Diablo 3 - Reaper of Souls - new expansion

[IndiraLightfoot]

Diablo 3 expansion teaser



This video was recently posted in Random Game News by Malcador, and I thought it's something worthy of its own thread.

 

I may add this cinematic video:

 

And this by MrBrown: Some info on diablo's expansion: http://us.battle.net...opic/9678948971

 

Whatever people think about Blizzard and Diablo3, this expansion will leave us with a lot to discuss, hopefully.

I for one played Diablo 3 for hundred of hours and levelled up three toons (that hated WoW-word) to 60 and killed Diablo at Inferno level. My biggest gripes were the too cartoonish style, the lame story, the infernal loot drops, the constant patch changes, the AH house (although you can make sweet money off of it, just like Steam Cards, just a lot more) and no fun End Game. Still, seen as a fast arcade, it was sure entertaining and addictive enough.

 

What are your hopes and fears for this expansion, if any?

 

I wonder:

-Will they clean out the whole AH?

-Level 70 will make most stuff worthless, no?

-Will Paragon levels on all toons add up and be saved when upgrading?

-Will there me more new classes besides the new Crusader?
 

Edited August 21, 2013 by IndiraLightfoot

[Cultist]

No necromancer=not interested

[MrBrown]

They actually have stuff on the official page now too:

 

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/reaper-of-souls/

 

Also, "coming 2014".

 

I will play it, but by how much will depend on what it'll end up as. We'll see.

[Chilloutman]

Include LAN support and forget always online requirement and I will start be mildly interested....

[anubite]

Blizzard, did you really make Diablo 2?

 

Raising the level cap by 10 means everyone who has invested any time in D3 so far is an idiot - all of their gear will now be completely and utterly worthless.

 

You can't pull this kind of crap in an ARPG. It's fine to drip feed gear in WoW, but ARPGs aren't WoW.

 

An expansion like this should be anti-hype for anyone really interested in playing D3. It will make some money and bring people back, but it will really hurt any "core" people left. Who will want to stick around and play D3 when that next expansion invalidates all your gear again? Gear that takes potentially months to acquire and is entirely luck-based to find.

 

This is just a shameless attempt to make the RMAH relevant again.

Edited August 21, 2013 by anubite

[IndiraLightfoot]

No necromancer=not interested

That is very disconcerting, indeed, as I absolutely adore necromancy in all kinds of RPGs, even in this so-called action RPG.

 

 

Include LAN support and forget always online requirement and I will start be mildly interested....

True, if only this had been in from the start. I guess it's all about the money...

 

 

 

Raising the level cap by 10 means everyone who has invested any time in D3 so far is an idiot - all of their gear will now be completely and utterly worthless.

 

You can't pull this kind of crap in an ARPG. It's fine to drip feed gear in WoW, but ARPGs aren't WoW.

 

An expansion like this should be anti-hype for anyone really interested in playing D3. It will make some money and bring people back, but it will really hurt any "core" people left. Who will want to stick around and play D3 when that next expansion invalidates all your gear again? Gear that takes potentially months to acquire and is entirely luck-based to find.

 

This is just a shameless attempt to make the RMAH relevant again.

Yes, that will be a very hard blow to many core players. And they clearly want the AH spinning its wheels for a new cash cascade.

Perhaps you could save the present loot and have it locked to D3 vanilla, and then keep a copy of it all on your toons too in some expansion mode, I dunno. Stupid suggestion, prolly.

[Gfted1]

Why would anyone want to stay static? Raising the level cap provides new abilities and the current cap is still a treadmill of acquiring better gear.

[anubite]

Why would anyone want to stay static? Raising the level cap provides new abilities and the current cap is still a treadmill of acquiring better gear.

You don't need to raise the level cap to provide new abilities.

 

The point is D2 was built from 1-100 from the get-go. D3 was designed to appeal to a different audience, so it goes 1-60. They never should have done this, as much of the game's structure results from this critical flaw. A big appeal for D2 was reaching level 100 on hardcore. It's why "paragon levels" were added to D3, to try and give hardcore players "something to do". The jump from 99-100 in D2 is hours and hours of work, it's not a trivial accomplishment, especially on hardcore.

 

ARPGs are very competitive, in a sense. Players spend a lot of time grinding in hardcore (a risky thing to do) with the aim to "be the best". When "being the best" is supplanted by "who spends the most money" we have a problem, when you do become the best, but an expansion back invalidates all those items you spend months acquiring - you feel burnt out, devastated, and cheated.

 

The creators of Path of Exile, for instance, have always said they will never raise the level cap. They were rather disappointed when their design sort of failed and a player achieved level 100 in 74 days from launch - their intended target was much closer to 365 days. Their goal was to make reaching level 100 extremely ridiculous. For most players who try PoE, they will never reach level 100. The reason for this is prestige, but also to balance item drops by ilevel.

 

ARPGs, or at least, Dlablo likes, are not static. They are item driven, not character driven. Raising the level cap raises the item level cap. Raising the item level cap means base 'lows' are raised. When this happens, the average newb now has better items than you, you who were at the top. That's the main issue. If item ilevel isn't changing (being capped at 63 for Diablo 3), then raising the level cap isn't that big of a deal, but we all know the level cap will go up for items.

 

Path of Exile promises not to do this because they are indie; they know they will lose customer support if customers realize their items could become worthless six months from now. Blizzard doesn't seem to care.

 

It's fine to introduce new items into an ARPG, but they need to be balanced against the 'best of the best' potential drops. A good ARPG is never static, because the best items are always possible, but just barely out of reach at times. For instance, in Path of Exile, there's a unique (legendary) that increases unarmed damage by 800-1000%. Obviously, the best you can get is +1000%, but only 1/200 of those legendary gloves will actually be 'the best'. The rest will just be 'okay' 'usable' or 'good'. Itemization like this works well in an ARPG, where players drive item bartering and trade - an item which gets the perfect rolls with the perfect stat selection is extremely valuable. Once base rolls rise though, that item basically become junk, you can't even sell it to a noob. This is pretty much equivalent to having your items (or wealth) "stolen" from you.

Edited August 21, 2013 by anubite

[Gfted1]

Im just the opposite. Without a carrot I soon get bored of having the best stuff and where playing on Insanity with MP8 activated isn't much of a challenge (sure, I could go up to MP10). I understand that players who used real money may feel like they wasted their money but everyone, n00b and elite, all have the same chances (excluding paragon bonuses) for good gear to drop. Feeling like you should always be at the top because you were at one point at the top doesn't make sense to me. My Demon Hunter is level 85 paragon and does 503k dps and I cant wait to get my hands on better stuff.

[Azure79]

Is the story going to be that it was

Diablo's plan the entire time to be defeated by the Nephalem and get his essence in the black soul stone so he could corrupt the Angel of Death?

Not that the story was ever the main selling point of the series but it got a little ridiculous in D3. 

[Lysen]

Can't say I am very excited. I was, back in 2008, but not anymore. Diablo 3 was a big disappointment.

 

 

I for one played Diablo 3 for hundred of hours and levelled up three toons (that hated WoW-word) to 60 and killed Diablo at Inferno level. My biggest gripes were the too cartoonish style, the lame story, the infernal loot drops, the constant patch changes, the AH house (although you can make sweet money off of it, just like Steam Cards, just a lot more) and no fun End Game. Still, seen as a fast arcade, it was sure entertaining and addictive enough.

 

Also, no offline mode.

 

I was hoping that they'll bring Ama back or do something original, but Blizz decided to go with Paladin (the safest route because Paladin was the most popular class - or so I've heard).

[LadyCrimson]

I saw a TV ad for D3 on console. "Enjoy it on your TV" or some tag line like that, with costume dressed people on the couch as a guy gets home from work. Made me roll my eyes.

 

I had a fair bit of fun trying D3 out ... I complained a lot, but I still had some fun. Did like that Monk. But I haven't played in months - originally thought I might try it again once expansion came out, but the longer I'm away from it, the less I think I will. Nothing stands out to tempt me back, yet, and BL2 works well enough for the actiony loot and leveling fest, plus that has LAN.

 

Still, it'll be interesting to see what some friends think when it comes out. Most of them don't play anymore either, but I'm sure they'll try the expansion and I'll get an earful.

[Lexx]

Watched the teaser / trailer thingy, but I feel no interest for this. No idea if it will change again some day, but right now... Won't need this.

[licketysplit]

Meh. Give me Divinity: original sin. Blizzard's writing is so silly I can't help but laugh at all the DARK EVUL COMING TO SWALLOW TEH EARTH

[Darkpriest]

Meh, they ruined the game design, so unless they will revamp the game from being a hard gear check, to more player skill, and character + skill build dependent, then I am not really interested.

 

The core design is so flawed. I still cannot understand, why they walked away from the D2 successful formula? Just to make sure that people will be more item dependent, thus forcing them to use AH?

 

Max leveled character from d2 with basic act 1 normal gear, could have easily went through the whole game, up to nightmare's late acts, in d3 the max leveled character has serious problems with finishing act 1 on normal with the basic gear, which is kind of stupid...

[IndiraLightfoot]

Hmm, how will this Act V work? Will it only open up after Inferno Act I-IV? Or is it there on each difficulty level, like I-V times 4?

 

I do like that there will be less junk drops and hopefully a bit more smart drops that fit the character you are playing.

[cyberarmy]

Hmm, how will this Act V work? Will it only open up after Inferno Act I-IV? Or is it there on each difficulty level, like I-V times 4?

 

I do like that there will be less junk drops and hopefully a bit more smart drops that fit the character you are playing.

 

 

It'll probably be like D2, each difficulty level having its own Act 5.

 

 

I'm still not interested anymore D3 news, while it seems like they are fixing some core mechanics game need more than that.

A proper league or ladder system for starters and timed events with fresh characters.

Also they should have added 2 new PCs not only 1...

[IndiraLightfoot]

I've got a feeling there may be another one hidden away in a closet for a big reveal later.

If you look at your account screen, you can see they have already left enough room on the UI to add 1 act and 2 characters, so I still have hope something might be revealed at BlizzCon.

 

Also, here's a recent quote from one of the Blizz devs - Grimiku:

"One of the ideas driving Loot 2.0 is that players should not feel that they need to use the Auction House. We don't mind if players use it, but targeted drops, reduced trash items, better stat ranges, new Legendary effects, and the Mystic should help players feel empowered by the item hunt, and not forced to use the Auction House."

 

If this is correct, it is a first step forward, as it would improve the game quite a bit.
 

Edited August 22, 2013 by IndiraLightfoot

[IndiraLightfoot]

_{Another snippet of information:}

_{No character will have paragon levels anymore, it will be the account, and you get points based on how much experience your account has accumulated (from all the chars) confirmed by lyra on twitter.}

 

_{And yet another:}

 

 

_{Many of these features will come for free in a patch before the expansion:}

 

• _{"We want to implement a lot of the new systems and features in a pre-expansion patch for free. That should include Paragon 2.0, Loot 2.0, Loot Runs, and Nephalem Trials. For now, you'll need to purchase the expansion to play as the Crusader, explore Act V, unlock the Mystic, and level up to 70. These details may change as development moves along, but we want some of the core gameplay improvements to be available for everyone."}

Edited August 22, 2013 by IndiraLightfoot

[kirottu]

Also, here's a recent quote from one of the Blizz devs - Grimiku:

"One of the ideas driving Loot 2.0 is that players should not feel that they need to use the Auction House. We don't mind if players use it, but targeted drops, reduced trash items, better stat ranges, new Legendary effects, and the Mystic should help players feel empowered by the item hunt, and not forced to use the Auction House."

 

If this is correct, it is a first step forward, as it would improve the game quite a bit.

 

Playing hardcore character was being totally dependent on AH. It really wasn't fun. 

[Maria Caliban]

Diablo 3 bored me.

 

This is something you can only do once before I just ignore your game.

[ShadySands]

Diablo 3 bored me.

 

Ditto

 

Didn't care much for 1 or 2 either or grindy loot em ups in general but I did love me some Titan Quest, so go figure.

 

D3 was my least favorite of the bunch though, felt like a bad single player MMO 

[Blarghagh]

Well, it entertained the hell out of me and my co-op friends so I'm definitely getting this.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

I'll be getting the Collectors Edition of the expansion. Have been a fan of Diablo since the original came out.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

 

 

Playing hardcore character was being totally dependent on AH. It really wasn't fun. 

 

 

Seriously? I've never used the AH to buy anything for my characters and can do up to MP5/MP6 in SC, MP1 in HC. Every character, all ten of them (7 SC, 3 HC) have been geared with items that have been drops. I have to wonder about players who can't play the game without the AH.

Edited August 22, 2013 by Hiro Protagonist II