I look forward to Diablo 4, but I'm afraid I won't enjoy it

[Bigbazz]

You upgrade to Um and traded from there. It was entirely possible to gear up solo or with a small group.

Also I meant pally not crusader, my mistake.

There is "gear up" and there is "gear up" though. If your goal was to go full Tals or IK that's doable, the chest pieces are very rare but in trade value they were around Ist/Gul/Vex when I played regularly, and sure if you wanted to just make a Hoto that was doable too, maybe Call to Arms/Chaos. But if you wanted Enigma, Chains of Honor, Beast, Breath of the Dying, Doom or later Grief + the mercenary polearms, the high quality charms, Stone of Jordan, high quality rare rings and skill/ED circlets, ED jewels etc you're talking a ridiculous amount of extremely rare once in a lifetime drops.

Lets say you're boosting a player for the Hellforge that's approx 2000-3000 boosts to upgrade to a Zod, that is running a new char through act 1-5 in normal, nightmare and then Hell act 4 for the possibility of getting a good rune drop, maybe you hit the jackpot and get an Um (NM) and a Gul (Hell) once in a blue moon but most of the time getting an Um from Hell is pretty good luck, that time investment from 2 players is massive, it's more than most players would play during a ladder season and that's just one task.

Or you could go to a trade game or D2jsp, and you were absolutely dealing with duped items and buying from people botting several accounts, but that's the only way to beat the extreme rarity if you wanted to actually have a really well geared char in D2. Some builds required less gear than others, but I don't think I ever met a player in the years I played D2 in 2002-2007 and on and off since who legit geared their chars to properly high gear level, I'd give props to anyone who solo'd their way to a full Tals or Ik set, let alone a full runeword build.

Edit : I have discovered however, skimming patchnotes in patch 1.13 (2010) they made a lot of changes and upped the droprate on High Runes, so maybe these days my perspective is off. My opinions are based on mainly patch 1.10 and 1.11.

[Jotaux]

I don't remember the patch I played it was over a decade ago (maybe two?). My Sorceress was mostly for meph runs to gear up my crusader to rush hell for the forge and countess runs. The crusader was geared enough that anything else was just small stat upgrades. This was on my own just using chat to trade.

[Volatilis]

I don't remember the patch I played it was over a decade ago (maybe two?). My Sorceress was mostly for meph runs to gear up my crusader to rush hell for the forge and countess runs. The crusader was geared enough that anything else was just small stat upgrades. This was on my own just using chat to trade.

Yes you traded runes that were duped. Thats the entire point.

Playing the game without duped drops highlights how incredibly rare the rare drops are. WAAAAY more rarier than most current gamers standards. Unless you think 1000's of hours to see a high rune is normal.

[Jotaux]

Yes you traded runes that were duped. Thats the entire point.

Playing the game without duped drops highlights how incredibly rare the rare drops are. WAAAAY more rarier than most current gamers standards. Unless you think 1000's of hours to see a high rune is normal.

But thats an irrelevant point as the communities he is referring to would also have duped runes. So community or not you could still gear up.

[Martymark]

Do you not have a phone?

Shitposting aside, I'm not going to buy it for a long while until it's on sale. D3 was trash when it came out, and it was years before they finally made it playable with Seasons.

[longevity]

it'll be more diablo, it'll be great unless they walk backwards a bunch of stuff they fixed from D3 release

the only thing that might jack it is the micro cash shop for cosmetics, which were generally a huge driving force for continued grinding - now to be a cash shop item

[Difuid]

I look forward to the gameplay, but the metric ton of RNG involved in getting good gear is really putting me off.

In D2 and D3 gear progression is so boring and hopeless that many players are using bots instead of actually playing...

[Aleax]

So, Blizzard wants to go back to Diablo 2 roots.
Now, I enjoyed Diablo 3 a lot more than Diablo 2 even though Diablo 3 has glaring issues.
I do not look forward to not being able to reach max level unless I play for years. Or expensive respec costs. I want to be able to easily swap skills.
I really like the playstyle of Diablo 3 where you can get the max level in a couple of days and then just enjoy grinding end game and getting cool upgrades.
I'm not that kid anymore who played games for 18 hours and slept for 6. I realized this while playing Wolcen. I don't want to waste my time.

Pretty much ditto.

Personally I am pretty sure I won't buy D4, even if I am a D3 gamer (and played to D1 a little in the late 90's).

Never got into D2, still don't want to, even if devs clone D2 in D4, offering me to play D4 as it.

Instead I think I will continue to play D3 seasons for just a few dozen hours every 3 months, until the servers die, maybie the servers will never die.

[Bigbazz]

I look forward to the gameplay, but the metric ton of RNG involved in getting good gear is really putting me off.

In D2 and D3 gear progression is so boring and hopeless that many players are using bots instead of actually playing...

Well people use bots instead of playing in every gear based game that exists, your argument here is a bit tone deaf. In D2 the botting was done because rare items required for the top builds were extremely rare, if you didn't bot you couldn't physically play the game enough to gear a character to a high level. Of course what most people actually did is bought from or traded with people who did bot, pretty much all of the best geared D2 players have a D2jsp account.

In D3 people bot because Paragon is the number 1 deciding factor on player power once you've built your basic gearset, and building the basic gearset can be done in just a couple days of playing. Saying that people bot because the game is boring is a bit silly, people bot because it's not possible to play the game 24/7, but every moment you're not playing you fall behind and they want a competitive advantage.

Normal players don't bot, nor do they excessively farm Paragon.. But normal players in D3 do get good gear, D3 with seasons works extremely well to push you towards good gear on a fairly quick and linear path until you're at the point of looking for Primals and near perfect Ancient rolls, where diminishing returns comes into play and RNG becomes a real factor.

[SirBeef]

Pretty much ditto.

Personally I am pretty sure I won't buy D4, even if I am a D3 gamer (and played to D1 a little in the late 90's).

Never got into D2, still don't want to, even if devs clone D2 in D4, offering me to play D4 as it.

Instead I think I will continue to play D3 seasons for just a few dozen hours every 3 months, until the servers die, maybie the servers will never die.

Good thing what the OP is concerned about is not going to be part of D4. Frankly, if anyone paid attention to the Blizzcon stuffs you would know they are going more for a thematic feel of D2. The done, the atmosphere, giving a little bit more reverence to your build with meaningful or tough choices(early on at least). They mentioned all active abilities will be able to be learned and maxed out if you are willing to find all the skill tome required to do so.

They mentioned the level cap of 40 being fluid depending on how long the story takes. Meaning once you are done with all 5 campaigns, you should be at or close to level cap, so no more of the level 99 and most players never coming close. Unless they do seasonal resets, I don't think a couple days will be ideal to hit level cap, maybe a week or two initially, less for those no lifing it.

Then we have the combat feel of the game. everyone who has tried it says it feels buttery smooth like D3 but a slower more predetermined pace. With the dodge mechanic on all platforms, it will probably be sound tactical planning to use it as part of combat not just as an oh shit moment avoider.

It really looks to be it's own thing closer to D3 but with some D2 similarities for enhancements as opposed to deterrents for modern players.

[Bigbazz]

They mentioned the level cap of 40 being fluid depending on how long the story takes. Meaning once you are done with all 5 campaigns, you should be at or close to level cap, so no more of the level 99 and most players never coming close. Unless they do seasonal resets, I don't think a couple days will be ideal to hit level cap, maybe a week or two initially, less for those no lifing it.

Then we have the combat feel of the game. everyone who has tried it says it feels buttery smooth like D3 but a slower more predetermined pace. With the dodge mechanic on all platforms, it will probably be sound tactical planning to use it as part of combat not just as an oh shit moment avoider.

It really looks to be it's own thing closer to D3 but with some D2 similarities for enhancements as opposed to deterrents for modern players.

All of what you discuss sounds awful though. The worst thing about Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 is when gameplay is slow because you're low level and your gear is sucky. Seasons/Ladders have also played a massive part in what has kept D2 and D3 alive throughout the years, in D2 the 99 level cap was difficult to achieve so you had massive diminishing returns above 90 but getting to 80 could be done really quickly, while D3 has the similar concept but expanded with Paragon.

These are really necessary parts of the game, and the biggest issue D3 had initially was going closer to WoW on launch. That being it had more WoW style itemisation and a static level cap, it was a disaster. I really have no hope for D4 if the devs come out and re-tread old mistakes while speaking about them as if they are positive features, which is a Blizzard thing they like to do.