Hotfix 6/28 -- Item drop rate changes

[Archon_Wing]

So , Blizzard knowing best?

Blizz knowing what is best is laughable

Don't put words into my mouth that I didn't use.

I recommend you do the same, since quoting 5% of our combined posts and writing a long text wall that still doesn't address the other 95% isn't exactly very preferred either. And you still don't know what half of us are talking about.

My point was not to say you think Blizzard knows best. I wasn't even talking about you.My point is that I feel that I feel they have no idea what the hell they're doing, and these changes aren't very effective at addressing problems, and thus I shouldn't accept this kind of strategy.

There's a difference between saying that the game needs some changes and making some positive suggestions for changes that you would like to see and griping incessantly about every aspect of a game that for some reason you keep playing and about the company that makes it. Blizzard said several things up front that they haven't deviated from. First, normal-hell was balanced and designed to be done pretty straight-forwardly. If you liked the ease of D2, well, D3 hell is more difficult than D2 but you can progress at a nice steady pace up to the end of hell. Done. The game is well balanced and satisfying up through the end of hell. However, Inferno is designed for those who said D2's difficulty was a complete and utter joke. It's designed to be hard, and guess what? We got our wish. It's hard. It is designed to be a grindy slogfest where you are expected to farm in Act III/IV hell for a while to be able to do well in Inferno Act I and then farm in Inferno Act I to be able to progress into Inferno Act II, etc. This was stated up front.

I've stated before that this intention is just deeply flawed. Sure, they can say the game ends in hell, but who buys that in a loot based game where completeing hell only getes you subpar loot? Your only source of comparison and peer trading will be based on prices in inferno. The multiplayer, online nature of the game makes the whole thing a dream and a delusion. Also, intention doesn't justify anything that brings up crappy design.

And even if I judge the game ending at hell, well that was underwhelming. With the lack of customization, this game cannot have the same replayability.

We've seen it in the last game. People care a ton about endgame. Drawing an arbitrary line doesn't help. It was done well in d2 with the addition of Uber Tristram-- for those seeking a greater challenge, but you didn't need to enter it to get 95% of the godliest loot in the game.

Furthermore, criticism is criticism, as long as you explain why and what was done wrong. Sure, I may be saying it in a meaner tone, but I really don't think anyone over there is going to be offended because some people on the internet said some mean things about them. So I think they can stand up for themselves.

However, Blizzard also said up front that they didn't playtest Inferno as thoroughly as they did normal-hell. This was a frank and open admission. We had the phrase that everyone likes to quote where their playtesters got Inferno mobs to the health and damage outputs to where they were comfortable and then they "doubled it." Well, yeah, that was a mistake that they recently rectified.

Sorry, you don't get credit for admitting you didn't do your job. In fact, that just makes it come across as silly in my part. However, trying to rectify the issue actually is a good thing on their part? Yes it is. See, I acknowledge them! It's why I haven't uninstalled yet.

They also didn't catch all of the possible treasure exploits and skill/gear combination exploits before release. Perhaps asking them to have caught beforehand all possible combinations that millions of players would later find is asking too much. However, they've done a lot in this area like nerfing Force Armor and knocking down the proc rates on certain skills that really had to be done. Also, their lack of foresight on how powerful stacked IAS would become not only as a dps mechanism but as a resource generator was regrettable. It was better that they fixed it early, though, than to keep stringing people along and then applying the necessary nerf later.

Finally, Blizzard said from the beginning that they wanted the best loot to drop as a result of killing elite packs and bosses. All of their efforts to increase drops off elite packs and bosses while nerfing magic find and drop rates off chests and breakables is related to this philosophy. I hope at some point they'll remove the treasure goblin spawn points that appear near set waypoints as well. Blizzard actually wants players to go out into the world and kill things in order to get the best treasure. Go figure.

Goblin spawn points is a issue that can be addressed. The IAS issue well, they could have just left it in and made inferno harder than it is now. It's these wide sweeping changes that just make the playing experience jarring. And sure, it's lame to not go out in the world, but honestly, I feel that people should be free to do whatever they consider fun, instead of judged as exploiting (aside, from actual cheating)

However, I have to say that this change in drop rates concerns me as it seems rather out of the blue. It seems like Blizzard is caving in to the "let's make it easy like D2" crowd. I'm especially worried about their comments about the legendary items they are making that they claim will live up to their legendary name. If they end up being too legendary, then the game will shift away from people trying to get good rares to the "legendary or bust" mentality of D2. Plus, if Blizzard doesn't increase the game's difficulty to compensate for these items, the game will get to be so easy that it'll just be silly.

I'm sure that crowd contains a lot of skilled players, but let's not forget the game was "easy" because a large number of people hacked and cheated in d2, or benefited from others that cheated and helped them. And now, it's backfiring on them, I guess.