[Daboo]

There was a pretty big blue post made on the official forums today, and it talks about many of the issues that a lot of players are up in arms against at the moment, a very interesting read:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6018173

Important stuff from the article:

Interesting Stats:

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• On average players have created 3 characters each.
• 80% of characters are between levels 1 and 30.
• 1.9% of characters have unlocked Inferno difficulty.
• 54% of Hardcore players chose a female character.
• The majority of Hardcore deaths (35%) occur in Act I Normal
• The most common level 60 build in the game is only used by 0.7% of level 60 characters of that class (not including Passive diversity)
• The most used runes for each class at level 60 are Barbarian: Best Served Cold, Demon Hunter:
• Lingering Fog, Wizard: Mirror Skin, Monk: Peaceful Repose, Witch Doctor: Numbing Dart

Skill nerfs and balance

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• Some skills were too effective, and were hence nerfed.It's okay to be op to a certain extent, but not game breaking (like the ones nerfed), These will have to be corrected.
• If a skill is deemed absolutely necessary to survive at a certain difficulty level, then in goes against the basic design principle i.e to promote diversity.
• The nerf caught some people unaware, next time there will be a post on the forum called "upcoming changes" before the nerf.

Inferno difficulty

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• Keeping an eye on inferno difficulty, it is supposed to be hard, but it is a bit harder than expected, as the damage your dealt is very "spikey".
• Shifting focus from survivability to efficiently dealing damage, in voluntarily placed risky situations.
• A lot of people are attempting inferno without proper gear.

Itemization

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• People are comparing high level blues to low level legendaries, and claiming imba.
• Will be exposing items of level 63 in the next patch (1.03) to help people compare items.(i.e blue level 63, vs legendary item level 60)....I dont really understand what this means.
• That said, Legendary items will be buffed coming in PvP patch(1.1), will not affect previously found items.
• Long term goal:Increasing affix diversity and legendary bonuses.

Blacksmith,crafting and Gems

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• Blacksmith is an alternative source for upgrades, use him to bridge itemization gaps at level 60.
• Working on reducing costs for training blacksmith, through both pages and gold.
• Reduce the cost of combining gems, maybe use two gems to make a greater one, upto flawless square.

Patches

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• Patch 1.02 will come up next week, will mostly be service issues.
• 1.03 a little bit later, is the real balance patch.
• 1.1 will be PvP patch.
• Looking to open up a PTR soon to test PvP.
• For changes to the game,the game will depend on patching primarily, for urgent needs, hotfixes will be used.

Edit:Just realized, nothing much was said about the auction house or the rmah, maybe they think the game isnt ready yet. I guess they'll have to get the gold house working properly first

Quick Comments

nirvAnA:

[Cyanide]

Yes to ilvl for items. I actually made a post about recognizing item names to determine which is the highest tier. ilvl would make it way easier.

ilvl or Item Level is actually the different tiers of items. WoW uses this system to differentiate the tiers of the items.

For example.

Runic Arcus, Impellor and Exorcist are all Level 60 Required to use 1-Handed Crossbows.
However, Exorcist has a higher DPS range of 258-263 attached to it compared to a Runic Arcus with a range of 196-199 DPS.
That means that the item level (ilvl) for Exorcist is higher than that of the Runic Arcus.
For example's sake,
Runic Arcus (ilvl 61) vs Exorcist (ilvl 63)

[iMSystem]

I don't think you fully understand how item level works.

But your concept is close enough

[Dingobloo]

It kinda sucks that they're not reducing the level 60 blacksmithing costs, it's still much much cheaper to hit the AH to get the exact piece you want then risk the BS 50k per piece + the materials.

Similarly it just doesn't feel like farming the previous act in order to get geared for inferno is particularly fruitful outside of gold, 98% of the drops suck and the remaining 2% are likely not to be for your class, or not have the correct assignment of stats for anyone.

Quick Comments

nirvAnA:

So true

[cruxSpoon]

In regards to Inferno difficulty...

Its been 2 weeks since release. The wow casuals are already complaining they aren't in inferno and having the best gear. We have to stand up to these people, they ruined wow for anyone who enjoys gaming. I for one am bloody glad inferno is difficult. I just got belial down last night, and Im stoked cause it took effort and downing him was reward enough.

If they nerf inferno in a way that makes it herp derp roflstomp for everyone, Im done with gaming forever...

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:	Agree that inferno should be very hard and not a roflstomp
	Dox:	oh god not this "casuals are ruining the game" crap again......

[nirvAnA]

With regards to inferno difficulty, there will come a point where the market becomes too saturated with good items which will drive the prices super low. Like right now its only 2 weeks and everyday the price drops by up to 50% overnight. I remember last week 1000+ dps items cost 10mil, they now cost 1-2mi and in a months time they will cost <200k. 900DPS blue items are already going for <50k

Because there is no "item sink", the longer people play, the more items in the market and the cheaper they become. People will be overstocked with 1000-1300 dps items and would want to get rid of them and start to undercut one another leading to low prices.

And this leads to casuals at that time being able to gear up easily and cheaply and to roflstomp their way through inferno if its made too easy. Gear that is very expensive now to us will be cheap to them by then. So there needs to be a delicate balance to make sure its still hard for the casuals then. Tricky spot!

[iMSystem]

Not to mention, as soon as the Real Money Auction House opens up the economy of the game will vastly change when people will be able to purchase gold for money.

[Dox]

I don't think gear is the ultimate stopgap you're making it out to be. Even the most geared player will get eaten alive without the proper skill set and play style. On the flip side, a good player who never gets hit will eventually take down any boss regardless of gear.

And please, please, please - don't let this become another game full of elitists who shit all over casuals like they have no right to play the game. It was one of the more disgusting facets of WoW and I'm surprised people are already saying it in a game that's been out for two freaking weeks.

Quick Comments

Maynarde:

Well said, but I think there are some attacks you can't actually physically dodge

[crAzerk]

Originally Posted by Dox

I don't think gear is the ultimate stopgap you're making it out to be. Even the most geared player will get eaten alive without the proper skill set and play style. On the flip side, a good player who never gets hit will eventually take down any boss regardless of gear.

And please, please, please - don't let this become another game full of elitists who shit all over casuals like they have no right to play the game. It was one of the more disgusting facets of WoW and I'm surprised people are already saying it in a game that's been out for two freaking weeks.

But... gear IS that important actually. "a good player who never gets hit will eventually take down any boss regardless of gear." I don't think this is true at all. A simple example would be Inferno Butcher, with the enrage timer + unavoidable Multiple Hooks

[Mezza]

I am in agreement with Dox.

However I'm still peeved as a monk player that Inferno is hella tough as a melee to survive Boss packs mechanics just seem so stacked against the melees

Quick Comments

Asrathiel:

Damn. I'd better find some ranged people to play with when I get to that stage!

[Benji]

I agree with Crazerk, both Butcher and Belial in Inferno have a DPS requirement, I am not sure about the other 2 as I am yet to do them, and on top of that if you take too long on Elite packs, they will enrage (Found this out on a Fast/Mortar/Shielding/Extra HP pack).

As for the casual argument, they have a right to play, no one is denying that, but do they have a right to complete inferno if it means making it very easy for those of us who are putting in a lot of time on it?

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:	This! Completing inferno should give some1 the similar satisfaction of reaching GM in starcraft imo.
	Daboo:

[mGMUSE]

This game is kind of in a mess, AH has 10 million issues, server lags, loading affix stuttering issue, terrible hitbox, inferno partying(and generally all game but it's very apparent) doesn't have the right scaling to warrant partying, gear drops make it such that people who have good gear can earn money so much faster while most people are stuck farming act 1 inferno, legendaries/rares/blues are completely messed up, some legendary affixes not registering... the list goes on

It's almost as if we paid $80 for a beta patch-2 game. Rather disappointed with Blizzard but after how they screwed up sc2 what could one really expect...?

On the other hand, Valve's Dota2 Beta looks like a full game easily worth $50/month, and they're going to release it for free...

Quick Comments

	Dox:	They screwed up SC2? Seems to be doing pretty well!
	yongming:	counter to dox's rep. they alienated the custom games community.
	FaDeBadger:	Dox is right, custom scene is not where it's at. Competitive is
	SoloZ:
	LennX:	But custom games = causal gamers (causal gamers provides the most moolah for games like sc2/d3 etc)

[Dox]

I thought it would have been pretty obvious that my comments were exclusive of enrage timers, I was being figurative. I see nothing in that post which suggested "We're going to nerf Inferno because people are complaining it's too hard." In fact, I don't recall them ever nerfing anything in the history of any game because people complained it was too hard. They either tune it to an acceptable level or make the content accessible when it's no longer valid/current.

[crAzerk]

Originally Posted by Dox

I thought it would have been pretty obvious that my comments were exclusive of enrage timers, I was being figurative. I see nothing in that post which suggested "We're going to nerf Inferno because people are complaining it's too hard." In fact, I don't recall them ever nerfing anything in the history of any game because people complained it was too hard. They either tune it to an acceptable level or make the content accessible when it's no longer valid/current.

Even if we ignore bosses with Enrage timers, an undergeared character will never be able to clear someone like Belial. The adds will just overrun you.

(I don't really get what you mean by 'I was being figurative' anyway so if that covers what I just said then ignore what I just said)

[Dingobloo]

Originally Posted by xGKingBenji

I agree with Crazerk, both Butcher and Belial in Inferno have a DPS requirement, I am not sure about the other 2 as I am yet to do them, and on top of that if you take too long on Elite packs, they will enrage (Found this out on a Fast/Mortar/Shielding/Extra HP pack).

As for the casual argument, they have a right to play, no one is denying that, but do they have a right to complete inferno if it means making it very easy for those of us who are putting in a lot of time on it?

I don't think the amount of time you've put in to it weighs very heavily on their decision making at all, there's a fundamental difference between justness and fairness.

Fairness would be that everyone has to suffer equally, where justness might be to make it so more people don't have to suffer as much.

The game as it currently is in inferno really encourages just grinding sections, solo might I add, that you know to be profitable and simple for your build to handle (see: wizards skipping act 2 entirely in order to grind out the bridge in act 3) in order to purchase the gear that's good for you off the AH. Plenty of people have the patience for doing so, myself included, but blizzard doesn't want the game to play this way and I don't blame them.

What it doesn't encourage is coherent play through of an act for loot because doing so weakens your build to the point where you can't effective take on the variety of elites you'll inevitably end up seeing.

[cruxSpoon]

Dox, you are a gentleman and a scholar, but i have to disagree with you in regards to nerfs.

WoW, constant nerfs to make content easier...

In regards to elitists who shit over casuals. In WoW that happened cause it was a guild and server that was populated, you wont see that in Diablo. You'll see decked out characters etc, but there is no stand outside the AH and show off. There is no, you can't join our guild cause you aren't good enough. You can do endgame in Diablo solo, not in wow.

My worry is blizzard listens to the masses of people who play 1-2 hours a week and complain that its too hard, want my welfare epics now. If people like that are so desperate for gear I believe the RMAH will cater to them.Inb4 "why should we pay more money for items". Well sir, if xperson spent 20 hours a aweek playing, and you spend 20 hours a week working, the time spent to earnings should be same (ceterus paribis, spelling). So no its nothing like WoW.

The reason that you see people saying this "elitist" stuff 2 weeks in is because they dont want another WoW to happen. We can tell from history that if you put idealistic faschist/communist people in power, you are going to have a bad time (hitler, stalin, i digress).

As for inferno being nerfed, that post wasn't obvious about it, but it does indicate that they are listening to the forum qq'ers, which unfortunately is not a fair representation of the players in the game.

Quick Comments

	Dingobloo:	Godwin's Law
	neon:	I'd never call in sick to play diablo.
	FaDeBadger:	Just no...

[Dox]

Originally Posted by cruxSpoon

WoW, constant nerfs to make content easier...

This is an ongoing stigma which really holds no meaningful weight. It's one of those phrases that gets thrown around all the time, when the truth of it is - content was very rarely nerfed without reason. ie. Hard Mode 10-man boss requiring a full raid of optimised 25-man loot. Y'know Sartharion +3 Drakes was harder on 10 man than it was on 25 for a very long time? Because this was the first time they tried downscaling content and they fucked up the numbers. So they adjusted it to what it SHOULD have been.

The other example is just like I said in my previous post - the content has been on farm for the majority of the general populous and a new tier is on the PTR. So they introduce a zone-wide buff that that scales the content back, allowing people to bridge the necessary gap between tiers. Attrition was a common theme in the game and any guild leader can tell you how frustrating it is to find willing candidates to perform key roles when they simply can't get the gear they need. Situations like this help to alleviate that. (I was the raid leader and main tank of a top 50 US raiding guild for 5 years before I stopped playing. The reason I quit? I couldn't stand being surrounded by elitist fuckheads who felt the need to shit all over everyone else simply because we spent our Friday and Sunday nights raiding whilst other people had social lives. It was truly pathetic.)

My worry is blizzard listens to the masses of people who play 1-2 hours a week and complain that its too hard, want my welfare epics now.

Can you actually link me to any supporting threads/posts where this is happening, or has ever happened? The truth is, this stuff is entirely fabricated, just like it was in WoW. They tune their content based on figures and statistics, not whining forum posts. They re-iterate this every year at Blizzcon and yet still people continue to suggest that Blizzard's balance team revolves around the forums.

it does indicate that they are listening to the forum qq'ers

No. No, no, no, no and no.

Quick Comments

	neon:	very much agree!
	FaDeBadger:	Like a boss
	LennX:	People choose to see or believe what they want to most of the time.

[Insom]

didnt they nerf algalon and yogg hardmodes???

I do remember a few fights being nerfed after we did them on hardmodes, so they do most definitely nerf content after its been beaten (or tweak the numbers, same diff)

[Highlander]

I really liked the blog post, I like the way they are going with it.

I'm really concerned about one-hit deaths in Inferno, even with appropriate gear. Hard can be achieved without one-hit kills, and that they identified 'Spiky-ness' as an issue and llok to restructure around that rather than simply nerf is something I am hopeful about. As it stands, it also discourages playing as a party in Inferno, which I really hope they are able to address.

I think (so far at least) they are addressing the QQers, very different to pandering to them.

I would've liked to see more about UI systems, in particular chat and the AH as it is currently.

I would have also liked to see what they think the economy is going to do. Their 10 item limit system encourages stuff to be sold for peanuts, becasue less proceeds with far higher profit means more gold for those farming.

I can't see the artisans being effective throughout the levelling process while that system is in place. I'm pretty concerned that the economy is going to tank.

Originally Posted by System

I don't think you fully understand how item level works.

But your concept is close enough

System, what else is there to it that he is missing? Explanation or link?

[Dox]

Originally Posted by Insom

didnt they nerf algalon and yogg hardmodes???

I do remember a few fights being nerfed after we did them on hardmodes, so they do most definitely nerf content after its been beaten (or tweak the numbers, same diff)

Patch 3.1 (Ulduar) launched on April 14th, 2009. Within a month, over 25 guilds had been farming One Light in the Darkness. 2 months later, they "nerfed" (read: fixed) Yogg-Saron so that his Death Ray wouldn't hurt people who were feared or mind controlled... because that sort of RNG was retarded.

Algalon never had a hard mode, but they did reduce the damage of his Black Hole explosion (by 5%) in 10-man because it wasn't scaling down from the 25-man version correctly - meaning you had to either:
1) Have all possible raid buffs and a Warrior/Paladin tank (Druid and DK would die)
2) Have enough external CD's to cover each explosion

Reducing the explosion damage allowed more viable tank opportunities and promoted a little flexibility in the raid composition (which was the biggest goal from TBC -> WotLK).