Taking off what they were saying about crafting your builds and how many people just go out and look for a guide on how to craft a particular ābestā build, I may be in the minority in how I donāt even bother looking at guides or try to optimize class builds. Whatever feels right based on the info I have is where I go; I donāt have the time to waste on trying to figure out synergies between skills, whether something is better at high-level vs low-level, what works against the majority of demon X, etc. So I like the idea that they are trying to make it clear where you are going with your skills and how your build will end up as thatāll give someone like me that extra leg up.
My style of crafting a character means I donāt have a great build, sure. Considering I tend to play for a āno-deathsā experience, it still somehow manages to work out, though. I suppose most like using death and risk-taking as learning moments to tweak their build and simply get better at using skills at opportune moments. Iām death-adverse and donāt take unnecessary risks, playing almost like all my games are hardcore even when not. Somehow it comes together.
This is me too. I just donāt want to follow someone elseās recipe. In Hearthstone I make up my own (below average) decks and play net-deck after net-deck Sure I donāt do great and usually end up in the gold ranks but I did it with my deckā¦ I will look something up if Iām not sure of something. RPGās, strategy games etc, I sink or swim on my own.
Yeah, I really enjoy theory-crafting and coming up with my own builds. It doesnāt matter if other people have come up with better ones already. In games like Diablo 2 and Grim Dawn, itās fun to do it yourself, the act of coming up with build itself is fun, and then the act of implementing is fun again.
I kind of consider it a failure of Diablo 3 and Path of Exile that I donāt enjoy coming up with my own builds because itās too complicated, so I consider it a failure on the gameās part that I have to go online and follow other peopleās builds.
I agree on PoE, but Iām not seeing how a build in D3 is complicated. I find it simpler than D2 by far
Diablo 3 felt very over-directed to be. You picked a class set and slotted the skills that it boosted. I guess there were some (three?) slots for legendary effects as well but all in all I felt like I didnāt have much to work with when it came to making a build. Instead I felt like the player decision was lately choosing one of the handful of developer-curated builds.
It felt overly simple, true. I always felt that was because I was missing something though. Not that it matters, I guess. I enjoyed D3, even if I didnāt theorycraft in it at all. But it would be neat to get theorycrafting back.
Any build thatās found that may be better than a developer approved build just getās nerfed into the ground anyway in these games. PoE nerfed so many fun builds it wasnāt funny at all.
This is me as well - though in my case itās not so much as a lack of time as Iād rather play in the moment and have fun. Where games like this fall apart for me, in fact, is when Iām in content that requires I look at builds to succeed - once you dictate how I play my fire mage Iām kind of out. Itās why I had to stop playing games like World of Warcraft, now I think about it.
This 100% of all of these games for me. Once Iām done exhausting every possible class/character combo, Iām done with the game.
This reminds me of my biggest gripe with Diablo 3 - itās more about the items/equipment than skills, which made it hard to get excited to play past hitting max level. It was chasing a thing you have very little control over (specific gear for a build you want to try) so I was glad when they addressed this in that video I linked - this sounds a lot more skill-based than gear-based.
The thing about meta builds is that because we are so aware of them, for many of us it is hard to design our own when we know that empirically we are limiting ourselves and not being as powerful as we could be. I mean, it should not matter but often it seeps in and worms its way through our brainsā¦
Also, increasingly it seems some devs are building their games with the assumption you will min/max a meta build, and if you donāt you will be seriously underpowered. At least, that is my unscientific perception!
Totally this.
I think min/maxing must not be as ingrained in the minds of devs as we think, at least when it comes to the non-endgame portion of playing. Otherwise, Iād be an abject failure at these games. Iām not, and that suggests the balancing has to be done pretty well.
Hey, I donāt go up against others in PvP, so maybe thatās where Iād be toast because thatās a spot where optimizing a build would be critical.
It definitely varies, and yeah, itās also a matter of perception as I notedāI have not deep insights into what folks actually intend for their designs. Mostly I see it in MMO-style games or games where raiding or PvP is important.
I think though I am more susceptible to noticing (or manufacturing in my own mind!) this sort of stuff because by temperament I tend to want to build ābalancedā characters and most games severely punish balance in favor off specialization.
On the flip side, in Diablo 2, I loved finding some super rare unique that led me to create a whole new character to use it. Those days are long gone, though (because most games let you respec so freely)
It was simple enough in Diablo 3, but I have had a hard time with PoE. Maybe I just have the patience for these things anymore but I feel I would need to look up a guide or spend all day on a spreadsheet trying to figure out what a good enough build would be in that game.
Itās put me off it every time. Too many stats/features on items and it doesnāt feel intuitive enough where glancing at an item I can tell if it will be useful or not. Maybe the game doesnāt do a good enough job explaining it?
Or maybe Iām getting lazy. Itās the same reason I find it hard to get into strategy/RTS games nowadays. I donāt want to spend hours learning systems and reading in-game tutorials, I just want to play.
That being said, I may have to look online for Grim Dawn. My level 85 Deceiver (Occultist/Inquisitor) has hit a wall and canāt beat the last bosses in each of the expansions.
Granted I am only level 15 in the beta but so far it feels very different than Diablo 3. Very much more exploration in it with things like dungeons for certain classes and such.
Another subtle difference with Diablo 3 is you donāt ever really use a universal basic attack. Everything is done through class abilities. So the weapon just is mostly cosmetic for spell casting classes.
For example if I run out of mana as a wizard I canāt just try hitting the thing with my sword. The wizard doesnāt have a melee attack as a class ability.
Well, weapons are stat holders, as well as cosmetic. But yeah itās a bit weird at first.