I'm not normally one to cry that games are broken beyond repair, but I feel that Diablo 3 is.
It occurred to me tonight as I was taking my DH through the later parts of nightmare act 3. Most of the fights, boss fights included, have been a cinch. Dreadfully easy. Like, I died once in early act 3 because I wasn't paying any attention because I hadn't been remotely threatened for hours. Then, playing tonight, I died no less than six times between a boss pack and a champion pack.
The first two times I died were due at least in part to an error on my part. The first of the two, I got low on health and headed back to where I knew I'd left two health globes waiting. They weren't there and I died. I can only assume that my merc picked them up. *(&^. The second death was because I'd parked the boss right on my res point and I didn't get clear in time. The only reason this boss pack was a threat at all though was because they were those phasing beasts that teleport right on top of you.
The next four or five deaths were to a champion pack of the phasing beasts - with vortex and fire chains. So not only could they teleport to me, they could teleport me to them. This lead to so much spike damage that my 18.5k hp DH got practically instagibbed a couple of times (I say practically, because it still took some time, but with potions on a 30 second cooldown and no other way to recover health, it *was* an instagib).
It occurred to me that these deaths were indicative of why Diablo 3 is fundamentally flawed. For the ranged class (and I apologise I know Jack and his brother Squat about melee, so this may not apply to them), nothing is ever a threat unless it can hit you. If it CAN hit you and is able to output enough damage, you WILL die. If it can hit you and can't output enough damage, you can't die.
Case 1: Melee mobs that you can kite or ranged mobs that have projectiles slow enough to dodge effectively (easier if you aren't crippled by having to ping half way around the *&^#ing world). These are no threat at all.
Case 2: Some ranged bosses, mobs/melee bosses that are faster than you, teleporting melee. These are stupid. You die to these until you can spam enough damage to knock out their critical mass. If they run faster than you, and can do so indefinitely, you will die.
Case 3: These are the most interesting fights because you have the possibility of dying. There are some of these fights in the game. Belial, for instance is a really fun fight where you have to balance damage with moving and if you aren't on your toes you will die, but he pretty much can't guarantee a kill on you if you're good enough.
Speed in Diablo 3 is the biggest threat, because speed takes away from any player skill in the game. But Blizzard WANT this. They WANT for good players to die if they are "undergeared". Blizzard want to force players into either farming themselves senseless or going to the auctionhouse.
Why do you think we're only "given" ten character slots?
Why do you think there are no permanent character decisions in the game?
Why do you think they made inferno and hell bosses so fast and nerfed smoke-screen into oblivion?
It's because all that matters to Blizzard is the maths. Character A has enough gear, they may progress. Character B does not have enough gear, they're not allowed to progress.
The problem is, with no character altering choices, what does progression matter?
Progression in WoW meant that you unlocked new content. Completing Kara a few times let you move to the new, higher tier content. WoW was allowed to be about gear because it also held non-gear related choices and challenges. It didn't matter how good your gear was, you would still wipe if you played terribly. It still took effort to coordinate a 25 man raid.
Diablo 2, which I played to death, even post-LoD, despite its flaws had a lot of end-game progression. Even full clearing every difficulty would leave you hours upon hours of levelling to do if you wanted to hit max level. I still never had a level 99 character, even though I had several level 70+ characters. I only played single player and never twinked or hacked items. I tried many different builds... a trapassin, an elemental druid, a charged bolt sorceress (still one of my favourites and one of the few characters I bothered to finish hell with). I had a high level zealot and a whole host of other characters.
But Diablo 3 does not offer these same experiences. All it offers is a short, sweet burst until you get your character to level 60. It encourages you to play solo (by effectively doubling your power when you do thanks to the really well designed mercenaries), but does not offer a true single player (I have my gameplay interrupted around 50% of the time I play due to server resets or scheduled maintenance - another @$@% you Blizzard give to Aussies). The ten character slot limitation is truly intolerable if I want to roll variants - which I really don't now that I can always just change my skills on my main character and have the full power of my variant at my disposal.
I just really think that Blizzard have missed the point with Diablo 3. There's so much to like about it, but in the end the threat really comes from one thing - being undergeared. There are very few fights in the game that are not either a cakewalk or devastatingly difficult. Much of the fun in action RPGs comes from leveling your character and trying new builds. The icing on the cake used to be finding THAT item which made your character better. Blizzard have done away with all of that in Diablo 3 and have said that all the fun comes from gearing your character.
The slow trickle of rewards, which was occasionally interrupted by the large power boost of a new, better item has now been replaced (at least once you hit 60, which takes far less time than it did in diablo 2) with a power plateau and a slow, steady stream of income from which to buy gentle power upgrades for your character.
But even the leveling game is not fun any more. In Diablo 2 you started out a generic barbarian and as you gained in levels, you became more and more specialised. Your strengths and weaknesses became magnified the further you got into the game. Starting a new barbarian would let you choose different strengths and weaknesses, so you experienced an entirely different game, even with the same character class. Now, you're a generic barbarian right the way through the game. All it takes is a change of skills and you're at exactly the same point as you would have been if you'd levelled the entire way with those skills.
There's no personalisation, no specialisation and the levelling game, which is not as fun as it used to be, ends too early.
The only thing that can kill you is not being on the right side of the statistics game. If a pack of mobs can lay out X damage in 30 seconds you're dead. If they can't, you're completely safe.
This post is way too long, but I would be keen to find out your thoughts and experiences.
It occurred to me tonight as I was taking my DH through the later parts of nightmare act 3. Most of the fights, boss fights included, have been a cinch. Dreadfully easy. Like, I died once in early act 3 because I wasn't paying any attention because I hadn't been remotely threatened for hours. Then, playing tonight, I died no less than six times between a boss pack and a champion pack.
The first two times I died were due at least in part to an error on my part. The first of the two, I got low on health and headed back to where I knew I'd left two health globes waiting. They weren't there and I died. I can only assume that my merc picked them up. *(&^. The second death was because I'd parked the boss right on my res point and I didn't get clear in time. The only reason this boss pack was a threat at all though was because they were those phasing beasts that teleport right on top of you.
The next four or five deaths were to a champion pack of the phasing beasts - with vortex and fire chains. So not only could they teleport to me, they could teleport me to them. This lead to so much spike damage that my 18.5k hp DH got practically instagibbed a couple of times (I say practically, because it still took some time, but with potions on a 30 second cooldown and no other way to recover health, it *was* an instagib).
It occurred to me that these deaths were indicative of why Diablo 3 is fundamentally flawed. For the ranged class (and I apologise I know Jack and his brother Squat about melee, so this may not apply to them), nothing is ever a threat unless it can hit you. If it CAN hit you and is able to output enough damage, you WILL die. If it can hit you and can't output enough damage, you can't die.
Case 1: Melee mobs that you can kite or ranged mobs that have projectiles slow enough to dodge effectively (easier if you aren't crippled by having to ping half way around the *&^#ing world). These are no threat at all.
Case 2: Some ranged bosses, mobs/melee bosses that are faster than you, teleporting melee. These are stupid. You die to these until you can spam enough damage to knock out their critical mass. If they run faster than you, and can do so indefinitely, you will die.
Case 3: These are the most interesting fights because you have the possibility of dying. There are some of these fights in the game. Belial, for instance is a really fun fight where you have to balance damage with moving and if you aren't on your toes you will die, but he pretty much can't guarantee a kill on you if you're good enough.
Speed in Diablo 3 is the biggest threat, because speed takes away from any player skill in the game. But Blizzard WANT this. They WANT for good players to die if they are "undergeared". Blizzard want to force players into either farming themselves senseless or going to the auctionhouse.
Why do you think we're only "given" ten character slots?
Why do you think there are no permanent character decisions in the game?
Why do you think they made inferno and hell bosses so fast and nerfed smoke-screen into oblivion?
It's because all that matters to Blizzard is the maths. Character A has enough gear, they may progress. Character B does not have enough gear, they're not allowed to progress.
The problem is, with no character altering choices, what does progression matter?
Progression in WoW meant that you unlocked new content. Completing Kara a few times let you move to the new, higher tier content. WoW was allowed to be about gear because it also held non-gear related choices and challenges. It didn't matter how good your gear was, you would still wipe if you played terribly. It still took effort to coordinate a 25 man raid.
Diablo 2, which I played to death, even post-LoD, despite its flaws had a lot of end-game progression. Even full clearing every difficulty would leave you hours upon hours of levelling to do if you wanted to hit max level. I still never had a level 99 character, even though I had several level 70+ characters. I only played single player and never twinked or hacked items. I tried many different builds... a trapassin, an elemental druid, a charged bolt sorceress (still one of my favourites and one of the few characters I bothered to finish hell with). I had a high level zealot and a whole host of other characters.
But Diablo 3 does not offer these same experiences. All it offers is a short, sweet burst until you get your character to level 60. It encourages you to play solo (by effectively doubling your power when you do thanks to the really well designed mercenaries), but does not offer a true single player (I have my gameplay interrupted around 50% of the time I play due to server resets or scheduled maintenance - another @$@% you Blizzard give to Aussies). The ten character slot limitation is truly intolerable if I want to roll variants - which I really don't now that I can always just change my skills on my main character and have the full power of my variant at my disposal.
I just really think that Blizzard have missed the point with Diablo 3. There's so much to like about it, but in the end the threat really comes from one thing - being undergeared. There are very few fights in the game that are not either a cakewalk or devastatingly difficult. Much of the fun in action RPGs comes from leveling your character and trying new builds. The icing on the cake used to be finding THAT item which made your character better. Blizzard have done away with all of that in Diablo 3 and have said that all the fun comes from gearing your character.
The slow trickle of rewards, which was occasionally interrupted by the large power boost of a new, better item has now been replaced (at least once you hit 60, which takes far less time than it did in diablo 2) with a power plateau and a slow, steady stream of income from which to buy gentle power upgrades for your character.
But even the leveling game is not fun any more. In Diablo 2 you started out a generic barbarian and as you gained in levels, you became more and more specialised. Your strengths and weaknesses became magnified the further you got into the game. Starting a new barbarian would let you choose different strengths and weaknesses, so you experienced an entirely different game, even with the same character class. Now, you're a generic barbarian right the way through the game. All it takes is a change of skills and you're at exactly the same point as you would have been if you'd levelled the entire way with those skills.
There's no personalisation, no specialisation and the levelling game, which is not as fun as it used to be, ends too early.
The only thing that can kill you is not being on the right side of the statistics game. If a pack of mobs can lay out X damage in 30 seconds you're dead. If they can't, you're completely safe.
This post is way too long, but I would be keen to find out your thoughts and experiences.
Disarm you with a smile 