So I've been playing more Diablo 3 the past two days since the patch hit. I've never found myself playing a game as much as this and asking the question frequently "Am I enjoying this?". I find the game mechanics to be largely untuned and the mob damage is too spiky.
Many melee oriented builds are straight up nonviable in torment 6 because you can literally get one shotted by a combination of abilities in rapid succession.
It got me thinking about how this game was likely made by marketing research and studies in what would be popular as opposed to people rolling up their sleeves and doing the nitty gritty work of fine tuning combat mechanics and values.
They did nerf jailer damage, that much was clear, but other spiky sources of damage were not tuned down because players complained about them less. Another thing you're seeing is design as a response to player complaints on the forums.
Heck I remember back in the day World of Warcraft was hardcore as fuck. You couldn't get good gear, the five mans were hard and brutal, boss fights were so tightly tuned that only min max extremists were consistently successful.
Then the massive incomparable wave of QQ from the mostly casual player base came and Blizzard buckled and made WoW much more casual, much easier to gear up, handed things to players on a silver platter or a spoon. And for a while this worked to retain large casual player bases.
Blizzard made their games much more casual but it was okay so long as their reputation was retained as Blizzard. The chips are starting to show however and the ramifications of the dumbing down of their games is beginning to be felt. Many players no longer regard the developer with the same reverence, after buying Diablo 3 and realizing it was just another action RPG and not the best game in the genre by far, I find myself much more hesitant to buy the next expansion for Diablo 3. I feel as though I am going to get the game that the developers think their audience wants, when what I want is the work of a creative mind delivering something they love.
Passion in your work shows, it used to show in Blizzard's products, it has since diminished in my estimation. What they need is someone to take a risk and deliver a game or features in a game that are not marketing approved, that will slightly piss off the casual player base but make the hardcore gamers look twice. Besides, if all the cool kids and streamers are playing their game, it will attract all the casuals as they are mostly followers anyway...
Yesterday I saw that D3 was significantly more prominent on Twitch TV than previously, suggesting that the new patch has indeed reignited interested in the game. Time will tell if this interest endures in a week or two.
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