This kinda goes along with my last post, but something I’d like to see is more player-controlled outcomes rather than everything being so heavily centered around RNG.
Trophy Fragments are a good example of what I mean by “player-controlled outcomes.” The move to Fragments from the old model was kinda meh on its own, but the idea that the player could now create these new Trophy Fragments was what really made this a fantastic change. Not only did this give the player more control over an otherwise pure RNG-dictated outcome, it gave the player a sense that they were working toward a guaranteed result. Trophy farming no longer felt like a potential waste of time because, even if RNG never dropped a Fragment, you knew your efforts would still pay off at a predictable point. It gave the player an actual sense of accomplishment—a sense that it was their effort that brought about this result, not that they were simply gifted something because some random number generator decided they’d sunk enough time into a task.
The Catalyst of Disenchantment is another good example. Imagine what Early Game would be like without it. Imagine if the only way a player could get TUs was to find them naturally, or to collect enough Arcane Shards via random world drops to make them. I wonder how many players would actually play past Normal, let alone Nightmare and into Hell. This is exactly what End Game feels like. Players are entirely at the mercy of RNG for almost everything—SUs, Great Runes, Enhanced Runes, Shrines (both drops and Shrinecraft rolls), Charms (rolls), Cycles, UMOs, Oils, Whispers, Riftstones, Relics, and on and on. This is only compounded by the absurd rarity of many of these items, and/or the fact that some builds are so restricted in what they can use that they require a specific item (or items) in order to progress. Sure, it’s exciting when that 1 make-or-break item finally drops, but there’s no real sense of accomplishment there. The player didn’t do anything a bot couldn’t do to get that drop. There was no skill, no purposeful action that brought about that result. It was pure luck. The player only got that thing because RNG decided they should get that thing at that time.
When I play a game, I want to feel like my actions as a player affect an outcome. Leaving everything up to RNG doesn’t satisfy that because, by its nature, it can’t satisfy that. I’m not saying RNG doesn’t have its place, nor am I suggesting the current model should be done away with. I just think a more deterministic alternative way for players to get the stuff they need, in conjunction with RNG, would make playing with a non-meta build feel less...discouraging. The introduction of craftable Trophies does at least lead me to believe the devs are looking at ways to give players more control over certain outcomes, so hopefully we’ll see more things like that in the future.
There’s a lot more I’d like to say (like how much I hate lockdown timers and why they’re a discouraging and demotivating mechanic), but this post is long enough as it is.
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(Sorry for my bad english - its obvsl. not my native language) greetz 
