Welcome to the gray area
After the first two beta weekends we finally had another chance to play. Thanks for that opportunity Blizzard!
I wanted to continue my first feedback thread here: Feedback after 25+h of beta from ARPG veteran (gaming 30+ years) unfortunately I can’t reply/bump to my own post, hence the new one here.
After the many announced changes and data mining, I decided to play the character that was previously the worst and has now been buffed: The Druid. Said, done and four hours later with level 20 reached the maximum of this weekend. Here I immediately noticed how much influence just a few skill points more or less can have on a complete build! Because with 26 skill points before and now only 21, many skills could not be used properly. So we won’t see the full potential until the release and there Paragon will be even more important than skill points, I’m sure.
I’ve read many times that the drop rate for legendaries has been nerfed, I don’t think that’s correct, it’s just been set back to normal after it was boosted for the beta weekends. I find the current drop rate quite ok. With my druid I found 2 legendaries in 5 hours, both amulets. With my sorceress I found 5 legendaries in the same time, three of them in two world boss fights.
But what irritated me a lot - I killed at least 10 Treasure Goblins and 8 of them had nothing at all but gold and one only blue items and one rare item. Is that what you intended?! I mean effort/benefit - it’s not worth chasing them like that, is it? What I did find though: an Arreat horse armor that was dropped by a Treasure Goblin. In general it was much more difficult to find yellow objects, at least in my opinion.
I’m really amazed at how much action is taken between the two extremes, black and white. The last beta did one thing above all - fun! Yes, the classes were not balanced, but why the ban hammer was swung so extremely here is an absolute mystery to me. I played every class for 20h at level 25 and found that some were too strong and some were too weak.
My first character was a rogue - pretty squishy at range but strong at melee and with a few legendaries it felt like a stealth build with passive life regen. Very good - the Rogue was hardly touched and stayed that way. Good!
My second character was the Sorcerer. There was no question that the Fire Hydra was completely overpowered here - but rendering them completely useless now is just the wrong way to go. Diablo has always thrived on build diversity. But if you devs take away the opportunity to generate or develop a build in the first place, then that’s bad game design. Example: I had a very good defensive barrier/ice blade build that was really, really fun. Not much damage, but he could tank and that’s what mattered to me personally. If I wanted to do damage I would have played fire. In the current version, almost ALL synergies for this build have been nerfed! Ice Blade cooldown reduction has been reduced by 50%, barrier duration has been nerfed by 60% from 5s to 2s. But ice blades only live for 6 seconds, have to run to the opponent during this time, enemies have to be vulnerable for the cooldown reduction to work at all and while you are firing cooldowns to use the ice blade passive skill, the barriers expire. You have downtime and you are vulnerable. The build is simply not USABLE anymore, I tried it. I ended up playing a Fire/Lightning/Barrier mix with no Legendaries and was able to solo clear Kor Dragan. And that means something to do the 10+ level content/boss. On WT2. So there are ways to make a character playable, no matter how bad the things that are thrown at you, but leave a bitter taste in your mouth because you know you could do better. Suggestion: Make Blades of Ice an instant skill that teleports directly to the opponent and doesn’t need to move normally. This saves time and increases effectiveness instead of lifespan. For example, make the barrier duration longer, but let a percentage of damage through. Now when you play fortify, barriers become impenetrable… fortify is already in game so why not combine it? There would be so many possibilities.
The druid has experienced a few buffs, but since he will probably only show his full potential in the endgame, I’ll save myself a rating at this point, for me he played the same as in the betas before, huge burst damage and some tankyness. The buffs in the pets have not really made themselves felt, and there is a lack of synergy skills for a pet build in the base and core area. Seems only half thought through to me. On the other hand we had no chance to try the passive synergy system – maybe that has an impact too…
Since I’ve played WOW for over 12 years and know Blizzard’s patch policy, I also know that nothing will change here. Unfortunately, Blizzard only ever sees black or white. OP or underpowered. There doesn’t seem to be a midfield that’s worth leveling off at. The gray area between black and white is infinitely large and would definitely be worth a look. I promise.
So please, dear Blizzard team, act a little more carefully with your nerf hammer, because in the end what counts in the game is not who does the most damage, but how much FUN people have playing their class! Anyway, I found this beta to be WAY LESS FUN than the last one, and I’m not talking about the legendary drop rate. I’m talking about build options, appropriate synergy skills, passive skills, additional legendary traits etc. Please don’t try to force your player base into a corset - give options and possibilities and let the players decide what they want to play! Look at the competition, because they do a lot of things very, very well.
I’m really looking forward to the release because a final assessment can only be made with the endgame - anything else would be idiotic. But please - be careful with your nerfs and buffs! It doesn’t always have to be a 50% nerf/buff, there are also smaller percentage steps…
But what I also find very commendable - there were absolutely no queues and apart from a few isolated lags, I had an all-round technically perfect gaming experience! Hats off - you really improved it! The animations, the sound, the mood, graphics - all spot on exactly as I expect it to be from Diablo. If you now do the balancing with kid gloves - then Diablo 4 can only be good!
I look to my left and there stands the actual, original cardbox of Diablo1 and LoD on the shelf and I think to myself: damn I am old now.
On that note – see you in Sanctuary in 3 weeks.