Preview the sweeping permanents changes coming to Itemization, Systems, and more, on both Seasonal and Eternal Realms.
2 Likes
thanks for the temper changes.
Two posts in one day? What a time to be a forum poster!
Instead of getting two tempering affixes, which had a really high chance of being what you want, you now get one guaranteed tempering affix and another affix added to the drop pile.
Itās now extremely less likely to get the 5 affix item you were looking for.
With the masterwork changes, the few items that were GG items like Amulet passives that really hurt to not roll via tempering are now much, much less impactful items. Things like triple crit skills are gone in favor of generic item buff increases.
People will not be happy when they fully realize what was actually done here.
5 Likes
more like a lit fart than anything good.
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This is a big nerf to master working and tempering. Lel. This team man , this team.
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Okay so it looks like a mismash between D3 design and D4 older design. In D3 elites and champions had scary affixes at times that were noticeable and difficult but manageable (at least in the earlier version I guess). A simplified damage reduction system to track via Toughness like D3, healing potions like D3, Greater Rift system called the Tower with Leaderboard, and Capstone Dungeons come back from pre-VoH! Plus we get a new World Boss: Azmodan.
Oh and Masterworking just gives passive boosts plus 1 rando GA affix, Legos have +1 affix, life on hit comes back, and Tempering is only one guranteed affix per gear piece.
I think thatās the basic gist or am I vastly underestimating their proposed elite/champion affix rework to make them scarier?
People are about to find out why tempering was a good thing. Not that many didnāt try to explain that before, people just couldnāt get past the items ābrickingā to appreciate how much easier tempering made achieving ideal 5 affix items overall.
2 Likes
so they are adding leaderboards but yet still allowing RMT, perfect for leaderboards
All these changes suck. gg blizz
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So basically itās like that advertising. Buy one, get one free but you pay double. Plus tax
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Yeah, I think thatās a pretty good way of looking at it.
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The other affix is still there, itās just now generated on item creation.
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Wait you get a rando tempering affix to legendaries now from all the tempering manuals in that +1 slot? The way I read it was all pre-uniques have +1 affix from the standard affix pool, which is much smaller now than nillaā D4 (and obviously not a tempered affix).
Yup. Back to picking up massive amounts of loot to get that one item with the extra affix I truly desire.
I warned people that asking Blizzard for changes is always a monkeyās paw bargain. So now we have it, yet again.
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I would have thought that they were going to introduce special mats to determin what temper you could use. Mats we would find off bosses and elites.
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Iām re-watching the Sanctuary interview again while farming in Borderlands 4. Itās actually soothing. There was nothing that I had to really focused on or think about. Itās like listening to music. You listen and forget about it lol
Overall, it feels like the one clear, great move was letting us choose tempered affixes. There are some other changes that seem fine or good but arenāt as exciting. But there are a lot of other changes here that makes me not want to play Diablo 4 if they go live. I hope Blizzard will seriously consider the feedback. Here goes:
Itemization
- Tempered Affix selection: good. Reducing rolls makes sense as a balance for it. I had suggested something similar, but with it pulling randomly from the Magic/Rare/Legendary version of the affix (so it might be a weaker version but you got to pick the affix), but fewer rolls works too.
- Max 1 Tempered affix: This just means there will be a lot of tempered affixes that no one ever uses because they were only ever used as the 2nd temper because of the affix categories. Frankly, Iād rather keep 2 tempered affixes and not doā¦
- 4 Affixes on Legendaries: This shuffles the affix from tempering to the less interesting base affix pool. Crucially, it wouldnāt fix things to just put tempered affixes in the base pool either because then the base pool would have a giant pile of affixes each tailored to 1 specific skill or damage type, etc. that would make sorting through drops an awful experience. There was a reason you (Blizzard) put affixes in a separate post-drop, controllable system in the first place. This feels like you-unlearned the lesson instead of refining it.
- Changing Masterwork back to original Masterwork basically: disappointing. Eliminates interesting interactions getting some affixes very high (like CDR on Shako, or Double Damage tempered affixes). A costly way to reset back to rank 4/8/12 would have been a way to keep the fun while getting rid of the long, monotonous resets in town when trying to perfect an item.
- Masterwork Capstone Bonus: Not as fun as being able to further boost an affix that is already Greater. Useless if you get (otherwise) incredibly lucky and drop an item with all Greater Affixes. Itās useful for the middle stage of Torment gearing, but again just doesnāt feel as fun.
- Normal Quality Items Drop Longer: Who on Earth asked for this. Why would anyone want this. Stop.
- Single Resistances Can Roll Higher: Good. Iām not sure anyone will really want to get these affixes, but in concept itās good that the narrower category isnāt completely outclassed. It would be interesting if you took this general principle and applied it in more places. Maybe 2-affix Magic items can be used as bases for imprinting as well and they have higher affix values but 1-2 fewer affixes than Rares and Legendaries. They could continue dropping longer (though still less frequently than at low levels) with tighter affix ranges at the top end so that certain builds might actually want a Magic base because That One Affix is higher or whatever. Iād even be okay with the Normal Quality items change above if there was any use for them at all except for the first handful of levels.
- Cost & Salvage Changes: Canāt evaluate until itās seen. Seems fine in concept since right now it feels like there are a lot of salvage materials that basically do the same thing. But I would prefer more evocative naming than āCommon Salvageā and āLegendary Salvage,ā which feel incredibly bland.
Monsters
- Monster Behavior: Canāt evaluate until itās seen.
- Elite Monster Affixes: Canāt evaluate until itās seen. Iām hoping this isnāt just more ground effects. Iām not optimistic given history.
- Monsters Can Drop Gems: Nice. Honestly, Iād prefer if gem fragments were removed as drops and only obtained from salvaging gems. Every time I see a drop of hundreds of gem fragments I just imagine the wanderer stopping to pick them all upā¦
- Champion Packs Drop Loot on Last Member Killed: Feels kind of goofy and overly gamey, even for this genre where random monsters are all inexplicably carrying powerful magic items even if theyāre a quill rat. I prefer items dropping per individual monster than whichever one happens be last always being accompanied by more items.
Defenses & Healing
- Diminishing Returns DR% Resistance and Armor (Linear eHP Resistance and Armor): This is fine.
- Removal of DR%: This feels disappointing. It seems like keeping it as a concept but available from fewer sources would have made it very powerful and given it more relevance with the Resistance and Armor changes instead of turning it into Primary Stat in many cases.
- Potion Healing Change: Losing the health-over time aspect is a bit disappointing since it was also a nice buffer against Damage Over Time effects. Why not do something like 25% instantly and another 15% over 5 seconds or something?
- Potion Capacity 4: This is fine.
- Potion 12s Regeneration: This is fine. It feels like thereās opportunity here to have a Potion Regeneration Rate +[X-Y]% Affix.
- No Potion Upgrades: I appreciate not having to remember to visit The Alchemist since there was no real decision-making anyway.
- Fortify Change: This seems fine in concept. Itās a bit odd that it seems Barrier sources give much more Barrier than Fortify though (from what I could tell) now that Fortify is basically a drip-feed Barrier.
- Physical Resistance Added: No issue in concept. Obviously how it actually feels depends on the actual monster changes.
- Life on Hit Returns with Cooldown: Please include the frequency limit in the affix, not have it as a hidden/internal cooldown. E.g. ā28 Life per Hit Once Every 0.2 Secondsā or whatever.
- Healing Affixes Increased: Fine in concept. Canāt judge until we know value.
Renown
- Altars of Lilith/Tenets of Akarat: Seems fine.
- Full Reset Map / Renown Changes: Re-obtaining Waypoints just feels like a chore. This is the opposite of where I was hoping the Renown changes were going. I hoped that getting Waypoints, Side Quests, etc. would complete them for other characters in the same Season too so that you wouldnāt need to redo Waypoints on every alt character and it could be a neat way to give XP to your alts (via side quests etc) to get past the 1-60 and into where the game effectively actually begins after youāve already done it once that season already on your first character.
Dungeons / Activities
- Capstone Dungeons: This is fine.
- The Tower: This just seems exactly like The Pit but with Progress Orbs brought back from Diablo 3. I was glad to see Progress Orbs gone with The Pit. This seems like a downgrade.
- Leaderboards: Fine. Iām not the audience for this.
- Reduced Nightmare Sigil Drops: This seems like a good change. Itās kind of silly that currently every time you run a Nightmare Dungeon you get another Nightmare Sigil, plus any that might happen to drop, so your stash ends up taken over by them unless you make a point to salvage them, which then means you have to sort through them for which to keep or salvage. Itās a bit more fun if theyāre a little more scarce and thereās less item management to them since thereās enough item management elsewhere already.
- Horadric Strongrooms: This seems good on paper. Right now the rewards are really disappointing for the time investment.
- No Pit Entrance Cost: Fine. It basically didnāt exist anyway.
Other
- Welcome Back Booster: I donāt even know what this is.
- Obol Capacity +500: Fine. I assume this is in part just to compensate for Renown changes. Honestly, the most useful Obol-related change for me would be a āNearing Obol Capacityā message at around 80% of maximum.
- Jeweler & Occultist Added to Training Grounds: Useful. While weāre making Training Grounds adjustments, can we add something that marks distance so we can judge the effectiveness of things that travel X meters or happen every X meters traveled?
Season 11
- Azmodan: Why is Azmodan using the powers of the other Lesser Evils? What does this have to do with Azmodan?
- Sanctified Items: Not a fan of throwing even more multipliers onto everything (extra legendary aspect or Sanctified affix). I can see how the unpredictability could extend the season for perfectionists, but I know already that the odds are going to be poor enough that I wonāt feel motivated to even attempt getting everything AND that the reward isnāt really something I want for the game as a whole given what Sanctified items looked like in Diablo 3 and what the aspect pool looks like in Diablo 4 (a lot more fairly uninteresting damage multipliers).
- Other Sanctuary Invaded Stuff: Seems fine.
- Divine Gifts: What I donāt get is why have actual separate slots for the Corrupted and Purified Gifts if some of them are going to have Corrupted versions that are pure downside where you would never use it in that slot after youāve Purified it, like Essence of Lies, Shadow, Sin, Hellfire, and Screams? Essence of Pain and Essence of Squalor make sense because they have a downside but they also have an upside (more enemy spawns means more enemies you can kill, which means more chances for items to drop). If only two are going to have a use for the Corrupted version after youāve obtained the Purified version, it just seems like you could have tweaked those two and had 1 slot for each. If thereās a benefit to the other Corrupted Gifts that makes choosing Corrupted over Purified worthwhile after you have both, itās not explained well.
Patch Notes
Past this point Iām not going to touch on every individual change for obvious reasons. Iām just going to focus on ones that pertain to skills, etc. that I like and how these changes would impact my play experience as presented.
Teleport Changes
These patch notes read like two separate teams worked on Teleport with completely opposite goals. For dedicated Teleport use, the patch:
- INCREASES the base damage of Teleport, finally gets rid of the awful random-location part of Oculus (or at least moves it into an appropriate spot that both nods toward Diablo 2 and the player can consciously play the minigame of avoiding)
- ADDS a small chance to reset Teleportās cooldown per kill (but probably not Teleport Enchantmentā¦)
- REDUCES the base cooldown of the Teleport Enchantment (although this just brings it in line with normal Evade, so itās like removing a giant base penalty)
- ADDS a stacking damage bonus for consecutive uses of Teleport to Oculus
- REMOVES the Masterwork bonus to Oculusās Ranks to Teleport
- REMOVES the Masterwork bonus to Oculusās Chance to Deal Double Damage
- REMOVES the Masterwork bonus to the Chance to Hit Twice tempered affix on a focus
- REMOVES the free Teleport Enchantment on Oculus (fine in itself, but in context of everything elseā¦)
- REMOVES the Mystic Teleport damage
- REMOVES interactions of Cooldown Reduction with the Teleport Enchantment
The cooldown change means the stacking damage bonus is very limited. Altogether, when you combine everything, Teleport is dealing less damage (even at peak attainable stacks of Galvanization) after the patch than before, and it wasnāt dealing great damage before the patch. The chance to reset doesnāt matter if the damage is atrocious.
Either or both:
- the Mystic Teleport damage should be brought back;
- the enchantment should still be able to be reduced by effects like Aspect of the Bounding Conduit (literally designed for Teleport), Overflowing Energy, Eom rune, Hectic Aspect, and the Attacks Reduce Evade Cooldown item affix.
If you want it to not be reduced by Cooldown Reduction Percent because Evadeās 5s Cooldown isnāt either, sure. Teleport wonāt be able to be recast immediately since it will be stuck at 5s instead of being able to get it down into the 2.Xs range (where Flickerstepās higher AREC value eliminates it immediately on its own use), but at least there would be some fun ways to build around it with those other aspects, Key Passive, etc. like alternating Teleports with other attacks. And it would feel more consistent with other classes turning Evade into skills being able to use flat reductions the same way (like Spiritbornās Soar).
Or do something like āEffects that reduce cooldown apply to Teleport Enchantment at 50% effectiveness,ā so CDR%, Attacks Reduce Evade Cooldown, etc. all apply at half. That way a perfect Bounding Conduit only knocks off 1.5 seconds (or 2.25 in Amulet, but letās be serious, thatās an awful use of the Amulet slot), Flickerstep only knocks off 1.25, and so on, but at least they do something, both letting the player feel the fun of discovering ways to get more value out of it and fixing the giant damage hole that is worsened by these patch notes. As-is, the patch just looks like itās putting lipstick on a pig here or trying to put sugar on a bitter pill.
EDIT: It has been pointed out by the community that the Jah rune is a better Teleport Enchantment than the PTR Teleport Enchantment. Thatās embarrassing, and the solution is not making Jah rune bad because you made Teleport Enchantment bad.
Firebirdās Aspect
Itās impossible to fully judge before seeing it in the PTR, but as described, this looks welcome (to a degree, which Iāll get to) since currently Flame Shield Duration tempered affixes make the Aspect worse, and this sounds like itās saying it will keep dropping Meteorites if Flame Shieldās duration is extended. That part is great. The Lucky Hit Chance is a neat side benefit. Where this feels too late is with the change to 1 tempered affix, itās hard to imagine that will be the 1 affix worth it on any slot.
Ice Armor Enchantment
This feels like it leaves open an interesting door for things that care about potions in the future, which I hope is explored.
Frost Nova Enchantment
This is a good change. Itās hard to tell from the wording without seeing the effect if the character emits the Frost Nova or if itās emitted around the enemy hit. It feels like the latter would be more fun. Weāll see once PTR is up.
Orisvane (New Sorcerer Mace)
As someone who mainly plays Sorcerer, the unique power here really just makes me think that the team at Blizzard doesnāt know how to change the Sorcerer skill tree to make it worthwhile and interesting for Sorcerers to pick more offensive skills, so rather than attempt that, thereās an item to pry us away from defensive skills that largely fill the skill bar because thereās nothing better to equip.
Additionally, it feels similarly for Enchantments, where rather than make Enchantments more interesting (as many either have weak effects or hidden cooldowns), this item just throws a bunch of them at the player (on top of the giant damage multiplier) so that a wider variety of Enchantments are āused.ā
Path of the Emissary (New Spiritborn Boots)
Conceptually I like it. I wish I didnāt have to slot a Bac rune and run past defined visual markers to gauge how far 4 meters might be for a well-rolled copy of the boots (based on Bac granting Offering at 5 meters). But I like the concept here of leveraging the classās high mobility for offense.
I also wish more of its skills that have the capacity for mobility had a way to use that without a target. Like Thrash has the Mobility tag and a ādiveā toward a target. I wish I could just use Thrash for its dive without an enemy as well, or to dive ābetweenā enemies. For instance, with Sepazontec and Accelerated Thrash, you get Thrash whirls to appear in a fan shape, so there are cases where you may want to go between two enemies to catch them with the outer two whirls, but instead youāre forced to either run up or to lock onto one of the enemies (which might put the other out of range to the side).
Potent Spiritborn Passive
Iām not sure why this was reworked, but Iām not at all excited about the change in context of the rest of the game. If all classes had very few damage multiplier Passives, this would feel fine. (In fact, Iād prefer that version of the game without so many compounding damage multipliers.) But as-is, it already feels as though Spiritborn has weaker damage multiplier Passives generally than most classes (with some exceptions), and this removes one of its strong ones.
Jaguar Spirit Hall Redesign
Iām not a fan, but Iām sure I can live with the change. It reads as being better for casual use, since it no longer needs a lot of attack speed and now counts damage across multiple enemies together instead of separately, at the cost of being substantially worse at the top end. Season 10 Jaguar Primary Spirit Hall is a nice last hurrah for it, although I would generally like the game to not be entirely Flavor of the Season and actually feel like itās making more builds possible each season and not just different builds.
Spirit Hall Potency Changed to Damage
Hard to gauge completely since if this is also in the additive category itās even worse, but this already feels like a downgrade over allowing it to scale the non-damage effects. It feels a lot more bland. Frankly, I want to see the opposite: I want to see Secondary Spirit Hall Potency as well, not just Primary. The design should lean into what makes the class distinct, not downplay it.
Melted Heart of Selig
I like that āMana Shieldā is making its way into the game in some form. Itās hard to gauge without seeing things like the reworked healing affix values exactly how this will play out. But I appreciate the willingness to change the item (which was disappointing before) and make something that was popular in a Season a permanent addition (in a way).
āCastā Meaning
These notes literally appear within a screenās length of each other:
Developerās Note: Free-casted Defensive Skills will no longer remove this Movement Speed bonus.
Developerās Note: Free-casted Defensive Skills will now interact with this aspect.
How is someone playing the game who doesnāt happen to see these patch notes and commit them to memory supposed to know when Cast means Cast and when Cast means something else? Please use some kind of consistent language for things that count as Cast and things that donāt. If you want to expand the āInvokeā language from Runes (and change Runes that say āInvokeā to āCastā if they actually mean āCastā), great! But stop it with these arbitrary exceptions that no one can possibly know from looking at an item or skill.
I think this is a take on the wrong argument. I donāt think I have ever seen someone post a suggestion on here that looked like what blizzard just implemented. Most of it was just to make there be no cap on scrolls. Other useless complaining was āremove itā but there was never much elaboration on that.
s11 looks unplayable to me - big mistake Blizz.
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