Monster pack composition thoughts

I just wanted to comment a bit on an idea that I've been seeing around a bit, the idea that we should have fewer, tougher enemies.

I do think that there's a place for swarms of enemies, but a bigger issue to me is that it feels a bit like except for bosses this kind of fight is the only kind of fight we face as the game goes on, and so every fight feels very same-y to me after some point in the campaign, probably act 2-ish.

The point where it really struck me recently, was in act 4, when I visited Shrike island, and saw the crowbells (sans their bells). I remember some time ago, posting about how it'd be cool to see that thing you see in some games, where the boss you fight early in a game becomes an enemy that you fight regularly later on, and now that's a thing. It's cool, I wonder if they listened or just had the same idea as me?

Either way, I got a 'but' here: I don't think I noticed this on my first playthrough. Same with the tectonic golems in the volcanic warrens; we're seeing boss monsters as regular fights, but it doesn't really have the same feel that I've gotten from other games where I've seen this.

Essentially, I feel like this kind of thing has a lot more impact when the boss-as-a-regular-monster is not quite as difficult as the original boss encounter of course, but it's at least a meaty fight, you know? Then, over time you get more and more used to these fights and it starts to feel like any other fight, and that really feels like you're getting more powerful.

Of course, people will complain about the loot:kill-time ratio if you make a change like this, and there's a simple answer if it's not already an aspect of your loot calculations: more health = more time to kill = more loot.

SSF

I'm not sure if I followed it all.

I don't mind the swarms, but I do need some diversity.

I'm responding because I had the same feels regarding the crowbell. Same experience, I bet a lot of people felt that way. OH its a little one, COOL.

Isn't that a Final Fantasy kinda thing? Pretty sure.

It does feel like progression. Which I think is mainly what players are after. Fun and progression- progression is fun.

This is why experience loss annoys so many players. Its because they are only measuring their progression with experience; and then its being taken away. If they were still updating their gear, or could easily recover that xp- they wouldn't care as much. Its the trade of time to loss. Progression.

The crowbell was actually one of the coolest experiences I had in the new act. Funny too, cause its such a simple thing- but I did think it was super cool. Weird.