I play on eternal and strictly play hardcore otherwise the game experience would not be exciting enough for me.
Im not sure why, maybe there have been changes I am not aware of, but after the recent patch the power level of my characters should not have changed drastically.
I ran the usual content I was able to deal with pre patch and even though I hadnt changed my setup and my defences were capped, I somehow managed to get 1 shot by a lightning dmg aoe from a Mothers judgement boss in a NM dungeon, while casting incincerate which gives me 20% DR and causes burning enemies to deal 30% less dmg. This is not something that I had issues with pre patch and dying to a 1 shot that I was able to tank before is not a great experience.
Something doesnt feel right and I cant bring myself to play on any of my hardcore characters now, for fear that they will be squishy and dying to 1 shots out of nowhere. I dont see how it is justified to be taking to much dmg from 1 hit when my builds have capped out on defenses and DR.
Its really not worth my time leveling up new characters just to reach the same stage in the game where upgrades are scarce and not increasing my power level enough for me to push higher tier content. The whole experience is just a grind with no gratification.
Every major patch has significant changes for every class now. I donât know exactly what changed in regard to your build, but itâs vital to read patch notes and adjust build/gear with each season start. All my eternal characters lost power with this patch, and that will probably continue.
This is why leaderboards/armory are so important, at least your geared hardcore chars best progress would of been saved even if your char dies. Then you can try improve on that progress with the next char.
I understand that. But letâs say you donât know anything about diablo. letâs say your not a hardcore (not the mode but the mentality) gamer. You just like to sit back on your couch and fire up the console for some good times a night or two a week. None of those people are going to put up with this type of gaming experience where you are required to do actual research just to play a game.
And yeah, sure, you could say âthen this game isnât for themâ. But Blizz is already having problems with player retention across all of thier games. They need to cater more to the casual to keep stuff alive. And D4 was supposed to be that. And it is as far as gameplay is concerned. Itâs simple and easy to pick up and just bash some monsters for fun.
But, You will never attract and keep new players if you require them to even know that a patch has happened. Much less require them to read 5 pages of notes ever few months. So the game slowly dies because new players quit pretty quick after their hard earned work is bricked and/or they are required to do research to play a game. So the veterans stick around till they get tired of the game (or, as in my case, start to tire of the constant âwell now I have to start over on this char Iâve been working for months onâ and it dies quietly.
Blizzard makes far more money from people who play every season/buy all battle passes/buy shop items than they do from 1-2 night a week console couch players. They have made all theyâre going to make from those types and donât care about them any more.
Where did you get the idea that D4 was supposed to be casual? The initial design was anything but casual. Itâs moved more in that direction, but it was not the original intent.
I got the idea that it was a casual game because compared to other recent arpgâs it is about as simple as it could possibly get. Itâs a dumbed down version of all previous diablos going all the way back to d2. It doesnât take 2 brain cells to play it. Heck ⌠torchlight is more complicated than D4.
Your still looking at it from a hardcore gamer, âend gameâ viewpoint. But, a true casual will never care about the endgame. They are happy to wack a few monsters over the head, get some loot, and level a little bit with vry little time and effort. Not get to 100 in a day and do pit 200. And d4 delivers that in spades (and has since day 1).
Youâre ignoring what I said about Blizzard focusing on the most profitable players. Having the most total players doesnât result in the highest revenue any more - itâs having a big group of players that spend the most. Blizzard doesnât care about couch console casuals.
Sadly for the OP, Blizzard also doesnât care about eternal only players. They want everyone playing seasons.
D3 is far more competitive than D4 in itâs current state. A lot of the best players in D3 (That are not content creators) players havenât moved over to D4 yet because no armory or leaderboards exist.
Nobody said anything about competition. WPMac claimed D4 is less complicated than D3, which is completely false. From a gearing and build perspective, D3 is far simpler.
This conversation is moot. It literally doesnât matter.
The game is going to change regularly.
The game is going to have patch notes.
Many (most?) players look forward to these patches and notes.
Itâs not difficult to keep up.
and above all: if you are playing Hardcore mode, I donât care if you memorized the patch notes: The day of the patch, cut your difficulty to half of what youâre used to and work your way back up. That two hours of testing the water is a hell of a lot less than the 40 hours to re-level and re-gear your toon.
I do empathize with the dude that lost his Hardcore toon. That sucks. Trust me, I know the gut-punch feeling. I feel for him.
But like every death in Hardcore, you gotta learn from it and never make that âmistakeâ again, whether you feel like it was your fault or you feel like itâs something dumb that you have to be aware of. Thatâs part of Hardcore.
Good luck out there. Get back in the saddle. You got this.
Thatâs kind of a weird take. Why wouldnât you read patch notes on a game youâre playing? They almost always bring changes. And theyâre right on the website.