New quest and item: Peryite's Blessing

Dahveed

Okay, so I have this idea on a lore-friendly way to implement an optional difficulty increase for ESO content. Threads have been once again popping up surrounding this issue, so I thought I'd do some spitballing here just for fun.

Please note that this thread isn't supposed to be another debate about difficulty... It's mostly just for fun, because I wanted to share this.

If you're here to argue with me about everything, please go do that on one of the other threads.... That isn't what this thread is for. Please don't come here with your negativity just to shoot me down and say THIS WON'T WORK!!! YOU THINK YOU DO BUT YOU DON'T!!!! REEEEEEEEEEEEE



So here we go:




NEW DLC ITEM: PERYITE'S BLESSING

2000-5000 CROWNS




Okay, so you buy a new DLC quest in the crown store, and you find a note from an acolyte of the Daedric Lord of Pestilence. Apparently sick people have been flocking to his shrines in unusually high numbers lately, and you decide to go check it out! (Maybe one of his followers appears to you and gives you a good old ESO branching conversation.)

It turns out a new sickness/curse is spreading and people need help to put a stop to it! You do some fetch quest stuff, talk to this guy, talk to that guy, get that item from such-and-such a delve, jump through a few hoops...

And at the end you show up to Peryite's shrine and you find out that the Lord himself is behind all this! So you have to beat his high acolyte who's behind all this, who engineered this thing after striking a deal with Peryite in order to control all these poor people and gather power for himself.

So you strike that fool down, save the day, and return to Peryite... who is impressed with your exploits and then also offers you a deal as well!

"Serve my will in exchange for power!"

So of course you say "gimme!", and Peryite gives you a new item .. called "Peryite's garb", "Peryites mask", "Peryite's Bauble", etc etc... it could vary. Absolute Power!!!

But it was all a ploy! Aha! You have fallen for Peryite's trap, and his "blessed" tools are actually cursed! Oh noes!

You are now stricken with Peryite's curse while you wear his stuff. Your damage is greatly hindered, your health pool is cut in half, as are your magicka and stamina. Your armor is more brittle, your damage taken is increased, and your healing is reduced.

But on the bright side, you get a cool looking doohicky and an achievement! Also some interesting new content to play.

And voila, new difficulty is unlocked. For you, and you alone, without affecting other players. In a lore-friendly way.

Loot tables are untouched, xp is untouched... You don't get any special bonuses or anything, the items are purely cosmetic, and the only "reward" for this new mode is the challenge itself, for players who want more difficulty.

Perhaps if we wanted to take it even further we could talk about adding a few more new achievements or something (i.e. complete the main quest with Peryite's Curse equipped, etc.) just for bragging rights or whatever, but personally I wouldn't care.

And there could even be several different items, item levels... for customization purposes. You could have "Peryite's Garb level 1" which nerfs you by 20%, "level 2" which goes to 40%, etc etc... Again, all the while only affecting the player as a debuff, and not touching ANYTHING about the actual overworld.... so all that nonsense talk about instancing and rebalancing we can just throw out the window entirely.




So yeah, that's that. I'm assuming at this point that the entire ESO dev team is calling an emergency meeting to implement this idea in the next patch. Don't worry, you don't have to pay me any money, just mention me in the patch notes


No but in all seriousness I just wanted to throw that out there, just because. Again, please don't post here just to be argumentative and spiteful, this is just for fun.

StormeReigns

Papa Peryite does seem intrigued, but will it help spread his blessings and love through all of Nirn though?

MattT1988

Dahveed wrote: »

If you're here to argue with me about everything, please go do that on one of the other threads.... That isn't what this thread is for. Please don't come here with your negativity just to shoot me down and say THIS WON'T WORK!!! YOU THINK YOU DO BUT YOU DON'T!!!! REEEEEEEEEEEEE

If you can’t handle people disagreeing with your opinion then don’t post on an open forum.

Mindcr0w

Dahveed wrote: »

Okay, so I have this idea on a lore-friendly way to implement an optional difficulty increase for

If you're here to argue with me about everything, please go do that on one of the other threads.... That isn't what this thread is for. Please don't come here with your negativity just to shoot me down and say THIS WON'T WORK!!! YOU THINK YOU DO BUT YOU DON'T!!!! REEEEEEEEEEEEE

Yeah sorry that isn't how this works. You don't get to make a suggestion in a public forum and say "don't criticize me".

That said: THIS WON'T WORK!!!

This has the same problem that every "extra difficulty" suggestion that revolves around artificially gimping characters has. Nobody wants to spend potentially months or years maxing out their CP and grinding out the perfect equipment setup to then not use the power those things confer.

People want to be challenged using their character's full power. To some people the difference between gimping characters to increase difficulty and increasing mob power/mechanics to increase difficulty may seem arbitrary, but in terms of gamer psychology it makes a huge difference.

To put it in terms the hip cool kids can understand: Goku and Vegeta don't travel around Petopia looking for Pokemans that can challenge them in their base forms. They look for Pokemans that are strong enough to challenge them in their full power Super Sayonara forms. They didn't go around eating all those Devil Fruits Baskets to max out their power only to wanna do a bunch of fights without using their Super Sayonara forms.

VoidCommander

I just want to face down quest bosses and have it feel difficult. I would love a feature like this, as I obviously don’t want to regear and unlearn my playstyle so things are challenging again. Killing the final boss of Murkmire in 12 seconds isn’t fun for me.

StormeReigns

Yeah sorry that isn't how this works. You don't get to make a suggestion in a public forum and say "don't criticize me".

That said: THIS WON'T WORK!!!

This has the same problem that every "extra difficulty" suggestion that revolves around artificially gimping characters has. Nobody wants to spend potentially months or years maxing out their CP and grinding out the perfect equipment setup to then not use the power those things confer.

People want to be challenged using their character's full power. To some people the difference between gimping characters to increase difficulty and increasing mob power/mechanics to increase difficulty may seem arbitrary, but in terms of gamer psychology it makes a huge difference.

To put it in terms the hip cool kids can understand: Goku and Vegeta don't travel around Petopia looking for Pokemans that can challenge them in their base forms. They look for Pokemans that are strong enough to challenge them in their full power Super Sayonara forms. They didn't go around eating all those Devil Fruits Baskets to max out their power only to wanna do a bunch of fights without using their Super Sayonara forms.

https://youtu.be/5h2uLkqpVV8?t=43

VoidCommander wrote: »

I just want to face down quest bosses and have it feel difficult. I would love a feature like this, as I obviously don’t want to regear and unlearn my playstyle so things are challenging again. Killing the final boss of Murkmire in 12 seconds isn’t fun for me.

According to the same seven (7) posters on GD about wanting harder overland/quest content. Currently no bosses for quests and overland (base and all dlcs worldbosses and dragons) don't last past two (2) seconds solo at level 3 with no gear and starter weapon and zero CP bonus. So, obviously by that logic... Must be doing something wrong for that boss to last 12 seconds.

Dahveed

Mindcr0w wrote: »

Dahveed wrote: »

Okay, so I have this idea on a lore-friendly way to implement an optional difficulty increase for

If you're here to argue with me about everything, please go do that on one of the other threads.... That isn't what this thread is for. Please don't come here with your negativity just to shoot me down and say THIS WON'T WORK!!! YOU THINK YOU DO BUT YOU DON'T!!!! REEEEEEEEEEEEE

Yeah sorry that isn't how this works. You don't get to make a suggestion in a public forum and say "don't criticize me".

That said: THIS WON'T WORK!!!

This has the same problem that every "extra difficulty" suggestion that revolves around artificially gimping characters has. Nobody wants to spend potentially months or years maxing out their CP and grinding out the perfect equipment setup to then not use the power those things confer.

People want to be challenged using their character's full power. To some people the difference between gimping characters to increase difficulty and increasing mob power/mechanics to increase difficulty may seem arbitrary, but in terms of gamer psychology it makes a huge difference.

To put it in terms the hip cool kids can understand: Goku and Vegeta don't travel around Petopia looking for Pokemans that can challenge them in their base forms. They look for Pokemans that are strong enough to challenge them in their full power Super Sayonara forms. They didn't go around eating all those Devil Fruits Baskets to max out their power only to wanna do a bunch of fights without using their Super Sayonara forms.

Fine, you want to turn this into an argument, I'm down with that. I just didn't want to turn this into a copy/paste of other similar threads.

But you wanna fight? Fine, let's fight. Here goes.

This has the same problem that every "extra difficulty" suggestion that revolves around artificially gimping characters has. Nobody wants to spend potentially months or years maxing out their CP and grinding out the perfect equipment setup to then not use the power those things confer.

Then don't use it. It's optional.

And I'm assuming that by "nobody" we can take that to mean "nobody, except for the people that do." Like me.

People want to be challenged using their character's full power. To some people the difference between gimping characters to increase difficulty and increasing mob power/mechanics to increase difficulty may seem arbitrary, but in terms of gamer psychology it makes a huge difference.

I totally agree! That's why it's optional, and if you want to be challenged by your character's full power, you don't have to do anything at all! Just keep playing the game the way it is.

Furthermore, *IF* you decide to accept the curse, you can still use all your fun gear and tricks, stats, cps etc... just on a higher difficulty. You are further challenged to min/max and build your character.

To put it in terms the hip cool kids can understand: Goku and Vegeta don't travel around Petopia looking for Pokemans that can challenge them in their base forms. They look for Pokemans that are strong enough to challenge them in their full power Super Sayonara forms. They didn't go around eating all those Devil Fruits Baskets to max out their power only to wanna do a bunch of fights without using their Super Sayonara forms.

I didn't understand half of this because I don't know Pokeman or Dragonball Z or whatever that stuff is, I'm too old.

But you're repeating the same argument and I'm still not convinced. This debuff would work in the same way as any other difficulty slider in the game. You're keeping all your stats and building up your character as you normally would. Except you're playing at a higher difficulty for increased challenge.


Once again your basic argument is just another variation of "You think you do, but you don't."

Stop assuming you are speaking for everyone, and that you know what I want. I know exactly what I want, and a lot of people also want this... which is why these threads keep popping up like whack-a-moles every week.

Yes, we want this.

Mindcr0w

Dahveed wrote: »

But you wanna fight? Fine, let's fight. Here goes.

Aww hell yeah. Now I'm pumped. Come at me bro.


Then don't use it. It's optional.

Self gimp options being implemented would lessen the chances of actual extra difficulty options being implemented. So I have reason to speak against them rather than just to ignore them.

And I'm assuming that by "nobody" we can take that to mean "nobody, except for the people that do." Like me.

In a sense. By "nobody" I hyperbolically mean "a small minority".


I totally agree! That's why it's optional, and if you want to be challenged by your character's full power, you don't have to do anything at all! Just keep playing the game the way it is.

The obvious issue being that many people don't feel the game sufficiently challenges them at their character's full power. Hence all the cries for MOAR CHALLENGE.


Furthermore, *IF* you decide to accept the curse, you can still use all your fun gear and tricks, stats, cps etc... just on a higher difficulty. You are further challenged to min/max and build your character.

Nope. Everything you described involved weakening a character, not making stronger enemies.



But you're repeating the same argument and I'm still not convinced. This debuff would work in the same way as any other difficulty slider in the game. You're keeping all your stats and building up your character as you normally would. Except you're playing at a higher difficulty for increased challenge.

No, again. Everything you described in your suggestion explicity gimps the character and makes them fight at less than their full power. To claim otherwise now is just straight up arguing in bad faith.


Once again your basic argument is just another variation of "You think you do, but you don't."


Stop assuming you are speaking for everyone, and that you know what I want. I know exactly what I want, and a lot of people also want this... which is why these threads keep popping up like whack-a-moles every week.

Yes, we want this.



My dude I don't question for a second that you personally want what you say you want.

But you are in the minority.

Sorry you just are. We know you are because self gimping is the easiest thing in the world to do. People have been responding to the requests for greater difficulty with suggestions to unassign cp and wear crappy gear for as long as requests for greater difficulty have been around.

Yet (hyperbolic) nobody does it. If self gimping were an idea that (hyperbolic) anybody other than (hyperbolic) you liked then the debate over extra difficulty would have ended years ago.

How many people do you honestly think run around self gimped currently compared to how many would run actual harder content at their full power if harder content were made available?

Dahveed

StormeReigns wrote: »

Dahveed wrote: »

StormeReigns wrote: »

Dahveed wrote: »

StormeReigns wrote: »

Dahveed wrote: »

Stop assuming you are speaking for everyone, and that you know what I want. I know exactly what I want, and a lot of people also want this... which is why these threads keep popping up like whack-a-moles every week.

Yes, we want this.

My favorite part. ^

"You dont speak for everyone! Now ZoS needs to meet my demands as I speak for everyone!"

Such narrow, imprecise thinking.

I am not speaking for everyone, obviously. If you read my post it is quite obvious.

That is why this would be optional.

I am speaking for some players, not all. If I were speaking for everyone, I would demand that this feature be mandatory. Which I am not.

Which is pretty obvious, actually.

This is why I said in the OP that I didn't want to turn this into an argument. Because people inevitably reduce your argument to the most simplistic, facile straw man possible and ignore all details and nuance.

I am speaking quite specifically on the smaller but significant minority of players who want greater challenge in this game, and I make that pretty clear in my arguments.

Not sure how you missed that. But I guess it's just easier to be snide about it and cherry-pick on little snippet and say "lol".

Don't have to lie to kick it... Actually... this thread does need some Ice-Cube.
https://youtu.be/EMBneqKlbKs

Obviously just trolling at this point... moving on.

So sayth the one who speaks for the entire game's player population.

Dahveed wrote: »

I'm trying to solo the group content in Craglorn for a challenge, and I do indeed feel like I am getting progressively weaker as I level up.

I started this zone at around CP 70-ish before One Tamriel came out, and understandably there was a bunch of group stuff there that completely owned me.

However I had something to look forward to, because I knew I would gradually level up, get more CP talents and slowly but surely get stronger gear through crafting etc.

Now I am CP 140, and I think I was about CP 100 or so when One Tamriel hit. I've been trying to solo those focus crystals. Every 10 CP (100, 110, 120, 130 and now 140) I would use my Blacksmithing to increase the tier level of all my weapons and armor and take another crack at the Focus Crystals.

It seems with every new attempt I just get owned even harder. The enemies just keep hitting harder and harder. Since I'm already in "CP zone" I don't really get any new tools, just (supposedly) slightly incremental increases in damage, spell resistance, etc etc.

But the enemies just seem to outpace me more and more with every level up. I used to be able to destroy the Focus Crystal while holding off the enemies long enough for the boss to spawn. That was back at CP100.

Now I can't even last 30 seconds with all my upgrades. They have regressed to the 2007 Oblivion era of the player character getting weaker as enemies get stronger while you level up. It's a real shame.

I wish there were an option to completely decline the One Tamriel scaling, I'm starting to hate it. I can't find anything that has appropriate difficultly anymore.

My choices are as follows:

(1) Do solo content, which all scales to my level, which is incredibly easy and thus boring.

(2) Do group content with a group of random players I don't know, with players that have probably already completed said content dozens of times and can do it with their eyes closed, making all the encounters boring and easy;

(3) try to solo the group content, which is becoming progressively more and more impossible as I level up because the enemies just keep outscaling me more and more.

With the old scaling system I always had the feeling that I could attempt group activities solo that were too difficult, but then level up, get stronger and try again. With the new system it just feels like it will be utterly impossible. By the time I hit CP 600 this group stuff will just kill me in 3 hits.

But I thought the game was too easy for you?

This quote is from literally years ago and is entirely out of context. It has to do with broken scaling of a specific zone, which made you progressively weaker and not stronger as you leveled up.

I was thrilled with the challenge of Craglorn, and I was looking forward to progressing through this very tough content and slowly getting stronger as I picked my skills gear.

But the reverse was happening. Instead of getting stronger, I got weaker with every level.

But the fact that someone like you would cherry pick something like this, completely out of context, isn't surprising to me at all.


(And no, I am not speaking for everyone. That would be silly.)

Dahveed

Mindcr0w wrote: »

Dahveed wrote: »

But you wanna fight? Fine, let's fight. Here goes.

Aww hell yeah. Now I'm pumped. Come at me bro.


Then don't use it. It's optional.

Self gimp options being implemented would lessen the chances of actual extra difficulty options being implemented. So I have reason to speak against them rather than just to ignore them.

And I'm assuming that by "nobody" we can take that to mean "nobody, except for the people that do." Like me.

In a sense. By "nobody" I hyperbolically mean "a small minority".


I totally agree! That's why it's optional, and if you want to be challenged by your character's full power, you don't have to do anything at all! Just keep playing the game the way it is.

The obvious issue being that many people don't feel the game sufficiently challenges them at their character's full power. Hence all the cries for MOAR CHALLENGE.


Furthermore, *IF* you decide to accept the curse, you can still use all your fun gear and tricks, stats, cps etc... just on a higher difficulty. You are further challenged to min/max and build your character.

Nope. Everything you described involved weakening a character, not making stronger enemies.



But you're repeating the same argument and I'm still not convinced. This debuff would work in the same way as any other difficulty slider in the game. You're keeping all your stats and building up your character as you normally would. Except you're playing at a higher difficulty for increased challenge.

No, again. Everything you described in your suggestion explicity gimps the character and makes them fight at less than their full power. To claim otherwise now is just straight up arguing in bad faith.


Once again your basic argument is just another variation of "You think you do, but you don't."


Stop assuming you are speaking for everyone, and that you know what I want. I know exactly what I want, and a lot of people also want this... which is why these threads keep popping up like whack-a-moles every week.

Yes, we want this.



My dude I don't question for a second that you personally want what you say you want.

But you are in the minority.

Sorry you just are. We know you are because self gimping is the easiest thing in the world to do. People have been responding to the requests for greater difficulty with suggestions to unassign cp and wear crappy gear for as long as requests for greater difficulty have been around.

Yet (hyperbolic) nobody does it. If self gimping were an idea that (hyperbolic) anybody other than (hyperbolic) you liked then the debate over extra difficulty would have ended years ago.

How many people do you honestly think run around self gimped currently compared to how many would run actual harder content at their full power if harder content were made available?

Another exercise in missing the point, I'm afraid.


In skyrim, for example, there is a difficulty slider. All it does is tune the stats (health damage etc), but it doesn't touch your actual skills. By changing the slider, you are in effect "gimping" yourself, but not changing the gameplay.

Of course ESO is a multiplayer game so you can't change the NPCs with a slider, so instead that "slider" would apply to my character only... but my skills wouldn't be touched.

I would still enhance my power with cp, skills, gear etc., but at a smaller "gimped" scale... so I could play the base game and use all the base skills, using potions gear etc as though nothing had changed... but it would all be less effective.

Yes, I understand we are in the minority. Which is why I keep repeating that this would be optional and would not affect other players. Devs wouldn't have to worry about balance at all for later content, especially dungeons raids etc etc because only a small minority of players would use this stuff.

Furthermore it would (for the most part) preclude the necessity of threads like this, this never-ending circular and repetitive debate about overworld difficulty. (People would always find a way to complain I guess, but that's the internet. Personally I would rejoice and probably be quiet forever...or almost, lol).


We can agree to disagree, I will obviously never convince you, and you will obviously never convince me either.

But I do appreciate that you're being respectful and not trollish about it, unlike the other guy (digging up posts from three years ago to smear me personally). Thanks for that.

Mindcr0w

Dahveed wrote: »

Another exercise in missing the point, I'm afraid.

🙄


In skyrim, for example, there is a difficulty slider. All it does is tune the stats (health damage etc), but it doesn't touch your actual skills. By changing the slider, you are in effect "gimping" yourself, but not changing the gameplay.


That is adding extra difficulty, not self gimping.

If the slider left the mobs exactly as strong but cut your stats and damage that would be self gimping.

The difference may seem trivial, the results may be similar, but it matters to a great many people.

Or at least it matters in MMO's. Single player games are a different animal. Regardless that is what the majority of people clamoring for more difficulty want. Harder hitting mobs with more lethal mechanics. They wanna finish beating up The Joker then go fight Doomsday. They don't wanna beat up The Joker then chug kryptonite to make beating up The Joker again more difficult.


Furthermore it would (for the most part) preclude the necessity of threads like this, this never-ending circular and repetitive debate about overworld difficulty. (People would always find a way to complain I guess, but that's the internet. Personally I would rejoice and probably be quiet forever...or almost, lol).

Except it wouldn't. Because a minority of people who want one flavor of extra difficulty would have it, and a majority who want another flavor wouldn't.

And this stuff doesn't get implemented in a bubble. If one method of added difficulty were to be implemented I guarantee it would lessen the chances of the other getting implemented. There's almost no chance ZOS adds a more difficult mobs mode and a self gimp mode.




We can agree to disagree, I will obviously never convince you, and you will obviously never convince me either.

Not with that attitude you won't.

ZOS_Volpe

Greetings,

As we've removed a few non-constructive comments around baiting, please remember that while it’s all right to disagree or even debate with each other, provoking conflict, baiting, inciting, mocking, etc. is never acceptable in the official The Elder Scrolls Online community.

ProfessorKittyhawk

To all the people saying they only last 12 seconds against bosses...

Oh honey, that's perfectly natural. Happens to lots of guys.

EatsManyPancakes

IDK about all the extra quest stuff to go with OPs idea ... but I like the premise of it. PVP has a blanket scaling modifier applied to all players in any PVP zone that alters their stats in various ways. PVE could have a variant of this too - reducing player stats.

A simpler implementation than going through the crown store would be to add this as an option to one of the game's existing shrines in each major town (gated behind becoming CP180) - for example:

• The shrine of Mara (which largely goes unused, currently, unless you're using the 1 item tied to it)
• An additional dialogue option with the shrine would let you toggle on/off "The trial of Mara" (Or equivalent name) for the next 60m/120m/till next login, re-interacting with the shrine would let you turn it off early.
• then it applies an inverse of the scaling equation to your character (much like how 1 tamriel makes a l1 fight like a cp180 this would go the other way, by some amount)
• And then, as a reward for playing a more difficult mode in the overworld, increase drop rate of gold and items by, say, 25% increase chance of finding rarer items by X% (so if you were to find a green item, it has a 25% chance of instead dropping as blue quality, so on so fourth) - Item quality and rarity drop modifiers are common in ARPGs.
• Advanced versions could be unlocked, too, which also disable your CPs in the overworld, or making it impossible for you to heal outside of a town etc, further boosting drop rate and item quality whilst also making the overworld far more dangerous.

Rave the Histborn

EatsManyPancakes wrote: »

IDK about all the extra quest stuff to go with OPs idea ... but I like the premise of it. PVP has a blanket scaling modifier applied to all players in any PVP zone that alters their stats in various ways. PVE could have a variant of this too - reducing player stats.

A simpler implementation than going through the crown store would be to add this as an option to one of the game's existing shrines in each major town (gated behind becoming CP180) - for example:

• The shrine of Mara (which largely goes unused, currently, unless you're using the 1 item tied to it)
• An additional dialogue option with the shrine would let you toggle on/off "The trial of Mara" (Or equivalent name) for the next 60m/120m/till next login, re-interacting with the shrine would let you turn it off early.
• then it applies an inverse of the scaling equation to your character (much like how 1 tamriel makes a l1 fight like a cp180 this would go the other way, by some amount)
  
• And then, as a reward for playing a more difficult mode in the overworld, increase drop rate of gold and items by, say, 25% increase chance of finding rarer items by X% (so if you were to find a green item, it has a 25% chance of instead dropping as blue quality, so on so fourth) - Item quality and rarity drop modifiers are common in ARPGs.
• Advanced versions could be unlocked, too, which also disable your CPs in the overworld, or making it impossible for you to heal outside of a town etc, further boosting drop rate and item quality whilst also making the overworld far more dangerous.

No, you dont want higher difficulty you want more rewards.

Mindcr0w

Oh here were go again. 🙄

You don't underatand why people play MMO's.

EatsManyPancakes

Rave the Histborn wrote: »

No, you dont want higher difficulty you want more rewards.

Speak for yourself.

I want to be able to actually enjoy clearing a dungeon and feel like I've earned something for it.
Currently overworld content feels like a waste of time; everything is so weak right now that:

1) its not fun to fight anything outside of PVP or vet dungeons right now, as all fights are over in the blink of an eye and
2) there needs to be a reward to justify the extra risk, or any such "challenge mode" will go largely unused and equate to wasted development time.

Almost all games work on human psychology by playing with a form of the stick/carrot or risk/reward concept.

• All stick and no carrot? Nobody bothers with it.
• All Carrot no stick? Everyone grinds out the rewards and promptly forgets about the content as there's no entertainment or challenge to be had in redoing it (the current state for most overworld content - and the likely future of archaeology in Greymoor once all the mythic items have been farmed

out people will stop bothering to do overworld stuff again)

majulook

If you truly want more difficulty, you can do several things:

1. Remove your Champion Points
2. Use Blue or Green gear.
3. Use gear a level below your current level.
4. Do not use food or drinks to buff your stats.
5. Use Potions that are below your level, or just what you find in loot drops.
6. Do not use Potions at all.
7. Do not put skill points into Racial passives, Gear, or Weapons.
8. Play with out some equipment. (as in no jewelry, or shoulder, or head, or what ever pieces)

Mindcr0w

Yeah self imposed challenges aren't as satisfying as actual challenges built into the game.

And you know this because, if you're being honest, you know very few people go down that road versus how many people will play actual challenging content.