Devs, what a remarkable season!
(For the record for the all the trolls out there that do not understand plain English very well… ‘Remarkable’ does not always mean ‘great’ or even ‘good’. I cannot help that people do not understand what words mean. To clarify what I meant, I meant there is a lot to ‘remark’ about. Do I think the game is good? Yes! Do I think VoH and the SB is great? YES! Did I think Season 6 was great? Not really. It was only kinda okay but overall with VoH and SB, I think the ‘Season 6 experience’ was great! This game is in great shape!)
The SB was a great addition to the game overall and the other class updates were really good. Still think the others need a few more touches to bring it up a notch so I have included a few notes on the ones I have been playing since the mid season review, along with a few other notes I wanted to make sure I got in before next season hits! (I know a few of these are in the works but wanted to throw my 2 cents in just in case it helps!)
Barbarian
- This beast should be hitting so much harder than it is. I have over 1500 for each stat, and almost 5k for my main, and I feel like I should be crushing the SB in dps and defense even with the bugs but am most definitely not.
- HotA deserves a comeback now more than ever! Think we need to take it back up to the Season 2 days when it was really over-tuned for it to be where it needs to be on par with SB. This will make the Barb the king/queen of the single target dps machine that it is supposed to be!
- All the barb skills need to be taken up a notch in terms of damage but I kinda like the idea of bringing back the default bonus 10% damage reduction as well as a class feature tbh
Sorcerer
- Sorc is great to play again. Super speedy and lots of AoE dps. As it should be! However, there is not currently enough variety to which skills are really usable in a build. Almost feels like every class, including SB, has this issue where they all have 1 skill or 1 set of skill combinations that reign supreme over all the meta builds out there. I feel like this is both bad design of all the classes, but also a real problem that needs to be tackled so that there is more variety in the viable skills that players use to make the builds.
- Needs more bonus to max life. Maybe a default class bonus of 10% max life would work? I dunno…
- The unique items for the sorc seem very on point to me more than probably every other class other than SB. Especially with the Staff of Endless Rage and Gloves of the Illuminator. I very seriously think every class needs unique items as combos tuned like these two with the huge bonus to the Fireball skill, the attack speed/projectile speed boosts, and the high chance of Fireball getting cast twice. Having these type of uniques as a combo for a HotA barb would be amazing!
Necromancer
- Tried out a top tier melee build. It’s powerful but awkward. Feels sluggish trying to get all the skills to line up correctly and to get those moments to hit with a good amount of damage. Rogue has this issue as well that makes it less enjoyable to play smoothly. Feels like more attention to melee skills is needed so that we can really pull together some good melee build options here and not be so clunky with attack timing.
- Currently, the meta for Necromancers seems very boring to me. I almost get sleepy bored playing necro now because they became very minion oriented and it does not feel like it needs a lot of focus to do any combat. Almost set and forget kinda auto pilot thing. Needs more variety in the meta of builds and not sure where this can go but having a more melee-centric sword and board style combat build for this class would be great.
- Def feel like it needs more dps/defense/unique tuning all round.
- Found the Bone Spirit builds to be my style and absolutely the most fun I have in game in a while.
Rogue
- I thought the backwards movement for caltrops was getting removed? I absolutely hate this skill for how it makes combat movement so awkward for the class. It’s very different and maybe those that main rogue enjoy it but not me. It’s not a class I would ever play other than as an alt but I avoid any build that uses this skill because i hate it so much and if I look at the meta of builds, it feels like somehow this is a requirement for any decent Rogue build
- Still waaay too squishy and being forced to dodge and kite around so much is annoying. Why is it that even if my armor and all res are capped, I still get swatted down like a bug by all the same stuff that every other class mostly brushes off. Shouldn’t I be just as not squishy as the other classes if I have enough health? Why is Rogue such a pushover this way entirely? I wish this class was more like the D3 Demon Hunter and I keep forgetting that was not the Rogue completely. Man I miss sentries so much.
- The dps/toughness does not feel like it is at all where it should be.
- To me, this is by far the weakest class in the game. Def feels like it should have more high dps single target damage
- Feels like this class needs a default class bonus to HP overall like 20% Bonus to Hp if Barbs get a 20% bonus to damage reduction and 5% to armor. The rogues need a 5% to armor bonus too. Feel like Sorcs need a 15% bonus to health, 10% bonus to skill damage for sure or maybe 5/5% skill damage and armor. Druid could do with 10% bonus to HP, armor, and 5% to skill damage. Would do something similar for Necro like 15% to HP and 10% to damage reduction and 5% skill damage boost. Doe something along those lines for these classes and nothing but nerfs for SB and maybe the classes are closer to balanced.
Druid
- Feels like the minions here have not gotten enough love where as the only viable builds seem to be aoe element spell casting variants. Def feel like the shapeshifting builds needs to make a comeback as well.
- Again, dps/defense/uniques here is a big issue that deserves better tuning.
- Nothing terrible exciting drawing me to this class. Did Boulder Hurricane and that was pretty good. Just needs more boosts to the other playstyles and other elemental colabs.
Spiritborn
- left this for last because aside from the bug fixes and nerfs that are coming, some of the uniques need only some fine tuning to make sure they bring this one down just a little bit. At this point, a half decent geared SB can barrel through a pit 150 with ease while nothing else can. Other classes should be able to push just as high and I know balance comes in time so my hope is that it will eventually work out that way.
A few general notes…
Hordes
- Absolutely love this end game activity. So much so that I spend entirely too much time farming obducite and wish the drop rates were a little higher and the masterwork requirements for the top tier especially were lowered a little bit.
- Still think the idea for applying a statistical weight to the pull options would be helpful. Like if there are 6 or 7 categories of options (HB, AF, Elites, Spire, Masses, etc…), I think having it so that after 2 pulls from any 1 category you are 20% more likely to get an option from that category would help. Or maybe 1 guaranteed option from that category each round. Maybe after 4 or 5 pulls you have a 45% chance of getting 2 options from that category. Perhaps there is a possible compromise here between what the dev plan is and what I am describing like after every 2 pulls you get another 20% chance to guarantee 1 option from that category. I dunno, just feel as though having it be completely random what options you get each time is really annoying and speaks to how Blizzard games like D4 are sticking too much to gambling mechanics.
- Also feel like some of these options are just garbage and should be pulled out or changed for more aether related options. I do not care about getting bonus move speed or unlimited resource at all. Those options should be gone entirely. No one needs that in any way shape or form and they are a waste of choice when easily, there could be better options. Having these two taken out of rotation feels like it should make it easier to get the better white options early on when you want them like +50% faster event rate or raining aether at the start of each round. Speaking of garbage options, there’s not any need for the mandatory start of the wave aether mass option. That should go as well imho
- The best possible pull seems to be the +1 to HB spawns and +1 to HB aether drops. Feels like in the realm of multiplicative options, this one is by far top shelf! Feels like the math here is almost more like x2!+1 (when combined with other Hellbourne options) instead of 2x to all the other 2x multiplicative pull options.
- The options for invigorating HB is fun, but not good enough to make me want it every round and I feel like I should want it every round when it comes up. If the invigorating bonus created a bonus like a chance to double aether drop rate per kill as well, that would make this ideal all around every time it comes up. Maybe it also adds +1 HB when spawn as the real penalty.
- Not sure but I think there is a bug with the aether mass spawns aether fiend when killed pull too. Seems like it happens only every other mass kill or every 3 mass kill instead of what I think it is supposed to be which is every mass kill spawns an aether fiend
- Perhaps a lot of these complaints can be adjusted with a different approach?!? How about adding a fourth option to pull? Instead of pulling the only Monty Hall example, we take it up a notch? Think about adding the option to add a fourth pull and a way to earn the option to take multiple choices at the beginning of each round. Maybe even a way to summon a single bigger boss at the very end with the council? That seems like a cool twist that could make them less boring for farming. I wonder what items that boss could drop? Maybe this is how we get that Mephisto Wolf fight? We keep him stuck back at the gates of Hell after getting a real in game Mephisto fight with the story? That sounds hella cool! Mephisto and Lillith here potentially as well for a quick version or anywhere to get better multiple GA items? There could be a new pathway into hell to get mine Diablo appearing lol?
- For the love of god y’all… if you steal my pick while I am leading the party, even if it’s the one I want, I am kicking you out. Don’t take my play time away from me. I am trying to test options in phases for numbers and statistics. Hence why, it might seem odd that I keep picking 1 or 3 different options. It’s my party, I’ll kick you if I want to. Including if you have an offensive name. I will report someone for everything including terrorism related names. Sue me if you get reported. Bring it! You may not like it but I will only allow you two chances. The first offense is on you. The second is on me if you deserve to get a second chance.
- Included a video of Hordes recently on my youtube page. In the description I went into maybe a 2nd and 7th inning stretch idea that in my head works really well. Put the hellfire boost as a post 2nd wave bonus automatically. Then after the 7th round, that’s when it spawns the invigorating hellspawn with whatever bonus you select in addition to the hell fire bonus from the 2nd round. Then all hellborne spawn with invigorating bonus maybe for rounds 8,9, and 10? That sounds awesome.
Pit
- Pit seems great and I got used to the cut off being level 150 now. I like the way that 100-150 is pretty much just sandbox play for only the most bugged builds but eventually, I would love to see every class be able to hit that 150 mark without having to resort to bugged build options that lead to a buying/trade frenzy for certain items. Paying attention to the trading market was bonkers this season because of the SB bugs and for some reason, some idiot went and bragged that he was ‘the best d4 player in the world’ lying that he didn’t use bugged builds or didn’t buy items when he didn’t even know his build was super bugged! It was super obvious that he could only have gotten all the gear he needed that early in the season if he bought/traded for it all! Shocking that the guy was lying so badly, I know! Man that guy is a total idiot!
- For the love of all that is good and holy y’all! If you are doing a party listing for top tier pit runs, and you do not specify that your party is ‘same class only’ or really ‘exclusive to SB’, no one should be being a jerk and kicking out people that are trying to get carried. It only takes 2 half decent SB to rush through a 125 or so super fast. If you are one of those players, you do not need the help from other classes and you should totally let other players sit in the party to level up to 300 or get their glyphs maxed. For real! No one needs to be getting mad that a rogue or a druid or a necro or whatever else is there trying to get that good xp. Let em! No need to kick people out of pit groups. Especially if you do not specify ‘same class only’. Don’t be a jerk people! Being a jerk and kicking people out of groups or getting mad in game because other players want to get carried in pit is pretty much the antithesis of all the themes of the game, classes, and overall story of Diablo. Group play, fair play, and helping other players in friendly ways should always be encouraged!
Dark Citadel
- Really like the new raid stuff here. This is a great addition to the game. There are a few tweaks needed still…
- The drop rates for coins are ultra low for the rewards and it makes them super boring to spam back to back. In order to not bore people with forcing them to farm these so many times, the coin drop rate should be at least doubled.
- Cosmetic drop rate should be significantly higher here as well.
- 2/3 of the raid halls are super awkward to try to spam over and over given the complexity of the halls, but having so many one hit kill attacks and fast killing poison like ground effects, in one or the other makes it super annoying for party play. Feel like some of the zone switching though gateways could still be easier as well. Maybe making the boss fight gateways a good bit bigger could be super helpful to avoid some issues.
- Hopefully the next set of raids designed in game will be less complicated and have less teleportation back and forth between realms so much. I don’t mind it in small doses like to change a zone here or there but it’s just a bit too much for me for this type of game to go back and forth, and then back and forth over and over in a zone, and then again in a boss fight.
- The darkness maze portions are a cool feature though. I like that.
Undercity
- Think this is another great addition this season. love the ultra fast end game activity.
- The drop rates for the ancestral legendary items and unique tributes should be higher imo. Feels like with the boons, there should be significantly higher drop rates for multiple ga items here.
- The options for plus to skill gear and plus to passive amulets should be buffed too. I did one ancestral legendary tribute for a passive ammy and got one pointless one that wasn’t a ga while I got four rings in the same run that were all single ga. If this is the only way we have to farm the ultra rate 2 passive ga ammys, we have a good bit more tweaks to work on here to get those dropping! Right now, its just not specific enough to ensure that these legendary boon options are actually working as intended and dropping anything of actual value. Far too little reward with the opportunity cost of a tribute and selecting the boon.
- Feels as though there needs to be additional options with regards to the boons to change all the drops into runes or herbs or boss mats if we do not want the items so much. Especially for later in the season when we start running out of things like certain crafting mats such as veiled crystal and rawhide. Given that mostly non-ancestral items drop here, it seems like a waste of time past a point when I want to have a quick farming experience for all the other things that I need as well.
Gauntlet
- Bring this back asap! This was a much enjoyed weekly event that was a lot of fun to really push.
- Def need it to be improved so that so many people don’t bug it and cheese the system to death just to get that top ten on your platform award. For those that don’t know, the only thing you win with that is internet clot and nothing more.
Helltides
- Forgot to add that Helltides seem pretty dang perfect atm.
- Maybe we need a new chest here for all boss mats now that the living steel chests are gone
- Thinking that the drop rates for multiple ga items are too low overall and could be higher in HT than anywhere else, just as a added bonus
- Also, side note, people do not seem to realize that when it comes to the Blood Maiden event (and a lot of others like this in game), perhaps the most fun way to play is to remain in the center of the ritual and not chase the spawns around in the circle. Letting them come to you and everyone together in the center saves a lot of effort and it makes it like a little Avengers:AoU assembling for the final battle type of moment. Super fun!
- Maybe this is where a Mephisto fight could come in? Who knows? Maybe a way take this up to the next level and Lillith and Mephisto could have a higer chance to drop Multiple GA items?
Remaining General notes…
- Feel like we need a few new whispers options in the grand scale of things. It can get a bit boring doing whisper cache farming. It would be better to have a few new 5 whisper bounties and a few more of the 1 or 3 whisper ones as well. I do mean separate from seasonal whispers.
- Gold cost rates need to be ultra lowered still. Seems like the game is hell-bent on trying to stick with the gambling mechanics in addition to try to make all of us use gold farming services as well. Does Blizz not care if people buy in game gold through 3rd parties? Seems like they are encouraging it by keeping the in game gold economy so bad!
- Runes feel ok. I like the ability to get other class’s boosts like War Cry or Decrypify. There seems to be an extreme amount of them and they could be dialed back on the quantity while the quality also needs to be adjusted a little as most seem to be worthless for anything other than crafting mythics or into other runes
- Really need some way to keep some crit masterwork bonus’ and remove 1 or two but not all by default as the only options. The gambling mechanics here are the worst in the game where it is a 1/64 chance to trip crit and in practice, this has been at times impossible to get. I’ve burned through a stack of over 250k obducite before without getting more than 1 trip crit when I needed to get closer to 8-11 with that pile. Really frustrating given how long it took to get that many!
- The only other gambling mechanic as bad as Masterworking in game is the enchanting at the occultist. That should be tuned as well with some sort of update to make it easier to get the rolls you want instead of sitting there for 30 minutes trying to get that 1 extra ammy passive skill roll. Why is it that those are the hardest to get when that’s the only rolls anyone actually wants on ammys? Kinda feels like Blizz wants to encourage everyone to buy dupped items on the black market because they make these incredibly rare items next to impossible to get
- The microtransactions of the shop for cosmetic items are still ridiculously too expensive. Feels like price gauging for what you get and we need better options for cosmetic wings and things too. Would love to have more colors and more variety of these like dragon wings or whatever. Maybe they even don’t all have to be wings. You could use background effects for that back item slot like purple smoke or a super Saiyan glow or something
- The Blacksmith legendary caches should have two options. One for under 60 that is more regular legendary items (like the current option is) and a 60 and up version that has a much greater chance for GA items or multiple GA items. Having these current caches be a level 60 option only is pointless when they drop nothing of value to us at that level
- The alchemist summoning items recipe… feels like we a need a more 1:1 conversion option to turn say living steel into malignant hearts. Kinda feels like how they are now is less than ideal with the ladder bosses for target farming but having the options we currently have in addition to the added options I mention above would be great
- Realmwalkers are cool but very underwhelming as a season mechanic. Opals are a great add tho. This season was clearly all about VoH and SB and encouraging all players to buy gold and duped items
- I agree with the poster who wants to bring back capstone dungeons. The dungeons were good and unique enough to still have value to add to the game now even without having separate world tiers. I think these dungeons could be easily added back in with new purpose like dropping specific items, or just a higher chance of ancestral or multiple GA drops or hiding ultra rare cosmetic items.
- Added edited in side note here… Personally, I do not care what the 'overall opinion of the community is. These notes are MY notes for the devs and not about being in line with public opinion. IDGAF if my opinion matches up with someone’s perception of the ‘overall community opinion’. I am not a robot or some chat gpt bs or some PR firm agent hired by Blizzard. F that noise! I’m just a dude who loves Diablo and happens to work with AAA game devs through forum posts to help make the game better for all!
- Thanks for all the great work making the game devs! Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays to all this holiday season! Thank you for giving me xmas year round in D4 and using so many of my ideas from all my feedback posts!
Side note:
Want to give a shout out to anyone still reading these long posts to say thanks for being apart of this with me! If you recognize my name from other games, or have met me irl, hmu in game and let me know when you have seen me out there or if we’ve met before! Shout out to everyone who remembers me from D3 as one of the original Bic Mac Barbs and big ups to my biggest fan (you know who you are)! Thank you for showing up and sorry for missing you in game the night you reached out to me after I found that 4 GA Tyrael’s Might! HMU again please! Would be great to catch up again sometime soon and hopefully we can make good on all our missed connections!
Looking forward to the new goblin xmas event in 2 days time and cannot wait until Season 7! Thanks again devs and happy holidays everyone!
*This was edited extensively to make fun of trolls and to clarify some details, adding others, and making sure to correct typos and grammatical errors. I like to write. So sue me!
itemization & skills
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