I would be stunned if we don't get D4 eventually. Although eventually may be half a decade or a decade from now. D3 sold over a billion dollars worth of software. When they can't squeeze any more money out of class packs and the like, they will eventually make a sequel.
Personally, I think the future of D3 is just the low effort we've seen in '16 and '17, and whether we ever see any more class packs will depend on how well the Necro pack sells. Personally, I hope its a flop because the sooner they close the chapter on 3, the sooner they can really push development of 4.
Killing new content (not just the same procedurally generated rifts you've been fighting since level 1) and gaining new skills and getting new gear as the game goes on really makes the game feel fresh and challenging. The D3 treadmill where leveling to 70 is an almost irrelevant nuisance, then you get geared in a brief window, and then you spend the rest of the season on the same treadmill, adding a lot of mainstat to your build and replacing existing items with new items that are the same, but have more mainstat and adding augments that have more mainstat is just a recipe for boredom with the game.
Currently D3 has three phases
1) Leveling to 70 (a matter of hours for experienced players)
2) Getting geared up (getting yourself all the items in your template, but not necessarily your final gear) this is hours to days for experienced players)
3) Quest for mainstat (the bulk of the season) - The rest of the season you just add more mainstat from things like Ancients, Augments, and paragons, to the extent mainstat hits diminishing return and you are rolling it off your gear for stats like AD and CDR and the like. The only gear you are interested in is better rolled versions of the gear you are currently wearing. Sadly, as seen by the many people who aren't interested in this quest and bail after a week or so, this quest doesn't resonate with many people.
Personally, I just think it is hilarious how well it illustrates the existing D3 Blizzard Dev team stereotype of being lazy and uncreative and how little Blizzard corporate cares about D3.
They may well go ahead with them, and honestly it probably doesn't matter. Anyone who farms paragons enough to be at the top of the boards is going to end up with primal ancient weapons anyway just because of the high loot drop rate at high GRs plus crafting and I doubt primal ancient armors will really make a huge difference.
I don't think primal ancient is a calamity for the game, but it isn't exactly a solution. It's just a lazy buff added to the game by a lazy, underfinanced dev team.
I almost always use Templar, but honestly if I am playing WD, he is likely as not to have Int gear, because follower damage is irrelevant. In generaly I find the modest regen and sustain help to have more value than the CC and damage buffing you get from Enchantress and Scoundral.
It's kind of a shame that mostly they are all just coatracks for an Oculus, Ess of Johann, an undying relic, maybe a unity or some CC gear.
It would be cool if followers felt more impactful.
It saddens me to see how hard D3 is getting steamrolled by PoE.
I doubt we will see another big patch after necromancer ;__;
Personally, I'm happy there are so many good ARPGs out there, and I'd love to see more F2P ARPGs. I think I'd rather see more F2P ARPGs than D3, because I love how motivated GGG is to turn out new content every few months.
It's taking them at least 8 months from announcement to release the necro. There's no way in hell they are capable of also releasing 2 more classes with another dlc, let alone a whole new act.
Also, this follows a 2016 where not much happened. Expecting a lot of new content seems curious given D3s history. Most likely, if they are doing anything at all with Diablo (which they may well not be doing), they are starting the long term multi year development of D4 rather than spending a lot of time adding new D3 content.
Honestly I'd be game for any mechanic that gets D3 out of the OP 6 pc set/Rift/Paragon grind it is currently mired in. New zones and Mobs also don't interest me much. History says if they add new maps or mobs, they will likely be on the "skip" list for GR progression.
They definitely seem to want to get some business relation with Facebook. I'm a beta user of their Battlenet client, and they have streaming support for their games, but they stream to Facebook. I have no idea who thought that was a good idea. If I want to see streamed content, I'm going to Twitch or Youtube.
I'm curious to see what you guys think about what the Necromancer should have and what items they should bring back.
I'm wondering if they will bring back Runewords. Fortitude, Heart of the Oak, Call To Arms, Enigma, Exile, Etc...
It would be interesting to how they work. Of course they would have to be normal items with many sockets. They can be socketed with 6 gems. Though that would give them a max amount of 1680 of any stat gem you put in there, and a max of 468 All Resist, but it wouldn't have any ability for anything else. So I think that would balance it out.
As near as I can figure out from what I have read all they are doing is adding another class. No runewords or any other major changes, although I would've loved to see a major change like that. They've been careful to refer to it as a pack rather than an expansion to the game.
They appear to be just running a new class through the same existing content. So, some new skills and passives. I'm sure it will be strong enough of a class to have either 1 or 2 Necs Meta- Mandatory so they can sell as many Necs as possible.
the fact that there are just four people mildly talking about the subject is astonishing as well. the necro q&a was one of the little glimmers of hope after all.
and no newspost on the main page for well over twelve hours after the q&a concluded. guess this is the next forum closing.
Just another class to put through the Rift/Paragon grind. The whole rift/paragon structure pretty much saps any enthusiasm I have for any new class.
Preface: Many answers have been condensed, shortened and paraphrased. If you want the full context of everything, please go watch the video. No talk of launch date or pricing. How much of the D2 necro in the new necro?
Travis played a lot of necro in D2 and was used as a jumping off point, adapting a lot of skills and themes into the D3 design of the class Is Revive returning?
“Absolutely!” A massive undertaking but shaping up well. How will you make sure the Necro is different from the WD?
One way is thematically, darker overall with the themes of bone and blood. Doing some very different things with pets, all are controllable to some degree with where to attack, what to focus on etc. Recently been messing around with different resource models i.e. with corpses and other abilities having blood costs. How will all the corpse based skills work since crits destroy corpses?
Different than how things work in D2. A corpse mechanic had to be evented for the necro to use. Will there be aspects of the Poison skill tree from D2 integrated into the D3 necro?
Not right now, encroaches on the WD. Not that many cool Poison skills so it isn’t going to be brought forward. Any love for melee-mancers? Would like to fight along pets.
A lot of skills are up close and personal, and want to deliver on a close-range fighter style. Will Iron Maiden be brought forward as a skill?
No plans to bring it forward, was decided that it wasn’t a fun gameplay style and that other skills could be used to fill that space. How many summons can a Necro have?
“As many as Julian and the tech team will let me have” More server performance concerns than client concerns, but no defined number as of yet and no plan to set a number. What are the weapon types that necro can weild?
Anything not class specific or bow or crossbow, will have their own class-weapon; scythes. Will Necro have Golems?
“Yep, it sure will” Been working on them to see which ones they liked and which ones worked. Working on new golem types. How many types can be used?
There are currently 3 worked out with room for 1 or 2 more, so 4 or 5.
Will the Necro do damage itself or is most of the damage from pets?
It can go both ways with pets doing most of the work or the necro itself doing the bulk of the damage. Many different avenues being developed. Two-handed scythe?
Yes, there will be two-handed scythes. Will the Necro minions be temporary or will they be “permament”?
There will be a variety of pets, some temp and some perm. Skeletal archers and mages will be making an appearance. Build a necro based solely on blood abilities or will pets have to be involved?
They’ve started fleshing out something like that as it is a strong theme. Will the Necro start with four sets?
Yes, that is exactly the plan. Not entirely sure what they will all do yet. Does the Necro have things that will do self-damage to deal damage?
Yes, it’s turning into quite the thing and is becoming its own playstyle. Will the Necro have burst or will it be all dot based?
Necro has nothing that is dot based right now, no dot spells. Everything is nukes, pets and cool utilities. It’s a way to separate the WD and the Necro since the WD is heavy dot based. Will there be further updates posted?
Short answer is yes to keep everyone up to date. No cadence for updates right now but plans to show how things are going. Decrepify?
Totally will. Was part of the Blizzcon demo. Massive snare and debuffs damage dealt by enemies. Special form for the Necro?
No plans to do anything like that. Army of the Dead was a much cooler form of a longer cooldown ability rather than just matching the other classes. Not a mandatory requirement for classes. Damage only or decent support options?
Don’t design explicit support options, but the Necro does have powerful curses and other things that can help groups out. Necro same release time for PC as console?
Yes, goal to ship all platforms at same time. Will there be curses?
YES, LOTS OF CURSES In the lore is this the same Necro from D2?
Short answer, no. (The people on the stream are not the lore folks by any means.) Comprehensive pet command interface?
No, nothing different than the standard UI. However, a lot of the pet skills are very active in the way that they are used, and passively give you the pets. Necro part of RoS or as separate DLC?
The Necro is a separate standalone pack, but as far as they know will require RoS to have. There is an FAQ on the battle.net site that has more information. Will necro be part of the group meta for GR?
Absolutely hope so due to the unique mechanics that it has. Curses can fit into that role. Hoping that they will be able to fluctuate roles and use a variety of playstyles. Will Necro have its own set dungeon?
Yes, with four sets there will be one for each.
*Will there be life steal skills? * Yes, a lot of the blood skills will cost health along with essence so there are a lot of recoup health mechanics built in and can be used to benefit your group. Will Lidless Wall become a necro item?
Maybe? Haven’t thought about it yet. Itemization usually comes later in the process. Anything else out there that look like they would be perfect for the Necro?
All of the new stuff that they are developing, but not sure how much of the existing stuff will be converted to become a “Necro item.” Still finishing off skills and runes. Any challenges that have been faced so far?
Julian – Revive: The game has over 1000 unique monsters and for Revive to work each of those could have 6 different varieties, so it’s going to be the most lavishly expensive skill to make bar none. The reason to do it is because it’s awesome!
Travis – Corpses has taken a lot of time in figuring out how they work. Lot of challenges at the start of development and how to handle with the flow of gameplay and how the interaction works with corpses?
Julian – There was a lot that went into how the corpses actually look and how they are identified on the battle field. They decided that the corpses should look all the same and behave the same to prevent issues with “saving” certain corpse types and making them easily identifiable. How do you handle the situation of no corpses at something like the rift guardian?
There will be ways to make this work. Has there been anything that has come across with the Necro that has made you say “I can’t wait to finish this.”
Travis – Really excited when it was announced that we were doing the Necro. Been a joy taking the thematic elements from D2 and adapting them to D3. Excited to have it in the hands of players.
Julian – It was the day before I go on vacation when it was announced internally that they were going to work on the Necro and I wanted to make it absolutely clear that I WANTED TO WORK ON THE NECRO. I was sending emails while on vacation to make sure I got the point across that I wanted to work on the Necro. I’m really excited about the golems since we have sort of double-downed on them and spending a lot of resources on them to make them cool.
didn't read the whole thing yet, kinda don't know if i need to given that they don't talk about price and release.
edit:
okay, read it. jeez. Q&A. many Q, few definitive A. "don't know yet", "maybe", "that is the plan". as it stands now, they don't seem to have anything really working.
You almost get the feeling they didn't start working on the Necro until they started taking flack after Gamescom for having nothing at all to show.
3
I would be stunned if we don't get D4 eventually. Although eventually may be half a decade or a decade from now. D3 sold over a billion dollars worth of software. When they can't squeeze any more money out of class packs and the like, they will eventually make a sequel.
Personally, I think the future of D3 is just the low effort we've seen in '16 and '17, and whether we ever see any more class packs will depend on how well the Necro pack sells. Personally, I hope its a flop because the sooner they close the chapter on 3, the sooner they can really push development of 4.
3
A feeling of character progression is key to me.
Killing new content (not just the same procedurally generated rifts you've been fighting since level 1) and gaining new skills and getting new gear as the game goes on really makes the game feel fresh and challenging. The D3 treadmill where leveling to 70 is an almost irrelevant nuisance, then you get geared in a brief window, and then you spend the rest of the season on the same treadmill, adding a lot of mainstat to your build and replacing existing items with new items that are the same, but have more mainstat and adding augments that have more mainstat is just a recipe for boredom with the game.
Currently D3 has three phases
1) Leveling to 70 (a matter of hours for experienced players)
2) Getting geared up (getting yourself all the items in your template, but not necessarily your final gear) this is hours to days for experienced players)
3) Quest for mainstat (the bulk of the season) - The rest of the season you just add more mainstat from things like Ancients, Augments, and paragons, to the extent mainstat hits diminishing return and you are rolling it off your gear for stats like AD and CDR and the like. The only gear you are interested in is better rolled versions of the gear you are currently wearing. Sadly, as seen by the many people who aren't interested in this quest and bail after a week or so, this quest doesn't resonate with many people.
1
Personally, I just think it is hilarious how well it illustrates the existing D3 Blizzard Dev team stereotype of being lazy and uncreative and how little Blizzard corporate cares about D3.
1
They may well go ahead with them, and honestly it probably doesn't matter. Anyone who farms paragons enough to be at the top of the boards is going to end up with primal ancient weapons anyway just because of the high loot drop rate at high GRs plus crafting and I doubt primal ancient armors will really make a huge difference.
I don't think primal ancient is a calamity for the game, but it isn't exactly a solution. It's just a lazy buff added to the game by a lazy, underfinanced dev team.
1
I dream of the day I'm doing GR 264 with my
SUPER MEGA UBER PRIMAL ANCIENT LEGENDARIES!!!!
7
Lol. Higher Multiple Weapons and Armor so we can fight higher multiple health and damage mobs in higher rifts.
It's almost at the point of self-parody.
0
I almost always use Templar, but honestly if I am playing WD, he is likely as not to have Int gear, because follower damage is irrelevant. In generaly I find the modest regen and sustain help to have more value than the CC and damage buffing you get from Enchantress and Scoundral.
It's kind of a shame that mostly they are all just coatracks for an Oculus, Ess of Johann, an undying relic, maybe a unity or some CC gear.
It would be cool if followers felt more impactful.
0
0
1
Honestly I'd be game for any mechanic that gets D3 out of the OP 6 pc set/Rift/Paragon grind it is currently mired in. New zones and Mobs also don't interest me much. History says if they add new maps or mobs, they will likely be on the "skip" list for GR progression.
0
They definitely seem to want to get some business relation with Facebook. I'm a beta user of their Battlenet client, and they have streaming support for their games, but they stream to Facebook. I have no idea who thought that was a good idea. If I want to see streamed content, I'm going to Twitch or Youtube.
0
As near as I can figure out from what I have read all they are doing is adding another class. No runewords or any other major changes, although I would've loved to see a major change like that. They've been careful to refer to it as a pack rather than an expansion to the game.
They appear to be just running a new class through the same existing content. So, some new skills and passives. I'm sure it will be strong enough of a class to have either 1 or 2 Necs Meta- Mandatory so they can sell as many Necs as possible.
0
0
You almost get the feeling they didn't start working on the Necro until they started taking flack after Gamescom for having nothing at all to show.
0
http://www.overpwn.com/news/241-were-closing-our-doors
http://www.heroesnexus.com/news/1812-were-closing-our-doors
Since they haven't announced it yet, I'm guessing it is still a ways down the road til they say something similar for this site.