Patch 1.10 Update on Arreat Summit

[Roland]

I agree with Nico on the whining aspect. But it is predictable being how long people have waited for this patch. So let them do their whining, as stupid as it may seem. Nothing you can do will really stop it.

I don't like whining either. But I don't whine. I just tell it like it is, and rip 'em a little acid for it. :P World of difference between complaining about how my Uber Sorcy is now dead, and complaining about them breaking the one, fundamental factor to fun gameplay: balance. That's all I care about, period. BALANCE. Well, and bugs, of course, but that's beside the point. That's a given. ;) When you break the balance, though, it ticks me off. And nothing ticks me off more than saying you're going to fix it when you're REALLY only going to make it far, far worse.

They will whine more once the patch actually comes out I am sure . But odds are people will just keep on playing regardless. (Well... if they make my 'precious' druid variant obsolete, I may be a hypocrite in this case ><)

Heh. I did quit. For close to a year. What brought me back? My mod. That's all I played, and even then only for testing purposes. What brought me back now? Finding a great group to play with in an isolated environment. A group that value coop above all else. The game may still give me migraines, but when I'm with those friends, it's hard for me not to find at least SOME enjoyment. Were it not for them, I wouldn't be playing D2. Period.

I also agree with Roland, but I think he is taking a tad to far down the deep end, wait til the patch is released first. Then I want to see you tear that patch apart . The good news Roland from what I've seen, there actually will be room for much more variants due to the newer "synergies". But you may think differently.

Mayhap I am, and mayhap I'm not. Regardless of whether I'm "taking it a tad too far down the deep end", my points still ring true, do they not? You said it yourself, you agree with me (not that I ever look for followers; going along with the masses is not something I value; then again, I never strike out to be followed, either). As I said already, there's only one thing I truly care about. Without that, the game is worthless to me. Item finding and exp running are no different than FPS games, except they have no skill and no variety to spice it up. :P It's like Solitaire, without different cards. :P

As for the synergies, they are good POTENTIAL, yes. In the hands of a competent creator (ala modder). Blizzard, sad to say, is not competent in this regard. Well, alright. If I must be honest, I must be honest. They have SOME competence in it. The problem is, they get carried away. They're a child when it comes to that game: they get a good thing going, and just take it too far. They don't know when to pull in the reins. In a word: they lack discipline. I'll admit, my comments have gotten nastier and nastier about Blizzard, and I suppose I should owe up to that and ease off a bit. I'm just so damn frustrated at the whole idea that, after 10 freaking patches, they haven't yet figured out how to balance a damn bloody thing. I admit, it's a lot of work. I know first hand. My mod has been several YEARS in the making. But that's NO excuse! They do this for a living, and I do this as a HOBBY. They're "professionals" at this, and yet I can spot their imbalances a mile away with a mere cursory glance? Come on.

You want to truth? I knock them so hard because they fall so far short of their potential, and only live up to what they are. Diablo II is a good game, and it would be a tremendous game, were it not for all the crap in it. It's got a fun feel to it, but without balance, that fun "feel" is just an illusion: in reality, it's only fun until you get your hands dirty (in a sense, eat the Apple from the Tree if Knowledge). And believe me, my hands covered. :P

Getting back on-topic, the synergies hold great potential. They add a great new feature for modders, and it WOULD be a cool feature IF Blizzard doesn't "balance" the game for them the way they do everything else. Too much balancing, in either way, will net you either too easy for those with Synergistic skills, or too hard for those without. Blizzard's problem has been, and probably always will be, finding that line inbetween black and white. So, yeah, it COULD be good. But I'm not holding my breath. I'm not ready to call it off, though, either. The numbers don't mean anything on paper, especially since we don't know precisely what other changes are going on in the game. That's why I don't focus on those sorts of things. I focus on things I can see plainly; tangible things; things that are solid. Like items. :P

Forget modding? HA! Not likely. ;) For whatever reason, I can't keep away from modding. I'm a sick, sick boy. ;) In all seriousness, though, that's my only hope for 1.10. I have but a few things I want: the greater modding potential that we, the modding community, were promised, and a few "fixes" to "features" that never should have left the developers minds, much less their computers (FEB / CEB damage stacking with LEBs, anyone?). Failure to provide either of those, and 1.10 will not have been worth a dime to me. If they come through on both counts, though... Well, I'll still complain about the horrible crap that it's bringing, but at least I'll be able to fix it into SOME semblance of a real game. ;) MY modding isn't about altering the game to make something new; it's about turning the game into what it should have been from the start. ;) And even then, I got a LONG way to go. Probably always will. :D Balance may be something I'm good at, but it's nigh impossible to ever master it. I've been doing it for how long now, and I still haven't gotten it down? ;)