1. #1

    Improving Itemization!

    !!Skip this!!

    Itemization in Diablo 3 is one of the most improvable aspects of the game so i think most feedback should be directed towards this area. This feedback is NOT supposed to be a demand towards our dear CMs but rather a thought-process of the community agreeing/disagreeing with one another to reveal strengths and weaknesses of the suggested ideas to reduce the ...

    Disparity of perspectives

    Going by the premise of humans being rational (not logical) it´s possible to say that people standing at the exact same viewpoint of a certain topic are going to make the exact same conclusions. Consensus isn´t met every time when ideas from individuals coming from different perspectives collide and no one is capable or willing to change the personal perspective. This is where the world wide web shines. It allows to bring probably any viewpoint possible to the table and allows to look at the topics from a greater distance from many angles. So provide every thought you guys have, everything that doesn´t suit you everything you disagree with so we can create the improved...

    Carrot on a stick

    The carrot on a stick is the most simplified model of motivation through anticipation of a reward. Biggest problem of this analogy is the lack of showing possibilities how to increase the hunger of the "carrot-chaser". Many Diablo players i have talked to feel the carrot they are chasing right now is either to hard to catch or does not satisfy enough when caught. The most simple way to address this issue is to simply add more carrots to the equation. But let´s not leave it at carrots, we want apples, hot dogs and German "Wurst" tingling in front of our eyes. Adding more and more motivators has the benefit that we can allow the chaser to more often catch something he was chasing for, but even more importantly to give him "Wurst" while he was chasing the apple. Convincing us to get things we didn´t even know we are hungry for is such a diabolic process that simply confuses us and as soon as we start chasing every stick and being rewarded with even the smallest forms of rewards most players will stick to chasing it. So let´s add more carrots via ...

    Parallel progression ! Important !

    THIS is the most lackluster principle about Diablo 3 at the moment. Currently there are to few carrots to chase. Parallel progression means we improve on multiple aspects simultaneously. The current game SHOULD allow to always make small steps of improvement no matter in what direction we are going. But there aren´t enough tabs to progress in. Currently there are:

    - Paragon levels: Every time you kill anything you gain XP
    - Gem upgrades: On every kill you have the possibility to find a gem and move closer to the "gem-limit". Per gem slot you will need 729 gems of the same type. It´s like a second XP bar that increases by 1 every time a needed gem drops.
    - Items (Screen-DPS): The most important tab of progression, but also the one that has the biggest problem. Items that are found at the moment don´t have "character". People are not searching for new boots, for a new weapon or for a new ring. They look for an overall + in the DPS screen. Sometimes it feels like there is only one item-slot called the "DPS-Screen"-charslot. This was done better in Diablo 2 where people explicitly looked for white items to fill the weapon slot and then put a check on that slot and tried to improve the other ones.
    - Knowledge: When unexperienced people gain new informations on every run. Identifying which events to skip, what the map layout looks like and how to fight certain monsters, etc.

    These tabs are already allow for a good feeling of parallel progression, but people want more, so let´s start by adding better crafting and adding imbues!

    Stop Skipping

    Crafting in other games:

    Diablo 2: The most famous one. I´m going to stick to the "Item-crafting". This was the most complex item-system of the game but also had the chance to create the best items for many slots. To craft properly one had to find many types of items and acquire a lot of knowledge. There are ilvls, clvls, alvls, affixes, recipes and itemtypes that needed to be studied and while farming the mats you always had a chance to also find things you were not looking for which made it feel even more rewarding.
    - Complexity
    + Could be very rewarding
    + Progression in many tabs

    Titan Quest:
    Probably one of the best crafting systems was titan quests charm/relic hunting. These imbues were bound to monster types and only these could drop the items. There were 3-5 parts each imbue consisted of and there were 20+ types of imbues. Each imbue could only be cast on certain armor types and only if the item is not of unique quality. Here is where the magic happens: The small parts held a small bonus that always increased by the same amount for every new part added but once the charm was completed new affixes from a new affix pool were added!
    Example: Incarnation of Hektor´s shadow: 60 defense & 3 % chance to dodge projectiles per part. On completion the imbue additionally rolled one of the following stats: 65 defense, 450 life, 26 strength, 16% armorpen, 41% reistance.
    This might seem redundant but in the game it created great incentives to use rare items instead of uniques and farming for the rare ones could keep people entertained for hours every time they found an upgrade. My absolute favourite system.
    + Great customization and incentive to farm
    - The monsters that dropped charms didn´t drop anything else and didn´t allow for parallel progression

    Torchlight:
    A very unusual form of crafting but it had its hights. For a small fee you had a chance to either add an affix, not change anything about the item, or remove all existing affixes.
    + Very simple, very fast
    + Items are never completed
    - Risk of item going from hero to zero was to big.
    - tooo random.

    Ideas for Diablo 3

    Imbues

    As mentioned above imbues, to me, are the greatest type of progression in ARPGs. The idea is to create a new item-type that has varying loot-tables for each region. These items can imbue certain item-slots and those can not be of unique quality. They consist of several parts (3-7) and each part roles random stats of the same affix and can be imbued on an item even if the imbue is not completed. If combined the affixes add up and if completed they also gain a new affix from a new affix pool. If this new affix is an ability a more detailed description is available in the "imbue-window" Imbues start dropping in Hell difficulty. Imbued items can not be traded.

    Example: In the cathedral, the crypts and the festering woods each monster has a chance to drop an "imbue of withering". This item is an additional item drop and does not effect other item drops. It is not influenced by magic find and they can not be traded. The "imbue of withering" consists of 6 parts. It can only imbue amulets. The base attribute of each part is "+2-8 intelligence, 1-3 strength". A completed imbue can vary from +12 intelligence and +6 strength to +48 intelligence and +18 strength. When the imbue is completed it gains an additional random affix giving the imbue a random passive from any class (only the respective classes can use it).

    If implemented correctly these imbues can create huge incentives to keep farming and improving. What does correct implementation look like? Important rules are:

    - Easy to achieve, very very hard to perfect: The first step to make this possible is randomization. Everybody will be able to complete imbues but most of them will be of average quality if rushed. Those that want perfect ones will have to farm for a longer time. The second step is to make people lose the imbue, once it has been used. If you managed to craft a perfect one, it is necessary to still have incentive to craft those. So the imbue has to be lost if the amulet is switched.

    - Make them farmable, but not as an exclusive type of progression: As mentioned in the example these things have to drop WHILE killing whatever you want to. If you limit them to an area where ONLY imbues drop, people get tunnel visioned and are saddened every time they don´t get the drop they wanted. But making them drop at completely random locations makes it to hard and to unrewarding to strive and hunt for those. So the perfect solution is to bind certain imbues to certain places that allow for efficient farming but not at the cost of normal loot.

    - The inventory problem: The biggest problem is the space these little imbues take up. I think usually people will want to farm at least for two sorts PER imbue. One perfect slot that wants the best stats and one "trash" slot that people just want to complete so they can get the completion affix. But i wouldn´t call it a problem, if there wasn´t a possible solution to this. By creating a new "imbue-screen" that has all imbues listed you can not only create an easy way of informing people which imbues exist but also give them the possibility to craft one imbue in the window. If people want to work on more than one imbue they will have to give up a slot in their inventory. I´m thinking about creating 20 imbues, so the window would consist of two rows with ten imbues per row. All available imbues will be listed there and be greyed out until the player stores a partial or a completed imbue in the slot. The player can drag this imbue out and use it on an item at any given time. If moving the mouse over an imbue in the "imbues-screen" a tooltip saying "This magical tool can increase it´s wearers intellect and strength if used properly. It was seen to be created as a side product when corpses in the foul crypts and graveyards were reawakened." to show people what the imbue does and give a rough description where it can drop.


    Example of a few imbues:

    1. Example:
    Imbue of withering:
    - Parts drop in Cathedral, Festering Woods, Crypts, The Weeping Hollow
    - Tooltip: "This magical tool can increase its wearers intellect and strength if imbued on an amulet. It was seen to be created as a side product when corpses in the foul crypts and graveyards were reawakened."
    - Can imbue amulets
    - 6 Parts
    - 2-8 Intelligence, 1-3 Strength (Min: 12 Int, 6 Str; Max: 48 Int, 18 Str)
    - Completion bonus: Gain a random passive for your character (respective class only)

    2. Example:
    Imbue of celerity:
    - Parts drop in Fields of Misery, Howling Plateau, Desolate Sands
    - Tooltip: "This magical tool can increase its wearers speed, allowing him to move quicker and dodge attacks if imbued on an amulet. Creatures in huge open areas had to adapt to their environment and move quickly to survive. Magicians claim to be able to harness their essence and bind it to scrolls."
    - Can imbue amulets
    - 3 Parts
    - 1%-2% dodge chance, 0.5%-4% movement speed (Min: 3% dodge, 1.5% ms; Max: 6% dodge, 12% ms)
    - Completion bonus: Teleport 20-60 yards by clicking "force move" on the ground while having the item not on cooldown, 60-10 seconds cooldown

    3. Example:
    Imbue of resilience:
    - Parts drop in Hell Rift, Gardens of Hope, The Battlefields, The Barracks
    - Tooltip: "Grants the wearer improved defense and allows to retaliate attacks."
    - Can imbue shields
    - 3 Parts
    - 0.5%-2% all resistance, 5-50 armor (Min: 1.5% AR, 15 armor; Max: 6% AR, 150 armor)
    - Completion bonus: + 50 random single resistance, Shield retaliation: After being struck the yielder has a 30%-80% chance to retaliate with 300%-2000% of intelligence as damage. The retaliation is not possible for 2 seconds after each block. (Coupled with this affix i would like to see at least one tier of shields that can role a lower block chance than 10%)

    4. Example:
    Imbue of fortification:
    - Parts drop in Gardens of Hope, Desolate Sands, Fields of Misery
    - Tooltip: "Allows its wearer to increase his life and a chance to summon a sacred shield when being hit."
    - Can imbue shields
    - 7 Parts
    - 0.2%-1% increased life (Min: 1.4% HP; Max: 7% HP)
    - Completion bonus: + 40 random stat, Sacred shield: When dropping below 50% HP a sacred shield appears and reduces all damage taken by 0.01%-0.1% of its wielders dexterity for 4 seconds, 60-15 seconds cooldown.

    5. Example:
    Imbue of strangulation:
    - Parts drop in Festering Woods, Howling Plateau, Dhalgur Oasis, Stringing Wind
    - Tooltip: "Reduces cooldown of all abilites and allows to drag monsters to the wielder."
    - Can imbue shields
    - 6 Parts
    - 0.25%-1.5% reduced cooldowns, 2-10 Vitality (Min: 1.5% Cd, 12 Vit; Max: 9% cd, 60 Vit)
    - Completion bonus: 10%-50% Chance to vortex a monster towards the player if its attack is blocked, + 12-60 Vitality

    6. Example:
    Imbue of domination:
    - Parts drop in Cathedral, Alcarnus, Tower of the damned
    - Tooltip: "Increases summoned minions damage and allows to control more minions. Gather the essences of Sanctuarios' greatest summoners and bind them on a scroll."
    - Can imbue Belts, Amulets
    - 3 Parts
    - 1%-4% increased minion damage, 0-2 Pickup radius (Min: 3% MD, 0 PR; Max: 12% MD, 6 PR)
    - Completion bonus: summoning mastery: Reduces cooldown of minion based spells by 1%-50%, Doubles the amount of minions summoned

    7. Example:
    Imbue of venom:
    - Parts drop in Howling Plateau, Fields of Misery, Fields of Slaughter
    - Tooltip: "Increasing its wearers Agility and Resistance. Gathered from the most poisonous areas in Sanctuario this allows to apply a deadly venom to the attacks, once completed.
    - Can imbue Shields, Belts
    - 5 parts
    - 3-10 agility, 1-6 poison resistance (Min: 15 agi, 5 pr; Max: 50 agi, 30 pr)
    - Completion bonus: Venomstrike: Normal, non critical hits apply a poison, dealing
    100%-2000% of the players poison resistance as damage over 2 seconds.

    Crafting using the jeweler and the blacksmith:

    Crafting has a few major purposes once the max level has been reached. The first one is to improve the loot experience. On every kill monsters have a chance to not only give better gear to the player but to also give new materials to the player. In D3 this is ensured through salvaging items that have no use to the charakter. The next goal of a good crafting system should be to allow to customize the players gear by giving him a way to influence the loot he gets. The only decision the player has at the moment is whether he wants to use his materials for boots or for a belt. Combined with the huge effort and the lack of unique affixes for crafting it is very discouraging for players to invest time in crafting rather than killing a few other monsters which grants the same reward. Crafting should add new affixes and allow for alternative loot paths. Players should be allowed to dedicate their hunt to materials and see the regular items as an added bonus if they so desire. A little bit of complexity should also add more fun and dedication from players.

    Changes to crafting materials:

    Following the idea of parallel progression crafting materials have to pile up while the player is doing whatever he wants. The other goal is to make the piñatas that dare calling themselves our enemies more interesting to pop. We can achieve this by changing the current crafting material system a bit:

    - Material quality: Depending on the affix quality of the salvaged item we can get 3 types of material quality: normal, superior and magical. Items in the 0%-60% range of the best affixroll salvage into normal quality (90%) or superior quality (10%). Items with the best affix being in the 60%-94% range salvage into normal quality (20%), superior quality (70%) or magical quality (10%). Items with their best affix in the 94%-100% range salvage into superior quality (50%) or magical quality (50%). This allows you to gain superior and magical crafting materials even from white and blue items, making these items really interesting to dedicated crafters. Yellow items still have the advantage of rolling more affixes and therefore having a higher chance on high affix rolls.

    Usage of normal, superior and magical quality: At first we have to remove these materials from the inventory completely. Right now there are 3 different lvl 60 crafting materials and adding quality levels will overflow the inventory. Since these materials don´t have any use at all, no matter how often you click on them they do not deserve to be in the players inventory. Create a new crafting window with a 3x3 grid. Not only does this look really compelling and tidy, but it also removes the hastle of storing and picking them back up. Dragging those into the trading window should still be possible though. Also, dragging higher quality materials into lower quality brackets inside the materials window allows to downgrade the materials fast. At the crafting window the player can chose which quality level materials he wants to use.
    The different quality levels influence the efficiency of the player´s crafting by altering the amount of items crafted. Normal materials always generate one item. Superior materials have a 20% chance to create one item, a 70% chance to create two items at once and a 10% chance to create 3 items. Now things get crazy: Magical items have a 50% chance to create 3 items, a 30% chance to create 4 items, a 15% chance to create 5 items, a 4% chance to create 7 items and a 1% chance to create 10(!!!) items at once. These items are rolled individually and the player should make sure he has free inventory space if he doesn´t want to turn into a pinata himself.

    - New crafting item, that CRAFTS!: More loot is something everybody wants. Another colour that we can cheer about and look forward to on every kill called SCROLL OF THE HORADRIM.
    A very rare crafting material that can drop everywhere and stacks in the players inventory. Dropchances are higher for unique monsters. This item allows players to increase the third affix of an item by a random amount between 1%-30%. The bonus is shown as a new affix at the bottom of the items description and adds "of the horadrim" to the basic items name. You can use the scroll of Horadrim as often as you want to reroll the increas of the third affix.

    Crafting - Blacksmith:

    Crimson-recipes:
    These allow players completely forgo the current defensive stats armor and resistance affixes by granting the player a huge lifeboost and situational defense. Items crafted with these recipes have NO armor and NO resistance at all. They can not be imbued and can not be traded. Crimson items can be created for the boots, belt, shoulders and wrists-slot. They have 3 base affixes:
    + 200-500 Vitality
    + 10%-20% Life
    + Armorconversion 1-25 (Armorconversion: For every 1000 points of damage the character takes he gains x amount of armor for 5 seconds.)
    Along with these set affixes there are another 4 affixes (excluding armor/resist):
    1. Either +5.000-25.000 Healthglobes/Potions OR +500-2.500 Hp/s.
    2. random affix from the current affixtable (affixlevel = itemlevel)
    3. random affix from the current affixtable (if 1 higher alvl is available than alvl = ilvl + 1; if no higher alvl is available than alvl=ilvl - 1)
    4. random affix from the current affixtable (if 2 higher alvl are available than alvl = ilvl + 2; if no higher alvl is available than alvl=ilvl - 2)
    Additionally to the affix-roles the player can enchant crafted items to gain one ability that is autocast every 30 seconds (wizard-armor,monk-mantra,barb-shouts). Only the latest ability that has been put on works (if the player has more than one enchanted item).

    Obsidian-recipes:
    These allow players completely forgo the current critchance and critdmg affixes by granting the player an attackspeed bonus and increasing monsters vulnerability. Items crafted with these recipes have NO critical chance and NO critical damage at all. They can not be imbued and can not be traded. Obsidian items can be created for the boots, hands, amulet and head-slot. They have 3 base affixes:
    + 100-250 Attribute
    + 1%-5% increased attack speed
    + a) Vulnerability 1000-7500 (80% chance) or b) Vulnerability 1000-15000 (20% chance) (Vulnerability: Increases the damage taken by target by x after each completed attack. This damage is added after critmodificators and is therefore not improved by critical hits.)
    Along with these set affixes there are another 4 affixes (excluding crit,critdmg):
    1. + 2-7 pickup radius
    2. random affix from the current affixtable (affixlevel = itemlevel)
    3. random affix from the current affixtable (if 1 higher alvl is available than alvl = ilvl + 1; if no higher alvl is available than alvl=ilvl - 1)
    4. random affix from the current affixtable (if 2 higher alvl are available than alvl = ilvl + 2; if no higher alvl is available than alvl=ilvl - 2)
    Additionally to the affix-roles the player can enchant crafted items to gain one ability that has a 1%-10% chance to be cast on hit (seismic slam,chackram,exploding palm,zombie charger,energy twister). Only the latest ability that has been put on works (if the player has more than one enchanted item).

    Ember-recipes:
    These allow players to heavily take advantage of abilities dealing damage over time. Items crafted with these recipes have NO critical chance and NO critical damage at all. They can not be imbued and can not be traded. Ember items can be created for the weapon, hands, head and amulet-slot. They have 3 base affixes:
    + 4%-12% increased damage to elite monsters
    + 1%-6% movementspeed
    + a) Curse mastery 10%-35% (80% chance) or b) Curse mastery 25%-55% (20% chance)
    (Curse mastery: Increases strength of damage over time effects that are applied to the enemy)
    Along with these set affixes there are another 4 affixes (excluding crit,critdmg):
    1. Either +50-200 armor or +20-50 single resist
    2. 2. random affix from the current affixtable (affixlevel = itemlevel)
    3. random affix from the current affixtable (if 1 higher alvl is available than alvl = ilvl + 1; if no higher alvl is available than alvl=ilvl - 1)
    4. random affix from the current affixtable (if 2 higher alvl are available than alvl = ilvl + 2; if no higher alvl is available than alvl=ilvl - 2)
    Additionally to the affix roles the player can enchant crafted items to gain one permanent minion (mystic ally,raven,3 zombie dogs,Madawc) that is resummoned after 30 if it dies. Only the latest ability that has been put on works (if the player has more than one enchanted item).


    Runecrafting using Shen:

    The next character that needs more use is Shen the Jewelcrafter! His job is to give players small improvements over long periods of time. Currently he is only capable of upgrading gems as a form of progression. Every gem that drops currently increases the players progress by a small amount. The higher the upgrade gets the lower the total increase of strength is. For every perfect gem the player currently needs 729 gemdropps of the same type in inferno-difficulty. Problems arise when players start using the auction house. The costs of buying a gem in the auction house are about the same as the costs to craft the gem yourself and therefore removes the incentives to collect gems at all. This removes Shen's purpose almost completely and therefore he needs a new thing to do!
    Runecrafting allows players to improve their favourite abilities and if really dedicated, players can even "perfect" those. Long long ago every rune had multiple levels but this was removed because the system of storing hundreds of runes was to clunky. So to address this the system has to change a little:
    Runepower: For every kill the player gains 1 runepower (10 for elite, 100 for bosses) to one random rune-type (crimson,obsidian,golden,indigo,alabaster) that is not capped. The runepower is shown in a small section at the bottom of the skill selection frame. Every rune-type can store up to a max of 100.000 runepower. If the player collects enough power he can use it to upgrade one of the abilities permanently to the next level by going to Shen and selecting the ability and the rune he wants to improve in a new tab called "Runecrafting". There are 3 upgrades for every rune possible. The first one costs 10.000, the second one costs 35.000 and the last and final upgrade costs 100.000. Upgrading reduces the runepower by the amount it costs. Players start earning runepower after completing normal mode by killing monster that grants experience. Runepower is shared among all characters of the same gamemode (softcore - hardcore).

    New items for runepower: These items allow players to influence the runepower farming process and give new items to be excited about if they drop:
    - Powerfocus: There are 5 types of powerfoci, one for every type of rune. They have a rare dropchance (one every 1500 kills) and are bound to the account. Once used they make the next 5.000 runepower gathered go to the rune-type they were called. (Crimson powerfocus, obsidian powerfocus,...)
    - Equilibrium: Very very rare. Once used they make the next 5.000 runepower gathered go towards every rune-type at once increasing the amount gathered by 5 times. Tradable. They can be combined with a powerfocus by Shen and create enchanced powerfoci, which give 3 times more runepower, but only to one type of rune.
    - Concentrated runepower: very quite rare. Can be given to Shen to increase a random runetype by 5.000 runepower. Account bound. Can be combined with equilibrium to give 2.000 runepower to every rune-type.

    What would change? Level 60 characters progress in even more tabs with every kill they make, they have a chance to receive even more loot and most importantly players will have to make choices again. It would take huge amounts of time to level every rune to max level (3.625.000 runepower per rune for a character with 25 abilities) and therefore characters are forced to make choices again. The rune upgrades are not strong enough to greatly change a characters power, but still encourage those who focus on their favourite abilites. Since runepower is shared amongst all characters it's also profitable to level new ones.

    That´s it! I hope you guys enjoyed my ideas and see what´s still possible in Diablo 3 itemization and crafting systems.

    TL;DR: New itemtabs to progress in. While farming you won´t be looking for legendaries only.
    Progression through items:

    1. Finding legendaries
    2. Finding rares
    3. Improving imbues (all 20 of them)
    4. Improving Crimson-set
    5. Improving Obsidian-set
    6. Improving Ember-set
    7. Finding high affix whites and blues
    8. Leveling Runepower

    Epilogue: Now that you managed to scroll down that far, what is left to do?

    - Feedback: What do you understand? What does not make sense to you? Why do you like/dislike the feature? Give me your perspective and show me the flaws of the system.

    - Improve: Discuss how to make this system better and add ideas.

    - Correct: English is my 3d language so help me getting rid of all the mistakes (grammatical and logical ones!).

  2. #2
    I think instead of bulk of all kinds of changes it would be better to just pick the single strongest most efficient update and go with that. It's unlikely Blizz will do any gear changes that go outside of the current gear framework of the game before expansion and who knows if they do any in the expansion. So one step at a time approach may be better.

    Personally I would like rng on the items to be divided into parts. Instead of having to roll everything perfect, having the item consist of parts that each roll separately and that you can assemble together would be better. It can be something like well rolled white item + enchants of all kinds put on it ... think runes from D2, but such that they can roll high or low themselves.

    Problem is all this goes outside of AH/RMAH and ... I don't know how much Blizz loves that feature.

    My part in this story has been decided. And I will play it well.

  3. #3
    What makes you think Blizzard likes the AH?

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Melt View Post
    What makes you think Blizzard likes the AH?
    I don't know ... maybe they don't like it, maybe they love it. It's more about that if they do love AH/RMAH ... they won't like to do stuff that will allow players to get gear by other means.

    My part in this story has been decided. And I will play it well.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Repefe View Post
    I don't know ... maybe they don't like it, maybe they love it. It's more about that if they do love AH/RMAH ... they won't like to do stuff that will allow players to get gear by other means.
    Well, i am very certain Blizzard said they are not satisfied with the way the AH works and creating systems that allow them to move away from it is definitely something they would like (promised!)

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Melt View Post
    Well, i am very certain Blizzard said they are not satisfied with the way the AH works and creating systems that allow them to move away from it is definitely something they would like (promised!)
    Let's hope for the best then.

    My part in this story has been decided. And I will play it well.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Melt View Post
    Well, i am very certain Blizzard said they are not satisfied with the way the AH works and creating systems that allow them to move away from it is definitely something they would like (promised!)
    When and where did they say that? Source link?

    A lot of players are frustrated with the AH aspect of the game and moving away from it could encourage more people to play. However they would have to do something about drops and drop rates because without being able to gear up via the AH there really isn't a viable way to improve player power. Effort vs. reward is already in a bad place even with the AH.
    Quote Originally Posted by Shinoashi View Post
    He doesn't need a source to know that he pretty much hit the nail on the head.
    “What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.” - Christopher Hitchens

  8. #8
    Taking your rune upgrade idea,

    Every character currently has runes for every skill. Each rune could be given 5 tiers of improvement and random drops or gradual power gain could be used to take your skill runes slowly up. We already have defensive, offensive, or whatever spells (original placement by blizzard before elective mode) could just get thos type of power rather than crimson, ember and what not

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Spider Klein View Post
    Taking your rune upgrade idea,

    Every character currently has runes for every skill. Each rune could be given 5 tiers of improvement and random drops or gradual power gain could be used to take your skill runes slowly up. We already have defensive, offensive, or whatever spells (original placement by blizzard before elective mode) could just get thos type of power rather than crimson, ember and what not
    I don't like this idea. What you're suggesting is players gaining more power by doing the same thing they are already doing. We'd be doing the same farming runs for additional drops. Even if you use the gradual power gain it's just another form of paragon levels that's already in the game. I'm not sure what the answer is but adding more incentive to do what we're already doing isn't it.
    Quote Originally Posted by Shinoashi View Post
    He doesn't need a source to know that he pretty much hit the nail on the head.
    “What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.” - Christopher Hitchens

  10. #10
    They could solve some itemization probs by letting us put sockets into items like it was planed in beta(but no they needed to add another randomization factor) Good stat helmet but no socket= insta crap, weapons with more than 1100 DPS but no slot=crap

    Less loot droping often but more quality(quality over quantity)

    Some crating options

  11. #11
    Deleted
    I just skipped through the wall of text so forgive me if I missed or misunderstood a few things but it seems to me that your idea for perfect Diablo is a solo game.

    It's not going to happen. No one picks and upgrades their own gems, especially when gold is kinda cheap and abundant now. AH is there to stay and it's great. Having to do everything yourself is a stupid, outdated concept. Some like to farm, some like to PvP, some even buy gold.. D3 has gold for a reason, so we can do what we want, trade the excess for gold and buy things we dont like doing ourselves.

    That said, it needs more carrots yes but something that isn't currently in the game and cant be bought. Otherwise it wouldnt be much of a carrot. Why would anyone go after it when thy can just go for the most gold per hour route and buy it..

    I think just making legendarys soulbound would do it. The market is too saturated now so when you find a legendary or a set item and it doesnt have capped states or very good random properties, it's just meh.. if they'd just make them soulbound of introduce another idea to get them off the market, I think finding them would give most the incentive or the "carrot" they need. Of course other fun ideas wouldnt be bad either but if they dont fix whats broken and just try patching it, it wouldnt really help. The runes etc. would just be more cheap common trash that isn't even worth picking up.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Lizbeth View Post
    It's not going to happen. No one picks and upgrades their own gems, especially when gold is kinda cheap and abundant now. AH is there to stay and it's great. Having to do everything yourself is a stupid, outdated concept. Some like to farm, some like to PvP, some even buy gold.. D3 has gold for a reason, so we can do what we want, trade the excess for gold and buy things we dont like doing ourselves.
    It's great that all the items you wear come from AH ? It used to be that you got gear for killing mobs .. now you kill mobs and when you do that long enough you can go buy items for doing it. More effective for sure, but better ? I don't know. Also not sure who plays D3 for PvP ...

    My part in this story has been decided. And I will play it well.

  13. #13
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Repefe View Post
    It's great that all the items you wear come from AH ? It used to be that you got gear for killing mobs .. now you kill mobs and when you do that long enough you can go buy items for doing it. More effective for sure, but better ? I don't know. Also not sure who plays D3 for PvP ...
    Yes it's great. You can pick what you want instead of waiting for RNG that may never drop the right items. There's still a lot of RNG in D3 but it just determines how long you have to grind for your gear not if you get it at all. You still move closer even with the worst luck from the gold you pick up.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Lizbeth View Post
    Yes it's great. You can pick what you want instead of waiting for RNG that may never drop the right items. There's still a lot of RNG in D3 but it just determines how long you have to grind for your gear not if you get it at all. You still move closer even with the worst luck from the gold you pick up.
    It's like saying it's better to go buy a fish than to go fishing. It's more effective but you lose something in the process.

    My part in this story has been decided. And I will play it well.

  15. #15
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Repefe View Post
    It's like saying it's better to go buy a fish than to go fishing. It's more effective but you lose something in the process.
    I'd see it as a problem if when you bought the game you had to get your own loot and then in some update they introduced AH and changed the rules. However, the AH was there from the start. You are just trying to change the game into something that fits your vision of "better" while it would be actually worse for others.

    PS. I find fishing incredibly boring and would rather buy fish yes, if I wasn't a vegetarian, that is..

  16. #16
    What I like about this imbue system is that it is soulbound. You have to go and farm them yourself.

    One of the major flaws of the d3 AH is that you don't farm items for yourself. You farm them to sell on AH. And it gives a feeling that you are not playing a game, but working on VERY badly paid job.
    Farming something for yourself would give a great feeling of accomplishment.

    Improving items could be a way to go.
    The only problem I see, players are way overpowered nowadays. A long time ago people said "inferno" and it meant something. Nowadays even my mom can walk through the inferno just by holding the mouse over monsters.
    Adding item improvement system will make players even more powerful. So this new system should not be implemented until the next expansion where character level will be increased to lvl70, and new monsters power will be balanced around the new improvement system.

    And improvement system is not the priority. The game relies on gear too much. You either die on every elite pack or just faceroll through it. Your skill does not matter. That's what makes the gameplay so frustrating - all you have in the game is brainless farm.
    All you can enjoy in the game is getting your carrot. While in good game you should enjoy the running itself as well. And working on gameplay improvement is much more important than adding third or fifth carrot on stick.
    Last edited by traen; 2013-01-10 at 01:59 PM.

  17. #17
    At this point, anything new in Diabo 3 is fine by me....

  18. #18
    Anthracite-recipes:
    These recipes bring a new use to all the crowd control affixes that spawn on items by adding a dmg-aspect to successful procs. Anthracite items can not roll main attributes. Along with this set there will be a new lvl 59 2hand legendary which quadruples the damage done by the procs. They can not be imbued and can not be traded. Anthracite Items can be made for the chest, head, belt and ring slots. They have 3 base affixes:
    - Reduction to crowdcontrols +3%-12%
    - Reduced damage from elites by 2%-5%
    - a) Empathy 300%-1500% (90% chance) or b) Empathy 1300%-2000% (10% chance)
    (Empathy: For every proc of crowd control effects the target also receives x dmg based on Vitality)
    Along with these set affixes there are another 4 affixes (excluding main attributes):
    1. random crowdcontrol effect
    2. random affix from the current affixtable (affixlevel = itemlevel)
    3. random affix from the current affixtable (if 1 higher alvl is available than alvl = ilvl + 1; if no higher alvl is available than alvl=ilvl - 1)
    4. random affix from the current affixtable (if 2 higher alvl are available than alvl = ilvl + 2; if no higher alvl is available than alvl=ilvl - 2)
    Additionally to the affix roles the player can enchant crafted items to gain one permanent minion (mystic ally,raven,3 zombie dogs,Madawc) that is resummoned after 30 if it dies. Only the latest ability that has been put on works (if the player has more than one enchanted item).

    8. Example:
    Imbue of oppression:
    - Parts drop in all dungeons that spawn randomly
    - Can imbue belts
    - 5 Parts
    - 1-3% Chance to stun on hit, 0,5%-1.5% inceased attackspeed (Min: 3% stun, 1.5% ias)
    - Completion bonus: Oppression: Increases the duration of crowd control effects by 10%-60%.

  19. #19
    Jewels:

    Jewels were a nice small addition to the original Diablo 2 making loot even more interesting and giving more choices for socketing. The new jewels should go the same route having a few primary goals:

    + New items to search, find and loot
    + Adding alternatives and allowing players to make choices
    + New system for players to learn and research
    + Easy to go into and very rewarding if dedicated to it
    + Constantly small steps of progression

    First of all there need to be some changes made to the socketing. Jewels have to be unique and allow new choices and alternatives to give people the items they want. Putting them on the same level as gem-sockets is therefore not an option. Instead each jewel will be put at the same level as one affix. So this is how it'll work:

    Shen gets a new tab called "add jewelsockets". Selffound non-jewelsocketed white/blue/yellow items will be put in a slot and the player can chose to socket the item.:

    Rare items: The player can chose how many jewelsockets he wants to add. The new sockets remove one affix per added socket from the item after the item has reached 6 affixes and start removing the affix in the lowest position of the item after that. Example:

    Gloves: 150dex, 50 vit, 5 pickuprad, 5%ias -> adding 4 jewelsockets -> 150dex, 50 vit, 4 jewelsockets

    Gloves: 150 strength, 5 pickup, 400 liferegen, 50 fireresistance, 5%crit, melee attacker takes 50 dmg -> adding 3 jewelsockets -> 150 strength, 5 pickup, 400 liferegen, 3 jewelsockets

    Blue Items: Shen adds a random amount of sockets , up to 5, to the item. 9% chance for 1 socket, 14% for 2 sockets, 39% chance for 3 sockets, 34% chance for 4 sockets and 4% chance for 5 sockets. Blue items keep their normal affixes. A blue item with good rolles and 5 sockets is therefore stronger than a rare but very unusual.

    White Items: Shen adds a random amount of sockets , up to 5, to the item. 9% chance for 1 socket, 14% for 2 sockets, 39% chance for 3 sockets, 34% chance for 4 sockets and 4% chance for 5 sockets. Jewels used for these sockets are increased by x% based on how strong the white item was. Example: White superior boots with 14% increased defense increase the stats of the jewels by 14%.

    Variations of Jewels:
    Having just one type of jewels wouldn't increase the current loottable by a lot so there have to be different types of jewels:

    Normal Jewels: These jewels have up to 3 random jewelaffixes.

    Class-specific Jewels: These jewels have up to 2 random affixes from the normal jewels-affixtable + 1 additional class specific affix (+% damage for ability/reduced cost of ability).

    Elemental Jewels: These jewels have up to 2 random affixes from the normal jewels-affixtable + 1 elemental affix (+x% firedamage, + x% additional damage as fire, +x% fire affinity)

    (Fire affinity acts like +x% firedamage but every jewel scales with itsself multiplicatively. Therefore it has to be lower. If used on a couple of jewels it is weaker, but when used on many or all jewels it has to be vastly superior)

    Affixjewels: These jewels have up to 4 random affixes from the normal jewels-affixtable.

    Jewelaffixes:

    Since items with jewelsockets can not be imbued or enchanted they have to be stronger than usual affixes when combined but every jewelaffix on its own has to be weaker. 33%-50% of the normal affixes' strength should be able to be achieved by jewelaffixes. The offensive affixes crit/critdmg/ias should not be in the jewelsaffixpool.

    However, because jewels give players a very direct and easy way to "craft" customized items jewelaffixes with high properties have to be very rare (10%chance).

    Example:
    Max roll for dex on regular item: 200. ->
    Jewelaffixes: 50% 15-46 dex, 40% 25-56 dex, 10% 35-66 dex

    Constant progression:

    Since players will be encouraged to collect whole sets of jewels (10+) the chances of finding an upgrade are much higher than for example finding an upgrade for the amulet slot. This is much more rewarding and fun to the player, since even if he finds a very good jewel there will be still plenty of uses and potential for upgrades on the other jewels.

    List of affixes:

    All jewels:

    Regular affixes: After a regular affix is picked it's quality version will be rolled: (50% chance regular, 40% superior, 10% mighty)
    These are the mighty versions of each affix:

    Dexterity: 35-66 , Intelligence: 35-66 , Strength: 35-66 , Vitality: 35-66 , All Resistance: 15-25 , Arcane/Cold/Fire/Lightning/Phsysical/Poison Resistance: 20-40 , Extra Health from globes: 4000-6000 , Life %: 2-4, Life after Kill: 1400-2000 , Bonus to minimum/maximum physical damage: 6-10 , % Damage: 2-4 , Armor: 66-100 , Block %: 2-4 , Blockamount: 200-600 , Crowd Control reduction % : 3-8 , Reduced damage from melee/ranged % : 1-3 , Reduced damage from Arcane/Cold/Fire/Lightning/Physical/Poison % : 3-6 , Thorns Damage : 1333-2000 , Gold Find % : 8-12 , Magic Find % : 9-14 , Movement Speed % : 2-3 , Pickup radius: 2-4 , Reduced Level Requirement: 5-6 , Chance to Chill/Fear/Freeze/Immobalize/Knockback/Slow/Stun on Hit % : 2-4 , % Increased Elemental Damage: 2-4

    Next, there are rare affixes for all jewels. These are very unlikey to roll (<1%), but have unique traits:

    % Increased Ressource Generation: 2-8 , Indestructable , Increased Movementspeed % : 8-12 , % to Intelligence/Strength/Dexterity/Vitality: 3-6 , % to Armor: 5-10 , Life on Hit: 150-300 , % Chance to duplicate last spell: 2-4 , % Chance to drop healthglobe on Hit: 5-10 , % Chance to summon Fetish on Hit , % Dodge: 3-6 , % Increased drop rate of jewels: 10-20

    Elemental jewels:
    These affixes are all tied to an element:

    % Increased Arcane/Cold/Fire/Lightning/Physical/Poison Resistance : 3-8 , % Increased Arcane/Cold/Fire/Lightning/Physical/Poison Damage: 3-8 , % Reduced Damage from Arcane/Cold/Fire/Lightning/Physical/Poison Damage: 2-4, % Damage added as A/C/F/L/P/P: 2-4 , % A/C/F/L/P/P Affinity: 2-6 (Affinity becomes strong than % Increased Damage after 11 jewels (1.06^11=1.89 vs. 0.08*11+1=1.88)

    Class specific jewels:
    These affixes give class specific bonuses:

    % Increased damage of random secondary ability of Increaseany class (19 Abilities) , Reduced cost of random ability

    Finding and crafting jewels:

    Jewels have to be quite rare (10% per rare pack) but each type of jewels has to have an area with an increased dropchance. A jewel can be reroll the affixes but staying the same type (Classspecific/elemental...) using another jewel and 3000 gold or a brimstone and 10000. Using a scroll of nephilim will reroll the value of the affixes but not change the affixes.

  20. #20
    Improving Itemization is the first step. To be honest a big reason that alot of the gear feels like junk is not just because it's poorly itemized but also because it has so much less use. For example I used to rock multiple barbs and if one barb had a better piece of gear but a piece that was good for a barb dropped I just passed it on as a hand me down. In d3 theirs no point to rocking multiple barbs because you just respec your main barb and any hand me down gear becomes junk. In alot of cases the gear also wasn't as specialized. Stuff would be interesting for a variety of classes instead of primarily one class. The problem with loot in diablo 3 goes deeper than just the gear itself and I'm not sure they want to fix it.
    Last edited by Leonard McCoy; 2013-01-15 at 03:52 PM.

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