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PoE combat is crap. PoE maps layouts are badly randomized, not interactive and contain very few monster types. They are nevertheless moddable and include a few encounters. What I am describing is more like:

- D3 combat

- New engine allowing highly interaction with the environment

- Superb randomization of map layouts not constricted by terrain or placement of objects in it

- Superb variety of mob types, elite affixes and enemy spells/skills

- PoE map modding abilities

- Many rare and unique encounters (like in Fallout 2 for example)

I personally think Challenge Rifts could have been much more if they were implemented properly. The problems with them however are quite fixable. Here are some of the most mentioned problems associated with CRifts:

1) The selected builds are bad/not fun - This is the most mentioned problem discussed at all forums regarding CRifts. The players simply don't like the automatic selection algorithm and the snapshotted builds. This however could sometimes be due to the fact that they find them hard to complete. A possible solution would be to implement a voting process, lower the original tier by 20% and allow tier progression.

2) The rewards don't scale with one's accomplishments - Simply said, you play more, you get nothing for it, even the LB is not permanent. A possible solution would be the rewards to be scaled with the tier progression and a permanent LB to be found in-game.

3) Only one class per week - If the player is forced to play an exact class/build there is very high chance the majority will not complete the weekly challenge. A possible solution would be the inclusion of all 7 classes in the weekly pool.

4) CRifts does not involve pushing - The offered snapshots are low tier fast times. While a competition could be build around everything, the skill factor in fast times is a lot lower than this involved during a pushing activity. This simply means that the majority of the competitive players will skip the CRifts as long as there is no tier progression, which will allow a pushing activity to be executed.

There are also a lot of other more minor problems like specific RNG factors and no global competition. Whether you find the CRift mode unfinished or not, share what could be done in order more people to play these and take part in the CRift competition.

What I had in mind was just a new layout zones for GR. You won't miss them so much if a player hasn't bought them - there won't be special gold chests in them etc.. Remember we are talking about not a pay to win microtransactions. But just imagine how more fun the game would be if there are new layouts/mobs one can buy. All dedicated players will have them. If you play with a friend who misses them, you could gift them to him.

Why D3 hasn't gone the cosmetic microtransactions road is unknown to me. PoE crew are printing money with these on a game that looks worse than D2.

I like how SC HD looks tbh.

About D4 vs another new game - I'd bet on a new one based on the OW engine in Borderlands style with many aRPG elements from Diablo. Market wise it could be the better approach for them since D3 can live for a very long time with little tweaks between the seasons and a completely new universe is always a guaranteed sell for Blizzard. And personally I would love to see some Fallout like anti-utopia post nuclear world from an AAA game company. Change is not always bad. D4 could wait.

We as community should really appreciate the honesty of the announcement. They are finally showing a caring attitude towards their own player base. While no one expected D4, we are basically missing D2 HD news, but that will left for 2018.

@Rugraa: There is a blue post about this from 6 hours ago:

Quote from "https://us.battle.net/forums/en/d3/topic/20757677236" »

First, as some of you have noticed, the leaderboards currently track two sets of records: previous and current. We agree that it would be nice to have a place to celebrate the champions of previous Challenge Rifts, so we will be starting a regular, weekly blog that highlights the top 50 solo players each week.


Second, as the beginning of Season 11 is just around the corner, we wanted to clarify something about Challenge Rift caches. Only caches that are earned during an active Season are able to be claimed by Seasonal characters. This is so that the optimal play of Seasons does not include stocking up on Challenge Rift caches during the non-Season to claim on your Seasonal character for a "head start."

We're looking forward to seeing continued experimentation, discussion, and feedback on Challenge Rifts in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile in the dev's office:

@OP: We had a similar poll at the end of 2016. Results from your poll pretty much overlap with it. Someone show them to the devs please.

We know what is coming with patch 2.5.0, which should go live in March, but what are your expectations for patch 2.5.1?

I would not call it nostalgia tbh. From the top 5 votes D2 lacks only "end game build diversity" when we take PvP as the end game. I too enjoy D3 more, mainly because of its insanely addicting combat, but in terms of RPG elements D2 is clearly the winner.