A bit more time here, a bit more thought on the sort of defining end-game features.

Legendaries

The game is currently quite anemic until you get into the higher torment levels on the number of legendary drops. The passives on these items are build defining, and a huge inhibitor to progress. To give you an idea, getting near perfect rolls on rare gear is enough to close to Torment 1, but not in it. You need at least 1 passive legendary boost to get over that hump.

The most effective way to get legendaries to get the passives? Either you farm helltides, barter in the Den, or use the horadric cube to craft them from rares. This is actually a disincentive to play the game normally.

Once you do hit Torment 1 and beyond, drop rates start to make some sense. But don’t expect to get all of them, even by T6. Better odds of being in full ancient legendaries before you get all passives. Weird way to intro the system, which requires some tweaking to get right.

Talismans

Similar to legendaries, talismans make little sense until Torment levels, and even then only in the space of set charms. I really can’t stress enough how utterly atrocious non-set charms are in this game. And the game allows no method to upgrade them to a better quality. Eventually you’ll find legendary charms, but that’s a long way to go.

Seals… you only want legendary and the only stat that matters is +1 slot.

Set talismans however, all seem to have a 5 item build requirement for some impressive boosts. It’ll take a bit to get enough, and if you have duplicates you can re-roll them within a set. Once you have the benefits however, you’ll wonder how you ever played without them. +500% damage is nothing to sneeze at.

The stats on all charms are mostly meaningless, except in the space of min/maxing. You can re-roll them and have a 1/5 chance of getting the set charm you want and then the normal 1/100 chance of getting stats you want. Enchanting should be an option here, not re-rolling forever. It’s a good idea here, some tweaking needed.

War Plans

These are solo-only (next season will be fixed) and character only (which I have to assume will change, as it’s super dumb). Fine – that aside, it takes a very long time to gain levels here. You are capped at 7 points per War Plan (49 total) and my rough guesstimate is about 30 hours to get there, depending on RNG.

The events themselves are the same, meaning the incentives remain. War Plans add some contextual benefits to these activities, and some of them are arguably better than others. In personal preference:

1. Helltides. These have always been a good source of just about anything per hour, notably experience, materials, and items. The middle upgrade path gives you access to lair keys and materials for uniques, which are super important.
   • Always select this option
2. Kurast. These are quick events that can target specific drops with the right tribute. Technically the highest drop rate per hour too. The left and middle paths are good, giving better runs overall.
   • Always select this option and use your tributes
3. Lair Boss (only in Torment). If you can clear them, they are the fastest of all activities. All the path options are decent here, assuming you have the keys to unlock the boss chests.
   • Mostly select this option when you have keys
4. Nightmare Dungeon. Use keys you have on hand, ideally the ones with Whisper rewards. Not all of them are equal though, you’ll learn which are worth it. The right tree is the best, the middle one gives you access to Astaroth (not a fan of that system).
   • Mostly select this option when you have keys
5. Pits. It’s better than previous seasons, and great if you like leaderboards, otherwise it’s a very specific use case. Pick the tree upgrades that increase the number of glyph upgrades you can perform.
   • Only select if you need to upgrade glyphs
6. Hordes. This mode takes too long, soulspires still aren’t balanced, and the boss drops are anemic. The left tree has the best options, but require Bartuc to be killed (666 to spawn, and 400 for the chest).
   • Avoid this option
7. Tree of Whispers. You can’t select this, it just happens normally. Select the middle path for the Spark reward. This will take a very long while to complete.

I think the idea of War Plans is interesting. The tree isn’t exactly balanced at this point, as for most of them there’s a super clear ‘best choice’. Balance in these systems takes some time, and heat maps are going to be quite indicative of where player preference lies. There’s not a whole lot you can do to fix the problems with Horde mode by applying a coat of fancy paint. The trees need a bit more balance to either align with the larger game goals, or to offset the hurdles of the activities themselves (the Pit tree does this the best I think).