I bought the the base game in 2016 and beat Normal once with a crap, random Blademaster. Then I quit the game for around 7 years. When I heard about 1.2 I returned and after a few days I’m doing Ultimate comfortably. I played D2:LoD a lot and in D3 I have 7770 achievement points. It seems that with 1.2 GD went into the D3 direction hard. The focus now will be the end-game and pushing the SR, like it is in D3. This is a MAJOR change in GD design: going from the D2 model of progression to the D3 model of progression. The game is now MUCH more focused on the SR, than on beating Normal/Elite/Ultimate. This will save players a lot of time, but it makes leveling trivial. In D3 it’s all about GRs and in GD it will be all about SRs. 1.2 completely changed the nature of this game, making it much more like D3, rather than D2.
aeh, not sure if you don’t realize from being gone so long
but 1.2 didn’t introduce SR, nor did it change much in regards to SR itself
Shattered Realm has been a thing since 2019 Forgotten Gods expansion, SR is just an (optional) ingame endmode that got introduced to counteract Crucible(paid dlc) as sole “out MC” endgame mode
^Crucible being the “focused” endmode for years if you will
if anything 1.2 did more to shift focus back to campaign than you think, by introducing Sunder so there got added a bit of challenge back to MC, making MC farming more relevant than ever, etc.
likewise 1.8?'s addition of Monster Totem also added MC focus, for people less interested in farming SR/Crucible, or just for bonus fluff during levelling
kinda get the sense, to me, you’re judging a book a lot by it’s back-cover here, without actually reading it.
It’s clear that they shifted the progression model from the D2-style to the D3-style in some respects. This will have a big impact on the game.
again, read the actual book not the back cover
MC is available just like always, SR is optional to those that want it or not, it’s not made mandatory nor any more focus than before in 1.2, you can progress in MC just like you always have
It seems you don’t understand my point. In D3 there is also MC, but the focus in heavily on T16 farming and GRs pushing. ATM, Ultimate MC in GD is trivial. This means that If I want to play a bit longer, then I must shift my attention to SRs. Currently I’m doing 50k sheet DPS on my Death Knight and I know that only SRs will provide some challenge.
seems you don’t understand my point
^this has been the case for about 7 years now - has absolutely nothing todo with SR or 1.2
1.2 added changes to address that somewhat; because players had requested MC bosses get harder, which in part made devs consider a mechanic to change that up a bit, and we got sunder out of it in 1.2
you look at SR “it exists: therefor it must be the game focus and follow d3” - which is incorrect,
look at SR like “it exists: to cater to a portion of players that like that”
maybe because you’ve been gone for so long you dont’ realize the (massive) player power creep that has occurred through the years, with MC never really keeping up
^while MC Ultimate originally (and still) was never really designed to be super hard, but balanced around able to be cleared in relative basic gear “so most players/beginners could clear it”, (which remains kinda the case today/been rough to convince devs to increase difficulty scaling much/requesting "Veteran"Ultimate option as example)
with most challenge content then being separate or optional, skeleton key dungeons, Crucible, Celestials, 2019 Forgotten Gods merely added SR to that lineup - and 1.2 didn’t change that focus
Shattered Realm was added with the Forgotten Gods expansion in 2019. Yes, it added an endgame thingy, but there’s no requirement to play it (thank the Cairn gods). I find it boring and only dive in to get the shrine in there after doing 1 shard. Main campaign all the way for me.
The difference here is the massive amount of build variety compared to what Diablo offers. Yes, some players will focus on SR, but I suspect the majority are playing the main campaign trying out different builds; I certainly am.
Also, unlike D3, Crate want your characters to be finished so there’s no infinite progression. You can get some extra skill/attribute points from quests, but once you hit 100 you’re not going to level any higher.
Indeed, GD seems to be much more balanced in its progression. In D3 in season 28 it was possible to hit level 70 in less than 15 minutes. Fortunately, it’s not the case in GD.
you can speed level in GD too, but again, it’s entirely optional for just the subset of people that want it
that’s the beauty, GD Devs give you/us options, you don’t have the XP boosters or portal/quest/rep skips by default, you have to unlock them and then voluntarily use them (on each individual char)
^as example, i still spend around 25h “slow” levelling my chars, instead of speed levelling to rush them to end, because i enjoy levelling/going through MC much more…
Same for SR, optional for those that want it
heck you could say an indicator the game isn’t focused around SR: there is lots of stuff you can’t get in SR, like reputation, devotion points, and several drop items.
Fangs of Asterkarn will give us Ascendant mode, which is supposed to be a super scaled Ultimate difficulty for max MC challenge (not the same as Veteran supposedly), again to serve the sub group of people that want (optional) challenge, without making default Ultimate too hard for beginners/regular players
The next expansion will add another campaign difficulty level, which should support those (like me) who want to play through the campaign again at endgame with extra challenge instead of being pushed into the ‘endgame modes’ like SR/Crucible.
Im new and know GD only from 1.2, so I lack a comparison with older version, but Doesn’t seems a “D3 like” to me. Game experience is about leveling, which take time no matter what. SR o crucible seems a test for build (and skill) more than an endgame activity thinked to last. D3 and the like begins when your char get leveled and geared, while GD at that point is about to end. Or at least is what I experienced playing it (Im at my 4th char completed).