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    Wednesday, December 16, 2020

    Diablo Let's compare D4's Inventory & Character Screen that was shown in the Q4 Update with the one from the Q2 Update (the new one looks darker and imo better)

    Diablo Let's compare D4's Inventory & Character Screen that was shown in the Q4 Update with the one from the Q2 Update (the new one looks darker and imo better)


    Let's compare D4's Inventory & Character Screen that was shown in the Q4 Update with the one from the Q2 Update (the new one looks darker and imo better)

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 05:28 AM PST

    Gradually Blizzard is addressing everything correctly in Diablo 4, only one small thing is missing:

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 09:14 AM PST

    1) Reduce these damage numbers.

    Please, no 1468K of damage. That's it.

    This quarterly update was incredible. I went from a state of being totally disappointed with Diablo 4 to being really excited.

    submitted by /u/andreylabanca
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    Why Blizzard, why!?

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 12:55 PM PST

    Never thought as a blind gamer I would ever be able to play Diablo 3!

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 05:36 AM PST

    Hi all, I just wanted to share how excited I am that I am seemingly able to play Diablo three without sight. Bear in mind I have only just started, but thanks to the fantastic sound design and use of optical character recognition that tells me when characters and items are near to me, I'm having a great time so far. It's the little things, like exits to areas having sound cues and the fact that seemingly if you find monsters, you generally are going in the right direction. Just wanted to share my excitement with people who obviously love Diablo. Maybe one day it will be possible to play the second one? That's always been a dream. :)

    submitted by /u/dansc93
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    Shared World should not be forced. (Private Mode)

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 02:02 PM PST

    Hello! First, I would encourage you to read through everything to understand my point and to see my explanation of why this idea should be very easy to implement, and why it makes some people happy without taking away anything from others.. but if you don't have time there is a TL;DR at the end.

    From what we know so far D4 will force everyone to be a part of shared world experience. You'll see other people running around from time to time. I personally, and I'm sure many other people, don't like that. I think Diablo 4 should have a Private Mode (private online mode). You might think I'm probably a part of a small minority but please stay with me here, I'll explain why it doesn't really matter.

    - Why I don't like the shared world? Uncommon reason probably - it's immersion-breaking to me, and I simply like to play privately. And it's not that I simply don't like it, I just don't like that it's forced.

    - Why would devs care about something that probably a minority of people want and most players don't care about? Because the solution is literally in the game already and because it would hurt nobody. Diablo 4 will put you in some sort of private instance (I'm going to call it "private mode" from now) while you are playing through the campaign, you will not see other people until you finish it. So we know it's possible to play online but privately, and it's already being used in the game during the campaign. There is no reason to not allow some people to opt out of the shared world experience. The game should let every player choose if they want to stay in the private mode or join the shared world.

    - What about world bosses / other unannounced unsoloable content? Simple - They could just scale them down but that will make some players feel like it's unfair, and there will be no incentive to play with others. The ideal solution that would satisfy everyone would be to disable world bosses in the "private mode" and allow players to swap between the private mode and shared world whenever they want to. It would be much more comfortable to be able to play privately and occasionally join the shared world precisely when you decide you want to participate in the shared world experience, and hop out of it whenever you please.

    - How would that look? In the character selection menu or in the game mode menu you could simply have 2 options to pick (that's just my mockup / example):

    1 - Shared World - This is the recommended experience in Diablo 4. Gain access to all the content Sanctuary has to offer. World events and world bosses will scale depending on the number of players. Dungeons will remain private. You will occasionally run into other adventurers in the open world and find many of them in friendly towns and interact with them. You can go back to the Private Mode by going back to the menu and selecting it.

    2 - Private Mode - In Private Mode you will be alone. You will not find other players in the open world or towns. World bosses (and/or other unsoloable content) will not spawn. You will still have access to world events and everything else Sanctuary has to offer (all soloable content). You can go back to Shared World at any time by going back to the menu and selecting it.

    There's also one more option to handle world bosses and other unsoloable content - World bosses etc will still spawn in the Private Mode and the area around the world boss is always shared, so even in Private Mode you'll see other people there, fighting with you but they will disappear as soon as they, or you leave the area.

    There are other reasons to have Private Mode, for example I think it's not right to change Diablo so drastically without giving an alternative to those who don't like the forced multiplayer. All Diablo games allowed you to play alone 100% of the time. I don't think devs should use words like "going back to the roots" while at the same time forcing that change on everyone. It feels unfair.

    But the main point is this - I think what I touch upon in this post is something everyone should agree on, because those people who (like me) want something like Private Mode to be in the game will agree with me while those people who don't care about it and want to play with others or don't mind seeing other players will not lose anything if the Private Mode would be implemented. And the devs wouldn't even have to spend much resources and time on it since it literally is already in the game, and it works (during the campaign). I truly think this is something everyone can agree on. Because honestly why would anyone disagree with having a Private Mode? Forcing multiplayer on people who don't want to play see others in the first place or who want to do see others only precisely when they desire to is not going to do anyone any good. I feel very strongly about this tbh.

    Personally, I am so excited about D4, as far as my memory reaches I was always a crazy fan of Diablo, my love for this fictional universe goes beyond just the game itself, I love all the lore and art that surrounds it, I grew up with Diablo, it was one of the first games I've ever played, and I feel very emotionally about this. But I'm also one of those people who mostly plays solo, who like immersion and yes - being forced to just simply see other players in the world, even if I don't have to interact with them is a big deal for me. Diablo was always a private journey for me, with very occasional sessions with few friends. And the solution is right there in the game already, and it doesn't hurt anyone so why wouldn't the devs allow players to choose when they want to play completely privately and when they want to be a part of the shared world.

    TL;DR - Diablo 4 should have a private mode (a private instance of some sort) for people who don't want to be a part of the shared world. It would hurt nobody and the technology is literally already working in the game during the campaign so why not?

    (this is a re-post from my original post on Diablo IV subreddit)

    submitted by /u/TheCurious42
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    Why implementing Uniques is so critical

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 03:47 PM PST

    First up, I'd just like to say how absolutely ecstatic I am with the item changes they've brought forward in this quarterly update.

    I'm probably a player in a very small minority who has seen how the itemisation has evolved in Diablo titles from literally 1.0 of Diablo 1.

    I remember oldschool Zodiac rings, plates of the whale, rare pikes in Vanilla D2, 1.08 Ark's valor, Cruel Colossus Blades, the supremacy of DR items in 1.09 (D2's golden age), the rise of runewords in 1.10, the janky hard cooldown reduction items in vanilla D3, and the total domination of sets in RoS.

    I've seen it all.

    To cut straight to the meat and potatoes of my point - Uniques are absolutely critical because of one primary thing: Baseline item value.

    MFing in d2 was a surprisingly engaging grind, simply for the fact that when you kill Meph for that 15th time in a day and you see that golden Shako, you immediately know that you've found an item of value - it doesn't matter how the variable stats roll on certain uniques, as even a low rolled unique essentially dictated the open market value, not if the item has any value to a player.

    This excitement is strong enough to be a persistent memory for players, if they happen to find an exceptionally rare item. An example:

    I'm in my 30's now, and don't game all that much - most of my friends are at a similar point in their life, but there's occasions where we catch up and see what we're all up to in the gaming sphere. A couple of these friends were around in the D1 days, and every time I mention i've started a new season in D3 to one particular friend, he tells me the same story every time:

    'Hey, you remember that time in d1 where I got a grandfather to drop from a barrel?'

    Yes, James. We all remember. We also always remember every time you play a diablo game and you obsessively break every single barrel in every.single.room.

    For me, this perfectly illustrates the item permanence and value placed on the player when they get that one drop. I've had the same level of excitement getting my first Eagle Horn, Vamp gaze, Gryphon's Eye and 20% FCR/res/life/+skills amulets.

    This kind of excitement even extends to Diablo 3, as even though it was a little more prevalent in Vanilla, where finally finding something of value could allow you to build wealth, even RoS build required items at the start of a season will give that little pang of dopamine.

    One thing they rightly pointed out in the update is that they don't want an item quality to invalidate all items - Uniques are in a good spot, as even D3 has limited slots for placing legendaries, allowing you to gap-fill with a set requirement or in d2's case, some well rolled rings/ammy/circlet.

    The primary issue is that I have the distinct impression that d4 will have the same problem as d3 - legendaries will always supercede rares, simply and only because of the legendary affix. If stat line rolls are equal, magic and rares can't compete. Have the stat line for magic and rares too high, and we're in a diablo 3 vanilla situation.

    Hell, once 1.10 dropped in d2, any chance of something like a CCB, or even a large catalogue of uniques you could find were superseded by incredibly powerful runewords.

    I'm optimistic, but the balance between stat lines, leg affixes and base item values on uniques needs to be spot on.

    I hope they spend the time to do it right.

    submitted by /u/badonkadonkthrowaway
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    WHOOOOOOO!!! Uniques are back!

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 01:13 AM PST

    So excited to see Uniques make a return in D4. Legendary never felt right as a replacement for uniques. Blizzard's new philosophy of what a legendary is in D4 actually sounds great. It retains a lot of the randomness you get in D3 legendary items but even more variety with the legendary affixes rolling randomly.

    But this only works because they have Uniques to balance it out. Having a high tier of items that roll fairly consistently is nice to have. I can't wait to see that sweet unique golden text to pop up while I'm killing monsters. It sounds like this game might be making a return to the roots where an endgame character will probably have some uniques, some rares, and maybe a blue item here and there. Add the legendary, which is like a super yellow item, and now we have a lot of room for variety.

    As a current D2 player, thank you Blizzard. This update made me so hyped

    submitted by /u/OnSugarHill
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    Spell Damage being calculated from Weapons AGAIN?

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 04:13 PM PST

    It's kinda looking like it.

    PLS NO

    submitted by /u/Askon
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    Are they bringing back attack stats on jewelry?

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 08:40 AM PST

    Are they bringing back attack stats on jewelry?

    On the latest Quarterly Update they show the following image in which the amulet and the ring have an Attack stat. But they said on the last system design post last year "we've removed both Attack and Defense from jewelry entirely. The goal here is to better embrace the fantasy of each type of item." Has any dev addressed the reason for it coming back? Or is it just an oversight?

    https://preview.redd.it/dxmhib6stk561.png?width=1473&format=png&auto=webp&s=69bbbc045144b3acc939f607586d536754867142

    submitted by /u/Grinchonato
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    Item Affixes in D4

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 09:15 AM PST

    The item affix pool is something that probably haven't really even addressed yet. I know that there is a lot of criticisms of the type of item affixes available, and on which item rarity they appear, but that's probably something they haven't returned to since a few quarters ago. Nonetheless, I want to get in my opinions on the subject before they specifically address this. I know we were thinking item affixes when they said Itemization, but it looks like they meant to address item rarity and different item types having specific characteristics (e.g. axes causing bleed damage).

    Crit Affixes:

    This is a very powerful affix (both crit chance and crit dmg), and it's one that completely destroy build diversity as it did in D3. The main reason for this was that it was an extremely common affix that could roll on almost all item types throughout the game, and if it didn't roll on those items, then they were worthless. It is incredibly important that they treat these affixes with caution, and limit the number of items they can possibly roll on, so that it becomes a very rare affix as it should. The rarity of an affix should be proportional to how powerful it is.

    For example: Crit Damage should have a baseline of 50%, and Crit chance at 5%, meaning when you attack, you have 5% chance to deal an extra 50% of your damage. Adding crit damage to that should be hard to do, with only legendary/unique items adding to that crit damage. Crit chance is something that might be able to roll on rare amulets, with other Unique/Legendary item types able to roll. Crit damage should be scaled to cap at +150%. Crit chance, with heavy investment, could cap somewhere around 70%.

    The key to preventing only crit-based builds being viable, is to limit the amount of crit damage, and make it hard to max out crit-chance/crit-damage, doing so leaving the build weak in other aspects (low survivability, low amount of non-crit damage).

    General item affixes:

    The item affix poll should move from generally applicable to specifically applicable as you move towards the end of the item rarity spectrum.

    E.G.: Magic/Rare items should have affixes that could affect a players build across ALL classes. There should be no +% efficiency to particular class skill on these items, should only be things like +% elemental/physical damage, + to base stats, + to all skill ranks, +life/resources, etc. Things ALL classes have in common.

    Only Legendary/Unique items should be able to roll affixes that would affect specific parts of their builds, so these might roll affixes that, for example, give + to all sorceress fire skill ranks, + to a specific class skill, or increase Fury generation (as opposed to mana generation).

    I LOVE the direction they're going with item rarities, but they really need to cement the differences in function/useage of each item type.

    submitted by /u/coolniceman1995
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    My feedback on the December update.

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 09:31 AM PST

    Overall, I liked the update, but I feel like there needs to be more things touched upon in Itemization.

    There needs to be more emphasis on item bases. Either go with the Normal - Exceptional - Elite system in Diablo 2, or expand it and twist it around a little.

    Also, Unique items need to be a variant of existing bases. In the update I saw the uniques and noticed there are no bases for them. It just says "Mace" "Chest Armor" "Pants".

    Please do not go back to Diablo 3 where you kill a boss and the loot drops, all you see is "Sword" "Shield" "Axe" "Mace" "Chest Armor". This was painfully dull and boring.

    As an example: I want to see "Berserker Axe" "Monarch" "Gladius" "Lacquered Plate" "Legendary Mallet" instead.

    On another note. I hope the "Attack Power" on that staff does not effect how hot my fireballs will be and how cold my Frozen Orb will be. Physical attack damage should not effect spell damage. When Diablo 3 did that, I feel like you guys slapped me across the face and called me stupid, and I did not appreciate that.

    This is all I have to say so far. This is my feedback to you, Blizzard. Thank you.

    submitted by /u/PoEScionHentai
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    How Attack/Defense work (a theory)

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 02:30 PM PST

    How Attack/Defense work (a theory)

    I was puzzled by the attack stat on weapons and rings and defense on armor peices and how they where added up to a total rating at massive display in the character sheet:

    https://preview.redd.it/1b8a1cy4gm561.png?width=324&format=png&auto=webp&s=3542d393a11fd071f6142473361681894301e4be

    I also revisited the old d4 demo from the release and noticed that it has basically been unchanged since then:

    https://preview.redd.it/hb5qhxrrgm561.png?width=482&format=png&auto=webp&s=8d27c41d97267252c56638d72b13366494a8c921

    Its also strange that weapons seems to have somewhere between 300 to 2000 Attack and that it translates to such low damage output in the demo:

    https://preview.redd.it/drhlmhczgm561.png?width=523&format=png&auto=webp&s=8d3eb3b2a5a84140200b8a3ff2a9c74f8a9dbb13

    Now look at the skills. All raw numbers. No 200% attack damage. So basically how you increase the damage on skills is all through adding more points to the skill. The reason Upheaval look so damn OP in this screenshot is because its rank 8 and the others rank 1.

    https://preview.redd.it/qn1yhfvuem561.png?width=821&format=png&auto=webp&s=0dbaea743ff30c86945c6db2072721ccb184f277

    This means that there is no damage on weapons what so ever. There is just a Attack stat on them more or less.

    Then what is Attack? I guess is that its just a rating. If your total Attack rating is greater then your targets total Defense rating you start dealing more thamage to them and vice versa. This is probably capped so that you can't deal 0 damage and you wont be able to get 500% more damage.

    Notice too that in the latest update weapons display "Weapon Attack" and rings only display "Attack". Could be that Attack on weapon only effects attacks while attack on rings effect spells, or both spells and attacks. Could also just be that certain passives give bonuses to weapon attack only and thats why they are seperated that way.

    What are your thoughts? Maybe this is common knowledge already? Then I apologize.

    submitted by /u/snurrfint
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    How Monster Properties Can Improve Build Diversity and Drive Gearing Choice (LONG)

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 08:36 AM PST

    How Monster Properties Can Improve Build Diversity and Drive Gearing Choice (LONG)

    The recent Dev update has a lot of people excited about the direction itemization and skills are taking. However, all of the updates thus far have focused on only one side of the equation: the player.

    In D3 all of your gear worked in all situations at all times; you didn't have to make choices each time you went into a greater rift, you just ran whatever it was that you were already wearing. D4 seems to be headed in a similar direction, in that you'll always run 1 set of gear. This feels like a missed opportunity. Monster properties would introduce important choices into build and gearing decisions depending on where in the world you are headed.

    The Korean MMORPG "Ragnarok Online" ("RO") is a great example of how monster properties make gearing and build choices matter. Your choice of gearing and the skills you use heavily depend on what monsters you're fighting and where in the world you are headed. Both skills and weapons have inherent elements that can either enhance or neuter the damage you do monsters. Additionally, there are specific cards that can be slotted into gear (similar to runes/gems) that can either enhance the damage you to do monsters by modifying damaged based on a specific monster property, reduce the damage you take from certain monster types, or confers special protections against debilitating status effect that could get you killed.

    Individual monsters have 4 different properties

    • Class: Normal, Mini-Boss, MVP (Boss type)
    • Size: Small, Medium, Large
    • Type: Demi-Human, Animal (Brute), Insect, Fish, Dragon, Plant, Formless, Angel, Demon, Undead
    • Element: Neutral, Water, Earth, Fire, Wind, Poison, Holy, Shadow, Ghost, Undead

    These 4 elements in tandem allow for different combinations of gearing and skills to have an impact on how your character plays.

    As an example on how this impacts gearing decisions, let's look at how what gear we might choose against two different monsters: an Ice Titan and a Fire Imp!

    Ice Titan from Ragnarok Online

    An Ice Titan is a Normal (class), Large (Size), Formless (Race), Water (element) monster giving us several different avenues through which to optimize our skill and gear choices. The table on the right hand side of the above picture shows the % damage done to an Ice Titan with specific elements ranging from -25% damage from Water property attacks to +200% damage from Wind property attacks.

    A magic based character can allocate skill points into different types of elemental attacks such as Cold Bolt, Fire Bolt, and Lightning Bolt. If we assume that both attacks deal 1000 damage to a neutral enemy, they would deal damage to the Ice Titan as follows:

    Cold Bolt would deal 100% spell damage * -25% water damage to an Ice Titan, resulting in -250 total damage and actually healing the monster!

    Fire Bolt would deal 100% spell damage * 100% fire damage to an Ice Titan resulting in 1,000 total damage!

    Lightning Bolt would deal 100% spell damage * 200% wind damage to an Ice Titan resulting in 2,000 total damage!

    Clearly, if you're going to fight an Ice Titan, Lightning Bolt is your best choice. But if you haven't invested skill points to unlock that skill, firebolt is still a viable option!

    A melee character can augment their attacks by weapon property or through weapon cards

    The Sashimi is a wind property weapon; any melee attack with this weapon would change from neutral to wind property and deal elemental damage accordingly

    or through weapon cards

    A Saber deals neutral property damage and has three slots for cards

    Options for weapon cards that would increase damage to an Ice Titan:

    Lower increased damage but has a wider range of use cases

    Better increased damage, niche use cases

    Better increased damage, slightly wider use cases then the previous option

    Thus, as a player you have to make a choice! Do you go with a saber with three Minorous cards or three Drainliar cards? The triple Minorous saber would increase your damage less than that of the three Drainlair cards but would have a greater range use cases. It's important to note that these cards are both rare to find and expensive to buy so you likely won't have both until you've played for a substantial amount of time!

    On the defensive side, different cards slotted into a shield to mitigate incoming damage from the Ice Titan

    Good

    Better, and has a wider range of use cases

    Best, but more niche!

    Again, we run into the same questions as we did on the weapon side. Do we pick the more universal option and take more damage or pick the niche option and maximize our survivablity?

    Additionally, the Ice Titan can use a skill called "Frost Driver" which has a chance to freeze the target. Being frozen locks you in place (duh!) and you can't use skills or potions until the ice is broken by taking a hit. This could be DEADLY if you're surrounded by a lot of monsters that could overwhelm you. A slotted armor with a Marc card grants immunity to Freeze and makes fighting Ice Titans much, much easier!

    Other status effects include: Stun, stone curse, silence, etc. They're all deadly if not mitigated properly!

    ____________________

    Now, on to the Fire Imp! NONE of the gearing choices we might have made for the Ice Titan will help us in our fight against the Fire Imp! We'll need entirely different gear in order to min-max.

    The Fire Imp is a An Ice Titan is a Normal (class), Small (Size), Demon (Race), Fire (element) monster

    We need to use a water based magic skill (or at least not fire, earth, ghost, or undead!)

    Cold Bolt would deal 100% spell damage * 200% water damage to a Fire Imp, resulting in 2,000 total damage!

    a water element weapon

    Would double your base damage

    or a weapon slotted with a mix of the following cards:

    https://preview.redd.it/kyomxzx7ok561.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=b04883b74ea1464e90909971963564998e6de5b7

    https://preview.redd.it/gp2i4q4hok561.png?width=722&format=png&auto=webp&s=d586b39606fa1d618aad1bad56a42b5c86505d12

    https://preview.redd.it/74353yelok561.png?width=721&format=png&auto=webp&s=641b6305c0dcd5009dfcf7c80cd62e25572ae60b

    Leading us to the same decisions we needed to make for the Ice Titan fight; do we pick the universal options and leave some damage on the table or do we go the min-max route? The same goes for the defensive side; do we min-max or go with something we can use more often?

    ___________________________________________________________________

    How this could play out in D4:

    The D4 trailer shown at BlizzCon showed several visually distinct areas and showed several different types of monsters. Similar to RO, D4 could categorize its monsters by Class, Size, Type, and Element. The playable demo included monsters categorized as "Drowned"; perhaps all Drowned are Undead (type) and water (element) but come in different sizes (small, medium, large, colossal) and classes (normal, magic, elite, unique). Gearing choices would be a mix of options from more universal options to specific items that really only work against Drowned enemies. With the difficulty of finding or buying so many different items no two characters would gear the same!

    These impactful monster properties help give each zone a distinct feeling with unique challenges to overcome. You need to really understand where it is you're going, the monsters you'll be facing, and what type of skills they'll be using otherwise it could get you killed. This, in turn, makes your choices matter! You can't just run through all of the content after getting your six piece set like you could in D3. You have to build up a veritable war chest of items to be able to push end-game content across the board! It's not a one-size-fits-all gearing choice anymore because the monsters you fight actually matter.

    Of course, all of this would need to be Diabloified so the different classification types can and should be unique to the Diablo universe, but the end result should be that monsters force gear and skill diversification.

    Thanks for reading!

    submitted by /u/Gambo34
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    Point-by-Point Feedback on Quarterly Update

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 08:22 PM PST

    Skill Trees

    The skill trees are bad. Firstly, all skills should be available at baseline level to allow for experimentation. Secondly, having only 2-3 customizations per skill is a downgrade from 5 runes in D3. Thirdly, the tree visually looks like a mess, get rid of the literal tree picture, and lay it out in a the functional manner.

    The tree should include:

    • Increasing ranks for skills (that's not in the tree),
    • Passives skills, and passive upgrades to existing skill (that is already there),
    • Special nodes in some paths of the tree where the player has to choose 1 of 3 distinct things to reduce cookie cutter builds like the current WoW talent trees does. These are mostly utility-based which can't as easily be numerically optimized as the numerical-based ranks and passives.

    Primary Stats

    The idea is fine, especially with the thresholds in the skill tree, but the particular primary stats chosen are bad. No Sorc will want strength: +Def is a bad stat, especially when Int provides both defense (All Resist) and attack (Skill Damage). So you can make strength a requirement for good skill tree nodes (i.e. the ones which increase damage), but then this doesn't make sense for a Sorc.

    Choose different primary stats. Demonic, Angelic, Ancestral were better choices than what is currently there, because they were on balance more equally desirable.

    The current system still encourages getting the minimum of the bad stat (Strength, Willpower and Dex) needed to unlock the require skill tree bonus for the build you're making, then dumping the rest in Int. It's better for the unlocked bonus to scale with the corresponding stat.

    Weapon Type

    This is good.

    Item Qualities

    This is a total disaster that will require people to scrutinize every blue and yellow item because it has, by design, a chance to be better than lengendaries and uniques.

    The claim that "we think players of all skill levels benefit from not having to scrutinize every single item that drops to see if it might be an upgrade for them" is a big falsehood. The fact yellows are "usually better" than blues but not always, necessarily requires scrutinizing everything to see when "usually better" is better and when it is not.

    As a matter of pure logic, there can be no middle ground: If a loot filter is not 100% effective, but only 99% effective, then it is completely useless because it will miss possible upgrades, requiring scrutiny of every item in the desired slot to see if that is the 1% of time an upgrade would be missed. Logically, a loot filter must be 100% or bust.

    If item colors provide no useful information, which is the design choice here, then item colors should be removed.'

    Add an interface that allows for players to program a loot filter. For example, a good loot filter for a player to program for themselves would be this.

    if: any affix on a blue or yellow rolls higher than a lowest possible roll of a legendary, then: color the item orange. 

    Legendary Affixes and Unqiues

    This is fine. It is particularly good that from the screenshots, it appears all items of the same type have the same base Attack or Defense (within a small roll range). This ensures high level items are better than low level items, while ensuring that people focus on interesting secondary stats (like 4% Lightning Damage, 6% Mana Cost Reduction, 7% Damage While Healthy, etc.), instead of the Attack or Defense base stat, which they can't do anything to change.

    Endgame

    When will you talk about the most important topic in the entire game, the thing people will spend 99.9% of their time in: endgame?

    Instead of grafting endgame systems on campaign leveling systems, endgame should have been the first and most important game design priority, the foundation that everything else was built around, because 99.9% of the player's time will be spent in endgame.

    submitted by /u/eigenscape
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    As we are getting another bonfire scene for BlizzCOnline, what class do you think might be revealed?

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 09:50 AM PST

    Diablo classes, in my opinion, fall into 5 archetypes:

    • Naturalistic (Druid, Witchdoctor)
    • Arcane (Sorceress, Mage)
    • Primal (Barbarian, Amazon)
    • Holy (Monk, Paladin)
    • Unholy aka Edge (Demon Hunter, Necromancer)

    Call them what you want, but it is easy enough to get behind the concept I think. They are pretty baseline archetypes for the fantasy genre (picture the classic DnD party: Fighter, Cleric, Mage, Rogue).

    What also matters in Diablo, as it is a loot driven game, are equipment classes. Mainly armor class. Even though personalized loot counteracts the necessity of balance here and armor classes are not *really* a thing in Diablo as a deadset system, the fantasy of it is still going to be respected I think. This is a pretty straightforward scale from light to heavy.

    Lastly, gameplay fantasy. Do you want to hit stuff or cast spells? Be right in the tussle or control from the backline? You'd want to serve options for all options in this admittedly quite simple 2x2 matrix.

    Let's look at an example, the monk: It satisfies the Holy archetype, wears light armor, and is a martial leaning hybrid in close quarter combat.

    Now, what are we still missing in D4?

    We are still completely missing 2 of Diablos most thematically important archetypes, Holy and Unholy.

    From the concept art it seems like we have 1 lightly armored (Sorceress) 1-2 medium armor wearing (Druid surely imo, Barbarian with a question mark) and 0-1 heavily armored class (Barbarian). That would leave us with 1 more heavy armor class and 1 class between medium and light.

    Regarding playstyle we have a pretty balanced mix so far, so I expect 1 melee class and 1 ranged class to still happen. Also one more spellcaster and one more martial leaning class.

    Looking at all the criteria above i just pulled out of my behind and what classes we had in D3 and will have in D:I, here are my predictions:

    The Priest and the Duskknight (names pending™ ).

    The Priest would be a ranged, medium to light armor wearing spellcaster. Possible skill tropes would include prayers with passive and active component, holy spells which smite or even convert foes, zone control via sanctified ground and temporary ascendency.

    The Duskknight would be a melee, heavily armored martial hybrid. Possible skill tropes include crippling curses, temporarily empowering your own weapon attacks with various effects and possibly corpse interaction.

    Swapping the range on these 2 (resulting on something like a Warcleric and Darkspeaker?) is a possibility, but I decided against that, as those would maybe resemble Monk and Necro a bit too much.

    Do you have any thoughts regarding this? Who is on your wishlist?

    submitted by /u/staudd
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    Do we know anything about gems, runewords, charms, etc in Diablo 4?

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 07:44 AM PST

    If not, what would you all like to see for this type of system? I still like the idea of Rune Words, but for a charm-type system I think it should be limited to a small, dedicated inventory space (3x3 slots for example) or simply a cap on the number of charms equipped.

    submitted by /u/HybridPS2
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    Thoughts on latest update.

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 03:15 PM PST

    Just read through the updates and wanted to share my opinion as a D1 - D3 player/PoE player:

    • Items. Overall, I think they are heading in a better direction each update we get. I still find it unnecessary and actually convoluted to rely on crit chance and crit damage as a huge determining factor. Sure, crit chance and damage can be in game (just like that in Diablo 2 and Deadly Strike), but I feel focusing so much on it is unnecessary and uninteresting. It should be A route to go when planning a character, but not THE ONLY route.

    • Large Numbers. This comes up all the time in discussion. Numbers should always be simplified whether it's showing a fraction in your math class or Defense or Weapon Damage in an ARPG. Sure, doing 6 billion damage is "cool" and everything, but it once again convolutes the game unnecessarily. Lvl 1 items should do very low damage (like less than 10) while bis weapons should be a reasonable number, like less than 2,000. Mathematically, it doesn't necessarily matter. But, it does make balancing more challenging since you are dealing with big numbers while also being very unpleasant aesthetically and redundant as well.

    • Percentages. Here's another pet peave I have. For the most part, items should increase abilities or mods by a percent that is a whole number. 2.3% chance for critical strike just seems strange. Why not just use whole number percents and not decimals? It makes balancing and building planning much easier. The decimal place is too much and pretty much negligible in the grand scheme of things. .7 + .2 + .1 between items could, once again, be simplified by not having those decimals in the first place.

    Summary:

    For aesthetic, balance, and theorycrafting, strive to do away with redundant math and overly complex and convoluted systems. Whole numbers are your friend. Big numbers are not your friend. And crit chance and damage shouldn't be on nearly every item. It should be a specialty with a hard cap that can be used for builds but not necessary in every aspect of the game.

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/Evolve_SC2
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    Diablo 4 quarterly update breakdown and thoughts!!

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 06:51 PM PST

    posting for friend!

    Welcome all here at Action RPG he covers all things Action rpg. Reviews, guides, and tips and tricks for many games! We also have a ever growing discord community at https://discord.gg/s6tPRPJ where we help each other and play together with 500+ active members across multiple games. So come join the fun! In this video he is coving the Diablo 4 quarterly updates and breaking it down and giving thoughts on the update. Hope you all enjoy!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTleWgvJy1E

    Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHsSnExLE-YAhIz0-i3aWDw

    submitted by /u/deadlyart-gaming
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    Rings and Amulets should have different Implicites instead of Attack....

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 05:41 PM PST

    I think there should be different kind of rings and amulets that each have theyre own implicites, like lets say a Ruby ring can have fire res..... Those implicites should be instead of the Attack on trinkets....

    submitted by /u/UsernameSucksCocks
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    Point-by-point Respecs please (not full slate wipes)

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 05:22 PM PST

    Best Goblin Farming Route?

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 04:39 PM PST

    Hello, I just recently got back into diablo 3 and I have trouble getting set loot. I was wondering what's the fastest and easiest goblin route? And if theres any other way to make easy set loot please let me know! Thanks!

    submitted by /u/DarkStarThyBarbarian
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    Character Panel: More Details and UI Customization

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 12:52 PM PST

    Hello, Reddit (and potential Blizzard lurkers)! With the new Dev Blog Post I started thinking of the UI visualization of all the stats and bonuses that will be in the game. What I want to see from D4 is a mix between D2 & D3. From D2 I want to be able to tell how much damage my selected skill actually does and from D3 I want the lengthy list of all available bonuses. But I think this could be taken a step further. We should be able to minimize/hide and reorder some of the bonuses or even categories; on top of that I think that a "Favorites" tag is going to be extremely useful if you wish to keep easy track of specific bonuses from various categories.

    Here are some screen shots to refresh your memory:

    D2: https://i.imgur.com/ogHwni9.png

    D3: https://i.imgur.com/3fSjorC.jpg

    My mock-up for D4: https://i.imgur.com/Svrislh.png Here you can see how every skills has damage/cs/duration also listed and those numbers are updated accordingly depending on your items and selected stats.

    What are your thoughts? Personally, I think the current Attack/Defense is way too bland. I see from the screenshot (https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/page_media/F6OF7Z07FR5E1607721493120.jpg) that there's a "Details" button, but I just don't want it to be a boring list like in D3.

    submitted by /u/Doomscream
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    D4 update, Item scaling?

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 05:11 AM PST

    Did I miss something or do the items they showed have the same problem as d3 items? do they scale with character level meaning iLvl <=[max lvl-1] = trash?

    submitted by /u/TheGreenPepper
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    My thoughts about the update.

    Posted: 16 Dec 2020 06:21 AM PST

    So after finishing reading the dev blog and watching Rhykker's video about the topic I'll summarize my thoughts on the subject.

    Disclaimer : I'm casual to hardcore hack and slash gamer from D2 to PoE and most of the games in the genre, but I'm by no means pro gamer. What I'm going to say could be wrong from developing stand point or I'm just might be wrong. Thanks for your time in advance.

    Firstly I want to thank to the dev team about the way they comunicate with the community, this is two way relationships and it's very important to us. Thank you.

    Now about the game : I really like the idea that stats will give us different things for the different classes, but if it's possible make them more distinct, maybe will power won't give the sorcerer healing, but auto rechargeable shield or something like that. This will give us even more immersion to our fantasy character.

    Rhykker spoke about the dumping stats in D2 ( most of the stats points dumped into vitality) and I completely agree with him, but if devs leave skills (ww upgrade for exemple) like that won't be any different - you will unlock the bonus and then dumps everything into life again (or dmg), so I'm suggesting the same but different approach - the key skill upgrades to have different options that could be achieved by rising different stats (on just one skill like in God of War)

    ⏺️WW upgrades gives you( with DEX) 3% ms up to 20%. ( and now my suggestions on the same upgrade)

    ⏺️STR ( stat req) chance to bleed or stun.

    ⏺️ INT (Stat req) regen % resource while spinning

    ⏺️ Willpower - hit chance to lightning strike (or build up shield while spinning)

    Now I have to choose to sacrifice life to build only two axes bleed barb or my spinning bleed buld or thunder clap + bleed barb, etc, etc. It's like d3 runes, but with necessary sacrifice to achieve desired build ( if is possible and balanced from dev pov )

    Other point I want to discuss is defense. Everyone is talking about the power and attack, but what about defenses. I saw thorn on one item, but what about mitigation dmg. Defense should be exciting like damage. Create different defense for different architype - mage, warrior, support, tank etc. ( I know it's bad painful exemple but poe is doing fine in that direction) Nothing to say for now here, because this wasn't mentioned for now.

    About the unique items - I really like idea behind random legendary powers on different items, but please be careful, find a balance between two or three items to be enough for our builds to work or we will end up with legendary in every slot (like in d3), magics and rares will be useless after all...

    And for the love of diversity and breaking the game ( because sometimes that's is needed, how we will find funny builds if we don't break the game) make unique items with exceptions to the affixes - wands have faster speed and crit, but why not Soul Burning wand with life and mana leech instead of crit ( only that unique will have that exception), bow with only elemental dmg, etc.

    Sorry for the long post and excuse me if you don't understand something Pm me I'll change it. I'm not native speaker and I'm trying my best to contribute to the community.

    submitted by /u/r3fl3kT0r
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