(Apologies in advance for the editing, not sure why the fonts are random colours)
Hi all, here is my Season 6 VOH feedback from a semi blaster pov:
**Pit**
New glyph system is basically D3 Legendary Gems 2.0 and the Pit system is essentially D3 Greater Rifts 2.0
Glyphs have alot of power, but in so doing, incentivise you to push up to 100. I think 100-150 is just for glory / bragging rights. I'm guessing only super bugged builds will get there anyway.
Desert Map layout is really nice, being able to spawn the pit boss in a single level feels good / cool. Would like to see more open maps like this, even ones that are completely open like Fields of Misery in D3. And instead of having just 100% progression on the first floor, it should have like 150% so you dont need to kill EVERY mob.
Same with the new map layouts in general, I feel like for the first time ever, I've gotten to a dead end with nothing to kill and had to backtrack to a previous level to get more progression. The pits should just have more density / monsters. And less dead ends (make them loop!).
Playing the Bloodwave + Blood Artisans Cuirass build with maps that have long straight corridors felt really good / cool. I do wish there was a way to tone down spell effects / opacity on your own spells so you can see the floor once in a while though.
This is particularly evident on Blood Maiden events during Helltide (HT). Wheres the floor, all I see are jaguars and quill volleys from our Spiritbros lol.
Please add a splash screen with your 'completion time' after each pit. Would be nice to see your best time somewhere too, like a stats page. Which could then follow on into a much needed / much requested leaderboard system.
The stacking debuff caps at 3 now (unless I'm super lucky?). Which I think is a good change. If not please add!
**Loot Filter**
Been asking for 6 seasons in a row (and also since beta, so I guess thats 7 now), please can we get a loot filter in diablo 4?
Legendaries become superseded like 2-12 hours into your journey (depending on play time / skill / luck), and all you care about are Greater Affix aka 'Ancestral' Items. Also you dont just want ANY Ancestrals, you need to look for specific stats. Personally i just keep all of them and (manually) filter out the bad ones once my stash gets full.
But regardless a loot filter will make it more manageable. Please also add the functionality to AUTO SALVAGE legendaries and unwanted ancestrals beyond a certain point in end-game. Thank you.
Would be omega awesome if instead of auto salvage, we could choose to auto-sell items that are cut-off by the filter as well. After a certain point it is not worthwhile to salvage items (once you get enough mats), but rather vendor them for gold.
**Mercs**
Mercs are cool and the short stories were nice. I would like to see more customisation, with the ability to TURN OFF their CC in favour of dmg or buffs. Just like D3 you dont want mercs cc'ing stuff and putting YOUR CC on DR.
Varyana still has some placeholder (PH) icons / tooltips. Also Raheir's bastion ability doesnt work with "when you get cc'd", when choosing him as a reinforcement etc. Was too scared to test it with "when you're injured" lol. (Not HC but still dont like to die / be that low=P). Also according to some streamers his bastion applies to tormented bosses (untested).
Their damage is a little underwhelming. I think right now (~ 1 week into the season) their main purpose is as a buff bot or debuff bot (dmg, movement speed, atkspd, vulnerable etc etc). We were promised that they would scale with our character, but honestly they are worse than a single skeletal warrior. Same applies to CONDUIT shrine / pylon.
Personally I think its to do with them not having aspects / modifiers, but thats just a theory.
The little hideout is pretty cool and has everything you need, except a JC. Not sure why. The JC chest thing is actually a vendor. Move the vendor to the NPC in the middle and make this a JC station (craft gems / gear etc).
Also as a side note, the favourite WP / Town is nice. But I would like to see some stuff added:"
- Key Towns / WP's should have their own TP keybind (or mousewheel action or ideally both): E.g. Tree of Whispers (for whisper turn in's), Cerrigar (for Pits) etc etc etc
- For example you may want to set your 'hearth' to Kurast because its the new big hub in the new zone. But you do a whisper during a HT and then you still need to manually move your map all the way over to the tree to hand in. In that time you could get mobs spawn on you and die, or get hellfire rained on you and die.
- Another suggestion would be to add a 'TP to Tree of Whispers' button once your whispers are full, but it needs to be on the main screen UI otherwise if its on the map, you cant see your character / life globe and risk death
- Alternatively you could also just make all portalling out of the Pit take you back to the pit entrance in Cerrigar. Not sure if that tech is availabe, just a thought / suggestion. Also cant we add a pit obelisk in Kurast???
**Inventory / Stash Management**
Runewords - Appreciate the extra stash tab, but why no special tab for runewords? It should be like a POE currency tab and hold every rune so you can hover over and see what you have and what you can get / aim for in the future.
Socketables tab - this is nice but it doesnt hold all the runes available in the game, and it should also have enough space to hold one of every type of gem. It needs to be bigger (with a scroll bar on the side).
Keys. Infernal Horde and other 'static' keys should just be able to stack. There should be 3 types: a '4-wave', an '6/8-wave' and a '10 wave'. Since they dont have a specific affix like NMD it doesnt make sense why they dont already stack. And please to 99 not 5 or 10, ty.
Boss Mats - still not sure like 4 seasons on why these dont stack to 99, or 999 or 9999. Like runes, ideally we need a POE style UI that has a place for them to live in the stash. And you take them when you need (or for bonus points let the pedestals have access to your stash, or add a stash before each boss room).
This needs to be added for any and all new / future seasonal currencies that intend to stay in the game
Pet Auto Pickup. Any chance we can make this screen wide? The pet still has to path to pick up items, which means if stuff dies over a bridge or around a corner, they dont really pick it up. Referring to things like cinders but really its any mats. Options: Screenwide pickup, or give it 1000% MS (5x or 10x player speed).
It would also be nice if pets could pickup things like runes and boss mats too, basically anything that isnt equipment. (Dont see why you would ever want to leave boss mats or runes on the ground - i.e. anything you ALWAYS need should be autolooted). However I think equipment is still fair game and should be picked up manually.
**Runewords**
Not the runewords that the D2 fanboys were expecting. Still the same concept from pre-launch we saw at blizzcon (cant remember what year, 2019??), with cause and effect. Or trigger condition and effect.
Bad: Runewords are very lack luster. The ones that do feel punchy are the ones that give other class abilities. The wolf minions dont act as minions (dont get Necro minion dmg or buffs, or proc minion related things - mendeln etc). The wolves should be the druid werewolves imo. And the flat stat ones seem boring and uninspired.
I also dont like how you can trade runes. I think if you make runes tradeable, you're basically making mythics tradeable because of the new JC crafting with resplendent sparks + runes. Which is fine to keep in the game, but I think the old craft to craft a targetted uber / mythic unique with pure sparks should be brought back as well.
Good: Some of the class specific ones such as Druid Petrify, Barb Shout, Rogue Shroud and SB Pull seem cool / fun. Some of the trigger effects seem interesting (to gain / generate offering). I do like how you can swap runes on the fly for different content (and the rune isnt consumed). When you add the Armoury please include rune choices.
Suggestions:
Runewords give skills new tags (like adding the 'core skill' tag to all basic skills OR vice versa - requires super rare / high runes as this will be OP).
Runewords augment class specific abilities (change the shape, size, area, element etc).
Runewords buff or augment mercenary skills / reinforcements:
(Example #1: Necro. Varyana now butchers enemies and drops a corpse in her wake - once every 10 seconds).
(Example #2: All classes. Any projectiles fired through Aldkin's shadow or fire spells gain shadow imbuement or the fireball enchantment respectively).
Runewords let you break certain caps in the game (E.g. Attackspeed is now uncapped [and no longer has 'buckets'], and your critical strike chance is now converted to attackspeed at 1:1).
Runewords let you augment your gear (All mainstat on gear is now Vulnerable Damage at a ratio of '5 Mainstat: 1% Vulnerable') or (Your core skills no longer scale with mainstat but instead scale with Max Life [value] or Your Overpower chance (base 3%) is equal to your Lucky Hit %). Will let you stew over those and cook something up =P
**Helltide**
Still fun, thanks for not nerfing the hearts droprate. For slow necros that just want to kill stuff, its the most fun thing in HT. So much so that I get sad when I start events and no-one comes, or when I run out of hearts.
Horsing around. I do wish that once you get on your horse, that it is immune to being dismounted. Sometimes theres just a random worm that spawns that knocks you off your mount while you have 30sec left to get to that mystery chest. Also would it hurt anything to get 1 more charge on the horse boost? Or increase the base horse speed
Forgotten Souls. (hotfixed). Feels really good now. Thanks for the quick action.
Mystery chests. Would be cool if you could get more of them. Like adding another 1-2 per helltide would be nice. I would also like to see a boss materials chest or chaos chest (cheaper but random out of any available chest). With the omega zooming SB out there, they can easily get all chests within 30-40mins (btw this was as of 'day 2').
**NMD / Events**
Really like the mercenary related events.
I like how the NMD mostly always have an event or treasure room. Thats cool, so if you like exploring every nook and cranny you get rewarded with a treasure room / event. However if you're a blaster you can just go straight for objective based gaming. Good design.
Not sure how I feel about the Nahantu dungeons having a bigger size / more sprawling design. On one hand I do like more monsters and the dungeon does feel meatier. But on the other, I'm a necro and being in a wheelchair really sucks for traversing any distance. I'm sure the SBs love it =P
Shrines / Pylons. Apparently some shrines like conduit were buffed to scale with your character power (because I think they realised everyone was skipping them). Can confirm that it does NOT feel stronger.
The few conduits I took actually nerfed my damage, and that was without any major aspects (while leveling) AND during mid/late end-game (full build online). The issue is that it takes your sheet attack power but forgets any multipliers. Needs to scale off your max hit or dps somehow.
NMD in torment difficulties still seem to reward blue and yellow items at the end of dungeon splash screen (looted straight to your bag), therefore bypassing the T1+ Autosalvage rule. (Whenever the patch changes stuff like this theres always some items that slip through the cracks).
Obducite reward from NMD needs a slight buff to compete with Kurast UC. Or it needs another reward type to make it more lucrative.
**Seasonal Theme / Mechanic - Realm Walkers**
Not super stoked with the seasonal mechanic this time around. Its okay but its also wayy too slow. And to make matters worse, moving infront of him during his march, makes him STOP MOVING, do a silly little swipe attack (this also applies to any melee minions btw!) and become even slower.
He needs double movespeed on boots and neck (buff) on the next patch / hotfix."
The opals are very rewarding (conceptually). I say this because its actually almost impossible to tell when they apply or proc. Do they work in the Pit??? Who knows???
I feel like the items that drop from the opal should have a little leaf next to their name / icon, OR in the zone that you're in, it should add some notation to the map or objectives saying ""+50% Boss Mats and +100% droprate of artificers stones"" etc. Because right now we have no idea on the scale / magnitude of the buffs granted. Or if/when its proccing.
Also I think that for 10-15 mins work, you really should get more than 2-3 opals per 'run'. I would like to see a bunch handed out, like maybe 5-6. So that way you can stock up quickly and get back to farming, because the zones themselves don't really seem the best for gear / equipment or xp. (You're basically there JUST for opals).
I did get 4-5 one time, but that event had alot of players around (even though I was solo at the time). So maybe it scales with party members, which is weird and silly.
And especially because you take that second portal to tell you which of the opal types you want, which is opportunity cost because you're not getting the other ones. Alternatively, each 'Seething Realm' could drop 1-2 of EACH TYPE of Opal - and then you can do away with the portal to choose. That would be fine too imo.
Bottom line is that the realm walker is too slow, he stops uncessarily and walks too far / long to his destination. So the event needs to speed up or the rewards need to be buffed, ideally both.
**Kurast Undercity**
Gauntlets 2.0 - new and improved. I actually like the concept and implementation here. The spirit towers giving CDR (and movement speed?) is super nice.
Very nice that its got its own target farming capabilities. I would like to see this juiced to the max though. Like what happens if you spend ALL your Obols etc etc.
Also when we saw the tributes on the campfire, it looked like you could apply more than one BARGAIN but on live you can only choose one. Imo you should be able to choose any /all.
Also there is some anti-synergy here, if you open a MW materials tribute and choose extra weapons / armour or jewelry - its a waste because no actual equipment drops. I think baseline it should drop 1-3 legendaries with all modes. OR remove / grey-out these options (bargains) when doing the specific tributes that dont apply.
The ultra rare tribute that gives mythic / uber uniques is very nice too. Would be interested to know if it scales with Torment level as well. We did it on T2 and my mate dropped a Tyraels and I dropped a Grandpapa =P Very cool / hype moment. We werent smart enough to know to bring a full party but we will next time (that is, if we ever get it again!).
I was gutsy enough to try one on T4 a little too early, and literally got warnings the entire way through. Very cool but stressful.
Thankfully I made it to the final portal with seconds to spare but only got to rank 3 on the blue progress bar (a bee's di*k away from the rank 4 line, my dps was bad and my ms wasn't great, prob wasnt armour capped or res capped either - basically not ready for T4 at all lol). But I still killed the boss (no timer) and got loot! Great success!"
I do wish that tributes were a bit more sustainable, it seems like you run out pretty quickly. With no sure fire way to target farm them.
**Raid**
Won't spoil for anyone whose still going through it, but I like the raid, the design and the fights.
I like the way the game teaches you the mechanics.
The consumables / buffs and vendor / acquisition seem cool.
Everything seems enjoyable so far (have not finished it).
Context: Cleared 2/3 wings on T1 (on Day 1 - racing against the first reset). It wasnt easy, we wiped several times. We did it in a 2man party. Felt fun and rewarding to overcome the challenge (aside from the actual rewards which werent great).
I would actually like to see the raids clearable SOLO with your mercenary as an AI companion. Also this could make these 'mmo-style' systems relevant for SSF players or to introduce a fully supported SSF mode =)
If >80% of the player base already plays solo, it would make sense to introduce a SSF mode for those who want to beat the game on their own merit."
It wasnt altogether clear, but I didnt see any note / info to suggest whether clearing the raid on T1 vs T4 rewarded anything different (from the raid itself or the bag). Common sense would say the T4 raid would have more loot, but not sure about the bag.
Went back after about 5-6 days of gearing and it was pretty easy. Almost a joke. Once you know the mechanics the fights become completely trivial. Feels like there should be a higher Torment difficulty version of the raid now. Did it in a 4-man and also 2-man party. Noticed no real difference in difficulty.
**Necromancer / Class Design**
Bone Spirit. Wish it would move faster. The AI seems good (once its tracking target dies it seeks a new target) but its so slow. It only speeds up once it gets close to a monster. It needs to move at this speed all the time. Especially in light of spirit born tearing up every monster at the speed of light
Scent of Death Paragon Board - Shadow Resilience Node. Lights up when you filter for Life, even though it only gives shadow resistance and max shadow resistance.
Where is necromancer bone armour? Should be part of the defensive toolkit imo. The class still moves slow as a sloth and doesnt have a reliable unstoppable to use on command (without going into bloodmist and stopping dps. Also minions stop attacking during BM because they are still dumb! OR playing a minion build with a golem).
Minions. Minions feel good for leveling and up to early/mid end-game. They are still dumb as dogsh*t. At endgame their damage falls off [even with mendeln / fel gluttony] compared to other builds such as bone spirit / blood artisans bloodwave bone spirit. They are approx 1000x weaker than SB right now. They crit for trillions, necros struggle to hit for billions.
Would like to see some caps / restrictions removed for non-crit / non-overpower builds. Seems like that is the new meta that every class (incl necro) is going for. Also I would like Blood Skills to be the best at doing overpower damage (as its kind of their MO) - bone spirit is stealing their spotlight.
All classes skill tree: Wish there was some passive points in the first 'basic skill' wheel that we could assign for builds that dont use basic attacks: crit, atkspd, resource generation etc. Right now those two points at the start of the tree are always WASTED if you're NOT a basic attack build. 6 seasons of wasting the first two points..
All in all, I think the non-SB classes need a major overhaul to their design and class mechanic. The spirit born has so much more cool synergy, fun interactions and almost gamebreaking design. Not to mention SB hitting for trillions. While other classes struggle to hit for billions - making SB 1000x stronger.
Meanwhile the druid has 17 dmg, the necro is in a wheelchair, the barb is on the bench / being the waterboy, sorc is still very mid with 3 useable enchantments (out of dozens available) and rogue is the most okay but still terrible and clunky.
**Random Notes / Bugs**
Uber / Mythic Uniques. Seem quite plentiful now which is a very welcome change, due in part to the abundance of boss mats. Got my first 2xGA Tyraels from obols in T1 on 'day 1' which was nice. Made gearing 10x easier than usual, letting me move onto other builds / characters quicker.
Obols / Gambler. Obols are very strong now, having higher chances for uniques and uber/mythic uniques from the gambler. I wish that blue and rare items were removed from the gambler, even normal legendaries once you hit WT4 (so then its only ancestral legendaries, uniques and uber/mythic uniques).
It is a bit gamey but could incentivise players to push into WT4 more quickly."
Codex. Of all the systems to max out, the codex actually seems like the hardest / longest. Which is weird because it was very quick in the past. Now you're more likely to reach Pit 100 and beyond before having perfect offensive aspects. Which is crazy to me. I think these need a slight buff.
Resources. Resources in general seem to be alot more balanced than previous seasons. So well done on that part. Boss mats, gold and forgotten souls (after the hotfix) are plentiful. All the others are farmable from various sources as required.
I think the obducite from NMD needs a slight bump, considering Kurast UC gives so much more (thousands compared to hundreds in NMD). I do appreciate that Kurast UC is the new xpac activity, and as such is more rewarding. But NMD only has one purpose and its terrible. So essentially if it stays this way, you could basically just remove NMD."
Stats. What is 13 life per 5 seconds lol (ancestral helm - greater affix btw). Who would want this??? Might be a mistake instead of 130 life per second, or 13 resource per second? but over 5 seconds?! thats too long
WB / Lilith Camera. Camera still bugs out and zooms in too much? Literally have been reporting this one since beta.. Please fix! (FixyagameBlizz)
Torment Icon (red demon skull). Is cool but you cant tell what torment level your friends are on. Even people in clan. It just shows the red skull which is anything after t1+. It should have a skull with a I, II, III, IV infront of it imo. Also liked the new difficulty of each Torment tier (relative to the old) - felt good!
XP shrine in NMD. Its cool and nice that it lasts an hour. Lets make all potions and opals (any buffs really) last one hour as well.
Sometimes you see the xp shrine (pools of reflection from d3) but cant click it - it bugs out. Other times it has corruption around it and you can kill the corruption to get access to it. A few times I killed the corruption and the pool was just there greyed out (couldnt click it). Clicking on it just moves your character there...
Sell All. Still missing a sell all button for vendors. Right now the fastest way to vendor is to spam click or mark everything as junk and sell one junk item. Seems slow / archaic and RSI inducing. Please add this QOL.
Campaign. I wont rate the campaign as I did the degenerate thing and skipped all of the cutscenes (some where unskippable and I dont know why). I will go back and do a full SB cinematic playthrough, on my own time, and slowly read and listen to everything. I'm sure it will be great.
Armoury system will be coming, so thats good. Can't wait - it will be huge, because every season I end up making 2-3 necros due to the annoyance of swapping builds. Please include gear and runes, skills / passives, paragons and glyphs.
Scroll of Restoration. The scroll is a really good concept. I honestly thought it would be rarer, but it drops naturally from infernal hordes and is also purchasable from the raid vendor (I thought the raid would be its only source). Its good but it fails to tell you that its one use per item.
Might be worthwhile adding this to the tooltip, as I bricked a 2 GA weapon on this."
Bosses / Boss Ladder. Was expecting some new bosses to be added to the boss ladder. Especially key campaign bosses (no spoilers).
Stat Squish. Didnt really feel like it did anything. We went from hitting for billions to still hitting for billions. Aside from a few bugged builds, I dont think any class has had the consistently high damage in the trillions like Spiritborn - who is able to achieve this with multiple builds.
Lack of competitive endgame. The game did go a long way to adding more activities such as Kurast UC and the Dark Citadel (Raid). But the truth is we still need / want leaderboards. With all content cleared and mythic gear finished, I'm pretty much done with the season and the expansion.
I seem to be getting to this point faster and faster every season. Which isnt necessarily a bad thing, because theres alot of other good games to play out there. But as devs, I would hope you'd like to draw people into your game and give them a reason to keep coming back. Right now that reason for me is seasons.
Overall I think the feedback is that it was pretty solid and there have been alot of improvements made to old systems (some issues on-going), but considering everything I give this expansion a 6/10.
As explained above quick wins would be: Loot filter, Leaderboards, SSF, Armoury and clean up some QOL stuff. Then more longer term: Bring the base classes into a more updated / fresh 2024 design (with more synergies) like the Spiritborn.
Thanks for reading
Tylicius - Necromancer-enjoyer
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