Should the Delve difficulty scaling be inverted?

If only there was a way to scale delve difficulty along more than one dimension O.O

If GGG wants to create a time sink while still leaving open the possibility of non-dedicated-delve builds getting below 2k, they could start with inverting offensive/defensive mob scaling. They could also fix what makes zone mods and light levels break below 2k.

Taking a step back, GGG mentioned they want league encounters to be their own best source of league loot. We've seen a little of this in action in 3.8, where breaches now drop significantly more splinters, and non-Breach sources of splinters are less common.

Delve is after all another league mechanic, and although it has become a major lifeline to the game, it's not sustainable because of the scaling and buggy code issues at deeper depths. (Not to mention the decision to nerf sulphite scarabs)

Unless delve is willfully neglected because it's by far the most popular aspect of the long game, and puts recent league design to absolute shame.

Really I dont see why hp and damage dont just scale up equally.

Yes, it would hurt one shot builds, but why are we trying to support them.

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If you scale up monsters HP instead of damage, you'll still need the same build. You just won't die as much.

Deep Delving is entirely optional anyway, there's no other rewards down there other than going the deepest. Once you hit mlvl 83, most players should delve horizontally.

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Asmosis wrote:

Deep Delving is entirely optional anyway, there's no other rewards down there other than going the deepest. Once you hit mlvl 83, most players should delve horizontally.

you get the same rewards, but you get them way more frequently

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xMustard wrote:

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Asmosis wrote:

Deep Delving is entirely optional anyway, there's no other rewards down there other than going the deepest. Once you hit mlvl 83, most players should delve horizontally.

you get the same rewards, but you get them way more frequently

On that note, does the sulphite costs keep increasing? Or does it remain the asme as earlier depths for mlvl 83?

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xMustard wrote:

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Asmosis wrote:

Deep Delving is entirely optional anyway, there's no other rewards down there other than going the deepest. Once you hit mlvl 83, most players should delve horizontally.

you get the same rewards, but you get them way more frequently

Seconded on that.

I seem to remember a post from the all time best deep delver, and he mentioned how the boss encounters were so frequent at the X000 depths that they become more of an annoyance than a blessing as they are nigh on impossible to run.

Would be very profitable to find the perfect balance between difficulty and frequency though.

Balancing smth for 0.01% of players? Yeah they could scale damage/HP same way but I don´t think they care about balance too much.
Getting to deeper delve is a pain (unless you buy overpriced scarabs in trade league but even then).

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DAKKONx wrote:

In my opinion yes - damage scaling and hp scaling should be inverted in delve.

The high damage scaling is layered on top of delve map mods which makes 1 shot on high toughness characters incredibly common on depths 2k+. This is the level where even the best juggernauts / 30k ES occultists would struggle.

One just needs to look at the league ladder where deep delving is dominated by glass cannons as the mantra is simply "don't get hit".

HC ladder is very different though.
Dying in SC doesn´t matter much.

Glass-canon builds would probably dominate sc ladder no matter what (unless you create some form of monster´s imunity/toughness to specific element but it would hurt tanks even more)
I think the only way how to change that aspect would be enabling smth like "HC MOD" in Delve once you reach specific treshold level (deep enough to not annoy normal players in lower delves).
It doesn´t have to mean permanent death but some form of penalty progression.
Let say you can loose 5 levels or whatever for each death.

lowering damage and increacing hp would probably open delve for more none glass cannon builds but they will still be the dominant build

now if they add lots of "reflect" and "on death" mobs...

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Nephalim wrote:

GGG doesnt allow this game to have tanks. Too difficulty to balance and too likely to cause player rentention issues when every scrub is rocking an immortal build and getting to 99-100.

I don't think that getting to 100 causes player retention issues. More likely not leveling for the second week because some bs 1 shot mechanic (I am looking at you porcupine mobs) causes retention issues.

No.1 Delve Gladiator here using life melee namelock skill. My opinion:


Enemies in delve need arc on death with ele penetration to kill off those goddamn 200 ES CI trash tard dex stacker rangers. They have nothing lost with zero defense all damage nodes in deep delve. Its a kind of build that doesnt deserve any delve depth at all.

Edit: Headhunter needs to be disabled for Delve.