Hello! I am a seasoned player who chose to play a Druid for the PTR. As a Druid, I found it to be the worst performing class, and I wanted to explore how running non-viable builds would feel while engaging with the content. I did not interact with any cheats and leveled as if I had skipped the campaign and jumped directly into seasonal content.
The feedback provided highlights both strong features and areas for improvement, labeled as suggestions. While some features are well-executed, there are opportunities for refinement that could enhance the overall experience.
My goal in providing this feedback is to improve the experience for Season 7 of Diablo 4!
Total Bug Reports: ~16
Good:
Armory
- Reason: The Armory is a great addition to the game, as it promotes build variety and makes switching between builds much easier compared to other ARPGs.
- Improvement: The Armory and inventory management for equipment and slotting items could be improved. Creating a dedicated chest for the Armory, allowing items to swap between the player and the chest instead of the inventory, would make the feature more accessible and reduce confusion.
Silent Roothold
- Reason: The variety of choices available is fantastic, adding depth to the gameplay.
- Improvement: However, Hell Fire seems to trigger frequently, which may disrupt the pacing. Reducing its frequency by a few seconds would improve the balance and make it more manageable without losing the challenge.
Uprooted Cocoons
- Reason: Uprooted Cocoons are fun pinnacle moments for Whisper zone, similar to Helltides and the Blood Maiden. This is familiar and fun to engage.
- Improvement: Uprooted Cocoons appear frequently, which can make the gameplay feel repetitive and less engaging. Decrease the frequency of Uprooted Cocoons to make their appearance more meaningful and reduce the sense of repetition.
Tree of Whispers Activity Zones
- Reason: The Whisper zones are solid, adding variety to the game, and expanding on the depth of collecting whisper bounties, while promoting player agency by allowing exploration and flexible playstyles.
- Improvement: As seasonal activities, removing them post-season would be detrimental, as it eliminates valuable endgame content from Diablo 4, a game that urgently needs more options to diversify its endgame experience. Whisper Activity Zones serve as an excellent alternative to Helltides, offering focused farming opportunities with higher enemy density compared to standard world map zones. Having the focus for S7 being this activity, the XP per hour feels good but should be adjusted when added to game permanently, much like how Infernal Hordes was rebalanced.
Incense Changes/Grouping
- Reason: The updates to incense mechanics and grouping are excellent and have greatly improved the game experience.
- Improvement: No changes needed hereāthis is a strong update that positively impacts gameplay.
Glyph Drop Rates
- Reason: The Glyph drop rates are well-balanced, providing a good flow of rewards without being overwhelming or too rare.
- Improvement: No changes needed hereāthis is an ideal drop rate for maintaining progression.
Suggestions:
Whisper Zone āPatrolā Activity
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Reason: Enemy density feels too low, leading to moments of boredom and lack of engagement.
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Improvement: Increase the enemy density to enhance the pacing and excitement, making the encounter more engaging and rewarding.
Tree of Whispers Dispel Activity
- Reason: Requiring six Dispel Charms feels excessive, adding unnecessary time and making other activities more appealing by comparison.
- Improvement: Reducing this to four Dispel Charms would better match the overall pacing and difficulty, enhance the gameplay experience, and align the objective requirements with those of other activities.
Whispers Zones Loot
- Reason: Loot quantity feels abundant, the quality of the drops early on doesnāt seem to match the frequency, leading to less meaningful rewards.
- Improvement: Lower the overall drop rate but increase the quality of loot, particularly early on, to encourage a more rewarding progression system.
Manuals
- Reason: Manuals are currently categorized as equipment, which can be confusing. They should be more easily identifiable as consumables.
- Improvement: Highlight manuals more clearly when dropped as loot to make them easily recognizable during gameplay. Categorize them as consumables in the inventory UI, freeing up space for more equipment and encouraging better use of the consumables tab. This change reduces inventory frustration and aligns with their function, as manuals are āconsumedā to unlock power.
Coven Reputation
- Reason: Gaining Coven Reputation feels slow, especially when focusing solely on Whispers. It becomes a grind without sufficient and timely rewards.
- Improvement: Adjust the reputation gain rate to make progression feel more rewarding and meaningful, allowing players to advance more quickly.
Boons/Banes UI in Silent Roothold
- Reason: The Boons and Banes UI overlaps the map in Silent Roothold, which can be distracting and hard to navigate.
- Improvement: Reduce the size of the Boons/Banes UI to prevent it from overlapping with the map, improving overall usability and gameplay experience.
Other thoughts:
Rune Visibility
- Reason: Runes play a crucial role in gameplay, and making them more prominent when dropped would enhance visibility, as they currently get lost among the sea of loot that accumulates.
- Improvement: Increase the visual prominence of runes when they drop to help players locate them with less effort.
Waypoints in Seasonal Realms
- Reason: Traveling from a major city to an event becomes frustrating when waypoints in explored regions remain locked.
- Improvement: Unlocking discovered waypoints in realms at the start of the season permanently will enhance player convenience and reduce frustration for experienced players.
Ancient Obelisk Event
- Reason: The Ancient Obelisk event feels too time-consuming, lacks enemy density and leads to moments of boredom and lack of engagement.
- Improvement: Shorten the duration of the event and increase the efficiency of the blood-sucking mechanic to make the event faster-paced and more exciting. Increase enemy spawn rates to reduce downtime, promoting engagement.