Big Suggestions For Gameplay

[pallid notch]

I heavy heartedly agree here with Raz but with some caveats.

I think the fact that glyphs are such a major part of the progression path, when the key drop is so scarce and, because of its weird interactions with Satanic zones affixes like loot drop, angelic and heroic % buffs, you're basically compelled to not run them when that isn't the case, when in reality, the entire rest of the game should be for that and, the key dungeons for said glyph progression.
I almost feel forced to keep telling people to not run their first few dungeons and try to get their BiS glyphs bc their only key is on a zone which isnt currently the Satanic zones because its simply, not efficient.
I feel like that was a massive oversight. We could've just disabled the Satanic zones buffs inside the dungeons and kept it for that specific part of progression, glyphs, not loot piñatas, we already have enough of those.
I also do heavily believe that a system this impactful (the difference of a character with a zapper level max and one not maxed is incomparable) should work in a completely different way. Higher drop rate, making it less scarce would be #1. The current prices, of course inflated because of Satanic zones chest explosions, are a showcase of how much basically no one cares about their glyph level currently and just want loot.

The season has been a blast and, played enough legacy seasons here to know this was exactly like the seasons Raz mentioned, I was there too.
The game went a long way and changed direction from that to a "more grindy chill back and enjoy ur progression path kinda of game" but clearly apparently went back full 360 to disabling S satanic from the filter day 3 into this season.

All that being said, I think seasons like these have their catering niche from time to time and you cant make everyone happy but I definitely had my fair share of fun these few days, but they were short and now its just a slot machine simulator.

[pallid notch]

As of speed and others I think I also have a few two cents to give about.

Well, character speed I already made a suggestion for that, shameless plug #1221487014205984838 message

Now, the other thing is skill balancing.
I'm not here trying to teach the pope how to pray but my thought process on abilities and their respective augments should be NOT based on functionality. Anything that adds the feeling of "damn this skill is unplayable without its augment" its just objectively bad game design.
Skills should be good, not overpowered or strong, but it should have that extra kick straight out of the box.

I can only talk about stormweaver because its the only class I've played this season.
Surge is a great skill, its not for me but it isn't that bad, the augment makes it boomerang making it incredibly strong and feel way less janky. (we also gonna completely ignore the fact that it is just demonspawn surge's reskinned, looks like yall are learning more than just game design but also monetization with ||Blizzard||)
Now... Charged bolts are already slow as shit and have some borderline awful synergies (Storm bolt and cloud instead of the Wave lenght which gives projectile speed node... thats straight up dumb). Their augment literally makes it MANDATORY, its like you cant play that skill at all whatsoever without it. And, even if you fixed the synergies, the proj speed is 1% per point which still doesnt feel good, forcing us into +3 proj speed Demonfire gloves. When you add that with the other post I said earlier, you're already 2 forced slots into your equipment set.

Thats lazy design, you shouldnt make things forcefully bad to make it unnecessarily harder. Make skills have their proper synergies, you can literally GLANCE at them and get to the right conclusion, you're smarter than me, you run this game, not me. If a dumbass like me can get to these conclusions, this should be a cake walk for you. After you do that, then you can make content objectively harder. Check how much those synergies would increases everyones damage and then push hp numbers up accordingly or tune numbers down accordingly too, it doesnt matter. A skill can be fun and enjoyable while doing ass damage but currently, we have some spells doing ass damage while also feeling like dogshit, which is the worst of both worlds.

[inner aurora]

honestly, idk if im missing it but...as a new player i have no idea what im doing 100% of the time. ive just been walking through maps. idk about gear progression, what builds im supposed to do, what characters dont suck, what attributes im supposed to build etc. im thankful i have a discord but even then sometimes i get a little lost in the sauce and the 20,000 comments. im sure a lot of your players are people who have been here all 10 years know what to do and what theyre looking for; which is great and all but us new idiots are just kinda floating through space with zero idea and gooogling it/youtubing it pulls up little to no information, outdated information, or something unrelated to this game. also asking in these chats very rarely ends up with a direct anwser so im stuck having to go through thousands of comments to find out how to craft (vaguely), what gear/attributes i need (if 200 people dont have different answers) etc. so it would just be easier if the game gave new players instructions way better than it currently does. because im half way to 100 because you level so quickly,i very rarely quest because ive yet to find a good enough reason to, havnt crafted anything, have no idea how im building my character im just...1hitting things some how lol , idk how to optimise my damage or why im doing this all to begin with. idk what end game content looks like or how to prepare...etc etc etc. its very over whelming where theres little to no instructions.

[strange briar]

My first season playing HS but I have played many ARPGs in the past and I’ve been having an amazing time with the game. I see zero issue incentivizing group play because it was by suggestion of a friend that has played the game for years that our group of about 8 all bought the hame and started playing. Drops have felt amazingly satisfying as we all have tried to find the classes that best fit us and each of us have swapped classes 1-2 times figuring out what we wanted to play. If you are finished gearing in 3 days that’s seems amazing but I would venture to say that your experience is what pushed you so quickly through to that point. My main critique of the game honestly hasn’t even been with the game tbh. The community and the ability to theory craft or even just get basic information seems particularly difficult. As a whole there is some weird gate keeping of information that compared to other games of the genre is just none existent. Most YouTube videos contain little to no information other than “here is my 500 mil build running though a map quick and here’s my dps meter.” I understand there is a ladder and I’m sure there is secrets of the trade but again other games with the same systems have information readily available and community’s that seem much more receptive to new players. My only real issues with the game itself so far is small bugs here and there which honestly for the amount of content the game has I’ve mostly written off as part of the experience because everything else has been a blast. I just don’t see the game loop anything close to that of D3 with the “weekend and done” cycle it seems to have each season. It’s now been a week and I’ve got plenty of fresh content left to achieve and honestly other classes I’m very much interested in trying. The cycle of season seems to be 2 months looking at current seasons start compared to the previous and that seems honestly like a great season life span.

[torn edge]

Agreed 100% - group play is practically forced if you wanna be time efficient. Moreover, chaos tower group split is pure abuse. Get to 10, ask 3 friends to come to act as "bodies" so you can have 4x loot. So either you play as group or you get 1/4 loot.

If I have a team of 3 people (4 makes the game crash) - we are efficient.
If I don't, I'm not and I'll forcefully fall behind - solo play is comparable but way less efficient.

Easy fix would be making Rakhul solo only (doubt it would be implemented).

[strange briar]

Network, there are plenty of people looking to cash in on the ability to waterfall them. Step outside your bubble make new friends. Or better yet get more friends to play! There is nothing wrong with “forced” group play it’s generally how you grow the people playing the game.

[strange briar]

Which was?

in two days?

So you are ignoring most of the rest of the end game

So you're pov is this bizzarre like .01% of the community

No wormholes? It honestly feels like you rushed for the sake of rushing

How many hours would you say you played in those 72 hours

I mean but how many would you say on average

I feel like our povs are very different because I'm a week in and I've still got plenty of room to grow

I mean I'm not sure I would call my post refuting what you said just giving the pov of someone new to the game.

I'm simply saying I think you are sitting in a very small part of the community overall.

because we are a week in and steam pop shows the games peaks as basically a straight line

So its possible the game is a state you don't want but overall seems to be well received

In fact its appears this has been a big season and is holding players alot longer than last season

ah one of those people heres a proper graph and not a pov of 3 am for most of the US on easter sunday

up 1K players from last season

and holding the players long than in the pervious season

again this really might be a you issue

it emperically did not

You are incorrect again

and also you are looking at numbers going into a holiday weekend

When normal people leave thier basement and rinse the cheeto dust off their fingers and go out and see the sun

Sorry you played for 72 hours straight for mid gear the guild tag sounds like it fits

I mean I'm neither trolling nor "subhuman" I gave a differing pov sorry your ego couldn't handle being disagreed with on a 3k player game playing as a pixel person

[strange briar]

Also POE league dropped sure that didnt have anything to do with a drop of arpg players from the arpg

[versed ginkgo]

Everything myrry has said is correct so far