For fuck's sake, just sell the Diablo franchise to GGG or Crate Entertainment. You know, someone who actually has a clue how to make an excellent ARPG and has a great track record in that respect. Someone who doesn't need to change directors, twice, and take four years to figure out what a Diablo game is supposed to be. Diablo 2 changed a great deal over the course of its development, sure. A lot of people don't know but early news were showing D2 to be A LOT closer to what Diablo 1 was. But then they got a little more ambitious, expanded their vision, included outdoor areas and the whole thing pieced itself together rather logically. These...amateurs can't even figure out what a Diablo game should be like over the span of four years.
Do not under any circumstances fall for the idea that Blizzard has learned. They've been hiring a lot of people for "unannounced Diablo projects". Hiring = Diablo games will be developed by people who likely have no experience in developing ARPGs. Not with D3, certainly not with D2. In a way, they'll be like the D3 team. New and clueless. Their directors sure as hell won't know what to do, seeing as they have to change them so frequently. This ain't Blizzard North, these aren't the people with the track record of making D2 and LoD. These are rando guys just working under the Blizzard brand that happens to (unfortunately) own the Diablo franchise. They are not the legends of the industry that gave us the great games of the past, they're not the Blizzard we used to know. They needed to change directors, twice, because they're not building on the foundations of Diablo, they're trying to reinvent it, even though the foundations are right fucking there! Which means it won't feel like Diablo. That's why they don't already know what D4 should be, even though someone who developed D3 should fucking know what was wrong with that game and how to improve upon it. But they don't. They're still learning how to make an ARPG.
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Buffing your heal would not solve the problem of you having to pick up potions that are in the end useless and will just be thrown away after being picked up for the buff. I don't think it would make the game imbalanced. I'd say it would have no impact at all. Many of my characters don't even have to pick up health globes anymore on T6 because everything dies too fast, let alone needing to drink potions or gaining buffs on those potions. The place where such a buff could be useful, would be GRifts, where no potions drop anyway and you cannot even tamper with your inventory to drop potions for yourself. Sorry, but I don't think that would be a good design.
I'd say the best way to use potions would be to make them a crafting materiál for some rare dyes or something. Just make some 50-odd different shades of the dyes that already exist in game (with previews so we know what we're getting) and let us customize a bit more. They would still become irrelevant once you've made a decent enough supply of the dyes for yourself but they would at least be somewhat useful once in a while, which is the polar opposite of what they are now (completely useless, all the time). Legendary potions will always become the one thing you will be using once you get it, so I think healing potions should find an alternative role outside of the healing area.
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Of course the vanilla game didn't state the resistances and armor separately, but you can tell what's happening immediately when your protection rating or whatever it was called goes up...it can only be your armor or your resists. You can see the armor difference immediately when you have the two items in comparison view in your inventory, regardless of affixes of the item. Having to open details and watch which of your resists changes by how much and how much that affects the actual damage resist number (especially when getting +50 to a resist that is at 200 increases your damage resistance against that element non-linearly when compared to giving the same bonus to a resist that is at 600) is a fucking pain in the ass, now with the added bonus of not being able to immediately tell whether the item also increases your health by just looking at the item comparison.
What is the item comparison view for if you then have to go check your HP and your resists separately (not to mention the overall protection from armor which also used to be just stated in Details). If you're supposed to read the whole item all the time and then check the item you have equipped to decide which is better, then the item comparison doesn't need to be there at all. But it is there. So it should fulfill its function. Right now it doesn't.
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D3's problem is it HAS no replay value because you are allowed free respecs. Are you tired of your build and want to try something new and fresh to see if it works? It's going to take you about 2 minutes to reskill. You play around with the build for about 10 minutes, you say "Huh, it would've worked" and you are done. There is nothing enticing you to create a new character with a wildly different build and take it from start to finish to see if that particular build has what it takes because you can simply respec and test the build right there and then. If you want to go from start again, you are almost forcing yourself through it because you know you have that option of just cutting the experience short in 10 minutes.
I have created countless characters in D2, some have failed, some have made it to the end. Making it to the end was an accomplishment in itself since you weren't allowed constant wipes of your build and respecs over and over until you found something that works. In D2 you had to make your build right and if you didn't, your punishment was going back to the drawing board and starting a new one. Now, you are limited to 10 characters and have little reason to restart unless you really really want to. Thus after every player has gone through his trial and error period and found the build that works from him, he finishes the game after a few months/weeks playing the character and is left wondering what to do now. In D2, if I finished the game with a character there was always the feeling of "Hm, but I bet that if I build the class as a summoner I could beat it again". And you fucking went and did it.
This is not an MMO. You don't need extensive endgame, and you are never going to get one. If you think that Rifts and Bounties will keep you entertained for the next 4-5 years, you are dead wrong. They will be fun for a while, but eventually you will again be left wondering what to do with your character now. D3's tendency to not punish incorrect builds has led it to lose all its replay value and with that, lose its longevity. Don't go chasing after some imaginary endgame that is never going to last. Focus on making the game replayable. You don't need endgame if the game never ends.
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