New diffilculty sucks

[Dax]

Hey, this is good that 64 characters in one game is not giving a edge anymore, but my feeling here is I won't get any close to any good in this ladder since I am not a hardcore gamer playing more then 8 hours a day....

I played a lot (for my standards) since the reset and I don't see how I can get through all the end game content (all of it... maybe 1/2 of it) in this ladder. I already cheezed the lich king, but referencing last dropping rate from last ladder, getting his unique items is so rare, that's making me abandon the game right now.

I think you made the progress curve too hard here for us non hardcore gamers.... The ugpraded difficulty is too hard right now...

I still admire your work, thank you for all of your efforts for making this game alive again... but this is not working for me and for a lot of us right now....

Regards,

[Game]

Hey, this is good that 64 characters in one game is not giving a edge anymore, but my feeling here is I won't get any close to any good in this ladder since I am not a hardcore gamer playing more then 8 hours a day....

I played a lot (for my standards) since the reset and I don't see how I can get through all the end game content (all of it... maybe 1/2 of it) in this ladder. I already cheezed the lich king, but referencing last dropping rate from last ladder, getting his unique items is so rare, that's making me abandon the game right now.

I think you made the progress curve too hard here for us non hardcore gamers.... The ugpraded difficulty is too hard right now...

I still admire your work, thank you for all of your efforts for making this game alive again... but this is not working for me and for a lot of us right now....

Regards,

This is the most activity we've seen and the most positive feedback we've gotten from all of the ladder resets so far daxvid. I am sorry you're having issues but there are plenty of people here who play just a few hours a day at best and have made a lot of progress. I feel like you're comparing your progress to those who do play several hours a day, and you're concerned that they can do a lot of the content already but you can't. It is literally just a week and 3 days into the ladder, I am a little dumbfounded on how you can assume you won't be able to do all of the content so early. It is completely normal someone playing a few hours a day cannot clear Mythic bosses yet. This game wasn't meant for someone playing casually to clear in a week, you need to get that idea out of your head and quit comparing your progress to others and just enjoy it. When you finally do clear the higher up content it will feel a LOT better than it would have if you were able to do it on day 2 or 3.

Also, with all of the new vanilla uniques being useful and holding a ton of value, even a casual player like you can get lucky and find a Windforce or Grandfather and sell it for tons, as they can drop from a lot of different content in Hell. That alone can get you a big boost, and it doesn't require any special bosses or farming methods. This is how Diablo 2 is designed to work, and honestly im pretty thrilled with how everything's turned out so far! I hope you don't give up.

P.S. Lich King's drop rate for his specific uniques are identical to what they were last ladder, so if this little RNG alone is making you want to abandon the game, I am not sure if Diablo 2 is the right game to invest time into, as RNG is EVERYWHERE! That's what makes it so fun and so satisfying when you get that lucky drop :)

[Yrreiht]

Im not even able to clear hell Baal so you being able to clear lich king is not so bad in term of progress.

[Lampogriz]

1. Make amazon
2. get free mav set
3. farm inferno portals nad dreamlands
4. PROFIT!

[Savior]

1. Make amazon
2. get free mav set
3. farm inferno portals nad dreamlands
4. PROFIT!

762

[Brimstonejack]

The whole point of endgame content is that you're not supposed to be able to self-farm gear to solo in the first week.

That being said, there are plenty of public cow games to level and get gear. And they announce Inferno cows regularly where you can do so even more. A naked warcry barb can do hell cows with plenty of mana pots. You'll die a lot, but you'll find gear for your other chars. Or you can save your gold, buy an hr from a vendor and get a full set plus some basic side gear and start crushing cows and pits. Cheers.

[SaintSlavut]

This is what difficulty is all about. You HATE it at first. You want to fucking rage quit because it seems unfair. You want to send Russian super-viruses to the pros that somehow got all the gg gear within the first week of reset... but eventually, through dedication and wasted time, you gather enough gear to stomp through runs that pull even better gear. At that point you're glad it's not too easy.

I was beyond frustrated with the difficulty this ladder. I kept going with what little time I have to play every day and eventually obtained full mav and now it's easy to crush pits and DL. It takes time for people like us who can't game all day, you have to accept that. Just take it easy and you'll get there.

[Savior]

This is what difficulty is all about. You HATE it at first. You want to fucking rage quit because it seems unfair. You want to send Russian super-viruses to the pros that somehow got all the gg gear within the first week of reset... but eventually, through dedication and wasted time, you gather enough gear to stomp through runs that pull even better gear. At that point you're glad it's not too easy.

I was beyond frustrated with the difficulty this ladder. I kept going with what little time I have to play every day and eventually obtained full mav and now it's easy to crush pits and DL. It takes time for people like us who can't game all day, you have to accept that. Just take it easy and you'll get there.

Love how you explained that, couldn't have said it better.

[rattan]

This is what difficulty is all about. You HATE it at first. You want to fucking rage quit because it seems unfair. You want to send Russian super-viruses to the pros that somehow got all the gg gear within the first week of reset... but eventually, through dedication and wasted time, you gather enough gear to stomp through runs that pull even better gear. At that point you're glad it's not too easy.

I was beyond frustrated with the difficulty this ladder. I kept going with what little time I have to play every day and eventually obtained full mav and now it's easy to crush pits and DL. It takes time for people like us who can't game all day, you have to accept that. Just take it easy and you'll get there.
Totally agree

[Dax]

Guys, I Loved Annihilus.
Game I admire you.
Thank you.
I love the game, love the community, doesn't fit the situation.
I played through the last ladder, had a lot of fun. a LOT!

What I am Saying is , 6 months to play the entire story is................................................ ...............


well, I passed my last 3 months... killing diablo'ssss ssss
ssss
no mark of sin.....
killed 4000 times rift diablo with no drop.....

Whattt
What I saw, is 20% more content (WOW, I Want to see that!!, damn.................no drop after 3000 runs....

[Game]

Guys, I Loved Annihilus.
Game I admire you.
Thank you.
I love the game, love the community, doesn't fit the situation.
I played through the last ladder, had a lot of fun. a LOT!

What I am Saying is , 6 months to play the entire story is................................................ ...............


well, I passed my last 3 months... killing diablo'ssss ssss
ssss
no mark of sin.....
killed 4000 times rift diablo with no drop.....

Whattt
What I saw, is 20% more content (WOW, I Want to see that!!, damn.................no drop after 3000 runs....

Diablo Clone, Uber Tristram Diablo, and Omega Diablo have much higher drop rates if you're specifically after a mark of sin. Just a tip! That's where most people have gotten theirs.

[Kramule]

Hi guys,

I love all the new content you are coming up with, what's the point if i cant even see it. After a while, my 20 hours a week were not enought. I was lucky enought to have a friend who always showed me the new content but, even him was almost tired. We dont have enougt time to go throught the game content.

I dont know how but, if you still want people to play the new cotent you are offering, you will have to offer a less hardcore content. I couldnt even see the last part of the game in the last patch, i gave up before the end.

People can enjoy it instead of a content where the goal is to kill the same boss 100,000 time to get a slight gear upgrade.

I was about to really stop playing but, my frien was insisting that we should keep playing. He told me you had some new content coming and that it would be really nice to see it. My computer his right next to his.... i saw him.. day after day,... night after night ... killing diablo again and again. I remember, at some point i really thought it was'nt even real. After an unbeliveable number of diable kill, he gave up. He trade one his best item just to see the new content. After seen this, i understood that this game was'nt for me anymore. I wont play a game where i need 4 weeks just for the hope of getting an item that will lead me to the new content. Especially when i know that the drop i will get from all those weeks of farming might be the worst roll ever. Then i would have to wait another 4 week of playing just to have a chance to get something better. I say 4 weeks... truth is, with 20 hours per week you might never even see it...

Anyway, thanks for the new cotent, i enjoyed it while i could

PEACE OUT

[val]

+1

[Fitsu]

If your goal is to simply see the new content, then just get involved with the community. I've yet to find a mark myself yet, but I've seen all the new bosses simply because I got involved with others players and when they found theres I helped them out.

Also, you don't have to just farm that mark... You can farm other stuff them simply trade for one! It all depends what sort of farming you like to do, hoping for that 1 lucky 1/1000 drop or slowly building currency and buying one.

If you approach the game in the right way, it's not that hard to see all the content and get very good gear. This is my first ladder and I've managed to see every new boss, and have a good amount of wealth simply using the ideas above.

/e

Also, you can reroll gear so you don't need to get another mark if you get a bad roll.

P.S @ Game. Pfft, omega bosses. Killed em 20 times now with no mark! Haha :D such is RNG ^^.

[Lampogriz]

20 times omega diablo and no mark??? Holy shit its ALOT of hours of boring farm fragments. What a waste

[Fitsu]

20 times omega diablo and no mark??? Holy shit its ALOT of hours of boring farm fragments. What a waste

Yeah.. Not one from Diablo, Baal or Durial. #Bad (http://annihilus.net/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=Bad) luck :(.

But, like primes are 2-3 HRs... and I actually got a cpl GG things from baal so it's not all bad. :P

(This also includes my now 400 baal kills) haha.

[Lampogriz]

(This also includes my now 400 baal kills) haha.

Jesus. I dont wanna farm this shit anymore ;/

[Game]

Jesus. I dont wanna farm this shit anymore ;/

If it bothers you that bad, you really don't have to farm it man, lol, theres plenty more to do.

[Fitsu]

If it bothers you that bad, you really don't have to farm it man, lol, theres plenty more to do.

Indeed ^^. I mean, imo they do seem a little bit to rare... Although perhaps I've just been unlucky, no idea of the odds. I thought I woulda got one by now with my kill count XD.

But as you say there are plenty other things to do. Managed to 2 man the cruci now, so farming that a bit :P. I honestly think with a cpl more items/horads/enchants & the magic dmg fix I'll be able to solo it pretty easy :D.

[Frigide]

I hear you all when you say u can trade instead of farm, but the ppl with the new mega powerful items or the marks wont trade vs midish range items, and/or will ask gold ... If some ppl can invest real money in the game to get stuff, fine for them, i know i cant.

When you cant get your hands on late game items, you cant trade them either, coz in general, the ppl that have the items you cant farm, ALREADY have all you can offer ... It sometimes feels like when you wanna play this new video game, but your roomate already finished it 3 times so you dont even wanna bother, even though it looks cool.
We will see how it goes in the next couple of month, i feel ppl could get tired and i understand all the point of views here. Its kinda painful to see all the new content raped when you are still farming mid range things, and i just hope not only HC gamers with plenty of time will keep playing for now.
Now on, one problem is that some ppl can offer SO MUCH that you wont get your hands on any high tier items in trade and that wont get better imo. If someone expose in public game that he has some good item he is willing to trade, only the richer will get it coz they can offer higher stuff while keeping it cheap for them.
I understand there has to be richer ppl, but when you have a LARGE amount of players it can be fine, in a small community, its kinda OP to be that richer in term of stuff but again, i guess thats fair enough, and i hope that will be less of a thing later on, as the start of ladder gets far behind us week after week.

Just a POV and i am still ok farming mid game for now on. When i played for the first time on annihilus, i played a lot more, but now that i cant, i gotta try to enjoy the game in other ways. Having ALL AND FAST is the real deal imo, but when u cant play enough to do that, either you stop playing, or you try to appriciate the game in another time based way.
You can get a real powerful char in 4 weeks, but you can also get one in 6 months of playing less. Just have to see what s your point playing here.

Remember its a game, and try to get the fun from it! If you don't feel like its fun anymore, just don't play...

GL all and Thx to Alex, who makes it a reality to play to our good old D2, with the same feeling AND a lot new content. (even tough i am not ultra fan of the "mmo" type of changes in 5.0)

edit: Cant wait to get a big bowama to clear cows in no time like 1.08 time!!! Milka channel, Meumeu and multishot DUDE !

[Frigide]

Indeed ^^. I mean, imo they do seem a little bit to rare... Although perhaps I've just been unlucky, no idea of the odds. I thought I woulda got one by now with my kill count XD.

But as you say there are plenty other things to do. Managed to 2 man the cruci now, so farming that a bit :P. I honestly think with a cpl more items/horads/enchants & the magic dmg fix I'll be able to solo it pretty easy :D.

What arethose 2 chars? barb ama ? barb necro ?

[Fitsu]

That's the case with any ARPG though, ultimately an item will only have value while the demand outweighs the supply and outside of going the D3 path of making the game self-found there's no real way to fix that. And due to the fact this game doesn't really have a massive influx of players as soon as every1 gets to a certain point items for that point have 0 value I.E. Sets, really popular on day 1 and a week in you can't give them away.

You kinda have to keep up with the curve really, but you can still get GG stuff from pits or hell even farming easy bosses.. People pay through the nose for the likes of fragment sets and almost anyone can farm them. It's more a case of understanding the current market and knowing what to farm as apposed to having a character that can farm.

[Fitsu]

What arethose 2 chars? barb ama ? barb necro ?

My Cry barb (the build every1 said wasn't late game ;)) and my friends Ama. The final boss is kinda tricky, as his teleport is really annoying considering he can heal sometimes he just teleport around and goes back to full HP. If you ask me, that teleport should be changed a bit, as it's really not fun to basically rely on luck getting him really low then he just spams teleport back to full HP...

[Savior]

To be honest I think items such as Mark of Sin/Mark of Lies/Black Soulstone/Trag Oul's Mark/Tyrael's Key, Ect.
Should have their drop rate upped a bit, because several people who are doing 100's of runs are getting nothing.
If you add it all up, that's easily 1000's of runs a day where most people are left unlucky and unhappy.
I myself haven't found any of the items listed above, and It's pretty sad that I haven't gotten a chance to try them.
I surely haven't been as unlucky or tried as much as others but I've put in a fair share of time myself.
And I'd most likely be more eager to put in even more time if I knew it would be worth my time to do so.
The way the server was last ladder seemed to be working a lot better than the current one is in my opinion.
As it was, if you found one of the items I listed above, you had a much better chance of defeating those areas.
Now that the difficulty on all those areas has been raised, it's not only harder to beat those areas.
But it's also still just as hard to get the items to get to those area's in the first place.
With every update it seems the difficulty is leaning towards the pro players more and more everytime.
Which is why only very few people have even been able to get to and beat the new areas with harder difficulty.
I'm not saying I hate the difficulty I just think since last ladder a lot of the added areas have become too hard.
I believe at least 50% of the server thought last ladder was too hard, and now 75% think it's way too hard.
Far too many area's we're made 100% harder than they were before and some people can't keep up.
At least if some of these areas were easier to get to, people could have a chance to see the new areas.
There is so much to do on Annihilus but so much of it is out of reach for such a long time to so many players.
I've said this plenty of times and strongly believe it to be true, but I'll say it again.
The majority of Diablo 2 players are actually quite bad at the game and Annihilus is just getting harder.
I think it should be kept in mind that if the content doesn't please the average player then it's a bad thing.
Minor changes could make a lot of people happier and leave a lot less topics like this being started.
I could go on forever, but I'll leave it at that and see what other's think about my opinion. :)

[val]

So i have decided to quit....the new difficulity is too damn hard.... i`m a grown asss man :D and cant spend that mutch time farming for pixels .... btw the new content is amazing but i cant get my hands on it...... It has been a pleasure, thanks to all the guys in the Cool clan - Snorlax, Conqueror and Tragos.

[LordManhammer]

To be honest I think items such as Mark of Sin/Mark of Lies/Black Soulstone/Trag Oul's Mark/Tyrael's Key, Ect.
Should have their drop rate upped a bit, because several people who are doing 100's of runs are getting nothing.
If you add it all up, that's easily 1000's of runs a day where most people are left unlucky and unhappy.
I myself haven't found any of the items listed above, and It's pretty sad that I haven't gotten a chance to try them.
I surely haven't been as unlucky or tried as much as others but I've put in a fair share of time myself.
And I'd most likely be more eager to put in even more time if I knew it would be worth my time to do so.
The way the server was last ladder seemed to be working a lot better than the current one is in my opinion.
As it was, if you found one of the items I listed above, you had a much better chance of defeating those areas.
Now that the difficulty on all those areas has been raised, it's not only harder to beat those areas.
But it's also still just as hard to get the items to get to those area's in the first place.
With every update it seems the difficulty is leaning towards the pro players more and more everytime.
Which is why only very few people have even been able to get to and beat the new areas with harder difficulty.
I'm not saying I hate the difficulty I just think since last ladder a lot of the added areas have become too hard.
I believe at least 50% of the server thought last ladder was too hard, and now 75% think it's way too hard.
Far too many area's we're made 100% harder than they were before and some people can't keep up.
At least if some of these areas were easier to get to, people could have a chance to see the new areas.
There is so much to do on Annihilus but so much of it is out of reach for such a long time to so many players.
I've said this plenty of times and strongly believe it to be true, but I'll say it again.
The majority of Diablo 2 players are actually quite bad at the game and Annihilus is just getting harder.
I think it should be kept in mind that if the content doesn't please the average player then it's a bad thing.
Minor changes could make a lot of people happier and leave a lot less topics like this being started.
I could go on forever, but I'll leave it at that and see what other's think about my opinion. :)

I tend to agree with part of what you are saying. In the last ladder there were areas that felt progressively more difficult as you moved through the content. It was tough but fair. Like how the newer inferno areas in act 2, 3, and 5 were more difficult than the act 5 pits. The puzzle box maps were harder yet. This felt right as the rewards were appropriately greater as you moved along.

Now it seems like the difficulty has just been dialed up to eleven on top of an added MMO style boss mechanic to make solo play just that much harder if not impossible to the average player (not to mention new players). Now I'm not saying that people aren't adjusting to the changes. It just seems that the spirit of the game is shifting from the need to find more powerful gear in order to progress to the need to find the right group of people to group with.

I also remember Game saying that the difficulty needed to be increased because people were solo killing bosses too fast and were able to kill them in a couple seconds. That's fine and I agree but doesn't the introduction of insane weapons that do 30k+ damage, crap loads of new -res gear, and OP skills (that will soon have unlimited damage potential once the cap is raised) subvert any effort to balance that out?

I love the new content. I looks cool. I'm enjoying the new items and changes to older items. I finally have a use for the Acid Injector. Yippee. However, in a game where farming one area or one boss 5000+ times in order to find that specific item that you need to progress, increasing the difficulty of said content AND lowering drop rates feels more like punishment than a challenge. For instance: in the last ladder I did thousands upon thousands of Liche King runs before I found my first Frostmourne. I ended up finding three after all was said and done. It definitely wasn't rare enough then. I agree that boss specific items needed their drop rates adjusted but when you also make killing that boss take longer, it loses it's appeal. I think that you need to do one or the other. I also feel that increasing boss difficulty might have been neccesary to make items more valuable and hold their value in the long run but increasing overall difficulty might have been a bit over kill.

These are just my two cents. Take them for what they are worth which is probably not much. The only reason that I comment on things like this is that I represent your solo player base and sometimes it feels like we cater to the group players. Keep up the good work and thank you for the new shiny lootz:)

[Savior]

So i have decided to quit....the new difficulity is too damn hard.... i`m a grown asss man :D and cant spend that mutch time farming for pixels .... btw the new content is amazing but i cant get my hands on it...... It has been a pleasure, thanks to all the guys in the Cool clan - Snorlax, Conqueror and Tragos.

I'm sorry to hear that :(
Hopefully one day you return and are able to enjoy the content more than before.

[sleezy2]

If it bothers you that bad, you really don't have to farm it man, lol, theres plenty more to do.

i really do think that people wouldn't be so annoyed by the drop rates if they were farming else where. make the marks drop from other content. you made so many cool areas that people never see. Frigide is never going to see one, at the rate he plays!! open the secret areas to farm!!

[Game]

i really do think that people wouldn't be so annoyed by the drop rates if they were farming else where. make the marks drop from other content. you made so many cool areas that people never see. Frigide is never going to see one, at the rate he plays!! open the secret areas to farm!!

Some people won't see the content but a lot of people do, I unfortunately cannot make content around the idea that everyone has to see it. I have no intentions of changing the way the sin / lies / black soulstone puzzles drop. There are plenty of other puzzles that can be found anywhere in Hell, have at it!

[sleezy2]

I tend to agree with part of what you are saying. In the last ladder there were areas that felt progressively more difficult as you moved through the content. It was tough but fair. Like how the newer inferno areas in act 2, 3, and 5 were more difficult than the act 5 pits. The puzzle box maps were harder yet. This felt right as the rewards were appropriately greater as you moved along.

Now it seems like the difficulty has just been dialed up to eleven on top of an added MMO style boss mechanic to make solo play just that much harder if not impossible to the average player (not to mention new players). Now I'm not saying that people aren't adjusting to the changes. It just seems that the spirit of the game is shifting from the need to find more powerful gear in order to progress to the need to find the right group of people to group with.

I also remember Game saying that the difficulty needed to be increased because people were solo killing bosses too fast and were able to kill them in a couple seconds. That's fine and I agree but doesn't the introduction of insane weapons that do 30k+ damage, crap loads of new -res gear, and OP skills (that will soon have unlimited damage potential once the cap is raised) subvert any effort to balance that out?

I love the new content. I looks cool. I'm enjoying the new items and changes to older items. I finally have a use for the Acid Injector. Yippee. However, in a game where farming one area or one boss 5000+ times in order to find that specific item that you need to progress, increasing the difficulty of said content AND lowering drop rates feels more like punishment than a challenge. For instance: in the last ladder I did thousands upon thousands of Liche King runs before I found my first Frostmourne. I ended up finding three after all was said and done. It definitely wasn't rare enough then. I agree that boss specific items needed their drop rates adjusted but when you also make killing that boss take longer, it loses it's appeal. I think that you need to do one or the other. I also feel that increasing boss difficulty might have been neccesary to make items more valuable and hold their value in the long run but increasing overall difficulty might have been a bit over kill.

These are just my two cents. Take them for what they are worth which is probably not much. The only reason that I comment on things like this is that I represent your solo player base and sometimes it feels like we cater to the group players. Keep up the good work and thank you for the new shiny lootz:)

it is a balance there was alot of skill changes that help kill bosses quicker. I had no issue going through the steps in order to get to end game content. it takes time and effort, we dont need to be end game gear ready right away!! there is so many great drops in pits now that will get you to tackle lich king like last season!

[sleezy2]

Some people won't see the content but a lot of people do, I unfortunately cannot make content around the idea that everyone has to see it. I have no intentions of changing the way the sin / lies / black soulstone puzzles drop. There are plenty of other puzzles that can be found anywhere in Hell, have at it!

why make an area that only the dedicated players get to see? and why just see it, i want to farm it! not to mention it would only be a couple of times to see it based on the communitys feedback on drop rates. farming diablo reminds me of bloody hills and baal runs, although those are somewhat nostalgic for me. dosnt mean i want to run them anymore than i already have 10 and 5 years ago. but im gonna keep farming inferno and crucible(the enjoyable content) and hope i can trade for a belials tomb because im not playing vanilla d2 im playing a much much better game!!!! you get your nostalgia from farming frags and keys and resets!