Game has huge flaws, developers making bizarre choices

Probably won't be coming back.

I enjoyed it for a time, but there are too many glaring flaws with this game which the developers will not comment on. I find this rude to the community which is financing this game.

List of things that bother the shit out of me currently:

1) Lack of build diversity. Not very many effective mapping builds actually exist. Furthermore, the list of viable builds is actually SHRINKING. Lightning thorns pretty much raped LA, so that one is basically gone. Very few people use that anymore.

2) Too much "passive" punishment to players. Examples are reflect damage and lightning thorns. These are the "easy" way to add difficulty to a game, as they take virtually no effort from a developer standpoint. They serve to limit build viability and frustrate players. Not enjoyable.

I have not seen a single response from GGG regarding Reflect or Lightning Thorns. They just had a little mini-meeting and said "fuck those players, don't tell them shit. they don't deserve any response. let them DIE!"

You know you have a huge problem with mechanics like this when players are specifically making builds where they are not the direct source of damage, so they don't have to worry about this bullshit

See: Totem builds.

3) Unique item power creep is starting to take over the game. It was already bad when I first joined -- the only item everybody on my friends list wanted was a Kaoms. This happened in Diablo 3 as well and made itemization incredibly boring. Everybody just runs around with a bunch of uniques and maybe 2 rares.

Not saying this game is at that point yet, but it is certainly headed there. 2 - 4 uniques every patch and a lot of them have been absolutely godly.

Most of the currency in this game involves modifying and enhancing rare items -- not uniques. And yet the focus is more and more on uniques and less and less on rares (see my next point).

4) Rare items have actually been nerfed by GGG deliberately adding useless affixes to the game with the excuse of them "helping low life builds." Bullshit. Total lack of honesty from the developer.

They blatantly nerfed rolling items AND rare item drops, which wastes my time as a player. It means I find LESS good items and gives me a lesser incentive to roll items. I WANT to roll items, I ENJOY it. Except, it was already hard before they added extra garbage....Why did it need to be harder? Were there too many godly rares? I see almost none out there.

Not a single response from GGG regarding this blatant nerf to rare drops and orb radius beyond..."it's for low life builds..."

Makes no sense. The core of the economy is orbs that modify items. Every single orb involving rolling affixes has been nerfed. It doesn't give the players much confidence to use them.

5) Mob AI is terrible and gets no attention. I brought it up as a topic and it reached several pages quickly, no response. The mobs barely even attack players. Maybe we wouldn't need to have bullshit like 20% reflect damage and thorns if the mobs were actually aggressive.



In summary, I have no idea where GGG is headed with this game. I thought it was something I would enjoy on the long term with the rolling of items, building unique characters with the giant skill tree..

Boy was I wrong. There's nothing of the sort.

Not even logical responses from the developers. They just ignore the players and make up excuses, mostly.

Some fair points amidst the ire. Though LA is not gone in default. Dunno about HC, but at this point looking at HC for anything is kind of dumb. Default is where the real game is if you care about builds, HC is a different, less enjoyable game called Path of Life Nodes.

I agree that reflect mechanics are fucking dumb. GGG wants to make sure that players can die at any time, no matter what. But reflect is the worst fucking way to implement this. I cannot possibly drop enough F-bombs within the post limit to properly describe my opinions on reflect.

I also somewhat agree about uniques. Shavs was a big mistake, Lori's will be revealed as a mistake when they get to working on PVP (EDIT: As per Mark, Unlucky only affects damage rolls, in which case, Lori's might be ok!), Kaoms is BiS for every non-ES character. I'm terrified that the Lucky unique won't have a big enough drawback. The game can't handle many more of these. And they have created problematic expectations, where people are more likely to be unhappy with non-overpowered uniques and dismiss them as worthless.

Enemy AI is a tough thing to improve. I'd love to see development there but honestly I don't think they have the man hours and expertise to really do something top notch.

Agree with new item mods

Also i have two questions:
- WHY IS SO FUCKING HARD TO CRAFT WANDS? Most of weapons has WAY less mods
- why is blood rage bugged since it exist and isnt fixed yet? Aint gonna happen

1) false

2) false

3) partly true, but really there's not that many "godly" ones. Not sure which ones you think are godly.

4) meh

5) true

Both reflect and lightning thorns are child's play btw. Don't know why you think theyre so bad.

"

aimlessgun wrote:

Lori's will be revealed as a mistake when they get to working on PVP

It's a mistake even as is. It's a supremely overpowered item. Anybody with a rudimentary understanding of probability knows this.

It is also specifically designed to cater to a rich mans build.

If you want a laugh, think about this:

When normally taking damage, what is the probability that the monsters does day, more than 90% of it's maximum damage?

Obviously the answer would be 1/10 or 10% of the time.

If you wearing that fucking ring? The probability would be 1/10 * 1/10 = 1% of the time.

So basically the ring guarantees that most of the damage monsters do will be close to the mean or less. In fact, wheras somebody without the ring will be taken the top 10% of damage 10% of the time...With this ring, you take only the top THIRD of damage 10% of the time. A CRAZY DIFFERENCE.

I myself wanted to make a low life build as a last all-in with my currency then just decided this game GGG made is not worth my time -- it was also slightly disheartening to realize that my character would end up wearing pretty much all uniques.

Lets see:
Shavronnes
Eye of Chayula
Dream Fragments
Lori's ring
Rainbowstride

It feels like a Wal-Mart build. I barely even get much room for interesting rares. All the jewelery is already taken because nothing else comes close. The chest is what makes the build possible and the boots are too good to skip. By the end of next week there will probably be several more BiS unique items added.

No thanks. Pass.

"

SL4Y3R wrote:

1) false

2) false

3) partly true, but really there's not that many "godly" ones. Not sure which ones you think are godly.

4) meh

5) true

Both reflect and lightning thorns are child's play btw. Don't know why you think theyre so bad.

Please elaborate. Thanks.

Edit: I was way harsh, so I am editing this. Reflect is only childs play to ele builds (or hybrid ele builds) it DESTROYS characters who try to do a physical damage build. It's the main reason why nobody bothers....

Lightning thorns destroyed the mapping viability of my LA duelist, so I just used him as an MF'er for low level maps. It isn't childs play if a single stray shot can gib you.

also: those were a list of my personal gripes within the game, so i don't know how they could be "true" or "false."

"

HopTortoise wrote:

Please elaborate. Thanks. Also, clearly you have never played in the level of maps before.

Try to get to a higher level within the game before commenting.

also: those were a list of my personal gripes within the game, so i don't know how they could be "true" or "false."

lol

"

SL4Y3R wrote:

1) false

2) false

3) partly true, but really there's not that many "godly" ones. Not sure which ones you think are godly.

4) meh

5) true

Both reflect and lightning thorns are child's play btw. Don't know why you think theyre so bad.

1.) true
2.) true
3.) true
4.) true
5.) true

There. I've now contributed as much to the thread as you have.

"

HopTortoise wrote:

So basically [Lori's Lantern] guarantees that most of the damage monsters do will be close to the mean or less. In fact, wheras somebody without the ring will be taken the top 10% of damage 10% of the time...With this ring, you take only the top THIRD of damage 10% of the time. A CRAZY DIFFERENCE.

Isn't this a bit overwrought considering the ring only has this effect when you're Low on Life (and not at all on CI builds)? That makes it more of a low-life insurance policy than an overbearing advantage. Aside from that one use case, the ring offers little to recommend it over many other options.