Shacknews: No rest for the weary. Even after releasing Reaper of Souls, you guys are already looking ahead to the big summer update. Can you tell us about some of what you have planned for 2.1?
Production Director John Hight: We're working on two major systems for the 2.1 release, first is Seasons. Seasons are a shard of the existing game where everything is a fresh start. You start with a brand new character without access to any of the gold or items you collected with your primary account for the length of the season. We plan on creating brand new, powerful legendaries that only drop within in the season. After the season ends, all of your progress — your experience, your items, your gold, etc. — will be rolled into the main roster. The goal is the fresh-start feeling — so many changes and tweaks have happened since the launch of Diablo III — it is really energizing and fun to recreate that 'first-moment-in-a-new-game' feeling.
We've also added leaderboards. Players can race on a variety of metrics to try to become the leader in their region or the top of their friends and clan lists. That friendly competition angle lends itself really well to Diablo games.
Second is Tiered Rifts. Tiered Rifts are variations on the Nephalem Rifts concept from Reaper of Souls. You have a timer to finish a Rift (kill enough monsters to draw out the boss and slay the boss) and the better you do, the more challenging the level that you get to tackle. For example, if you finished a Tiered Rift in just a few minutes, you’d get to jump ahead to a much harder rift. These will also have unique rewards, custom leaderboards, etc. Tiered Rifts are a new end game activity that offers both challenge and competition but are easy enough for everyone at max level (70) to try.
I'm sure some people are fired up, but none of this has me excited at all. None of these things are likely to increase my enjoyment of the game, but they will most likely increase my resentment.
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SaldonasSee you space cowboy...Registered Userregular
In a way I should be thanking them for making me not want to play this game long-term, seeing as I have Wildstar creeping up in 5 weeks.
"Season" only legendaries is the dumbest fucking thing and the exact thing I was worried about when they announced it.
Also, I get that fresh starts are sometimes neat, and at best novel, but they are nothing more than a slight speed bump that lasts a very short amount of time before it's just back to business as usual.
I am curious about what they're going to do about paragon levels for these 'Seasons' because olololol if they make those not count too. Wasted time hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Also also leaderboards are dumb, particularly for a game like Diablo and what a waste of developer time.
I have no opinion on the tiered rift thing. I'm ambivalent.
Also, this kind of shit just fragments clans and the player base further than SC/HC already does (I'm fine with that because the HC audience is established).
"Doing T1 rifts anyone want to join?"
"Sure, I do."
[can't join]
"Oh wait, you're playing ladder (err, I mean season). Guess not."
Tiered rifts sound perfect. Seasons... Seasons are cool in PoE because you have a much more granular control over gear, including the chance to Chance Orb into specific uniques. I suppose I'm not completely against the concept in D3, but I'd have to see the particulars.
I know realm first shit is slightly different than leaderboard shit, but I'd argue not by much. The people at the top of the leaderboards are the same ones who get realm firsts. Everyone else doesn't really care.
I know realm first shit is slightly different than leaderboard shit, but I'd argue not by much. The people at the top of the leaderboards are the same ones who get realm firsts. Everyone else doesn't really care.
On the other hand they're expanding the leaderboard-y aspect of Challenge Modes. But contradicting design philosophies is a core tenant of WoW development. :P
Man I suppose I should move up a difficulty level, since I got the achievement for killing Cydea in under 30 seconds. I guess having a wrathful gargantuan punch her in the face for 66 million damage ruins her day or something. I'll have to see how survivable I am on torment 2 or 3.
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Forever Zefirocloaked in the midnight glory of an event horizonRegistered Userregular
yeah, the Seasons thing sounds pretty dumb
scenarios:
1. Seasons last a short time, meaning you are rushed and feel forced to play to get those special Legos, making it a chore
2. Seasons last a long time, meaning you're disconnected from your Paragon Levels and other such previously built up worth for a long time, which is frustrating because you worked hard for all that stuff to now not use it to get more cool stuff
it also splinters players, and in a game that you can now barely trade in, if you don't participate(or even if you do!), you're potentially missing out on cool items(the main point of the game) forever
fucks over new players too. "oh man cool sword, I need to find one." "nope sorry dude, you could only find it last November." "oh, I hate this game now."
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
Awesome, more 'powerful legendaries' That can only drop in ladder but won't ever fucking drop the one you want/need for a specific build... and am i the only one who doesn't really enjoy the leveling process? i never really have but it was atleast 'okay' in diablo 2 (even the ladders because you'd have those couple crazies that would level really fast) because it was extremely easily to boost/get boosted in it? hundreds upon hundreds of 'boosting' games...
Also what made the ladder system 'slightly fun' in Diablo 2 for me atleast, was funnily enough, Trading! you could trade gear you didn't want/need and get gear you did fairly easily... i remember trading and getting a full IK set in fairly short order on a ladder season for my WW barb... but thats out in RoS...
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Forever Zefirocloaked in the midnight glory of an event horizonRegistered Userregular
edited April 2014
start a new char
level 11
ladder only Lego drops
kill me
edit - clearly we barely know anything and details may arise that change perspective, but we'll see
Forever Zefiro on
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
I know realm first shit is slightly different than leaderboard shit, but I'd argue not by much. The people at the top of the leaderboards are the same ones who get realm firsts. Everyone else doesn't really care.
I think you're misunderstanding the intent behind Seasons. The leaderboard thing is for poopsockers, but the real point is the fresh start to prevent mudflation. Let's face it, ARPGs get kind of boring when you hit the power ceiling. For most players, their power ceiling is probably at T2/T3 if that - that's when upgrades start getting pretty slow and you're going days with no change to your gear. At that point they quit playing and move on. Then a couple months later a new Season starts, their friends are starting fresh and maybe they're in the mood to come back again to be part of that event.
Without a reset, players who quit probably just don't come back. Even if they do come back for a new patch, soon they'll remember how slow their progression was and quit again.
I know realm first shit is slightly different than leaderboard shit, but I'd argue not by much. The people at the top of the leaderboards are the same ones who get realm firsts. Everyone else doesn't really care.
I think you're misunderstanding the intent behind Seasons. The leaderboard thing is for poopsockers, but the real point is the fresh start to prevent mudflation. Let's face it, ARPGs get kind of boring when you hit the power ceiling. For most players, their power ceiling is probably at T2/T3 if that - that's when upgrades start getting pretty slow and you're going days with no change to your gear. At that point they quit playing and move on. Then a couple months later a new Season starts, their friends are starting fresh and maybe they're in the mood to come back again to be part of that event.
Without a reset, players who quit probably just don't come back. Even if they do come back for a new patch, soon they'll remember how slow their progression was and quit again.
It's not that you're wrong with what you're saying, it's just that since this is free to play after the purchase, those "gotta keep em playing" issues aren't nearly as relevant as for, say, WoW.
They obviously want to keep D3 in the front of peoples mind over the long term like they did with D2 (though I'd argue that ship has sailed, for the industry as a whole, D2 came out at the right time and place), but they don't need people to be logging in all the time; particularly with the AH gone.
As long as the xpack(s) is(are) still relevant enough, supported by major patches to keep attention, and people buy them, if folks drift for awhile, it's not that big of a deal.
The new legendaries may or may not be rolled into Normal, but either way it's clear that the intent is to encourage people to not play Normal anymore and instead just continually reset with each Season. I hope they use this as an excuse to do some improvements to being able to target specific Legendaries though - it makes sense for it to be hard to assemble a set if the game has to last for years, but if Seasons are just a few months long they don't have to be so stingy.
3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
edited April 2014
Further testing:
Block chance increased over 75% by Hit Me does seem to buff Pound. I went from 20-22m crits (67%) to 30m crits (100%) with Hit Me, changing nothing else.
Also, Hit Me modifies your existing block chance by 50%; i.e., if you have 50% it puts you at 75%. So you need to get to around 66-67 to get 100% block chance with it.
Haven't paid attention to if it makes you block all attacks. Will do that next.
3cl1ps3 on
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Big Red Tiebeautiful clydesdale style feettoo hot to trotRegistered Userregular
edited April 2014
try going above 100%
edit: what I mean is, try going way above 100% (ie. Base 75% cap + punish + hit me) and see if the damage is that much higher
With 37% block chance:
Low crit: 5.5m
High crit: 7.3m
With 67% block chance:
Low crit: 6.5m
High crit: 8.3m
It's definitely total modified block chance. The damage difference is very noticeable.
I also noticed a significant damage increase with Blessed Shield + Punish buff. And I did some more digging and other sources confirm this as well. So, whatever I was reading earlier wasn't correct.
With Jekangbord, I understand the appeal of Blessed Shield.
I crafted some basic rares to give myself +30% Blessed Shield damage on top of my +20% holy damage. So that's pretty amusing.
3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Judgment crit is super helpful for testing stuff because the yellow numbers are so much easier to see.
NICE block chance roll on that Jek.
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GoodKingJayIIIThey wanna get mygold on the ceilingRegistered Userregular
edited April 2014
I took that ss from my profile, so the block amount is wrong (it's something like 14k). Except for the extra bounce roll, it's a really nice shield. It's fun to watch the shields fly all over the screen, and I'm getting 6-9mil crits frequently. It unfortunately feels like a skill that isn't all that good without the legendary.
I took that ss from my profile, so the block amount is wrong (it's something like 14k). Except for the extra bounce roll, it's a really nice shield. It's fun to watch the shields fly all over the screen, and I'm getting 6-9mil crits frequently. It unfortunately feels like a skill that isn't all that good without the legendary.
Nobody should be using Blessed Shield without a Gyrfalcon, IMHO. Also, the Jekangbord is nice but will only help you on trash or with giant packs of mobs. Otherwise the extra shields are wasted because they will fly off and hit nothing. This is actually a fundamental problem with Blessed Shield in general - it is only good in large groups, and the scaling drops off dramatically. For example, compare a single Fissure strike which has at minimum two hits (generally many more) against the same target vs. just one Blessed Shield strike, and if you want to do something like proc AC Rally or an on-hit effect, it's not going to be nearly as effective. The other main spenders (hammers & FotH) scale very well regardless of how many targets are on the screen.
I took that ss from my profile, so the block amount is wrong (it's something like 14k). Except for the extra bounce roll, it's a really nice shield. It's fun to watch the shields fly all over the screen, and I'm getting 6-9mil crits frequently. It unfortunately feels like a skill that isn't all that good without the legendary.
Nobody should be using Blessed Shield without a Gyrfalcon, IMHO. Also, the Jekangbord is nice but will only help you on trash or with giant packs of mobs. Otherwise the extra shields are wasted because they will fly off and hit nothing. This is actually a fundamental problem with Blessed Shield in general - it is only good in large groups, and the scaling drops off dramatically. For example, compare a single Fissure strike which has at minimum two hits (generally many more) against the same target vs. just one Blessed Shield strike, and if you want to do something like proc AC Rally or an on-hit effect, it's not going to be nearly as effective. The other main spenders (hammers & FotH) scale very well regardless of how many targets are on the screen.
Gyrfalcon is the other piece of the wombo combo, but Jekangbord is what makes the whole thing broken. It's the extra bounces that escalate your damage, and as long as you can keep your Wrath up it's not a problem. If you're having Wrath problems, definitely use another skill. But if you've got Reaper's Wraps and at least one Wrath generator on your bar, you should be ok. I also found that BS works great with Rally--each bounce has a chance to proc, and the proc rate seems to be higher than FotH/Divine Well.
I completely agree that there are simply better spenders with more utility. Blessed Shield is awful for single target damage. FotH is the Crusader's clear winning spender in this patch. That said, there aren't very many situations where you are only fighting one monster. And in those few where you are, you can either 1) train a group of monsters to your location, 2) provide other utility if in a group, or 3) switch up your skills before fighting a boss.
But like I said, the skill's biggest problem is that it's just plain poor without at least one of two legendaries, and it really needs to shine with two. I don't find that to be great skill design; stuff should work right out of the proverbial box, and legendaries that affect skills should open up new builds, rather than be prerequisites for even using a skill.
ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I don't know if that's a fair statement. My wife has been using blessed shield forever and just got Jekangbord two days ago. She wasn't doing the same level of damage I was with FotH, but she was doing more than enough to stay competitive and alive through torment.
So the intent behind the clan is for regular posters/readers of the G&T and SE++ threads to have a place to interact with one another in the game. With a particular focus on regular poster/readers who are also regular players.
The clan is at the 150 member cap, but night after night I see the same 50 or so players. There are several people I haven't seen since the week they were added.
On the other side I have been asked on a fairly regular basis if there was space in the clan. By people who are posting here, and also logging in night after night.
I am going to purge some names from the roster.
I will then have a waiting period where those purged can appeal the purging.
I will then post here if any of those purged slots are free. First come first served, FFA, every man for himself get added asap etc etc.
Ideally instead of the same 25 people or so every night I see online, we have 100. For people who only play irregularly the community is probably the better option since it has no limit to it's number of members.
If you are reading this add me.
D3: HexDex#1281, PSN: DireOtter, Live: DireOtter
So the intent behind the clan is for regular posters/readers of the G&T and SE++ threads to have a place to interact with one another in the game. With a particular focus on regular poster/readers who are also regular players.
The clan is at the 150 member cap, but night after night I see the same 50 or so players. There are several people I haven't seen since the week they were added.
On the other side I have been asked on a fairly regular basis if there was space in the clan. By people who are posting here, and also logging in night after night.
I am going to purge some names from the roster.
I will then have a waiting period where those purged can appeal the purging.
I will then post here if any of those purged slots are free. First come first served, FFA, every man for himself get added asap etc etc.
Ideally instead of the same 25 people or so every night I see online, we have 100. For people who only play irregularly the community is probably the better option since it has no limit to it's number of members.
Motherfucking dibs I've been waiting to get into the clan forever, motherfucker! Nice, maybe this is my chance to tag along!
Battle.net: ChubbyBunny#1452 | Steam: Bunny1248 | Xbox Live: CBunny1
Posts
Switch: SW-1493-0062-4053
Also, I get that fresh starts are sometimes neat, and at best novel, but they are nothing more than a slight speed bump that lasts a very short amount of time before it's just back to business as usual.
I am curious about what they're going to do about paragon levels for these 'Seasons' because olololol if they make those not count too. Wasted time hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Also also leaderboards are dumb, particularly for a game like Diablo and what a waste of developer time.
I have no opinion on the tiered rift thing. I'm ambivalent.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
"Doing T1 rifts anyone want to join?"
"Sure, I do."
[can't join]
"Oh wait, you're playing ladder (err, I mean season). Guess not."
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
I know realm first shit is slightly different than leaderboard shit, but I'd argue not by much. The people at the top of the leaderboards are the same ones who get realm firsts. Everyone else doesn't really care.
On the other hand they're expanding the leaderboard-y aspect of Challenge Modes. But contradicting design philosophies is a core tenant of WoW development. :P
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
scenarios:
1. Seasons last a short time, meaning you are rushed and feel forced to play to get those special Legos, making it a chore
2. Seasons last a long time, meaning you're disconnected from your Paragon Levels and other such previously built up worth for a long time, which is frustrating because you worked hard for all that stuff to now not use it to get more cool stuff
it also splinters players, and in a game that you can now barely trade in, if you don't participate(or even if you do!), you're potentially missing out on cool items(the main point of the game) forever
fucks over new players too. "oh man cool sword, I need to find one." "nope sorry dude, you could only find it last November." "oh, I hate this game now."
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
Also what made the ladder system 'slightly fun' in Diablo 2 for me atleast, was funnily enough, Trading! you could trade gear you didn't want/need and get gear you did fairly easily... i remember trading and getting a full IK set in fairly short order on a ladder season for my WW barb... but thats out in RoS...
level 11
ladder only Lego drops
kill me
edit - clearly we barely know anything and details may arise that change perspective, but we'll see
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
ladder only legendaries will probably start dropping in normal mode after the season ends
It's the only way for it to make sense
I think you're misunderstanding the intent behind Seasons. The leaderboard thing is for poopsockers, but the real point is the fresh start to prevent mudflation. Let's face it, ARPGs get kind of boring when you hit the power ceiling. For most players, their power ceiling is probably at T2/T3 if that - that's when upgrades start getting pretty slow and you're going days with no change to your gear. At that point they quit playing and move on. Then a couple months later a new Season starts, their friends are starting fresh and maybe they're in the mood to come back again to be part of that event.
Without a reset, players who quit probably just don't come back. Even if they do come back for a new patch, soon they'll remember how slow their progression was and quit again.
It's not that you're wrong with what you're saying, it's just that since this is free to play after the purchase, those "gotta keep em playing" issues aren't nearly as relevant as for, say, WoW.
They obviously want to keep D3 in the front of peoples mind over the long term like they did with D2 (though I'd argue that ship has sailed, for the industry as a whole, D2 came out at the right time and place), but they don't need people to be logging in all the time; particularly with the AH gone.
As long as the xpack(s) is(are) still relevant enough, supported by major patches to keep attention, and people buy them, if folks drift for awhile, it's not that big of a deal.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
that could make some sense
but I would argue that they have made decisions that don't make sense before
so we'll seeee
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
With 37% block chance:
Low crit: 5.5m
High crit: 7.3m
With 67% block chance:
Low crit: 6.5m
High crit: 8.3m
It's definitely total modified block chance. The damage difference is very noticeable.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
That's a pretty awesome solution, and I hope that ends up being the case.
Block chance increased over 75% by Hit Me does seem to buff Pound. I went from 20-22m crits (67%) to 30m crits (100%) with Hit Me, changing nothing else.
Also, Hit Me modifies your existing block chance by 50%; i.e., if you have 50% it puts you at 75%. So you need to get to around 66-67 to get 100% block chance with it.
Haven't paid attention to if it makes you block all attacks. Will do that next.
edit: what I mean is, try going way above 100% (ie. Base 75% cap + punish + hit me) and see if the damage is that much higher
I also noticed a significant damage increase with Blessed Shield + Punish buff. And I did some more digging and other sources confirm this as well. So, whatever I was reading earlier wasn't correct.
With Jekangbord, I understand the appeal of Blessed Shield.
I crafted some basic rares to give myself +30% Blessed Shield damage on top of my +20% holy damage. So that's pretty amusing.
NICE block chance roll on that Jek.
Nobody should be using Blessed Shield without a Gyrfalcon, IMHO. Also, the Jekangbord is nice but will only help you on trash or with giant packs of mobs. Otherwise the extra shields are wasted because they will fly off and hit nothing. This is actually a fundamental problem with Blessed Shield in general - it is only good in large groups, and the scaling drops off dramatically. For example, compare a single Fissure strike which has at minimum two hits (generally many more) against the same target vs. just one Blessed Shield strike, and if you want to do something like proc AC Rally or an on-hit effect, it's not going to be nearly as effective. The other main spenders (hammers & FotH) scale very well regardless of how many targets are on the screen.
razor strop and Harrington would like a word with you about that...
PSN: HooverFanPA
Steam: HooverFan
Gyrfalcon is the other piece of the wombo combo, but Jekangbord is what makes the whole thing broken. It's the extra bounces that escalate your damage, and as long as you can keep your Wrath up it's not a problem. If you're having Wrath problems, definitely use another skill. But if you've got Reaper's Wraps and at least one Wrath generator on your bar, you should be ok. I also found that BS works great with Rally--each bounce has a chance to proc, and the proc rate seems to be higher than FotH/Divine Well.
I completely agree that there are simply better spenders with more utility. Blessed Shield is awful for single target damage. FotH is the Crusader's clear winning spender in this patch. That said, there aren't very many situations where you are only fighting one monster. And in those few where you are, you can either 1) train a group of monsters to your location, 2) provide other utility if in a group, or 3) switch up your skills before fighting a boss.
But like I said, the skill's biggest problem is that it's just plain poor without at least one of two legendaries, and it really needs to shine with two. I don't find that to be great skill design; stuff should work right out of the proverbial box, and legendaries that affect skills should open up new builds, rather than be prerequisites for even using a skill.
So the intent behind the clan is for regular posters/readers of the G&T and SE++ threads to have a place to interact with one another in the game. With a particular focus on regular poster/readers who are also regular players.
The clan is at the 150 member cap, but night after night I see the same 50 or so players. There are several people I haven't seen since the week they were added.
On the other side I have been asked on a fairly regular basis if there was space in the clan. By people who are posting here, and also logging in night after night.
I am going to purge some names from the roster.
I will then have a waiting period where those purged can appeal the purging.
I will then post here if any of those purged slots are free. First come first served, FFA, every man for himself get added asap etc etc.
Ideally instead of the same 25 people or so every night I see online, we have 100. For people who only play irregularly the community is probably the better option since it has no limit to it's number of members.
D3: HexDex#1281, PSN: DireOtter, Live: DireOtter
Motherfucking dibs I've been waiting to get into the clan forever, motherfucker! Nice, maybe this is my chance to tag along!
My Digital Pin Lanyard || PAX East '13, '14, '15, '19 | PAX South '15
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/pabrt-1613/hero/44086073
oh well, ill test it tomorrow with my sick piro marella