This issue will get a lot worse with the introduction of more “time relevant” content, where you need to do stuff in a certain timespan.
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Exactly. One thing I have learned in life is different people learn differently. Some really just wanna follow and some really just wanna lead (regardless of intentions–bad or good).
I prefer to do things my way but I also like reading and researching a lot ahead of time and that means getting exposed to how others play their own way.
Some people really just wanna be sheep and it all depends on the activity. There are some work stuff IRL that I just wanna be a sheep because I can’t bother wasting my brain cells thinking of things that don’t matter to me.
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At the end of the day, the game is not complex enough to have different outcome.
If you sit down and start optimizing your build, you will most likely come out with the meta build.
I’m sick of people thinking they are better because they chose a trash build. You are not better for choosing a worse build, your stress dubbing doing things inefficiently. Frankly that ain’t even a bad thing, but you being condescending af is.
It’s also an incentive and an early indicator as well to notice if something’s wrong. So it’s a blessing in disguise actually 
This so much. I recently had to redo the renown and altars for HC and while there are a few interesting locales sprinkled in, there is zero that leaves a person with a sense of awe. In Elden Ring or Skyrim I couldn’t wait to see what lay around the next corner, here I just want to rush through to the gist as quickly and painlessly as possible.
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Best part: not paying attention to streamers and still building out a meta toon, and all by your lonesome.
My poison/crit build, that I made WEEKS ago, is scattered all about YT.
Look at Theo flexing! “I make my own builds. Screw metas!”
I can’t speak for everyone, but I don’t want to test interactions between dozens of skills to see what works best. I don’t want to theorycraft itemization pros and cons. I certainly don’t want to have to actually do math to have a capable character in a game I play as entertainment.
I get enough work at work. Streamers do the game “work” for me so I don’t have to. If you enjoy it, do it yourself. Good luck with your non-meta build.
I pick my class and the playstyle that seems fun and capable. I’ve always played melee types with an occasional archer class thrown in, so barbarians and rogues it is. Rob makes me laugh in his videos because he’s like a kid in a candy store, so I generally use his builds.
Am I a dirty meta user? Yes. Yes I am.
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I agree with you. I see no reason to cheat your way through a game. However, i also know there are a lot of people that really cant figure things out and must follow others so they can do what they need to do.
To come up with the builds that really push the limits you need to do a LOT of theorycrafting. That involves a lot of math and knowing behind the scenes of how some systems work.
That’s not enjoyable for everyone. If you enjoy doing all the math and knowing the game under the table, then by all means. But don’t criticize people who are not into that. People have different tastes. Doing so would be borderline pedantic.
It is true that you don’t NEED to have a build that really pushes the limit. But if you want to push the limit, at some point during your journey you will have to migrate to one of those, which, again, can be crafted by yourself if you are into all the extra outside of game math and whatnot, or you can find one that people who are into that crafted.
So after saying this, I fail to see the point of your post. Unless it is merely to be peda- I mean, yeah. I don’t see your point.
Time time time , not everyone has time to find builds sitting dozens of hours checking staff, a lot players are with families , work etc… streamer giving them the knowledge fast so they can play and have fun.
Ooh, I know. You should share one of your original, successful builds and share your mad pit clear videos. Demonstrate the power of the non-Meta!
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I didnt go over all builds that have been released by Raxx and Wudijo but most of them that I did see were flawed.
Look at the last build on Raxx Youtube (Spiritborn Jaguar leveling build). It has a lot more potential, but sadly Raxx doesn’t really understand this genre good enough to bring it to the top.
While the build isn’t bad and should be decent for 99% of the players, I personally wouldn’t use that build because the one I created is a lot better.
So if you want you can take the shortcut and copy the builds but do make sure to adjust them again because they aren’t really the best duo to lack of knowledge or skill issues on their part.
I can’t stress enough, I am not saying Raxx is bad. He just isn’t the “God” of ARPGs others make him. He is at best decent.
Just copy that build and have a blast, but don’t be suprised if others (me) will just make a better build out of it.
First of all you shouldn’t
Secondly what you do and commit to should be decent but have pros and cons (and anything and everything else as well)
Thirdly if there is such thing as a “meta” - it should not overshadow everything by double, tripple, quadruple digit numbers (i.e. factors), just allowing such discrepancy is awfully dishonest in the first place
Yes, sometimes people “sabotage” their own builds by not doing their synergy’s best but that shouldn’t leave them behind by a double-digit factor, should be 30% or 40% weaker build, not 400% weaker
THAT has always been the issue with this game, since it’s inception, and they NEVER addressed this nor attempted to (arguably until now but even that is questionable)
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They’re not going to. Look at the relationship they have with streamers.
Almost any game I’ve ever played had optimal builds. The more complex the skill trees, interactions, and stats the harder it is to produce an optimal toon.
If players thought a meta would give them a 30 or 40% advantage, they would go with the meta. I don’t believe the size of the disparity is going to matter to those who want to min/max, and many of those who don’t may not get into end game content to any large extent.
The point of my post is that it’s funny to me to see people look down their nose at anyone use a dirty meta build. Play how you want. Enjoy what you enjoy. I’ll take my 400% advantage any day of the week… lol
I just BBC everything. How you do something, is how you do anything.
Most the points I would make have already been made above. Personally, I alternate between trying my own thing and using pre-made builts.
I will say this for streamers though: Whether I am using their builds or not, I watch their stuff because in this game, they are usually my only source for knowing if a skill is even working or not. I don’t have the time or interest in trying to test every passive node, skill affix etc and Blizzard does not typically let me know which skills aren’t working at all. Streamers tend to test all these things, let me know what’s not working and also send a report off to Blizzard to hopefully fix.
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I agree with this part of what you said…but there is no need to force others to play how you want to play. There doesn’t need to be a negative side to this, some people have less time or feel like they are rushed to get to some point in the game.
People who enjoy making builds, will.
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You see nothing wrong with that except those things you “despise” here are core concepts of the genre.
So follwing a guide is kinda like a using “solutions” to complete a riddle.
You basicly say, i wanna solve this riddle but i am to lazy to think about the puzzle so i just look for the correct solution and just write it in.
EVEN that wouldn’t be an issue if not so many would do it to the point blizzard is taking this behavior into consideration when creating content.
Basicly forcing people to read the solutions before they are even allowed to start solving the riddle.
This was already a turning point for wow.
Back in the day there where no guide. Bosses where relatively simple mechanicly, but you had to do certain things to beat em.
Then with more and more time and more and more people using stuff like 3 party tools to make fights easier blizzard reacted by making the bosses more and more complex. Then they introduced there own “Solutions” right into the game, you can literaly look at a guide to see what the boss does and what you in your role (tank,DD,healer) have to do. Cause of this the bosses became so complex you basicly can’T do em without a guide.
I don’T want diablo to go the same way.
I can see it in 2-3 years. You wanna do a dungeon.
First there is a gear check. If you pass, you need to open a “guidance” book to look up the 27 mechanics the boss does and you need to do “EXACTLY” what the guide tells you to do. Then you defeat the boss and get a “Certain” item pushing your gearscore for a few numbers and you go to the next dungeon where you follow your next “GUIDANCE”
Yes i am exagerating here, probably will not happen to diablo, but i personaly despise people using a guide for everything from day 1. I realy don’t get the idea to play a game about theorycrafting and grinding and then complain all day about exactly those 2 things to the point the developer will shape the game into a borderline boring ride on rails except for the last 1% of content that is the only interesing content left but also it is only solvable for meta users.
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Why does this bother you?
You don’t get to play your own way. Specifically no one is going to accept you into the party if you are not Spiritborn since they literally as documented do 10 times more damage than other classes.