Blizzard Announces Paragon Levels for Diablo III Endgame
Finally an increase in the level cap...ish?
One of the most criticized things about Diablo III has been its lackluster endgame value and low level cap. Straying from Diablo II's 99 level cap, Blizzard developers, for some mad reason, decided to give players a puny level cap of 60 during Diablo III's release. This left thousands of level 60 players with nothing to do other than bash their heads in at the initial difficulty of Inferno.
While several decreases to the difficulty of Inferno have made the game more playable for many, others still felt a staggering lack of purpose for logging into the game. In continuation of its 1.0.4 previews, Blizzard has unveiled an upcoming feature that may bring a number of players back into the game, Paragon Levels.
"We understand that some players feel frustrated once they hit level 60 because they no longer feel like they’re making progress. It can be demoralizing to play for an hour, not get any drops, and also be out a big chunk of gold from repair costs," says game director Jay Wilson. "Your play session may not only end without an upgrade, it can wind up being a net loss. Everyone wants to feel like they’re making some progress when they log in, even if they don’t get that new sword."
The solution to the problem?
Introducing the Paragon System
The new Paragon system coming in patch 1.0.4 is designed to address Magic Find gear-swapping while providing players who’ve reached level 60 with an extended progression system.
Here’s how it works:
- After you hit level 60, any further experience you earn from killing monsters will begin to count toward Paragon levels
- There are 100 Paragon levels
- Every Paragon level will reward you with:
- Core stats such as Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Vitality in amounts similar to what you’d gain from a normal level
- 3% Magic Find and 3% Gold Find
- In addition, a distinctive increasingly-impressive border will surround your character portrait in the in-game party frame to denote your Paragon progression, with a new frame earned after every ten levels. Your Paragon level will also be visible to other players wherever your normal level is shown.
According to Wilson, the amount of time required to reach the upper Paragon levels will be similar to the long-term time investment required to reach level 99 in Diablo II. While the new system certainly provides players with an incentive to log back in, they will still be fighting the same mobs and bosses over and over again in order to reach that 100 Paragon level cap. If the upcoming changes for legendary items weren't enough, are the new paragon levels enough to bring you back?
They are trying to bandaid this game at an alarming rate.
It's discouraging to see how they are trying to hard to make this failed game playable.
They know they botched this game so bad and can never make it comparable to Diablo 2.
I am beginning to think these patches and ridiculous add ons are thought up on the fly by a team of people who are all facepalming themselves saying, "How did we screw this game up so bad!"
They are trying to bandaid this game at an alarming rate.
It's discouraging to see how they are trying to hard to make this failed game playable.
They know they botched this game so bad and can never make it comparable to Diablo 2.
I am beginning to think these patches and ridiculous add ons are thought up on the fly by a team of people who are all facepalming themselves saying, "How did we screw this game up so bad!"
What a failure this game is
Blizzard could just not allow Paragon levels to apply in PvP. They have a history of having different rules in PvP than in PvE.
There is a lot of truth to that. Though not all new ideas will be bad, but a lot of damage has already been done and how do you overhaul the game after so many invested real money into items in the game? Not that I ever did, but I'm sure a bunch of people will feel screwed, if they aren't already with the new Legendary changes.
(But what company would admit a total botch on a game)
It would be nice to see them come out of the hole they dug, but I really doubt it.
It's too bad, this game was so highly anticipated and it failed so miserably.
They did this to themselves
And yes they did get very greedy with the RMAH
What does Mass Effect 3 have anything to do with a Diablo 3 article?
Because both games were a large disappointment for their respective franchises. You can see that each game is very flawed and that blizzard is trying to fix their's. But in comparison, Bioware spends much less time fixing their game after release than blizzard does. At least they are trying to do something positive, albeit, for their own reasons.