Following along with my last review of the December update on paragon levels, we are diving into what we know about itemization in Diablo IV thus far.
Check out the full article
Itemization in Diablo IV
- Thread starter Rush
- Start date
Following along with my last review of the December update on paragon levels, we are diving into what we know about itemization in Diablo IV thus far.
Check out the full article
Jugalator
Member
OK, so this shall be my A Bit Too Little Condensed Weekend Post™ due to 
SPARE TIME (say what?!) so prepare yourselves mortals. 
My six greatest issues with Diablo 3 items are:
1. Critical damage plays a too great role.
2. Skill damage is based on weapon damage.
3. The omnipotent primary attribute.
4. Poorly used elemental damage.
5. Poorly used elemental resists.
6. Damage inflation compounded with what I call damage cliffs.
Critical damage plays a too great role
I wouldn't mind removing critical damage altogether. I don't understand the role that sometimes hitting things for triple damage plays in terms of fun. Let's say a weapon sweep hits five enemies. Then there's a chance that, say, two of those will lose more life than the others because they were critically hit. OK? Is that fun? Over time as you boost it, it'll get mighty influental and overshadow cool skill effects, so it better be fun!
I think they need to weigh the gameplay issues of powers overshadowing others against their actual gameplay value. Critical damage is an automatically activated feature with no real interactive input or skill needed from the player. It just happens every now and then in the background. I think it's boring and should be removed.
But Blizzard won't remove it so next best thing something like capping it at 50% and always do +100% damage. Something nice to have and work for but soon overtaken by other mechanics, character, and gamer skills.
Skill damage is based on weapon damage
In Diablo 3, skill damage is usually based on weapon damage which leads to quirks like when still levelling, a Wizard using a Maul rather than a Staff can be a great idea! Not because the Maul had something on it, but because it was a heavy hitter. Hm. This doesn't jive well with the RPG backdrop and disrupts immersion to me. Only when you get to Legendaries and Sets, you return to fantasy themes, but this only due to unique and powerful mechanics that these items provide.
So, I hope skill damage will only be based on weapon damage when it makes sense. Like an Enchant skill empowering a weapon. Not a Lighting Nova.
The omnipotent primary attribute
When in doubt, pump the primary attribute! It improves a bunch of stuff your character needs! I think this is too dumbed down in Diablo 3 and should probably be reworked. First and foremost, I'd like every attribute to be fixed in purpose regardless class. Dexterity always helping with Dodge and Defense, never with Damage. Strength renamed to something like Offense and helping with Damage for all classes, including spell damage for Wizards. And so on. Rename or fix things to not need the crutches like in Diablo 3 of varying use depending on class. Not sure where Diablo 4 is headed here to be honest.
Poorly used elemental damage
Chances are you don't even know which elemental damage your current Diablo 3 weapon does. Was it Fire, or maybe it was Holy...? Who cares, it doesn't really matter to anything anyway in any noticeable way! This should be completely reversed and matter a lot more. Make elemental damage fun again! It's not fun to have Immunities like in Diablo 2 so some may shy away from a greater role here, but I'm thinking of giving damage types various additional properties.
I do think Diablo 4 is on a good path here, at least last I heard. Cold damage slowing and freezing, and the new rune system triggering on maybe chilled monsters. Other effects should be poisoned and burning. Make fun things trigger on burning enemies. Maybe a skill that is like pouring gasoline on them.
Poorly used elemental resists
In Diablo 3, you need resists. But they're half auto-raised and half raised basically all together from gear and you often really don't care much for the details. I definitely think that you need to be better protected against fire when fighting demons and that bonuses to all resists (from items or attributes) should be less common. Remember how valuable that was in Diablo 1 and 2?! For good reason! It makes item choices and gameplay more strategic.
Damage inflation compounded with what I call damage cliffs
I keep being confused over whether this is going to be fixed in Diablo 4 or not. Sometimes it's like Blizzard is aware, other times not. The damage numbers instantly got to the thousands in the pre-alpha screenshots rather than be tighter together and allowing smaller numbers. On the other hand, I think they are aware of the damage cliff from Set Items and doing something about those.
I think large numbers are not only a numerological detail but especially an indicator of steep damage scaling, which in turn is an indicator of overdependence on damage alone rather than applying effects (elemental, curses/hexes, other debuffs) on monsters, strategic player positioning and skills helping with that, etc. Steep scaling also makes items "must haves" and this can cause needlessly early and important grind. Just look at 6P sets of Diablo 3 for an example. You're nothing if you don't wear a complete one or use the special case Legacy of Nightmare to flip the "on" switch (???) to make Legendary builds end-game viable.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, with the latest updates on these topics from Blizzard, I think it's steering too much towards Diablo 3. It's as if they are worried gamers who grew up with Diablo 3 won't recognize more strategic gameplay. Blizzard has said that they're still working on this and reminds us itemization is still in alpha, but they need at least a year of work on this stuff which I hope they are aware of. It's not anything that should need to come as an afterthought in patches. If the atmosphere is the soul of a Diablo game, I think items are the heart.
SPARE TIME (say what?!) so prepare yourselves mortals. My six greatest issues with Diablo 3 items are:
1. Critical damage plays a too great role.
2. Skill damage is based on weapon damage.
3. The omnipotent primary attribute.
4. Poorly used elemental damage.
5. Poorly used elemental resists.
6. Damage inflation compounded with what I call damage cliffs.
Critical damage plays a too great role
I wouldn't mind removing critical damage altogether. I don't understand the role that sometimes hitting things for triple damage plays in terms of fun. Let's say a weapon sweep hits five enemies. Then there's a chance that, say, two of those will lose more life than the others because they were critically hit. OK? Is that fun? Over time as you boost it, it'll get mighty influental and overshadow cool skill effects, so it better be fun!
I think they need to weigh the gameplay issues of powers overshadowing others against their actual gameplay value. Critical damage is an automatically activated feature with no real interactive input or skill needed from the player. It just happens every now and then in the background. I think it's boring and should be removed.
But Blizzard won't remove it so next best thing something like capping it at 50% and always do +100% damage. Something nice to have and work for but soon overtaken by other mechanics, character, and gamer skills.
Skill damage is based on weapon damage
In Diablo 3, skill damage is usually based on weapon damage which leads to quirks like when still levelling, a Wizard using a Maul rather than a Staff can be a great idea! Not because the Maul had something on it, but because it was a heavy hitter. Hm. This doesn't jive well with the RPG backdrop and disrupts immersion to me. Only when you get to Legendaries and Sets, you return to fantasy themes, but this only due to unique and powerful mechanics that these items provide.
So, I hope skill damage will only be based on weapon damage when it makes sense. Like an Enchant skill empowering a weapon. Not a Lighting Nova.
The omnipotent primary attribute
When in doubt, pump the primary attribute! It improves a bunch of stuff your character needs! I think this is too dumbed down in Diablo 3 and should probably be reworked. First and foremost, I'd like every attribute to be fixed in purpose regardless class. Dexterity always helping with Dodge and Defense, never with Damage. Strength renamed to something like Offense and helping with Damage for all classes, including spell damage for Wizards. And so on. Rename or fix things to not need the crutches like in Diablo 3 of varying use depending on class. Not sure where Diablo 4 is headed here to be honest.
Poorly used elemental damage
Chances are you don't even know which elemental damage your current Diablo 3 weapon does. Was it Fire, or maybe it was Holy...? Who cares, it doesn't really matter to anything anyway in any noticeable way! This should be completely reversed and matter a lot more. Make elemental damage fun again! It's not fun to have Immunities like in Diablo 2 so some may shy away from a greater role here, but I'm thinking of giving damage types various additional properties.
I do think Diablo 4 is on a good path here, at least last I heard. Cold damage slowing and freezing, and the new rune system triggering on maybe chilled monsters. Other effects should be poisoned and burning. Make fun things trigger on burning enemies. Maybe a skill that is like pouring gasoline on them.
Poorly used elemental resists
In Diablo 3, you need resists. But they're half auto-raised and half raised basically all together from gear and you often really don't care much for the details. I definitely think that you need to be better protected against fire when fighting demons and that bonuses to all resists (from items or attributes) should be less common. Remember how valuable that was in Diablo 1 and 2?! For good reason! It makes item choices and gameplay more strategic.
Damage inflation compounded with what I call damage cliffs
I keep being confused over whether this is going to be fixed in Diablo 4 or not. Sometimes it's like Blizzard is aware, other times not. The damage numbers instantly got to the thousands in the pre-alpha screenshots rather than be tighter together and allowing smaller numbers. On the other hand, I think they are aware of the damage cliff from Set Items and doing something about those.
I think large numbers are not only a numerological detail but especially an indicator of steep damage scaling, which in turn is an indicator of overdependence on damage alone rather than applying effects (elemental, curses/hexes, other debuffs) on monsters, strategic player positioning and skills helping with that, etc. Steep scaling also makes items "must haves" and this can cause needlessly early and important grind. Just look at 6P sets of Diablo 3 for an example. You're nothing if you don't wear a complete one or use the special case Legacy of Nightmare to flip the "on" switch (???) to make Legendary builds end-game viable.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, with the latest updates on these topics from Blizzard, I think it's steering too much towards Diablo 3. It's as if they are worried gamers who grew up with Diablo 3 won't recognize more strategic gameplay. Blizzard has said that they're still working on this and reminds us itemization is still in alpha, but they need at least a year of work on this stuff which I hope they are aware of. It's not anything that should need to come as an afterthought in patches. If the atmosphere is the soul of a Diablo game, I think items are the heart.
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