Blizzard announced yesterday the new expansion for their Diablo 3 series, calling it Reapear of Souls. A new page has been setup for the expansion, including a full trailer and game play. The game is currently set for an unspecific date in 2014 and will include as part of the major content a new act, new class (the Crusader), the enchanter crafter and a new end game that people have wanted in randomized maps.
Some of the other aspects that are in the works that was announced parallel to this notification was the implementation of a new loot system, currently being called Loot 2.0. The new loot system will attempt to address the concerns of Diablo 3 players in attempting to move away from the dependency of the Auction House for obtaining the best gear and placing it into gear that is more tailored towards the class being played. Another aspect is cutting down on trash drops and attempting to make them more meaningful. White and blue drops will continue to exist but be reduced; however, one aspect that will make them useful as according to the development team is using them as crafting materials. The details for how crafting with these materials have not been specified as of yet.
On the other hand, the development team did mention that part of the new loot based system and crafting will work with the enchanter. The idea of the enchanter is that an affix for a piece of gear can be rerolled to make the item more in line with the ideal piece of gear that a person wants. They said that only one affix can be rerolled so it might be something like intelligence to dexterity or perhaps poison resistance to all resistance. How this is done I’m not certain but I assume that the items you pick up will be involved somehow in this process.
Something that was shown as part of the demo was how the gear is more account bound. I’m assuming that gear that has been enhanced through the enchanter will end up becoming account bound. I’m not sure if discovered gear that is tailored for you class will also be account bound. So this is something that needs to be clarified down the road.
Another major revamp as part of the Loot 2.0 system is the rethinking of legendaries. One of the major points was increasing the frequency of legendary drop rates. They did a side-by-side comparison where they showed the overall loot drops in the current state vs Loot 2.0. The result was something like 5:1 (Loot 2.0:current). But more importantly, the types of legendaries will have more meaning overall so that there’s an incentive to use them. They cited as an example a weapon which has a proc to summon a goblin who can find more items. In the current system, one of the main issues is that the gear for each class at the highest level ends up being more or less the same. The vast majority of legendaries that drop currently end up becoming brimstones so this change will attempt to address this issue.
Taking a queue from Blizzard’s own World of Warcraft situation, Diablo 3 will introduce through the enchanter the notion of transmogging. The idea here is to create more customized appearances for your characters rather than having everyone resembling each other. I’m assuming that as part of this situation it will increase the desirability to find various items so that the things that drop no longer will remain 99% trash.
Another major feature that may take place prior to the release of the expansion is the change of the Paragon leveling system. Paragon levels now will be account wide with no limit. Instead, people can level any number of toons indefinitely. The benefits of Paragon levels will change as you will receive a point per Paragon level to be able to distribute to other stats. They didn’t really mention which stats would be affected but it sounds like this can be anything from core stats like Vitality to things such as movement. Certainly, they might put some restrictions but again this is another aspect that needs to be clarified.
Of course, if we go to the main thing people are clamoring about (beyond just the trailer visuals) is the Crusader class. Essentially, the Crusader class is nothing more than a Paladin/holy warrior type. It looks as if they will employ a shield so the class might be an attempt to make shields meaningful as a drop. Apparently, this class will be another strength class, thus complimenting the barbarian. Kripparian compared this class to a monk but it’s hard to say at this point if, indeed, this class will be just a strength attribute version of the monk.
Lastly, there’s the new end game map system. While there will be new foes and a new act, the real meat of the game will be for players who manage to bypass the last act and are looking for new content to tackle. The result is a randomized map system. They described this randomized map system to contain a boss type of figure towards the end. Not sure if that’s the only goal being set along with getting loot from these maps. But that seems to be one of the major features that supposedly will entice players to continue playing after beating the main bosses.
So what are my impressions and thoughts? Kripparian has a video where he mentions how the trailer possibly is going to be better than the game. With Blizzard’s games these days, that seems to be quite common and is essentially marketing 101. I know a lot of people went batshit over the trailer, but more veteran eyes looked at the trailer with a great deal of skepticism. In my case, I might have to agree with Kripparian here as I already had spotted several major flaws that might influence my decision to purchase the game.
First, the biggest flaw by far is that it seems they’re permitting people to level up beyond 60 where the new level cap will be 70. Honestly, with the new Paragon leveling system, why bother having 70 meaningless levels? It really seems redundant having two leveling systems residing parallel to each. Certainly, the 60-70 stretch is to allow players to get new skills/talents. But why not somehow just flatten the whole thing out using the Paragon leveling system instead?
But that’s not the main concern. The real concern for me was how you could see in one of the images an item requiring level 70 and above. I talked previously in another blog how Blizzard had screwed themselves into a hole by creating the Real Money Auction House. But this little subtle piece essentially states that your gear is absolutely worthless right now. In short, if you ever paid for gear or spent hours earning gold to get the best gear for your toon, it’s all worthless.
When Kripparian spotted that, the first thing he advised current players is to unload all their current gear. And he’s absolutely right. More than that though, this is a big fuck you to everyone currently playing. This is part of the diseased mentality inside of Blizzard where gear progression outweighs character progression. Sure, the new Paragon system will allow people to level in an unlimited manner but the design is pretty shitty. You get one meaningless point. That’s it. That little crappy point barely will put a dent in any mob and you’ll be still tied to a grindy gear progression because it’ll be the gear that allows you to conquer more things.
Honestly, they totally fucked up right here. I wonder how people will realize just how screwed they are at this moment if they had continued playing Diablo 3. Sure the bells and whistles on the packaging look cool, but you have to read between the lines to see where all this is leading. There might be an intent to make the gear progression more meaningful, but what happens to the people that spent the $250+ just to get a reasonable upgrade? Shouldn’t there be a way so that the investment they made in their gear be worth something at the end of the day rather than being turned into worthless shit. You would have thought that Blizzard should have learned in the Burning Crusade that you can’t simply invalidate the months of work and effort people put into obtaining their gear and whatnot. But that’s what’s going on. It’s a horrible violation of trust.
Quite frankly, I’m pretty disgusted right now. The trailer did entice me for a moment but in writing this blog I see that it might be better just avoiding this game altogether to protest just what a corrupt idea it is. The game was already dying pretty badly as a lot of major streamers and youtubers pretty much gave up and moved onto other games. But this little move has far more implications.
Of course, people will still play it once it comes out because that’s what gamers do. However, I think people should protest by not buying it unless they fix this core issue. It’s not just a minor flaw either; it’s a glaring, festering wound that Blizzard needs to mend because it’s going to ricochet throughout the gaming community once people realize just how bad it is.