The enigma about Enigma, a teleport discussion

[Warning: Giant wall of text incoming]

TL;DR - discussing ideas on

Teleport oskill being otherwise available, i.e. not only Enigma



I have noticed that the Enigma runeword in D2 is a polarizing subject. I think most people like it, some people love it, and others wish it never would have been created.

Most here probably already know why, but to summarize its the +1 to

Teleport and the rest of the over-powered nature of the stats that come with the armor. For this post I want to explore ideas that, if implemented, could diffuse some of the angst and perhaps make the game better. Perhaps it is wishful thinking, I'll concede that, but then again this is just a discussion.

From a single player perspective, it take a lot of work to grind for the runes to make it. I believe that a significant portion of the players create at least one sorceress to be efficient in farming end game areas...I certainly did (blizzsorc for p8 AT runs anyone?). When I made Enigma in SP it was a grand achievement for me, and one that I don't think I would attempt via online play as the differences in farming on battle.net versus SP farming are significant.

The economies / marketplace of the two versions will always be different I feel, and this thread isn't necessarily trying to make changes there, but I admit that any changes proposed here may have large impacts on those and should be considered.

I've heard some players suggest removing the oskill from the runeword altogether. I think this could be a solution if the oskill was added somewhere else (other than a staff on switch, or a

Circlet or amulet). The ability to

Teleport is, in my opinion, a valuable quality of life improvement for end game activities and I personally would like to

Teleport with non-sorc characters without the gold for charges mechanic.

A suggestion I've heard is adding the oskill to Tyreal's Might. Although I'm not opposed to this solution, that armor is so rare I don't think that is viable to be the only solution. I am in the camp of making the oskill available to all classes (as it is today with Enigma), but not until later in the game and other options to have it before one can craft the runeword.

Proposals on where to add the +1 to

Teleport oskill:

(1) Add it to an existing unique charm. My idea here was to add it to

Gheed's. Everyone generally goes for one and it has a character level of 62, so you're late NM or early Hell difficulty. Alternately, a +1 to

Teleport unique grand charm that can only be found in

Terror Zones in Hell, so to get one you'd have to beat

Baal in Hell before you could equip it.

(2) NEW Crafted Large Charms. Small and grand charms are what most players use, let's give large charms some love. Something like an

Ist Rune, Large Charm,

Perfect Skull & a magic jewel in the

Horadric Cube transmutes to a new crafted large charm that has +1 to

Teleport.

(3) Add it to several highly used uniques, i.e. ones that most everyone goes for in their end game gear. Something like

Titan's Revenge,

Herald Of Zakarum,

Homunculus,

Arreat's Face,

Jalal's Mane, etc.

Thoughts, comments, criticisms and your ideas are welcomed Thanks for reading!

Adding oskill

Teleport as you suggest would make it ubiquitous. I'm not sure how I feel about that, and maybe it's not a terrible thing, just a massive change to the meta

I'm playing BTdiablo mod now, and in theory I like how the mod deals with oskill

Teleport. But I'm not far enough yet to have tested or experienced it, because it is still mostly a very late game skill

Specifically, Enigma was changed to

Jah+

Ith+

Sol, oskill

Teleport was added to

Tyrael's Might,

Naj's Puzzler was changed to oskill

Teleport, a new runeword costing

Mal was added with oskill

Teleport that severely drains your life, and with

Zod+

Sur+soj you can add oskill

Teleport to any armor in the game

This seems good, because it is obtainable with tradeoffs early in the endgame, and even more diverse and powerful late endgame--which I think is appropriate for the most powerful skill in the game

I'll get there eventually and see how it goes. It's a real journey restarting singleplayer from scratch

I suppose the real question is...what do you want?

Do you want

Teleport to be ubiquitous and for everyone to simply have it?
Or do you want

Teleport to involve some sort of a trade-off to get?

In the first case, I would flat out agree to disagree. Not only because it takes away part of what still makes it somewhat special for a sorc (i.e. the fact that they get it as a class thing for next to no skill pt investment) but even more so because there's plenty of builds out there that are already rather strong and certainly don't need any more buffing via free

Teleport.

In terms of a trade-off - which I for one like as an underlying idea - Enigma actually works quite well I dare say. It isn't cheap. It uses a rather central slot. And while it certainly isn't "bad" outside of the

Teleport, it also wouldn't be anywhere near BiS for anyone if not for the

Teleport but would rather end up as kind of an "overpriced solid upper mid-range quality armor". It hurts most phys classes quite significantly as a trade-off by losing the exceptional armor that is Fortitude. It hurts most elemental casters by having no extra room left for facets or the like. And it hurts basically everyone across the board (noticeably) by offering 0 res (limiting your other gear choices) as opposed to say CoH which I dare say would be not only half the price but significantly better for nearly everyone and everything if not for the

Teleport.
I'm certainly not arguing for Enigma buffs, far from it, as the

Teleport more than makes up for everything else but fact is that there is a very real trade-off for it and in my eyes, that's a good thing. And I'm saying that as someone who doesn't have

Teleport on nearly half of my characters because the trade-off is in fact too high there in my eyes.
Spreading

Teleport onto other pieces beyond Enigma would inherently add options, allow for different approaches, subsequently most likely more streamlined gearing around those options and ultimately less of a trade-off for it.

Then again, kind of a pointless discussion anyways, seeing how Blizz won't be doing anything anymore.

I've thought about this a lot. I think what annoys me about Enigma today is the ridiculous attributes in addition to

Teleport. Why on earth does this runeword have:

• + (0.75 Per Character Level) +0-74 To Strength (Based On Character Level)

• + (1 Per Character Level) +1-99% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

IMO this is what destroyed item diversity because the runeword could have served a role akin to

Naj's Puzzler without charges (for example). Like, isn't it kind of ridiculous when a Sorceress considers Enigma due to the attributes not related to

Teleport? It feels awkward to me.

I think if there were a cube recipe requiring 1

Hellfire Torch, 1

Annihilus charm, and a

Standard of Heroes, and it would turn into a large charm with +1

Teleport… that’d be fair. It’d have to be like the other unique charms - only 1 allowed per character.

I personally would just love to see rare or even crafted charms too… like why not? Maybe they’re a

Terror zone only drop…?

But yea bliz isn’t what it once was. Anything that started out for it’s own sake (or the art, the service, the experience), and then shifts to a “for profit” goal, the original art/service/experience quality always falls

ghostpos wrote: 9 months ago

I've thought about this a lot. I think what annoys me about Enigma today is the ridiculous attributes in addition to

Teleport.
(...)
IMO this is what destroyed item diversity because the runeword could have served a role akin to

Naj's Puzzler without charges (for example). Like, isn't it kind of ridiculous when a Sorceress considers Enigma due to the attributes not related to

Teleport? It feels awkward to me.

IMO even if there was another armor that offered +20 all skills, and Enigma had only

Teleport oskill, everyone would still wear Enigma.

Teleport is too good to ignore it.

And to fix this situation, I see only one possible solution: remove

Teleport from the game. Not Enigma, but

Teleport skill itself. Or at least nerf it heavily (cooldown, mana cost ×10, life cost, restrict teleporting through walls...).
Just look what D2 has become:

• "Walk" games past level 18 are just sorcs' suicide tele runs (chugging mana pots all the time), no one walks anymore because it's inefficient.
• Baalruns: 7 slackers wait for TP, and don't even move an inch even when the runner struggles.
• Boss farming is 95% teleporting and 5% killing the boss.
• You've encounter a nasty Might, Cursed, Extra Strong pack? You just
  Teleport past it.

One skill made the entire game all about skipping the content...
Last, but not least (arguably "most"): would D2 suffer so much from cheating (botting, RMT) if there was no

Teleport? Most likely not.

Trang Oul wrote: 9 months ago

[..]
One skill made the entire game all about skipping the content...
[..]

People aren't skipping content because

Teleport exists, people are skipping content because the content isn't worth doing. If you removed

Teleport today, people would still be skipping the same content it'd merely make it more annoying for everyone as you'd wait for a pally to

Charge through or a barb to

Leap through or whatever the next fastest way available to you is.

On first playthroughs, all folks care about is the

Key quests and moving to end of hell asap. Nothing else is worth doing along the way if you want to get the most out of your time, with or without

Teleport.

Later on, the simple fact that content is level-locked results in you getting no XP and largely not even being able to get worthwhile drops off of most content in the game. That's why it is skipped. And that's why it will always be skipped, with or without

Teleport.

Case and point:
When WSK is terrorized, plenty of runs actually start doing full clears instead of teleporting to throne because it is suddenly worth doing. And yet, the second it isn't terrorized anymore ya go right back to skipping to throne as the content is once again a waste of time. None of that is due to

Teleport being a thing, all of it is due to the content being a waste of time.

If TZs were turned into a new difficulty instead, terrorizing the entire game all the time, I guarantee you most of the

Teleport discussion would largely fall away as folks would suddenly actually clear stuff instead of skipping everything.
Not that that (or anything else) will ever happen but hey..

Trang Oul wrote: 9 months ago

[..]
Last, but not least (arguably "most"): would D2 suffer so much from cheating (botting, RMT) if there was no

Teleport? Most likely not.

Blizzard's utter incompetence (read: unwillingness, seeing how it makes them money) with regards to shutting down botting is not a valid argument for removing what has been a

Key defining component of the game for decades. Besides, there's plenty of bot- and cheat-heavy games that make you run places.

Teleport is merely a faster version of running after all..bots are fine with either one and will simply resort to whatever is fastest/most efficient in whatever game they're made for.

Schnorki wrote: 9 months ago

Blizzard's utter incompetence (read: unwillingness, seeing how it makes them money) with regards to shutting down botting is not a valid argument for removing what has been a

Key defining component of the game for decades. Besides, there's plenty of bot- and cheat-heavy games that make you run places.

Teleport is merely a faster version of running after all..bots are fine with either one and will simply resort to whatever is fastest/most efficient in whatever game they're made for.

No doubt that Bli$$ is the first and foremost to be blamed for doing literally nothing about cheating (or even encouraging it, as cyclical bans boost the sales), but still IMO

Teleport is one of the "cheat-friendly" features (leaving the game immediately is another one - hence the popular "chicken"), both from the developer's point of view (no pathfinding needed, you just arrive at the chosen location) and the player's (trivializes any danger). The latter might be enough to curb botting, as they are incredibly dumb - or at least make them inefficient.

Trang Oul wrote: 9 months ago

[..]
The latter might be enough to curb botting, as they are incredibly dumb - or at least make them inefficient.

Actually, D2 bots work just fine without

Teleport.

Bot makers aren't quite as incompetent as you seem to believe they are. Or..some of them at least. Take WoW for example, plenty of capable bots there since what felt like day 1, despite no chain

Teleport or any of that. Among countless other examples.

Schnorki wrote: 9 months ago

People aren't skipping content because

Teleport exists, people are skipping content because the content isn't worth doing. If you removed

Teleport today, people would still be skipping the same content it'd merely make it more annoying for everyone as you'd wait for a pally to

Charge through or a barb to

Leap through or whatever the next fastest way available to you is.

That'd be an interesting dilemma: play either a caster build with its full power, or a melee build with great mobility. Melee builds have always been underperforming; maybe that'd be an area where they could shine? Currently casters have both power and mobility, and

Teleport is also biased towards them, as it uses FCR.
When choosing a hireling, one would face a similar choice: a desert mercenary with auras for more damage or a rogue with Harmony for movement speed?

Schnorki wrote: 9 months ago

On first playthroughs, all folks care about is the

Key quests and moving to end of hell asap. Nothing else is worth doing along the way if you want to get the most out of your time, with or without

Teleport.

Later on, the simple fact that content is level-locked results in you getting no XP and largely not even being able to get worthwhile drops off of most content in the game. That's why it is skipped. And that's why it will always be skipped, with or without

Teleport.

Case and point:
When WSK is terrorized, plenty of runs actually start doing full clears instead of teleporting to throne because it is suddenly worth doing. And yet, the second it isn't terrorized anymore ya go right back to skipping to throne as the content is once again a waste of time. None of that is due to

Teleport being a thing, all of it is due to the content being a waste of time.

If TZs were turned into a new difficulty instead, terrorizing the entire game all the time, I guarantee you most of the

Teleport discussion would largely fall away as folks would suddenly actually clear stuff instead of skipping everything.
Not that that (or anything else) will ever happen but hey..

"Worth" is relative. Right now killing ordinary monsters is not worth it, as we have bosses, elites and TZs. But if a new game mode/difficulty with bosses (or maybe loot goblins?) only, the current farming locations would suddenly become inferior. The same would happen if the current most efficient farming methods were removed - players would just adapt (and, yes, complain a lot).
Not everything in the game has to be super easy. Once you optimize the gameplay for exp/loot per unit of time - especially a grind-based game like D2 - the game suddenly becomes a chore.

Schnorki wrote: 9 months ago

Bot makers aren't quite as incompetent as you seem to believe they are. Or..some of them at least. Take WoW for example, plenty of capable bots there since what felt like day 1, despite no chain

Teleport or any of that. Among countless other examples.

I don't know how the bots are today, but years ago they were quite dumb. Something unexpected, like inability to move, made them leave the game. Probably the cheating tools have evolved (unlike
Bli$$'s anti-cheating tools...).

@Trang Oul totally get the point you're making. I just think it's a bit extreme to suggest everyone would continue to use Engima in that scenario (only contains +1

Teleport skill and nothing else). I realize this is nit-picking at this point but there are builds and playstyles that don't require

Teleport. Just one example but horking

Travincal comes to mind.

Unpopular opinion, I like it as it is.

It's hard to get, feels good when you get it, and makes it so that something besides a sorc gets played. It's end-game for a lot of builds but not all.

I don't think we should touch it. But if we had to, T-might having it as well would work fine.

departure wrote: 9 months ago

Unpopular opinion, I like it as it is.

It's hard to get, feels good when you get it, and makes it so that something besides a sorc gets played. It's end-game for a lot of builds but not all.

I don't think we should touch it. But if we had to, T-might having it as well would work fine.

It's not unpopular. There's a reason this is a contentious topic as many land on both sides.

One issue also is that

Teleport does not impact all builds similarly.

Summoners (necro or druid) need to

Teleport to be efficient. Remove that from the game and... well, there are lots of things left to improve with summons

We all know anyway that nothing will change, but I am more on the side of the "make it more accessible", as removing it would be too disruptive.

As for Enigma, I tend to think it's a bit too good indeed. Skills+Frw+Str+MF is a bit crazy, even with no fcr or res. But it surely is hard to reach and an endgame goal for many !

I like Enigma. I’m glad it’s an option. I just wish it wasn’t the only option for any person wanting to compete who didn’t choose sorceress.

And a sorrowful

Howl out to all you Druid furries. All 5 of you. Your poor tired paws, keep up the fight <3

Since I started looking deeply into it when D2R came out, I've made a few observations about Enigma. And really, one of the main "pro-status quo" points I see is "I like it being a top item to chase after." To truly understand the merit of this claim, we have to actually examine and get a deep answer for "Why is Enigma the top?" It's easy enough to give a simple answer, but we need to contextualize it.

The problem is... In terms of rune cost, it's hardly the most expensive piece of gear people go for.

Ber+

Jah is indeed expensive, but hardly the top:

• Infinity's Berx2 was (until a year or two ago) actually more expensive, and might still be more expensive in early ladder. (at least when you toss the extra
  Ist in...) And yet, even as much as Infinity gets used, it still isn't considered on a par.
• Destruction tosses two more HRs on, and of course, Last Wish is the king of expensive runewords, with three Jahs, a
  Ber, and a
  Sur.
• On top of that, there's plenty of major build-enabling uniques that are on a comparable level of rarity and value... But still aren't anywhere near as "automatic" as Enigma is. Even for
  Annihilus, (which is plentiful and cheap to trade for now) is somehow considered lower in priority for most builds than this one runeword.

And Enigma's demand can't be any of the other "really nice" modifiers on it; there's other sources for STR, for MF, and even now FRW. So of course it comes down to the

Teleport. While everyone's reflexive answer will point out the other QoL/build enabling of the other mods, it's a simple enough mental excercise to ask yourself: if we removed a single mod of the runeword, would it still be great? For every other line, it wouldn't be a deal breaker. But if we removed the oskill from it... It probably wouldn't even get made ever even if the cost were dropped to a common HR: Chains of Honor & Fortitude would easily fill in that field.

This is where it feeds into the chief "anti-status quo" point: that

Teleport access is outright game-changing for most classes and builds. It's no secret that that skill alone is why, by default, the Sorceress is just way faster at doing content than any other class: Sorc is the only class that has made it possible to beat

Baal (normal) on a fresh char in under an hour... Compared to over 1:15 for the best of any other class. Thus it's not even really the fault of this one runeword alone: it's kind of the fault of how broken

Teleport is as a skill. You could change Enigma to just have the oskill and zero other beneficial mods, and it'd still have the same place in the meta, just that you'd have to work even harder to make it fit in.

So in this regard, we have to examine not just the "why" of the game's meta, but what it means for a lot of build options. Others have noted that this sort of impact of

Teleport access can basically make-or-break a build. The ability to instantly pull all your minions to you is invaluable, and makes them actually plausible to manage. (even for those other than summon Necros: who here hasn't just teleported next to a boss to get your Act 2/5 merc to stab them instantly?) Likewise, this is a good escape from a bad situation, and of course, saves a lot of time skipping over the emptiness that fills a lot of maps.

Once we realize that's the role of

Teleport, we realize the impact that it has on the game's balance in general: that every class starts out as "worse than Sorc," and what we're chasing is... The ability to play another class without failing compared to the sorc. It's a really awkward thing where the bulk of builds are, in practical terms, gated behind a single item. And that this also renders a lot of other items for the same slot just... Not great. This also means that a straight-up nerf to this option (such as making the oskill instead be for a version of

Teleport with a cooldown) wouldn't fix the broader problem of other classes lagging badly. (granted, nerfing

Teleport itself with a cooldown/casting delay would work, but that might be a particularly angering change)

Some of these things aren't even fully addressed by just the skill or runeword, but by the game's own design itself, and we can see it in other games. Path of Exile (which for many is often just simply "Diablo 2 but fixed") handles the Summoner issue above, by having an extra skill for them: "Convocation," which simply teleports all your minions to you. The empty map skipping is also something that can be handled just by... Increasing monster density, which is something I've seen players calling for anyway: even if for an unrelated reason than they're asking for it, this change would indeed reduce the value of Teleport in general.

This brings us back to the main pro-status-quo argument: Sure, players enjoy chasing after a BiS item (that's like 99% of the draw of games like D2!) but there'd always be something, even if "get the most broken oskill ever" wasn't the target. In this role that's the chief argument for protecting it, Enigma is replaceable. I'd hinted at a good example above as well:

Annihilus had its role significantly changed when access became a lot easier, thanks to DClone rules being relaxed to combat the "walk cartels" that botted/multiboxed to control the entire game's supply of the item. While many have grumbled over that change, it's clear that it was a net positive for the game. The status quo isn't the best just because someone is used to it.

ACGIFT wrote: 9 months ago

Once we realize that's the role of

Teleport, we realize the impact that it has on the game's balance in general: that every class starts out as "worse than Sorc," and what we're chasing is... The ability to play another class without failing compared to the sorc. It's a really awkward thing where the bulk of builds are, in practical terms, gated behind a single item. And that this also renders a lot of other items for the same slot just... Not great. This also means that a straight-up nerf to this option (such as making the oskill instead be for a version of

Teleport with a cooldown) wouldn't fix the broader problem of other classes lagging badly. (granted, nerfing

Teleport itself with a cooldown/casting delay would work, but that might be a particularly angering change)

Some of these things aren't even fully addressed by just the skill or runeword, but by the game's own design itself, and we can see it in other games. Path of Exile (which for many is often just simply "Diablo 2 but fixed") handles

The Summoner issue above, by having an extra skill for them: "Convocation," which simply teleports all your minions to you.

What if

Teleport was nerfed, but another effect was added to compensate that?
Some examples from Median XL mod (yes, the one where items and skills like Mosaic are a norm ):

• Teleport which requires a target minion, so you can gather your army (necro's Bend the Shadows - pairs well with Totems, stationary Lightning Spire-like minions). Nerf compared to D2 Teleport: you cannot tele through walls.
• Teleport which requires a target enemy (zon's Pounce) or a corpse (sin's Hades Gate) with an AoE damage. Similar to barb's Leap Attack, but instant. Nerf: you cannot tele through walls.
• Free range teleport with an additional effect, such as AoE stun (sin's Blink) or freeze (pal's Divine Apparition). Can be used offensively: warp into a pack of enemies and slaughter them before CC ends. Or just tele in place to apply the CC. Nerf: cooldown.
• Some of the skills above are available also as oskills. Blink is available on a level 1 staff, so each class has early access to the teleport.
• And there is plain teleport with just a cooldown (Jitan's Gate), available on a unique charm, thus not taking an item slot (most MXL rewards are charms for this reason). Cooldown can be later shortened by completing endgame quests.

Quite a variety!

Necrarch wrote: 9 months ago

We all know anyway that nothing will change, but I am more on the side of the "make it more accessible", as removing it would be too disruptive.

Such discussions are still valuable. Sure, lazy asses from Bli$$ard won't do anything, but modders might. Or maybe even future game developers.
Modding/making a game requires a lot of technical skills. But balancing the game is a whole other Beast. You cannot rely on intuition, feedback is crucial.

The thing is, when you're talking about significantly changing or removing

Teleport (or simply Enigma for any non-sorc), you aren't talking about adjusting one skill. You're effectively talking about massively changing the entire nature of the game.

Teleport (read: insane travel speed) has been a core feature of D2 since basically day 1 with classic runs still having sorcs tele from A to B to C and getting the party in via renewed TPs (classic CS runs are actually kinda silly...TP up at seal -> party goes in, kills, party goes back to town -> TP up at next seal -> rinse and repeat - even the walking downstairs is too much of an ask). All Enigma has done is remove the silliness of the chain-TPing by allowing folks to keep up "short distance" with only an initial TP to get to the 'zone', simply by not forcing "sorc-reliance".

Either way, D2 travel speed in group games has always been pretty insane. And why shouldn't it? At its core, D2 is the penultimate action RPG, prioritizing mass monster splatter over basically anything else. But if most of your builds just blow everything up in 1-2 hits tops, you actually have to have insane travel speed to match. If you don't, you suddenly shift your play time to "95% spent walking, 5% spent killing, if even", effectively removing the "kill tons of stuff fast!" aspect that has always been a defining part of D2. Frankly, if one wants a travel-simulator with the occasional mob miles down the road, there's plenty of other games for that..don't break D2 to turn it into yet another one. Or simply choose to play without

Teleport yourself...wrecks your group play (again, plenty of games where that's the [group] norm) but you do have the option for what you do if you do want mindless walking instead of killing stuff.

Either way,

Teleport isn't the only way the insane travel speed is achieved, it is merely the most blatant and established (since everyone has access to it) example. If only tele got nerfed, you'd simply make Mosaic sins even more of the new overlord as BoS + dflight will get you to places and have them cleared before anyone else would ever arrive.
Adding to that/as a result of that, you'd also effectively kill any and all high-end group play for a ton of builds as there are plenty who - without Enigma/

Teleport - simply could not keep up with those that do have a travel advantage. Not that "Enigma = obligatory for pug runs" is necessarily a good approach but it certainly still beats "pug runs = simply not an option at all".

If anything, you could add it as a game option (akin to TZs, drop spacing, all that jazz), to disable

Teleport for that particular game. I'd actually like to see that just to see how many people would ever actually make/join those games..something tells me it won't be many.

This thread is excellent! I don’t have anything better to add, just really appreciate the different perspectives!

Schnorki wrote: 9 months ago

Either way, D2 travel speed in group games has always been pretty insane. And why shouldn't it? At its core, D2 is the penultimate action RPG, prioritizing mass monster splatter over basically anything else. But if most of your builds just blow everything up in 1-2 hits tops, you actually have to have insane travel speed to match. If you don't, you suddenly shift your play time to "95% spent walking, 5% spent killing, if even", effectively removing the "kill tons of stuff fast!" aspect that has always been a defining part of D2. Frankly, if one wants a travel-simulator with the occasional mob miles down the road, there's plenty of other games for that..don't break D2 to turn it into yet another one. Or simply choose to play without

Teleport yourself...wrecks your group play (again, plenty of games where that's the [group] norm) but you do have the option for what you do if you do want mindless walking instead of killing stuff.

True, this is how D2 is perceived and played, but isn't the most pleasant gameplay before you get

Teleport? Once you got it, you "have to" do speedruns. Even if you get one-shotted by monsters (as a poor level 18 sorc which has been peer pressured to do a suicide tele run), it's still more efficient to tele by trial and error (in SC) than walk. Especially in a multiplayer environment, when everyone else does it, and even more because of the shared economy. You have to, because otherwise you fall behind, both in individual games and wealth-wise.
And if the only viable playstyle is speedrunning, isn't D2 essentially a cookie clicker (fortunately not as much as D3, though)?

Schnorki wrote: 9 months ago

If anything, you could add it as a game option (akin to TZs, drop spacing, all that jazz), to disable

Teleport for that particular game. I'd actually like to see that just to see how many people would ever actually make/join those games..something tells me it won't be many.

If it was an option (ONLY an option, not a separate ladder/game mode, nor exp/loot boost as a compensation or anything similar), then no one. Why would anyone intentionally put himself at a disadvantage?

Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game.

One of the responsibilities of designers is to protect the player from themselves.