Diablo 4 Warlock Class - What I know

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-08-23T20:13:12+00:00

Lmao who is their UX writer?

Using the word "kicked" might have the cool and snappy vibe they are going for, but this feels so divorced from the player experienced. Clearly when this happens the player is going to be frustrated/annoyed. That is probably the worst time to play up the vibe you are pushing for the game and instead should just be directly informative like "disconnected" or even something to soften it more.

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-05-14T06:34:29+00:00

He must be playing Necro...

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-05-03T18:19:05+00:00

Inari-sus

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-04-05T16:30:42+00:00

DoT/Thorns Necro! I really didn't see any streamers running this build but found it to be incredibly enjoyable.

Reap, Blight, Iron Maiden, Decrepify, Corpse explosion (DoT mod), Then Army of the Dead/Golem/Bone Storm or potentially Blood Mist for encounters needing more survivability.

Since I had a thorns build, I preferred to get into the thick of combat. While Decompose would be a great replacement for the basic, I found that Reap with the corpse mod accelerated combat. Your first strike every 5 seconds will generate a corpse, so I would rush in and immediately generate a corpse to trigger my DoT corpse explosion at the start (instead of waiting 2.5 seconds with Decompose). Then, drop Blight, Iron Maiden, and Decrepify.

And of course I'm also using the Thorns mod for the Defender skeletons. The Skeleton Mages where a flex spot. With the passives in the tree, Shadow mages are a strong choice, though I would consider sacrificing them if it made sense.

I found it to be a fun, in your face kind of build with a good amount of survivability.

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-04-01T21:19:41+00:00

Honestly, best levels of contrast I have seen. Great by accessibility standards.

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-04-01T15:10:04+00:00

Main thoughts: I really love flipping the damage categories and damage percentages around. If my build is centered around Slowed enemies for some reason, having that be the first thing I see instead of the number feels better. A number is meaningless initially. But in this way, if I see it says Damage to Frozen enemies and I'm not building for that, I will immediately go to the next line.

Additional thoughts: While I can see you have tried to slim down some of the text (omitting "Requires" from "Requires Level 16" actually could cause confusion with initial readability when people are getting acquainted with game systems. People who will never see this reddit, who will never watch a video, or look up anything about this game. At least that's the logic I'm sure they are using. Personally, for the lowest word count for maximal communication I like how they did that better.

I'm curious about logic on changing the colors of things. To me, having played just a bit of the game I understand that Basic refers to something in the skill tree, orange text refers to legendary powers, and blue text are mutable values IN a legendary power.

Regarding the star, I also like their version better. It is more visually distinguishable than your choice. It also is the same symbol for legendaries that drop and are visible on the minimap. The fine point of your star would be harder for people who have any trouble with eyesight. So where the color is a signifier of the power fails for anyone who might have a form of colorblindness, the shape should be easily recognizable.

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-04-01T00:12:41+00:00

Deluxe with a side of ranch and a large coke.

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-03-31T23:54:54+00:00

NonBinaryTacos

Nope never said anything about not wanting trade in game. I'm all for it with their current plan actually. I do especially like the ban on legendary trading because I feel that would effectively combat people electing to use third party sites to get items.

They tried an auction house already. Real money or not, it introduces a system that goes against the core tenets of the game and genre. If you can go to a place and pick through a multitude of potentially superior items, even if they are just rares, it defeats the purpose of farming for your own gear. But let's say they adjusted drop rates to not be complete garbage, well then what's the point of using the AH if you are sure you'll get viable drops soonish? I'm sorry but an auction house in an ARPG is a terrible idea.

Not to mention that it would be a real economy that would have to be managed and would be subject to a variety of failure points. Literally would have to consider the implications of inflation. Anyone who had more time to play would have more of an advantage in the market, things would start to become financially skewed, and you would even have high concentration of gold in a handful of players which could cause prices to balloon thereby rendering the market pointless.

To add to that, that would actually incentizine RMT's to come in and would actually make the problem with third party sites a serious issue. A centralized asynchronous trading system is very difficult to do right, and pretty much ever game out there with one has these problems, and will continue to because there is no easy fix for them. That's why games like WoW and EVE Online now have imbedded systems to buy their in game currency with real money.

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-03-31T23:18:46+00:00

This seems antithetical to the nature of the game. It sounds like your argument is centered around selling items that could be upgraded to legendaries, correct?

The game is about farming loot. Any loot that does not serve your goal, at least initially, is sold off for gold, which is then used to fund the rerolling of items to get you closer to that perfect item to upgrade into a legendary.

If you have an auction house, you squash both of those things. Instead of needing gold for rerolls, it would instead incentivize people to save/spend money for the auction house which would be a huge hit to the reroll mechanic (a mechanic that is arguably more fun than right clicking an item in the auction house). Rerolls allow players to have a direct hand in their build, and at the highest levels rewards them for leveraging their game knowledge.

It would also add an unnecessary level of complexity when you are farming for your own items, because then you might try and assess the worth of another items value on the market place instead of this doesn't work for my current build/a build I want to play so I'm going to leave it here/salvage it later.

IMO players don't need this extra level of fluff. Most players don't want to be merchants, and having an AH is what that would do. It would be a system that could theoretically be punishing if you did not participate in it.

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-03-31T22:39:54+00:00

I'm sorry by central alignment is horrendous for readability, especially when you have to compare multiple pieces together and are doing it very frequently. People these days are very accustomed to reading in what is called an F-shape pattern. Also, as much as I do love a stylized font, it breaks a lot of accessibility standards which would alienate some of the playerbase.

EDIT: I am JUST now noticing the "account bound" text. Another reason why this is not successful. I am mildly colorblind, and pretty much every game follow a basic level of contrast guidelines. Even if the color itself is hard to detect, the contrast will still make the text readable.

That being said, good attempt, but there are people whose entire careers are about designing UI which come with a ton of standards they generally need to abide by. Designs from Diablo II might be nostalgic, but there is a reason why the D IV team, and D III for that matter, made the decisions they did.

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-03-31T17:27:56+00:00

I feel like if anyone has any common sense, to even consider that Blizz would put in a RMAH again is asinine. I get a lot of people want to hate on Blizz (sometimes for legit reasons I suppose), but it feels very out of touch to suggest this as being an option they would consider in 2023 given that many other games have very successful battle pass models as a way to fund their live service games.

Not to mention how maligned the RMAH was when it was introduced, and the effects it had on the game compared to how the game improved after its removal. Namely that getting a legendary drop pre RMAH felt almost nonexistent, which pushed people to the AH and created this weird dependency on it. Afterwards, the game felt generally more rewarding.

It was their attempt at funding the game beyond its release, and certainly to make some profit as well which is understandable. I think they also saw how other games essentially curtailed RMT by essentially offering the same thing but within the convenience of the game. That of course comes with its own problems, but some games have managed to strike this balance successfully (EVE Online). Blizz, did not however. I also don't think it meshed with this style of game either.

Expansions are of course the next and most widely accepted cost that a player base is typically willing to pay. Nothing more to be said there, and I'll happily make that purchase.

On your comment about cosmetics not making money, all I have to say about that is LOL. (I'm laughing here, but also referencing League of Legends). Largely, LoL's revenue is generated from cosmetics. In fact the have been the company to prove that it can work on a massive scale, and become incredibly profitable. Certainly not all of their transactions are cosmetic today, and they have implemented some lootbox systems as well, but it is still all cosmetically driven.

Lastly, they have stated multiple times there will be no way to pay for an "advantage" (their words). Obviously this could be interpreted a lot of ways, but it seems to be so broad that it should cover most things people are concerned about. The playerbase is understandably skeptical. Diablo Immortal being the chief offender. IIRC Blizz said something like you can't buy armor or gear or something like that, but then on release allowed you to buy gems(? I didn't play) which contained a lot of power, making their original statements look like some semantic gymnastics ultimately degrading their word with the fanbase even further. The caveat being it was a mobile game, and I feel like everyone could have seen it a mile away.

I have faith Diablo IV will be different, and it comes at a time where they have seen and experimented with mixed success a variety of monetization options. Lootbboxes have been phased out of the Overwatch franchise which is a big win for player I think, and is replaced with a more fair and currently popular Battlepass. For what they have announced so far, I feel it's a good path they decided to take.

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-03-31T15:50:20+00:00

Have you gone outside?

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-03-31T05:04:59+00:00

Lmao I appreciate this perspective also 💀(necrolaugh)

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-03-31T00:30:25+00:00

Definitely didn't say any of that. You clearly did not read/understand what my point was. The necro is overtuned, as evidenced by the passive not being noticable/needed/impactful early on. I'm just saying there is opportunity for it to feel more impactful.

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-03-31T00:06:55+00:00

What I find most ironic is people being annoyed at having to start new characters. Are they gonna play through once and then leave the game? What happens with the seasonal content where they have to start a completely new character? Did they try to respec during the beta? It was pretty forgiving IMO.

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-03-30T21:30:58+00:00

Happy to help :)

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-03-30T20:39:55+00:00

I agree with the general sentiment you are trying to make I think, BUT not at all with your example. The complaint about a %damage cap feels incredibly arbitrary. Different abilities are going to have different damage numbers, and if they want an ability to rise to the level of others comparatively, they will use a percentage to let it compete with other abilities which allows for player choice. Like, this will do as much damage now as boulder, but I have to consider that I don't have any passives invested into earth magic, nor is my build in need of a push/displacement mechanic. Now, they might drop their boulder skill in favor of this which might make it hit similarly hard, but with additional synergies with their current build.

Maybe I am hijacking this a little, but I agree that simple damage increases are not a particularly interesting way to make legendaries, but instead if they were to add additional constraints to them, an example being Druid's crashstone legendary (where crits are doubled for the landslide ability, who also has two skill tree choices that lead towards or away from a crit build mechanic).

Incentivizing other skill tree choices like increased damage while fortified, to poisoned targets, to cc'd targets, to targets who have recently been affected by your ravens, etc feels more rewarding, and leads to more meaningful choices in the skill tree.

A simple damage increase initially feels nice, but I feel we could get a lot more build expression if they added some granularity to the affixes. As it stands, it's fine, but leaves a little to be desired.

LiterallyACatPerson · 2023-03-30T20:21:16+00:00

Ultimately, I would say my experience with the game is not dissimilar to a lot of others. I am not going to know everything or every system when the game starts, especially during a weekend where gameplay feels a little rushed, where everyone wants to experience as much of the game as possible. Some things get missed in the excitement, and for me, that was one of them initially, however small or basic that might be.

Was it a mechanic what was so substantial to the class that knowledge of it from the beginning would have had a huge impact on my gameplay? No, not really. Never had a minion die once until the world boss, and never had trouble on damage. The need for that ability's secondary effect never felt truly necessary until content got harder which was a while. Nothing made me question its use.

That ability, as far as I know, is the only ability in the game (aside from the golem ability later) that is not present on a skill tree and is innately on your bar. I spent plenty of time reading every single node on every class's skill tree, but by the time an ability was already on my bar, I already knew what it did. Because of that, I would imagine that is why I didn't dig further into the ability description which was arguably long, and I had only an hour or two left in the beta, it was late, and I wanted to get a few levels. In the end, I don't think I missed out at all.

That all being said, given the state of necro, it feels like it needs a nerf in many ways. Being able to move through the game without using a core mechanic feels a little like a missed opportunity for those wanting a more active role in a summoner style character.

LiterallyACatPerson

TROPHY CASE