VideoGame_Discussion

hardcore can be random and there really is no way to super OP. Just be careful and use the death avoid potions.

Sweet.

Just seen the Uber Lilith achievement yikes At first I though that was only in Hardcore mode but apparently you can fight her in "normal mode"

Yeah, she is the end boss of the third capstone dungeon in worst (world) tier 4. She is level 100. You need to be at least level 90 before attempting that fight. I tried at level 65, was not a good time.

Yes. Uber Lilith is worst currently. Gotta be nerfed.

Feeb wrote:

What do you mean by random? I haven't started my hardcore character yet. Wanted to get a regular to 100 first.

Feeb wrote:

On my way to my Diablo 3 plat, Hardcore mode made me want to toss the controller a few times... My first one died at lvl 34 and that did not bother me but I had another that died at lvl 55 and I was just sitting there looking at the screen in disbelief! But it was my Warrior at lvl 68 that really got me. I got hit with a HUGE lag spike and when everything caught up I was dead. I don't think I touched the game for 3 days... started up again after I was reading the Paladin was the way to go, I did and it was pretty smooth sailing and was shocked how easy it was... I then kicked myself for not doing the research first.

How big can your party be in D4? We should play sometime... I probably have a little catching up to do though. I maybe able to get an hour or 2 in tonight depends on how fast my courses go.. I put it off for awhile I have to the end of the month to get them done... I had a year, got 2 done and hammered out 3 yesterday... so I have 12 more to get done by next Wednesday.

Archer wrote:

The biggest factor is which elites you roll- random. For instance- over all of my toons on D4 I got very unlucky and walked into a skeletal wall with the crossbows and an elite inside at around level 12 on rogue. 95% of folks likely done there- not too far but that has been happening with my 30 HC Sorc as well. I also saw a few HC deaths at 30 or for players around / grouped with Oops.

Man, I am having a hard time with my build, too many amazing options!

I recently got a 2h staff that gives 70% bonus damage to immobilized/stunned/frozen. It's insane how quickly I can take down mobs when stunned from my build (big focus on crackling energy/crits/stun) - elites die in 2-3 chain lights. I decided to add in Frost Nova (both as an enchant + skill), and it's pretty fantastic! The bonus damage for one, but also adding vulnerability on top of it.

Problem is, I have to give up a skill. That and I definitely prefer 1h/oh for speed and additional stats/proc's. Still, after comparing both for quite a bit of time, the 2h with the stun/frozen buff is just ... insane, nothing else drpos mobs as fast.

So giving up the skill problem, as of now, I dropped Ice Armor:

- Frost Nova
- Chain Light
- Unstable Currents
- Teleport
- Spark
- Chain Lightning

Thankfully, I have a couple different bubbles that pop with gear, but man, I miss Ice Armor for longer boss fights (haven't yet died though). So far so good, but I don't see a better path forward. Only other option might be to drop teleport instead, which feels insane as that's bread and butter!

Overall, this build feels insanely OP'd. I don't see any better alternative for now to take advantage of stun and frozen.

Just took down Ashava without getting hit, so maybe I really don't need Ice armor, hrm. I'm assuming this will all change as I get higher up ... currently L51.

I finally got a chance to play the last couple of nights, and I’m loving it so far. Right now, I have a Sorceress running a chain lightning/glass cannon build that is risky but fun and a Druid hardcore character with a storm wolf build.

@MrBean are you still on WT2? or have you gone on to WT3?

Archer wrote:

WT2, I'm assuming I open WT3 soon? I think I'm nearing the end ... I haven't looked at what ya need to do to open WT3.

If you’re surviving and they’re dying your build is fine. Until max level I don’t worry about min / max. Even then I don’t care too much unless I’m watching a DPS meter- which is something wrongly focused noobs do.

MrBean wrote:

You have to finish the story and then beat the capstone dungeon that opens up once that is done.

What is the Best Druid build.. I think I am leaning towards being a bear...

Coming back to an ice-shard sorc at level 69 has been so much fun. I stopped using ice and went mostly lightening from like level 13 or 14. And now that I've gotten all this really good ice gear and going back to it feels so good. Its so powerful and so much fun to play. Its nice to change up the play style. Doing the same thing for the rest of the game would have burned me out on the character and I would never made it to 100. Not that I'm there yet. But also can't wait to get there and start a hc druid or necro

Only L53, but my Light/Cold sorc has legit been melting face ... A co-worker told me about the Ice Shards build that's supposedly best in the game. Re-rolled about a half hour ago, it's pretty fantastic, but I don't think I yet have the proper gear (CDR, MCR, RG) to reduce downtime. I'm flying through my mana and waiting for my CD's. My prior build, had very little downtime.

https://maxroll.gg/d4/build-guides/ice-shards-sorc...

Still, I'm kinda digging it, just ... need better gear. I finally just said screw it and dusted like 50 legs that have been taking up space and didn't think I need the asepects on (I'm sure I'll regret it).

Finally got my first epic pieces yesterday. When the heck does Act 1 end lol I only got to play for about an hour off and on.. power kept going out, we had some pretty awesome lightning last night. I am past the Black River, killed one "boss"... I got to be near the end...


*did some reading and I think I need to stop thinking this game is like past diablo games with distinct acts.

Finn wrote:

It has distinct acts, and you will know when you complete one. There are 6 acts and a prologue. And the story is very long compared to past games. It takes like 30+ hours.

Oh ok, dang then I wonder when I wil, get out of this act lol

Finn wrote:

The strange thing is, when you first get to Kyovashad it gives you the first quest for Act 1, 2 and 3. The three story quest it gives you. And you can do them in any order I guess, but the ones for act 2 and 3 are a bit higher level. So if you do them out of order I'm not sure how it handles it. If you open your quest log on the map screen it will tell you what act the story quests belong to.

And after you finish an act you get a small cut sense with a voice over from one of the characters.

Well, I'm officially addicted. Gdamnit. I'm sure I'll burn out soon but purposely overdoing it before FFXVI. Man I want some better gear to support end game builds.

What's best way to grind to 70 for WT4? I'm just OCD all over the place doing everything as I collect lilith statues and redo my build constantly. Only at 56... Need to focus on leveling.

I'm assuming T1/T2 dungeons? I've only got 3 drops so far. Is there a better way to farm these to just keep popping nightmare dungeons?

I'd recommend NM dungeons. 25% more xp as the enemies will be 3+ levels higher than you. Plus you can pop an elixir for another 5%.

But if you really just want to speed it and not enjoying playing the game. Find a group and run dungeons that ways. You get another 10% xp for being in a group. And a group can clear a dungeon in under 45 seconds with splitting up. That doesn't sound fun to me. But its an option if you want to rush to level 70.

I did the 70 capstone at 60 with my sorc. And it was pretty easy. WT4 was a dog for a good while until I got better gear drops. But I leveled up super quick due to the level difference just doing regular open world stuff. I'm currently level 72 and staring to get a bit burned out. I want to get to 100 as I haven't maxed a character in a diablo game since the first. So I might take a break personally. Or maybe only play a couple dungeons or helltide a night for a bit. Personally I think this end game is super stale. They also keep nerfing dungeons to prevent people from leveling up faster.

Maybe everyone else already knew this, but I just realized that you can’t resell Diablo IV, because the disc acts as a license for one account: https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo4/comments/12qt5m3/.... Super disappointing. If I had known that, I would have bought it digitally (and probably also have waited for the price to come down). I love the game, but that’s so shady that there’s nothing on the box to indicate that you can’t sell or trade it used.

^^ I don't know if I believe that? The physical console edition doesn't even come with a cd key. The comments in that thread seem to suggest the OP is wrong, has it been confirmed you can't give a PS5 disc to your friend and have them pop it in their own PS5 and play?

That post is from 2 months ago. The game came out 2 weeks ago. Also it has been confirmed in the comments that it is not true and works like every other disc game in the world.

That's good to know. I couldn't find anything to refute it.

Archer wrote:

RIP Santa. First hardcore toon to die. I’d recommend play through the whole game first or look up boss tactics before you try this mode. It was probably not a good idea to run it blind. I was running two toons concurrently in case of a surprise to prevent too many spoilers from guides- and turns out it was a good idea. The game is very easy except for a few surprise mechanics- and you can get to 50 at least without messing in dungeons or advancing the story too much. So you can avoid the surprises and that random dungeon guy.

I also did not use any build guides etc. pretty intuitive what the builds should be if you read the passives carefully.

I'm finding helltides to be very fun and relaxing in the post game on torment. Just running around killing everything on the map to get a currency to unlock chests. They last for one hour. And the hour flies by. And at level 74 its a decent xp grind as well. Get about a half a level doing it. Which is two more paragon points. Its just too bad they are spread so far apart. They last for hour, and then the next one isn't for 2 more hours.

@Feeb My first hardcore character also became fresh meat. At only level 9. Stupid squishy rouge.

Hitting Butcher mid dungeon on my first HC character in the original beta was super memorable, I was level 17 and managed to get out with like, 3% health left. He was tenacious, and I had to backtrack through 2/3rds of that fudging dungeon to hit the exit. Would have done better but foolishly I thought my homebrew build was gonna make it, two potions in I realized my folly

I’ve seen him a few times but he despawns? Into a pool of goo after I flee for a few minutes. He hasn’t got close enough to pound on me.

Hit 60. I fear the burn out soon. I really wish there was better social/lfg elements. I'd love to quickly join PUGs for dungeons and/or queue up for team based events.

Helltides and world bosses need to happen more frequently too.

This Druid is awful early. Huge end game potential but very hard to gear and talent a quick and survivable efficient start. The sorcerer is pretty much built for just that.

Yeah, I see videos of late game druid play. And I'm like that looks fun as hell. And seems extremely powerful. Then I start a druid. And I nope the fudge out of that real quick. Its slow and boring in the beginning. It takes too long to get fun/good. I also feel the same way about barb and necro.

Little more than a week later... Hit 70. Gdamnit this game is addicting. Getting it all in so I can move to Final Fantasy this week.

Cold sorc is just insane. Have been knocking out T25 dungeons for the last few levels, solo, in about ten minutes. Think it's time to bump up a bit.

I still haven’t finished the campaign.

Hardcore Sorc at 50. Santa the rogue HC died at 30 or so. (Boss of first act- never saw him on screen and did not get behind the barrier- first ever encounter…) I plan to finish campaign and possibly go for 100- sorc just feels so in control at all times- with the pot, fire shield rez and escape scrolls I see very little risk of death with careful play.

Was planning to main a rogue but it is a bit complex for a first run through. Continued with my Druid. Figured it out. Pretty much unstoppable. The butcher made the mistake of walking up on me. Smashed him. Druid has the mount and all zones open and I’m at the part where you pick swamp or something else in the ugly zone.

Normal mode does not feel nearly as fun or intense as HC- for good reason. My HC toon I used all the mechanics and merchants to stay UTD. I have not upgraded anything or used a single gem on my 45 Druid.

If anyone wants to trade pvp kills for the trophy let’s figure it out. I’ve been to the pvp zones a few times and there is always 1-3 Uber asshats there. I’m not leveled or really trying but seems easier just to skip it.

Feeb wrote:

I'd be down to do this sometime. I don't really go to the PVP zones at all. I tend to play with cross play disabled as the game performs better that way. And xbox has the smallest pool of players compared to PC and PS5, so there are not many people ever there anyways.

But I could turn cross play on and we could knock out the 5 kills each and get it done with. I think we can party up go to the zone, then un-party. That way we are guaranteed to be in the same map instance. Then find a spot away from everyone else who may be there and do the kills.

I’d like to do this too. I’m Bleed_DukeBlue on PSN

Feeb wrote:

Are the cross play performance issues confirmed? I've considered turning it off.

Seems to help more with console than PC. Helps with server lag and rubber banding. And with disconnects.

Feeb wrote:

Ehhh, I mean I'm only in the T20x dungeons, but crap can get nuts with the nm dungeon random rolls. So many random explosions ... I rarely die, but when I do, it's the crazy add-ons that the dungeons add.

I can't imagine taking a Sorc to 100 on HC, that's just insane. They're too squishy to survive some of that insanity vs. other classes.

You can die and respawn with the pot in HC and there is a scroll of teleports that warps you to a random spot. You can also die with the fire shield enchant to use the scroll. I don’t think you can do that in regular mode?

I just lost a level 36 hardcore character because the game fudging locked up and then crashed. When I booted it back up I got the fallen character message. Utter bullcrap.

Feeb wrote:

The fire shield doesn't need a scroll for that to work. It just auto rez's you and makes you invunlarable for 2 seconds. Its a perk of the skill. It does it eternal as well.

Archer wrote:

I’m tempted to make a hardcore character but maybe after I’ve beaten the game once. Is there any incentive? Faster leveling or anything? Or just the fun of the tension

Archer wrote:

Correct. That’s an enchantment. There are 2 death mulligans and a scroll of teleport for HC sorcerer. I certainly wouldn’t spec into that in eternal mode.

Shane12m wrote:

Hardcore and eternal at not connected in anyway. So nothing carries over. But the two realms works the same. Anything you unlock in a realm like Lilith statues or the renown bonuses, they apply to any character you create in that realm. But anything you unlock in eternal will not do so in hardcore and vice versa.

I had 2 disconnects with HC so far. One was in a few mobs, I was able to log back in before they killed me. The other was in town.

Assuming you guys rolled an ice shards sorc yeah? Pretty much what everyone ends up doing.

Did you try Umbral (1-4 resource when crowd controlling enemies) and/or Starlight (10-20 resource when healing for 25% health) aspects? If so, preference, and did you notice a worthwhile impact?

My gear/build/stats are all quite good now; however, longer fights (especially with small density), I do occassionally run out of mana. I have no primary basic attack, so untill cooldowns are up, sometimes I gotta run around a bit. Typically only an issue on the really lame/slow events that have a handful of constant small mob spawns and they attack from a distance, super annoying.

I'm thinking one of these aspects may help a bit in conjunction to Prodigy (15-25 resource when using cooldown).

I’m trying out a new build for my Sorceress. I started getting multiple legendaries with buffs to meteor, so I respecced. This build kills a bit less quickly than my chain lightning mage, but is way more survivable. Basically, the idea is that you spam firewall as mobs approach, so that they walk through a field of fire everywhere they go. As they get closer, you group them with inferno and wreck them repeatedly with meteor. I have multiple skills that immobilize them when they are burning to keep them targetable by meteor. Warmth keeps you healing repeatedly, while flame shield and ice shield protect you. For the enhancements, I put a point into fireball so that dead minions explode for half of a fireball’s damage and flame shield for the automatic save from death.

MrBean wrote:

MrBean wrote:

I prefer orbs over shards for survivability and it feels like they freeze way more often. You may want to try to spec into frost bolt - glinting frost bolt as it restores mana per hit for no cost. There is also ice armor passive regen passive. I tried shards when I had a proc from a legendary that made it free and with higher crit chance.

Avalanche (Key Passive): Cold skill damage has a chance of enhancing your next Ice Shards cast, making it cost no mana while buffing its damage by 40%.

Lots of kiting and you must cast bolts to proc it but much less downtime with the shield regen and bolts. This is a hardcore build so I’m trying to stay alive vs DPS though.

I like the ice shards build. I use firebolt enchant and its incredible.

Teleport is also a much better skill than ice nova for kiting / surviving imo. But if you’re pretty confident and have your flame shield enchant, scroll, pot then nova definitely helps with the downtime on the shards.

I run an ice shards/blizzard combo build currently. I never run out of mana.
I have a lucky hit/constant barrier setup to restore mana.
I also have high mana cost reduction and resource regeneration on my items.

I run these aspects:

On my gear everything that can have a lucky hit increase has it. My lucky hit chance is 58%. But increase that by 20% when I have a barrier, which I always do. So the lucky hit to restore mana in the skill tree procs constantly. Its super rare for me to deplete my mana.

I also have increased mana on two items bringing me to a total of 136.
And with having 14 mana per second regen due to resource regeneration on items helps.
Along with 28% reduced mana costs on items.

So lots of re-rolls at the arcane vendor on my items to get what I wanted on them.

I also don't run any of the meta stuff like flame shield or fire bolt for burning damage or any of that stuff. I have a pure ice build. And it shreds. And I'm not a glass cannon. I have major survivability due to constant barriers, inflated armor numbers from the aspect and I have 3000 thorns just in case something does break all that. Plus two skills that provide invulnerable (ice armor and teleport) in case I get crowed controlled.

I am level 79 so I probably have some higher gear with better affixes on them. And my paragon board is three deep currently. But I'm done when I hit 80. Then I'll wait for new content to drop a new world tier. As the grind after 70 is fudging ludicrous currently.

So my loop is I have frost bolt and ice shards as my enchantments. Bolt gives 17% extra chill build up on any skill hit. And ice shards auto shoots ice shards at any frozen enemy for free, no mana cost. So blizzard is my main skill. I use it constantly. I run around dropping blizzards and freezing everything, or killing trash mobs with the ice spikes. Then my free shards auto finish them off and shatter the frozen ones. Ice shards is only really used directly by me on stragglers and elites/bosses. I also use nova when I get rushed by a big mob to instant freeze them. And when facing massive elite mobs or bosses I have ice armor and teleport for backup. I do not run an ultimate skill either. I put as many points as I could into skill tree passives. So my only skills are ice bolt, ice shard, blizzard, frost nova and ice shield. I also have teleport but that comes from my pants that provided +4 to the skill. So I don't have any of its extra perks. All other skill points go into passives and buffs. The paragon board is the only thing I can't explain off the top of my head without looking at the game. But I have the two ice ones. The one that gives you a barrier for chilling an enemy and the other one increases your lucky hit by 1% for every frozen enemy killed. I think that whats it is, its 1% lucky hit for something with ice.

And sorry about the wall o' text.

If it takes that long go hit cap I’m certainly not interested in the seasons. Maybe it’s just a holdover tactic until they nerf the exp.

There better be a cow level...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/1487abz/t...

I've only been playing every few days for half an hour or so... weird thing happened today. I was AFK, talking on discord and I alt tabbed in a part of the map that I had cleared a few minutes ago, and still standing still, I hit level 30. No idea how. It was literally an AFK ding.

DarkFact wrote:

An event might have been cleared and you were close enough to get credit

I started a new HC Necro. I'm having a lot of fun with it so far. Doing a pure minion build. The cosmetics for the necro are miles beyond the crap they did for sorc. Necros look awesome. Everything I unlocked for the sorc looked mid to bad. This may also be the easiest way to survive in HC. So far nothing has been able to get remotely close to me. I'm only level 17. But I have 8 minions at all times. I basically just make sure they are buffed and healed. This may get boring after a bit, hard to say this early in.

Hit 79 with the Sorc, still having a blast. I am not yet sure when I'll be ready for 40 NM dungeons, still hanging in the 30's. Hoping to replace a couple pieces of gear soon.

Super frustrated with this bug ... https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d4/t/this-item-c...

I did a temp aspect to compare some stats and make a rare a legendary, ended up being great. I have a perfect roll I want to use on it, but can't. Won't let me imprint anything now. Appears to be common, fun.

MrBean wrote:

I found that un-equipping said item and putting in my stash. Then logging out of the game and back in. That would let me then imprint over the existing one. But it was 50/50 if it worked. Some times I'd have to do it like 3-4 times and then all the sudden it would work.

However, be aware this only happens when you imprint a sacred level aspect on to an ancestral item. So after realizing this I just stashed all my sacred level aspects or trashed them. So I didn't end up using them.

You should also know, that you can improve some aspects by leveling up the item before ripping the aspect off of it. You can't do this to ones with a flat percent stat (%x). But anything that is a + stat, will increase with item power level. And they increase with your character level as well in your codex. So for example the gain X amount of barrier when hitting an elite every 30 seconds. If you find that on something and its say 4,100 for the barrier. If you level that item up 5 times it will increase to say 4800 on the barrier. Then you can rip. You want to do this because it will not increase in value when leveling up after imprinting. Imprinted aspects do not function the same as base aspects on found gear.

Archer wrote:

I've tried all the little "fixes" that I read on the Blizz post ... none have worked. Just tried yours, no dice.

Stupid.

Just hit level 50 with my HC necro. And now I think I'm done with this until season one drops. I don't think I have it in me to to grind to 100 with my sorc. Getting to 80 was painful enough.

Huge patch:
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo4/23964909/d...

Archer wrote:

What are y’all thoughts on this and the buffs? Im level 19 with rogue but waiting to dive into this after TotK

Shane12m wrote:

I don't really want to post a giant wall of text about it. And I don't have anything positive to say about it after logging in and testing some things.

Archer wrote:

Good. Experience needs a huge buff; especially if the game wants to realize it’s ideal of multiple toons using earned rewards etc.

Feeb wrote:

Its not a "significant" buff like they claim. Its actually a very minor buff. It isn't good enough. No where near where it needs to be. And I think they are doing this minor buff to just to try and placate people until season 1. Because they don't want to hand out the actual xp buff until the season pass bull crap thing where you have to earn the in game currency to buy the fudging xp buff for the seasonal character.

I’m only at 61 so I haven’t hit the wall yet. But no way I’m spending 40-50 leveling time per level.

Druid changes are very positive though. Excited to try those reduced CDs

Didn't fix the imprinting thing eh? lovely. Also, transmog still broken for sorc offhand. Cmon slackers.

Also, really need WT5/6.

MrBean wrote:

A few of the sorc aspects are still broken too. Like the %x more damage with a barrier. That has never worked. There are a couple others as well people are posting about on their official forums.

Archer wrote:

Oh for real? haha, I legit just put that on last night too ...

Yeah. I put it on last night myself as well and didn't realize it until I saw this today (which also links to blizzard forums):

https://www.reddit.com/r/D4Sorceress/comments/14kn...

And then tested it by putting it on an almost identical wand. Same damage with and without a barrier on both wands. One with the aspect and one without.

Really wish we could get damage test dummies to actually experiment/play to see changes.

@MrBean That would be nice. I also just saw a post that said it only doesn't work with your skill barriers, which is what I was testing it with. It says it works with generated barriers. I.e. gain x% of your health as a barrier for doing X action. So I'll have to test that later when I have time. If that is the case, then its still worth continuing to use. As 80% of my barrier uptime at least is from that kind of stuff. But when doing the testing I was just quick popping ice shield.

I just got a whole level and 4 pp in less than an hour. Just world quests and two dungeons. It feels much faster.

Archer wrote:

Does this apply to anything with barrier? I lied, I actually put +lucky hit on with barrier. No clue if it's working or not though.

MrBean wrote:

No, its just the specific one called Conceited. Deal [15-25%]x increased damage while you have a Barrier active.

@MrBean So that aspect does actually work if you are using a barrier that is not a skill barrier. And it is pretty fantastic. I highly recommend adding it if you can/have room. I have it on a 2H staff so its increased to 50%. So while I have a barrier up I do 50% more damage to everything. And I have one about 80% of the time. Almost everything I do generates barrier. Hitting elites, cooldowns, lucky hit.

You guys are making me wish I’d stuck with sorcerer.

ha ... got a new off hand, had to temp fate. Put a sacred aspect on it (+4 ice shard pierce) --- can't reimprint (which is fine, now that it's max).

Hit 83. Got new boots and ammy, hitting pretty hard, little to no downtime. High 30 NM's are getting easy. Think it may be time to hit 40's.

I made the mistake last night of trying to completely respect into a fire sorc. And I hated it. It was so awful. Damage output was so bad. And it just wasn't fun to play either. Then had to go back to my ice build. Wasted something 18M gold. It is crazy expensive to completely re-spec your paragon board when in the 80s. 11K gold per paragon refund. I have almost 200 paragon points. It was ~4M just to refund twice to do the two changes. And then all the re-rolls on alt gear to get fire stats. Who knows how many crafting mats. And wasted some good ripped aspects. Along with around 2 hours of time. Ugh. Could have ran 12 nm dungeons in that time and leveled up instead, lol.

I just found the legendaries and glyph to build the end game I wanted. I’m still cruising so I may hold off to avoid that situation. I’ve been hoarding points and staying close to first slot to avoid wrecking my board in the meantime. I got lucky and found an OP 2 hand axe that’s DPS is about 1000k over anything close - at my level it’s enough to carry me for a long bit.

@Feeb Are you rolling a barb or druid?

@Archer yah, I've heard how painful it is to try out new builds. One of the hugger complaints. It's been a bit but I remember D3 being much more forgiving. Hopefully an area they'll address. At the least, give us a fast way to refund and rework paragon.

Sadly, for now, seems shards is the most viable build right now.

Random fun story. Kept enchanting my boots last night, trying to get movement speed. Got it all way up to 16m in cost... Only to find out it already had speed! Jesus christ. Blew soooo much gold for a stupid mistake (I blame the bottle of wine). I finally found new boots/ammy (my originals both had movement) and after a couple NMs I just felt soooo slow, couldn't stand it.

Archer wrote:

Druid. Doesn’t really open up until glyphs / legendaries. But it gets crazy. Enjoying it so far. I miss the sorcerer and the rogue kills so much faster but I want mindless. It’s definitely simple.

@MrBean I was wrong...

Feeb wrote:

Yeah, end game videos of Druid play looks fantastic. It just takes so long to get going. I might actually roll one for season 1.

@Archer - max on boots and ammy is 26.2% each. I also think you cap out at 150.

My new boots have 16, ammy max. Old were both max. I can't tell any difference loosing that 8%.

Sucks though because my ammy has MCR, not CDR. The +3 devouring and +3 defensive skills are quite awesome. My ammy was my oldest piece of gear (from mid 50s).

Yah, Druids are nuts end game. They seem to be amazing tanks and deal tons of damage. I'll probably role one for s1.

Also I picked up a digital copy on ps5 so I can switch back and forth during Final Fantasy while nto leaving my basement. I jump over for wb/ht.

The controller works crazy well. You know there's no cool down on the horse on Console? Crazy.

Picking crap up and managing inventory with a controller sucks though.

MrBean wrote:


What PS5 has no cooldown for horse? I have one on xbox.

Archer wrote:

? I have ancestral on, shows 15.8-26.2% as possible range.

Archer wrote:

So, I'm clearly a liar or it was just updated in recent patch. Hasn't had a cool down like pc until today. Now it's the same behavior as pc, but who knows, I could just be dumb.

MrBean wrote:

yeah, I'm trying to find info online. I know the in game tool tip says max is 200%.

And I' know I'm over 150, just not by how much. I'd have to boot up the console to see. I may have over exaggerated my amulet amount. But I know each one is at least at or around 25%.

yeah, looks like 26.2 for both is max. Even with 820 items. So even though the game says you can get up to 200%, you can only get up to 152.4. Which is where I must be then. Because I move pretty much as fast as a mount.

Ohhhh interesting... On Console, I can enchant my off hand now?! Weird, unless it just got patched today. Gotta test on PC later.

I don't hate playing on ps5! But the inability to chat sucks. Lack of dual screen for Helltides is a bummer, but can use another device.

I really hate that it plays better on my Playstation than my laptop with a 3070 =(

It does play really well on console with a controller. Just some minor gripes. Like not being able to see all the tooltips. Not able to see your xp for example. And not being able to move things around in your inventory to any slot.

Yah inventory management is definitely painful for sure. It's great for quick runs though overall. I'll always prefer PC for ARPGs but will for sure do some random D4 on PS5.

They really need to get moving on social elements to easier group up. I've passed most of my random clan and not easy to randomly find groups.

I doubt I'll pull it off but would like to be 95+ before season 1. Pretty sure post 100 and one season in..
I'll be burned out and will shelf it for awhile.

I just figured out I am an idiot for not realizing something. And something that hardly anyone how plays an ice sorc has probably realized. And its the reason I was upset about the XP changes. They were actually legit big changes. But not for ice sorcs.

Freezing and then killing an enemy prevents the adds that would normally spawn from them. So you lose out on a big chunk of XP. So anyone playing an ice sorc will gain less xp for playing the class as the class is intended to be played. Freezing things and then killing them.

I tested this by running two of the big NM dungeons. One that has mostly spider mobs. And one that does not. Aulderwood (no spiders, mostly animals and werewolves) gives you ~1.8M per run. Meanwhile something like say Guulruhns (mostly spiders, some zombies) will only give you ~990K per run. Yet if you run Guulruhns without freezing all the spiders, so they actually spawn more spiders. You will get ~2M. So all other classes are getting more XP on average in most NM dungeons. Because a lot of enemies have extra spawns. But if you freeze them before killing, no extra spawns.

So just an FYI for anyone running an ice sorc on here. Don't freeze every mob for almost double XP gains. Or just run non mostly spiders NMD for best results.

That seems very substantial

Finished my Druid pulverize build. And… wow. This is so much more fun and efficient. I’m not sure I can die anymore. Lol.

@Feeb Is it as fun to play as it seems to be in videos?

Hit 90. Debate rolling a Druid but seems silly with Seasons around the corner. You have to create a new toon for the season right?

Good little write up on Sorc issues. I do hate being stuck with one build but overall, I'm a killing machine. With proper play, uptime is insane and I typically clear faster than other classes. We definitely need some love though. The armor stats were surprising.

https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo4/comments/14ldwvp/...

Archer wrote:

Pretty fun but it’s such a grind I think anything will become boring in this game.

I feel like I’m carrying the world boss fights now. I’m like the only one alive, got the aggro and can see my damage coming off it’s that high. It feels like tanking in wow at this point.

MrBean wrote:

Yeah you have to start a new one for the seasonal content. So I'm not rolling a new character until the new season either. As its like 1-2 weeks away. They are supposed to announce early next week when it will be dropping. According to a tweet by one of the dev team yesterday.

I haven't tried the rogue class yet at all. I'm saving it for season 1...

Quest tracking is a mess. There is currently a way to see quest chains completed that give in game achievements- otherwise there is no way to tell if you’ve done a certain quest. 4-5 quests per zone launch from loot- which is usually very generously dropped- but watch out for those blue item names. I’d advise you DO NOT DROP quests- only grab them if you’re ready and especially grab ones in the field far from warps- some of them do not have a visible symbol on the map to launch or with multiple quest chains.

I managed to 100% steppes but I stopped one quest chain midway and basically had to retrace my steps to find an NPC with a tiny ! Over him that did not show on map. I have worked on a few other zones but am short a handful of unknown quests.

Definitely room to improve.

Yeah, only being able to have 20 active side quests is dumb in an open world game. Especially when there are over 200 side quests in the game. And the fact there is no completed quest log either.

Oh crap, congrats on 22 years you old fart @Feeb

Archer wrote:

22 years seems like yesterday. Thanks.

Who are seasons for? Obviously it’s for the hardcore players no? When the season is over do any of you plan on using that character still since you can’t use them for the next season? Will you still use one or more of a class you’ve made continuously that does not participate in the seasons?

My thought is that I don’t want a character that I would only use for 3 months and then never touch again, but like I said this is for those that plan to make this there main game for the long term and would get tired of playing one character for too long.

Shane12m wrote:

Seasons are mainly for people who main the game . But also for anyone who wants to jump back in after some time has passed.

Each season will bring new content. When each season is over, that content is moved to the enteral realm. The main game. So you don't have to make a new character to play that season if you don't want. You can come back when say season 2 starts, and experience the content from season 1 on your already late game character that you are currently playing now.

Also seasonal characters get moved to the eternal realm after the season ends too. So you can use that character for later end game stuff that gets added later as well. They don't have to be one and done per season.

I personally plan to roll a new character for season 1, with a new class. And then see from there. That might just be the end of my Diablo 4 for the rest of the year. Who knows. And then I'll come back at some point next year and see where the game is at. Or I might wait until the official expansion drops. It just depends on how much new content they are adding in seasons. How much stuff is changing gameplay wise. And how they handle the balance fixing. How much of the broken stuff they are fixing. The game has already gotten very stale to me. So I'm waiting to see what gets added in season 1.

Archer wrote:

That was a very good explanation thanks. So basically if I’m not in a rush to do the season 1 stuff I can do it later when it ends with my current character

Also each season has cosmetics and unlockable you can earn in it. I'm purposely not really playing a Necro and a Rogue planning to play them in future seasons myself.

Just hit 100, weeee.

Went to go get my supposedly awesome 2k hp necklace, got absolute crap rolls - lowest possible HP @ 1191, son of a b.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqThGWh0I7c&t=37s

Grats! I just finished up all of the side quests and truly started to grind repetitive stuff. This is very rough. I got to 76 just completing it and doing endgame stuff that was in my path. Most of my gear is already 800 - not much loot coming.

I’ve been “farming” the butcher. I’ve found that he is in the cultists refuge pretty often. I have used a nightmare dungeon level 20+ and he’s been in there 3 out of 6 times. Maybe really good luck? He’s always in the first area where you have to kill all mobs about 1/2 way through. You can see his symbol on the map (horned elite skull) and get prepped. Sometimes you’ll hear him yell “fresh meat” when you enter a dungeon- that means find him. I’ve probably killed him about 10 times and got two cleavers, but no mount trophy yet. If he’s vampiric / heals on hit- good luck.

Feeb wrote:

NMD's as a group, are definitely best bet. Sadly, I didn't learn about the whole dungeon reset thing until like L95. Doing this on the Burrows, absolutely the most effecient way to XP grind. Poor yourself a drink or two, throw on some tunes, get a few folks that can clear fast ... and legit it goes crazy quick.

MrBean wrote:

The only problem with the reset glitch to just get xp is you are not leveling up your glyphs for completing the dungeon. Which is handicapping yourself. As that is where your real power comes from at those levels. Which will make it much harder for you to beat uber Lilith. The only thing you can do at level 100 currently. So now you still have to go back and grind out those NM dungeons to level them up if you plan on fighting her. Which is why the grind to 100 is such a joke. It takes so long to get to 100 and have your 4-6 glyphs be level 21.

Archer wrote:

Negative, only one peson doesn't get to level the glyph, so you take turns.

Of my 5 glyphs in use, 4 are at 21, last one is at 17.

As for Uber Lilith. Looks like there's a super easy/cheap way to take her down with a Blizz build. May require some change in gear/aspects ... not sure I care to be honest. I'm pretty well spent on the game for now.

My build only uses 3 glyphs now. But it’s not a viable Lilith killer.

MrBean wrote:

Oh, I don't think I've seen a method where you actually complete the dungeon. All the ones I've seen is just running the first objective over and over on an infinite loop.

Archer wrote:

Yah, I saw this once back in the 80's as well, everyone left. I only ran with them for like an hour and never went back to it. Yet just this week I got in a group that was having one person drop and the other 3 of us went and killed the boss - got the glyphs. They were just rotating who dropped.

I don't know If I fully understand how it worked, but my god was it fast!

They buffed the completion xp so I think it’s more efficient to finish them now?

haha, Necro isn't broken AT ALL ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S7fAdrl_fM

Feeb wrote:

doubt it. The effeciency of a quick group that can clear all mobs and quickly reset, when you have a great affix role ... much faster than randomly popping around throughout dungeons.

I think that’s true for single player. Your exp buffs for party are way better. And you’re much faster clearing it.

Feeb wrote:

No, the resetting concept is for party (you can do it with either). The minor additoinal xp you get by killing the boss, is vastly minimal compared to popping into random dungeons with crap affixes. Once you get a good roll for a high 40's/low 50's of Burrows, with a group of 4, you can clear it in a few minutes. 3 of the 4 get to kill the boss and you rotate. There's truly no faster way to level (that I've heard of anyway).

Oh. So I need to just clear mobs in a regular WT IV run instead of finishing NM runs? I’ve been doing this wrong. Not for too long though.

No, you need to be doing NM to get the higher xp. Regular dungeons only give like 25% of what a NM dungeon gives you per enemy kill.

For a solo player, you are doing the best thing aside from a glitch to loop the mob xp. It just takes a lot longer doing solo than in a group. You can also do the reset trick of a good NM dungeon solo. But without killing the boss. You get a good sigil, activate the dungeon. Go into the dungeon. Only kill a few enemies. Wait a full minute, then leave and go to a regular dungeon. Complete the first full objective of that regular dungeon. Then leave and go back to the NM dungeon. Do the first full objective of the NM Dungeon. Leave the NM dungeon. Wait 10 seconds and go right back into the NM dungeon. The first objective has now reset and you can run it again for the higher level xp mobs. However, as I said earlier this prevents you from leveling up glyphs. This is what I thought he was doing in a group. But they were doing another exploit to re-run the same dungeon after beating the boss over and over. And when you are in a group you clear it 20x faster, and get a huge xp buff on top of it.

No matter how you look at it, solo is 1/4th speed of a group of 4 players.

Also the xp from the NM dungeon comes from the mobs, not the boss. Beating the boss only gives from 120K-300K depending on tier level. The real XP comes from the mob clears. That can get you 1.8M-2.5M depending on dungeon for a full clear.

Is it not better to level asap and then do glyphs? Doesn’t the reward scale?

Never do regular dungeons, all nightmare.

Sadly I did 90% of my leveling solo. Absolutely better as a group no matter what. Sucks that we don't have a lfg system/channel, anything... I joined a random clan and occasionally would have people around my level to party with.

That would be a preference I guess.

The glyph xp is based on the tier of the nm dungeon you complete. Not your character level.
So the higher you are, the higher you can push, the more xp you get. But, just because you are level 95 because you did an xp exploit solo doesn't mean you are able to push higher tier dungeons. Because you are weaker than someone who didn't. But this may also be class specific. The sorc absolutely needs those glyphs. otherwise we are just completely fudging garbage. I can't speak for other classes though

wow that table came out awful, so here is a link to site with better visual of the xp per nmd teir:
https://www.icy-veins.com/d4/news/paragon-glyph-xp...

Nerf hammer inc.

Another Ole Gregg horse. Yay.

Sounds like the first 15 minutes or so of this upcoming stream is going to be about the mobile game, immortals. Which I have zero interest in personally.

Archer wrote:

I’ve never tried it. I remember the launch with the person who paid huge money to be a god and said it’s pay to win etc.

Yeah I remember there being massive backlash about it when it was announced and then released. I've never checked it out either. I just can't bring myself to play mobile games. I also don't like f2p games. Because they only make money on transactions, so its just pushed in your face to spend spend spend. Fudge that.

First season starts two weeks from today, 7/20.

Also new patch coming later today.

Just got through the stream. Slightly underwhelmed. Biggest take away is they haven't addressed the level locking issues or stash in season one. So curious what this "next big patch" that is supposed to drop here shortly is going to address.

-Once you have completed the Campaign, any Seasonal character will start the game with:
The option to skip the Campaign.
Your Mount available immediately.
All previously discovered Altars of Lilith unlocked, and the corresponding Renown for them.
All previously discovered areas of the map revealed, and the corresponding renown for them.-

Nice. Maybe I’ll roll that rogue over. She’s stuck about 1/3 into campaign. Rough.

Feeb wrote:

You can do all of that now, sans the map revealed.

Archer wrote:

BUT ... they'll have more crap to buy in the store! Because, you know, that's clearly more important than fixing crap.

@Feeb Yeah its nice they are doing that cross realms. Currently that stuff only applies to the current realm. Minus the story skip and horse. That is how it already works. But the renown going cross realm is nice for the seasonal stuff. But you can skip the story now with your rouge if you want.

MrBean wrote:

Look at all this horse armor we have for $20 a pop! Buy now!

WHAT!? ONNLLLY $20!? SIGN ME UP!

for real, I'm fine with microtransactions, I absolutely partake ... but the cost is fudging absurd and stupid. I get that ya gotta capture reoccuring revenue on a game that's free, but I feel like there are better ways to sell more, at a cheaper price.

Honestly, bring back the RMAH. It was ahead of its time. Microtransactions and pay to win are everywhere. Hell, there's a whole ecosystem around 3rd party for Diablo since 2 ... 3, 2r, and 4 all have sweat shops profiting off the game. I don't understand why Blizzard won't take 10% and simply let the gamers buy/sell/trade in a sanctioned environment.

Oh well. I love Diablo, and I'll still play in time, but I think I'm largely burnt out for awhile. I go hard on these games all the time, then walk away for awhile.

D4 has the potential to be amazing, but it still needs a lot of balancing, QoL enhancements, and a real end game.

Yeah, I'm not touching the game for the next 2 weeks. I'll jump in for season 1 again with a new character. But I'm done for now. Have been for a couple days. Playing other things when I have time. And getting caught up on some TV shows. I also went too hard too fast with this game.

MrBean wrote:

Well yeah. I’m just glad it’s going to roll over and not make us start from scratch. It’s much more fun rolling the toons with all the extra skill points and paragons at 50. Plus the leveling is much faster with the tree already open.

Archer wrote:

I didn’t know I could skip if the toon is already started. I’ll check that out. But right- the HC stuff didn’t carry over and Vice versa.

Feeb wrote:

Yeah, you do it on the character select screen. If you look over on the right hand side after selecting a character (but not loading into the world) there will now be three buttons for any character in the story. Skip story, change world tier and delete character.

Ok. Cool. I only noticed it when I made new toons. 🤦🏻‍♂️

A new toon that can be power leveled via NMDs might be fun to hop right into the season. Sadly my rando clan is super casual. I think I'm one of four that hit 100.

I’ve seen where folks are getting to 50 in less than an hour and getting T4 with a high level friend - just stand in the capstone and let them clear it.

Can't do that at the start of the season though. Everyone in the season starts over at level 1. You could do that a month into the season.

Man, just got home. Missed out on the Shako bug, damnit!!

Archer wrote:

Nein. People will hit 70+ after a couple days... Then you just leach off them.

I always forget about those people who only play video games 24/7. Also fudge Blizzard and their anti-fun policies.

I knew there was a drop rate issue when I saw the note and disabled uniques for a day. Kicking myself for not jumping right into hell tides because I felt like this might happen. Uniques are dropping like crazy for me in NM runs though.

Feeb wrote:

The thing is though, the 6 ultra rare ones like shacko were dropping in hell tides, and those ones were not supposed to. So hundreds of people got them. And that made blizzard angry that people got fun uniques to use. So they disabled them completely to fix the issue. They don't care about the other uniques. Because those ones are all worthless.

Archer wrote:

Does an ultra rare have any other marking or item level / drop level range etc? If I got one and it looked liked ass for a Druid I recycled it. I’m level 80.

Feeb wrote:

I have no idea personally about special markings or sounds they make on drop. You can only get them from enemies that are level 85 or higher. And their drop chance is insanely low. Like ludicrously low. So if you are not playing content at the level you would never of even had the chance for them to drop. And they are so rare that only a handful of people had ever gotten them since launch. Like before yesterday only 20 or so had dropped world wide. Until yesterday when one specific one started dropping like candy. So they disabled them all.

You can see them here:
https://maxroll.gg/d4/wiki/uniques

Listed as uber unique.

Yeah I’m only just running NM with 85-86 mobs. The unique I see are the same junk over and over.

Feeb wrote:

Same ... we went to the drive-in last night, and the crazyness was over by the time we got home, damnit!

A shako woulda been nuts.

I have no idea what a shako is but that’s my cats name.

Feeb wrote:

Didn't play much D2? Actual name is Harlequin Crest, Shako (if memory serves) was the base version of the helm in D2.

In D4, it's an insane helm ... + 700-1400hp, 4-10 cooldown reduction, 5-12 resoure generation, 20-28 all stats, 10-20 damage reduction ... and +4 to all skills.

I played it at launch in 2000 and was done with it before the Druid was added. I did play the hell out of it early. I’m thinking of messing with the new ps5 version.

I just googled it. I’m not crapting you I think I have that in my box. It was lower level and I saved it for rogue. I remember the plus four to all stats and thinking “meh.” I’ll check when I get home. I definitely remember the design as well.

Feeb wrote:

In D4? It only drops at 85+.

Its not +4 to all stats. Its +4 to all SKILLS. Everything in your skill tree gets 4 points. Its a massive game changer for every class.

That’s what I’ve been told. Is there another with the model? I remember thinking it was a beak mask.

Archer wrote:

Yeah I definitely didn’t find that. Basically full leveled by one item.

I think shako is one of only 2 or 3 uniques that doesn't share a design/art work with another item.

Archer wrote:

Potato potatoe, you know what I meant, haha. Yah it's just nuts. I'm sad that I was not able to play while it was happening. Yet one of my co-workers saw it as it was happening live on Twitch and he hit the hell Tides hard and still got nothing so it's still completely random during its time it was just massively better than what it is now.

Man, D2R feels terrible to play after playing D4. Like, that game did not age well. This release should have been a full on remake. Because this remaster is not playable on console. It feel bad to play in every way. What a waste of money.

Archer wrote:

haha, timing ... I actually went back into D2R/D3 today myself.

I thought the same thing about D2R, it just feels old. Yet when it first came out, it felt fantastic. Nostolgia ran rampant with it at the time. I primarily played on PC, but I did play on Playstation a bit. Been a bit, but It did play quite well on console if memory serves.

It's still a great game though. I'd love to revisit it as I heard there's been some new content (Terror zones?), but I doubt it's enough to go back and not farm the same crap over and over and over.

MrBean wrote:

I mean yeah it runs fine. But the inventory management, the UI/menus its all so so bad on a controller. I bet its fine on PC. But even then I couldn't probably get past how dated it feels.

D2 always sucked imo. It’s what started the current endless grinding ways of blizzard. Big departure from the couch coop arcadey feel of the original. Ran through it with each launch class with roommates and never went back.

I thought the remaster played great on console and I had fun with it

Can we start a guild or whatever here? I haven’t looked at it at all. But sounds like something we could do and blast stuff.

Yeah, you could make one in game and post the details here.

@MrBean Hey you have D4 on PS4/5 and PC. Can you be logged into your account on both platforms at the same time? I'm assuming not. But have you tried that? Because if you can be (and able to play with yourself on the other platform), you could power level your own alt.

Archer wrote:

Unfortunately no, kicks ya out.

Helm in box is a crapty Druid unique. Pretty sure I saw the shako looking at trophies for D2 res likely. I don’t do much extracurricular reading on this so I thought I’d seen it in game. I think they drop from 85 mobs but you must be 65? to use them. NM tier 31 and on?

I haven’t seen butcher in a long time. Found a horse that looks like cow pattern- no idea where it dropped. Levels are zooming by now.

I finally found my frostburns today, makes such a huge damage difference on my ice sorc.

brian9824 wrote:

Fists of Fate is where it's at!

So a week of being 100 ... I've still gone relatively hard.

I have a piece of 94, and 92 gear ... everything else, high 70's to mid 80's.

This is just annoying and stupid. The grind is completely pointless when you spend days getting absolutely nothing worthwhile to use as an upgrade.

Not to mention, Druid/Necro are just absolutely shamming Sorc on DPS. Sorc is in need of way too much love to want to continue playing it for now.

I'll check out S1 for a bit, but thinking it may be time to move on for awhile.

Are druids mainly doing the shocky wolf crap? They’re all over now. I highlighted mine green (options accessibility) only I see it but hulk smash.

What item level is max? Right now?

Item level is not important. It doesn't matter at all. Ignore it.

The only thing that matters is getting ancestral gear (item power 725+) with top rolled affixes. The affixes are what matters. You of course want them to be close to 800 for higher raw damage numbers and armor numbers. But that is it.

The item level is on there to lock the item to a level on a character. That is all it does. It doesn't do anything else.

And the item power doesn't mean anything past 725 really either. That is the last tier for affix ranges, the best they can be in terms of max affix numbers. So trying to go for item power 820 gear doesn't mean anything. It wont do anything. As the affixes on them are exactly the same as 725 item power items. The only item that this would actually effect is your weapon. As an 820 weapon will have base raw damage higher than a 780 power item. But the affixes are the same. They wont get any better. And on armor, the armor amount is so minimal its not worth it. Like 10 armor points. Big whoop.

This is why everyone is complaining about the end game. Once you hit level 75-80 there isn't really anything for you do in terms of loot grinding. The loot grind just isn't there. I didn't change a single piece of my gear after something like level 82 (currently level 94, which is something like 12-15 hours of game play). As at that point I had close enough to as best as I could for my build. That picking up loot and looking at the numbers was just a waste of time. Trying to find another item that had a .2% increase to get max on a roll was just stupid. And on top of that it had to have 3 of the 4 rolls the same. Which is super rare. So. Loot needs works. They clearly didn't intend people to play an end game grind with this. Its clearly made to restart over with many new characters. And never dwell on one character past say level 70 or so.

I’m likely geared as well as possible already then. I don’t think I have a wasted affix but I have a few lower rolls. I’d like to find a new unique chest because it looks like the rolls are pretty low. Otherwise I’m set.

Are the bind to account items still bond in equip?

No, its when the item drops. Or when you re-roll an affix or add a legendary aspect to a non legendary item. There is no trading in this game. The only things that can be traded are the things no one would want to trade.

Archer wrote:

Well to be fair good rolled rares are quite valuable.

Archer wrote:

I meant can you wear / use one item with multiple toons. Like in wow.

Does this work without logging in?

Holy crap, I put in 183 hours with starting two weeks late? Wow, that's a problem.

What's really sad is that I totally should have been on when the Shakos were dropping. Ugh. Never gonna see that again.

https://d4armory.io/?account=68279480&hero=e7aa636...

Feeb wrote:

Yes and no. The item is locked at the level you were when you found it. So the other character will then need to be that level to use it.

No butcher sightings this week. Probably close to 100 runs without one.

NM completion rewards and treasure goblins have been my best source of good drops by far. The hellfire chests are usually lower level junk or the same unique (I have a box full of unique hands) I’ve found some insanely high aspects but they are super rare? I’d recommend researching the aspects for your class and be alert- store those things if you may one day respec etc. NM dungeons - even solo- are 100% best experience. I try to stay at least 3 levels over my current.

And holy crap everyone is playing a Druid right now. Sorcerers and Barbarians are going extinct.

I did my nm dungeons 10 levels above me as a sorc all the way till the end. Cleared most in 5-10 minutes, crapty affix may take longer. Sorc is legit broken but smart play and good gear, still pretty sweet.

Mixed bag for me on gear. Dungeons, Helltides and gambling, I'd say pretty even split... Maybe a slight lean towards gambling.

I’m keeping it around 3-5 because supposedly the diminishing returns are not worth the added time. It’s definitely pretty easy. Maybe I’ll try a few way up there.

Found the butcher 4 times in NM last night! Got him to about 1/16 and ran out of pots evaded the first time. Got one shot the next two. The last one was not taking any damage so I evaded. He had shield and heal on hit it looked like. My days of harassing the NM butcher are done it seems. Build is not scaling well - resource is out often and they’ve caught up to me. I’m level 95 so only one more patch of magic nodes before it’s all a gear issue. Not much room to improve there. I’m collecting gear for a respec to whichever wolf doesn’t get nerfed to hell this week. I did try Uber Lilith - lasted about 30 seconds. No damage to her. Why do they let you step in there before 100? Lol.

I got an Xbox Series X for my living room yesterday and I got Diablo IV with it. Am I late to the party? I’ll be honest, I just wanna wreck crap with it. What’s some advice I’d be better off knowing before I jump in? Any ideas for builds, classes, etc.? I don’t know a lot about the series, but I played Diablo III through and I don’t remember anything about the story but I remember it was really fun. I tried reading through this topic but hot damn there’s a whole lot here. I appreciate any advice I can get before I boot it up. Thanks in advance!

Pulverize Druid. It’s a werebear that hulk smashes everything. Pretty easy builds and fun as hell.

Made this if anyone interested. I can promote anyone to leader that wants to do it.

image

Druid it is. Thanks!

Anyone wants to trade pvp kills for the achieve hit me up- Bradbo#1304 is BT. PSN is NatasboB.

If not I’ll go harass noobs in WT 1 I hate to do it.

Feeb wrote:

Use local co-op since you are on console. Crazy fast and easy to do. Its what I did. If you have a second controller that is. Turn on the second controller while you in game. Not the menu but actually playing your character. You will then see a hit start to join game for P2. You can use another profile or guest. Once you create a character for this controller then just go to the PVP area. Go right outside of the town in the area so you are close to run to the statue to absolve as you have to do that between kills. You just go into the radial menu and mark yourself. Kill them. Run back into town and use the statue. Then run back to them and rez them. Activate pvp in the menu again and repeat. Took me like 4 minutes.

I’ll mess around with it for a bit and then do that if it’s stupid. These dudes are geared and spec’d to the max out here.

Archer wrote:

Yikes. You gotta have two ps logins and two Battle.net logins to do this.

Feeb wrote:

I didn't realize that. I already have another profile on my xbox, my nephew's account. And he has a blizzard/bnet account because he plays Overwatch. So I just signed into his account on the other controller. Didn't even think about needing all that for it to work.

I just went into PvP zone for 10 minutes and easily got it. Mayhem on there. I also instantly looted an ancestral axe on my next NM that looks very PVPish that I’ve not seen yet. Seems like a strange coincidence.

And then the same axe was the reward at end of NM run… waxing gibbous it’s called. Mighty big coincidence

Just grouped with a bone spear Necro for Uber Lilith kill. It is so broken. Got the plat on ps4 and 5.

I'm reading the massive patch notes for the season update. And I can not believe how dumb these devs are. I'm not even going to bother checking out the season now.

Did you guys get the deluxe / season pass edition? I would jump in if I had it probably.

Archer wrote:

I glanced at them and didn't see anything to crazy, looks like a few changes to the most OP build interactions mostly, didn't see many nerfs, and saw lots of improvements, but they are still lacking in some important QOL and balance issues.

What part of the patch notes did you think were dumb out of curiosity?

Seems silly that they are making quite a few changes to keep Uber Lilith stupid hard. Nerfing the builds that are honestly useless outside of her and making the group / carry not reward fully. I was expecting this and after spending quite a bit of time and gold respeccing to fight her I just got in a group with a cheese build. It’s a broken boss with an achievement tied to it on consoles that is not obtainable by most classes without a cheese, dozens more hours farming, tons of gold, days of trying etc

I probably only tried it wholeheartedly about 30 times over 3 days but it wasn’t happening with pulverize- and I felt that nerf was coming for shred- it did.

brian9824 wrote:

I mean, did you really read the patch notes? Everything was nerfed. They clearly have no idea how to address the balance issues in the game. Nor do they understand why people think the older games are fun to play.


Level scaling inside dungeons and most overworld territories has been adjusted in World Tiers III and IV. Monsters will begin to trail behind the player in Level after a certain point (up to a maximum of 5 Levels behind).
World Tier IV Example (this means far less xp for killing things in dungeons and the open world):

If the player’s Level is below 75, the monster’s Level is 75.
If the player’s Level is 76-80, the monster Level is 75.
If the player’s Level is 81, the monster’s Level is 76.
If the player’s Level is 82, the monster’s Level is 77, etc. (from this point the monsters will always be -5). A.K.A. No reason to kill anything in the open world now. Because you'll get 25% less experience for your effort.


We are adjusting bonus experience rewards for killing monsters that are a higher Level than the player. (this is a major nerf to xp gains for NM dungeons after they finally gave us a buff to them to make them worth playing)

Pre-Season of the Malignant bonuses:
1 Level higher: +15%.
2 Levels higher: +20%.
3+ Levels higher: +25%.
Post-Season of the Malignant:
1.5% bonus per Level up to 10 Levels.
Ex:
+1 level: +1.5%.
+2 levels: +3%.
+10 levels: +15%.
So when you ran a NM dungeon 3 levels above you or 20 levels above you, you were getting a 25% increase. Now 3 levels above you has gone from 25% to 4.5%. WTF. And now a 10 level higher is only 15% increase. Why not just drop WT5 with higher level monsters and a higher XP gain across the board. Like what in the actual fudge is their thought process on this stuff. Its anti player, anti fun, anti progression. No one wants to grind this game out for hundreds of hours because the loot is so bad. And there is so much down time between combat. So they decided to make level progression slower?


The Tortured Gift of Mysteries chest has had its cost increased to 250 Aberrant Cinders from 175.

First they buff the drops, then walk them back because people were getting "too good of drops". Then they increase the cost of the only chest that is worth your time. Instead of making all the other chests viable to open.


Removed a 20% chance to drop extra equipment item from Elite monsters outside of Nightmare Dungeons and Helltide. - Why? Instead of fixing how crapty the loot dropping system is they are just removing the places you can get extra drops from.


Strength: 50% Stronger when on Weapons -> 25% Stronger when on Weapons.
Dexterity: 50% Stronger when on Weapons -> 25% Stronger when on Weapons.
Intelligence: 50% Stronger when on Weapons -> 25% Stronger when on Weapons.
Willpower: 50% Stronger when on Weapons -> 25% Stronger when on Weapons.

All builds with a weapon stat were just cut down by 25%. Meaning all your damage just got nered across the board on every build of every class. Because of course everyone stacks their main damage stat on their weapon for the buff.


Cooldown Reductions: Reduced by ~30% - All builds are now back to being resource management time sinks in late game. Even after farming to target those affixes to reduce your cooldowns so you can use your skills without having to wait so long. Well, not anymore.


The real kicker is in how dumb they are though is this:
Critical Strike Damage: Reduced by ~17%
Vulnerable Damage: Reduced by ~40%
Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies: Decreased by ~30%

The three things you are required to have to even be able to kill anything end game, gets nerfed. Across the board for everyone. They are taking away the damage output making every attack and skill weaker via all sources. But refuse to increase mob density to make playing the game fun. Instead of fixing the issues with certain builds that exploit combination of things to get crazy high damage numbers. They are hurting everyone and making everyone weaker. All because two classes have balance issues with certain skills, that interact with vuln and crit in an odd way. Yeah, that makes sense.


So to recap, and without touching on any of class specific nerfs, they nerfed everyones damage across the board. Reduced xp gains to make the slog more of a slog. And are trying to prevent people from target farming loot. And didn't do anything to the horrid loot drop setup. Didn't address how bad the mob density is in 95% of the game. Didn't address how flawed affixes are, or re-rolling them.

I am 100% convinced they do not play their own game. Its like they don't really have any idea how to fix all the complaints they are getting about the actual game play. Either that, or they want this to be a GaaS game like Destiny 2. Were they expect people to just keep paying them money for a mediocre experience with false promises of it getting better down the road.

It’s bad. I’m glad I went ahead and hit 100. Loot honestly becomes a chore and mostly irrelevant outside of cosmetics / horse crap and that small chance for a better unique. It’s just a trip to the vendor to clean up bags to loot more trash. I started dodging gems after hitting the top tier- so what 25 levels? It’s like they just left 30 levels of empty content that was meant to be tier 5-6. The only true end goal seemingly Lilith or NM 100 is still mostly not reachable

Feeb wrote:

I do, but the season pass stuff is dumb. I'm pretty sure its just cosmetics. It doesn't unlock the xp stuff or any of that. At least I'm pretty sure it doesn't.

EDIT: yeah just looked it up. You just get more cosmetics in the paid vs the free.

.... sweet, sounds like Season 1 is super awesome and completely a waste of time to just wait it out until they figure their crap out

Sounds like a plan to me, have plenty of other stuff I need to play anyway!

The mobile game is pretty fun actually. Just tried it.

Helltide is even more useless now. Wow.

Feeb wrote:

Immortals?

MrBean wrote:

Yeah. Loaded it up on my phone / backbone. It’s pretty cool.

Edit: Ok it sucks. Just the classes are from D3. It’s silly swipey touchey junk.

https://maxroll.gg/d4/news/diablo-4-patch-1-1-0-fo...

The simple fact that it seems like leveling will be massively slowed down, big turn off. I spent too much damn time hitting 100 on the first round. Will wait to see what realistic times look like going forward.

MrBean wrote:

It also depends on how significant this is. NM dungeons might be best for gear, whispers for xp, etc.

NM dungeons are 100% best for everything imo. I received one of every unique as a reward at least once. And the cow horse.

Helltides feel like a waste of lots of time- even knowing exactly where the mystery chest is using the online maps. The treasure goblins in helltide are much better to farm for gear chance.

In general try to find events, clear it , port to town, come back and try to do it again. Especially do this in helltide. If you see an event in a NM absolutely do it. Those are possibly the biggest exp chunk fast if you can do it efficiently.

Feeb wrote:

Sounds like that is what they are trying to fix though, so that other things are more balanced. I'll be playing the season and unlocking the rewards but not going to crazy. haven't played Druid, Rogue, or Necro as i've been saving them for the seasons to give me something new.

I like to play D4 while watching TV and doing other stuff so i'm sure i'll have fun with it

They made it way more beneficial to play the NM dungeons if I’m understanding correctly. The rewards are still there but better and mob exp is universally nerfed. They’ve made the helltide harder and rewards require longer to acquire. They’re pushing you to do the NM it seems- which honestly you should until you’re satisfactorily geared. Question is- for what? What to do after you’re geared etc but max your level and bang your head on the Uber boss?

Feels like PVP may be the only part with longevity right now.

You guys ready to SLLLLOWWWWWW DOWNNNNNNN

I get that Vulnerable was way too powerful, but you'd think they could have ...buffed up other stuff. Very strange, you usually don't see ARPGs going out of their way to help their userbase kill crap slower and level up less quickly end to end. Very strange design choice to, as they said, "enable way more builds" by disabling most the others.

Ominous how they’re preserving the grind to cap and Lilith. Like that’s the plan.

Get the good reviews out of the way, wait for the playerbase to sink a ton of time into the game, then lay the groundwork to offer a way to pay to make the game less of a grind. Classic GAAS strategy.

Blizzard has scheduled a town hall to address backlash over patch. Overwhelmingly negative reception and inevitable bleeding off of player base.

Anyone actually playing the season? I haven't touched the game in about 2 weeks or so. And I'm not seeing anything positive about the season thus far. Thinking I may just shelf this for the long haul until next year, like season 3 or 4.

I decided to uninstall it. I’d like to max every class but I’m not touching it until they at least revert most of the changes. Supposedly some patch fixes in a week? And some not much later? Burned out mostly so I’d need a pretty good reason to return.

I am, some of the malignant hearts are really cool on my necro build, auto triggering corpse explosion and grasping tendrils when i walk by corpses, auto casting curses as an aura when enemies are around me, etc.

brian9824 wrote:

Now that sounds like it could be very awesome. Are you spec bone spear? They didn’t nerf that nearly as hard as I thought they would. The tendrils are so great.

I debate checking it out but the little I've read all sounds disappointing. Thinking to just wait until next year to revisit the game.

Feeb wrote:

Yeah using bone spear and corpse explosion for damage. Got 2 malignant hearts atm.

One triggers an aura around me whenever there are 4 enemies near me that lasts for 17 seconds casting decrepify on every enemy around me.

The other triggers an equipped corpse skill every second dealing 30% reduced damage. Combined with effects that buff me and restore spirit when corpses are consumed and its nice. If your skeletons or mages die it counts those as a corpse skill and automatically re-summons them as well once a second. Otherwise i use corpse explosion and tendrils and will be adding slow and vulnerable to tendrils.

Its REALLY nice, completely changes how the Necro plays

Oh also they are making changes and reverting/adjusting a lot the patch changes but the malignant hearts in the season are really powerful and not rare, so its not hard to get some for some decent power boosts and utility.

I had a tough time keeping resource available with Necro. I also sac’d all the minions and spec’d the stand alone etc that increased stats based on less minions. It felt very strong that way. Kinda defeated the purpose of the class but very op feel.

Feeb wrote:

Definitely not having that issue now, getting 6 essence a second from corpses being consumed ontop of normal regeneration in combat so its pretty nice. Combined with cold mages giving me essence and its really nice

More excited for POE 2 than I am Season X of D4 at this point.

Auto switching weapon sets? Awesome.

https://youtu.be/y8OL9qqnhDo

That looks pretty good. I tried to get into PoE1 recently, and just couldn't. That game is a mess for a new player. They don't explain anything. And the menus are just, wtf.

Argh, Have not played the game in a month or more... Still at lvl 35 on my first playthrough and only one character I have played is my Druid. This weekend is Diablo time.

I reinstalled this because I got sick and it’s perfect for casual playing in bed. Restarted my rogue In seasonal. Don’t forget to log in with your furthest toon to get the unlocks popped in your season. It works even after you’ve started a new one. Level 50 now. Not much feels different at all.

Reached cap / 90 in season ladder and only level 64. Strange how slow leveling is now.

So.., this dropped for me at level 66. I think I’m set.

image

Man does this game go any… faster? Like, my guy moves at a snails pace and the leveling was apparently better/faster before I started playing. What the hell?

Leveling definitely feels like it’s balanced very differently than before. The tree of whispers, helltide and legion events feel like much bigger chunks of exp- everything else feels much slower.

Anyone still playing? I haven't been paying attention for awhile. Is s2 supposed to be any better?

I gave up on it when they went on that odd tirade of anti-player patches and uninstalled it. I doubt I'll check it out again this year. Maybe next summer after more has changed. I did something the other day about the active players for the game has tanked hard, even with a new season starting.

I played season 1 to about level 75, got all the tiers opened and completed the quest. It felt way worse pacing and much slower leveling. I uninstalled it again.

Play up to lvl 20 for free until Oct 30. Installing it now just to see how I like it. Still need to finish Diablo 3 though, but this weekend I'm going to devote to D4.

Well, I'll definitely go back for this, late 2024 though...

https://youtu.be/gHuaCwmx-Rg

So this game is really not meant for short play sessions. Anytime you have to quit out, if you are mid dungeon you better finish it or you get taken back to the town when you start back up. Definitely makes me not wanna play

Shane12m wrote:

There are a few longer story dungeons but the world ones are pretty short.

Feeb wrote:

I think it’s because I’m still doing the story. Still pretty early

Feeb wrote:

I think it’s because I’m still doing the story. Still pretty early

I miss the more simple times of D1 and D2

I'd honestly love a basic HD bump on D1.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT89FsbA3/

MrBean wrote:

Trying to go back and play D1 now is, not great. That game did not age well in my opinion. I'd love a remake in the new engine. Same with the second game.

I ended up getting rid of D4, D3 took a lot of crap but I could at least finish it and even got my platinum. The changes they made absolutely killed my interest in this game though. I am tempted to get the D2 remaster.

D2R is absolutely worth it. I've debated going back again, but I've spent too much time there and the end game grind does get tiring

I kinda want to go for a D2 plat, in doing so it will mean if I do go back and try D4 it won't be for years. Getting the D3 plat burnt me out on Diablo until 4 came out.

Finn wrote:

It’s probably the worst plat ever- not hyperbole. Grinding to cap hardcore and regular is required. I think it could take like 3-4 months of nothing but leveling. I considered it and got a few really rare drop trophies but burned out on it.

I will have to look again, I thought it required one max LVL and every character needed to beet the game. Like D3, I was wondering if I did one character on HC and finished it would pop the other trophy for finishing it on Nightmare I seem to recall D3 doing that.
.

Finn wrote:

It would work with just HC. But it’s a whole different beast maxing a D2 toon. I don’t think they’ve made any QoL / exploits to speed it up. I was toying with it at release.

I remember playing my Sorc back in the day.. I played Forever and think he highest I got was LVL 78.

Oh I see the LVL 99 hardcore achievement....

I still think I want to do it...but I will just do it slowly.

Finn wrote:

I’m not even sure which class I’d attempt it with. Something with very different builds I could spec to if I had the balls to risk a HC toon with a token.

I didn't realize how much the inability to pause Diablo 4 would bother me. Also stuff seems to take forever to die. Diablo 3 was the only other game in the series that I played, but this one feels less gratifying. A shame because that opening cinematic was insane.

Haven't played since S1 ... working on a CritSit at work, and just randomly decided to log in and create a Barb for current season.

I haven't read much of anything as of late, but S3 ... looking worthwhile? I question If I'll stick with it, far too much else to focus on.

S3 was a complete mess on release and reviews were mostly negative. The main part of the season won't even release for a while yet. From what I've seen the most recent patch fixed a lot of the issues with the traps and the pet though.

I heard about this but never looked into it. Has anybody tried Protect Diablo 2?

https://www.pcgamesn.com/diablo-ii/project-diablo-...

New D4 changes actually seem good

https://youtu.be/JqrF2DWRwtU