Diablo 4

[hepcat]

I saw that last week and was curious how they're handling it. Does it just connect to battlenet? I can't see blizzard giving up control via that platform/launcher to Steam.

[coopasonic]

Did we know this was happening? I feel like I didn't know this was happening.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2344520/Diablo_IV/

That you can give money to steam so you can launch the blizzard launcher to launch Diablo 4? Just a guess there, but...

[coopasonic]

Did we know this was happening? I feel like I didn't know this was happening.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2344520/Diablo_IV/

That you can give money to steam so you can launch the blizzard launcher to launch Diablo 4? Just a guess there, but...

I saw one review that says you don't need the BNet launcher so I could be wrong. Not buying it again to find out.

[Isgrimnur]

Did we know this was happening? I feel like I didn't know this was happening.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2344520/Diablo_IV/

Someone did.

https://octopusoverlords.com/forum/view ... 8#p2982788

[Blackhawk]

And people call me crazy for talking to myself. How else would I keep myself informed?

[Smoove_B]

My brain is full.

[Torfish]

I'm closing in on getting to world tier 3 in season 2. So far, I really like this season. Very good changes and additions to the game. Much more to do than in season one.

Of course, the real game starts after lvl 70. We'll see if that has changed for the better.

[rittchard]

I'm closing in on getting to world tier 3 in season 2. So far, I really like this season. Very good changes and additions to the game. Much more to do than in season one.

Of course, the real game starts after lvl 70. We'll see if that has changed for the better.

I have the same feeling so far, but I haven't made it to T3 yet either. The early game is definitely more streamlined (i.e. leveling pace has been improved), but most importantly the new seasonal content (vampire related) is a welcome addition. The "content" is basically a lower level version of Helltides, where an area is filled with different types of things to kill, and there are pickups and rewards within the area. Unlike Helltides you retain some progress items (lures and keys), and there is a progression system specific to this content. And even better many of the goals are also Whisper goals so it's like a 2 for 1. The system is also tied to the seasonal special abilities, which at first is a little confusing, but is also a good addition to specializing your character, much much better than the season 1 version. Other QoL improvements are noticeable like faster horse, more stash locations in cities, the crafting guy added to Whisper area, etc etc.

All that said, some of my core issues with the game (build/skill diversity, loot diversity, etc - that's a different topic) aren't really addressed, so don't expect it to be a totally different game. I suspect they will make incremental improvements as they go along, and maybe some bigger changes/additions when the expansions hit.

TLDR: If you enjoyed the first 40-50 levels of release/S1 but felt like it got grindy, I think there's definitely room to have much more fun in this season.

[Jaddison]

I got to tier 3 last night jumped into the green area and got killed in a heartbeat by mobs that I cruised through....so a bit of a change lol. Luckily some rare sacred items dropped so I could ditch my legendaries until sacred legendary items drop

[Dramatist]

I started a Druid in season 2 yesterday. Then after playing for a couple of hours I started another Druid and skipped the campaign this time.

This is my first time to play a season character.

What should I prioritize doing? I have been doing some seasonal quests and just did the Druid specific quest at level 15 to unlock some new abilities. I have a tendency to wander and do side quests because of the exclamation point above the npc’s head. I’m sure I should try not to do that.

I beat the campaign with a rogue when I first played but got bored at level 56 and stopped.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Blackhawk]

Bring up the season interface (mine is bound to U), an dclick 'Season Journey.' It's a series of challenges that will progress your journey (which is, essentially, just a battle pass.)

Some handy info:

Season guide

Season journey

If you hover over 'resources' at the top of that site and look toward the side you'll see a number of other pieces related to the seasonal experience that give you a lot of info.

[Torfish]

I started a Druid in season 2 yesterday. Then after playing for a couple of hours I started another Druid and skipped the campaign this time.

This is my first time to play a season character.

What should I prioritize doing? I have been doing some seasonal quests and just did the Druid specific quest at level 15 to unlock some new abilities. I have a tendency to wander and do side quests because of the exclamation point above the npc’s head. I’m sure I should try not to do that.

I beat the campaign with a rogue when I first played but got bored at level 56 and stopped.


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I highly recommend going back to your eternal character. In world tier 2, do two things. Find all the altars and complete all the renown unlocks in each zone. If you do that, then you will never have to do it again in any season. That's a huge plus in my book. All your extra potions, skill points, and paragon points are given to you at the start for all characters. Also, it means you do not have to do any side quests. You can just focus on season quests and character building.

I'm currently at lvl 82 this season. It's my highest lvl yet before getting bored. The leveling experience is much faster. I would estimate 40% faster. Season 2 definitely has improved the later part of the game. I'm still having fun at 82 and have things to accomplish. Getting the different end boss mats are fun. Those end game boss fights are also an improvement. I love the world teir 4 Lord Zir fight!

[Blackhawk]

Although if you're planning on spending just as much time on the seasonal character, there's no reason you can't do it while playing the season. There is plenty of time to get all of the rewards.

But yeah, if you're wanting to knock it out as quickly as possible and don't care about the story stuff, doing the shared stuff on an established character would be faster.

[Torfish]

I am sure there are folks that play for the story and enjoys the renown journey. For me I only need to do all that stuff once. Doing it over and over again is unnecessary busy work that takes away from the new seasonal content. I am really glad Blizzard changed it in season 2.

[Dramatist]

I’m not even sure how much I’m going to get to play because I decided to be in a community theater production and a lot of my video game time is going to be rehearsal time.

I did unlock almost all the map and did most of the side quests on my initial play through of the main story.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Daehawk]

Standard edition is $40 today. Got an email. Im sure the other editions are also heavily discounted. Its like 43% off. Thats rare for Blizzard.

[Blackhawk]

I am sure there are folks that play for the story and enjoys the renown journey. For me I only need to do all that stuff once. Doing it over and over again is unnecessary busy work that takes away from the new seasonal content. I am really glad Blizzard changed it in season 2.

Absolutely - even in D3 I used to do the seasons by running through the campaign each time (at least for a while.) To me, jumping straight to the grindy part isn't all that appealing. I prefer to mix it with regular play. In fact, the renown system being system-wide makes it easier to skip the content on the repeats, but it also makes future playthroughs less interesting, since you start with half of it already finished.

[Dramatist]

Bring up the season interface (mine is bound to U), an dclick 'Season Journey.' It's a series of challenges that will progress your journey (which is, essentially, just a battle pass.)

Some handy info:

Season guide

Season journey

If you hover over 'resources' at the top of that site and look toward the side you'll see a number of other pieces related to the seasonal experience that give you a lot of info.

This was super helpful. Thanks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Blackhawk]

Bring up the season interface (mine is bound to U), an dclick 'Season Journey.' It's a series of challenges that will progress your journey (which is, essentially, just a battle pass.)

Some handy info:

Season guide

Season journey

If you hover over 'resources' at the top of that site and look toward the side you'll see a number of other pieces related to the seasonal experience that give you a lot of info.

This was super helpful. Thanks.

That site is one of the best resources out there, by the way. Just avoid Icy Veins. They used to be the go-to, but they've gotten cockeyed lately, and it's compromised their quality.

[Blackhawk]

Trailer for the expansion: Vessel of Hatred.

There will be a new class, and it will be something new to Diablo (I'm hoping for cattlemancer.)

https://youtu.be/gHuaCwmx-Rg?si=-K5TcuuRs4txyN32

[Daehawk]

Ill guess bard

[Torfish]

They also announced more end-game stuff soon and a holiday event with some kind of roaming mob (Santa type thing).

[hepcat]

Trailer for the expansion: Vessel of Hatred.

There will be a new class, and it will be something new to Diablo (I'm hoping for cattlemancer.)

A class that only deals with raising undead bovines? I’m am SO in for that!

[Daehawk]

I think he meant hooved romance.

[Hyena]

Trailer for the expansion: Vessel of Hatred.

There will be a new class, and it will be something new to Diablo (I'm hoping for cattlemancer.)

https://youtu.be/gHuaCwmx-Rg?si=-K5TcuuRs4txyN32

Wondering if it's that Blood Lancer class (or whatever it's called) from Diablo Immortal.

[rittchard]

I read some prediction about the new class that sounded pretty good, something involving old magic I don’t recall exactly, but likely something in between paladin and witch doctor and more in tune with the Diablo 2 Act 3 zone.

After playing some more of this Season, I’m still a bit torn on the game overall. There’s so much that was done well, and so many things have improved, but it still feels like there is a lot of room for improvement. Or if you want to sound more negative, it seems like the developers have some fundamental blind spots as to where the game really needs help, so they continue to mask that with QoL improvements and other distractions. For instance they are adding 5 new unique rings tomorrow and made a big fuss over it. But who and what does that actually help? There’s also going to be some new leaderboard thing for something, I don’t recall, but again that only affects a very small percentage of players.

They’ve increased xp rates enough that I believe a semi-casual player can make it to T4 without too much trouble or time spent, which is definitely nice. But it seems like there are a lot of things that could make that road more fun or interesting. Just a few ideas:

“Crafting” - from the moment you start the game, you start picking up ore and plants and now gem pieces. But the importance of all these things is vague at best, and even in the later game is unclear. Why even have these things in the game if they feel like an afterthought? Any regular game with crafting can make you feel the importance of collecting even something as simple as a piece of wood or whatever. D4 just drops crap at you, it disappears into your inventory, and then maybe at some point you realize you might need more of it for a potion or something. But even that is so optional it makes you wonder what they were thinking when they designed the system. It needs to be introduced properly, overhauled and/or re-thought out, or just remove it since in many ways it’s more of a distraction than anything else.

The OverWorld - one of the arguably most unique features (to the ARPG genre) of D4 is its large overland, and yet it’s also one of the least utilized. The addition of the new vampire content has helped a tiny bit, but in general the only time I see other people is in Helltides or at an event. I realize they must be doing some limit of players to reduce lag, but it’s so sparse I often wonder if the game would have been better off as a more traditional hub-like ARPG. I remember a long long time ago an older iteration of Torchlight 2 or something like that (I think) that never ended up releasing where they had a similar kind of system, but even that one felt more social for whatever reason, and it probably had a player base that was literally100000 times smaller. They built an interesting MMO—ish architecture but it feels like they didn’t know what they wanted to do with it.

Looooot/Skills/Modifiers - I don’t know how this can be reworked but something is missing. I get tons of loot and the percentage that is actually useful/an upgrade is almost 0. Now that’s a common theme in ARPGs of this type, but other games find ways to still include some drops that may be interesting for another build, or for currency for trade, or for crafting, or something that drives you to want to keep looking. Set items and maybe runes (or something similar) seem like no-brainers. Maybe some additional modifiers like increasing AoE size/range, or adding more projectiles, or magic find.

Trade/AH/sharing - one of the nicest things in PoE is if I find something cool I can dump it in the guild stash and anyone else in the guild can grab it. I know PoE has other weird issues with their loot system that people don’t like, but just this one little thing is such a nice social enabler. While you don’t have to have everything be accessible, it would be nice to allow hardcore players to share the fruits of their labors with friends.

This is getting too long so I’m gonna stop here for now.

[Blackhawk]

I'm guessing that whatever it is, it'll be a heavy melee character. That's something they don't really have. They have light melee and they have the rampaging barbarian, but they don't have anything comparable to the D2 Paladin or D3 Crusader. My first thought would be that it would be tied to the Knights Penitent, as they're already established, but I'd love to see something that isn't just another copy of the knight-in-shining tarnished-armor trope, maybe leaning more into some form of support magic (like self-cast elemental buffs - set your sword on fire, make your sword icy, etc.)

And while the Knights Penitent are certainly established in D4, the game is choking a bit on the quasi-Catholicism. The zealotry is part of the setting, but I'd kind of like to see them do something a little different.

[Sudy]

There was a claimed leak a few weeks ago, but it doesn't jibe with everything we know from the announcement (which is admittedly little). Many dismissed it as AI-generated drivel. It revealed the new class as "spiritborn" with connection to the power of nature, but that sounds a lot like druid.

What about something from one of the other mage clans? Do they exist in the lore of this era? Ormus from Kurast in D2 was a mage of the Taan Clan, but they weren't actually of Kurast--they were from Kehjistan. And for all I know they already appear in D4, I haven't done any of the side quests in that region. Anyway, I doubt they'd do another class that's primarily a caster. And since they're touting it as new, it presumably won't be a spin on the witch doctor, much to my disappointment.

Maybe a class that's a little more "technology" oriented without departing from the setting. That uses scrolls and potions and simple mechanical gizmos and the like.

[Daehawk]

What the hell is it with this game and item names? Every time I see a yellow con item I pick it up but the name in my inv isn't the same as it was on the ground. Its as if it transforms into something else when I pick it up. All the time. Whats with that?

[Blackhawk]

What the hell is it with this game and item names? Every time I see a yellow con item I pick it up but the name in my inv isn't the same as it was on the ground. Its as if it transforms into something else when I pick it up. All the time. Whats with that?

Remember in the earlier Diablos how you found items and then identified them? It's that.

What you see on the ground is the type of item (fancy names for "Sword", "Big Hammer", etc.) When you pick it up, it automatically identifies the item, giving it it's proper name.

[Skinypupy]

I’ve been playing this season as a Druid and it’s been fun. This seasonal character is nearly up to the point (level 43) where my main story character left off (level 49). I just finished all the tasks for season Chapter 3.

As with most seasons, I’m not sure how long I’ll keep at it. The first bit is fun, but I tend to lose interest when it starts getting into the more challenging content. I’m not big on min-maxing builds, and generally start wandering away at that point. I would like to at lease open up World Tier 3 one time, so I’ve made that the goal for this toon.

[Blackhawk]

[Stuff]

If you're playing now, make sure you look up the OO clan! Just look for the 'clan' tab.

[Daehawk]

Can someone help answer a problem with what seems to be a bugged quest in act 1? Its one of two stronghold quests there.

Its called Sight to Madness.

Im supposed to go to a village called Nostrava and kill a demon in a church then enter the dungeon there. But I get no interactable thing to click on after I kill the demon in the church and the church catches fire. The whole time Im looking for the door the church is on fire and I take damage. I went through 10 health potions looking for anything to click on in that church.

After you kill the demon it says conquer Nostrava. But theres nothing there in the church or the town. The quest icon is right on top the back of the church at the alter area but nothing is there.

What am I missing? Its a side quest and Ive done everything and am on the last point of the main quest before act 2 and I dont want to leave it unfinished.

[Blackhawk]

Can someone help answer a problem with what seems to be a bugged quest in act 1? Its one of two stronghold quests there.

Its called Sight to Madness.

Im supposed to go to a village called Nostrava and kill a demon in a church then enter the dungeon there. But I get no interactable thing to click on after I kill the demon in the church and the church catches fire. The whole time Im looking for the door the church is on fire and I take damage. I went through 10 health potions looking for anything to click on in that church.

After you kill the demon it says conquer Nostrava. But theres nothing there in the church or the town. The quest icon is right on top the back of the church at the alter area but nothing is there.

What am I missing? Its a side quest and Ive done everything and am on the last point of the main quest before act 2 and I dont want to leave it unfinished.

After you get to the church and trigger it, you're supposed to go around the town, from house to house. In certain locations demons will pop up and you'll fight them. In certain houses are effigies that you need to destroy. It'll all appear on your minimap. After you've done them all, you'll fight the boss. After you fight the boss, you'll activate the shrine and claim the stronghold.

I'm not aware of any strongholds that you conquer by going into a dungeon - you conquer strongholds by fighting within the stronghold.

[Blackhawk]

Hang on, you threw me off with your description. You've already liberated the stonghold, yes? You have access to the waypoint there?

If so, the dungeon is right there inside the stronghold:



If you don't have the stronghold under your control yet (no fast travel point is a big clue), then do what I said in the post above. Dungeons in strongholds are not available until you conquer that stronghold.

[Daehawk]

ok Ill look about the town then.

[Blackhawk]

If you've captured the town, the dungeon is where that portcullis icon is at.

Actually, if your objective is "Conquer Nostrava", I think the problem is that you haven't conquered the stonghold yet. Do you still have this icon on your map?

[Daehawk]

I completed it after seeing your post. Id been there 3 times before though and never saw I needed to go to all the houses. Blizzard can be quite obtuse in there hints as to how to proceed sometimes. In fact even once IN that dungeon under the church theres a room that you have to pull two switch to proceed. I saw it telling me that yet I walked around and around that room stuck for 2 minutes at least looking for those damn switches and yet there they were out in the open on the floor. They blended in so well with everything I didn't see even with the glowing highlight kinda waving at me lol.

Maybe Im the one who is just dense.

I did get a big laugh at the end of the quest when I returned his eyes to him hahahaha. Oh man what a way to end a quest. Poor guy. I wonder what he did to piss someone off so bad. And I wonder if Ill encounter him again along my path sometime.

[Daehawk]

Im trying to be a completist. Ive done everything in act 1 but the dungeons scattered about. Today Im just knocking them out before moving to act 2. Its all Ive got left to do in Act 1 here. Dont want to miss anything. They seem to lvl with me as the first dungeon I saw at lvl 5 or whatever is now a lvl 37 dungeon and Im lvl 37. So it goes along with you it seems.

[Blackhawk]

Im trying to be a completist. Ive done everything in act 1 but the dungeons scattered about. Today Im just knocking them out before moving to act 2. Its all Ive got left to do in Act 1 here. Dont want to miss anything. They seem to lvl with me as the first dungeon I saw at lvl 5 or whatever is now a lvl 37 dungeon and Im lvl 37. So it goes along with you it seems.

Some things I've found:

1. Lots of side quests don't show up until you've done other side quests, and sometimes there's a delay (IE - you do one quest for SisOct, and her next one doesn't show up for a full day.)
2. You have immediate access to chapters 1, 2, and 3. The three starting chapters are not connected. They're independent stories, and can be done in any order. Once all three are done you'll gain access to 4.
3. There are a lot of sidequests. If you really want to experience the story, I'd recommend going into a new zone and just doing the main quest - skip the side quests. Complete that chapter, and then go back and do all of the side content in that region. You lose a lot of the story if you divide the chapter quests up too much.

Extra tip. One thing that's easy to miss is Renown. As you do content, you get access to bonuses. Open your map window, and check the upper right for the key to press for rewards (I usually rebind keys, so I'm never sure what the defaults are.)



Hit that and it will show you your progress in each region, and will give you some significant rewards as you finish each tier. The last two tiers of each area are unavailable until you have reached the endgame and unlocked World Tier 3.