the game. such as how infernal compasses being treated like sigils. and so on.
-why did you change life per second to life per 5 seconds? 5 seconds is an eternity in this game. even if it was a smaller amount life per second would be more useful then life per 5. id rather 1 life per sec then 5 life per 5 sec hands down cause that 1 life might be what keeps me kicking. but if its every 5 seconds it will be too late. even if its a bigger heal. this stat also feels lackluster which is a problem in D3. so rather then continue a stat that wasnt used much in d3 maybe find a way to make it useful. add aspects or passives that enhance this or make it further benefit from things. such as healing but a passive makes it so you get 3x as much effectiveness from it.
-add ways to earn stash tabs doing challenges like solo lilith, complete every quest in each all areas, etc this will make players want to do this content just to get more inventory room.
the pit changes-
-please dont make the same mistake that diablo 3 made about tiers limiting us to 3 tier gains per completion. this is a rather pointless and annoying thing. allow us to select up to the next torment tier. this allows us to pace and test ourselves without having to wade through a pool of grinding but still ensure i can handle each torment level. so if lvl 20 is available out of the start allowing me to go to t1. if i beat lvl 20 that unlocks tiers 20-40 for T2. and so on. and once you unlock t4 at 65 then do 5 level increments. give me up to lvl 70 if i complete that unlock 70-75. your player should control the pace. not be forced to do dungeons they can easily clear once they get their build set.
-density of pit needs increased and more evenly spread out through the floors.
-if there is a dead end in any area there should be a portal to the next area. portals should be infinite. forcing us to backtrack is the most annoying thing if its a timed event. and completely unneccesary when multiple portals can prevent it from being needed.
-you really need to add some wide open floorplans to the pit. inside ruins, and caves is nice and all but maybe a section of open world such as jungle, desert, platue, mountain, etc… thats just a big open flat. these were always fun to push in d3 for Grifts. partially because the lack of enviromental hidnerances and partially cause alot of builds could really shine in these instances.
-make the boss room 50-100% bigger to give more room to move especially when facing bosses that have abilities like the seahag that can affect large areas of the room after a longer battle.
-hordes should be the same as completing the pit for unlocking torments. if i complete a t4/5 it should be a t1 equivalant. and unlock the associative levels of the pit. this would be a great way to negate having to do 3 levels of the pit at a time to progress.
paragon boards-
-remove starter board and allow players to select a starter board this will result in 5 glyphs and 5 legendary nodes. or allow 5 boards PLUS the starter board(not including) meaning up to 5 legendary nodes and 6 glyphs. but letting us select our starter board will create a much more diverse paragon profile. and allow for building in different directions. you can then have them rotate the board as they please and select a starting node from 1 of the 4 sides.allowing for them to build up down or sideways as they like. some of the nodes still need revamped so they are more useful. also the boards that go diagonally are some of the most annoying layouts. maybe you should offer alternative layouts or change them especially with the board restriction. because before when players would go for just glyph spaces they would be able to go across 1 corner of the board then come back across the other corner if they wanted the legendary node. but with the board limitations you basically negated that.
-there should be fewer empty spaces around glyph nodes or allow for players to fill blank areas with nodes if they pay gem fragment. like if i pay saphire gem fragments i get a willpower node to fill in a open space. this can make glyphs stronger and allow for players to really enhance or customize their boards.
hordes-(non PTR feedback)
-hordes normal mobs spawn too slow and seem to lul towards end of wave. there are many times where i have had everything on the screen dead and it takes a good 5 seconds or longer to start spawning new ones.
-change the aether fiends from needing to walk near to automatically popping out of the ground and seeking you. everything should be seeking the player not standing there just cause your out of line of sight. especially with the animation taking 3-4 seconds for the fiend to get out. there are often times where theres 2-4 mobs at the end of a wave just chillin off to the side rather then going near you. they should always actively be seeking you.
-synergies for things other then hellborne suck. need to increase aether rewards for them or make them more fun/appealing.
-increase radius of effect for soulspire by 50-100%. and also anything killed near the spire weather the player is there or not should count as i feel like this is not always the case.
-start wave with a choice instead of killing a desecrator mob. this makes it so theres more choices and leads to more fun.
-entering soulspire area should prompt immediate spawn of mobs.
-unlimited wave mode to spend aether on and test themselves. first death = end.
ideas for hordes-
-masses spawn hordes of mobs on death
-masses spawn multiple aether fiends
-masses spawn other masses
-masses spawn in multiples.
-soulspire empowers players
-soulspire drains resources
-soulspire slows player but gives more resources
-elites have a chance to spawn elites on death.
-collecting aether causes elites to spawn
-collecting aether spawns a horde of mobs
-collecting aether has a chance to spawn hellborne.
-add a number to the event bar to make it easier to see if you are 1 off or something.
segguestions-
-elemental surge day and elemental surge night are great and should be the standard for how those types of things are handled to mitigate too many tempers on 1 thing.
-tempers are still repeating too much please put in a better algorithm for this. such as if you got this temper you will get a different one THEN have a chance to get the previous one that way its atleast cycling through the different tempers to some degree ensuring i dont get 5 rolls of the same temper that i dont want -.- this is extremely annoying and bricks equipment.
-need to raise gem fragment limit with another 9 on the end for storage with the addition of grand gems.
-enchanting rerolls are insanely expensive and horrible RNG. why are skills the hardest to get? you need to implement a better algorithm.
-love the addition of the jeweler in the test dummy area but please add the enchanter and blacksmith as well this will make it so players can adjust things as needed. and test builds without having to run around alot. as well as love that the test dummies now can attack you with different attack types hands down one of the best things. i remember segguesting this a few seasons back when i was testing a thorns build so very happy for this addition.
-needleflare should be moved to utility for aspects. the aspect itself is a utility. it changes how something functions. not how much damage it does. there should be some “damage” aspects in utility such as concussive strikes but you have too many aspects in offensive not enough in utility even though it should be there.
-lucky hit and other stats should be a flat applied stat to everything. what i mean by this is if i have 100% lucky hit then on normal difficulty i should have 100% chance doing ANYTHING that includes thorns, dust devils, and attacks/effects triggered by other things (such as earthquake rune triggers) should get that lucky hit. then as difficulty goes up i get diminishing returns. such as 5% per difficulty level. this would mean that
normal-100%
hard-95%
expert-90%
penitent-85%
T1-80%
T2-75%
T3-70%
T4-65%
forcing me to increase my lucky hit to compensate if i wanted to use it on things that normally dont have lucky hit. this would include minion attacks, and literally any form of damage no matter how little such as DoT effects critting or having lucky hit.
you could do a similar thing with crit chance but at a lower % like 1-2%.
this would allow for far more creative builds to be made.
-minions should have a lucky hit chance(skeletons and golems)displayed on their skill button on the hotbar.
-malignant burrow still annoying to access. please for the love of god increase the area of interact on this. if im not directly in front of the hole i cannot go in. this is dumb.
-buffs and debuffs need to be more customizable for display.
-GUI needs to allow for more customization options. such as right side corned, adjust and move chat. and seperate things in chat logs. a good example of this would be like ff14. then have a lock button to prevent adjustments from accidentally occuring.
-curse size temper should affect cursed aura it makes absolutely no sense why it doesnt. just like it makes no sense why corpse explosion size temper doesnt affect plagued corpse explosion. i really hope this has just been a persistant bug but the most used corpse explosion enhancement in the game doesnt benefit from the temper. meaning you should either outline that in the text description or make it so it does affect it.
-I really cant emphasize the fact that basic and core skills(the first two skill tree tiers in other words) should be on the same tier to allow players to use or not use them. some builds do not utilize both. and some dont use either so adding more passives to these tiers would also be more ideal. the lack of passives in the basic skills tier is a problem. it cripples build makers from having more diverse builds. hindering the usage of skill points in other areas. wasting skill points just to meet a requirement to access a tier is terrible. especially when you can just add passives to make this not a thing.
-the addition of 5 new passives to each tree is extremely useful as a whole. but putting the same passive but with a different name in multiple classes seems silly as a whole. this time i refer to the lucky hit gains as well as the ultimate cast = damage gained. there needs to be more passsives added as whole to increase build variety. specifically utility style passives. things that change how a mechanic works. universal passives are not a bad thing to have at all. it also adds variety but you need to also have things tailored for the classes. necro is sorely lacking in corpse passives. and the dark passives are mediocre at best.
-please, please, please, for the love of all that is good and evil swap reapers pursuit and terror. the devs want to make this passive useful but the only point of using it is to gain access to other passives. forcing players to select something when in this PTR you have proven that theres other options available. the other passives should be setup as the blood passive tree. dual entrances is much prefered then forcing players to waste skill points. i did successfully make a soulrift sever build that did use this passive but it is the only build that would find this useful. this goes back to my earlier segguestion in regards to basic and core skill point waste. you are forcing players to waste points on something they dont want/need in a build to gain access to more useful passives. the star design the blood passive tree is one of the best designs you guys have done. it allows 2 seperate points of entry while still allowing access to almost everything in it. please make this the standard.
-pets(dogs, cats) seem to be targetable by mobs. while leveling a thorns build using no skills i discovered what happens if you dont attack the mobs they will target the pets(dogs and cats) should correct this by making them non targetable to the mobs.
-pets pickup is too slow. pets needs a pickup “aura” to speed up the rate at which items are picked up. they sometimes get hung up picking up some items. pets should be picking up things faster then the player can move.
-need more corpse related passives for necro. more corpse creation, usage, etc. i should be able to build an economy on them.
-strongholds giving a whole level is fine for a turn in but they need to be more challenging. more strong mobs higher density. especially if completing them on higher difficulties. as they are now even on t4 i was able to clear most strongholds in the time it took me to travel to each objective.
-you need to reward the players that handle cursed events(onslaught events of nonstop mobs or waves) by giving them better drops if they surpass a threshold. like 15 waves in wave ones or slaying a certain number of monsters in the onslaughts. or the one where its the powered spirit have him turn into a boss monster and drop GA gear or uniques or something. this would make it more appetizing for players to want to check checks, shrines, so one. also health shrines should always be usable even if full of health. allowing for you to trigger cursed events. that or they should always have spikes under them/some sort of minor damaging trap.
-should be able to open AND close doors. this was a fun mechanic in d2 that allowed for you to mess with mobs like the butcher. but at the same time doors should have health bars allowing for them to be destroyed via AOE attacks. this was always soemthing that bothered me. i can set the whole screen ablaze. but i have to stop to open a wooden door? come on. even if they had decent health such as elite levels id be fine with that.
-certain doors should open faster such as stone slabs should immediately drop away. its very annoying being stopped from moving because of an animation. i understand devs put time and effort into making these animations but at the same time if ive been playing for a year already…i shouldnt have to watch everything.
-whisper caches need a serious buff. they are exteremly lacklust in reward for the time put in. could give them a random chance along with choice of reward to reward a large number of random things such as summoning mats, gold, etc…(i saw there was a gold one added but add more)
-quest rewards need a revamp. they are worthless for anything but renown. they should scale with world difficulty and if completed on t4 should reward atleast an acestral item. this would encourage players to want to do them. you should also have some repeatable quests available similar to whisper caches.
-remove lvl requirements from pits allow players to push themselves. and their limits and level as well. if i can complete level 20(torment 1) at lvl 30 let me. challenging ourselves is one of the funnest parts of these kinds of games. i beat the wt4 capstone boss at lvl 27 one season. let me be able to do stupidly impossible things if i want to try.
-need a zoom out function for wardrobe. cant always see staves/polearms and other 2handed weapons equipped.
-bold chieftans aspect is weird. when the min is 1sec and max is 3 sec but the max effect is 6 seconds of CD reduction? id rather you keep it at 1 second and make it unlimited…like why? if the aspect is max then you only need 2 enemies. seems a waste. putting limitations like this really hinder build makers and make an aspect not very useful. restrictions can be a good thing but you need to properly do them. hard limits tend to be something people avoid. limitations based on % or requirements met tend to be better then “nothing past this” its one of the reasons starlight + andys visage is so strong and desired.
-add damage log and allow seperating dmg done vs damage taken. and what caused the damage. this allows players to really evaluate whats doing damage. and if they are getting crits, lucky hits and so on.
-reccommend the arrow for the compass point toward the destination only and not the path that the gps makes as that tends to take you down wierd ways or dead ends occasionally.
-make antivenin and other quest elixers stackable with normal elixers so they are similar to incense. its a huge difference just to have the antivenin potion. things like tier 1 tier 2 tier 3 elixers.
-move the clickable weapons on the ground in zarbinzet away from the blacksmith as they can be annoying to PC players accidentally clicking on them when trying to get closer to the blacksmith npc.
-still doesnt let you click to move after talking to vendors or using stash sometimes. or use WASD. i have to use the other if 1 isnt working i assume this is some sort of conflict in the controls.
-inexorable reapers aspect cooldown should be affected by CDR and things like the lucky hit from decrepify.
-aspect of plunging darkness should create a pool of blight the same size as the bone wall wether using path of trag’ouls boots or not. this would make them far more desirable.
-need more unique boots, pants, chests. too many uniques are gloves and helms.
Bugs-
-mighty storm(druid) aspect shows up on necromancers offensive aspects.
-some shrines still display buff above them after use.
-issues with salvaging sigils. unable to for some reason on some.
-had an axe and sword display over eachother when i was wielding doombringer.
-[bug]when looting previous seasons loot in stash cannot use scroll wheel to scroll back up. but can scroll down.
-issues traversing gaps on mount. and mount seems to catch on things it shouldnt again.
for an ending blurb 1 thing i really want to add to this is an idea for a season for the devs. something i feel the devs of D3 really missed a chance on. one of the things i think that should be added to the game primarily because it makes alot of sense for it to exist but also could lead to a great seasonal theme. i call it the season of avarice or season of greed. in diablo 3 goblins got expanded alot with blood shard, gem, and so on. as well as the introduction of goblin hordes. i personally would prefer more of something like when avarice was killed during the most recent march of the goblins he would spawn like 20 goblins that everyone had to kill asap. this would be something fun to add to boss mobs in my opinion that they have a chance to spawn a horde of goblins. could be a very welcome suprise. but the main part of this theme that i want the devs to think about is the addition of MIMICS! this game is the game where it makes the most sense that a demon would adapt to become a fake chest to take advantage of adventurers greed. they even basically made 2 mimic models in diablo 3. one was a pet the other was the chest that would squash greed and allow you to click and nom nom her. i think that these would be one of the best things you could add to the game. im even going to snag a bit of inspiration from a book series i have read called everybody loves large chests. in this it even gives backstory to the mimics by explaining to you that a summoned demon was combined with a changling. well in this instance the backstory can be that a demon evolved to not only take advantage of adventurers greed but of goblins greed. and feasts on anything that opens it. these could replace the chest guardians currently in use on the resplendant chests tha occasionally spawn. these could be treated similarly to a goblin but make them hard to kill(somewhere between an elite and the butcher/a boss mob) and would reward you accordingly. this would also entice players to want to open chests. then you can have a random chance for a king mimic (title it what you want like avarice of greed/hoarder demon) for it to be the boss in a NMD/dungeon then. and when it dies have it spawn more goblins/mimics or drop lots of loot. however you would like to approach it. but this was something that has always bothered me about diablos universe. of all the creatures that make the most sense in sanctuary. a mimic would be my first pick. i would love to see this happen in game and i think it would be one of the most fun things you could add. but thats just me. also have the king mimics have a chance to drop a mimic pet would be amazing.