Diablo IV

[Yevrah]

I know the good people of the Gamezine thread have discussed this there, but I picked this up over the last couple of days and we need to talk.

So I started on Adventurer (World Tier 1) as the game told me to as a new player and I having played it for 3 hours I thought it was alright, but I didn't die once so there was absolutely no jeopardy.

I then started again, ramping it up to Tier 2 and fuck me, what a game.

The only reservation I have beyond the menus (which are a mess), is how long the grind of it will stay enjoyable? I like rinsing and repeating as much as the next man, but everyone has their limits.

Are those of you who bought it on release still playing it or has the novelty (if that's what it is) long since worn off?

[Baz]

Should have got WoW.

[Adramelch]

I am playing the new season out of curiosity but only because I don't want to start another game until Baldur's Gate comes out on Thursday. I reckon the first go is good fun up until the early 70s or so but then it's just more of the same. The new seasonal mechanic doesn't add much either. Missed opportunity for the most part. The capstone boss (Echo of Lilith) is tons of fun if you're up for a proper challenge but the slog to get there (realistically you want to be lvl 100) means most people won't even get to see her.

[Yevrah]

Cheers Adra (and Baz ).

Given enemies level with you why is the level you're at so important? Is it all the add-ons you get? I've just discovered sockets, for example and now have some gems to fill them with.

I'm level 19 at the moment and there are some dungeon bosses (main story and side quest ones) that I've died to a few times, given the above how much will levelling up help me to defeat them?

[Adramelch]

Not everything scales. For example to enter Tier 3 you need to do a capstone dungeon where the mobs are level 50 (and thus the recommended level is also 50), but you can do it at a lower level (after you've finished the campaign in one character). Likewise for Tier 4 at level 70. And on top of that there's nightmare dungeons, where the mobs have a static level depending on the nightmare level you went for. At the highest possible nightmare dungeon, the mobs are level 150something which means that they hit like a truck since you can only get up to level 100.

As for Echo of Lilith that I mentioned, she's level 100 but very very challenging so every little bit of extra power you get counts, hence people do her typically at level 100.

All that said, I'd say that the campaign alone makes the game worth playing. They've done a very good job there.

[Yevrah]

Are you actually meant to do the side quests in this? I've only done most of the first and second areas yet I'm already up to level 52 and have only just started Act III of the main story. The INTERNETS reliably informs me that I should have completed the main story by now and beaten a Capstone dungeon to get to World Tier 3 (as you also say above Adra), yet here I am still in World Tier 2, without a horse and the best part of 4 full acts to go to finish the campaign.

I'm really enjoying the way I'm playing it (I have a spreadsheet with numbers in it) so whatevs, but are most people just bum rushing the main story on World Tier I to get into WT3 ASAP?

[Adramelch]

Depends on what your goal in the game is, I guess. A lot of people (and especially those who make the guides and whatnot) play it to get to 100, grind gear and beat Lilith or whatever boss is available each season. For me, the game doesn't have that much to offer outside of the main levelling part (so up to the end of the campaign and then a bit more to see the various systems that unlock in WT3), so I'd say keep doing it the way you're doing it.

[Yevrah]

Cheers Adra. Level 53 now and fully balls deep in the Paragon board, which is excellent. Only slight complaint I have is you should get something more than just another paragon point for reaching a new level.

[Yevrah]

Oh and how far did you get? Reach level 100 and have a character that you can barely max out anymore?

[Adramelch]

I got to 100 in the Eternal realm (plus the other classes at the 50-60 mark to see how they played) and had a few dozen attempts on Echo of Lilith before I determined that my build wasn't going to cut it (it was a build for dungeon clearing rather than single target damage, so it was to be expected), so I started farming new gear for a new build and then got bored midway through. This season I got to 80-ish I think but then Baldur's Gate launched so I stopped (I was already getting bored, mind you).

I'd say, realistically, you can get almost best-in-slot gear by the time you are level 85-90 and from there on it's only minor upgrades, plus the paragon points and whatever glyphs you haven't maxed out by then. I don't how much that changes with the seasonal mechanic though.

[Mazuuurk]

I'm still on this, but playing it now a little here and there as I've started with FF16 as well.

I initially created a Blood-oriented Necromancer which was quite a lot of fun and good for crowd control. Finished the campaign on World Tier 1 and then sort of got a bit bored with it.

Now I've created a Rogue and doing short sessions of playing to get a level or two before playing FF. The Rogue has nothing on my Necromancer, at least not yet. I may have actually built a pretty good Necromancer build, or the Rogue is just a bit shit.

With my Necromancer I never had to even use potions, but my Rogue plows through them like they are crack.


I did try World Tier 2 but I immediately died, so switched back to World Tier 1.

[Adramelch]

The rogue is definitely squishier, while Necro is the most durable class, so no surprise there. It also got significantly hit with a nerf on the Siphoning Strikes talent before the season, which significantly reduced its sustain.

[Mazuuurk]

It's also surprisingly sluggish. Like my Rogue doesn't run faster than my Necro dodge quicker/more etc.

But it is kind of rewarding when you manage to get your combos right and actually deal a bit of AoE.


I'm always on the quest of making unkillable characters in games so bit annoying that they nerfed the one interesting Skill for that

[Yevrah]

I've stuck with Barbarian since launch but I suspect he's a bit shit. Mine does fine on its own, but I swear every time another human rocks up they are mincing through the enemies at a much faster rate than me.

[Adramelch]

It's also surprisingly sluggish. Like my Rogue doesn't run faster than my Necro dodge quicker/more etc.

But it is kind of rewarding when you manage to get your combos right and actually deal a bit of AoE.


I'm always on the quest of making unkillable characters in games so bit annoying that they nerfed the one interesting Skill for that

What level are you on the rogue? It's generally a lot more mobile when the build sort of comes online. In fact, the presumed reason of why it's squishy is that you're so mobile that mobs don't hit you all that much.

[Mazuuurk]

I think I'm somewhere around 20, so not really gotten that far yet.

How does it get more mobile though? Dash cooldown goes down or? To me it's annoying how slow you just run around.

[Mazuuurk]

I've stuck with Barbarian since launch but I suspect he's a bit shit. Mine does fine on its own, but I swear every time another human rocks up they are mincing through the enemies at a much faster rate than me.

My Necro is insane. He has this skill that does Overpower damage on the first skill used when healthy, and coupled with a doubled Blood Surge (an AoE spell) you can deal like 9.000-10.000 damage and insta-kill all enemies in one hit a lot of the time when faced with just mobs.

With him I cruise through dungeons but my Rogue needs to fucking hack away at each little foe it seems.

[Yevrah]

Yeah, I've done little reading on the internets about classes and the like as I'd rather work it out for myself at this stage, but the things I have seen point to the Barbarian supposedly being good, even for the late game, but when you describe things like that that the Necromancer can do I fail to see how he could ever compare.

Unless I'm summoning my spirits, which I can only do once every 50 seconds and it lasts for like 5 seconds, I too have to hack away at everything.

As an aside, I did have a look at 'starting again' with another class but it appears you can't do that properly as selecting another one gives you all of the Renown rewards you've unlocked with any previous characters and worse still, carries over all of the gold you have and I have over 8 million gold with Bernard the Barbarian. Maybe if I delete Bernard that situation goes away, but why would I want to do that when I've got so far with him and would never be able to use him again? Hope I'm missing something there.

[Yevrah]

Oh and the levelling in this game is fucked. Having the World level with you but capping it at 50 for enemies on World Tier II (the hardest option I have to play on at the moment) is all well and good if you just stick to the main story and don't do any side quests, but if you even do a modest amount as I've done you'll find yourself reaching level 50 and exceeding it well before you finish the story and as a result I wandered through the entirety of Act 4 and (what I assume is most of) Act 5 last night without dying once.

[Adramelch]

I think I'm somewhere around 20, so not really gotten that far yet.

How does it get more mobile though? Dash cooldown goes down or? To me it's annoying how slow you just run around.

You get two dash charges and (with a legendary power) two shadow step charges. As for the "how slow you run around" part, I'm sure all classes have the same speed as baseline. I'd assume you have some movement speed on your necro's boots and/or amulet and the difference is noticeable.

All that said, Necro is stronger than Rogue, but Rogue is a close second I'd say.

As an aside, I did have a look at 'starting again' with another class but it appears you can't do that properly as selecting another one gives you all of the Renown rewards you've unlocked with any previous characters and worse still, carries over all of the gold you have and I have over 8 million gold with Bernard the Barbarian. Maybe if I delete Bernard that situation goes away, but why would I want to do that when I've got so far with him and would never be able to use him again? Hope I'm missing something there.

Not sure where the problem is with things being account-wide?

[Yevrah]

Makes it impossible to start again from scratch. If one doesn't want to that's cool, but if you do you can't.

[Mazuuurk]

The Rogue does seem to get a bit more interesting now that I'm at a higher level. I think it's got generally a bit more diversity in the skills used.

With my Necro I spam Blood Surge for AoE and Blood Lance for single target and that's it. Facing bosses is just spam spam spam Blood lance. Every 8th use (at least) overpowers which means massive damage overall.

That said the Rogue gets a bit manhandled by bosses, so.. I dunno.


The cooldown on the Dodge-skill is really annoying. I don't understand why you can't just keep dodging.

[Adramelch]

I wouldn't mind the cooldown if it had i-frames. But a cooldown and no i-frames is a bit garbage. There's items that give you dodge charges (and it can be like 3-4 extra charges at higher levels), which makes it a lot handier, but still.

[Yevrah]

Finished the campaign, thought it meandered a bit for act 4 and 5 but the final act was genuinely excellent. Spent some time in WT3 having done the capstone dungeon, but don't like the seasonal content that much so started a Hardcore Barbarian game on World Tier One in the Eternal Realm and we'll see how that goes. Death means something now so enjoying it a lot so far, gives you a reason to try and eek everything out from your gear. Up to level 23 by just mooching around Fractured Peaks.

[Mazuuurk]

I'll admit, the Rogue does get more fun as you go along. My character seems just a tad sturdier than before, or maybe I just kill monsters quicker because of better skills. With Death trap and Twisting blades (or Flurry) + Dash + Shadow imbuement I get 2-3 options for some AoE and killing mobs with them is spectacularly fun.

It does sort of seem a little tricky with bosses, which is strange as the Rogue seems the most intuitive single-target damage type of class to me, but maybe you are just expected to manage to dodge a lot of attacks and hack away.

[Yevrah]

Hadvar got mobbed at level 31 and I couldn't get to the hotkey scroll quick enough. RIP.

[Mazuuurk]

A mighty warrior laid to rest. RIP.

[Yevrah]

Back to the seasonal character and I've hit level 60 and just beat the Butcher. He was surprisingly easy.

[Baz]

Should have got WoW.

Yev if you want hardcore, WoW Classic HC is coming on 24th August. (Druid = EZ mode)

[Adramelch]

It's like you're trying to recruit for a cult.

[Yevrah]

Don't think my laptop would run WoW anyway Baz.

In Diablo 4 news, the "Collect Animus from Animus Carriers" when there aren't enough Animus Carriers has to be one of the shittiest bugs I've ever seen in a game.

[Mazuuurk]

Don't you just run around until more spawn?

Or is this in a Dungeon? If so thats a bit shit

[Adramelch]

I can't say I've encountered this issue and I've done a lot of them dungeons (most of them pre-season mind you). What I have had happen more than once is that I killed a carrier, I failed to pick one of the anima balls and then it didn't show on the minimap once I went away.

[Yevrah]

What I have had happen more than once is that I killed a carrier, I failed to pick one of the anima balls and then it didn't show on the minimap once I went away.

I think that's what I'm talking about, or at least what's causing it. Either way, on occasion, there isn't enough Animus to fill the thing and no sign of any I'm missing on the mini-map.

[Adramelch]

That's an astonishing level of incompetence.