Gatekeeping Behind the River Gate

What You Need to Know

• Gatekeeping is a common and inevitable feature of traditional MMOs.
• Playing the Dark Citadel is not mandatory for full game progression.
• The Spiritborn Class is effectively gatekeeping other classes in Season 6.
• There are simple ways to overcome this obstacle.

The Middle ‘M’

Gamers who are familiar with traditional MMOs are aware that all players will eventually reach a point when they are unable to progress any further without becoming a regular member of a raiding party, a.k.a gatekeeping. This can prove to be quite a challenge for casual players who find it impractical to devote the requisite amount of time to being a member of such a group.

The result is that solo and casual players inevitably fall behind the pack and end up getting repeatedly passed over when attempting to join in multi-player activities. This disadvantage is further compounded by the fact that the gear drops needed to progress further in the game are available only from raiding.

Cosmetics Chase

Back when the Dark Citadel was first announced as a new, multi-player only endgame feature, many people in the Diablo community expressed some concern about whether this new content would result in casual players being confronted with gatekeeping. Earlier this year an article was published here at PureDiablo, which addressed this issue and reported that participation in the Dark Citadel would not be necessary for character progression or to beat the game.

Fortunately, it turned out that, although the weekly Dark Citadel Challenger’s Cache is good, it does not contain anything that cannot be obtained from other reward caches in the game. What is unique about the Dark Citadel are the cosmetic drops, which are just that and do not add any power to a character build. Most of the players who run the Dark Citadel regularly are simply chasing these exclusive cosmetics.

School’s Out

Nevertheless, the design of the Dark Citadel has still imposed some degree of gatekeeping for casual players who would just like to give it a try. Within the first week of Season 6, the majority of the parties recruiting players on the Sanctuary Discord were already spamming the Dark Citadel on Torment 4. This has proved to be an insurmountable obstacle for many players, in part due to the fact that the new Party Finder UI currently does not offer automatic matching based on player character specifications.

As for myself, although I was able to find other players who were willing to carry me through a Torment 4 Citadel run, it was much more difficult to find players with whom I could assemble a learning group. Be that as may, I eventually did get it down with the aid of some generous members of the Diablo community and I am more than willing to pay that forward (see below).

The Godly SB

Another source of gatekeeping in the current Season comes in the form of the new Spiritborn class. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock these past few weeks, you’re already well aware that the Spiritborn has been regularly performing at least 15 to 20 tiers higher than the next best class in the game. As reported in yesterday’s Campfire Chat, there are some class balance buffs coming for all classes with the next Patch, but those buffs will barely close the gap for the duration of Season 6.

For the time being, however, non-Spiritborn players, such as yours truly, have been finding it rather difficult to party up with Spiritborn players for just about everything. Trying to get into Infernal Hordes or Ladder Boss rotation groups hasn’t been too bad, but joining Pit or Dark Citadel speed groups has been virtually impossible. In fact, many of these groups specify Spiritborn-only in their description when posted.

So, what’s the solution to overcoming this obstacle? The most obvious one is to create and level up Spiritborn character, which shouldn’t be too difficult with the upcoming Mother’s Blessing XP buff. Otherwise, Sorc mains like me will just have to wait until Season 7 when fixes to the “unintentional interactions” associated with the SB class will bring it back down to Sanctuary with the rest of us.

In Service

In the meantime, I’d like to offer my support to any and all solo as casual players who would like some assistance with, but not limited to, the following:

• Leveling up new characters.
• Upgrading glyphs.
• Unlocking Torment 4.
• Completing the Season Journey.
• Learning the Dark Citadel.
• Learning the Kurast Undercity.
• Ladder Bosses.
• Farming Masterworking materials.

As I have said many times before, I truly appreciate how and why some players are hesitant or reluctant to reach out for help. However, I’ve already helped many players with all of these activities, including several players from other countries, and doing so will be my principal focus for the remainder of this Season. So, if you feel like your game could use a little boost or you would like to try some of the new endgame content, feel free to contact me on Twitter, Discord, or message be on Battle.net at Gazerrick#1501.

See You Next Time

The PureDiablo community would like to know your opinion on this topic, so please sound off in the comments section below, or contact me on Twitter. Let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions for future topics here at PureDiablo. In the meantime, be sure to keep an eye on the news feed so you’ll have all the up-to-date info you need to get the most out of your game.

If you believe that any of the information shared above is inaccurate in any way, please let us know, along with a reference for the correct information, so we can update this document accordingly.

Gazerrick is a staff writer for PureDiablo who focuses primarily on casual gaming interests and lore for the Diablo community. When not hacking and slashing his way through a new Season, he can be found participating in, and presenting at, various pop culture conventions in southern Arizona. You can follow him on Twitter @Gazerrick9000 for even more of his gaming indulgences.