Diablo 4

[Pyperkub]

Also I beat my first World Boss last night. Those are a blast. If you see a World Boss pop up on the map, drop everything and go. Mine dropped 2 Legendaries and a Legendary Cache and it was easy-peasy with 20 people beating on him.

Are they color-coded rings like the other events? And if so, what color?

[YellowKing]

It shows up as an orange symbol on the map, and there's really no way to find one (that I know of) without just constantly checking the map. They show up on the maps a few minutes before they spawn so you have time to get to them.

[Hyena]

Same thing with the helltide things. Entered one this morning and ran around collecting the shards to open chests. Most cost 75, but there are some that are 125 or 150. If you die you lose half the shards, so thats...fun. They have some good loot in them. Also enjoy running the new whispering tree missions, those pay out really well, too.

[Smoove_B]

Just received an email:

From now until July 2, you can earn in-game Diablo IV cosmetic transmog rewards with each purchase of a qualifying KFC® Sandwich. Log in or create a KFC account and sync it to your Battle.net account to get started!

We really are living in the weirdest (worst?) timeline.

[hepcat]

I’m just hoping the holiday tie in with KFC is a new character class called The Foghorn Leghorn.

Every time he gets hit, his feathers go flying. Luckily, he has them numbered for just such an emergency.

[Blackhawk]

I am, I say, I am overburdened.

[Sudy]

I'm honestly having trouble getting through the campaign. I play for an hour or two a day but I'm still in Act 3. I'm trying to prioritize to get riding, but I guess I'm getting distracted by world boss battles. I'm surprised there are so many people here running around endgame when I probably have less of a life than most.

But it's just so... repetitive. I mean I think the combat is the best of the series. And the story might be as well. But it's the same progression of sub-boss, boss encounters. From what I know of endgame I guess it will feel like there's more variety then. But the aspects don't seem quite as flashy as D3s legendaries while still being less... exciting than hunting for D2 drops? So I don't know how long it will remain fun. They nailed marrying the strengths of D2 and D3 but I don't feel there's any revolutionary innovation anywhere it might have mattered.

Visually it's beautiful, but again so repetitive. A lot of gorgeous hi-res reimaginations of earlier settings in the franchise, but it doesn't really do anything with them. The only exploration is finding altars and stuff, and that's a slog.

This is my favourite recent game that I don't enjoy playing. But I know I'll get into it eventually and my mood will change.

[YellowKing]

I felt the first tinge of burnout tonight running around getting all the damn Altars of Lilith. I mean you can’t *not* get them because stat boosts for every character is huge. But at the same time it’s a really tedious mechanic and kind of represents one of the worst aspects of open world games.

I feel like it’s just going to take time for the game to find its legs. D3 had years of tweaks and refinements, so I’m going to try to be patient. I see a lot of room for improvement in multiple areas, and I think over time at least some of those will be addressed. I also really want to see how seasons are implemented with this iteration.

[Baroquen]

Yeah, I'm bored with it already, but I've never been a Diablo superfan anyway. The constant bleak atmosphere, and the repetitive nature of the gameplay just doesn't compel me to play more. I mean, I will probably eventually finish the campaign because I have enjoyed the endgame stuff in D3. And hearing you all talk about what's down the line sounds intriguing. But I doubt I'll ever get my money's worth. Despite that - I don't dislike the game. It's still a very polished Diablo experience. It just isn't grabbing my attention much.

[Malificent]

But it's just so... repetitive. I mean I think the combat is the best of the series. And the story might be as well. But it's the same progression of sub-boss, boss encounters. From what I know of endgame I guess it will feel like there's more variety then. But the aspects don't seem quite as flashy as D3s legendaries while still being less... exciting than hunting for D2 drops? So I don't know how long it will remain fun. They nailed marrying the strengths of D2 and D3 but I don't feel there's any revolutionary innovation anywhere it might have mattered.

The fact that all the Unique items are locked behind Tier III after you finish the campaign contributes some to less excitement during the campaigns for item stuff.

[Blackhawk]

I'm honestly having trouble getting through the campaign. I play for an hour or two a day but I'm still in Act 3.

I've been doing the same. It's just not grabbing me as much as I'd hoped. Part of it was my choosing the barbarian. It's just a tedious class to play. Building fury takes forever, and the payoff doesn't feel worth the work to get there. The gameplay is hold down left click for four or five grunts, then right click once, then repeat. The rest of the time is just spent waiting for shouts to cool down. I've tried several builds, but every fury generator is dull, and none of the spenders have felt like they're worth the effort. By the time I earn a spender - right now it's Hammer of the Ancients - and smack it down, doing 1/3 to 1/2 of a bar to half a dozen enemies if they're clustered, my son (playing a werewolf druid) has mowed down an entire horde of enemies. And if the enemies aren't clustered, like having a four or five ranged enemies spread around, it's just torture slowly building up to a single heavy hit to kill one, then going over to the next enemy to repeat the process.

The only build I haven't tried is whirlwind, and that's because I've heard that it's more or less unusable until you're in your 60s for the extra fury generation. Until then, you get two or three seconds worth of use.

[Skinypupy]

I'm honestly having trouble getting through the campaign. I play for an hour or two a day but I'm still in Act 3. I'm trying to prioritize to get riding, but I guess I'm getting distracted by world boss battles. I'm surprised there are so many people here running around endgame when I probably have less of a life than most.

But it's just so... repetitive. I mean I think the combat is the best of the series. And the story might be as well. But it's the same progression of sub-boss, boss encounters. From what I know of endgame I guess it will feel like there's more variety then. But the aspects don't seem quite as flashy as D3s legendaries while still being less... exciting than hunting for D2 drops? So I don't know how long it will remain fun. They nailed marrying the strengths of D2 and D3 but I don't feel there's any revolutionary innovation anywhere it might have mattered.

Visually it's beautiful, but again so repetitive. A lot of gorgeous hi-res reimaginations of earlier settings in the franchise, but it doesn't really do anything with them. The only exploration is finding altars and stuff, and that's a slog.

This is my favourite recent game that I don't enjoy playing. But I know I'll get into it eventually and my mood will change.

I'm feeling some of this as well. It's all incredibly polished and is, on paper, exactly what we wanted out of a new Diablo game. But it also feels incredibly, I dunno, soulless? Formulaic, maybe? Feels like a numbers-go-up generator (which it's always been) but without any heart whatsoever.

I think part of that is the incredibly weak story. I get that story is never a big thing in Diablo games, but there was always just enough of a cool story thread and the characters were always interesting enough in previous games to keep me engaged. I could rattle off a whole host of memorable side characters from D2 and D3 right now. But if you held a gun to my head and asked me the name of a single NPC character in Diablo 4, I don't think I could. It just all sort of blurs together into one big dark fantasy mush with no distinct personality at all.

It also doesn't help that the story structure is just really strange. Every previous Diablo game had very distinct chapters with a very distinct set of events and activities that happened in each one. The way they've structured this one just blurs everything together. For example, I have been working my way through Act I but accidentally clicked the quest tracker for Act II. I started following that map marker and ended up in a city far on the western side of the zone. Even though I haven't completed Act I yet, the game just let me go ahead and jump right into the Act II questline. There was no indication whatsoever that it was a "next step" in the story or that I should be completing Act I first. Felt really odd (and yes, I'm going back to finish up the Act I quests before I pursue Act II any further). There's a ton of stuff for me to do, but none of it is interesting.

I suppose none of this really matters once you get to the endgame, but it's making getting through the campaign a real slog. The gameplay is solid enough that I'm still playing, but it's not terribly engaging. Feels like the overarching design philosophy was simply "MOAR MOAR MOAR! BIGGER BIGGER BIGGER!" without much consideration to what made the whole process compelling in the first place.

YMMV.

[YellowKing]

Since we're on the complaint train, this is my list of why it's not grabbing me:

- Lack of distinct areas - most of the world feels very samey, same enemies, same terrain, same winding paths. Even worse, a lot of it just feels like D3 areas. Sure the graphics are technically better, but they're uninspired.

- Loot drops are just plain DULL through the campaign. Very rare that I ever got excited by a drop. Hoping that changes as I progress through the higher World Tiers

- The dungeons are kind of hot garbage compared to D3. In D3 I remember these gigantic sprawling maps packed with enemies. Sometimes you'd have to backtrack after exploring one whole side. The dungeons in D4 are relatively small and filled with inexplicably large empty areas. They tried to alleviate backtracking by making most side areas loop around, but it's to the point that it's almost laughably predictable. It just feels like quantity over quality.

- Elite enemies don't feel elite to me. This one's hard to put into words, but in D3, elite enemies felt really dangerous. I HATED those rotating laser things, mortars, running into a group of elites always felt like a true battle. In D4, they just don't feel as lethal. Sure, I still have to stay on my toes to keep from getting squished by burst damage, but I don't feel the same sense of danger from them. I think this is a side effect of the enemies in general just not feeling right.

- Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that I keep thinking...."this is 11 years of progress?" Skill tree is deeper, paragon revamp is nice, and moving to open world gives more flexibility in finishing the campaign. But they had 11 years. Why is this not completely blowing me out of the water? Why does this not really feel much different than an 11 year old game I was just playing a couple of months ago? The whole thing just feels so safe and sanctioned by committee. Like they were so terrified to mess up the established formula that they watered it down to Diablo's most base and uninteresting elements.

This game was an absolute 10 in the first few hours I was playing, but after slogging through the campaign I'm much more inclined now to side with the occasional 8/10 reviews I've seen. Doesn't mean the game's not fun - it can be, and I'm still enjoying playing it. And I have hopes that seasons play will inject some life into it. But yeah, the honeymoon's definitely over.

[TheMix]

Nice to see a few complaints.

I was beginning to think I was the only one. Though I suspect I'm still relatively alone.

I'm not enjoying it. Mainly for the boss fights. Maybe it's just because of the first few I've done, but they are not fun. The difficulties so far have felt exponential. I'll breeze through regular mobs (for the most part), and then hit the boss and get destroyed. They also feel too "souls-like". Like the point is to do them over and over again in order to "learn" them (i.e. memorize the patterns). I never felt that way in D3. Even the hard bosses I had time to learn and adapt as the fight went along. But here I always seem to be stuffed into a tiny space with tons of summoned adds, tons of stuff on the ground that I have to avoid, all while chasing mobs with my melee build since apparently every fight requires that the mobs flee from me. The only equivalent I've come up with is if you had to fight Belial while the green stuff spawned on the ground for the entire fight, and he kept moving around. Oh, and summoned adds.

The story is relatively engaging so far. The quest chains seem interesting. Cut scenes and voice acting are top notch. The fights in the outside world are okay. Character development seems interesting (though I've been told that the only way to succeed is to follow one of a handful of precise builds - no flexibility to play the way I want ).

But the dungeon bosses leave me wanting to fire up something else.

[Blackhawk]

But if you held a gun to my head and asked me the name of a single NPC character in Diablo 4, I don't think I could.

Vigo. The only character I can name is Vigo, and that's only because I remember being relieved that he wasn't a Carpathian.

[Pyperkub]

But if you held a gun to my head and asked me the name of a single NPC character in Diablo 4, I don't think I could.

Vigo. The only character I can name is Vigo, and that's only because I remember being relieved that he wasn't a Carpathian.

I liked the Sister Octavia quest chain.

[Sudy]

There's some good stuff. Like adding the dash mechanic to PC? Maybe it's a soulslike thing, but it makes things more interesting and feels good.

I don't actually have a problem with the story so far. Just... the pacing? Again, I've only just started Act 3.

Spoiler:

The characters feel generic now, but so did the ones in the other titles until I played them 100 times. Honestly? Lorath is pretty cool. So's Donan. Donan dragging those corpses around... between the emotion and the animation, that's far beyond anything I experienced in any of the other games. Diablo 3 was very cartoony. The Diablo 4 story, though... I don't hate it, it follows the lore from the third game. But so far it's just "sorry Mario, the Princess is in another castle!" as we follow Lilith around. I know that must change soon. I kind of like there being more of a progressing, immersive story. But I feel connected to it without feeling... part of it? If that makes sense. I feel like I'm playing a decent book set in the Diablo universe. One that involves a lot of descriptive travel passages.

I don't have a problem with being able to play quests/acts out of order, to an extent. Like, I'm not going to, but freedom is good if it doesn't negatively affect the experience. I will say it's a bit confusing in the interface, and beyond some high-level content/areas, everything scales so it's not like I know what to do first by the feeling of the difficulty of the combat. But the open world that adds unnecessary stuff to do... it just doesn't work. Not during the campaign, anyway. Like do I want a more cohesive Sanctuary to play in for longer (if I want)? Sure. Previous Diablos were just a series of disconnected maps. But other than feeling more connected to the game world, what does it give us? Bloated playtimes, repetitive scenes, public events that feel 10+ years old, and boring trash fights.

[Pyperkub]

I do think they should have kept the environment changes. Even back to the first Diablo the dungeon set changes were awesome. I also loved how Tristram was changed as you progressed deeper and deeper. I miss that.

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[YellowKing]

Finally explored every area on the map and got all the Altars of Lilith. Pro tip for running around collecting altars - use the waypoint feature on the map. It creates a GPS route from your location to the waypoint and saves a heck of a lot of time tabbing back and forth between the game and map.

Next I plan to knock out the remaining stronghold and side quests. Still plenty to do before I even think about rolling an alt.

[Skinypupy]

Are Strongholds supposed to be group content? Because I've tried three of them now and have only been able to complete one. The final boss in the other two melted my Lightning Sorc in a matter of seconds...I stood no chance at all.

I know I'm squishy, but they seemed exponentially more powerful than anything else I have seen in the game so far.

[coopasonic]

Are Strongholds supposed to be group content?

I think yes. I did them all solo with my necro, but I dropped to world tier 1 just to knock them all out quickly.

[Pyperkub]

Are Strongholds supposed to be group content? Because I've tried three of them now and have only been able to complete one. The final boss in the other two melted my Lightning Sorc in a matter of seconds...I stood no chance at all.

I know I'm squishy, but they seemed exponentially more powerful than anything else I have seen in the game so far.

I really, really struggled with the druid one. Even brought in $iljanus to help with no avail.

Leveled up a bit and changed my druid build around and was able to solo it. Let for my build was getting a couple of chipped skulls in my weapon for life regeneration, and having 2 mob protector spells (a fortify one and a cyclone to knock them off and slow them down. Upgraded weapons and armor, etc. were nice.

Also, (at least in the druid one, haven't tried any others yet) make sure you clear the first batch of enemies/ elites before activating the second batch of each of the three pre- boss segments.

Note, the stronghold will always be 2 levels higher than you for rating .

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[Skinypupy]

I’ll have to look at my build. I’m using what appears to be a solid one (here), but my gear continues to be crap. I’m sure that’s part of it.

On another note, when do you get the mount?

[TheMix]

Also, (at least in the druid one, haven't tried any others yet) make sure you clear the first batch of enemies/ elites before activating the second batch of each of the three pre- boss segments.

Not sure I'm following. I actually didn't have too much trouble with the first pre-boss. I was able to pull the mobs around him in groups. Then fight him alone.

I gave up on the second one after multiple tries. No matter how many of the mobs around him I killed, as soon as I got close enough to engage him, more adds would drop in from the sky. And they seemed to keep getting added on a timer. I didn't see any way to whittle them down.

[Reemul]

Are Strongholds supposed to be group content? Because I've tried three of them now and have only been able to complete one. The final boss in the other two melted my Lightning Sorc in a matter of seconds...I stood no chance at all.

I know I'm squishy, but they seemed exponentially more powerful than anything else I have seen in the game so far.

I am on Act V lvl 49, this is my sorcerer build https://maxroll.gg/d4/build-guides/chai ... ling-guide I need 2 more points to max it out.

No problems so far with anything, oh yeah I do have Legendaries in every slot now which obviously helps but it's the more defensive skills that made the difference for me.

[coopasonic]

On another note, when do you get the mount?

After you finish act 3

[hepcat]

I’ve got about 12 hours in the game and my rogue is lvl 32. And I’m not even finished with act I. I keep getting sidetracked by folks with blue exclamation marks and the assorted dungeons I stumble across while playing.

Am I going too slowly? I fear I’m gonna level past all the good stuff.

[Sudy]

I'm not much farther than you, but I think you're safe as most content scales. Personally I've stopped doing blue quests until I'm done the campaign. Or I only do enough to stay under the 20-quest limit. But I'm bee-lining for the mount and not worrying about dungeons until later unless they have aspects I can use. I'd play how it's fun for you, but I imagine it's more fun once mounts are unlocked.

[Blackhawk]

I am on Act V lvl 49, this is my sorcerer build https://maxroll.gg/d4/build-guides/chai ... ling-guide I need 2 more points to max it out.

FWIW, in the last couple of years, Maxroll has had the most consistently useful build guides for the games that they cover.

[YellowKing]

A few random thoughts:

- I really wish they had not done the jumping and climbing sections. It really serves no purpose other than to slow you down or force you to dismount

- I did my first "Legion" event tonight, which was a lot of fun. It's basically just a public event/stronghold type event on steroids. Multiple waves of enemies while running around trying to take down objectives and bosses. Good rewards as well. Like the World Boss events, they are random so you just have to keep a watch out for them on your map.

- I honestly think some of my burnout is due to my Necro being OP. I don't take credit for that, I got the build from a website. But I'm Level 59 on World Tier 3 and it's a cakewalk. I've also been pumping up my minions like crazy with Paragon points and gear, so for trash mob fights I almost don't even have to do anything. Just walk in and let the minions do all the work. Sounds fun on paper, but in reality not so much. I actually am considering going ahead and attempting the Level 70 temple to unlock World TIer 4. Worst case it kicks my ass and I just keep doing what I'm doing for a few more levels.

- I watched a video recap of the developer livestream and they confirmed Season 2 will make gems behave like resources so they will no longer take up inventory slots. For Season 1 they will be tweaking Nightmare dungeons to make them more rewarding, and they explained a bit better how Season play will work. When you roll a new Season character, you will keep any reknown you earned for visiting all map locations and Altars of Lilith. However you'll need to re-earn dungeon and side quest reknown. In addition, the map will still be fogged with the exception of the major waypoints. It's a bit of a compromise so that you don't have to re-do arguably the two most tedious activities (exploration and Altars). The devs are listening, and while I don't think they'll be able to fix some of (what I consider) the fundamental flaws of the game, it does sound like they're taking feedback and working to improve things.

- I know it sounds like I've put a lot of complaints in the thread, but I'm still having a really good time all in all. I've just learned to recognize when I'm getting a little bored or frustrated, and that's when I walk away and take a break.

[Edit] Ok that did NOT go well LOL. Tried the Level 70 Fallen Temple and got one shotted by the first mob. Back to grinding it is!

[Skinypupy]

Are Strongholds supposed to be group content? Because I've tried three of them now and have only been able to complete one. The final boss in the other two melted my Lightning Sorc in a matter of seconds...I stood no chance at all.

I know I'm squishy, but they seemed exponentially more powerful than anything else I have seen in the game so far.

I am on Act V lvl 49, this is my sorcerer build https://maxroll.gg/d4/build-guides/chai ... ling-guide I need 2 more points to max it out.

Thanks, that build has been a bit more survivable with the added defensive skills.

I’m still not sure I understand the addition of fire skills into a lightning build though. If I’m understanding that guide correctly, simply having a fire skill unlocked adds burning damage to attacks? Or do you actively have to be using the fire attack as one of your skills for that burning effect to apply? If it has to be active, which lightning skill are you replacing it with?

I’m confused.

[Blackhawk]

That specific fire skill in the enchantment slot does just that, which then allows the other fire buffs to work with lightning skills.

It's the kind of synergy that makes builds sing.

[Skinypupy]

That specific fire skill in the enchantment slot does just that, which then allows the other fire buffs to work with lightning skills.

It's the kind of synergy that makes builds sing.

Holy shit...I'm an idiot.

Until about 10 minutes ago, I never saw the two slots at the bottom of the "Assign Skill" window. I didn't realize you had to actually slot skills into them to get the enchantment effect. I haven't been able to figure out how that enchantment effect was activated, and thought you actually had to assign the specific ability to one of the hotkeys in order to get it (hence my question about using the fire ability).

So I've been playing now for about 15 hours (level 38) with no enchantments at all. Which could explain part of why the game has felt overly difficult.

[McG2k1]

is there an OO guild? tired of this junk one ive been not doing anything with.

[Blackhawk]

Sure. Check the other Diablo 4 thread for details.

[YellowKing]

I SLAYED THE BUTCHER!

I had to cheese him to do it, but I don't care because that bastard never played fair with me. When he spawned I found a boulder in the dungeon that I could run around so I just did loops Looney Tunes style like I was Bugs Bunny and he was Elmer Fudd. Just let my minions keep whacking on him while I popped an occasional Bone Spear when he gave me an opening.

He dropped a Level 61 unique helm that granted Bone Spear (one of my major attacks) an echo that travels behind it and explodes. Very nice boost so I was super happy with that.

[stimpy]

Really not liking the always online requirement (why in the world is that necessary?) combined with the inability to save anywhere.
So much backtracking if, God forbid, I have to walk away from the computer for a few minutes.

[Skinypupy]

Really not liking the always online requirement (why in the world is that necessary?) combined with the inability to save anywhere.
So much backtracking if, God forbid, I have to walk away from the computer for a few minutes.

Yeah, I’ve been hit by that a couple times as well. Super annoying.

[Pyperkub]

Also, your town portal disappears if you log out. So you can't just pop back to where you left off if you can't finish what you were doing.

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[hepcat]

Having an ultra wide monitor is kinda cheating, I’ve decided. There have been a couple of times where I could see and fire at enemies in a separate room, but they didn’t react because I hadn’t triggered their AI.