In Diablo 4's endgame gameplay, the most important progression system is War Plans.
This system, presented as a skill tree, connects various endgame content such as Helltide, Nightmare Dungeon, The Pit, Infernal Hordes, Lair Bosses, Tree of Whispers, and Kurast Undercity. Therefore, once a player enters the endgame, they inevitably need to progress through War Plans.
However, this system has long suffered from several issues that have drawn criticism from players, many of whom hope these problems will be addressed in Season 15:
Progress Is Not Account Wide
Because each account in Diablo 4 can only choose one class, players who want to experience other classes must create alt characters. Therefore, experienced players typically have multiple alt characters.
However, since progress in War Plans is extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive, and War Plans progress is not shared between accounts, players must grind War Plans on each of their alt characters. Therefore, players have been calling for War Plans progress to be shared across all accounts.
Successful Case Study
In fact, the game has a proven successful account-sharing mechanism: Paragon Points.
In Diablo 4 Season 14, Paragon Points were account-wide. Players only needed to level any character to 60 to unlock Paragon Boards.
Subsequently, when alt characters under the same account in the same Season reached level 60, they would immediately inherit the acquired Paragon Level and Paragon Points. This design received widespread praise from players.
However, with War Plans system, each alt character had to start from level one and unlock all event bonuses again, which was very time-consuming and tedious.
Player Feedback
Therefore, many players stated that they did not level any alt characters because War Plans were not shared. This led to two problems:
First, players leveled their main characters to max level and then stopped logging in until the next season started; second, players were unwilling to try new classes and builds. This directly led to a significant decrease in player activity.
In fact, another similar game, Path of Exile 2, had the same problem. In Path of Exile 2, each alt character had to run through the lengthy campaigns again, which deterred many players from creating alt characters.
Lack Of Catch Up Mechanism
Some players suggested that in Season 15, even if War Plans weren't completely account-wide, a catch-up mechanism should at least be provided, such as significantly increasing the speed at which alt characters gain War Plans experience, or directly inheriting a certain percentage of the main character's progress.
The key is that War Plans system shouldn't leave alt characters with no advantage in progress; otherwise, the tedious experience of having to repeatedly play the same content will only drive players to quit the game.
Although there are rumors that Season 15 will address this issue, the developers have not yet made any promises or released any information.
Insufficient Rewards
The rewards offered by War Plans have also been heavily criticized. This system offers players two types of rewards: first, the buffs provided by nodes, and second, other rewards - such as Diablo 4 items, gold, or experience points.
Regarding the former, a problem arises: for most players, only a few nodes in War Plans are truly useful - the double chests from Lair Boss branch, the extra Glyph upgrades from The Pit branch, etc. - other branches become worthless after reaching a certain level.
However, players are forced to spend a significant amount of time progressing through War Plans for a few useful nodes.
On the other hand, the rewards for the latter are too meager. This leads many players to believe that it's better to use their time on other endgame activities than to waste it on War Plans.
Furthermore, in stark contrast to the meager rewards, resetting nodes is prohibitively expensive. In Diablo 4, resetting a single node can cost nearly 50 million gold, and resetting an entire tree of skill nodes requires an astronomical amount.
Players can't even cover these costs with the benefits of War Plans - because the benefits are too meager.
Flawed Leveling System
Finally, some players have raised concerns about War Plans' leveling system. War Plans contain multiple independent skill trees, each with multiple levels. Each level requires a significant amount of experience points, which can only be obtained by completing the corresponding endgame content.
Therefore, if you want to become stronger or farm materials faster in various endgame content, you must have War Plans buffs. However, to obtain these buffs, you must participate in endgame content to grind experience and level up.
As a result, by the time you've maxed out the corresponding skills in War Plans, you no longer need those buffs.
For example, advanced nodes in The Pit's skill tree provide additional Glyph upgrades - but players often need to run The Pit hundreds of times to unlock these nodes, by which time their main character's Glyphs are already maxed out.
These are the opinions of Diablo 4 players regarding War Plans mechanic. Overall, on the one hand, War Plans consume too much of the player's time, causing fatigue; on the other hand, the benefits they provide are disproportionate to their cost.
Players hope the developers will modify War Plans in Season 15 to make it more reasonable and engaging.
