I know that Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred has been reasonably well received, despite various issues like notorious bugs, problematic visuals, a new really bad end game boss fight and their typical problem with being able to balance classes and builds. However, certain key pieces that had been added for Lord of Hatred probably exceed those issues where the typically cynical and suspicious ARPG crowd have been in recent years distancing themselves from the brand, company and this particular version. That said, I would argue that some of the well received acceptance also might be part of the newness of these features within the game and that the freshness offers yet another chance because of what is the third iteration of various systems that have been considered less than desirable from the start. So this is another what I hope to be a balanced take on the situation given my experience with this game and the way Blizzard has handled things since launch.
In general, I believe the majority of the player base sees the two main features of War Plans and the Horadric Cube as the biggest improvements in the core game. The modifiers for several areas of content in War Plans certainly improve the mid to end game grind and give people longer term goals. Then the Horadric Cube melds well and extends the base crafting system where items of all rarities and types finally serve a clear purpose as opposed to pure materials that end up not having any impact. Both systems breath much needed life into a game that despite the brand being the forerunner in its class/genre, has severely lagged behind as other games have moved in to its territory.
However, I would argue that these two systems, while lauded in enhancing the core game play, have ideas that can be found elsewhere. I think what makes these systems very good for this genre is the reasonable simplicity in allowing people to utilize it without too much of a learning curve compared to other games that may have more complex sets of like systems. For instance, when you put a point into the activity tree, you should immediately see the consequences of your actions. Likewise, the new currency improves how one can target craft what they really want on top of adding a moderate amount of RNG. In that situation, as long as you have the materials (and the gold to boot), you should get close to receiving an ideal item, which feels very good because it turns your crafting experience into a fun little project. In addition, the mysterious Transfiguration piece can allow for an Uber item if the RNG gods are in your favor.
Nonetheless, my problem is that the continual dependence on RNG as partaking heavily in progression is what hurts crafting more than anything. I still think you should be able to deterministically craft but that the power gains ought to be progressive as you’re continuing to build the item you really want. Dealing with situations like zapping a critical GA affix while you’re attempting to get rid of a similarly categorized modifier is horribly frustrating especially as items are even more randomized than ever. The only difference between this and Tempering (especially prior to the change in deterministic tempering) is that the Cube can be blamed for its mysterious forces as opposed to a moronic, incompetent Blacksmith.
As for the skill revamp, I think that the changes, while better overall, aren’t as well embraced compared to War Plans and the Horadric Cube addition. Mindlessly, placing a single point into a skill, especially when the main skill gets capped feels like a worse version of the old +5 main stat meme from Diablo 3. At this stage, the skill tree in Diablo 4 is more like an enhanced version of Diablo 3’s skills with the Rune system, except that you can increase your skill power as well as enable certain affects as many build defining Aspects (and Uniques I believe) had been moved into the main skill upgrade. The two side choices though are not much better than being asked, “Paper or plastic” at the grocery store (and if you live in CA, then you don’t even get that choice anymore). So in a way, while clearing up the way a build is defined, the skill tree still feels mostly lacking without being able to put extra points into more modifiers for a given skill (which has been my key argument of how one ought to build the skill tree like increasing your fireball size vs how fast you can fire it off).
Because of the massive rearrangement for how skills would work moving forward as well as adding the Horadric Cube for crafting, virtually all items and their systems had been reworked. Keystone passives are gone, Aspects have been rearranged or removed, Uniques now have randomized affixes but allow for Tempering. I think the sheer volume of changes for itemization have created a very disorienting effect. Many people are criticizing the changes to Uniques where I interpret how the whole “we took a glance at all Aspects and Uniques” as the Blizzard developers saying fuck it and just tossing Uniques into the normal item pool to effectively make all items, except Mythics, share affixes. The difference is that Uniques now have a very frustrating item hunt where not only do you need to find the unique, you need to get one that has the ideal affixes, the Ancestral property and GA properties attached too. So this just adds a new layer of unreasonable RNG into the mix that reeks of pure laziness on the developers’ part.
One key mention about the Horadric Cube that deserves a separate paragraph is Transfiguration. Maybe this is by far the most potent ability in the Cube since it can add power to an item. For amulets, you effectively can get a secondary Aspect, which is similar to Sanctification except that only Aspects can be applied here. Getting the right one still is random, but it helps deal with the case where you run out of slots on gear for key aspects. However, one of the neat features is the how you can get multiple Transfiguration rolls. I’m not sure what the limit is but I have seen up to three. Many people attempt to get the Gem Strength one due to the rework of the gem system as well as the power creep from the change. But hitting multiple Transfigurations with key affixes/properties is probably the main end game now for players as the ultimate part of the item hunt that puts the Horadric Cube as main tool in reaching your end game goals.
One small but neat adjustment is the idea of Boss Trophies. At first, I had no idea what these were. But apparently, Boss Trophies convert into the old Boss Summoning material. Instead of summoning bosses (which you now use a generic Lair Key or Greater Lair Key, which I think is better for handling loot), you can use these trophies to better target farm uniques in conjunction with the Cube. In general, I think just doing the highest Torment level boss you can will net you the best uniques. But for early situations or for alts, the Boss Trophy system might be a great way to obtain build defining items without dealing with boss mechanics early on.
Next, let’s talk about the Talisman/Seal/Charm systems. This probably is certainly the area where the most power creep has been added into the expansion. I feel when the Diablo 4 team examined Diablo 3 in trying to make Diablo 3 fit into the Diablo 4 setting, they effectively had inverted the way set armor pieces worked with the Horadric Cube layer. I believe many people who played Diablo 3 in the end disliked the addition of set bonuses mostly because of how limiting but necessary they made gear choices. The inversion then happened for Charms where they brought back the idea of a better itemized version of the Diablo 2 charms system but crossed them with the idea of sets from Diablo 3.
While the developers mentioned that the goal in having the set Charms was to prevent gear conflict with armor, the real point of contention from the weary Diablo crowd was the multipliers added to the gear. While the developers did agree having ridiculous numbers like 10k was something they intended to avoid, the higher end multipliers even at 500% blow the math out of proportion. It’s not uncommon to hear how certain builds are hitting for trillions or more.
Part of the set multipliers I believe was done to force players who have not upgraded to purchase the expansion. Blizzard is horribly notorious for invalidating gear as a way of social engineering to push players to buy their expansions. World of Warcraft historically had a similar problem where end game raiding sets became irrelevant once the new expansion came out. All the work put in to obtain the high end gear would quickly be made irrelevant as plain green gear after a few levels had enough stats to be competitive. In turn, players who do not have the funds or maybe even want to buy the expansions are left to the wolves as they are pretty much removed from any end game activities.
I do think that the set charms themselves can be fun in adding effects to existing skills. Like the companion druid set providing additional companions as well as the bear tanks were quite nifty. And in my latest character of a Dancing Knives Rogue, the leans heavily into the Clone ability where it auto fires your Rain of Arrows and Death Trap, which is pretty cool since you’re getting more effects in the form of a trigger. I believe as long as these abilities compliment various skills and don’t force players into selecting a limited number of skills then they can be effective.
The biggest failures I’m seeing right now though are the questionable Mythic Seals. Besides their rarity, many people are complaining about their ineffectual nature. The one that allows for a full set and another half set most of the time isn’t competitive to a pure unique while the one that supports three uniques and no sets is fairly weak. I think part of the issue is that the ideas here are novel but not exciting. This would be a great end game chase item if it didn’t seem so niche.
Then there’s the increased Torment levels. This is one area I’m really not a fan of and I think most people see it as a cheap cop-out for attempting to do a better job at determining actual difficulty and scaling. I mentioned that other games have handled the idea of real difficulty while allowing player agency. Beyond the insane power spikes, the only real choice in difficulty at this stage (minus War Plans) is determining whether one wants to participate in hardcore or not. Eventually, once solo, self-found makes it’s foray into the game, that would be another level of choice. But I think the game has no idea how to handle difficulty in the form of a slider.
I’ve argued that a game that deals with real difficulty in a better manner is Baldur’s Gate. While their difficulty does partly use enemy hit points as a part of their system, they have other elements such as permanently dead companions, maxed out hit point rolls, etc. that allow a player to still experience the game without enemy mechanics interfering as poorly. Like if you wanted a story mode experience, you could set the game to a low level. Enemies would still pose problems but you wouldn’t be artificially inflating numbers with out of control multipliers. So this is an area that needs a lot of work. War Plans solves a part of the scaling and agency issues but the core problem continues to be multipliers and cosmetic difficulty.
While War Plans does improve the experience of several existing activities, the only real new end game activities are Echoing Hatred and the new pinnacle boss. Echoing Hatred was purported to be a truly rare event. I found out the other day on reddit that Echoing Hatred is a flag and that there’s an item you need to pick up to turn on the flag, which can only be done on the character that discovers this item. While I get that the event should be rare, the most common complaint is that you simply can’t find one. The only thing I can figure here is that the developers made this event so rare, only the most hard core players could experience is so that they could better tune it. If that is the case, it’s a really stupid move that puts it on the level of the Burning Crusade’s Sunwell raid experience. Why bother creating a mode that only the tiniest fraction of your audience can experience?
Then there’s the Mephisto fight. No one I’ve seen on Twitch actually enjoys this fight (except one person whom I said is a masochist). While listening to Mathil1 the other day, he made a comment that I completely agree with where the way it was done was fine for a campaign boss. Meaning, it’s a one and done deal in that implementation. I’ve argued that bosses that are intended to be farmed should not have ridiculous mechanics especially disruptive cut scenes or situations that keep players waiting between phases. You want players to get in and out. This clearly was a massive L from the vast majority of the player base. Even those that can do this boss, I think dislike it because it’s made by someone who probably handles Raid encounters for WoW rather than someone who understands what an ARPG gamer wants in a boss fight.
From there, I want to address the fishing mini game. It’s a simple thing to talk about since there’s no challenge in it whatsoever. Besides the initial time I did this for the campaign, I completely forgot about it. I’m sure there’s a purpose somewhere but I don’t see any incentive for doing this activity beyond some seasonal challenge. Even then I couldn’t care less.
Next, let’s talk about some changes to some of the end game systems. I think the biggest improvement has been the updates to the Pit. Once you unlock a few key nodes on the Pit’s tree, the Pit becomes a lot smoother as a way to level up Glyphs. Even before then, the layout updates and the fact that you’re not trapped in a shitty arena where you cooldowns might’ve gotten reset (or upset) is a far better situation. I don’t mind that monsters continue to attack you during the boss fight either because in a few instances, that probably helps the scenario. Maybe the only current issue is that once the boss goes down, straggler monsters continue to plague you. I don’t know why that is outside of an oversight. It’s more annoying at this stage than a deal breaker. I do really like how the Butcher can randomly appear and be the end of the run.
Helltides received a nice upgrade because of the War Plans. Chaos Waves, bosses, etc. are huge boost to me. I think more nodes can be added here to make Helltides more dynamic. Dungeons still need more work. The goblin thing is very rare from what I’ve heard. But I think that dungeons still require more dynamics. The mods are available in some form but the player should have more agency in choosing them. Inferno Hordes don’t feel great. I do think that certain aspects were fixed like the Masses being problematic but my primary complaint is that Spires and Aether Fiends take too long for low reward. The issue of frequently repeating Spires seems to be back and these events are plain boring (because you just spin around waiting for things to spawn or assault you). Boss lair encounters are okay. The Nemesis portal is a cool thing hampered by a recent “fix” that added a nonsensical 30 second timer that cancels the portal (which was done as a hotfix to prevent some people from hacking it) And though you can spec things to occur outside of the Boss Lair, the Boss Lair itself should receive more effects and things to make the encounter itself more interesting beyond the Nemesis modifier. I did try the Headrot currency but think it should be found on the ground rather than stored as a seed in your inventory. Finally, the Undercity portion lacks depth to me. I’ve tried the portals piece but they’re very lackluster.
Beyond these things, there are hidden things in the game like the cow level, a hidden Pit boss, multiple transfigurations with a variety of potential and the discovery of Mythic Charms. Right now, it’s unknown what additional hidden things may pop up but if there’s one thing about Blizzard it’s that they do like surprises. Even so most people who have uncovered these easter eggs know there’s nothing great with them (except Transfiguration). Mythic Charms might have more impact if they didn’t conflict against a BiS type of Unique Charm but I think the potential for their future usage is there.
In general though, my belief is that these changes aren’t so much of a “knock it out of the park” win but more of a keeping the game relevant and finally off life support. I cannot emphasize enough how legacy systems still lag the game while new issues with visual and user experience prevent the game from deserved scorn. The nerf to the Paladin with the official launch along with the visual mess known as the Warlock make what ought to have been the stars of the show turn into supporting cast members. I do think that the changes to the core systems were a necessity for the game to move forward. However, beyond the suggested changes like more upgrade side nodes, there’s enough of a usable base to work from rather than restructure for the umpteenth time.
The current season 13 to me seems more like an open beta test than a finished product. There really is no season mechanic beyond the expansion itself, which is fine because the developers need to determine what the newest pain points are. I have a feeling that it will take at least two seasons before most of these core problems are solved. But I think that the skill trees, itemization and crafting problems are mostly resolved. So they probably won’t have to do much more work on those issues.
I do think that the next season needs to be very strong so that players won’t feel burnt out after this one. Besides whatever mechanic they decide to introduce, the developers need to continue building upon this new foundation. I hope that the older legacy systems like World Bosses, Legions and Strongholds receive a closer look at to incorporate into War Plans with their own activity trees. Likewise, I would like to see older seasons eventually return as additional content for Whispers or nodes on the activity trees. Just those elements alone ought to provide a major boost to content without the game feeling like it’s just rehashing stuff. While it would be returning older content, it’s still decent content that provides more things to do with their own set of rewards.
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