All I saw was reduced merc HP and I realized that the devs have become completely out of touch with their casual fan base. I guess I'll be skipping this season. Mercs are mostly cannon fodder now anyhow in ubers, so why not make them garbage in normal and nightmare too to round out the experience, right? And I see you guys are removing as many reanimate procs as possible from charms and items as well... trying to balance around those extra minions that soak up the damage instead of the player can be difficult I am sure? But you do this at the expense of taking away the fun from the casual gamer!
There is a reason many of us players posted how shitty the mercs have become since 2.0, but instead of listening to your fans, you ensure the merc mediocrity continues across the board to sustain your clearly idealistic balanced game. Well Balance does not always equate to fun. What I mostly see in this patch is balancing issues, not many bug fixes from the huge list of bugs and feedback already posted. This - to me - makes it clear where the priorities of the team lie which is understandable... you guys have a plan laid out and are slowly rolling it out one patch at a time, and once the balancing is complete, other ideas can prevail! But have you stopped to consider that these changes will in fact cause many casual players like me to leave permanently? Diehards like me who have spent many years playing this game for a long time to fill that dream of a moment of fun, and when that fun dies, so does the interest to play this wonderful mod.
I do sincerely hope that you (MXL community) get MORE players along the way, and MXL becomes the behemoth and envy of all mods and mod makers alike but at the current implementation, some players are inevitably getting frustrated at these changes like I am and will give up on that dream of a casual pass-time. Maybe you guys should take a step back from your master plan and listen to your fan-base and make some changes specifically based around that, and don't try and say the Javazon was you listening to your player-base because any adult who tells their child, "do you want to go to bed on your own, or should I carry you to bed," knows that this is only the illusion of choice, and that you already had every intent to make the changes you made anyhow so the player-base was never actually heard.
Personally, I love playing this game with a merc by my side. I was honestly expecting a tremendous buff to them after we (the players) all voiced our opinions on their frailty in 2.0 so they could actually survive in uber levels, not nerf them. You are so out of touch with your actual player-base... Look, I fully understand the premise of nerfing them to take them out of the equation for overall balance, and of reducing reanimates, but I also know how fun and vital they both can be! It was a very tough call for me to ditch Ice Tomb on my Cold and Melee Sorc for some better armor specifically due to those reanimates, but taking that away makes that particular armor just another SU along the way to something better instead of that torn feeling you get where you are forced to choose between two loves and are left feeling in the end like you made the best decision. I feel like you are taking that away from the players, the freedom to chose between items which do not fit into your balancing act; you are shoehorning the players into very specific decisions about their end-game gear, end-game items you are certain will be used (because everything else does not compare to what is ahead of it) which allows you to balance based around that... Yes, it all makes perfect sense, but where is the fun in that? In your attempt to control the players decisions, or "balance" the game, however you want to word it, you are literally killing the fun out of the game IMO. The last patch was, for me anyway, so much fun in the beginning, probably the most fun I have ever had playing this mod yet, but then it became an epic grindfest in the end-game, so much more than any other patch before it where it just was not fun! You did not hear us, the casual players! I am clearly writing this passionately as you can tell, but I think I already know inside I think I might finally be done with this MOD! I've spent countless hours/days/years playing this game and unless there is an about face on the development to bring back the fun-factor, there really is nothing left for me in this game, which is actually kind of sad for me. D2 and MXL were always there for me to fill that void with something fun to do in my spare-time... and yet somehow, you've found a way to drain the fun factor completely out of the end game for me. I'm having difficulty pinpointing exactly what it is other than the clear and obvious restriction of choice, but whatever it is, I don't like it... I don't like it enough to stop playing a game I haven't stopped playing for over 20-years! I am sure I am not the only one who feels that way. Anyway, just thought I'd post how I was feeling. I hope you (devs) take a moment to read this and consider my words. I really do love this mod, and will probably pop my head in mid-season to see if anything is different but as it is now, I can't see myself sticking around much longer. Peace.
