Skill cooldowns in an Action RPG?

PC General Discussion
1

Edited 20 characters

122 Likes
2

I too feel the cooldowns can be a little extreme at times.

17 Likes
3

I agree on the cooldowns, but I wish I could get a slower paced arpg dungeon crawler, lije D1 with modern amenities, graphics and deeper mechanics. Not that I don’t appreciate faster paced stuff too, I like both, but one tends to get more representation.

4 Likes
4

cooldowns never belonged in diablo and were only introduced because they had Jay Wilson (the lead for world of warcraft) take over the d3 project after they fired the entirety of blizzard north.
Cooldowns are an MMO mechanic.
6 second cooldowns are one thing, but 45-60 second cooldowns for ultimate abilities is a little stupid, considering they only last for 6-10 seconds as it is.

60 Likes
5

For balance and variety. If Ultimates were 3 second CD’s all you’d ever do is spam ultimates. If nothing has a CD then you only ever use your highest damage ability and nothing else.

17 Likes
6

Lower Cooldowns, raise the number of mobs. That would make a much better fast paced gameplay.

I guess Blizzard wanted D4 to run on washing machines or calculators so they lowered mob numbers to 3, or 4.

Diablo 3 was way better paced.

14 Likes
7

“Just do what ChatGPT says.” - Suits

9 Likes
8

You’re starting to see that we’re playing a mobile game. :slight_smile:

9 Likes
9

it’s quite simple.

Because blizzard can no longer do anything that doesn’t look like WoW

31 Likes
10

Nailed it. (20 characters…)

5 Likes
11

The mobs population spread reminds me of Black Desert Mobile. Even the way they are despersed in the desert its almost similar.

U got a point there.

2 Likes
12

This is part of a set of vicious cycles theses types of games have, it set a high expectation, high reward cycle. When the reward is given, micro doses of dopamine is released and the player is forcibly set into a high expectation for the next dose, resetting the cycle.

Similarly to this is the unique & legendary drops. A partially similar behavior is also present in Butcher encounters, that’s more related to adrenaline rather than dopamine.

Vicious cycles make the game pace, Blizzard want’s you to play the game for longer periods of time so they have time to create new seasons in order to get (more of) your money, and micro doses of hormones is one of the best ways to achieve this.

3 Likes
13

3 seconds is different than 60.
You can tell because the number is bigger.

13 Likes
14

This is completely true. But (from the Sorc perspective) when mana costs are so high, you end up running and dodging and kiting for quite a bit of time til things cool off and you can use them again. 45 - 60 second cool downs seem a bit extreme.

6 Likes
15

Now sell tokens you can use instead of escalating millions of gold for rerolls on a cash shop, along with movement speed and xp boost ‘elixirs’, damage boost ‘incense’, special keys that boost the loot in silent chests, and special ‘legendary nightmare sigils’ that open dungeons with better loot tables.

They’re just waiting for the people who are smart enough to see they’ve been bait and switched to leave to introduce the mobile/p2w.

3 Likes
16

Rewind to Diablo 3.
Blizzard’s biggest market: WoW subs.
Developers biggest influence: School of WoW and Moba’s - LoL/Dota.
Design: Gen/Spend, Buff/Debuff, Ulti cycle.

That game to this day… In New Tristram it feels like I’m in a WoW inspired gfx setting and/or in a LoL town. Running ‘Lanes’ in a solo experience.

That was their whole design model, target audience and inspiration as well as ‘what they knew’ - They based/sold their game as an Arpg surface only - otherwise it was WoW/Moba style at its core. It’s night and day to Diablo 1 & 2.

Also - I don’t think that game was ever meant to be a ‘Catch’. They didn’t want to lose WoW subs. It was more of a ‘break from WoW, play this a bit, back to WoW’.

As a result we forever have that ‘core design philosophy’ with Diablo moving forward.
Not saying whether it’s good or bad - it’s just obvious where it came from.

14 Likes
17

Because what makes these games fun is solving the problems the game presents. Not enough mana? Get more ways to generate mana. Cooldowns too long? Get ways to reduce them. As you do, you get more powerful.

Would you rather than every ability be a resource less basic ability?

4 Likes
18

The devs all came from WoW, don’t play ARPGs, and only know how to design MMO-style combat.

14 Likes
19

It’s an ultimate, it deals two times the damage of your core skill every 1 minute. It’s EPIIIIIC!

2 Likes
20

Night and day to every ARPG.

Diablo 1/2 = spammable fast-paced abilities, few cooldowns
Torchlight1/2 = spammable fast-paced abilities, few cooldowns
Grim Dawn = spammable fast-paced abilities, few cooldowns
POE = spammable fast-paced abilities, few cooldowns

D3 = mostly spammable fast-paced abilities (but the ultimates and CDs are creeping in)

D4 = builders and spenders, tons of cooldowns and ultimate abilities like MMO/MOBA (???)

15 Likes