The Diablo player base is funny in this regard because too many place so much of an emphasis on the e-peen factor with stuff like gear, Paragon levels, and the most difficult level one can do, as validation that it takes actual player skill to accomplish these things. Even the notion of competition in a game like this is somewhat humorous because a game like Diablo III cannot even be balanced properly, nor have clever use of game mechanics or its layers of RNG mitigated where it places everyone on a level playing field. Thus the entire notion of competition in this game is laughable at best. As someone else said, anyone who plays hack-n-slash RPG’s like this and expects to be recognized for their skill, needs to get a reality check and maybe prove just how good they are in gaming by seeing how far they can excel at say StarCraft II (most Diablo players including myself, wouldn’t get very far).
Pointing and clicking around with a mouse does not equate to player skill. Granted, while playing an undergeared (purposely handicapped) demon hunter in a specific difficulty is probably the most challenging class to play, it’s still more about decision making. Not even hardcore mode is validation either; hardcore mode is more about playing the game with a different mindset and actually being far more aware of things that one can disregard when playing the game in normal/softcore mode (basic game management). This includes how a map is cleared and making sure there is a pre-cleared escape route in those cases when your skills are not off cooldown. Many aspects of hardcore play can improve ones general game play overall; but that is generally about it.
Pre patch 2.0, I got my hardcore wizard up to P63 playing mostly between Inferno MP3-4 (MP5 was the limits of the gear that I had). Game play eventually became second nature in terms of how to deal with the cheap mechanics associated with certain elite affixes; it was more about making the correct decision with when to use certain defensive skills. It got to the point where I was more likely to die from high latency or a network disconnect. While I lost two level 60 wizards due to network disconnects (one on Asia and the other on the US realm), I lucked out on my oldest hardcore character (my monk), my latest wizard, and my witch doctor. I haven’t put in any time on hardcore in Reaper of Souls except to level them to 70 though.
While the permanent death factor (and obviously avoiding it) is something that makes playing the mode actually more fun (there is always that tension and adrenalin rush), the game play itself remains one that does not require actual game play skill. But not even that aspect of hardcore, is enough to get me to log in and do the bounty/rift grind at the moment.
Yes, your decision making in certain circumstances can mean making mistakes that leads to death. But it’s not even remotely close to say the kind of skill required when playing StarCraft II at a highly competitive level (where it’s not only about actions per minute, but also being able to manage multiple units in everything from scouting, to resource gathering, to construction and putting those resources into the right defensive/offensive setup, to managing and directing the combat of multiple units). There’s basically a macro and micro level game; not just a near mindless clickfest that represents most game play in Diablo (and by this, I mean D1 to D3). The one area of exception is maybe mutually agreed to low level/PvP dueling in D1 and D2.
Which is why I always find it funny when some players place so much emphasis on these fairly useless measurements of achievements in a game like Diablo. Stuff like high Paragon levels does not impress me because that is more of a measurement of time spent playing; which itself is less meaningful in Reaper of Souls due to how much faster it takes to get to P500 versus say the amount of time it takes from going from P80 to P100 pre-2.0 (and it’s good that they seem to realize that the D2 style of just one type of ladder is shallow).
The quality of ones gear also has nothing to do with game play skill; it’s more about luck. Anyone who no-lifes games like this can eventually overcome bad luck/supplement what good luck they do have to get a lot of end game items. Smart/efficient game play can also help but this again is about game play management; not real game play skill. So I really don’t care how fast one can clear a T6 rift or boss. Do it with sub-optimal gear like all rares/blues without dying and cheesing through it, then I MIGHT be slightly impressed.
Given the way difficulty is implemented in Diablo III, Torment VI is more about having the gear to deal with the larger numbers; there is no added game play skill required because the monster mechanics are EXACTLY the same at Normal difficulty and Torment VI at any given character level.
So what does a ladder (or in D3 2.1 Seasons) actually test? What it does do is tests a players own personal level of efficiency (and that efficiency can be by any means including cheesing through content, making effective use of game mechanics, etc), their level of patience (in mostly grinding the same thing over and over again – look at how many do XP runs for D2 ladder as an example), and trying ones luck against layers of RNG.
Actual game play skill is not even a large part of seasonal ladder play and will never be unless they actually make fixed-seeded challenges (where there are actual events where the entire map is seeded/revealed and where each player is seeded the exact same items, and where what does drop is primarily on equal footing). Given the game has unbalanced skills, decision making and understanding of game mechanics will still play a larger overall factor than actual game play skill when it comes to actually driving that character through the content.
