Since I’ve been playing Diablo 3 far more than World of Warcraft lately, the breaking news of Diablo 3 caught my attention. I’ve read a few reactions online, but I want to take a moment to offer some suggestions based on my experience in Diablo 3.
The current progression in patches for Diablo 3 seem like the right move. Nerfing Inferno, introducing Paragon levels and monster power I think have made the game worth playing. Of course, PVP is still up in the air and many are anticipating that patch down the line.
That all said, I’m very curious about how Diablo 3’s first expansion will be treated. How will it integrate into the current game? What will happen to people who have worked long and hard, maximizing gear and hitting level 10 Paragon? What will happen to people who never made it beyond normal mode yet want to give the expansion a try?
My whole thought process is that Blizzard needs to immediately examine its past mistakes and realize that the first priority should always be not just making a fun game, but, more importantly, not pissing off its customer base. This is such a critical idea because of how World of Warcraft and Diablo 2 have devolved into these farming games and have ultimately turned a lot of players off. With that in mind, how can Blizzard avoid inevitably angering its player base?
I think that Blizzard needs to look at how Burning Crusade fucked over a lot of raiders when green gear far exceeded epics that took people months of earning. I have a sneaky feeling that Blizzard can be real assholes in this regard, essentially making the hard labor of people meaningless almost instantly. As a result, it’s important that they value the current progression of players in the game in taking into consideration how the expansion should work.
I feel that the expansion should add more levels. Of course, the question becomes how will that inter-operate with Paragon levels? Or how will it work with those who barely finished normal mode but stopped on nightmare?
I think what should happen is that there probably should be around 10-20 more levels introduced in the game as the cap before going back to Paragon leveling at Inferno. Perhaps for every 5 Paragon levels, someone will gain an additional level after 60 until a cap of say 80 is reached. But the expansion should start from level 30 on normal mode. After that, nightmare will begin around 60, hell at 70 and inferno at 80.
I would make sure that the expansion between 30-60 is tuned such that leveling can occur fast if there isn’t a great deal of content (I’m thinking of Diablo 2 where we only got to see just one last act). At the same time, a toon going through normal mode shouldn’t be overwhelmed while those who have been in nightmare and hell can blast through the early phase until they reach the expansion’s version of nightmare
Where would that leave people who made it to Inferno and even hit the upper part of Paragon? First, I don’t think they should be forced to start at normal despite not finishing the first difficulty. I think they should be given an option if they meet a level criteria to skip into the next content zone and start from that point. That way they aren’t simply bored rushing through 3 parts of the same content over and over.
Next comes gear. This is a pretty sensitive issue, perhaps even more sensitive than leveling since real money probably is involved. I think devaluing the power of gear the way that World of Warcraft has done is a horrible idea. Those who have spent countless hours either farming or buying gear should be continuously rewarded for their effort. In this manner, I would suggest that the gear should last people up until Inferno at the very least. If not at least be given some boost in power so it scales for a bit into Inferno.
Of course, many people would also like to find items that can replace high level gear. That’s fine but I really don’t want to see a blues that exceed high end legendaries and set pieces for a while. That would imply that the hit points and damage done by mobs would have to be lower so that people who are well geared in Inferno can still make use of their items. You definitely don’t want a repeat of the entry point of Diablo 3 where Inferno was impossible except for the most hardcore players and cause the rest of the population to drop off after a week or two of futility.
Something else we’ll see are probably more mechanics for elites and champion packs. I heard that some of the problems initially were vortex + fire chains which would annoy the hell out of players along with the impossibility of kiting elites and champions on melee classes (btw whoever made that initial decision hopefully lost their job).
Content-wise, I hope we do not see the same bosses from Diablo 2’s extension. That won’t be fun. I think it was nice to have an ultimate enemy outside of Diablo himself. But it would be good to have multiple bosses and acts. I felt that Diablo 3 was underplayed with the last act being far too short and underwhelming.
What about new classes? I suppose that partly will impinge upon how PVP comes along (if it ever does). We saw the assassin and druid make their way into the D2 expansion, but then we lost other classes like the necromancer and paladin. Also, what will this mean for talents? Certainly, in an expansion you want to provide more abilities as characters level up. If not that then some other mechanism that allows one to boost their character. Honestly, I haven’t given much thought at this point in adding features for high level characters outside of providing more talents (and more spaces on the hotbar).
Regardless, I don’t know what type of classes should be added. I do feel that everything is pretty much covered at this point. It feels as though Diablo 3 had taken the WoW classes and integrated them together a bit (e.g. hunters being rogues + hunters, witch doctors as shamans + warlocks, monks being druids + paladins) So what can be left?
It really depends on the game play and the visual effects that can add, imo, that will make adding more classes worth the effort. One thing they could do is put more emphasis on a healer type of role. Unfortunately, I would hate to see Diablo 3 turn into a World of Warcraft in that regard. I’ve always felt that dedicated healer classes were probably one of the worst decisions a game could implement. Yes, you need healing in general, but I dislike the idea of depending on a sole class/role. This is a major issue in WoW at the moment, especially with group oriented situations.
In WoW, I think the issue has been attitude firstly. Too many healers who have huge egos or some personality problem because they know the importance of their role with regards to the entire group. Next, I hate the idea of emphasizing a role where the entire time someone is just waiting to react to cast a spell. I did hear that they improved the model for healing in WoW, but I still think it’s far from perfect.
I’m more of a fan of the archmage role from Bard’s Tale or the Bishop in Wizardry 6-7. In those situations, you had a class that could do decent damage and heal. However, they were relegated to either role and knew how to react at the right moment for the party. I guess Barbarian and Monk have something like that but it just feels odd. Either way, it is a non-existent role at the moment.
Beyond that I can’t think of any really solid class that isn’t somewhat covered. You can’t add utility classes to a game like this because they would get slaughtered. Of course, you could try reviving classic classes such as paladins, necromancers, druids, assassins, etc. But I can’t really see them adding much to the game, except maybe the necromancer. But I see the necromancer as just a wizard and witch doctor type with their summoning capabilities.
At any rate, I’m looking forward to seeing what the expansion brings us. Hopefully, they’ve learned a lot from the early failure of the design and make it so that progress is fun rather than a pointless grind tied to their piss poor accounting practices.
Also, let’s all pray that the lawyers and accountants have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE GAME THIS TIME.