Diablo 4 is the best DIABLO game but i've now lost interest in the franchise

Once I got my head around Tempering I was hooked. The balance of flexibility towards pretty specific build ideas and deterministic crafting (still a gamble, but one with very good odds of getting a version of what you want) is a hit.

I devoted a whole day to giving s4 its fair crack. Died a LOT in the first ten levels as a sub-optimal melee rogue (blade shift/flurry/shadowstep) because oh boy Helltides with starter gear are a thing. But once I found some yellow gear and got to tempering/aspect placement, it all fell into place. Being able to put very specific mods on a lot of my gear slots was really neat -- my chance to Daze on hit is high enough that I can tap a known Rogue skill loop to keep non-boss elites on their backs permanently. That's just too much fun.

I just entered Nightmare after about, oh, 5 hours maybe. But that's skipping campaign and chaining Tides, rushing to the boss encounter whenever someone triggered it or I did the same. The season rewards from the quest chain give you plenty of materials to do just that.

Love the new aspect system. It and Tempering make me genuinely excited to upgrade gear. No more 'shit I am stuck to this item because it has the aspect I need' business.

World bosses are a lot of fun when they don't die in 5 seconds. Who knew?

The slightly increased zoom out doesn't hurt but I don't really notice it anymore. I was never bothered by the original camera so eh, icing.


I predict I will utterly burn through this season pass (somehow had enough plat sitting there to get it...and I still haven't bought any, so...uh okay) and then really explore what Tempering/revamped aspect system can do with a bunch of alts. I suspect I should be able to take any of the 'typical' play types and put some fun spins on them via Tempering.

Anyway yeah. Still has nothing to offer a veteran Exile whose expectations are 100% calibrated to PoE's batshit levels of complexity and demand, but as is now very clear: it doesn't need to.

Diablo IV continues to improve dramatically, I already enjoyed it out of the box, and I haven't put a cent into it beyond purchase price. As a casual gamer with a mildly hardcore history, I can't ask for more.

PS you could always use your horse in town, and you could always skip campaign after finishing it once on any one character. It's just that now instead of just repeating Whispers to get to Nightmare and then enjoy Helltide cycles, you can just straight into the Helltide, guided by the seasonal Iron Wolves-themed quest. Which I found, as usual, quite well-written for what it was.

"

Foreverhappychan wrote:

I just entered Nightmare after about, oh, 5 hours maybe. But that's skipping campaign and chaining Tides, rushing to the boss encounter whenever someone triggered it or I did the same. The season rewards from the quest chain give you plenty of materials to do just that.

Love the new aspect system. It and Tempering make me genuinely excited to upgrade gear. No more 'shit I am stuck to this item because it has the aspect I need' business.


Diablo IV continues to improve dramatically, I already enjoyed it out of the box, and I haven't put a cent into it beyond purchase price. As a casual gamer with a mildly hardcore history, I can't ask for more.

PS you could always use your horse in town, and you could always skip campaign after finishing it once on any one character. It's just that now instead of just repeating Whispers to get to Nightmare and then enjoy Helltide cycles, you can just straight into the Helltide, guided by the seasonal Iron Wolves-themed quest. Which I found, as usual, quite well-written for what it was.

helltide mob density oh my jizzballs. so damn good. i dont feel like having to play peekaboo with mobs.

the aspect thing was one of the biggest reasons why i stayed away from the game. but now its been reworked and its imho FULLY FIXED. they solved the issue and made the feature something to look forward to.

cant wait to blast again.

I also love those "fracture" type affix lines that can roll higher than a normal max tier.

I actually get excited to see those drop.

Combined with the upgrades to the codex, and elimination of useless drops by world tiers, this version of D4 is legitimately pretty good.

It's been great so far, and my friends are of a similar mind. We are all looking optimistically towards this upcoming expansion.

Still prefer Inquisitor for its unique approach to Diablo 2 elements but there is something undeniably magical in a Blizzard game that finds its footing and runs with it.

What has surprised me the most is how not unhappy I am with the drastic simplification of basic item mods. There aren't many per item type anymore -- maybe ten? And while they are all good, all the sort of thing you'd want on any given item, they're really...well basic.

But I have been so focused on tempering and aspects that their basic nature is a boon. There is variant enough to make me choose between base items but it's not driving me to the Occultist to reroll basic mods obsessively either. Get new item, compare basic stats, replicate tempering and aspect on new item, scrap old...back to it.

Lovely.

I had to drop the daze approach for more durability so now I am a dodge tank, using the much improved Crowded Sage aspect (percentile life heal per dodge**)in conjunction with Worldly Defense dodge tempering. 20% natural dodge doesnt sound like much but when it only takes one or two to heal up and most incoming damage packets are kinda small it's enough.


I hear the flask sound a LOT since it plays whenever Crowded Sage procs.

I also fortify every time I dodge.

...which is 100% of the time with Leyranas Inner Sight triggered.

Oh and I heal per basic attack, which is a hell of a lot with Moonrise and the old basic attack accelerator.

I facetank world bosses. As a melee rogue using blade shift almost all the time.

Lol.

----

The ONLY problem with the game now is Helltides are too good. They are on constant rotation. So...when do I start Nightmare Dungeons and leveling my Paragon glyphs? Maybe after the Helltide hour is up....wait I am only a few whispers away from another chest...shiiiit. Okay one more Helltide...

Level 58 now and the only dungeon I have done is the level 15 rogue quest.




** Wait. Percentile heal on dodge was also my favourite OP defence mod in Wolcen. Huh.

you know what?

i m fucking addicted to d4 now.

Yep.

It's kinda subtle too but as one article pointed out, Helltides are at their heart multiplayer content. As someone who eschewed mp with strangers for so long, I am a little in awe of how happy I am to see others in *my* experience of Diablo IV.

This sort of fluid easing into a style of gaming that is traditionally toxic and stressful is Blizzard doing what they do best, and I hope this is the end of the emotional yoyo I felt each season prior to Loot Reborn.

But here is something else we need to remember: we are nerds. And there was a time, not so long ago, when it was a given that we would be enjoying something that few other people or do. We didn't need external validation. We liked what we liked, rest of the world be damned.

It's an unfortunate side effect of the "normalisation of nerdery" via billion dollar revenue nerd movies and GaaS games that battle lines are drawn because these things are now too big to be enjoyed in a relative vacuum.

I just remind myself of what Little Nerd Me wanted way back then, and how amazing it is that almost all of it has either happened OR been even better than I could have imagined. We got dataslates! Phone watches! Big budget fantasy movies that aren't Willow! Comic book adaptations that aren't just Tim Burton.

They're not all great and none of them are without their problems. But jeeze, nerds are eating so fucking well now and yet it seems all so many of us do is fight over it.

Ugh!

"

exsea wrote:

you know what?

i m fucking addicted to d4 now.

ya its actually a decent game now.


a good item system is fundamental to this game genre. they got the item system so wrong the first 3 times they tried it but eventually they realised that no one in the genre goes it alone. all the other arpgs borrowed ideas from the previous ones items, and they were mostly made by arpg experts, theres no way the guys who made d4 had any chance of just winging a good item system on their own.

so we got massively simplified mods like basic poe rares. they got the greater affix system from last epoch, and then theyve put some twists on it. its what it always should have been.

the crafting is rly good, its got some determinism, some gambling, a chance to brick and a good loop of being able to go out, get a new item and try again within a reasonable time frame.





helltides now are basically the bloodtides from season 2, which were the best content the game has seen. rly enjoy them.

ive got three lvl100 chars in the league so far, excited to make new ones. my friend is a mythic raider in wow so despite not being an arpg vet she likes pushing content a bit from time to time, yesterday we took down the lvl200 uber durial, a lvl100 nightmare dungeon and got the iron wolves 100% completed on one of our characters. ngl we kind of crushed them a bit, esp the lvl100 nm dungeon. weve not pushed pit too hard were somewhere in the 60s atm. games a little easy maybe? i dunno, if i think that then its probably in the right place?

i think D4 is finally at a place now where D3 got to with RoS where theres a lot of stuff thats poorly done in the game. the boss fights are rubbish, mob fights in general are poor, a lot of mechanics in the game dont matter and might as well not exist. like ros its a mess because its performing plastic surgery on a poorly formed original game but its also very playable.

but i put 1000s of hours into D3, thank fk D4 has finally landed, I think theres a good 5000 hours to be had in this game over its lifetime. its a lot less than it could be but its enough to be good fun and worthy of putting in 50+ hours per season.




if we watch the boss fights video ziggy made from act1 in poe2, damn, its pretty obvious poe2 will blow this thing out of the water on almost every front. but when d4 launched i was looking for something i could play as my almost exclusive arpg until poe2 came out and then come back for a week or 2 every new season forever after and i think were there now. thank god for that because poe1 has just run out of track, the genre needed this game to be good.

Took a break to do some work, and now have binged s4 from level 50 to 100 in a day or two. Finished the pass, probably won't do final challenge tier though


Kinda struggling with level 40ish pit and I suspect this may be the soft flurry ceiling but we will see. Goals achieved either way. Might alt. Probably won't.

Helltides are more fun imo thanks to way bigger monster density and lots of minibosses. Either solo or in groups.

The new Pit is basically Greater Rifts 2.0 for leveling items (Master crafting, farming mats for it).

Leveling to 100 is easier than before in Helltides if focussing on it, especially if chain farming Blood Maiden with other people around.

Good way to test different builds this way.

Helltides are kind of a fallback for me now. I am sitting on a bunch of summoning mats and if I am between things I will go spend some for people. I find the Rogue Exiles sorry Hellborne a wee bit unbalanced but eh gotta have something to keep the better builds occupied.

I never played much d3 (because I thought it was shit) so the GRift comparison means little to me. I figure it's a case of if it aint broke, copy it.

But of all the endgame stuff I still like NM dungeons the most. They are the most "Diablo" part of the game for me. The return to solo dungeon dashing with a good but not overwhelming density, predictable enemy types and, for a while at least, a decent reward in the form of glyph leveling.

Even after the cost drop I find myself having to do Whispers for gold. A few harvests and cellars and I am okay but jeeze it's a sink now.

I very much like how gems have been repositioned as high end. They are very strong and should be tough to perfect, pun intended.

World bosses need some love. As much as I appreciate how easily they go down for season tiers, their design is intricate and epic enough to deserve a little more engagement time.

Still can't beat Lilith but otoh I havent really tried to approach her with a character made to beat her. I play for fun and satisfaction, not to overcome some arbitrary challenge made specifically for the type of gamer I am not.

Also most uniques are still crafting fodder. Yet to find one that makes me want to build around it...but that's the price of smart loot I guess. It always assumes you are playing one class to its full potential.

Oh well. Incentive to play other classes...and this is how they get ya


(Fuck I love the look of The Lord Eater one handed sword. But not at that price.)