It occured to me just today that what v1.10 in essence is trying to do, is to return D2 to the gaming climate it had back in the "golden age", Pre-LoD that is. The increased difficulty, the severely decreased experience gains and monster levels, the elimination of boss farming for items, rares being back on top as the most potentially powerful item type, gambling being relevant once more - All these are changes meant to bring D2 back to it's core. I guess Blizzard finally realized that things were better before, as anyone who has been with D2 since day one realized a week after LoD was released.
Yet there is one huge thing missing, the one thing that more than anything else shaped the climate of Pre-LoD PvM Multiplayer - The penalties of partying. Back when being in a 8 player party meant 1/8 of the Experience, people as a rule did not play in parties except for when questing, unless they had a good reason, such as being able to form very efficient small parties, or playing with friends.
This was, in my opinion, a very good thing, and the sole cause of many of the things I liked about D2C. It caused a very fierce competition between the good experience areas in Hell. Hostiling people to scare them away from your "territory" was a common practice. It was King of the Hill all the way. This more than anything made sure that weak characters - either by skill or equipment, never survived for long in Hell, as it should be of course. It made gaining experience tougher, since the competition was so tough, and thus made a high level more of an achievement. It also forced people to be able to take care of themselves. PvP players had to make sure they could still do PvM, unlike some current PvP builds that at lvl 20 can PK a Lvl 80 PvM'er, but at the same time cannot handle a pack of Quill Rats. It forced people to play themselves, rather than being rushed through the game and then leeching in the corner of a Cow level game till they hit lvl 99 and still are as clueless as ever.
Yes it was a very harsh climate, yes it was unforgiving, yes it did force newbies to either learn to play or perish quickly, but it's exactly the lack of these things that have made D2, hopefully just until now, the completely unchallenging and uninteresting bore that it is, and these are the exact things needed to breathe new life into the game.
And it wouldn't completely destroy party play. people would still always prefer to party up when they're questing, people would still always party up with their friends, no matter if they lost some experience because of it, and LoD and this new patch have brought up so many more interesting and efficient party combinations than there were Pre-LoD, that well-balanced leveling parties would not only be more common, but also larger.
I know this most likely will not happen, there would be too much of an uproar from the lazy newbies who prefer to not have to do anything themselves and really would be as helpless as infants if they suddenly were to be stripped of their precious no-brainer-leecher-accepting parties, but one can always dream, eh?
Yet there is one huge thing missing, the one thing that more than anything else shaped the climate of Pre-LoD PvM Multiplayer - The penalties of partying. Back when being in a 8 player party meant 1/8 of the Experience, people as a rule did not play in parties except for when questing, unless they had a good reason, such as being able to form very efficient small parties, or playing with friends.
This was, in my opinion, a very good thing, and the sole cause of many of the things I liked about D2C. It caused a very fierce competition between the good experience areas in Hell. Hostiling people to scare them away from your "territory" was a common practice. It was King of the Hill all the way. This more than anything made sure that weak characters - either by skill or equipment, never survived for long in Hell, as it should be of course. It made gaining experience tougher, since the competition was so tough, and thus made a high level more of an achievement. It also forced people to be able to take care of themselves. PvP players had to make sure they could still do PvM, unlike some current PvP builds that at lvl 20 can PK a Lvl 80 PvM'er, but at the same time cannot handle a pack of Quill Rats. It forced people to play themselves, rather than being rushed through the game and then leeching in the corner of a Cow level game till they hit lvl 99 and still are as clueless as ever.
Yes it was a very harsh climate, yes it was unforgiving, yes it did force newbies to either learn to play or perish quickly, but it's exactly the lack of these things that have made D2, hopefully just until now, the completely unchallenging and uninteresting bore that it is, and these are the exact things needed to breathe new life into the game.
And it wouldn't completely destroy party play. people would still always prefer to party up when they're questing, people would still always party up with their friends, no matter if they lost some experience because of it, and LoD and this new patch have brought up so many more interesting and efficient party combinations than there were Pre-LoD, that well-balanced leveling parties would not only be more common, but also larger.
I know this most likely will not happen, there would be too much of an uproar from the lazy newbies who prefer to not have to do anything themselves and really would be as helpless as infants if they suddenly were to be stripped of their precious no-brainer-leecher-accepting parties, but one can always dream, eh?
In my mind, my dreams are real. No one's concerned about the way I feel.