I’m semi-casual, ie: I play more than I assume casual people play, but I don’t min-max per se (maybe 1 or 2 stats, depending) and I’m not sitting on 300hrs+ hours after 3 weeks. I have a few rules for myself in D4. I can sell gear (for gold), but I will never buy gear, same for runes and gems (I am ok with trading runes and gems). This is just because a big point of playing D4 for me is, actually playing it. I’m not trying to push 110+ Pit and even if I was, I’d rather use gear I find than buy it for gold (I want to make clear that I’m not judging or belittling the people that do buy gear and runes, etc, my point is that I’m putting time and luck into getting this gear, it’s not just acquired through buying an item).
My goal in D4, is to have fun; to do this I mess with different specs per character and different characters per season. Once I can down a boss in T4 (duriel or belial) with minimal effort or run through a Pit 90, I consider my character done or baked and then look forward to playing another specialization or character. While the repetition isn’t great, I accept that this is a big part of how ARPGs work and I think this is a good game, otherwise I wouldn’t be playing.
That being said, here are some materials and QoL changes that might feel nice for the community. BTW, I’m enjoying the season so far. I’ve read a lot of the complaints and I do agree with some, but as it is, I think some small changes could go a long way for the time being, until major ones can be made.
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Tempering is harsh, atm. Even NOT min-maxing or trying to hit maximum on a temper, I find that I can easily brick gear. While I think having some risk is good, shelfing 2 or 3 star gear is rough.
My suggestion: either add more tempers to begin with, adding 2 or 3 PER star/GA, increasing gold or mat cost considerably per scroll used, maybe allow 1 more scroll use or change tempering groups so the results are similar and not completely spec busting. Perhaps some combination of this. -
The Obducite grind is a cruel one. I think the last I read it was something like 58xx to get from 1-12, of course not including the resets to items that just make sense or are necessary. Again, not necessarily trying to min max something but get even say 70+% chance to cast twice or damage reduction, so a yellow hit even vs. an orange. I don’t know if it’s because this is aimed at the more hardcore crowd who I’ve seen are willing to run Infernal Horde for 3+ hours at a time but this isn’t me…I will burn out.
My suggestion: Allow ladder bosses, lair bosses and unique items to drop a bit of the thing. I think that will fix a lot. I don’t want to be forced into running hours of hordes, undercity or nightmare dungeons to get enough of the stuff in an hour to get a yellow hit on one item due to terrible luck. I’ve sit there and spent 30k on an item and again, like tempering, it doesn’t feel good. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the nightmare dungeon upgrades and I enjoy these activities in general, I just don’t like being pigeonholed into doing them for the material. It would feel more natural (and just make sense) if it also dropped from gear and what better gear than unique. -
Seasonal quest rep and rewards need to go back to Season 8 levels. Season 8 has been the only season where I played all the classes and I am realizing now that it had much to do with the amount of rep and rewards that everything gave. The rep was immense and this lead to lots of those boxes and within those boxes, gear that quickly outfitted my alts. I had a lot of fun and I think I lasted almost all season. I stopped maybe 2 weeks before the end - this is a first. Now, you’ve nerfed this into oblivion. Phial dungeons are almost useless now because the rep they give are, calling it garbage would be kind. The only thing they are/were good for is maxing powers. Why take this away from players?
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A storage chest and blacksmith anvil, perhaps a portable one would be nice. With all of the issues people are having with the game, I’m seeing people drop items all over the boss floors, which can get really annoying. Some do it in the hallways which is more acceptable but it shouldn’t be necessary. I believe they do this because some folks will start the boss fight while someone is gone to sell/store but more so I think it’s because a lot of folks are having issues with the game disconnecting or crashing when people portal a lot. I had this issue with my AMD 6700XT on the newest driver at the time a month or so a go and also last season and almost every single time I was in a group and teleported out of a boss dungeon, my game dropped to a stuck phase and I’d have to exit and come back. I am solid now on drivers I’m on (old drivers: 25.3.1). I dare not try 25.6.1 which is out now.
My suggestion is to either equip boss rooms with a “storage backpack” or “rusted anvil” that could work for in-game story purposes OR allow us to buy portable versions of these things that last for 15m or 30m or whatever. -
Allow Strongholds to be automatically liberated when creating a seasonal character once it has already been done in a season, like completed renown. As far as I can tell, there’s really no use/point in doing them again. I love that they removed having to do the lvl 25 quests, etc. I love the bird in towns. I know, super nasty lazy to be asking this as they are quite fast, especially once geared but I have found that I never do them unless forced somehow (like Tul Dura this season) and due to this I’m sure I’m missing some dungeons.
Sorry for the wall of text.
Thanks and good job on the game so far.
