Diablo 4 Open Beta this weekend

[Mobius]

Finally finished the main quest. Jesus it's long!

 Wasted my time doing loads of side quests for some reason

Done my first capstone and moved onto world tier 3!

[Buelligan]

Been enjoying it.  Think maybe the way to really progress ones character is paying a lot of attention, not just to the skill tree but each item, really using those appropriately, the sockets, salvage, for, in my case, speed, mana regeneration and totally fucking all the naughty hell-rabbits and porcuswines up the arse. 

I think it can feel a bit non-progressive (a feeling that you never get pumped enough because all the demons, even the little ones, scale up with you too closely) if you're not on that aspect enough.  But what the fuck do I know?  It's beautiful.  I liked the side quests.

[Mobius]

Yeah the side quests are surprisingly in-depth, I am enjoying ticking these off.

I am just trying to enjoy my first character, finish off reknown and dungeons and stuff. Trying not to fixate on stats and items too much yet because there's plenty of time for that.

I'm doing ok on wt3 but dying a fair bit. Sorc ultimate is dead good so when that is up, I fare alright.

[Roxy Robinson]

Been enjoying it.  Think maybe the way to really progress ones character is paying a lot of attention, not just to the skill tree but each item, really using those appropriately, the sockets, salvage, for, in my case, speed, mana regeneration and totally fucking all the naughty hell-rabbits and porcuswines up the arse. 

I think it can feel a bit non-progressive (a feeling that you never get pumped enough because all the demons, even the little ones, scale up with you too closely) if you're not on that aspect enough.  But what the fuck do I know?  It's beautiful.  I liked the side quests.

Holy fuck Buelligan is a gamer!

Or a madhair60 alt account.

Never knew.

[Alberon]

I've got through the storyline, but the first capstone is still a bit beyond me. I'll push my character a few levels higher and try again.

Already starting to level an alt now I'm free of the main story as well as doing the tree of whispers quests with my main.

Really enjoying it so far and looks like there is more to explore and do.

[how do you like apples]

Still enjoying the gameplay a lot but the renown grind is starting to get to me (as it seems to be a lot of the playerbase). I know it's just a little reward track they put in to encourage people to do open world activities, exploring the beautiful world (fine) and doing all the side quests (not fine), but the rewards at the end make it absolutely essential to do. Yeah the quests are all fleshed out with some story and dialogue, but the activity itself is never any fun, usually just requiring you to pick up some item off the ground that's really hard to see. And I'm sure everyone is using a guide to find all the altars of lilith, doing it blind would just be madness.

Absolutely loved 100%ing the maps in Guild Wars 2, they really nailed that system. I guess a 3d mmorpg world is just more fun to run about and spend time in than a top down ARPG though.

[Roxy Robinson]

Great fun, mind mush, just pushing buttons and watching numbers with slightly better presentation than last time.

Still can't believe @Buelligan plays this stuff, genuinely heartwarming to see. Hope you're getting a kick out of it.

[brat-sampson]

I also play the Diablo game.

Finished the campaign today, it's a huge step up from D3 and excellent for the genre, but not like it's breaking the mold for storytelling in games or anything. I kinda mainlined it so now I've bumped up to World Level II and I'm free to go back around the map, doing all the side-quests, strongholds* etc. Briefest review I could give would be great but flawed, I feel like my character only really started feeling good after one or two very specific aspects were found, this might be different for other classes but like, the aspects feel so powerful in certain cases that whatever ones best fit what your going for are basically mandatory, leading to some unpleasant RNG factors in actually being able to truly enjoy the game.

I don't really like the level scaling as it feels like you never really get more powerful. I get why they did it with the open world structure and everything, but like... it would feel so much better to get your ass kicked by something, level up a few times, get some better gear then come back and stomp it, rather than do the same and then squeak it because of the gear check.

Presentation is a 10, meaty abilities feel great, but don't love the resource management and think it would be better if *all* skills actually felt good to use.

Oh well, here's to the next 20-40 hours at least.

*maybe it's just me / my build or level at the time but I've found these to be harder than anything I encountered in the main story.

[Mobius]

Strongholds are always 3 levels above you, so they are definitely tougher than everything else.

I'm in WT4 now, which I think is the last one? Doing alright, dying a lot cus every enemy has so much cc, I'm constantly feared or frozen.

Sorc feels weak as shit, and there isn't much options for build in the game. Some abilities definitely need a buff.

I'm in the "trash 99.9% of items you find" part of the game but still having fun killing shit

[brat-sampson]

RIPstone dungeon, WT3. Took a few attempts and I was a bit underlevelled, but now I'm Lv 50 and officially in an Endgame. I guess the renown grind is next... Definitely can't be arsed doing ALL the dungeons mostly for aspects my character can't even use so I'll probably shelve this when XVI comes out later in the week and maybe check back in for the first Season.

It's good!

In case anyone's interested I'm a big ol' smashy bear. Using basically all the bear attacks and Earthen Bulwark to become invincible a lot.

[Alberon]

Took me a few goes through the first capstone as the last boss always did me in. But now I'm through the other side and just arsing about randomly doing the side missions, so doesn't feel like a grind increasing renown right now. I'm trying to do a dungeon every now and then, but I won't just plow through all of them. I will find a map to all the Statues of Lilith though, it's nice every time you stumble over one and get a global increase to some stat, but it's never worth hunting for them.

[Mobius]

I'm trying to do all the side quests but I'm at like 43/45 in each region and evidently there's quests that start from an item randomly dropping from certain enemies. And there's not really a way too what you have and haven't done. So I'm fucking that off.

[Mobius]

God, level 70+ is pretty boring. I'm going to give this a break until the first season or big patch drops. Wish I never chose Sorceress.

[Alberon]

First proper patch due before the first season starts, with gems moving to the materials slots sometime around season 2.

There's been some complaining in certain quarters that a new season needs a new disposable character to access the season content and battle pass. It is the way these games have been doing it for decades, but it does seem to me with the game being sold as a 'live service' one that a newer approach would be better. Looks like a season character will have to redo a lot of the renown stuff which is also generating complaints, but at least the altars of Lilith and unlocked maps will carry over.

Hoovering up the altars and strongholds at the moment, but I can see myself putting this game down in a week until the first season starts. There's no incentive to level alts.

[how do you like apples]

I decided to stop at about level 75 so not to fully burn myself out before the first season. Nothing left to do for my character other than grind levels and try to get higher item level / better rolled stat versions of all the gear I currently have - gameplay won't change one bit for me now. The last exciting bit of content I did was the level 70 capstone dungeon (mainly because I did it at 60 and so it was a really fun challenge). It would be good if they sprinkled in more of those kind of skill checks all the way up to 100 rather than just have that one uber Lilith fight way off in the distance (that I'll probably never get to if leveling is always going to be this much of a grind).

Not sure where criticism of the impermanent nature of seasons is coming from. The entire point is everybody starting fresh on a level playing field. I've never felt any sense of loss when discarding my old kitted out character and starting again with nothing.

But I do wish they'd give us more options for the renown farm beyond having to redo those side quests, I never want to do those again.

[Alberon]

I got an email from Blizzard just yesterday saying they'd be setting out their plans for season 1 soon.

I'll probably just keep puttering around less often for now boosting renown.

[Mobius]

Servers down for absolutely ages over the weekend because they got a ddos attack or some hacker nonsense. Useless cunts.

Sounds like the big patch might be coming on Tuesday though

[Ham Bap]

Been playing away at this. First time Diablo player so trying to learn stuff along the way. There's a lot of stuff it doesnt really tell you. Currently im lvl 64 Necromancer playing WT3. Just having a chill time, doing stuff as I come across it.

I didnt know, till last night, that when you find weapons for other classes e.g. a crossbow for a rogue that you can store it away then its available when you start a new game as a rogue.
Ive been selling those types of weapons.

Its a fun game to boot up for 90 minute blasts at a time. Im away for 2 weeks soon so i'll look forward to diving back in. I'll keep playing it when they keep adding content.

One thing is that I wish it was easier to find people to play for PvE. Division 2 has a great system for matchmaking with randoms to run missions. You just search for randoms when you're looking to do something, game pairs you up, run mission then you can stay in or jump out again.
I know there are clans and stuff in this but meh, I dont have time or inclination to build friendships, I just want to jump in and out of missions as and when.

[Mobius]

Season 1 starts on July 20th

a big dump of info today on what's coming and what's being looked at etc

https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo4/comments/14sh5nz/will_be_live_transcribing_the_developer_update/

[WesterlyWinds]

Is this fun solo? Played D3 with my brother but he's got like kids and shit now so I'm all alone

[oggyraiding]

Is this fun solo? Played D3 with my brother but he's got like kids and shit now so I'm all alone

I played up to level 30ish solo, it's fine, but as the world scales with you there are activities that are very difficult without allies. In some of the open areas, other players will be milling about and you can do little events aimed for teams kind of like the activities in Destiny, so you're not truly solo all the time even if you have nobody to organise play with.

[how do you like apples]

I think the open world of it pretty seamlessly blends with solo play. There's never the MMO problem of other players stealing kills (if somebody in your vicinity kills anything you'll get the drops off it anyway). You aren't required to group for anything and the only activity that can't really be done solo is the world boss where you can just rock up and join in (no asking for an invite required). Dungeons and strongholds, as well as most of the campaign, are all solo instances unless you've specifically grouped with someone to do it.

[Alberon]

I've noticed that if someone kills a monster near you loot drops for you as well.

I only purposefully grouped for Rift runs in D3 and it didn't add any enjoyment to be honest. Quite happy to be puttering around on my own in D4 most of the time.

[oggyraiding]

Restarted as a barbarian, am having much more success as I can take a lot of punishment.

Of the classes I've spent a decent amount of time with, each one's unique progression gimmick is a bit too variable.

Druid's spirit offerings are a bit of a pain in the arse having to gather the offerings before you get to choose some mediocre perks, barbarian's weapon specialisation thing is geared in such a way that I'm not levelling up half of the weapon types because of the abilities I've chosen. Necromancer seems a bit OP with all the summons you can have that basically cost fuck all and have you walking around with an army. Seems imbalanced that a druid has to jump through hoops to get those buffs, when necromancer gets incredibly useful abilities for free just by levelling up.

[oggyraiding]

On Act V, currently level 53. It's silly that I can't raise the world tier until I've finished the campaign and done the capstone dungeon. I'm essentially invincible with the build I've got going. Most bosses without gimmicks I literally just stand still (have an imprint that increases my damage if I stand still), RB, Y, LT, RT, hold A. And that's enough to kill or almost kill them. On one hand it's cool being so powerful, but it's getting a bit tedious.

[how do you like apples]

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo4/23976339/season-of-the-malignant-coming-soon

Preview of the new season which starts at 6pm on Thursday. The main thing is going to be those malignant hearts boosting your build and their power looks pretty nuts, should hopefully make the levelling process a lot faster so that more people can get to 100 and take down Lilith / do high nightmare dungeons.

[Mobius]

Are the latest patch notes a fucking joke? Christ alive

[oggyraiding]

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo4/23976339/season-of-the-malignant-coming-soon

Preview of the new season which starts at 6pm on Thursday. The main thing is going to be those malignant hearts boosting your build and their power looks pretty nuts, should hopefully make the levelling process a lot faster so that more people can get to 100 and take down Lilith / do high nightmare dungeons.

Apparently if you've already finished the campaign on another character, you can transfer your map exploration and altars of Lilith to the new seasonal character right from the start (receiving the renown you would earn from discovering those areas for the first time), and skip the entire campaign. Obviously that means to level up you'll need to do seasonal content, dungeons, side missions, bounties, and the Whispering Tree quests. Might be a bit of a grind but I never ever want to play through the whole campaign again.

[Alberon]

Are the latest patch notes a fucking joke? Christ alive

Must admit a quick play with my sorceress after patching didn't show me any drop in power, but maybe every other class has been nerfed to that level.

I've not played any alts with the intention of doing a new class a season but I haven't chosen which way to go yet. With the map exploration and altars now global I checked out a barbarian I had created, but not really played. You still have to unlock the waypoints but it's fairly easy to just pin them on the map and leap on your horse.

[oggyraiding]

Barbarian built right is unstoppable. The final boss fights were a joke. Thinking of trying a sorcerer for season 1 just because it would be a novelty to actually have to avoid being attacked instead of tanking everything. I left my game running while I went to get something from downstairs, when I came back I was surrounded by dropped loot. My thorns and armour were so high that basic enemies would die from attacking me while I was idle.