Matchmaking systems, needed yesterday.
Plate class, where art thou?
Armory, respeccing is a PITA.
The rest of my suggestions are aimed at improving the depth of certain game modes and systems.
Nightmare Dungeons Revamp
Remove all of the obstacles and allow us to string the NMD experience together by pressing deeper into our adventure. After defeating a NMD boss, present 2 options:
- Spend the Glyph XP and cash out.
- Save Your Glyph Exp and Continue Deeper. Choosing the latter reveals a new dungeon entrance, accessible via switch to open a wall or stairwell found in the same room as the boss clear.
The Dungeon Tier increases by 3, you also receive a 10% Bonus on any newly earned Glyph Exp going forward. NMDs become a game centered around accumulation and Risk vs Reward.
Upon clearing those mini events within the NMD, you win an opportunity to meet Demonic Blacksmiths and Vendors, who willingly salvage your gear, and even sell you legendary/unique items with a small chance to roll GA, and smaller chance for Mythic Uniques. They will accept a share of your accumulated Glyph Exp to refresh their stock – becoming part of an end game for those with maxed out glyphs.
Pit leaderboards and Refinement
It doesn’t feel strategic, or maybe it’s just unclear. Timed events can be benchmarked fairly easily and proven tactics do emerge once Clear Time vs Tier are exposed and discussed in the community. Combat mechanics which defined D3’s Greater Rift gameplay aren’t so pronounced here: Zei’s, Pain Enhancer, Stricken, CoE, Squirts, Area Damage, are bold, easy-to-follow and guiding mechanics.
While certain similar mechanics exist in the game today, they are often inconsequential, partly due to low multipliers, but mostly because of how the Pit’s map layouts separate enemy packs. The mobs don’t easily coalesce so there is no real game in moving a timer. I am not requesting cloning all of D3’s features, but I think redistributing some health to the trash vs boss, and tweaking map layouts and enemy arrangements to be more similar to Festering Woods, Battlefields, is a great start for enabling some power play in the Pits.
Paragon boards
These are a chore to traverse and feel all too similar. I’ve requested scrapping this entire system before. A quick band-aid fix to underperforming legendary nodes with a damage / DR buff, could help shake up the paths in these boards. Place an additional socket into the board near the least impressive legendary nodes that only accept reworked Magic Glyphs.
Glyphs. Just a personal opinion, I find the artwork on the glyphs a bit dry and the actual symbols unmemorable. Shouldn’t we embellish these glyphs a little more? Shouldn’t they have more character like weapon artwork? Individually styled, resembling what they empower and where they originate? These centerpiece items just blend in – maybe the art team can turn Glyphs into unique art pieces: different materials, bone, wood, metal, stone, gem-encrusted, etc.
As for Glyph effects, they are uninteresting and seem mass produced from a template. Take for instance Druid’s Glyphs for Human, Werebear, or Werewolf forms near identical benefits: % Additive Damage and DR. How dull… why not consolidate that into a single Glyph and accentuate those forms in other ways?
As for Magic Glyphs, make them simple, fixed, plug-and-play buffs.
- 12% Resource Cost Reduction
- 12% Cooldown Reduction
- +75 All Stats
- 12% Attack Speed
- 15% Movement Speed
- 25% Crowd Control Effect Reduction
- 20% Crowd Control Effect Duration
Skill Tree, more branches are needed, certain nodes should have some method of point investment beyond 3, and spice it up with traits unlocked at certain thresholds. Take Druid’s Charged Atmosphere node for example:
- Raise the point investment cap to 5 points
- At 3 skill points, Charged Atmosphere casts 2 Lightning Bolts
- At 5 points both bolts can hit the same target
- If Charged Atmosphere was allowed to rolls on gear (ahem Totems), it’d be cool to have it trigger once a second if 10 points were invested in it.
They rolled out a big game, they need to continue to refine its features.