Diablo 4

[Blackhawk]

I still dont have my lightning sorc down pat. Im still used to having my necro army absorb everything while I stand back and cast what I want. Theh sorc is much more hectic in battle with combos and mana and such. I find myself lost in button pushing madness during a battle and just hitting everything hoping something is off timer and my mana is refreshed enough to cast it. I die still needless to say.

What abilities?

[Daehawk]

I still dont have my lightning sorc down pat. Im still used to having my necro army absorb everything while I stand back and cast what I want. Theh sorc is much more hectic in battle with combos and mana and such. I find myself lost in button pushing madness during a battle and just hitting everything hoping something is off timer and my mana is refreshed enough to cast it. I die still needless to say.

What abilities?

Still in flow and testing but I have put all points I can into the lightning skills...direct damage and boosts...even my items are for more dam and mana in the electrical field.

I have ice armor and some static thing as my 3 and 4 keys...I have put 4 points into teleport and plan to max it...I use static discharge lighting spear rotated with bolts I think.

What I do is pop my ice armor and teleport into the enemies and then start firing anything I can ..either I die or they die. elites give me hell sometimes..2 at once and Im in trouble where my necro just laughed.. Bosses on dungeons take me a while..I can beat them they just take forever and lots of moving and health potions.

Im still testing. My Diablo 2 fav sorc was a ice one..thinking of rerolling a full ice one..blizzard and orb like old days see how that goes. Lightning is really fun though for the effects and sounds of thunder..I smile when a thunderclap goes off and an enemy just pops.

[Blackhawk]

I still dont have my lightning sorc down pat. Im still used to having my necro army absorb everything while I stand back and cast what I want. Theh sorc is much more hectic in battle with combos and mana and such. I find myself lost in button pushing madness during a battle and just hitting everything hoping something is off timer and my mana is refreshed enough to cast it. I die still needless to say.

What abilities?

Still in flow and testing but I have put all points I can into the lightning skills...direct damage and boosts...even my items are for more dam and mana in the electrical field.

I've also got an endgame Sorcerer, using lightning. FWIW, sorcerers are one of the tankiest classes in the game right now, with so many defensive abilities that they become really hard to kill.

start firing anything I can

This is doom in Diablo. You can't button mash. That's why I'm going to offer you some ideas on when to use your abilities.

I have ice armor and some static thing as my 3 and 4 keys.

Ice armor = great option. It's a big enough boost that you really don't need more than one point in it, though - more than one point is wasted. One in the armor, one in enhanced is more than enough to give you 90% of the benefit of having it maxed out. If you have Enhanced, use it after you fire off a few spells to crank up your mana regen. If you have a 'big spender', cast Ice Armor at the same time so that you can nuke without running out of mana.

I have no idea what "static thing" is - there is no skill with the word "static" in it.

I have put 4 points into teleport and plan to max it

Not a bad choice. With Shimmering Teleport (one of the connected skills), it's a great defensive buff for when you first start a fight, letting you hold off on your ice armor.

I use static discharge lighting spear rotated with bolts I think.

Lightning skills you can slot on the bar:

Builders
Spark
Arc Lash

Spenders
Chain Lightning
Charged Bolts
Teleport
Lightning Spear
Ball Lightning
Unstable Currents

If you're talking about Lightning Spear with Charge Bolts, I'm guessing that you're running out of mana a lot.

Almost all Diablo 4 builds have both a builder and a spender. The builders generate mana, and the spenders... spend mana. If you're running with two spenders, you're going to have issues unless you have really, really good gear that is designed to give you mana. I've only just gotten to the point on my sub-level-60 Sorcerer where I'm able to run without a builder, using Frost Nova and Chain Lightning on my mouse buttons. Here's why.

My main damage ability:



The relevant gear, just looking at the orange text at the bottom:

Spoiler:

And even with all of that in place, I'm still struggling on longer fights, as I don't have great gear or great numbers on those legendary aspects (the orange text.)

I know that you have:

Teleport
Ice Armor
Lightning Spear

And I think you have:
Charged Bolts

What else?

And, second, what do you have in your Enchantment slots?

[Daehawk]

No idea on enchantments without firing up the game and looking..

That lucky hit thing..just what is that? I see it come up a lot..on items and in my own skill tree. What does it really do?

[Jaddison]

No idea on enchantments without firing up the game and looking..

That lucky hit thing..just what is that? I see it come up a lot..on items and in my own skill tree. What does it really do?

Hit S and then look at the bottom two slots. You definitely want to figure out and slot them. I didn't realize there were those slots and what they did for quite a while. It was like playing a completely different character once I slotted them. Fire bolt being my fav

[Blackhawk]

Firebolt is what I'm using currently, although for leveling solo, I'd suggest Fireball for one of them (yes, even with all the shock damage.) Just put one skill point in and socket it - having enemies explode and kill other enemies is powerful.

[Blackhawk]

I finished up the last of the Renown rewards last night (the rewards you get for doing things in a region), plus I have collected all of the Altars of Lilith. Those are both persistent, so I'll never have to worry about things like discovering zones, finding altars, or side quests on future characters unless I want to for fun.

I was able to take out Vir last night in under a minute without taking much real damage, so that gave me all but one of the Chapter 8 requirements. I think I'll just try and hit level 90 (I'm 87 now) via some quick nightmare dungeons, then call this character done.

And I'm level 90, which finishes off Season Journey Chapter 8 (of 9), which in turn gives me the final meaningful Season Journey reward. I'm only at tier 15 out of 18 on the Hunter's board seasonal doohicky, and don't feel particularly compelled to grind out the last few tiers.

And with that, Chagatai is retired. I really enjoyed the Twisting Blades Rogue gameplay - it was very, very active. No "hold own left mouse" gameplay here.

[Blackhawk]

My thoughts on D4 and season 2:

~The game was mindlessly easy up through the end of the campaign and the start of World Tier 3. I really didn't enjoy the campaign much, as it was so badly balanced that it just became tedious. Campaign dungeon? Enjoy having to fight three enemies at a time, over and over, in a game built around fighting hordes. Once you hit WT3, though, and actually have enough enemies around you at once to really trigger your abilities, the combat becomes a lot more fun.

~The season was a lot more fun and varied that Diablo 3's (which was just bounty-bounty-rift-rift.)

~The season journey wasn't terribly grindy until you get to Chapter 9, which cranks up the requirements from previous chapters considerably.

~They really need to work on the rewards, though. I finished the battle pass unlocks long, long before I finished the season journey, giving me less to look forward to. The top tier chapter rewards from Chapter 9 were just purely awful - a title (and you'll have a hundred titles already by then), and a box full of Potent Blood. Potent Blood, which lets you upgrade your vampiric powers. Even only hitting 15/18 on the Hunter's board, I had enough blood to max out every single vampiric power with more than a thousand left over. Absolutely nobody who finishes chapter 9 is going to have any use for that blood unless they're planning on running a second seasonal character. Literally - you can't even push the button to spend it after you've maxed everything out. And that's the reward for grinding out the last chapter? At least D3 game you wings/pets for finishing that final stretch.

Now that I'm done, I'm curious to see how crippling it is when my rogue is transferred to Eternal in a few days. He got a ton of damage and survival from the vampiric powers, and those - as far as I know - cease to exist. Without them, I doubt I can do nearly the content I'm doing now. On the other hand, I'm still playing a character on Eternal with a group, and it's going to be interesting gaining access to all of my rogue's collected aspects and resources.

[Daehawk]

hehe I see you have a Scrappy BH. I have a Scruffy.

[Blackhawk]

hehe I see you have a Scrappy BH. I have a Scruffy.

I have three, all of the ones on the bottom. They're throwaway characters. Any time I find an item I can't personally use (it has a red X), I drop it in the first tab of the stash. Once a week or so I log in each of my scrappers, take the items they can personally use, and scrap them (thus unlocking the transmogs.)

[Sudy]

Thinking about trying out the new season. Trying to get the campaign wrapped up.

What class have you found to be the most fun? I've only played sorcerer so far and found it to be a pretty disappointing experience. Though I guess any class may get boring after fifty levels.

[hepcat]

I was playing Friday and got frustrated when I would accidentally open the character ability screen while using the keyboard to hit the damn q button or the number 3 to fire off an ability. I lost a boss battle thanks to that and promptly rage quit. I mapped most of my character's abilities to the 4 or 5 buttons on my mouse, but that was just annoying.

[Blackhawk]

Thinking about trying out the new season. Trying to get the campaign wrapped up.

What class have you found to be the most fun? I've only played sorcerer so far and found it to be a pretty disappointing experience. Though I guess any class may get boring after fifty levels.

I have had more fun with my Twisting Blades rogue than with any class in any Diablo game to date. It's a class that requires active play, constantly making quick decisions rather than just button mashing. Of course, when the patch drops tomorrow, all of the class balance/builds that are in placed now are going to change.

[hepcat]

That's the build I'm using as well.

[Blackhawk]

That's the build I'm using as well.

I don't know how high you are, but be aware that the Bladedancer aspect is getting changed with tomorrow's update to hit enemies twice instead of three times, reducing the damage from poison from the returning/spinning blades by a lot, and changing how Tibault's Will works for rogues completely. It's worth noting that this isn't really a nerf - it's a bug fix. None of those have been working as they were supposed to. They were some of the bugs they knowingly didn't fix under their "people are having fun with it, change it after the season is over" philosophy.

Ball Lightning sorcerers are experience similar changes - their absurd damage was caused by a bug, too.

/edit - Maxroll has put out their new analysis, and both Twisting Blades rogue and Ball Lightning sorcerer have gone from top damage S tier to A tier. Both still good, but not the powerhouses they have been.

[Blackhawk]

A reminder to those who played this season: Season 3 starts in less than an hour. The next time you log in, all of your Season 2 characters will be transferred to the Eternal realm. When you log into the game with them, your seasonal stash will be in a special withdrawal-only stash tab. When season 4 starts, everything in the special tab will disappear forever. Make sure that if you have anything you want to save, you grab it before that happens.

[Daehawk]

New season new character. It wouldn't let me use my old characters. So now I have a fresh Assassin to build into a demon hunter. I already like her bow and sound effects. Though Im not sure how to generate energy yet.

I like that its steampunk too. Already have my little spider automaton.

[Sudy]

I finally powered through and finished the campaign.

I really enjoyed the characters. But I honestly found the plot (beyond the obvious bits) and prologue... baffling. Perhaps I just forgot some elements of the first three-and-a-half acts I played months ago. But I find myself wondering if I didn't stumble into AI-assisted fan fiction. Am I nuts? How did we wind up here from a story that showed such promise? The plot is all texture and emotion. It's a bad sign when I really had no idea what Lilith's true goal was in the end.

The environments felt so bland and empty, featureless retreads of what's come before. The majority of bosses had so little character. Diablo 3 was certainly a letdown in its own ways, especially at launch. But each environment and encounter felt distinct, even after repeating them dozens of times in adventure mode. The itemization feels almost as bad as D3's at launch, when I remember finally getting my first legendary and it being useless. And the gameplay, it's just click-until-dead. And yeah, I know, that's the loot-based ARPG model that Diablo originated and perfected. But combat in DII and III always felt so good in its own way. The satisfaction I got from it and loot hunting propelled me forward. Not so, here. Running around to advance the story it almost felt like an adventure game at times.

I'm sure Blizzard will salvage this game through updates and expansions. But it just seems like such an ill-conceived effort to bridge Diablo 2 and 3 and integrate it into a live service, semi-MMO package. Many lost faith in Blizzard long ago, and for good reason. But while I'm sure I'll go back on this (I'll fall for the hype... and the FOMO), I can't rationalize preordering a Blizzard title again.

[naednek]

Can't remember. I beat the campaign. If I roll a new character do I select skip campaign to access the season content, or is the season content in the campaign?

[Daehawk]

It wouldn't let me use my old characters. I had to make a new girl. I chose skip campaign.

[Blackhawk]

Can't remember. I beat the campaign. If I roll a new character do I select skip campaign to access the season content, or is the season content in the campaign?

If you skip the campaign, you can start doing the seasonal content immediately. If you do not, you have to finish the campaign again to access the seasonal stuff.

[Blackhawk]

It wouldn't let me use my old characters. I had to make a new girl. I chose skip campaign.

Just like in Diablo 3 - seasonal characters become non-seasonal when the new season launches. The idea is to have everyone starting off equally rather than some people having so much money/resources/gear in their stash that they beat the new content in a few days.

[Sudy]

Having finished the campaign for the first time, I've created a new seasonal character and skipped the campaign.

I know how the seasonal content is labelled. But beyond that, there's so much other endgame stuff to do and I just don't know where to begin. I know what many of the activities are (strongholds, whispering tree stuff, helltide events etc.), but I have no idea how to prioritize them.

Is there something like that one-page guide graphic for Diablo 3 that people used to share at the beginning of each season? I know I can read/watch any number of guides, but I wish there was something extremely simple to point me in the right direction. E.g. "progress season quests as far as you can > do any class dungeons you haven't done yet to unlock aspects and gain experience > do all strongholds", etc. I just want to kill stuff and gear up but I don't want to waste time doing inefficient and repetitive things if I don't need to.

[Blackhawk]

Having finished the campaign for the first time, I've created a new seasonal character and skipped the campaign.

I know how the seasonal content is labelled. But beyond that, there's so much other endgame stuff to do and I just don't know where to begin. I know what many of the activities are (strongholds, whispering tree stuff, helltide events etc.), but I have no idea how to prioritize them.

Is there something like that one-page guide graphic for Diablo 3 that people used to share at the beginning of each season? I know I can read/watch any number of guides, but I wish there was something extremely simple to point me in the right direction. E.g. "progress season quests as far as you can > do any class dungeons you haven't done yet to unlock aspects and gain experience > do all strongholds", etc. I just want to kill stuff and gear up but I don't want to waste time doing inefficient and repetitive things if I don't need to.

Start with the season quest. It'll be right in front of you when you enter the world.

I'd recommend doing Whispers as you go. It's a good source of gear, and an incredible source of gold. Do strongholds as you find them/get the urge - they just give you access to dungeons and fast travel points. The Helltides aren't a thing until World Tier 3 (WT3), which isn't a thing until you level. I'd also do Arcane Tremors from time to time. They give you the goodies for your bot.

Do dungeons as you go, as quests send you there, or (more often) to unlock the Aspects you need for your character. Dungeons are replaced with nightmare dungeons when you hit WT3.

Once you hit level 50 and unlock WT3, that's when Helltides come into play - they are the best way to gear up for WT3, and again later for WT4.

As to a guide, I'd recommend this. It's more than a single page, but lots of it is art. It's also the go-to site for info/builds/guides of all sorts.

/edit - I had the wrong link.

[Daehawk]

Anyone figured out the little pet automatons that they gave us? Im assuming everyone gets one. Mine just followed me around doing nothing until I slotted the gems in its inv . Now he shoots a lightning bolt at enemies. Im not sure I slotted them right or not. I had one big gem and 2 little ones and Ive found one more since then. I just put them all on the same side so they connected. Am I missing something more with the little guy? Its nice having a mechanical spider that shoots tesla rounds at enemies as a sorc pet. Hope Im not missing more to him.

[Blackhawk]

Anyone figured out the little pet automatons that they gave us? Im assuming everyone gets one. Mine just followed me around doing nothing until I slotted the gems in its inv . Now he shoots a lightning bolt at enemies. Im not sure I slotted them right or not. I had one big gem and 2 little ones and Ive found one more since then. I just put them all on the same side so they connected. Am I missing something more with the little guy? Its nice having a mechanical spider that shoots tesla rounds at enemies as a sorc pet. Hope Im not missing more to him.

You have two big boxes on the pet interface. That lets you slot two of the big stones (Governing Stones.) You also have three small boxes attached to each big stone for the smaller ones (Tuning Stones.) That lets you pick and choose which modifiers to those abilities you use. If you haven't yet, read the link in my last post. It literally tells you what everything does.

[Jaddison]

Me and my man-bear druid will explore this new season...and then probably a Barb and sorcerer

[Hyena]

I'm gonna go with a rogue to start. I usually end up with a necro, it's just such a versatile class. I love the way you can play minions, as a caster, or even a tank. Most seasons I'll have more than one specced to different roles just for the fun of it.

[Daehawk]

Anyone figured out the little pet automatons that they gave us? Im assuming everyone gets one. Mine just followed me around doing nothing until I slotted the gems in its inv . Now he shoots a lightning bolt at enemies. Im not sure I slotted them right or not. I had one big gem and 2 little ones and Ive found one more since then. I just put them all on the same side so they connected. Am I missing something more with the little guy? Its nice having a mechanical spider that shoots tesla rounds at enemies as a sorc pet. Hope Im not missing more to him.

You have two big boxes on the pet interface. That lets you slot two of the big stones (Governing Stones.) You also have three small boxes attached to each big stone for the smaller ones (Tuning Stones.) That lets you pick and choose which modifiers to those abilities you use. If you haven't yet, read the link in my last post. It literally tells you what everything does.

Ok thanks. Im hoping I can make the little guy a healer to run with me. I always made my companions in SWTOR a healer.

[Jolor]

I completed the main quest with a rogue and will give this archetype a go for S3. (Oh, Caltrips! I just can't quite you!)

[Daehawk]

Ive been skipping caltraps for poison. I think Ill redo and take them instead

[Blackhawk]

If you're playing a rogue, poison is great for elites/bosses, but not for regular enemies. For groups of regular enemies (crowd clearing) shadow imbuement is your friend - and a powerful friend at that.

[Punisher]

Question.
I made my seasonal character which I understand isn't seasonal any more but can I finish the campaign with it?
Also, once I fully finish the campaign is there any more overall story or just individual missions?

[Blackhawk]

Question.
I made my seasonal character which I understand isn't seasonal any more but can I finish the campaign with it?
Also, once I fully finish the campaign is there any more overall story or just individual missions?

Your formerly-seasonal character can do absolutely everything that a seasonal character could do, with the sole exception of season-specific content. If you made them in season 2, that's the Blood Harvest, the vampiric powers, the hunter's board, the season journey, and the quests/bosses related directly to them. Those things don't exist anymore. Everything else - the campaign, the Helltides, the dungeons and nightmare dungeons, the world bosses, the endgame bosses, whispers, the side quests and exploration - all of that is still available to you.

Once you finish the campaign, you're only looking at side quests when it comes to story. Some of them are fairly involved, and are a sequence of multiple quests, but none are full campaigns or part of the main story. I personally felt like the campaign set up a full expansion later on, though. And each season includes a sort of mini-campaign with its own story, NPCs, and antagonists.

[Torfish]

Question.
I made my seasonal character which I understand isn't seasonal any more but can I finish the campaign with it?
Also, once I fully finish the campaign is there any more overall story or just individual missions?

Yes and Yes.

[Daehawk]

Ive got my pet setup to both roast them with a flamethrower and heal me....the healing is weak but its more than nothing...the flamethrower is fun to watch hehehe.

I noticed the pet changed color too from a blue glow to a orange for fire I guess. I like that they thought to add that. I see me pet with me but never see anyone elses unless they portal in then I see it briefly before it fades away. Im guessing mine does to the same to their view. Shame. Why have a customizable pet to show off it no one can see it.

[Blackhawk]

Ive got my pet setup to both roast them with a flamethrower and heal me....the healing is weak but its more than nothing...the flamethrower is fun to watch hehehe.

I noticed the pet changed color too from a blue glow to a orange for fire I guess. I like that they thought to add that. I see me pet with me but never see anyone elses unless they portal in then I see it briefly before it fades away. Im guessing mine does to the same to their view. Shame. Why have a customizable pet to show off it no one can see it.

Try being in town with a necromancer sometime when the pet fade glitches and doesn't work, or fight a world boss with an extra 15 moving things on screen when trying to clear adds.

[Jaddison]

I am having difficulty generating enthusiasm for this season. The construct is not that big a deal and the rest is SSDD.

[Jolor]

I am having difficulty generating enthusiasm for this season. The construct is not that big a deal and the rest is SSDD.

Same, to be honest. I may try a different build that generates more crowd damage (as there seem to be a never-ending flood of tiny constructs that swarm me). Perhaps that will make it less tedious/bothersome. Or perhaps I'll just come back to it later.

[YellowKing]

I'm having a good time with this season but I think it's because I skipped Season 2 entirely so a lot of the quality of life improvements are new to me. I'm not cracked out on it or anything, as I have a lot of other irons in the fire game-wise right now, but it's been a fun diversion.