For most ARPGs with a history measured in years, it's not uncommon for certain mechanics to appear, be removed, and then return. Even if a mechanic has shortcomings, it can continue to be beneficial after improvements.
For Diablo 4, the most representative of these mechanics, and perhaps the one that's recently received the most attention, is probably the leaderboard. It's a competitive ladder system designed to incentivize competition among players.
This feature first appeared in Diablo 4 Season 3, but was later removed due to poor performance caused by cheating and other issues. However, it recently returned in 2.5.0 PTR, along with new The Tower dungeon.
How effective is this return? Will the leaderboards be better than before, ensuring their inclusion in Season 11 and beyond? We'll evaluate and predict their performance on 2.5.0 PTR.
The Tower In Season 11
It's important to understand that the current leaderboards are integrated with The Tower and only reflect your performance within that dungeon, not your overall Diablo 4 progress or other events.
The Tower is essentially a multi-stage, timed dungeon, with 10 minutes to complete each round. It operates similarly to The Pit, but accessing The Tower requires you to first unlock The Pit, which is then activated through Obelisk in Cerrigar.
As you progress deeper, you unlock more floors within the tower - like climbing a building - each with a randomized tile set and monster family. To advance, you must kill these enemies while collecting orbs and XP.
When you destroy a tower on your current floor, Pylons appear. Four Pylons appear during the game. The first three appear in a random order, while the fourth is a random repeat of a previous temple. Pylons provide short-term buffs.
When you reach sufficient progress in a dungeon round, a random boss will spawn. Defeating this boss before the end of the round completes the game, and your ranking will be determined based on your performance.
Leaderboard Overview
Season 11 leaderboards are categorized by your class and party size when you complete The Tower, and include both hardcore and normal levels. The leaderboard displays the following real-time information:
- Character rank
- Character name
- Tower Tier completed
- Time taken to complete a round
- Date you listed on the leaderboard
How Is The Tower Performing On 2.5.0 PTR?
Overall, while the new content is noteworthy, once you understand the mechanics, you'll notice that The Tower still follows the traditional Diablo 4 dungeon formula: fight monsters, level up, then fight higher-level monsters, with the requisite rewards and buffs.
This isn't to say that The Tower isn't worth experiencing, but rather that it doesn't seem to offer enough new content to truly engage you, leaving it feeling like "old wine in new bottles."
The few novel experiences it offers are, on the one hand, the enemy types, which at least mean you can earn richer rewards for defeating them. On the other hand, they're reflected in the leaderboards.
Compared to the limited comparisons you had with friends while exploring The Pit, the return of the leaderboard system at least encourages competitive players to play The Tower more actively, generating a surge of community engagement in the short term.
So, if I were to rate The Tower based on its performance on 2.5.0 PTR, it's only passable. It doesn't have any fatal flaws, but it does lack the allure to keep you playing, unless you enjoy demonstrating your skills through leaderboards.
If the leaderboards don't suffer from the same issues that led to their removal, they might attract a wave of veteran Diablo 4 players who were interested in them. Ultimately, however, everyone will realize that the leaderboards could have been placed directly within The Pit.
The fact that The Tower's similarities mean it can not offer novelty and has the potential to make gameplay systems become redundant. While you can earn Diablo 4 gold by playing, the rewards can also be distributed through The Pit or other events.
How Can The Tower Be improved?
While 2.5.0 PTR hasn't yet revealed the rewards for achieving high rankings on the leaderboards, and you can currently only complete 20 floors at most, if The Tower is indeed implemented in Season 11, these rewards should be interesting enough.
In addition, it would be ideal to update the leaderboards not only with the change of seasons, but also regularly throughout the course of a single season, allowing more players to prove their prowess by earning rewards like special titles.
Tips For Completing The Tower
While The Tower isn't a particularly innovative Season 11 mechanic at this point, it is certainly a way to earn seasonal rewards, so it's still necessary to understand the relevant tips for participating.
To do this, you need to understand how it works, earn sufficient resources early in the season, and craft a build suitable for completing this endgame event. This way, you can quickly complete a dungeon run, earning rewards, and achieving a good leaderboard ranking.
In the end, while the new content is certainly exciting, The Tower lacks any truly outstanding innovations beyond the leaderboard system.
However, the development team also stated that they will continue to update the mechanism in the future. Let us look forward to it getting better!
