How to keep the joy of playing when the grind starts to feel like work?

Heyhey guys,

Fair warning, this might read as a bit of a ramble/rant, it's not a guide, mostly just venting I guess!

So uhh, yeah the title says it all pretty much. I'm starting to hit a point with D2 which I always get to when coming back to it. I have some characters geared up for endgame, like a Java that can kill and facetank pretty much anything except probably

Uber Tristram, a Blizzballer with okay gear that can farm most places, and an IK barb that can WW and hork the trav council to get that gold gambling slot machine going. All of them can still use a bit of a boost in gear, the Java will only really benefit from the high end CoH and Infinity at this point, the Sorc I've yet to find any items that'll probably be best in slot aside from a perfect fcr

Monarch. the barb has a

Raven Frost but would probably benefit from a better ring and ammy. But yeah, all in all they're to a point where I can go wherever I want with them, farm stuff and kill stuff, so they feel done. Now that they are, it feels like there's not a lot to do anymore aside from doing the same stuff again and again and hope something happens. Solo it feels like the droprates are really low (best I've found over those chars and various farming runs is an

Ist,

Mal and an

Io (I not L) for the Hell Forge quests and a lot of their gear I had to trade for aside from the IK set), and group play I find that I'm usually too busy killing stuff to join the clickfest for anything that drops (never liked the shared loot and still find it frustrating, as I just see a lot of people half-assing when fighting stuff or freeloading entirely only ready to just spam click whenever something shiny drops).

I could make new characters and I've found some okay gear to get going with a Hammerdin, Avenger, Smiter, Zealot,

Frenzy Barb,Trapsin, Summonmancer, and Windy Druid, but in a way it feels like I'll either cruise through the difficulties solo without too much trouble with the gear I've found, or I can get some quick rush help to have another endgame character to feel the same about as with the Java, Blizzballer and IK Barb. The gap between being geared up and able to do 99% of content and getting the best in slot items for a character just feels huge atm, insurmountable even.

So yeah, I guess I'm wondering how other people keep things fresh and entertaining for themselves when you get to this point in D2R?

Of course, some people absolutely love this kind of a grind and more power to them, but I'm sure that there are others like me who are on 42069+ Countess, Summoner,

Nihlathak runs for keys, Andy, Meph, Diablo,

Baal, and Cow MF runs, LK superchest runs for HR, Trav Council gold runs, and are starting to feel like it's a struggle... I try mixing it up with longer game sessions where I do multiples of these things, shorter sessions where I focus down on one thing at a time, helping people with a rush or something in-between when I see something on the forum or in the game lobby, but after a while it can all start to feel too samey to me and progress towards the next thing (gear, level-up, keyset... whatever goal you get in your head) gets so slow, the grind starts to feel like work. And I already work at work, so I don't want my time spent gaming to feel like that as well.

If you've come this far, thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day! If you also have some tips, I'd love to read them and see if they can help either me or maybe others who might also be going through a similar experience at the moment.

i'm starting to hit that point too. i actually started with a trapsin cuz i never played a sin before. i didnt want to get straight into hdin or sorc...it was fun getting my sin to 89, before doing my hdin and sorc...now my sorc is rocking high end light gear...i ended up with a full tals set sitting in my stash so i made a second sorc just to use it...got her to 82 and already bored...gonna build a barb next...

i've heard people say rolling an offline char is fun because you can't trade for gear. might be a good challenge. otherwise....maybe try hc?

I'm tempted to give offline a go for that reason yeah! For my first char (the Java) I did everything solo until I beat Hell. The Ancients in Hell were terrible, always spawned with one or two immune to lightning, so I eventually had just

Madawc as a lightning immune and had a

Valkyrie and a low level

Poison Javelin while he was pinned in a corner. Took about half an hour of the Valk jabbing away and re-poisoning before he went down. Then the rest was a cakewalk.

I've considered going through the same process for new characters as well, but now that I've found a

Lightsabre for example, it just feels silly to not have an Avenger or Zealot Pally use it as soon as he has reached the required level for it. Same with the rest of the gear and runes I've found, if I do use them then the run with a new character will become significantly easier, but if I don't use them it feels like all the hours farming with the other endgame characters are kinda pointless if I'm not using any items that I've found?

And I have thought about doing HC characters, but I think I'd find it difficult to deal with losing all my progress because I did something dumb somewhere. Sometimes you can have (avoidable) freak accidents, like a sorc teleporting through Durance and having a boss pack along the way curse you, then having a random stygian doll come at you and your merc killing it exploding the both of you. And for a lot of those situations there are of course safeguards, like purposefully killing your merc before doing such a run so it can't kill anything as you

Teleport, but I don't think I'd appreciate feeling liking I'm risking everything every time I turn the game on. And with D2R there are also just a few issues not ironed out yet, like the WP travel actually being faster than the loading screen, where you can notice for example that

Duriel might already be wailing on you or your merc before you've actually been able to see what's happening (you can also move or use skills yourself whilst still in the loading screen), or a mob pack already attacking you at the

Frigid Highlands WP because they can spawn close to it. Or a Death Lord's

Frenzy attack starting when you've teleported near it, but then continuing to attack you when you're two teleports away already (I've had a Death Lord's

Frenzy attack keep going randomly when they were already frozen solid as well). Or just general server/game instability causing a lag spike, CTD or something along those lines. If the loading screen goes away and I'm suddenly dead, or if I restart the game and find myself dead, I'd probably get pretty pissed. So yeah, I don't know if I'd like playing HC or if that'd turn into too much of a rage game for me then

I can certainly see how HC can add a new feel to playing though, requiring more defensive builds, gear choices, decision making. And props to people who play HC and can just shrug it off and go to the next character when they die. If there was an HC option where if you die, your character goes to SC non-ladder or something, I'd probably be more at Peace with it, but otherwise it'd probably just end up with me not wanting to play anymore after a character dies.

good points about HC.

maybe just try offline play i guess.

for me, i'll probably want to get every class to 80 first before i do that tho.

There's pros and cons for everything, and as with all games, it's mostly up to you as a player what you want to focus on. When you've reached this kind of endgame the enjoyment you'll find will mostly be the enjoyment you create yourself, so instead of suggesting anything, I'd rather ask a few questions.

What draws you back into this game? What character do you enjoy playing, and within what skill-tree? Do you min/max, or are you up for anything? Do you hoard? Do you like arbitrary challenges? There's hundreds of ways to take the game from here, but what do you want from it?

If getting to 99, or farming for every unique is not the best, why not just make your own rules and see what happens? Try to trade your starter wep into a

Zod rune? (through many steps ofc). No potions? Only rejuv pots? No map? Try to clear as many quests as you can in the wrong order? Use a skill-tree that's not optimal? Try to find the stupidest low tier build you can think of? Use only passive skills on your character, and every attacking skill needs to be from another class through gear? Play with only White items, or on the flip side, a hoarding barb that 100% wear every new piece of gear if it's unique. Does it have worse stats? Sucks for you, because that's what your character wants to use..

Make the character you want to play, and make the world you want to play in. Solo might be the best if you're intentionally nerfing yourself, but bring a friend if you feel lonely in your new world. Make sure they follow your rules tho

PS: if being sub optimal is not to your liking, but you still want the game to be fresh, maybe speedrunning might fit. There's a big difference in playing normally, and trying to be fast. Might scratch an itch. Worth an attempt or two at least!

Thanks for the questions! I'll have to sit on them for a bit before I can answer them I think, but for now you've definitely given me food for thought.

I already had some goals coming into D2R that I've been able to mark off, like getting an IK barb that I had back in the day, having a Javazon on bnet when I found out later on single player how strong they could be, having a successful sorc as I've never liked playing with

Teleport before... Maybe in time I can find new goals to be excited about.

HFA wrote: 3 years ago

So yeah, I guess I'm wondering how other people keep things fresh and entertaining for themselves when you get to this point in D2R?

I have 15 Alternate characters and counting. I make 3-4 of every class and make each a specific build. Zealer, Smiter, Hammerdin, Javazon, bowzon, Cold/lite/fire Sorc's, Wearbear,

Werewolf, summon druid, windy druid ext ext.

I play through the entire game and do not Rush myself besides to actually level in

Baal games. For instance, ill play through the game from 1-20ish which is when i arrive in Act 5, then i level a bit and do some

Baal runs before entering Nightmare. Then playthrough nightmare until im in A5 and repeat.

To me this is how you should play. Rushing your chars through all the Acts from lvl 1-80 and not actually experiencing the game seems like it defeats the entire purpose of playing to me.

The game plays differently for each and every build and it prolongs the fun by months.

Then..... HARDCORE BUILDS! :O

I have two builds I play when I'm bored. An Enchantress, and a Defensive Auradin that makes people nearly unkillable. Then I hop into games and just help people out with them.

My favorite thing to do is stack MF like crazy on my alts as i play through the game. As they play through NM and Hell i do find quite a bit of awesome stuff and don't feel like i really have to spend too much time "farming". since i hate it. lol

So basically... don't "grind", play. Ill MF with every single character once they are in the 70-80s as well so it doesnt get stale. Use specific builds for specific areas. Like javazon for cows, FW sorc for bosses, Hammerdin for Chaos/

Baal. Make a GoldFind barb For trav, those are fun and you can get like 700k per run.

My secret is Netflix. lol

I don't go at the game super hard mode or I end up burnt out. I do my MF runs while watching a show/movie/youtube series on another monitor. I'm not in a rush to get rich or super powerful, even though my end game was always mostly PvP. That will come in time.

Most importantly though... Don't feel obligated to play! If you're feeling burnt out, take a break & play something else you enjoy for a while. D2R will be waiting for you when you feel the itch again.

EnragedN3wb wrote: 3 years ago

Most importantly though... Don't feel obligated to play! If you're feeling burnt out, take a break & play something else you enjoy for a while. D2R will be waiting for you when you feel the itch again.

This!

Everyone jumped on the game the second it launched and are already burning themselves out by playing 10 hours a day everyday. This will ruin anything, like that new song you keep listening to until you hate it. lol

I saw some people who mostly finish thier builds doing some free run, helping people who were struggled.

You will be one of many that are trying to make D2R online community better.

BillyMaysed wrote: 3 years ago

Then..... HARDCORE BUILDS! :O

This. Hardcore is never boring. You have to watch your every step. :>

EnragedN3wb wrote: 3 years ago

Most importantly though... Don't feel obligated to play! If you're feeling burnt out, take a break & play something else you enjoy for a while. D2R will be waiting for you when you feel the itch again.

In the meantime there may be a ladder reset, which means a fresh start.

I think the problem with grinding is that harvesting that same thing. I found that actually playing the game throughout can yield surprising results. for example i found a

Ko rune in one of the levels of tower. and countess gave crap runes. also some Duress armor for my merc. from just oding boss runs. and going at it clearing everything.
I have to say, I like clearing things... I don't know why. i don't like going straight to the point of the grind. I like clearing, and maybe finding something surprising. and if I don't like the grind, the suggestions here were exactly mine's as well.