This has been my third playtest and with it coming to a close I finally feel like I've gotten to test both early game and "late" game Dark and Darker to really know how I feel about both aspects of the game.

I want to be very clear that I don't dislike the geared, rich out of your mind phase of the game, it's absolutely fun and interesting in its own way.

But I do prefer the low-gear experience. I believe that pvp begins to suffer slightly the higher up the gear tree you go. Everything becomes uber mega oneshotting, or no one dying at all due to extreme amounts of resistance or regen/potions. It can be extremely hard to judge what people are packing and you basically have no opportunities to make any adjustments. And this is not yet mentioning the fact that pve outside of highroller hell and bosses becomes pretty trivial.

What I found was that during my final play session I was entering goblin caves as a naked fighter or crypt as a mid-geared fighter, instead of working my way through my massive gold stash, because I enjoy the more methodical and slightly more diluted phase of the game so much more. When it isn't just pop a pot, get cleric buffed, and run and gear test your opponents. Low gear vs low gear is the true test of skill and absolutely the most blood-rushing and enjoyable part of the game, in my opinion. Gear levels white-blue are the absolute peak of this game. Once you start adding in rings and purple weapons it takes a steep nosedive.

Now the purpose of this post is to get a discussion going on the topic because I believe it could end up being a problem for the game in the long run. The game is absolutely incredible for a week on two but as the population ages and higher gear starts becoming average I'm mildly concerned it'll begin to suffer. It's certainly a tough issue, though, because if higher gear doesn't feel different then what's the point?

Are you experiencing the same thing as me, are you finding more enjoyment the lower the loot table is skewed? If so, why do you think that is, and if you believe that's a problem, what would your suggestions on a fix be?

If you have been enjoying the geared experience more than me then please share as well, I'd love to hear what I'm missing, but again I just want to stress that I ALSO enjoy geared, I just find myself preferring ungeared.