I’ll start this off by saying: I first played Diablo 4 during the open beta phase. I purchased the game on console shortly after the game officially released and hit level 57 (if I remember correctly). My console broke shortly thereafter, and I was unable to play the game anymore after that. I just downloaded the game on my PC via gamepass and am asking the community (you guys) if the game has changed for the better or if it has stayed the same. The game was plagued by issues when I played, but there were three major complaints I had with the game during that time.
My main gripe was that vulnerability was basically the only viable build option past level 45. If I wanted to participate in world events, dungeons, or anything difficult, I had to utilize vulnerability in my build in order to do so. Not only did I have to include it in my build, but I basically had to make it the entire foundation of my build… and that’s not good to be forced into only one option.
My second gripe is that class balance was non-existent. Druids and Sorcerers were insanely bad compared to other classes. Everything about them was bad. Survivability, damage output, and efficiency were all lacking. It was so bad, streamers started making fun of Druids in particular and it became a meme.
My third and last gripe is that there was never anything to do. When I beat the campaign, it was all monotonous after that. As a returning player, I don’t remember what anything is called in this game, so please forgive me if I call something it’s not. I remember visiting certain map locations and completing helltides. I also remember visiting dungeons and it became progressively more difficult. But past a certain point, it wasn’t worth it to continue pursuing those things. You would only gain a very, very slim amount of power from them and it wasn’t worth it.
Anyway, I’ve droned on long enough. These were my gripes with the game at that time. Have they been fixed? Is the game fun now? Are there other viable builds besides blizzard shoving you into one corner where a single build is necessary to progress? Is there more to do than helltides and dungeons? Was the game only worth it for the campaign and should I just drop it?
there is no real need for a big end game, its a seasonal game and as for imbalanced classes that is only a thing if you are a pvp hard core and this is not a real pvp game.
And the answer to you question is that no, the game is not okay yet, nor will Season 4 likely fix it. It remains to be seen how it plays out, but on paper, the actual endgame of Diablo still does not really exist, character progression is still lackluster, and the content that you run through is still the same boring experience.
I disagree with no need for a big end game now. They’re increasing xp gains (according to their last campfire stream) by a large margin to get to max level extremely fast with this upcoming patch.
I would argue this is the most important time to have a big end game considering how fast or how many more players will get to max level with this change in mind.
The quotes are appropriate because with the Pits (Greater Rifts) the goalposts got moved again. They scale way higher than nightmare dungeons and have a time component. Just as a general rule, as difficulty increases the number of viable options decreases.
This is something I don’t get. Why is there such a rush to get to max level? How about they instead make the content interesting during the game so that the whole game is fun to play?
Because it does not matter? Its not like in D2 where highend items could drop in lowlvl, so people would not mind if leveling is long. In this game everything before WT4 is USELESS. So people want to stay in this USELESS state as less as they can. Did you had a single drop in D4 where you were like “OUH DAMN NICE, now i dont need to look for it until lvl 70”?
That is what I am saying though. If you make the content interesting throughout the game, and that means progression and drops as well as engaging content itself, the rush to get to the end will be lessened.
The seasonal resets is why they’re doing it this way.
The seasons primary reason for being is to recycle content because they can’t generate enough new staff fast enough.
If it takes the average player 50 hours to reach 100 and you want to put your powerful stuff in an endgame mechanic that can scale higher and higher, then the average player never gets there. If they can do it in 10 hours, though, even the most casual of gamers can do it in the course of a 3-4 month season. It’s a challenge for all game developers to develop titles when gamers can have radically different time schedules. One player may do something in a day that another takes months on.
It can also be fun to use the resets to see how fast you can level. How can you take the game mechanics and twist them in unexpected ways. It’s why speedrunning games is popular with some. Some people in D3 spend more time during the PTR and weeks approaching the season than they do the season because they’re fine tuning their craft.
The problem is their content is not built for repeated run-throughs. It is not fun to play to get to level 100, nor is it fun to play at the end, when you are simply repeating it to get drops or materials. They need to improve the way the content is delivered as well as player engagement with that content. Skill Systems/Character Progression and the Dungeon Design/Boss design are the two needed things that need to be fixed to help with player retention and repeated playthroughs.
The game has things it does better and worse than others in the series, but intrinsically it isn’t any different than any other Diablo game. They’ll refine things, as we are seeing with this patch, but the base gameplay loop is very likely not changing.
Ye we can dream, wont happen.
They had the chance to watch Lost Ark bosses and even on their own D:immortal. They just chose not to take it in consideration and gave us this garbage.
And even if they would add bosses like this, they cant balance it, their itemization and stats and how they work is just horrendously bad.
Their balance is all over the place that it makes EVERY content they put in, obsolete. So no matter what they will add, it will never be really fun. This oneshot meta from 15 years old games on top is just pure backwards and no one likes it (all ARPG suffer from this).
Modern would be to give people more influence on the outcome, and a simple dodgeroll and still spank&tank bossfights wont cut it in 2024.
Unfortunately. And if that is the case, the game is doomed to fail. As far as things it does better than others in the series…Aesthetics maybe? Not much else.
Ye and this is bad. Its not 2000 anymore. Its just a bad excuse used over and over. They copy D2 but MISS why it was good back then. They just took a look and thought they can copy it, without understanding the reason why it worked back then.
This philosophy is all over D4. Copying what others did, but dont understand it so they made it WORSE.
Same you got with uber bosses, and same you now will have with GRifts. They just DONT UNDERSTAND why it was good and will implement a worse version of it.
Exalted items and rofing potential items on the other hand will work, because they work as a standalone implementation, here you can see this blind philosophy actually work.
Why Grift wont work: Grifts where good because it was a team activity, you could play with 4 friends, each had a role (zDPS, Puller, Bosskiller, Mobkiller) on top of their uniqueness the classes gave to the group. Now they copy it without the multiplayer aspect and think it will work lol?
Just wow.