Originally Posted by
arus2001
Other games at least tend to develop skills or give new ones altogether. It only takes a short time to unlock each weapon. Once that's done, there's really nothing to look forward to. If I knew I could get some variant of Hundred Blades that shoots air slices in a short conal arc in front of me, you bet I'd probably be doing whatever to learn that and then some for all the weapons. Literally make it require shit from different zones and people will have to "explore" too. It'd also go a long way in encouraging different play styles and getting people to look into different equipment choices. Yeah, cookie cutter shit will happen, but I'd also say it's happening now.
More varied loot pools wouldn't hurt, either. Like, you can't craft or find normal drops of certain stat combos. Why not? And while sigils add a slight layer of customization, why not other little perks like improving specific skills, reducing (specific) element damage, and so on without needing full sigil sets. Yeah, the general mechanics of Kill X, Fetch Y, Go To Z, and Defend Q haven't changed in MMOs over time, but they're also not going to as long as we're stuck with the keyboard/mouse/controller interface. These all do eventually become monotonous, but dangling carrots does help extend their lifespans. The trick is to just not be too obscene with it... like the legendaries. Then most people just won't bother.