Quote from Dentacom
Their philosophies for Diablo 3 do not match the philosophy of what a good Diablo item-system is supposed to be. [...] They fail to understand what it is that players want out of their game.
[...] There are several other reasons why Diablo 2 is still a superior product to Diablo 3, but I’m going to focus on just a few.
You finish your post with a disclaimer that this is your opinion, but here you state your opinion as a fact. Their philosophy does not match your philosophy. You think there are reasons why D2 is superior to D3.
In my opinion, D3's philosophy (and in particular RoS's philosophy) takes the franchise back to its core and where it all started, as RoS is much closer to D1 than to D2. And in my opinion, this is the right step in times when all Diablo clones just focus on aspects of Diablo 2 that were not elementary to the genre as such. In my opinion, D3's philosophy has the foundation to create a Diablo experience better than ever before and it's already miles ahead of Diablo 2.
Then you go on and make statements that are, in my opinion, just not true:
- SC2 did not fail, I have no idea why you think it did. I bought SC2 and never played it because it didn't appeal to me, so since I didn't like it I would be the first to admit if it would have failed - but SC2 has almost become a synonym for the strategy genre these days. There is no other game that is even close to it for those who are interested in RTS and can deal with the micro management requirements (I can't). SC2 is the top-selling RTS game after it's predecessor, SC2 is only surpassed by C&C1 in its critical acclaim, and is the top RTS in all e-sports events currently. PvP never was a central aspect of D2. I'm sorry for all the PvPers that they don't get their stuff in D3 yet and also probably not in RoS anytime soon, but PvE is just way more important. Many players never touched PvP in D2 and still played for 10+ years! You're implying that PvE is finished at some point and then PvP comes after that - just nope. If you think it's like that, you have a very skewed perception of Diablo that does not apply to anyone I know (before I came to this board I didn't even know remotely anyone who ever played D2PvP).
Could you elaborate why you think that loot 2.0 is clumsy, unthoughtful, and downright bad? I beg to differ - I think it's a step towards the right direction; it's the process of many iterations of suggestions proposed by the community. The separation of primary and secondary stats is great, the focus on main stats is up for debate (we discussed this just last week extensively) but it works if you look at it from an ARPG perspective, the versatility of potential affixes is better than in D1, D2, or D3V, finally allowing for a choice in RoS. In addition to that, the legendaries really change how you look at your character. There is quite a bit of stuff that needs to be tweaked in all of these aspects, but the general direction looks promising to me.
If loot 2.0 goes live in its current form in RoS, D3 will die even quicker than it did in vanilla.
D3 vanilla did not die. 10% of the buyers were active daily and 30% active at least once a month one year after release - there aren't many non-MMORPG games with numbers like that! It has decreased recently, but that's obvious because the expansion is near, this even happens to MMORPGs.
1) When players have good loot (in say, a month), they will stop getting upgrades so quickly, and the EXACT SAME problem that is happening now will happen, except this time it would be worse because you can’t even sell the decent stuff you find.
But the point of BoA is that you get upgrades less quickly. If legendaries weren't BoA, all the game-breaking legendaries would be shared and distributed. Depending on how good trading works, this means that drop rates had to be adjusted. Better distribution of loot (i.e., simplified trading) leads to faster progress across the community, leads to lower drop rates. This vicious cycle went completely crazy with the AH, were almost not a single remotely useful legendary was taken out of the game, so the drop rates had to be incredibly low.
2) There is nothing worse than having to vendor amazing gear just because you have a better piece. Nothing will push players away from thegame quicker than this.
If an item is useless to you, then it's probably not amazing either. Plus, who talks about vendoring? Salvaging. I really really really have troubles getting enough legendaries in the beta right now to reforge my legendaries. I don't know why good loot that I can't use would make me quit the game. I've played RPGs, ARPGs, MMORPGs, and adventures for more than 20 years now, I've found millions of nice items that I couldn't use personally, and never ever did that make me quit the game. Even when trading was available, I didn't trade it but just vendored it. Totally don't care. Yay, I found a rare item! I got the feeling of achievement - and that's what keeps me playing.
3) It kills trading. While many people will say “Trading wasn’t that great, I barely did it”, it is a huge part of Diablo and passively makes the item-hunt feel better, because you can exchange things for things you want.
We've had this discussion a million times, literally. The majority of players did not trade items in any of the Diablo series before the AH was introduced. All these people hunted for items and never even thought about trading. I hunt items for my characters, my twinks, my followers. If I trade something, I trade it with my friends - who I'm playing with, so most of the time I can give them the items in the 2 hour window. I do not hunt items for D2JSP.
4) No one disputes that the AH was bad and did more harm than good. But making everything BoA is far too extreme and harms the game.
Yes! On this point we totally agree. They took BoA too far here. I also didn't think they would've done this. Making everything BoA is far too extreme - if it will harm the game, we have to evaluate in the long run. In my personal opinion, if they lift the rules from "2 hours within party" to something like "12 hours within clan", I don't have any issues with that anymore. In an RPG, I want items that have a bit of backstory. I don't just go to the next town and ask an old lady to sell me a shrubbery.
5) It voids the entire Diablo 3 economy, making it non-existent
Oh yes, again on this point we agree! However, the takeaway is different. You seem to not like this - I think it's great. An RPG is not a stock market simulation game. It's about killing monsters and acquiring loot, not about playing the economy and getting rich. If they really kill the economy, I'd be more than happy.
And lastly, the Mystic. The mystic has made the item-system unrecognizable as a Diablo game. While it is arguably a fun system, it takes away from the idea of having good loot be good because it is GOOD.
I absolutely love the Mystic and I think it's an awesome addition. I also don't understand what your last sentence means. Keep in mind that there are restrictions on reforging, so it's not like you can take a crap item and turn it into a BiS. Without the Mystic, BoA and smart loot would be terrible - but the Mystic, BoA, and smart loot in combination make sense.
You must be really lucky if in 30 hours of the beta you already geared up your character that you got bored. I played many more hours than that and I'm still stuck on Torment 1. The only things that keeps me from playing more are bugs that make my desired build(s) impossible. So just waiting for the PTR patch.
Edit: Trying to fix the stupid layout with insane spacings. Working on it.
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In D3 there is no reason to start over! You can change your skills and paragon stats at any time allowing you to try a new build when you get bored of your current build without having to start over. I for one do not like leveling, and I think alot of other folks would agree. Why do you think most people powerlevel their characters to 70 when they start a new alt? Because everyone wants to get into the part of the game where the real fun is. Leveling over and over again is not fun for me. Especially when there is no reason to do so! I already have several great level 70 characters that i'm quite attached to. Why the hell would I want to ditch them every 6 months to start over?
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The radius of grenades and the damage were increased as listed in the passive with RF - bombardment.
I also tested this with strafe - demolition, and although i could not verify the radius boost (since they automatically shot directly at the slime wall), I can verify the 10% damage boost works for that too.
And i also checked with cluster arrow. It does not affect the initial "cluster arrow" but the grenades that blow up afterward are boosted by the passive.
So yay for this passive actually being useful now!
For reference here are two screenshots of RF - Bombardment to show off the radius boost: First photo is WITHOUT grenadier passive, Second photo is WITH grenadier passive. Both were taken standing in the same spot and aiming at the same area. As you can see no numbers on the first, but numbers on second... Cool.
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My only problem now is I'm at work for another 4 hours, and I only got 1 hr in last night due to the extended maintenance . Argg today is going so slow, need a FF button! I suppose continuing to read the forums all day isn't helping my situation though, any probably not help my work performance either. haha
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I just finally made it to P100 on live a few weeks ago. I really don't want to start from square one again. I like to feel like i'm working toward something and my progress should feel like... well.. progress. Not something that is going to get reset time and time again.
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just realized you can run the PTR client and normal Live client at the same time.... So i can actually play while i sit in the PTR game que
Maybe you all knew that already, but just thought i'd mention incase you didn't.
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Grenades - Mechanics need a change. It's retarded you can go to the festering woods and shoot arrows over all the low lying bushes and rocks, but then you throw a grenade and it bounces off them like there is a wall there. If anything should be able to be thrown over an obstacle it should be the grenades, right? Also on stairs and hills and such i understand a grenade is going to roll down but they make it very hard to throw them where you want because of the auto targeting, grenades should always throw where ever you cursor is instead of auto targeting and trying to compensate for you
Frost Arrow - for what little damage it does the CC just ins't good enough. either buff the CC effects or buff the damage. Maybe add piercing along with the splitting.
Wolf Companion - Need more wolfies! Would be so cool if i could run around with a pack or 3 wolfies nipping at the Big Demons ankles and keeping them distracted. Then i could do cool shit like sending them after a boss, throwing a guardian turret around them for some extra protection, cast a rain of vengance over top, then kick back and relax while I phew phew a few arrows their way.
Hot Pursuit - Why do I have to be at full hatred??? Would rather have it taken down to 10% and have it always on like the Monk version.
Also, DHs need another viable (off-weapon) Life Steal option. I'm so sick of Shadow Power, i would love to ditch it for something else. Nether tentacles suck, and MFD - Death Toll isn't really good enough playing solo. maybe instead of the Spider Companion slowing some random mobs, it could instead add some life steal to you (kind of like a wizard's MW - Blood Magic). If we got that + the extra wolfies and the already decent bat and boar i'd really have a hard time picking a companion, which is a good problem!