Some things that could improve early game and "first character" experience

[HonorabruSudoku]

Just some things that ran through my head while leveling some recent toons.

1. Improving (non-DLC) faction gear

There are some base game faction items that see a lot of use and need no improvement at all. All the armor pieces are pretty much fine imo.
But the weapons and accessories are largely outclassed by items dropped in abundance from monsters, especially MIs.
The entire line of level 40 rings for example is outdone by some of the guaranteed drops and quest rewards (Slith Primal Ring, Viloth, Gollus, Cronley, Bloodsworn, eventually Living etc) of equivalent level.

The weapon slots are dominated by MIs and the bonuses they bring, faction weapons can’t compete with that, but even as a stop-gap they feel quite bad. The numerical values just don’t compete with generic green MIs, even if their bonuses are irrelevant to the build.

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2. Increasing faction rep gain (for some or all factions)

The mentioned faction rings for example unlock so late without a Mandate, that they are fairly irrelevant. The character will often be lvl 60+ and have access tomuch better gear.
This is especially true for the Outcasts’ equipment.

(I understand that point #1 and #2 are partially a DLC vs non-DLC issue, but still.)

The faction rep grind seems a bit like a device to “pad the play-time” from ye olden days, but several DLCs later it appears to be no longer required, as there is enough content.

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3. Boosting percentage-based damage values on very low level affixes.

Typically the affixes have massively decreased percentage values at the lower tiers, despite the base values (which they multiply) also being lower.
It leads to a massive shift in power in favor of MIs, aura-components and devotions.

For example, a character who picks up a Groble Sky Effigy at the end of Act 1 and slaps Hell’s Bane Ammo on it will have ~140% increased lightning damage.
Which is as much as 12 ‘Magestorm’ or 7 ‘Thunderstruck’ affixes combined.

So a player without knowledge of these items will be severely hampered.

I would suggest to raise the values of the level 5 affixes closer to the level of the lvl 36 ones and adjusting the values of the level 36 affixes as well.

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4. Tutorializing augments and components better

Augments are maybe the #1 thing new players are missing or misunderstanding.
The only “tutorial” (afaik) is the side-quest in the Pine Barrens, giving you a Manticore Venom, which is probably not even useful.
I think it would be helpful, if there was a quest on the main Path (Homestead or Fort Icon), which rewards a bunch of more generic augments (some of the level 40 augments for rings for example).

Similarly, after you rescue the smith in Devil’s Crossing, a follow-up quest to craft an armor component and a weapon component could help to introduce those.

It’s also not very clear that you can slap augments and components on gear.

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5. Improving some quest rewards/required hand-ins during base campaign

Some quests give you very versatile, useful rewards, like the Slith Primal Ring or scrap.
But a lot of them also just hand out a random component, a random blue item or a green junk item (Skinner’s Torch, Manticore Longsword).
Those items often seem very outdated and not very much like a reward.

Some quests also ask for components that are hard to find on ‘Normal’ difficulty.
Handing in 3 Seals of Binding to start the Chosen/Death’s Vigil questline can be quite a hassle.

If the player allies with the Outcasts, the 1st quest asks for an Ancient Heart, Brain Matter and Blood - a new player is probably better off not handing those in and using them for relic crafting instead.

My suggestion would be to decrease the required amount of rare components required.

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6. Making ‘Constitution’ regenerate energy outside of combat

This would solve some energy issues on the first few levels, when gameplay is more relaxed, and probably have next to zero impact on high level characters, endgame content.
Suffering from energy issues early on can really drain the fun out of the first hours of gameplay.

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That’s all for now.
Apologies for the lengthy post.

[Wyatan]

All good suggestions.

Unfortunately, the vocal minority who considers that only the “endgame” (whatever that means) matters, while the game itself is only content which should be skipped as fast as possible, has won.

Act 1, Normal, should be the focus of the patching effort imo.
Not exactly the case.

[MagpieMcGraw]

I agree on the early game affixes. Resistance affixes are completely useless early on. Just remove the lowest 1-2 tiers. Some of the damage affixes on armor are completely useless forever. The worst affix I can think of is Magestorm.

I think the quests that require crafting materials are fine. I usually have the stuff by the time I reach the Outcast.

I never use quest reward items. Slith ring is useless to me. The resistance amount is too small to be perceived. Magic ring of Alacrity or Mending always wins out on my characters. A magic amulet of zeal beats basically any other amulet in the early game.

One thing I dislike is that transcendent relics require faction components. So if playing self found, you have to basically beat the campaign to make them. If you make a new character on ultimate, you’ll be 70-80 before you get Respected with Black Legion.

Also, MIs should not have missing stats at low levels. This mostly applies to Shamblers Heart and a few other early game items.

[RxJunkie]

@MagpieMcGraw

Also, MIs should not have missing stats at low levels.

Low level MIs with flat damage can give the players way too much power early on. Depends on what skills are being boosted - some would be stupidly OP if they were given too much damage. And your character wouldn’t have to try and get a higher level improved version later on.

[Bas]

@MagpieMcGraw

Resistance affixes are completely useless early on.

How is that? Resistance is about the only thing that matters early on Or do you mean that they are just too low at the start?

@MagpieMcGraw

Slith ring is useless to me. The resistance amount is too small to be perceived.

I guess it depends on how you play. I don’t think it’s too bad. Obviously higher level items will surpass it quickly, but not that quickly either.
Random example slith ring vs what I have equipped at lvl 28@homestead.
It’s only a bit worse than the lvl 22 resistant cronley signet.

[Res]

I remember wearing Slith ring even after level 50, because I didn’t find anything better.

[Foehammer]

Game is already easy imo, if some new player is struggling let him come to the forums or discord and seek help.

[Norzan]

Slith Ring goes hard because of that damage to beastkin and the game is riddled with that type of enemy.

[Gnomish_Inquisition]

@HonorabruSudoku

6. Making ‘Constitution’ regenerate energy outside of combat

yes, omg this sounds amazing, on multiple levels

just had a rather annoying experience,
levelling FoI, doing it the cheesy way to manage energy = 1pt main node maxed Intensify since it’s a fraction of the energy cost
*dont’ have Ectos yet etc.

And energy management is barely tolerable. Runs into enemy with high res or energy leech, it became actually unbearable.
I straight up gave up/went back to just using Stormbox cheese as lvl 19, something i really don’t prefer/wouldn’t want to do, but not using stored comps etc the dmg per energy is just too far apart/intolerable atm until i drops some ectos/soul shards later
**and this is with lucking out on some Insight affixes and 50% spirit investment to help with regen

[Paikis]

I play all of my character as SSF and start on Veteran. I’m one of those weird people who actually enjoys the process of levelling up and really doesn’t give a cat’s cahootie about the “end game”. That said, I have some comments:

Improving (non-DLC) fact ion gear

Pretty much agree with everything here. I generally use the Devil’s Crossing chest and Homestead boots and gloves on most of my character. A few other pieces see occasional use (pet builds will use the Rover’s shoulders) but rings? Almost never. Amulets? Literally never used one. Weapons? Worse than random rare items, not even talking about MIs here, the blue faction weapons are really bad.

2. Increasing faction rep gain

I think this would be a good idea for some factions. With the option, and frequent recommendations to, skip Elite I’d prefer it if most factions were at or very close to Honoured if you do a complete run through of Veteran/Normal. At present, I still see Outcast, Devil’s Crossing and Rovers as being too low. The rest are probably fine if you’re actually doing all the acts.

3. Boosting percentage-based damage values on very low level affixes

Agreed here. I’d probably reduce damage values on MIs by 25% across the board as well. Power creep is real.

4. Tutorials.

Probably a bit late in the game’s life cycle for this, but I’d be all for it if possible.

5. Improving some quest rewards/required hand-ins during base campaign

Generally agree. Some rewards are fine though, the Slith Ring being a good example. Easily one of the best levelling items.

As for quest turn-ins, I’d agree that 3 Seals of Binding can be hard to come by. Especially if you want a Sanctified Bone (or heaven forbid, 2!) and also want to activate the Blood Grove devotion shrine.

The Outcast turn in has never been an issue for me.

6. Making ‘Constitution’ regenerate energy outside of combat

At first glance, I’m against this. This basically means you get full MP between every pack without having to invest in regen. I’ve also never had any issues with being constantly OOM as long as I’m using the energy potion and even 1 or 2 Ectoplasms. There’s also the free relic that gives you a large pile of energy back whenever you activate it. There are a lot of options for energy regen. I’m ok with players who chose not to take advantage of them running out of energy.

I would be fine with maybe adding a few ghost enemies into Act 1 caves though. Give the chance for newer players to actually get some Ectoplasm early, though you can already go farm act 2 as soon as you have some scrap to repair the bridge. New players wont know about that though, so maybe add some early ghosts.

It seemed like your suggestion here was for constitution to stop regenerating energy at some point? Why? At what level? Have we just moved the energy “issue” to a different point in levelling?

[Halbrave]

@HonorabruSudoku

But a lot of them also just hand out a random component, a random blue item or a green junk item (Skinner’s Torch, Manticore Longsword).
Those items often seem very outdated and not very much like a reward.

Totally agree with this point. I hardly even look at the quest rewards as they are almost always completely useless to me (except inventory size increase, slith primal ring and the guaranteed legendaries). I personally never had the need to craft stuff during playthrough using scrap so even that feels underwhelming to me.

The only reward which I am looking for currently is XP and rep gain from quests. I would appreciate it if more quests actually give you components which usually have to be crafted (like how you can get aether component from cronley’s crystal / chaos component from cursed girl on homestead farmland (if you let it kill those people … you monster )). Especially side quests should be more rewarding.

@HonorabruSudoku

6. Making ‘Constitution’ regenerate energy outside of combat

Not too sure about that one - If your energy does not regenrate fast enough you need to change your approach, either reducing your points for that skill (or put points into other nodes of that skill) or using components/gear to compensate the energy loss. I feel like this would be an easy way to avoid that. Using caster helmet and caster chest and investing a bit in spirit are usually enough to get me through early game’s energy issues. The unlimited energy pots already make it easy anyway.

[gargabolo]

Devil’s crossing should also gain rep from aetherials
and rovers additionally from cronleys gang

[Boris_L]

I hear you. I barely notice any faction increases on ‘Normal’. I don’t even think it’s meant for that, and rather for side toons once you can get them the increased factions bonuses. Even there, I don’t think I’ve ever unlocked and bought gear in a faction, it’s all about the weapon/accessory modifications. Especially on ‘Ultimate’.
But yeah, it’s a mechanic they probably spent countless hours integrating that players makes very little use of(apart from the aforementioned modification items) and could definitely use tweaking to see it helpful to newer players as well as ones on ‘Ultimate’.

[Gnomish_Inquisition]

@Boris_L

barely notice any faction increases on ‘Normal’

i’ve mentioned this before, (and it still puzzles me)
Bounties are a great solution, but the way they are currently setup (weirdly enough) punishes you for doing them “when you need them”
They give the least amount of Rep on Normal (most on Ult), since unlike regular campaign quest their rep reward scales with setting.
But usually you don’t really need to do much bounty stuff on Ult, since you already got a ton of rep, and the remaining to exalted can then rather easily be handled even without Bounties.
On Normal however they frequently would be necessary, to get that final bump to Honoured or early enough char level.

But they are just basically not worth doing without having a Mandate scaling, because in many cases you’re getting like 75? rep for a task that takes longer than if you kill grind, while kill grinding rewards you more rep.

Additional issue is also the current structure of only being able to deal 5 bounties per session, this makes it again slightly tedious, but also more cumbersome to cycle to somewhat better desired bounties.
I really don’t understand why we still have that strange 5 bounty limitation [Mod] [Release] Bounties Unlocked - #9 by DenisMashutikov
But also why/just fix bounty rep for normal so we’re getting actual worthwhile rep rewards.

I personally feel like the floor should at minimum be Ult’s rep scaling for bounties on Normal, otherwise they not only don’t feel like being worth doing, but like it’s kinda trolling

Bounties are themselves fine to do, the rep (and limit/cycling mechanic) just needs to get tweaked up to make sense for Normal/“where you need the bounties”

[klasperstanze]

@HonorabruSudoku

It’s also not very clear that you can slap augments and components on gear.

Hah, I remember on my 1st playthrough, I didn’t even TRY to use those augments, cause it went without saying that that’s not possible - since I would have to pass on my components.

[Boris_L]

I can’t disagree with you, this is sound logic. When you need the rewards, you should be able to put in the effort to get the stuff.
I think there was only a couple characters where I forgot the Mandate when I reached Ultimate on them I had to do a few bounty quests in order to max them out. It didn’t even feel like grinding. Whereas if I was Lv 40 trying to get the Lv45/50 rep gear, I could easily get to 55 kill grinding for rep, and getting way better loot rewards than the rep gear.
I also never understood why the rep gear wasn’t Set gear. Lil trash sets like they’d have in WoW. Nothing amazing, not worth abandoning a build over, but cool enough where you might try it out. Especially if they’re Lv45, 65, 90, and different sets per faction??? C’mon! Now you’d get me grinding for rep! haha