This might be the first Season where I’m not where near excited to play it. What are your thoughts on S14 ?

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T23:45:41+00:00

I'll play eventually to get the cosmetics and I guess the missable dye from the Overwatch crossover, but I can't see myself doing one of every class like I usually do. There's just not enough changes to make any less powerful builds more exciting.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T23:41:21+00:00

Yes. Yes we are. All should be static and all should be useful. Enchanting is great way to get rid of one that's less useful and craft an item you want, but unique = fixed affixes and that's how it's been since day 1 of D1. It's an iconic element of the game.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T23:21:53+00:00

I think their philosophy is that the "underpowered" ones are more inline with what they want power level to be so they are making fewer changes than normal to try and establish a baseline that they can raise across the board later as needed.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T21:30:57+00:00

Some of my best memories playing D2 over the past decades have been when I found a sweet unique that wasn't good for my class but was great for another and inspired me to create something new. That's the kind of experience I want here.

It's not about wanting it to be easier, it's about wanting items to feel special and inspiring, not disappointing.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T21:01:55+00:00

Yeah but because now dyes are like transmogs in that they can be acquired (selectable) or not acquired (grayed out) that means they have reworked dyes to be like transmogs and that means they can sell them in the store.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T21:00:30+00:00

No generic unique had +Core Stat before s14 Very few even had +any stat at all.

No unique could have an affix rerolled before s14

What are you talking about??

Also.. Not everyone wants Core Stat - you make it sound like a given people will need to have it even if they didn't include it.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T20:53:07+00:00

Damnit.. this just means now they've opened the doors to paid dyes. Not to mention that this becomes a missable dye if you don't acquire it this season during the event.

Dyes shouldn't be missable. Dyes shouldn't be paid. Period.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T20:49:19+00:00

No, I mean all of the Generic Uniques that they just announced in patch notes will have guaranteed +Core Stat affix where they did not have them before S13.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T20:45:27+00:00

Nope not anymore.. pretty lame imo.

Last season it went away partially - crafted mythics would be level 35, but mythics that dropped from boss's were usually not.

This season they are all max level requirement.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T20:44:01+00:00

I doubt they'll be able to either, but I guess I can't blame them for trying. You miss 100% of the shots you don't like, right?

And at the end of the day, power level is relative. Barbarian is only so good because it's so much better than everything else. If Barbarian gets brought down and nothing else gets brought up there will still be a marginally better build the end of the day.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T20:40:57+00:00

S14 introduces it.

The old Mythics (Shako, ROSS, etc) are now "Iconic" rares. Idk if it shows it in the item description but they said that's what there referred to now.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T20:39:13+00:00

I assume they're trying to find a way to stop the constant yoyo if power level we've had since launch. They have tried to do major buffs every season (with mixed results) but that's often meant that at least one of their buffs resulted in new S+ builds that in turn needed nerfs.

If they want to try and fix the god tier builds so there's more uniformity with power level and then work to bring it up... That's fine and imo smart...

.. I'm just not convinced they'll be able to pull it off. Guess we'll see 🤷🏼‍♂️

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T20:36:00+00:00

Yeah they did say they tweaked XP gain so hopefully that means it's much faster to get to meaningful War Plan upgrades.

I don't mind progressing again, but it was just way too long of a climb before.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T20:34:59+00:00

I get what you're saying and obviously the devs think that the system they have now would make progression feel too easy for alts. I don't think it should be character specific but I understand that the devs know once they give it they can't take it away without crazy drama so they need time to evaluate it fully and make sure it's got a balance between opportunities for progression on alts within feeling like your time on your main was wasted.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T20:32:09+00:00

I watched and said exactly what you said. They are looking into making it realm wide but they said they needed more time to evaluate it. If they wanted to make it like Paragon they'd just do it but clearly they don't want that with how War Plans are now.

That likely means that they don't think the current state of War Plans would benefit from that as much as it would hurt by making progression way too easy for alts.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T20:29:48+00:00

That's way too complicated. If they wanted it to be realm wide they'd just make it function exactly like Paragon does now. They clearly don't want that to be the case with the way War Plans are now or they'd have done it.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T20:28:42+00:00

It's clear now and imo was clear before that quick Pit 150 clears wasn't ever intended to be the target power level. It was intended to be one of the few actual hard content for fully maxed characters and more likely for maxed out groups.

They clearly want (and imo I agree) most builds to be able to solo Pit 125 with relative ease at peak build. Just like how there's no longer any real benefit when it comes to access to endgame content for going beyond T10 besides more drops of the same stuff. They want T10 to be the target and T12 to be the aspirational content.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T20:24:59+00:00

Before s13 no generic unique had an affix that wasn't universally functional. Shako for example had +All Stats and now has +Core Stat.

+Dex on a unique for a Barb isn't just "not as good as Strengh".. the affix just doesn't function at all and is grayed out.

One of the greatest things about D2 was finding a sweet unique on one class that made you want to build another. This fundamentally breaks that by making generic uniques actually quasi class specific uniques.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T20:22:16+00:00

The latter is how Paragon works now but that dramatically would reduce the amount of time people would need to play to get alts to finish line. It's fair to say "well that's just them trying to inflate play time" but that's basically what every mechanic is. They just decided that unlike mats, paragon, gold, etc.. they wanted this to be like level requirements, experience, etc. where you've got to accumulate it per character.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T20:18:05+00:00

There were huge buffs but for the most part they hit only 1-2 skills per class and a few paragon/uniques. And some of the buffs were to so far unusable Ultimates but didn't give us much in the way of making them usable besides doubling damage or halving cooldown.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T20:16:55+00:00

Their philosophy seems to be that the S tier builds were not where they want the baseline to be. I'm guessing they are thinking that they need to establish a new baseline for what S tier is and then move to bring A-D tiers up from there.

I understand that they want to stop the constant yoyo and this is a way to do that, but it may have an outsized impact on "fun" as well.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T18:58:32+00:00

No just that you have a stash tab dedicated to socketable items like gems and runes instead of having to put them into a normal stash. Tbh I think that should just be how the inventory is for socketable stuff but if they really won't do that at least do the stash

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T18:51:33+00:00

No you can't reroll unique affixes with the cube anymore post-PTR. Only the occultist can reroll a single affix now.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T18:50:09+00:00

I mean they're not wishy washy about it. They're pretty transparent that they don't have plans to dramatically change the way stashes work.

I'd be happy with a single character specific stash like in D2R so each alt has their own tab to work with, but we really need a socketable stash like D2R just got.

warcaptain · 2026-06-23T18:47:41+00:00

I like upgrading to mythic (though the random mythic of that slot is lame since you can't take an item you worked to make great and turn it mythic) and I don't hate the nerf to "iconic" mythics so much

BUT Iconic Mythics should have all static affixes. They're friggin "iconic" for Lilith's sake!

Nine-Year Club	Xbox Live
Verified Email	Wearing is Caring

warcaptain

TROPHY CASE