I knew this was coming, people just complain endlessly because they do not get everything served to them. The very core of “fun” and sense of accomplishment in a game like this is that getting gear and builds going takes time and effort. There is nothing like that now in d4 just an ever increasing stat increase much like diablo 3 was at release. The only difference is that instead of all gear being yellow color its a lot of different colors with special effects and conditional numbers on it. Sure that will always be what late game is about, however jumping there straight from early game in like 2 hours of gameplay is what is the problem.
I played season 5 for a few hours, sadly I get no enjoyment. In 1 hour of play I had full legendaries and an unique. Silly. Steamrolling everything. Killing level 50mobs as level 21 lol? Can’t even use the items dropped by mobs that provide some kind of challenge due to level cap…
Free talent points at start of new season? Silly.
Free stats, silly.
Personally what I like about games like this, is starting of with a white/grey useless sword and armor. And being stuck with that for a while, if lucky get a better white sword within the first 30min or so. Have trouble killing a zombie. And after a few hours and finding a few blues, things improve, maybe a yellow (hyyype!). Lol yellows are basicly trash items now, that is how silly this has become. A few hours more and you might find your first legendary that can then redefine how you approach the game, tactics, build. This should happen several times toward max level, bringing a sense of awe and interest to each legendary drop, present you with choices of how to progress toward max level. And a unique should open a unique playstyle, or unique options, interesting interactions. The idea of getting showered with every legendary and unique that exists in the game so that the player can choose their playstyle is an absolutely flawed way of designing a game like this. You should make do with what you find, not having everything and having a free choice while you level that is.
Being limited is challenging and makes it interesting. Once you reach end game after many, many hours of play then yes like half of everything should be unlocked and grinding late game for a bit the rest should unlock. At this point turning up drop rate is fine. Then with improvement and refinement of gear and build the end game bosses that has achievement, skins, titles as reward should open up to the player.
In my opinion what d4 needs to be fun, is drop rates as it was on release but with the current “open” loot table. No free talent points, no free stat gain from lilith altars. Just remove the altars tbh and their bonuses and lets forget that was ever a thing. This would mean that someone might have an crazy OP unique drop at level 25-30 that makes them incredibly more powerful at that level then other players. but that is what makes it interesting and fun. Having a sense of “man the drop I got this season on level 25 really escalated my leveling I felt like a god on steroids”. Its the contrast that matters. If you give everyone god like drops all the time it just feels “meh, cant even be bothered to read the details of my gear until max level, something new and better probably drops in 10min anyway, I just destroy the screen with any skill I choose to play with over and over until I hit max level then I can look at the stats in detail”. Taking time off aoe grinding to put levels in my talents felt like a inconvenience, that is how silly this game has become. Like you are supposed to cheer for every level and feel like finally I can put another point here or unlock this skill, as it is now you are more like, I just put this point here for now and finish my grinding session. LOL.
Changes like this would seriously impact the time it takes to go from level 1 to killing the biggest hardest boss the game has to offer. I think that is fine, just make seasons last much longer.
I know this will never happen, I’m just saying what needs to happen to make this into a proper ARPG game that holds true to its legacy. As it is now you just jump into a pack of mobs in what is supposed to be hell on earth and push all the buttons and you get a rain of legendaries. Brainless aoe grind. We might have different opinions but where I come from that is not what makes an ARPG good or fun.
Where I come from if you die you gotta sweat and pray that you can recover your corpse and your loot from such silly plays. Minecraft punishes the gamer harder for dying then Diablo these days, lol. Im not saying I liked d1 death mechanic, I’m saying the careless aoe farming nature d4 becomes at level 1 these days is silly. Its not challenging and therefor it is not fun.