… And they will. Canada is run by neoliberals who will cater the business’s every whim

I think there’s more to it than that.

When working at industrial factories if I catch a glimpse of something run off a cheap consumer alternative to the standard industry equipment I immediately question everything. If they’re willing to skimp on that item, where else have they skimped?

If I recall correctly that’s how it’s always been with Diablo

So, I’ll be a bit of greybeard here with a “Not ALWAYS!”. But I’m being sorta pedantic in that…

Diablo 2 in version 1.09 and before were my favorite. The 1.10 patch was where Blizzard introduced “Synergies” to the skills as well as a boatload new Runewords (Enigma, Chains of Honor, etc.)

Prior to that, the balance wasn’t perfect…but the “best” builds weren’t stupidly above the rest, and everything sort of had weak points or blind spots. You could argue, and I’d agree, that the game perhaps didn’t have as much content to explore at that point, but I enjoyed the game far more in that era than what came after.

In 1.09 you could feasibly do any build and still sort of enjoy the game. I had melee sorc builds, elemental paladins. My favorite PvP build was smite/FoH pally. But what came after? Hammerdins, Wind Druids, bonermancers galore. The game broke so many builds putting them miles above the rest. But instead of fixing that, blizzard leaned into it and released content that only very narrow builds could complete. Ubers? Without a smiter? Almost unheard of.

Itemization is also a big part of ruining that. I’ve always loved RPGs that have “Sets” and “Uniques” that are powerful, but the best is always a Rare (or equivalent such as crafted item). Sure the odds of godrolling the best items are astronomically small, but at least it lead to diversity. Everyone who just wants to play can equip the same gear as each other, but those who want to optimize need to work.