Entry Point for Alts

Hello fellow exiles!

I am writing this to get some community feedback and general opinions around leveling alts and what the entry point into the game looks like. TL:DR at the bottom. I can be a bit long winded.

Between last league and this league I have a total of 11 characters to mapping. That means I have done 66 total acts to get there. I know there are more people out there with way more, but I don't know how they do it. I find it very tedious to get to mapping with an alt and the only benefit to the process is to understand abilities and how they interact as you move through. Generally you don't get any of the "end game meta" or chase items while going through the campaign. That isn't to say no one ever does, but it's a very small group that do.

I would propose a system that has an easier entry point for alts and allow you to progress overall mapping while testing out a class. I like the underdogs and would love to try out lower population builds like an Acolyte Of Chayula or a Chronomancer. But the need to run 6 acts just to see if you can make a different character you like is very discouraging.

The idea would be that you can skip the campaign only after you've completed it fully once. This ensures you see all the content as intended and you gather all skill points/campaign only quests. If you elect to skip the campaign, you get all the skill points and a list of options for the campaign only quests, like the act 2/5 relics and the act 3/6 venom crypt choice. Once you make the choices you are able to continue your mapping.

While mapping, you would either use a special waystone or no waystone at all. The map would scale based on your level but cap at 60 or 65 (where Tier 1 stones would take over). You'll be able to use towers, but they would be capped at 1 stone upon completion. You obviously wouldn't be able to do pinnacle bosses but you can unlock citadels and other points of interest to go back to at a later time. Lower drop rates for things like breach splinters, logbooks, and simulacrum would be expected.

I feel something like this would be a great QoL improvement and expand the pool of builds and theory crafting that any ARPG needs. Players would be more inclined to try something different if it was still progressing maps and not a full stop on everything endgame. This all leads to more items on trade, more ascend carries, and a really good measure as to what builds are greatly underpowered. I'm sure the end game and balancing data on Amazon versus a Chronmancer is vastly different just because of the total pool of players.

From the GGG business side of things, more alts equals more loot which means more stash tab microtransactions. Maybe people want different skins or visual changes for each character, so all in all more microtransactions.

What does everyone think of something like this? The goal isn't to discourage the campaign, it's to encourage trying different classes.

TL:DR, create a way to skip the campaign if you've completed it once and progress mapping while trying a new class instead of stopping all mapping activities.

Instead of a campaign skip just have all the passive resitance boss kills and passive point quests carry over to the new character.

The campaign would be pretty quick if I didn't have to spend all that time looking for optional bosses and letters on the ground.

Starting out with 20% resists and 24 passives would make the campaign a breeze.

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DankWeebTrash#7386 wrote:

Instead of a campaign skip just have all the passive resitance boss kills and passive point quests carry over to the new character.

The campaign would be pretty quick if I didn't have to spend all that time looking for optional bosses and letters on the ground.

Starting out with 20% resists and 24 passives would make the campaign a breeze.

That would actually be a good middle ground. GGG you should follow this advice

"

DankWeebTrash#7386 wrote:

Instead of a campaign skip just have all the passive resitance boss kills and passive point quests carry over to the new character.

The campaign would be pretty quick if I didn't have to spend all that time looking for optional bosses and letters on the ground.

Starting out with 20% resists and 24 passives would make the campaign a breeze.

This actually sounds great. My least favorite aspect GGG game design I think is is mandatory "side" quests because it often leads to needing to face roll under leveled content to fill out an endgame character. While this doesn't completely remove mandatory "side" quests, it does mean I only have to do said quests once per season. It also means if I skipped devourer on my first character I can just take a break, roll a new character and hit Devourer with them instead so it's actually a challenge. Rather than currently where I need to take my end game character back to one shot it after a bunch of running around.

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Qajeal#6751 wrote:

TL:DR, create a way to skip the campaign

I jumpet to tl;dr

Stopped reading as that


Fk hell no man!
Campaign is a fun part to level a new char

go away with that diablo 3/4 bsht