Blizzard reps made a few posts about the requirements planned to unlock Diablo 3 and Reaper of Souls difficulty levels. In both games players will have to complete the regular game content on a lower difficulty level before unlocking higher difficulties.
Not to be subversive, but WTF? Why all this drama and complication? Why do the devs feel the need to "lock" some of the difficulty levels at all? Presumably it's hand-holding to keep players from leaping into too-hard a difficulty and dying like proverbial dogs in the street right from the start... but so what? If people play too hard a diff and die a lot, they'll lower the diff and continue on; lesson learned. I thought the point of RoS was to remove much of the tedious grinding and hoop leaping before you got to the fun stuff?
On that point, if they're planning a change to the Reaper of Souls requirement that you must slog through the entire game on
Story Mode before you can begin the vastly superior Adventure Mode experience, Lylirra didn't mention it in this post.
Does anyone see any point or benefit to these arbitrary "finish your dinner before you get dessert" requirements? I suppose Blizzard wants to keep noobs from total confusion or despair, but in that case why not allow experienced players to bypass the tedium via a check box hidden in the Options, alaElective Mode?
We're running a quickie poll on this subject which asks "Unlocking higher difficulty levels in Diablo 3 and Reaper of Souls?"
Make your selection in the news item here.
Nevalistis: We've heard some pretty significant feedback regarding the current difficulties available to players on the PTR. As a result, the intent next PTR patch is for Torment to unlock once you reach level 60, which will provide access to players both on the PTR and Closed Beta.
Lylirra: To compensate for Torment unlocking at level 60, in the next PTR/Beta patch the requirements for Master are going to shift and the difficulty will now unlock after you complete Act IV. \o/
<font color="#FFFFFF">Is this to only test torment in the PTR or is this how it will run live?</font>
Lylirra: While we do want to test the change itself on the PTR, it's not a PTR-only change (if that makes sense). Once 2.0.1 goes live, the goal is for players to be able to unlock Master difficulty after completing Act IV on one of their characters, and then unlock Torment difficulty after they reach 60 on one of their characters.
This change will available for testing in the next PTR patch. (For clarity, the change will also affect the Beta, not just the PTR.)
<font color="#FFFFFF">I read that as "We (players) will need to complete all of act IV in Master before we can test torment difficulty". Is that correct?</font>
Lylirra: Negative. As noted above, the way it'll work in the next PTR/Beta patch is that Master difficulty will unlock for your account after you've completed Act IV on one of your characters, and Torment difficulty will unlock after you've reached level 60 on one of your characters.
<font color="#FFFFFF">Don't think so. It's more like completing Act IV unlocks Master, level 60 unlocks Torment but it's very confusing. Master difficulty is currently open from the beginning so.... @Nevalistis?</font>
Note that the "unlock" is account-wide, not character specific. So, once a difficulty is unlocked, it's available to every character on your account, even brand new ones.
Master is probably open for you because you've already met the criteria for it on at least once of your heroes (right now Master unlocks at level 60). The only difficulties that don't have an unlock component are Normal, Hard, and Expert, which are available right from the start.
<font color="#FFFFFF">So to clarify, does this mean it's possible to have Torment unlocked without having Master unlocked if we don't have the expansion/Beta?</font>
Lylirra: You're talking about an outlier scenario where someone who hasn't already killed Diablo at least once by the time that patch 2.0.1 goes live decides that he/she wants to grind up to level 60 without ever completing Act IV? (Just clarifying exactly what you're asking here.)
Note: Using your account as an example, when patch 2.0.1 goes live, Master difficulty would be unlocked for you because you've already killed Diablo at least once (and thus completed Act IV). Similarly, Torment difficulty would be unlocked for you because have a level 60 on your account.
Right now on the PTR and in Beta, Master unlocks at level 60 and Torment at level 70. In the next PTR/Beta patch, we're planning to change this so that Master unlocks once you complete Act IV (i.e. kill Diablo) and Torment unlocks once you hit level 60*. This would be regardless of whether or not you purchase the expansion**.
*You only need to meet the corresponding criteria on one of your characters to unlock the difficulty for your entire account.
**Still clarifying what levels of Torment will available for non-RoS players. Will get back to you on that.[source]
Lylirra: To compensate for Torment unlocking at level 60, in the next PTR/Beta patch the requirements for Master are going to shift and the difficulty will now unlock after you complete Act IV. \o/
<font color="#FFFFFF">Is this to only test torment in the PTR or is this how it will run live?</font>
Lylirra: While we do want to test the change itself on the PTR, it's not a PTR-only change (if that makes sense). Once 2.0.1 goes live, the goal is for players to be able to unlock Master difficulty after completing Act IV on one of their characters, and then unlock Torment difficulty after they reach 60 on one of their characters.
This change will available for testing in the next PTR patch. (For clarity, the change will also affect the Beta, not just the PTR.)
<font color="#FFFFFF">I read that as "We (players) will need to complete all of act IV in Master before we can test torment difficulty". Is that correct?</font>
Lylirra: Negative. As noted above, the way it'll work in the next PTR/Beta patch is that Master difficulty will unlock for your account after you've completed Act IV on one of your characters, and Torment difficulty will unlock after you've reached level 60 on one of your characters.
<font color="#FFFFFF">Don't think so. It's more like completing Act IV unlocks Master, level 60 unlocks Torment but it's very confusing. Master difficulty is currently open from the beginning so.... @Nevalistis?</font>
Note that the "unlock" is account-wide, not character specific. So, once a difficulty is unlocked, it's available to every character on your account, even brand new ones.
Master is probably open for you because you've already met the criteria for it on at least once of your heroes (right now Master unlocks at level 60). The only difficulties that don't have an unlock component are Normal, Hard, and Expert, which are available right from the start.
<font color="#FFFFFF">So to clarify, does this mean it's possible to have Torment unlocked without having Master unlocked if we don't have the expansion/Beta?</font>
Lylirra: You're talking about an outlier scenario where someone who hasn't already killed Diablo at least once by the time that patch 2.0.1 goes live decides that he/she wants to grind up to level 60 without ever completing Act IV? (Just clarifying exactly what you're asking here.)
Note: Using your account as an example, when patch 2.0.1 goes live, Master difficulty would be unlocked for you because you've already killed Diablo at least once (and thus completed Act IV). Similarly, Torment difficulty would be unlocked for you because have a level 60 on your account.
Right now on the PTR and in Beta, Master unlocks at level 60 and Torment at level 70. In the next PTR/Beta patch, we're planning to change this so that Master unlocks once you complete Act IV (i.e. kill Diablo) and Torment unlocks once you hit level 60*. This would be regardless of whether or not you purchase the expansion**.
*You only need to meet the corresponding criteria on one of your characters to unlock the difficulty for your entire account.
**Still clarifying what levels of Torment will available for non-RoS players. Will get back to you on that.[source]
Not to be subversive, but WTF? Why all this drama and complication? Why do the devs feel the need to "lock" some of the difficulty levels at all? Presumably it's hand-holding to keep players from leaping into too-hard a difficulty and dying like proverbial dogs in the street right from the start... but so what? If people play too hard a diff and die a lot, they'll lower the diff and continue on; lesson learned. I thought the point of RoS was to remove much of the tedious grinding and hoop leaping before you got to the fun stuff?
On that point, if they're planning a change to the Reaper of Souls requirement that you must slog through the entire game on
Story Mode before you can begin the vastly superior Adventure Mode experience, Lylirra didn't mention it in this post.Does anyone see any point or benefit to these arbitrary "finish your dinner before you get dessert" requirements? I suppose Blizzard wants to keep noobs from total confusion or despair, but in that case why not allow experienced players to bypass the tedium via a check box hidden in the Options, ala
Elective Mode?We're running a quickie poll on this subject which asks "Unlocking higher difficulty levels in Diablo 3 and Reaper of Souls?"
Make your selection in the news item here.
