Diablo IV, Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 Forums - Diabloii.Net
Hey there,
I just wanted to talk for a bit on something that's been on my mind. A lot of the major complaints about D3, when compared to D2, boil down to a couple root causes:
1) D2 was very easy. There was no MP10. There was no T6. There was just hell difficulty, and that was fairly easy to conquer with a solid build and pickup gear.
2) Duping and Botting was very widespread. Far more so than anything we've seen in D3. If you participated in trade at all, especially if you traded for HRs and the items they created, it is extremely likely you were using runes that were at one time or another duped.
Now think for a minute about those implications. You have an end game difficulty that is very easy, designed to be farmable on day one of ladder resets, and you have top of the line high runes that are being duped like mad, you have bots running pindle 24/7, and thanks to trade this economic flooding did trickle down.
I distinctly remember the 20 health / 11% fire resist small charm I found shortly after a particular ladder reset. Pitiful stats in and of themselves, so I didn't think much of it. But I got to researching and found out these were a VERY highly desirable item. I ended up trading it for an Infinity polearm, a very good sorc torch and an annihilus charm. Why? Because there was no way to efficiently bot for small charms like you could HRs and high level uniques so it had a crazy value.
This was a definite new in richness for me. I went on to build the most powerful character I had ever made in D2. Pure lightning sorc with infinity merc. Maxed lightning, chain lightning, charged bolt, nova, mastery, got all the cookie cutter caster uniques & runewords. Ended up getting her to 92. There was nowhere I couldn't go nothing I couldn't do. 2 statics and a few thunderstorms + lightning bolts would simply MELT act bosses. I was a god. I turned 1-293 max lightning damage into something like 1-32k sheet damage, amplified further by conviction.
It was hilariously fun, but above all not challenging. And it was not hard to get the gear required to put the build together. One lucky drop & a decent trade solidified 3 of the most critical pieces. And here's the kicker. I thought that I was a top notch sorc, with the most endy of end game stats. After all, I was slaughtering act bosses in 2 or 3 seconds wasn't I? God mode engaged. I was wrong. I've since found that it is possible to get significantly higher lightning damage. Griffon's eye, ormus's robes, eschuta's, lightning facets, 10x lightning grand charms, probably more I'm not thinking of at the moment, all could have been used to boost my sheet and actual lightning damage SIGNIFICANTLY.
Ok ok, you're tired of hearing about my lightning sorc. How does this apply to D3 again? Well before I tell you, I want to work one other angle. Due to the insanely widespread availability of high end gear and the very low difficulty of hell, build diversity exploded. Want a nigma for your auradin? No problem just trade a couple small charms for it. Save up 100 pgems and trade for it. Ask someone to name all the builds they remember from D2. Odds are very high that they will list at least a dozen. Many more depending on how thoroughly they played the game. However, how many of these can compare in efficiency, raw killing power and speed to my mediocre lightning sorc? Very, very few. Pure lightning + infinity merc was definitely one of the most powerful builds D2 ever saw in terms of PvE kill speed & efficiency.
So, on to how this applies to D3. Well let's take those same features of D2 and compare them to D3
1. D3 is not easy. When RoS drops, no one is going to be farming T6 on day 1. And I mean no one.
2. Not only is duping and botting not nearly widespread to the degree that it was in D2, in D3:RoS duping and botting will have literally zero impact on the economy. Gold can no longer be traded. Gear can no longer be traded. Your lucky drop will never again turn into 3 build critical upgrades. For better or worse, self found will be the only name of the game come March 25.
D3 has plenty of build diversity. Far more than the D2 max 1 skill + 3 synergies "diversity". No, I don't care about the 16 1 point wonders / cross class skills you had keybound, builds in D2 were all about where you put your points, and your points almost always revolved around 1 skill. Anyway, the D3 problem is when you change from that archon build to that arcane orb build you've always loved suddenly you're farming MP2 instead of MP5. D2 had nothing like that. Your zealot was killing only a few seconds slower than my lightning sorc so why would you care? Vigor and charge almost were enough to compensate for your lack of teleport. You didn't have something like paragon levels & xp per hour to judge your efficiency by as everyone got pretty much the same from those infamous baal runs. It's funny that so many people complain about D3 not having an "endgame", when the problem is it has too much of an end game. Infinite paragon levels. Many hours of pure grinding to get the gear & stats required to tackle the highest difficulties. People complain about D3 having not enough depth, but in my eyes it has too much depth. You have to min max every affix on every last piece of gear and make sure it matches the build you're running to move up past T2. IN D2 you could do pretty much any build you wanted and godly gear / free rushes / 8player games would carry you through hell. That's not diversity. That's not depth.
I wish people would take some time to consider these things before blindly posting their diatribes. Do I like the D2-D3 RoS changes? Well, it depends. I loved trading in D2. I loved being mega overpowered in D2. So the lack of these in D3 is something I don't like. However, I do enjoy having a challenge. I am looking forward to playing on realms that are virtually dupe and bot free. I am very much looking forward to the complete removal of 3rd party sites leeching off the diablo series success. Also, I do think RoS is taking a big step in the right direction. Skill boost affixes, element damage affixes, resource reduction & CDR all show a desire to take a step away from the character sheet maximization that was D3V. Many of the new legendary items show great promise with their build changing affixes. As we dive into RoS and the ladder system makes its way onto the senior devs priority list, I hope they really put some thought into what made D2 great so we can get to a point where comparisons actually do make sense again and D3 has a chance to come out ahead.
I just wanted to talk for a bit on something that's been on my mind. A lot of the major complaints about D3, when compared to D2, boil down to a couple root causes:
1) D2 was very easy. There was no MP10. There was no T6. There was just hell difficulty, and that was fairly easy to conquer with a solid build and pickup gear.
2) Duping and Botting was very widespread. Far more so than anything we've seen in D3. If you participated in trade at all, especially if you traded for HRs and the items they created, it is extremely likely you were using runes that were at one time or another duped.
Now think for a minute about those implications. You have an end game difficulty that is very easy, designed to be farmable on day one of ladder resets, and you have top of the line high runes that are being duped like mad, you have bots running pindle 24/7, and thanks to trade this economic flooding did trickle down.
I distinctly remember the 20 health / 11% fire resist small charm I found shortly after a particular ladder reset. Pitiful stats in and of themselves, so I didn't think much of it. But I got to researching and found out these were a VERY highly desirable item. I ended up trading it for an Infinity polearm, a very good sorc torch and an annihilus charm. Why? Because there was no way to efficiently bot for small charms like you could HRs and high level uniques so it had a crazy value.
This was a definite new in richness for me. I went on to build the most powerful character I had ever made in D2. Pure lightning sorc with infinity merc. Maxed lightning, chain lightning, charged bolt, nova, mastery, got all the cookie cutter caster uniques & runewords. Ended up getting her to 92. There was nowhere I couldn't go nothing I couldn't do. 2 statics and a few thunderstorms + lightning bolts would simply MELT act bosses. I was a god. I turned 1-293 max lightning damage into something like 1-32k sheet damage, amplified further by conviction.
It was hilariously fun, but above all not challenging. And it was not hard to get the gear required to put the build together. One lucky drop & a decent trade solidified 3 of the most critical pieces. And here's the kicker. I thought that I was a top notch sorc, with the most endy of end game stats. After all, I was slaughtering act bosses in 2 or 3 seconds wasn't I? God mode engaged. I was wrong. I've since found that it is possible to get significantly higher lightning damage. Griffon's eye, ormus's robes, eschuta's, lightning facets, 10x lightning grand charms, probably more I'm not thinking of at the moment, all could have been used to boost my sheet and actual lightning damage SIGNIFICANTLY.
Ok ok, you're tired of hearing about my lightning sorc. How does this apply to D3 again? Well before I tell you, I want to work one other angle. Due to the insanely widespread availability of high end gear and the very low difficulty of hell, build diversity exploded. Want a nigma for your auradin? No problem just trade a couple small charms for it. Save up 100 pgems and trade for it. Ask someone to name all the builds they remember from D2. Odds are very high that they will list at least a dozen. Many more depending on how thoroughly they played the game. However, how many of these can compare in efficiency, raw killing power and speed to my mediocre lightning sorc? Very, very few. Pure lightning + infinity merc was definitely one of the most powerful builds D2 ever saw in terms of PvE kill speed & efficiency.
So, on to how this applies to D3. Well let's take those same features of D2 and compare them to D3
1. D3 is not easy. When RoS drops, no one is going to be farming T6 on day 1. And I mean no one.
2. Not only is duping and botting not nearly widespread to the degree that it was in D2, in D3:RoS duping and botting will have literally zero impact on the economy. Gold can no longer be traded. Gear can no longer be traded. Your lucky drop will never again turn into 3 build critical upgrades. For better or worse, self found will be the only name of the game come March 25.
D3 has plenty of build diversity. Far more than the D2 max 1 skill + 3 synergies "diversity". No, I don't care about the 16 1 point wonders / cross class skills you had keybound, builds in D2 were all about where you put your points, and your points almost always revolved around 1 skill. Anyway, the D3 problem is when you change from that archon build to that arcane orb build you've always loved suddenly you're farming MP2 instead of MP5. D2 had nothing like that. Your zealot was killing only a few seconds slower than my lightning sorc so why would you care? Vigor and charge almost were enough to compensate for your lack of teleport. You didn't have something like paragon levels & xp per hour to judge your efficiency by as everyone got pretty much the same from those infamous baal runs. It's funny that so many people complain about D3 not having an "endgame", when the problem is it has too much of an end game. Infinite paragon levels. Many hours of pure grinding to get the gear & stats required to tackle the highest difficulties. People complain about D3 having not enough depth, but in my eyes it has too much depth. You have to min max every affix on every last piece of gear and make sure it matches the build you're running to move up past T2. IN D2 you could do pretty much any build you wanted and godly gear / free rushes / 8player games would carry you through hell. That's not diversity. That's not depth.
I wish people would take some time to consider these things before blindly posting their diatribes. Do I like the D2-D3 RoS changes? Well, it depends. I loved trading in D2. I loved being mega overpowered in D2. So the lack of these in D3 is something I don't like. However, I do enjoy having a challenge. I am looking forward to playing on realms that are virtually dupe and bot free. I am very much looking forward to the complete removal of 3rd party sites leeching off the diablo series success. Also, I do think RoS is taking a big step in the right direction. Skill boost affixes, element damage affixes, resource reduction & CDR all show a desire to take a step away from the character sheet maximization that was D3V. Many of the new legendary items show great promise with their build changing affixes. As we dive into RoS and the ladder system makes its way onto the senior devs priority list, I hope they really put some thought into what made D2 great so we can get to a point where comparisons actually do make sense again and D3 has a chance to come out ahead.