Josh Mosqueira leaves D3

[rogoth]

the gold auction house was never the issue, it was the RMAH that was the cause of many problems, also, you are all forgetting one major thing, if they did bring back the AH, gold is still account bound, and cannot be traded to anyone via normal means, so what's the fuss really, i would love the AH back, if for no other reason to sell of the 10's of thousands of spare gems i will never use or the 100's of thousands of crafting mats i have almost no use for.

[Video Games]

I do want them to go back to diablo 2 with mix and matching runewords because your build is pretty locked and it makes every other skill/rune worthless so what is even the point. At the very least, I come back each season and have fun for a good while.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I do want them to go back to diablo 2 with mix and matching runewords because your build is pretty locked and it makes every other skill/rune worthless so what is even the point. At the very least, I come back each season and have fun for a good while.

I think they'd have to rebalance the game a little if they did that. I kinda agree with your sentiment but it would take a good amount of effort to do so.

[Coldkil]

That's only true at the very top. And that's ONLY true because it's not static difficulty. Every build is viable in as least greater rift 60 and below.

Name a single spec that can't do greater rift 60. Go on I'll wait.

Game difficulty low? D2 you can kill everything naked pretty much. There are videos proving this. In D3 you need the gear and skill to do the hardest things. D3 is harder than D2. You can't jump into a greater rift 60 with a brand new character. If the game was static people would never complain about build diversity because every build could beat it.

GR60 is basic gameplay. Doesn't mean it's viable. 80+ is viable (given how 90+ solo is more than doable). Anyway, this has a lot to do with what a player sees as worth to do and how satisfied is with content. There's people happy to run Torment, and people who strive to beat the highest GR they can.

As for difficulty - i think you misunderstood my point. I'm not saying D2 was hard/harder, you're right you could do anything by powerleveling. But D3 isn't hard too. Hard means (to me) that there's some challenge involved, while currently it's all about ignoring stuff, aoeing monsters and padding paragons.
There's a reason why the most efficient way to play up to S6 is running no-boss GR; you literally get zero loot and huge amount of XP. Gear has basically a "cap" where when you have all the oitems you need decently rolled, paragon levels and Caldesann will bring more to the table. And getting the gear isn't that hard.

[Pull My Finger]

The sky is falling!

If THIS isn't proof that Blizzard is on the verge of bankrupcy, I don't know what is!

[Coldkil]

Ok but what do you mean by reset everything?

I played like 3 or 4 season when Diablo 3 started getting "good" patches. But then I saw that I play only to get full item set and then I stop playing. I didn't really see any other reason to continue to. I especially did not see reason to farm same set just improved version of items because sets itself pretty much guarantee you to go torment 7-8 easily and then I wonder "why would I do torment 10 when it won't make much of a difference?"

That's the whole point. Item hunt is non-existant being it both too fast and streamlined.

Removing sets (or making them more varied) makes the item hunt more enjoyable because you get a) to actually search for items you need in a bigger pool and b) to have a reason to search for other stuff after you completed your objective.

In D2 there weren't THAT many options, but the rarity of items coupled with an endgame that was playable independently from you gear level made it to have an ectremely high replay value. While people was fine with completing normal, there was always something you could strive for.

In D3 there are objectives after the level cap/finishing the story, but they all tae a very small time. Long term stuff is only Paragon (which are useless outside of ladder) and ladder (which is tied to extreme paragon farming). So you get why most people just leave the game after a few days.

Most people agree that the game is fun to play - it lack some sort of long term objective not tied to seasons thant keep players on for more than a week to get the stash tab/do the journey. Ladders are born and made for a small percentage of players, and it's fine like this.

[urasim]

Because of the legendary ring set lol

Sets kill build diversity and cause stat inflation and are generally boring. There is no point in them being here. Oh yea you took a 6pc to increase your fire DoT by 500000000% /yawn

You must hate every game that has numbers then. The difference here is that D3's numbers aren't hidden like most others.

You complain about sets then you complain about a set up that encourages you to not use sets. You're just a complaining because you can complain. Going to put you on ignore because you're literally whining to whine. Nothing you've said is constructive AT ALL.

GR60 is basic gameplay. Doesn't mean it's viable. 80+ is viable (given how 90+ solo is more than doable). Anyway, this has a lot to do with what a player sees as worth to do and how satisfied is with content. There's people happy to run Torment, and people who strive to beat the highest GR they can.

As for difficulty - i think you misunderstood my point. I'm not saying D2 was hard/harder, you're right you could do anything by powerleveling. But D3 isn't hard too. Hard means (to me) that there's some challenge involved, while currently it's all about ignoring stuff, aoeing monsters and padding paragons.
There's a reason why the most efficient way to play up to S6 is running no-boss GR; you literally get zero loot and huge amount of XP. Gear has basically a "cap" where when you have all the oitems you need decently rolled, paragon levels and Caldesann will bring more to the table. And getting the gear isn't that hard.

You can't do greater rift 60 with no gear. Wouldn't that qualify as it being hard? You can't solo greater rift 130. That's because it's literally to hard for you. This game has little to do with skill after they introduced scaling difficulties. It was true in classic that skill outweighed gear, but gear is the number one determining factor right now.

I used greater rift 60 as an example. I can say the same for 75+ and it's still true. Most, if not all, classes have several builds that they can use to get past that point. Also, even if they can't doesn't mean they're not viable... A build that can solo greater rift 100 might not be able to solo t13 as fast as ones built for it because of the lack of density for example.

You seem to think there's only one viable way of playing the game. You're dead fucking wrong. Look up the word viable and come back and when you realize that it's entirely subjective based on each individual wants/needs. A person can want to do just greater rift 70, and that means there are plenty of viable builds for him/her.

At the VERY top, for every single game, there's very few options. This will NEVER change.

[RoKPaNda]

the gold auction house was never the issue, it was the RMAH that was the cause of many problems, also, you are all forgetting one major thing, if they did bring back the AH, gold is still account bound, and cannot be traded to anyone via normal means, so what's the fuss really, i would love the AH back, if for no other reason to sell of the 10's of thousands of spare gems i will never use or the 100's of thousands of crafting mats i have almost no use for.

what. no.

The problem was the gold AH. The RMAH was never really the problem. Yes, some people spent obscene amounts of money on gear on the RMAH. But the problem was that you could buy really good items on the gold AH for really cheap and then bypass most of the ARPG experience. Once people like Kripparian posted a guide to buying good quality items at low prices Inferno became trivial, the gear grind was gone, the challenge was gone, the content was gone. There was no point in farming because you had good enough gear, that you got for cheap. The RMAH prices were amazingly stupid, but the gold prices not so much. I did it legit on my barb, but I cleared Inferno with my second character by just spending a few million gold on the gold AH and dedicating an afternoon to it. ZZZzzzZZZzzz

[Coldkil]

You can't do greater rift 60 with no gear. Wouldn't that qualify as it being hard? You can't solo greater rift 130.

No and no. Mathematically impossible != hard. Hard implies doable with enough effort/skill.

Again, you fail to see the point. I agree completely with the fact that viable is not an arbitrary number set by someone that defines if something is good or not, but things viable for you may be not for me and viceversa.

The point is that there's no build variance - or better, not enough. Sets are made so you pidgeonhole into a very limited skillsets, with some skills being mandatory in multiple builds. No set builds are non-existant if it wasn't for LoN set, which actually made one build available which often has the nearly the same skillset of other set builds (Natalya/LoN FoKStrafe, LoNBombardment/Invoker). Having the possibility to change one rune for the same playstyle doesn't equal variety.

I also agree that there will always be a top build and only one; in fact we're not talking nor complaining about this.

We are talking about having half the skills useless due to no set supporting them and others mandatory in nearly any build (Champion of Akarat, Vengeance, Piranhado, WotB, Soul Harvest, Archon, etc etc etc). We are talking about having a plethora of legendary items that have no use due to either no skill related power or bad skill related power.

That's the point. Again, nothing against your point. But we're talking about two different things.

[urasim]

I agree completely with the fact that viable is not an arbitrary number set by someone that defines if something is good or not, but things viable for you may be not for me and viceversa.

That's all I was arguing. Well, that and build diversity is way better than anyone here will care to admit.

[Coldkil]

That's all I was arguing. Well, that and build diversity is way better than anyone here will care to admit.

Better, yes. It's not like there's 1 build per class. But given the list of skills/runes available and how many of them are actually usable it's still a pitiful amount imho. And again, it shouldn't be tied to how many sets are implemented in game.

[Deleted]

Better, yes. It's not like there's 1 build per class. But given the list of skills/runes available and how many of them are actually usable it's still a pitiful amount imho. And again, it shouldn't be tied to how many sets are implemented in game.

What's really pitiful is Drahque's levelling guides for seasons, now there's no longer even choice where no sets are involved!

[Coldkil]

What's really pitiful is Drahque's levelling guides for seasons, now there's no longer even choice where no sets are involved!

Eh. Most people just go straight looking for a guide on the internets. They don't want to "lose time" doing "bad things".

[urasim]

Better, yes. It's not like there's 1 build per class. But given the list of skills/runes available and how many of them are actually usable it's still a pitiful amount imho. And again, it shouldn't be tied to how many sets are implemented in game.

If content was static, I'd agree. It's literally impossible to make more than a tiny handful of builds per class viable for the very, very top. There's just to many variables. Especially when people expect new gear, changed gear, and balance changes every single season.

What, realistically, would you change to make it so every class has many builds at the very top?

[Gadzooks]

No and no. Mathematically impossible != hard. Hard implies doable with enough effort/skill.

Again, you fail to see the point. I agree completely with the fact that viable is not an arbitrary number set by someone that defines if something is good or not, but things viable for you may be not for me and viceversa.

The point is that there's no build variance - or better, not enough. Sets are made so you pidgeonhole into a very limited skillsets, with some skills being mandatory in multiple builds. No set builds are non-existant if it wasn't for LoN set, which actually made one build available which often has the nearly the same skillset of other set builds (Natalya/LoN FoKStrafe, LoNBombardment/Invoker). Having the possibility to change one rune for the same playstyle doesn't equal variety.

I also agree that there will always be a top build and only one; in fact we're not talking nor complaining about this.

We are talking about having half the skills useless due to no set supporting them and others mandatory in nearly any build (Champion of Akarat, Vengeance, Piranhado, WotB, Soul Harvest, Archon, etc etc etc). We are talking about having a plethora of legendary items that have no use due to either no skill related power or bad skill related power.

That's the point. Again, nothing against your point. But we're talking about two different things.

The only use Legendaries have once you have your sets is filling in the Cube powers...but farming the mats for that? Bleah. And, you only need a handful - completionists might do it, but it serves no purpose to anyone but theorycrafters, to try out builds with.

[Coldkil]

If content was static, I'd agree. It's literally impossible to make more than a tiny handful of builds per class viable for the very, very top. There's just to many variables. Especially when people expect new gear, changed gear, and balance changes every single season.

What, realistically, would you change to make it so every class has many builds at the very top?

Well, as you said, there's nothing that can change this. If there's a build perfoming 0.0001% better, most people would just pidgeonhole into that because some site or youtuber said it. If builds are around 1-2 GR levels difference, they're fine imho.

The problems stays in itemization. Newest hotness is the revamped Ring of Emptiness - boosts the damage by up to 300% for WD. Due to this, any new 2.4.2 WD build is using both Wormwood and the ring in the cube, aswell as haunt as main attack. Zuni and Helltooth have also nearly the same setup and playstyle (Piranhado/WoD), spamming dots and using Gargs to melt stuff down; every WD build uses Languish with SH+LO combo for insane toughness.

Can you see the pattern? That is the problem.

Another example: Vengeance skill was useless when it was implemented, until they changed Dawn to reduce it's cd by 60% and they added a 40% dmg increase. Now that we can easily reach 100% uptime cubed Dawn and the skill are present in every single DH build - and with the Dark Heart rune because of the 50% dmg reduction.
Again on DH, but another issue: UE set is pretty well tought imho; it lets you choose between running with a MS based build or a generator one. The problem is that MS has a couple of really strong complementary legendaries, while generator build has some but they all work wonky (Buriza mechanic is more detrimental than one expects, to the point it's better to not use it) and are worth only for the Devouring Arrow skill, while other generators have literally zero.

I could continue. There are a lot of passives that "hint" towards certain builds but in fact there's nothing in game that would make them worth using - newset addition are some items pointing towards a lighting Wizard build, and while i know that someone will come up with something, it won't be good because it lacks both damage and survivability needed to run higher difficulties.

Devs have carved this path due to how items and sets are designed. To change this they need either to redo the itemization system or add a truckload of items to the game so people will have more stuff to try and combine.

[yasiru]

Devs have carved this path due to how items and sets are designed. To change this they need either to redo the itemization system or add a truckload of items to the game so people will have more stuff to try and combine.

I vote for giving us a truckload of new items! :-). It might seem silly but I also wish we had the ability to change set item slots. Like, I wish when a set item dropped it was just a generic token that we could turn in to a vendor and choose to make any slot part of that exact set; so, for example, I could turn a Uliana set item into an off hand weapon that acted as part of the set and didn't have to use the helm. Might also open up a few different items used in other slots...

I do think that the devs ARE looking into increasing build diversity, it just hasn't happened yet. I believe that was part of the reason for the LoN set, to see if it could create some new builds...

[Gadzooks]

I vote for giving us a truckload of new items! :-). It might seem silly but I also wish we had the ability to change set item slots. Like, I wish when a set item dropped it was just a generic token that we could turn in to a vendor and choose to make any slot part of that exact set; so, for example, I could turn a Uliana set item into an off hand weapon that acted as part of the set and didn't have to use the helm. Might also open up a few different items used in other slots...

I do think that the devs ARE looking into increasing build diversity, it just hasn't happened yet. I believe that was part of the reason for the LoN set, to see if it could create some new builds...

Honestly, sets should all be crafted - the resources should be the drops. I don't mind that I get drops on characters who don't need them, and they're worthless for other classes because it'll have the wrong bonuses - I don't play my non-season characters anyway. But RNG sucks, so I think sets should be

A. Crafted. I rarely make anything now, except for a staff of herding. Crafting is pointless right now.
B. Set bonuses should be via the Cube, or in rune words, rarity can be controlled by resource costs or rarity of drop
C. Designed around material types - plate, chain, cloth, leather, etc. If they just give base stats, it doesn't matter, I can build a slow, chain wearing Demon Hunter who relies on pylons through Cube enchants, weapon enchants, and rune words.

Right now, it's easy mode - put up with whatever drops for you, until you power level to certain milestones, and get your set pieces, at which point, you grind for Paragon and ancient versions. Everything up to those set pieces - all the drops, all the weapons, are pointless, except as Cube extractions, and transmog. It's a waste of time and dev resources to kit a game out with hundreds, if not thousands of pointless drops like that.

[Coldkil]

Imho the loot systems doesn't have to change - you kill hordes of monsters, you get drops. Cube/shards works well as RNG mitigators.

The main issue is that you don't need to farm much to have your character "complete". Yes, you can be stronger with augments/paragons, but they are boring bonuses and actually needed only if you want to compete in ladders. Hell, i've never bothered with augments since i don't need them for the journey, and i'm going to make them this thime only because they're needed for the journey.

Again, long term objectives is what the game is missing.

[yasiru]

Imho the loot systems doesn't have to change - you kill hordes of monsters, you get drops. Cube/shards works well as RNG mitigators.

The main issue is that you don't need to farm much to have your character "complete". Yes, you can be stronger with augments/paragons, but they are boring bonuses and actually needed only if you want to compete in ladders. Hell, i've never bothered with augments since i don't need them for the journey, and i'm going to make them this thime only because they're needed for the journey.

Again, long term objectives is what the game is missing.

I agree to an extent, but long term objectives and ARPGs don't easily go together. I'd say with greater rifts being added in D3 this is the first time a "long-term goal" has been introduced as it gives you an endless way to strive to get higher and higher. D1/D2 did not have a goal like that.....(ooh I built a better runeword, now I can kill Baal ten seconds faster...)

Paragons/augments are definitely not useless except for the ladder; that's crazy talk. They are definitely boring, but not useless. Just because I don't want to compete on the ladder doesn't mean I don't want to break my own records of greater rift clears, that's what those features are for as well. Heck, tell me you don't like having the movement speed boost even in the paragon system...most people of course do.

I think some people also forget that runewords, charms, etc weren't introduced into D2 until later in the game. Yes, I also believe that you could create way more varied builds in D2, than D3, but that was also due to the lvl of difficulty. I can make any kind of build work in D3 too if I just want to run T4, there's nothing stopping me from doing that.

I'm like you, I wish sets were based on a smaller amount of items, like 2,3,4. That would leave a lot of slots open for variance, but we also just need more, varied items to be introduced as well...