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Terror Zone Difficulty
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The journey to level 99 is a celebrated experience for players and quite the milestone if achieved—a rite of passage, even. We want to offer an alternative to repeatedly farming Baal, Diablo, or Nihlathak. We also want the journey to level 99 to be accessible to a larger population of players, full of variety, and most importantly, challenging—this is where Terror Zones come in. As we get into details, please note that players can choose to opt-out of Terror Zones if desired.
When playing a Terror Zone-enabled game, every hour, the armies of the Burning Hells will focus their demonic might on specific zones, terrorizing them. The monsters in these zones will be at least two levels higher than your current level or their original level, up to a maximum per difficulty. The experience received and the loot dropped by killing a terrorized monster will be based on this new level. In addition, terrorized monsters will also grant additional experience points.
Upon entering a Terror Zone-enabled game, you'll be informed of the current terrorized areas through a message sent to you via the Chat Box. When the time for new terrorized zones draws near, you will be informed of the impending changes via the Chat Box.
In addition, you will be informed that you’re entering a terrorized area by several indicators:
The dominant driver of these changes was mob density. Fully clearing a zone is more beneficial in a Terrorized zone, but this becomes less efficient if the density of a zone is too low. Rather than adjust mob density, which can have ramifications on melee builds, we opted instead to remove zones with lighter mob density. The removal of Maggot Lair and Harem/Palace Cellar was also to address Terror Zone playability in close quarters zones with doors. While zones with doors have always been a bit quirky, we do not wish to change them, opting instead to maintain their original design feeling. Instead, we have added two new zones that promote our intended benefits to players when terrorized.