Diablo 4

[Daehawk]

The older I get the harder it is to parse game currency. I read that Lunar Event twice and I feel like I'm still sitting there staring with drool coming out of my mouth. "Do this to earn Gibzoid Baubles! The Baubles can be traded for Zipthang Shards, which can be crafted into Doowattle Prisms! Spend Doowattle Prisms on Ascendancy Points, which you can trade in for Zimshattle Rewards at any of the Gorthwaite Vendors!"

I need the Dummy translation. GO SHRINE. SHRINE DO THIS. YOU WANT NEW HAT? GO HERE DO THIS GET NEW HAT.

Im starting to feel that way as well.

[Sudy]

That initial WT4 power drop is rough. I was wandering around for the past couple days drastically underpowered, especially so as I'd done the capstone dungeon early. Now, I still have to watch my positioning and play defensively (for pretty much the first time; finally some challenge!), but I have a few good ancestral items and am able to clear most trash rapidly again.

Vaults on the other hand... not so fun. Traps are such a big pain in the ass, because controlling your character just isn't that precise. And when you're fighting in the final room things get seriously frantic and it's hard to see. I like that it's something different, but it's every single vault and there are only so many layouts. I barely remember my time with PoE but I recall its environmental hazards being much more interesting. Really not looking forward to doing a ton more vaults for the sake of the seasonal objectives.

Doing public servant of Malphas events remains the most efficient way of gaining power I've found, and by a wide margin. But it's just so repetitive. You want a large, powerful group so it goes quickly, but it's also unsatisfying since then you're competing for hits.

I feel like I've finally learned which aspects are worthwhile as well as deciding against trying a different rogue build. So I was able to junk/extract the bulk of my massive inventory. Unfortunately this only more clearly reveals the staleness of the gear system. At this point gearing is comparing item bonuses to BIS lists on Maxroll.

I don't really get helltides. I know it's necessary to farm them for various mats, but it seems like a really inefficient use of time and not particularly fun. Evidently they were more important previous to seasonal content being implemented. I guess it's good they're always up now so that when you need to farm you don't have to wait around. But I feel like I'm wasting my time if I don't find other players to tag along with, which can be frustrating as I like to play at my own pace.

[Daehawk]

I dont even have any quest to me except Kules Heart from the new season stuff. I have 2 of the 5 journals and it just tells me to get more..no where to go marked to get them. Im only like lvl 30 and dont even have the main story quest to do. I skipped it when I created my character as I only wanted to do the seasonal stuff. But now the only quests other than that one I can pick up are the normal blue ! side quests offered in towns.

[Torfish]

Vaults on the other hand... not so fun. Traps are such a big pain in the ass, because controlling your character just isn't that precise. And when you're fighting in the final room things get seriously frantic and it's hard to see. I like that it's something different, but it's every single vault and there are only so many layouts. I barely remember my time with PoE but I recall its environmental hazards being much more interesting. Really not looking forward to doing a ton more vaults for the sake of the seasonal objectives.

Vaults are easy. Do the vaults whispering quests and gather a few Pearls of Wardings. Then start running the vault nightmare dungeons. Once you get to the statue of Zoltun Kulle, click on it three times to get 30 Zoltun's Wardings. That's a pretty fair amount where you don't have to worry about running into traps and have enough Wardings remaining to open all three chests in Tier 4.

I exclusively run the vault nightmares because of the extra treasure. Zero need to do the normal nightmares. My opinion.

[Daehawk]

I didn't know what the statue was last night in a vault..had no idea I was even in one as I was just doing a quest. I clicked it..got 10 and when I came to the end I couldn't unlock a chest because I had 0 by then. I have no idea what they are or how I lost them or anything. I didn't die once even.

[Torfish]

I dont even have any quest to me except Kules Heart from the new season stuff. I have 2 of the 5 journals and it just tells me to get more..no where to go marked to get them. Im only like lvl 30 and dont even have the main story quest to do. I skipped it when I created my character as I only wanted to do the seasonal stuff. But now the only quests other than that one I can pick up are the normal blue ! side quests offered in towns.

Agreed this quest doesn't give enough information of how to get the journals. Get your character to at least level 70 where you can run vault nightmare tier 21. Run the different vault dungeons at tier 21. The warding chests at the end of the dungeon will randomly drop the journal pages you need. Ink, copper, stone, cinder are the different kinds of vaults. FYI, it's random. So don't worry if a vault run doesn't net you a page.

[Torfish]

I didn't know what the statue was last night in a vault..had no idea I was even in one as I was just doing a quest. I clicked it..got 10 and when I came to the end I couldn't unlock a chest because I had 0 by then. I have no idea what they are or how I lost them or anything. I didn't die once even.

If your character gets hit by a trap, then it subtracts 1 from your warding total.

Get 30 or 40 of them per run. Should be enough to not worry too much about getting hit by the traps.

[Sudy]

I finished the battle pass today. Rogue is around level 82. Started a druid and got him to 20 so far. Not done with the rogue, but things are definitely getting repetitive. Druid feels so slow in comparison to rogue.... All in all, I've had a good time! I can see playing each season, or a couple of them a year. Really hope they make itemization more interesting down the line though.

[Daehawk]

Im not sure how much further I can go with this rogue at her skills lvl. She isn't powerful enough to handle elites with large amounts of cannon fodder around them. Im quaffing potions like a drunk in the desert. I think its time to totally redo her skill tree and see what I can do there. Im not a high lvl though yet. Im not sure where I am without logging in..thing 35. Im world tier 2. I want to go 3 for better loot but Im still struggling with dying as is at 2 ..getting overwhelmed and over run kills me.

EDIT: Redid her and wow she is a killer now. I focused on bow and cold. No traps or anything. I also got my shadow self thing. I was dying a lot and having trouble hurting elites and bosses in world 2..now I mop the floor with them. Still run out of energy but that a gear thing. May need to world up to 3.

[Blackhawk]

EDIT: Redid her and wow she is a killer now. I focused on bow and cold. No traps or anything. I also got my shadow self thing. I was dying a lot and having trouble hurting elites and bosses in world 2..now I mop the floor with them. Still run out of energy but that a gear thing. May need to world up to 3.

The dungeon for unlocking WT3 is full of enemies set to level 50. Some do it in their mid 40s, but you're unlikely to do it at level 35.

For defense, look at Dark Shroud (max points), plus Enhanced Dark Shroud and Subverting Dark Shroud. Socket Armor with Rubies and Jewelry with Skulls.

For Energy, look at Energy Rush, Innervation, Consuming Shadows, and put one point in Puncture, with points in Primary Puncture and Fundamental Puncture.

Or, better yet, do the thing that everybody and their cousin has suggested and read a guide. You don't have to follow the guide, just read it and see what skills they picked and why - then you can mess around with your own build. Diablo 4 builds are fairly complex. Your gear stats, your skills, your Aspects (that's the special text on legendaries), your gems, and later your Paragon tree all need to match. If you pick stuff that doesn't match, half of the time it will do absolutely nothing for you. Like regen on hit with a Basic attack can be powerful, but only if you take the other skills that make your Basic attack hit more enemies and let you attack faster. Take it without those other, more boring sounding skills and you'll end up always out of energy. Again, that doesn't mean you can't choose to make your own build, but it's like building your own plane - you need to know what you're doing if you want to get anywhere. Look at each skill they picked, and take a moment to figure out why.

On top of that, every season, Blizzard buffs up some skills, and leaves some weak. Right now, the build I linked is one of the strongest in the game. Rapid Fire and Rain of Arrows are both pretty weak this season. They're not going to be very effective, even with a perfect build. The build I used last season is considerably weaker this season due to some changes to one item and one ability. And the only way I know that is by doing a bit of reading.

If you're having trouble, and you haven't made the effort to understand why, then the the problem is the thing with the mouse in its hand. Do the homework. 30 minutes and you'll be able to make a much, much better build.

[Blackhawk]

Here's an easy example. Look at how these skills and Aspects work together:

Spoiler:

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Here's a hint to hopefully get you thinking in the right direction.

Spoiler:

Look at the top of Puncture, then re-read the description.



It is a Basic skill, and a Marksman skill. Read the text. Every third throw slows enemies. Slow is a form of crowd control. Now look at Fundamental Puncture.



It allows you to hit three enemies at a time, and hitting one with two blades (which is guaranteed when they're close) makes them Vulnerable.

Now look back through those skills and aspects and see how many different bonuses you're giving yourself by setting up that combination.

Now, take that knowledge - Basic, Marksman, Vulnerable, and crowd control, and go back and look at the other aspects. Then look at the tree in the guide I linked and follow that same process. Every single point has a job, every skill a purpose, and every one of them support the others.

Do that, plus read the rest of that page, and you'll be able to make really, really strong builds.

[Daehawk]

I keep forgetting aspects. I have a bunch saved up.

[Jaddison]

I keep forgetting aspects. I have a bunch saved up.

Realize that once you change world tiers any saved aspects are probably underpowered compared to aspects from the world tier you are in

[Blackhawk]

I keep forgetting aspects. I have a bunch saved up.

That's a start. The next thing is to make sure that they're the right aspects, and that they're on the right items. That part's very important - applying an aspect requires resources. You don't want to put it on items you replace all the time.

You also want to make sure that, whenever possible, you're using aspects from your Codex, not your inventory, while leveling. Here's why. Look at this:



See where it says, "[15-30]%]? When you use the one from a dungeon (ie - in your Codex), it will always be the smallest possible number. In this case, it'll be 15%, every time. If you use one from your inventory, it'll be somewhere between 15% and 30%. Like this:



It could also be 20%. Or 26%, or 17%. It could be any number between 15-30. It might seem like you'd want the most powerful you can get, but getting a good roll on aspects can be difficult. If you find one, don't waste it on your leveling gear, which gets replaced constantly! Save it for later, when you have an item you're going to keep for a long, long time, like a near-perfect Sacred Legendary after hitting WT3. Note: I'm defining leveling gear as gear you get prior to getting high-score Sacred or Ancestral items.

Many aspects are drop-only. They don't appear from dungeons. For those, pay attention to the roll. If it's high (in the [15-30]% example, anything past 22% or so), save it until you're getting that high-end gear. If it's absolutely vital to your build, don't use it while leveling until you have a couple of extras safely in your stash. It kind of sucks not leveling with that key ability, but it sucks more to get to WT4 and discover you have only ever found one, and that you put it on a bow you had for two hours at level 37.

But when deciding whether to save or imprint an aspect, also look at the next reply I'm about to make.

[Blackhawk]

I keep forgetting aspects. I have a bunch saved up.

Realize that once you change world tiers any saved aspects are probably underpowered compared to aspects from the world tier you are in

FWIW, that's only true on a small percentage of aspects. Anything that's got a percentage or small number (stacks, seconds, etc) is going to be the same regardless of your level. Aspects do have a rarity and an item power number, but they're misleading - those are the stats of the item you extracted the aspect from, not the aspect itself, except in the case of something where the range itself is what changes - usually damage.

This can be outleveled:



The actual damage number is going to be different on higher level items. A low-level Item Power 200 version is going to have a range of [45-63] damage, while a high-level Item Power 900 version will be [1532-2142.] Putting a 63-damage boost on an item at WT4 is going to be less than useless, so you'd might as well use it when you find it.

This cannot be outleveled:



The full percentage range (15%-30%) is available from level 1, and 27% is 27% regardless of level. An Item Power 80 +30% bonus is still going to be much more powerful than an Item Power 925 +17% bonus.

[Daehawk]

BTW these aspects...does it matter what item you put them on? ..Say its one thats for attack speed...does it work if I apply it to boots?

Should I just be keeping one on every item I wear until I sell it..then I guess I dont get it back if I salvage the item?

[Blackhawk]

BTW these aspects...does it matter what item you put them on? ..Say its one thats for attack speed...does it work if I apply it to boots?

Yes. Read this.

Also, if you had read the guide I posted yesterday, you'd know which items to imprint while leveling and which not to. Hint: See section 5.

Should I just be keeping one on every item I wear until I sell it..then I guess I dont get it back if I salvage the item?

No, see above.

If you find a legendary item, you can extract the Aspect at an occultist, which goes into your inventory. You can also use the occultist to imprint an Aspect (apply it to a new item.) If you apply it to a legendary item, it replaces the Aspect that's there. If you apply it to a yellow item, it turns it into a legendary. Once an Aspect has been imprinted, you cannot get it back. You are pretty much stuck with scrapping it for the rare materials. That's why you want to save important ones (see my earlier reply to you.)

Big hint for Diablo 4 logic: Later in the game - primarily post level 50 and in WT3+, don't pay attention to what Aspects are on legendary gear you find. If it's not on your 'need' list, the most important thing to pay attention to is the stats. You'll almost always be replacing any non-ideal Aspect with one from your codex/inventory anyway, so find one with the stats you need, and put the right Aspect on it yourself. And remember that you can use the Occultist to reroll any one stat any number of times. And remember, this only applies to the later game, not while getting up to 50/WT3.

So, if I were looking at a ranged rogue, and was using the post-50 version of the guide as a reference (just as an example - again, feel free to make your own build if you know how everything works), I'd see that for a helmet I wanted, in order of importance:

1. Cooldown Reduction
2. Life on Kill
3. Maximum Life
4. Basic Attack Speed

And that I'd want it to have the Umbrous Aspect.

If I found a legendary helmet, I'd look at the stats. If I had one that had Cooldown Reduction, Basic Attack Speed, and +2 ranks of Shadow Step, and had the Deflecting Barrier Aspect, I'd jump all over it. I'd reroll the +2 Ranks of Shadow Step at the occultist to try and get Life on Kill or Maximum Life. I'd then put my own Umbrous Aspect on it, and end up with a near-perfect item.

It's much easier to find a legendary with two or three good stats with good rolls and customize it than it is to find and legendary with the right Aspect and all of the right stats.

And remember what I said a second ago:

You can also use the occultist to imprint an Aspect (apply it to a new item.) If you apply it to a legendary item, it replaces the Aspect that's there. If you apply it to a yellow item, it turns it into a legendary.

When you're hunting for gear, a yellow with good stats is 100% as good as a legendary item with good stats - because you turn it into a legendary when you imprint your Aspect onto it.

[Blackhawk]

And I will emphasize this again: Don't sell items. Scrap everything. Gold is plentiful in the endgame. I ended the last season with hundreds of millions of gold without selling anything past level 10 or so, and if you skipped the campaign or have finished it, do Whispers. Even at low level you'll end up with hundreds of thousands of gold, plus gem fragments, resources, and usually legendaries, all for a few minutes of effort that doesn't involve anything particularly tough, and they can be repeated as often as you like.

[Daehawk]

This is all more like work than game fun. I just want to play a game

[Sudy]

Yeah, but that's always been the case with ARPG and MMORPG endgames. People are critical of D4's itemization and build system, but the issue isn't complexity... chasing good builds in D3 and D2 was about as much work. And you had to grind much, much more (if you didn't want to trade) in D2 if you wanted to succeed at higher difficulties.

You can play how you like most of the way to 50 in D4, but as you've expressed you're eventually going to hit a wall. Learning the systems is worth it though! It looks like a lot at first, but you don't have to absorb it all at once. It becomes really rewarding once you're able to size up an item at a glance, and you have a rough idea of what you should be doing to advance your character.

The rogue build BH linked is really powerful, and a ton of fun. There's a tweaked endgame version you can migrate to eventually. It's the build I've been using and it's a blast to blow up packs with shadow imbued penetrating shot, and to dash all over the place with 155% movement speed.

[Blackhawk]

The build system is complex, but ARPGs balance around the assumption that players are optimizing to some degree.

There are a few hundred people (probably) who absolutely adore the complexity and figuring out the math. I assume that it involves whiteboards and a montage.

There are a few million people who don't enjoy the math and just copy a build (they go to the build pages and just use them as a step-by-step - that's what they're for.)

Those two groups together mean that a majority of players are playing with optimized builds. If they balanced around free choice builds, they'd end up having the majority of players steamrolling their content and getting bored.

[Blackhawk]

This is all more like work than game fun. I just want to play a game

Some people enjoy it - it's a kind of puzzle solving.

If you dislike the effort, copy a build (that's what I do - I've got enough to spend my time on that doesn't involve comparing hundreds of effects.)

But if you just follow your whims, you're absolutely going to hit a wall at which you'll be out of energy/mana, will die constantly, and won't be able to kill much.

[Hyena]

I have an alternate necro build I call the Facemelter. It revolves around the decompose and blight skills. Aspects that branch Decompose to two additional targets, drop corpses to explode into blight pools, bone prisons that draw everyone in then auto-spawn a blight when activated, then drop my own blight pool on top of that...it's pretty damn satisfying to melt things in chunks of tens of thousands of points.

It's not perfect, but it finished the game and got me into WT3 in a way that I enjoyed before I looked up a "better" cookie-cutter bone spear build. It worked, shit started exploding faster and such, but then...then I dropped him not too long after because it wasn't as fun.

Moral is, play how you want until it's not "viable" any longer, then try a build. If you still like it, keep playing. If you don't, start a new toon...

[Blackhawk]

I agree with that. I also like games where I'm free to mix and match skills based on my preferences. And even in D4 I've had characters where I've swapped through three or four different builds looking for something that was both effective and fun. Although my point was never that everyone should use a premade build - just that if you're making your own and plan to go beyond the end of the campaign, you should take the time to understand how the mechanics work so you can grasp how the skills, Aspects, etc interact with one another. It's the happy midpoint between a fully optimized build and a 'whatever' build.

[Hyena]

I agree with that. I also like games where I'm free to mix and match skills based on my preferences. And even in D4 I've had characters where I've swapped through three or four different builds looking for something that was both effective and fun. Although my point was never that everyone should use a premade build - just that if you're making your own and plan to go beyond the end of the campaign, you should take the time to understand how the mechanics work so you can grasp how the skills, Aspects, etc interact with one another. It's the happy midpoint between a fully optimized build and a 'whatever' build.

Yep. And let me say another couple of games that got this right were Titan Quest and Grim Dawn. Some combos had great synergy, some were just damn fun to play.

[Jaddison]

I have an alternate necro build I call the Facemelter. It revolves around the decompose and blight skills. Aspects that branch Decompose to two additional targets, drop corpses to explode into blight pools, bone prisons that draw everyone in then auto-spawn a blight when activated, then drop my own blight pool on top of that...it's pretty damn satisfying to melt things in chunks of tens of thousands of points.

It's not perfect, but it finished the game and got me into WT3 in a way that I enjoyed before I looked up a "better" cookie-cutter bone spear build. It worked, shit started exploding faster and such, but then...then I dropped him not too long after because it wasn't as fun.

Moral is, play how you want until it's not "viable" any longer, then try a build. If you still like it, keep playing. If you don't, start a new toon...

I started a sorcerer last week, based on what I remembered from last season decided to try and build my own and settled on a chain lightning build of my own design. So far at level 57 he is an unstoppable juggernaut of freezing people and then basically blowing them up with the chain lightning multiplier aspect and the fireball enchantment. He took down the seasonal boss and capstone boss so quickly I thought something must be wrong. Whether this work into Tier 4 who knows but it has been a blast to play.

[Sudy]

I guess this will have to do until Skyhunter drops for me....

[Blackhawk]

Last season I ended up with only one of the uniques I needed - and three Skyhunters. All from Varshan.

[Daehawk]

Ive noticed my time with D4 is slowly less than it used to be. I guess Im headed into deleting it one day sooner rather than later.

I have a bunch of games installed. If I had a bigger hard drive Id have more. And Im playing a lot of them.

[Sudy]

I'd been afraid of facing Varshan on WT4 because I got owned the first time I tried, but I was probably underlevelled at the time and hadn't bothered researching to pump up my shadow and poison resistance. Well, I did, and successfully completed about 15 runs with only a couple of deaths. I got two Skyhunters to drop! Including an ilvl 920! Mediocre rolls though. Still, it's like a 30% DPS upgrade.

[Blackhawk]

Very nice!

I've stalled on my season run. Not because I'm burned out, but because I've been working on so much other stuff in the past couple of weeks.

[Jaddison]

Very nice!

I've stalled on my season run. Not because I'm burned out, but because I've been working on so much other stuff in the past couple of weeks.

I am plodding along on my snap crackle pop sorcerer. Just got WT4, did the capstone at 69 and it was a cakewalk. Then died many times in WT4, gotta love those lowered resistances.

Haven't burned out per se but as a raging alt-o-holic I am pretty sure it is this character and no others for this season.

[YellowKing]

I stalled on the season as well due to FFXIV. I've reached the point in my life where it's getting increasingly hard to multi-task gaming, even as I have the attention span of a dog in a park full of squirrels.

[Hyena]

Also haven't been able to focus on this season, mainly because track started up and by the time I get home, have dinner, put the kids down, and hang out with the wife for a bit I'm pretty knackered. Finally giving the druid a try, and with a suggested pulverize build it's finally actually fun. Always wanted to do a werewolf build, but it was way too squishy every time I tried. Maybe I just didn't give it enough time, but I haven't researched any "viable" builds for one either. Any suggestions?

As a side note, this season would be a great one to try a WW build, as I found an aspect that turns your wolf companions into werewolves that do +90% damage...

[Blackhawk]

For me, it's because I have a couple of home projects that have kept me busy, a book I'm wanting to spend time with, and my son wanted to play some Borderlands together, so I've been devoting a lot of my gaming time to that.

[Torfish]

I've been lvl 100 for about a week now in season 3. It's my own build of meteor sorceress. I wanted to build a character for the new unique helm that does multiple little meteors. Of course, I have yet to find it. I can only do nightmare vault dungeons 60 which is weak for a lvl 100. Hopefully the helm will drop soon and find out if my build ramps up huge.

My view of season 3. It's a bad season. Not even close to season 2. Season 2 added content to the end game with five new bosses, new mats to gather, and some new ubers/uniques for every class. Season 3 added no new end game content. I'm really surprised because that is what this game desperately needs. The little construct guy is weak until you get all the stones and lvl them up all the way. Takes too much time and grind for little payoff.

I'm not excited for the upcoming gauntlet where there will be leaderboards, unless the gauntlet itself is super fun to run through. Blizzard keeps pushing back the go-live date for it and might not release until Season 4.

Overall, it's a bad season. A step backwards in the amount of content compared to the last season.

[Hyena]

I've been lvl 100 for about a week now in season 3. It's my own build of meteor sorceress. I wanted to build a character for the new unique helm that does multiple little meteors. Of course, I have yet to find it. I can only do nightmare vault dungeons 60 which is weak for a lvl 100. Hopefully the helm will drop soon and find out if my build ramps up huge.

My view of season 3. It's a bad season. Not even close to season 2. Season 2 added content to the end game with five new bosses, new mats to gather, and some new ubers/uniques for every class. Season 3 added no new end game content. I'm really surprised because that is what this game desperately needs. The little construct guy is weak until you get all the stones and lvl them up all the way. Takes too much time and grind for little payoff.

I'm not excited for the upcoming gauntlet where there will be leaderboards, unless the gauntlet itself is super fun to run through. Blizzard keeps pushing back the go-live date for it and might not release until Season 4.

Overall, it's a bad season. A step backwards in the amount of content compared to the last season.

I agree it's not as good as last season, but I do like some of the seasonal aspects they've created. I hope they keep some of them, like the one I mentioned above where your druid wolf companions turn into werewolves and do +90% damage

[Jaddison]

$65 for a mount, armor and some platinum...not that much platinum mind you. Has Blizzard lost their minds?

[Daehawk]

Microsoft owns Blizzard and Bethesda...horse armor remember?

[Blackhawk]

Microsoft owns Blizzard and Bethesda...horse armor remember?

Microsoft doesn't set the prices of individual microtransactions, and the infamous horse armor was 18 years ago. I doubt there's any connection.

Besides, it was blown horribly out of proportion. It was the first experiment into paid DLC for PC (as we know it now) when 'reasonable prices' hadn't been established. There was no market standard, no established price for cosmetics. Beisdes, the idea of paying for something almost purely cosmetic itself was unheard of, which was what a lot of the drama was actually about, not the price. People were mostly just pissed that it didn't include any actual content, like quests (this was still the era of the full-blown expansion pack, and that's what people were accustomed to.

Think about the price of a skin in a modern game. Just a skin, not a new model. Most are in the $3 to $7 range.

The Horse Armor DLC gave two skins, both of which had a brand-new model and could be applied to any horse, both of which actually made the horse tougher (they increased its health.) The insane price everyone talks about? $2.50. Adjusted for inflation, $3.82.

Diablo 4's horse armor, a set with absolutely no extras (like trophies or the actual mount): $10. Triple the price of Oblivion's for half of the content, and with no mechanical bonus.

I'm certainly not a Bethesda apologist, but the horse armor thing was empty drama. And, FWIW, it was just a few vocal people ranting. The actual product sold really, really well.