Any opinions on D3 Reaper of Souls?

[haphazard1]

I was curious about whether any of the Diablo vets here at RB had opinions on the Reaper of Souls expansion for Diablo 3? I had played Diablo 3 back when it first came out, and completed the game on normal but never proceeded much further into the higher difficulties. The game was enjoyable enough on normal but the scaling did not seem to work properly at higher difficulty levels. (Note that at that time I had never played D1 or D2, so had little basis for comparison. Just a gut feeling that something was not right.) I never used the auction house back when it was an obvious pay-to-win scheme to suck up additional money for Blizzard, and without it the drop rates for better gear were so low as to make progression a real chore.

I understand that a lot of things were adjusted in later patches after I quit playing D3, and then later still the Reaper of Souls expansion was released. But I don't know many details, and was curious if anyone had thoughts on the current state of the game?

[KingOfPain]

After not having play D3 forever, I bought ROS a few months ago and thought it might get me to play D3 again. I got a necro to lvl 60s, don't remember anything of it by now and I haven't played since. In other words, ROS did nothing for me. YMMV

[haphazard1]

Thanks for the thoughts, KoP. I have been playing some D3 (no RoP just base game), and am maybe half way through Act 2. It is fun for what it is -- heavy on the action, very cinematic, but not nearly as deep as D1 or D2 in terms of skills, tactics, and choices. It is interesting to see the storyline and lore now that I have played D1 and some of D2.

[Gustaran]

Just saw this post. I bought Diablo 3 shortly after release and was quite disappointed. I decided to get RoS ~6 months ago when it was on sale and had a blast playing through the game. IMHO, it is now completely different from the initial release version.

- One thing I really like are the many adjustable difficulty levels. Depending on where you are in the game, you can always pick the right difficulty for your taste (with higher XP rates and better loot for increasing difficulty).

- Once you have hit max level, the "real" game (endgame) starts which revolves around gearing up your char. When I last played the game, almost all builds were based on a certain "set" which gives a huge bonus to certain abilities (the number of sets is rather limited, I think around 5 different ones per char). If you play a season character, you get parts of a set automatically through certain tasks you have to fullfill, otherwise you will have to farm quite a bit.
A large part is farming Nethalem and Greater Nethalem rifts, which means you run through maps on a timer trying to kill as many mobs as possible. Basically, as you get better, you clear rifts with higher difficulty in a faster time.

- In addition, there are so called "Set Dungeons" that are dungeons with special tasks, that normalize your character, so you can't outgear them. These are pure skill checks.

- Summary:

In my opinion, the game is a fun to play Hack & Slay, which you can load up even if you just have 30 minutes to play. The number of builds is limited, and the game is somewhat shallow and in my opinion lacks depth and customization options to provide long term motivation. However, I think it's great fun to take it for what it is and to play through 1 or 2 seasons.

The game is probably rather unpopular here among veterans. That's understandable when you look at the old D2 reports, which often revolved around challenges through the use of some crazy build idea. I personally never saw the attraction to play Diablo 10 times with different crazy builds for the same character.
But if that's what you are after, then Diablo 3 will obviously not deliver and you might have more fun looking at something like "Path of Exile".

[KingOfPain]

I personally never saw the attraction to play Diablo 10 times with different crazy builds for the same character.

A few reasons why that was more fun than tedious in the old days. We played together, a lot!

So as it happens, there were always multiple RB games on bnet, with different people and their toons at different progressions. These toons were also at varying degrees of Variant difficulties.

As an unspoken rule, non Variant builds were not welcome in these games, we just know it. We might check in on a game and see what the others were doing; and then join up with an appropriate character to match. That made a demand to have a good selection of Variants at different challenge level and progression.

Variants are often based on role playing. We often made Variants based on a (set of) less used skills. And many Variants were made based on a certain item or type. For example, GoGoGadgets (GGG) was build because Oskill items seem so useless. You know, those items with 22 charges of lvl 3 Ice Bolt, that also cost an arm an a leg to recharge. GGG was a Barbarian who only used enuf stat points to use items, and nothing in Vit., no skill points used at all. His only offensive came from those expensive Oskill from items. Solo'd NM Baal (clvl 50ish). He was last seen in mid Hell Diff act one making slow progress because of all dem Fire Immunes (his main offensive was Fireball), and just a handful of clvl more to the next power up on Oskills. He did not play like a Barbarian.

Each of these variants might be the same class, but built and play quite different. They become a character, and personally dear to the drivers. That is also why I refuse to respec toons even when it is possible now. Beside, the name might not match what they do.... yes, sometimes we agonize on choosing a character name... I have been known to remake a character with a different name after clvl 20+

[CelticHound]

The thing about D3 is that you don't build/grow characters.
You level to 70 (story-line optional) and then have different load-outs depending on what set pieces you have accumulated.

Gustaran mentioned Path of Exile - the trouble there is how badly powergaming infects the whole game. I find that a touch ironic, because Chris Wilson (one of the founders) gave an interview where he recalled playing D2 and reading about crazy things like "fireball-only Sorceresses" (which has to be Sirian's Ember). I often wished they had guided the community to create their own challenges like that, but the typical PoE player simply cannot conceive of "gimping" one of their characters.

[Sullla]

Reviving this thread since I put together an article on my website addressing this exact topic. If you're new to Diablo 3, you probably also need to read my harsh review of the release version of the game to understand the article about what changed in the expansion:

What Made Diablo 3 So Unsatisfying?
Second Chances: Reaper of Souls Review

As a quick overview, I would echo Gustaran's point that Diablo 3's gameplay even in the expansion is somewhat simplistic and lacks the depth of the first two games. However, the process of building your character can be enough fun to do it once or twice with different setups. It's not a game for variant characters in the traditional Realms Beyond sense.

[haphazard1]

Thanks for posting your review, Sullla! I have been considering getting the expansion but was not sure if it would be worthwhile. It sounds like there is some fun to be found, although I did really enjoy some time with Grim Dawn during the recent free weekend on Steam so that might be next after my current Diablo 1 binge.

[Gustaran]

Reviving this thread since I put together an article on my website addressing this exact topic. If you're new to Diablo 3, you probably also need to read my harsh review of the release version of the game to understand the article about what changed in the expansion:

What Made Diablo 3 So Unsatisfying?
Second Chances: Reaper of Souls Review

Well, it seems I could have just linked your review of RoS, which explains everything I mentioned and more in much greater depth.
I had only remembered your initial (rather damning ) review of Diablo 3, I must have missed the follow-up for RoS.

The only minor detail I somewhat disagree with is the use of gambling mechanic through blood shards: Since you usually decide on a build that corresponds to your set before you start farming the respective items, you are often really dependent on getting certain BiS item drops that are essential for the build to work.
For example, IIRC when I played a Crusader/Roland set, I absolutely needed to find the "Denial" shield, which basically increased the damage of the sweep main attack by a whooping 500% after a few hits hits.

I was very thankful for the option of throwing blood shards at an NPC to buy additional drops for this slot.

[Sullla]

No, you didn't miss anything because that article was only written this weekend. That's why I didn't post the link when this thread was first posted last month. I'm still learning as I go with Diablo 3's expansion and I've also found the gambling mechanic to be more useful than expected when looking for a specific item type. I'll have more to say as I dive further into the post-level 70 content.