This season is an improvement for sure.
But there are still some things that are demoralizing enough that need fixing.
Premise for the Devs reading this:
The game is not hyper competitive in a PVP zero sum sense…in other words, i lose nothing by other players having an easier time finding BIS for their build premise.
The game at its best should be a creative one … encouraging and rewarding trying different build combos past lvl 100.
Therefore - Get your player engagement and play time from adding new items, aspects, paragon boards and and glyphs. Make it tolerable/attractive to create and try a few different BIS builds per season in a reasonable amount of time… vs blindly grinding to find BIS to match the top 1 or 2 meta builds, with very real the possibility of never getting there.
Problems:
- The Blind Grind to find BIS gear past lvl 100 hurts. Usefull 3-GA drops are way too sparse and seem to be weighted against useful combos (favoring resistance, life per sec) And since it is random, there is a sense that it could take 1000 hours just to improve one slot in your end game.
- Tempering Limits are completely demoralizing, given the weighting against good tempers and the rarity of good GA items to try them on. Again, this compounds the sense that it could take 1000 hours to improve a single slot in the end game.
- The Pit Bosses need a hard reduction in One Shot and mysterious deadly lair mechanics…At least up to Level 90 or so. The current bosses make it so reaching a fully masterworked endgame, there is only 1 or 2 viable build for each class (mostly biased towards keeping your distance).
- Storage Space still too limited unless you are strictly following just one online build guide (which im sure is not what you devs want us doing).
Here are my suggestions:
#1 Allow Direct Improvement of Existing Affixes (before Masterworking) by sacrificing Similar Items + paying gold and Mats. Especially on Uniques.
Currently the grind to get an avalanche of semi-ok items, looking for the 1 best in slot drop per 100 hours is not tight. Instead of having me get 10 mediocre Tempest Roars, let me melt the extras down to improve the Affixes on the chosen one.
Let me melt down 10 chest pieces with +Max Life to make the one i want to use upgrade to a Greater Affix in that stat. This solves the grind for gear slog and will greatly help with the storage space problem.
#2 Add a Tempering Reset or an increasing Gold Penalty for Rolls after 5, and remove the clear weighting bias against whichever is the popular meta This just has to happen if you want people to keep pushing for best in slot in the end game…Most casual players cant stomach having their 3-GA item that it took 200 hours to get become useless because it failed to get the critical temper that makes the build work…they will just quit after it wifs.
#3 Tone Down those Pit Bosses up til level 90 or so.
If i can waltz through a lvl 100 NMD, i should be able to clear a level 60 pit…I have everything i need to be able to do it, but the one shots and one shot lair mechanics are out of control…and at least 50% of the deaths it’s not even clear what gets you because they are all over the place. If i run in to an obvious fireball or a spike wave, i accept that, but to dodge an weave for 10 minutes and then randomly explode from some unseen thing when the boss is at 1/4 health… thats not cool at level 60. There are 2 to 3 bosses where people just quit when they see them, that should be a balance red flag. This problem currently narrows the viable builds to reach end game (full masterwork) to just the top 1 or 2 META per class, which compounds the dissatisfaction with gear drops and tempering limits. Make it easier to complete Pits up into the 80s, then make it as insane as you want after that.
Other Nice to Haves:
- Increase Storage Space and add filtering and OR make an in game auction house
Thanks for reading,
I’m rooting for you and the game.
-Derp