🚀 go-pugleaf

Okay, I admit this is yet another random rant, but I was wondering
if other feel the same way as I do. Here we go:

Shrine, Goat shrine and Caldron
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You can live without them! I don't understand the logic behind this.
There are about 8 shrines worth hitting, 1 each for stat modifier, 1
mixed (mysterious shrine), enchanted shrine, weird shrine (+1 damage)
and one other armor modifier. There are 3 shrines definitely to be
avoided, the three mana for spell level exchange shrines.

At first, this seems to be a fair trade, I naively believed so when I
was running a sub 20 level char. Now, I'm running level 30 rogue, with
most stats maxed, except dexterity. This means, among other things,
the 5 stat modifier shrines are no longer useful. Now, we
have three good and three bad. Looks okay, except that I've never
seen the weird shrine and the other armor modifier shrine ever!
In any event, their effects are marginal at best.

Let's look at the bad shrines, the three shrines that trade three
level 1 offensive spell level for (lots of) mana. Let's face it,
by the time you hit 20+ level, these spells are worthless. On the
other hand, a mage with 400 based mana can lose up to 40 point
by hitting these shrines. The worst thing about losing mana is that
you can never recover the lost mana in anyway. Sure, adding magic
works, to a certain extent, but what if you already max out magic?
That's not a particularly hard thing to do, you know.

Now, I can understand the need for a bad outcome to balance the
benefit from visiting the shrine. However, because you cannot
recover mana in any way, in some way, there is no counter-balance
for these three shrines! I can live with some random effect that
on average leaves me no better or worse off, but not the one
that leaves me definitely worse off.

So, what do most player do? They avoid random shrines, goat shrines,
and caldrons as they avoid plague. What's the point then of putting
these shrines in when they serve no particular purpose except for
decorative effects? Okay, I know a warrior who couldn't care less
about losing mana, but I suspect that he lost so much of his mana
that he no longer cares about casting spell (his mana is 27 at
level 28). As it is, most players hit a caldron only because they
accidently click the damn thing in the frenzy of battle!

Please note, I have nothing against having a few bad shrines. What
I'm against is having bad shrines whose detrimental effects cannot
be recovered. What's there to do then? There are many alternatives.
For one, keep everything as is, but add shrines that increase mana
and *take away* spell level. Another, make the existing exchange
shrines random in the way they confer benefit, sometimes giving
away spell level for mana, sometimes vice versa. How about taking
stats in exchange for mana? While we are at it, we can also do
the same thing with life, exchanging life with base damage or
armor class will make life rather interesting for all the non-warriors
out there.

The bottom line, Blizzard, provide us with an incentive to hit
random shrine or remove it altogether. At present, they are
merely decorative elements of the game anyway. A decorative
elements that can devastate your character, if you happen to hit
it by accident.

Difficulty level, Random Items, Griswold's Items
------------------------------------------------

We all know what Griswold offers depends on the level of the char.
Sounds simple enough. I bought a few stuff from Griswold myself.
However, I bought the stuff from Griswold not without great pain
and tedium. That is, unless you do the restart-check Griswold
tricks, how many times does Griswold offer you something you wish
to buy? I have been playing for three weeks and never once bought
stuff from Griswold without going through countless restarting.

It's kinda silly to be able to go through 4 levels of hell,
amassing over 100k, just to find that Griswold is selling,
amoung other things, Sword of Vigor (1-10 dam +17 vitality)
worth around 7k or blessed helm (5AC +98 armor) worth around
3k. Shouldn't he sell something in the order of 50k average?

Again, what's the point of having Griswold, if you'll never buy
stuff from him? That's a somewhat strong statement, I admit.
But IMHO it's not too far from the truth. I can understand the
randomness of the item generation routine, but shouldn't it be
able to generate stuff that a player may wish to buy? As is, that
isn't very likely. An average 5k worth of equipment is ok for
level 10-15, but not for level 25+.

Finally, there is a minor issue about items generated in
nightmare and hell. From various sources and my own experience,
there is no appreciable difference among items found on
similar level across three difficulty settings! Given that it's
so much more difficult in nightmare and hell than in normal mode,
shouldn't the reward reflect this reality? Certainly, the experience
point is important, but experienced players have been known to
start a normal game for an expressed reason to hunt for treasures.

In Closing
----------
Having said all of the above, I feel obliged to point out that
Diablo is most certainly one of the best games I've played in
my 10 years of gaming experience. Will I stop playing Diablo, because
of these stupid design flaws? Hell, no! It is certainly annoying
though.

Later...