The Core of Diablo
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O_Bruce
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Okay, so I'd like to share some thoughts now. So, currently regarding Diablo 4, the new itemization, system and game balance is currently being (publicly) tested, and based on my limited experience and seeing how other people test it, I have some thoughts.
But first of all, what is changing
- There will be fewer items dropping
- Gems are overall more useful
- The trade between other players is much more free than before
- Magic items will have 1 affix, rares will have 2 affixes, and legendary items will have 3 +one legendary power. Uniques will remain mostly the same. What it means is that in the endgame, you'll be picking rares only for scraping them. Previously, rares could be used as a base for creating legendary items, now it is not the case.
- There are fewer, but more potent and generalized affixes on most items. One, you feel they power more. Second, the overly specific situational affixes are mostly gone from the items that drop. This makes comparing the items you drop in the game much less tedious. Then again, the now "punchier" affixes are raising one concern for me, but that I'll explain later
- Unique items are no longer restricted to World Tier III and World Tier IVs, so you can find some while playing through the campaign.
- Legendary and unique items can roll with 1 to 3 so-called "greater affixes". These not only have their max roll, they also are overall higher than normal affixes can work. Some top tier items will become extremely rare and very valuable in trading, so that might affect the game's economy and community in a way I am unable to predict
- But that's not all. Finding a great item is just the beginning, thanks to two new systems: tempering and masterworking.
- Tempering allows to add two new affixes to an item that are specialized/specific. In short: you'll be able to find tempered recipes while playing the game, and you can learn the recipes. Looking at the preview in-game, there will be tons of them. Anyways, recipes are divided into categories and you'll be able to add two affixes to item, but only 1 per category. Affixes can be rerolled set a amount of time. Affixes are various, from general damage boost to situational damage boost, to chance of adding flat elemental damage to your attack, to affecting the cooldown of your skills, to affecting the area of effect of specific skills, and duration of specific your skills. Things like that. Generally, it allows you to customize your build to what you'd like to and opens up build possibilities.
- Then there's masterworking. It replaces standard item upgrading that was in place now. There are 12 levels of upgrades, most of them give all affixes on an item +5% boost. But, upgrading the item 4th, 8th and 12th time instead will give only one affix a +25% boost. So, depending on the RNG you can end up with 3 affixes boosted more than others, or even one affix becomes incredibly powerful. This applies to affixes obtained via tempering as well, so for example, let's say you have an affix that gives you bigger area of effect of Blizzard (sorceror's skill). After masterworking, the result might be that your Blizzard will affect effectively all of the screen. After masterworking is complete, you can reset it to 0 and start over, if you aren't happy with end result. The materials needed to masterwork an item can be found in the new endgame activity: the Pit
- The Pit works a lot like Greater Rifts in Diablo III. You have the timer to kill a set number of enemies in a randomly generated dungeon, and after you managed to do it in time, a portal will open to allow you to face the dungeon's boss. After killing a boss, you'll be rewarded with a drop and chest with materials specifically required for masterworking. The deeper levels (more difficult) of the Pit can grant you higher-tier materials as well.
A new Uber boss was added to the game
- Most of Uber bosses have an optional even stronger version to fight now.
- Many skills in the game have been rebalanced. Minions/animal companions in particular are now viable
- There is an option to zoom out camera
- Helltides have been changed. When killing demons in the area under Helltide, you'll gain notoriety among demons. The more you kill them, the more you'll be perceived as a threat and so you'll be ambushed by a more dangerous wave of demons (think of the GTA system of stars). At its max, you can expect a powerful boss to attack, killing which resets the threat level and grants you some sweet loot. You can also summon the boss at certain places.
- There are some no-brainers, like new legendary powers and new Uniques. In particular, we have Tyrael's Might in game now.
Okay, so what do testers and I think of this? Vast majority of people seem to enjoy new systems and claim that the game should look like this on release day - something I can agree with. The new systems are making many more builds viable and, intentionally or not, the update addresses some problems I had with the game and haven't voiced to anyone yet. I also like the idea that whenever I find a really powerful legendary and unique item, then that would be the beginning of the journey for this particular item due to tempering and masterworking. I like the idea of having much more freedom in customizing my character build and not wasting an insane amount of time comparing dropped items with tons of reduntant and overly specific affixes. That being said, I have two big concerns:
First of all, affixes are more powerful and they feel more meaningful and overall useful, but the problem lies in which affixes can spawn where. Because, if main character attribute can spawn on anything, additional life can spawn or anything, or +% damage can spawn on too many pieces, then it dumbs down your choice in a way if there are obvious correct choices. I'd like it to be thought much better, especially given max of 3 affixes on base legendary.
Second and more important, I have noticed in examples set by other players, is insane power creep. Think of Diablo III level of craziness. Things like instant killing of Uber obsses, Barbarian's dune devils covering all the screen, Sorceror's Frozen Orb triggering Hydras that trigger additional Frozen Orbs that trigger Hydras etc. Not only I'm afraid the game will be piss easy at this rate, but also this level of craziness crashes harshly with the mood the artstyle, music and overall vibe the game presents. It was acceptable-ish with much more stylized/cartoonish DIII, but in DIV it does really feel off.
Maybe the game will be more fun and that's all that ultimately matters, but I am afraid something will be lost.
But first of all, what is changing
- There will be fewer items dropping
- Gems are overall more useful
- The trade between other players is much more free than before
- Magic items will have 1 affix, rares will have 2 affixes, and legendary items will have 3 +one legendary power. Uniques will remain mostly the same. What it means is that in the endgame, you'll be picking rares only for scraping them. Previously, rares could be used as a base for creating legendary items, now it is not the case.
- There are fewer, but more potent and generalized affixes on most items. One, you feel they power more. Second, the overly specific situational affixes are mostly gone from the items that drop. This makes comparing the items you drop in the game much less tedious. Then again, the now "punchier" affixes are raising one concern for me, but that I'll explain later
- Unique items are no longer restricted to World Tier III and World Tier IVs, so you can find some while playing through the campaign.
- Legendary and unique items can roll with 1 to 3 so-called "greater affixes". These not only have their max roll, they also are overall higher than normal affixes can work. Some top tier items will become extremely rare and very valuable in trading, so that might affect the game's economy and community in a way I am unable to predict
- But that's not all. Finding a great item is just the beginning, thanks to two new systems: tempering and masterworking.
- Tempering allows to add two new affixes to an item that are specialized/specific. In short: you'll be able to find tempered recipes while playing the game, and you can learn the recipes. Looking at the preview in-game, there will be tons of them. Anyways, recipes are divided into categories and you'll be able to add two affixes to item, but only 1 per category. Affixes can be rerolled set a amount of time. Affixes are various, from general damage boost to situational damage boost, to chance of adding flat elemental damage to your attack, to affecting the cooldown of your skills, to affecting the area of effect of specific skills, and duration of specific your skills. Things like that. Generally, it allows you to customize your build to what you'd like to and opens up build possibilities.
- Then there's masterworking. It replaces standard item upgrading that was in place now. There are 12 levels of upgrades, most of them give all affixes on an item +5% boost. But, upgrading the item 4th, 8th and 12th time instead will give only one affix a +25% boost. So, depending on the RNG you can end up with 3 affixes boosted more than others, or even one affix becomes incredibly powerful. This applies to affixes obtained via tempering as well, so for example, let's say you have an affix that gives you bigger area of effect of Blizzard (sorceror's skill). After masterworking, the result might be that your Blizzard will affect effectively all of the screen. After masterworking is complete, you can reset it to 0 and start over, if you aren't happy with end result. The materials needed to masterwork an item can be found in the new endgame activity: the Pit
- The Pit works a lot like Greater Rifts in Diablo III. You have the timer to kill a set number of enemies in a randomly generated dungeon, and after you managed to do it in time, a portal will open to allow you to face the dungeon's boss. After killing a boss, you'll be rewarded with a drop and chest with materials specifically required for masterworking. The deeper levels (more difficult) of the Pit can grant you higher-tier materials as well.
A new Uber boss was added to the game
- Most of Uber bosses have an optional even stronger version to fight now.
- Many skills in the game have been rebalanced. Minions/animal companions in particular are now viable
- There is an option to zoom out camera
- Helltides have been changed. When killing demons in the area under Helltide, you'll gain notoriety among demons. The more you kill them, the more you'll be perceived as a threat and so you'll be ambushed by a more dangerous wave of demons (think of the GTA system of stars). At its max, you can expect a powerful boss to attack, killing which resets the threat level and grants you some sweet loot. You can also summon the boss at certain places.
- There are some no-brainers, like new legendary powers and new Uniques. In particular, we have Tyrael's Might in game now.
Okay, so what do testers and I think of this? Vast majority of people seem to enjoy new systems and claim that the game should look like this on release day - something I can agree with. The new systems are making many more builds viable and, intentionally or not, the update addresses some problems I had with the game and haven't voiced to anyone yet. I also like the idea that whenever I find a really powerful legendary and unique item, then that would be the beginning of the journey for this particular item due to tempering and masterworking. I like the idea of having much more freedom in customizing my character build and not wasting an insane amount of time comparing dropped items with tons of reduntant and overly specific affixes. That being said, I have two big concerns:
First of all, affixes are more powerful and they feel more meaningful and overall useful, but the problem lies in which affixes can spawn where. Because, if main character attribute can spawn on anything, additional life can spawn or anything, or +% damage can spawn on too many pieces, then it dumbs down your choice in a way if there are obvious correct choices. I'd like it to be thought much better, especially given max of 3 affixes on base legendary.
Second and more important, I have noticed in examples set by other players, is insane power creep. Think of Diablo III level of craziness. Things like instant killing of Uber obsses, Barbarian's dune devils covering all the screen, Sorceror's Frozen Orb triggering Hydras that trigger additional Frozen Orbs that trigger Hydras etc. Not only I'm afraid the game will be piss easy at this rate, but also this level of craziness crashes harshly with the mood the artstyle, music and overall vibe the game presents. It was acceptable-ish with much more stylized/cartoonish DIII, but in DIV it does really feel off.
Maybe the game will be more fun and that's all that ultimately matters, but I am afraid something will be lost.
O_Bruce
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- 302
Okay, I guess I'll share some thoughts on latest rework of Diablo 4 systems, given I have some time in already (lvl 100 Druid, Hagrid and level 89, Sorceress, Dynaheir)
The game feels better overall. You find more items, with less affixes on it, but those affixes are more powerful and more generalized. It helps with the pacing, comparing items you found and so on. Rares and Legendaries items you found can by upgraded by tempering them at blacksmith - this is a way you are aiming for more build-specific affixes. Additional damage to companions, cooldown reduciton on specific skills, increased area of effects, chance to proc effect on hit etc. In contrast to the previous system, you are adding those specific things and you have more control over what specific affixes you can have on items, as opposed to finding a lot of sh*t, taking a ton of time to compare the the items and having hard time to decide what you'd want from it. All in all, it is positive change for the game.
Tempered items and Uniques can be strengthened by masterworking. It is an endgame system that replaces the previous upgrading system. It is expensive, and to get the materials for it you need to partake in an endgame activity like the Pit. The Pit can be very fun, but it also suffers from issues I'll mention later.
Example of an item that was tempered and then masterworked. Anvil symbolizes affixes that were added in tempering, blue numbers received an additional +25% boost courtesy of milestone level of masterworking:
Helltides were fun in the new rework in PTR and they are still fun now. They are available even in lower difficulty settings if the campaign is finished. There is generally more things to do, they are more rewarding and you can even summon a boss, defeating which usually results in some sweet loot. As you kill demons and open special chests, your "threat meter" rises and so you'll be ambushed by stronger waves of demons, culminating in fighting against a hell-possessed version of one of the player characters.
Unique items: let's start from the good. They can also be masterworked. When compared to tempered items, there are plenty that are still viable, and in some cases, crucial for the builds. And Shako will always be good. However, when it comes to weapons, things are starting to get ugly. For example, take a look at the Unique item and what Dynaheir is using:
Now, the Oculus has a really nice flavour to it: a massive skill bonus to Teleport means greatly reduced cooldown and increased nova damage (yes, in D4 teleport casts a small nova on landing). With skill points invested in improving the nova damage, in theory, it encourages using teleport often for devastating results, right? And not to mention the Teleport Enchantment (meaning instead of standard dodge, you have additional "charges" on teleport on cooldown). It has also +29% damage. Cool right?
Well, no, actually. Look at what you are losing. Lots of crit damage (or any other +damage affix you can have instead), +43% damage from tempering and proc of flat damage from lucky hit chance. Dynaheir is also losing her attack speed which is helpful for procing effect she is relying on. When testing using these two different weapons, I find that Oculus's cool flavour and resulting combat style is simply much inferior. And Dynaheir isn't that powerful, she struggles in some endgame activities for now, like the Pit.
I had similar feelings for other weapon uniques. Sorry, but the sheer damage gain you can have from tempering is just usually much better than cool stuff Unique weapons have. Which is quite a shame.
Rare and magic items are useless now, same for vendors (since they don't sell unique and legendaries). The developers said something about giving those items purpose in further updates, but I don't know what this can be. Maybe they'll be bases for runewords or something?
Now, my biggest peeve with the game right now is the difficulty. It starts as piss easy and it mostly stays that way from World Tier I to World Tier III. The result is often that you can comfortably get to higher World Tiers while under-leveled. And at the start of World Tier IV, this is also the case. In fact, for most of the content, this is the case. However, as you progress through the levels of the Pit or Nightmare Dungeons, something happens. You see, the difficulty rises at a steady pace, that's not a big deal. It's just a bit harder, and a bit harder. You still doing fine, you're going through the dungeon just fine, and then you die instantly for a reason you cannot comprehend. I paint it with a broad stroke, but this is essentially the problem: one moment you're doing fine, the other you are put in a situation in which you just die and you don't know why or what you could have done better. Basically, in the same area you are clearing semi-comfortably, there are sudden and unpredictable difficulty spikes and that's just not fun. Even though the game doesn't punish death as severely as D2 did, I still would rather die in D2, where at least I know what I did wrong or what series of unfortunate events had lead to it.
Also when you know what you are doing and unless you are in deeper Nightmare Dungeons, the Butcher is now the B*tcher. He's not scary anymore. In short, I think the difficulty needs to be adjusted and I think it should be done in a thoughtful manner.
And due to the sudden difficulty spikes resulting in nearly instant deaths, I don't want to play hardcore in D4 as of right now. Maybe in the future, but definitely not right now. I don't recommend playing hardcore unless you want to get angry.
The Pit has the same difficulty problem as Nightmare Dungeons, but the Pit has a time limit to clear and you are time penalized after each death. This would work really fine, if it wasn't for above-mentioned difficulty issue. Lower levels of the Pit are however really fun, since the sudden deaths aren't the case there.
What can I say is that the game certainly went into right direction, but there's still work to be done. Can you have fun in this game? Yes. Can it also be furstrating at times? Also yes.
The game feels better overall. You find more items, with less affixes on it, but those affixes are more powerful and more generalized. It helps with the pacing, comparing items you found and so on. Rares and Legendaries items you found can by upgraded by tempering them at blacksmith - this is a way you are aiming for more build-specific affixes. Additional damage to companions, cooldown reduciton on specific skills, increased area of effects, chance to proc effect on hit etc. In contrast to the previous system, you are adding those specific things and you have more control over what specific affixes you can have on items, as opposed to finding a lot of sh*t, taking a ton of time to compare the the items and having hard time to decide what you'd want from it. All in all, it is positive change for the game.
Tempered items and Uniques can be strengthened by masterworking. It is an endgame system that replaces the previous upgrading system. It is expensive, and to get the materials for it you need to partake in an endgame activity like the Pit. The Pit can be very fun, but it also suffers from issues I'll mention later.
Example of an item that was tempered and then masterworked. Anvil symbolizes affixes that were added in tempering, blue numbers received an additional +25% boost courtesy of milestone level of masterworking:
Helltides were fun in the new rework in PTR and they are still fun now. They are available even in lower difficulty settings if the campaign is finished. There is generally more things to do, they are more rewarding and you can even summon a boss, defeating which usually results in some sweet loot. As you kill demons and open special chests, your "threat meter" rises and so you'll be ambushed by stronger waves of demons, culminating in fighting against a hell-possessed version of one of the player characters.
Unique items: let's start from the good. They can also be masterworked. When compared to tempered items, there are plenty that are still viable, and in some cases, crucial for the builds. And Shako will always be good. However, when it comes to weapons, things are starting to get ugly. For example, take a look at the Unique item and what Dynaheir is using:
Now, the Oculus has a really nice flavour to it: a massive skill bonus to Teleport means greatly reduced cooldown and increased nova damage (yes, in D4 teleport casts a small nova on landing). With skill points invested in improving the nova damage, in theory, it encourages using teleport often for devastating results, right? And not to mention the Teleport Enchantment (meaning instead of standard dodge, you have additional "charges" on teleport on cooldown). It has also +29% damage. Cool right?
Well, no, actually. Look at what you are losing. Lots of crit damage (or any other +damage affix you can have instead), +43% damage from tempering and proc of flat damage from lucky hit chance. Dynaheir is also losing her attack speed which is helpful for procing effect she is relying on. When testing using these two different weapons, I find that Oculus's cool flavour and resulting combat style is simply much inferior. And Dynaheir isn't that powerful, she struggles in some endgame activities for now, like the Pit.
I had similar feelings for other weapon uniques. Sorry, but the sheer damage gain you can have from tempering is just usually much better than cool stuff Unique weapons have. Which is quite a shame.
Rare and magic items are useless now, same for vendors (since they don't sell unique and legendaries). The developers said something about giving those items purpose in further updates, but I don't know what this can be. Maybe they'll be bases for runewords or something?
Now, my biggest peeve with the game right now is the difficulty. It starts as piss easy and it mostly stays that way from World Tier I to World Tier III. The result is often that you can comfortably get to higher World Tiers while under-leveled. And at the start of World Tier IV, this is also the case. In fact, for most of the content, this is the case. However, as you progress through the levels of the Pit or Nightmare Dungeons, something happens. You see, the difficulty rises at a steady pace, that's not a big deal. It's just a bit harder, and a bit harder. You still doing fine, you're going through the dungeon just fine, and then you die instantly for a reason you cannot comprehend. I paint it with a broad stroke, but this is essentially the problem: one moment you're doing fine, the other you are put in a situation in which you just die and you don't know why or what you could have done better. Basically, in the same area you are clearing semi-comfortably, there are sudden and unpredictable difficulty spikes and that's just not fun. Even though the game doesn't punish death as severely as D2 did, I still would rather die in D2, where at least I know what I did wrong or what series of unfortunate events had lead to it.
Also when you know what you are doing and unless you are in deeper Nightmare Dungeons, the Butcher is now the B*tcher. He's not scary anymore. In short, I think the difficulty needs to be adjusted and I think it should be done in a thoughtful manner.
And due to the sudden difficulty spikes resulting in nearly instant deaths, I don't want to play hardcore in D4 as of right now. Maybe in the future, but definitely not right now. I don't recommend playing hardcore unless you want to get angry.
The Pit has the same difficulty problem as Nightmare Dungeons, but the Pit has a time limit to clear and you are time penalized after each death. This would work really fine, if it wasn't for above-mentioned difficulty issue. Lower levels of the Pit are however really fun, since the sudden deaths aren't the case there.
What can I say is that the game certainly went into right direction, but there's still work to be done. Can you have fun in this game? Yes. Can it also be furstrating at times? Also yes.
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Thanks for sharing, this is very insightful and helpful. I haven't played D4, but from what I'm reading it's very similar to an actively patched live-service game where every couple of months the meta changes, and even some basic approaches to creating builds change. It's positive to hear that the changes are making the game better overall. Let's hope that with even more time, hardcore playthroughs would be more reasonable and the difficulty settings would be adjusted.