I couldn’t get the spider boss down, was getting caught in the web that immobilises you all the time. I’m using HoA+Whirlwind for thrash, might try to spec to something more defensive.
I get why they have to do level scaling given the more open nature of the game, but I think that combined with the linear and very gradual power increase with gear hurts the game. No power spikes on either your end or the games difficulty, feels too flat. Hopefully that changes with end game. One of the most satisfying things in a good ARPG is when you get that game changing item and suddenly you’re wrecking shit that was problematic for you before. Here you’re just constantly getting shit that’s like a .2% power increase and it’s completely unnoticeable in practice. Compare that to something like hitting a new FCR breakpoint in D2 (yeah I know I’m a d2 mark), which is something you immediately notice in moment to moment gameplay.
a few months after launch nobody will give a shit about anything in the campaign and will be speed running it or you'll be getting boosted to do seasonal content. the campaign of D3 is basically a tutorial. while it does seem like more effort has been put into D4 campaign than 3 it will still likely be a small insignificant part of the game.
it's a beta and we won't get a good full view of how good the game is until towards the end of the year. if scaling and gear sucks in the campaign it doesn't mean shit. wait until we get endgame content.
a few months after launch nobody will give a shit about anything in the campaign and will be speed running it or you'll be getting boosted to do seasonal content. the campaign of D3 is basically a tutorial. while it does seem like more effort has been put into D4 campaign than 3 it will still likely be a small insignificant part of the game.
it's a beta and we won't get a good full view of how good the game is until towards the end of the year. if scaling and gear sucks in the campaign it doesn't mean shit. wait until we get endgame content.
Hopefully you’re right. I don’t think they’re just gonna flip a switch for end game though. D3 had similar problems with gearing/handling drops and that persisted throughout.
I switched to vet around level 10 because normal was too easy. All it does is make bosses more spongey though. Game is still ass easy. Downed the Den Mother on Vet first try with my Barb. Heard she was a tough fight for that class too.
I switched to vet around level 10 because normal was too easy. All it does is make bosses more spongey though. Game is still ass easy. Downed the Den Mother on Vet first try with my Barb. Heard she was a tough fight for that class too.
Yep. I played through once on normal, once on veteran. Experience is the same but like you said, just spongier. Need to be more changes like additional modifiers on champions/uniques, resistances/immunities, etc.
I couldn’t get the spider boss down, was getting caught in the web that immobilises you all the time. I’m using HoA+Whirlwind for thrash, might try to spec to something more defensive.
Definitely need some defensive shouts, I think I used bleeding and ironskin from memory with the upgrade that it heals you. You use it at 50% life it'll create a barrier and then heal you 10% every second for 5 seconds
I get why they have to do level scaling given the more open nature of the game, but I think that combined with the linear and very gradual power increase with gear hurts the game. No power spikes on either your end or the games difficulty, feels too flat. Hopefully that changes with end game. One of the most satisfying things in a good ARPG is when you get that game changing item and suddenly you’re wrecking shit that was problematic for you before. Here you’re just constantly getting shit that’s like a .2% power increase and it’s completely unnoticeable in practice. Compare that to something like hitting a new FCR breakpoint in D2 (yeah I know I’m a d2 mark), which is something you immediately notice in moment to moment gameplay.
Describes perfectly my gripe for like 99% of MMOs and other open world lite action rpgs.
Give me (at least some) areas that require a real thought-out build and equip or let me blast through it when I'm like 20 levels above. (and not a difficulty/world tier slider I can just turn down together with rarer loot I won't be needing any ways if the game allows to dial back the difficulty. So many games are just going in circles.)
I grew up up with (hack and slash) RPGs (Nox, The Revenant, Gothic, Fallout, Diablo 1) that never had any form of scaling. It's really immersive when an NPC tells you to REALLY watch out for that road or beast because it's fucking menacing. And then it really is. So many games are but power fantasies, which I don't mind by default but let me work towards it, especially if I already choose the higher difficulty setting.
Describes perfectly my gripe for like 99% of MMOs and other open world lite action rpgs.
Give me (at least some) areas that require a real thought-out build and equip or let me blast through it when I'm like 20 levels above. (and not a difficulty/world tier slider I can just turn down together with rarer loot I won't be needing any ways if the game allows to dial back the difficulty. So many games are just going in circles.)
I grew up up with (hack and slash) RPGs (Nox, The Revenant, Gothic, Fallout, Diablo 1) that never had any form of scaling. It's really immersive when an NPC tells you to REALLY watch out for that road or beast because it's fucking menacing. And then it really is. So many games are but power fantasies, which I don't mind by default but let me work towards it, especially if I already choose the higher difficulty setting.
Yep, agreed. There's this push with modern games that every build in a game like this has to be viable, and you combine that with loot that's designed in a way where everything just boils down to "power" as opposed to actual trade offs and the end result is everything just feeling too samey.
The progression and power scaling still feels like a WiP. This game is coming in hot. Even the skill system is kinda jank. Hopefully you aren’t flying through it in the full release.
Barbarian feels weak and floaty imo. Maybe a couple of impactful abilities. That rend and spin to win shit feels so Fukin floaty and boaring. Hopefully next weeks classes will be more balanced.
I switched to vet around level 10 because normal was too easy. All it does is make bosses more spongey though. Game is still ass easy. Downed the Den Mother on Vet first try with my Barb. Heard she was a tough fight for that class too.
my 4080 is undervolted. i'm actually getting slightly better performance than stock settings. well, i was getting higher benchmark scores undervolted compared to stock. i don't know if that translates to in game performance. i haven't bothered to check outside a couple benchmarks. one i did was cyberpunk and it was like maybe 2-3fps better but the benchmark isn't 100% representative of gameplay.
so while maintaing same performance i'm seeing about 4C cooler temps and anywhere up to 70W of power reduction! playing the Diablo IV beta my GPU doesn't go beyond 40C which is insane. my 2080 was often hitting 76-78C in games. both my 2080 and 4080 are founders edition models.
undervolting is super easy and people should give it a shot.
It really depends on how you end up in the silicon lottery. Some chips can hit their max clocks at lower voltages, while some need the extra juice.
The big improvement with undervolting is letting the chip stay running at the higher frequency without downclocking due to heat. From what I've seen from reviews and the like it looks like Nvidia designed the 4000 series to hit higher speeds, but the chips are doing great at lower power draw so you're never squeezing out that last bit of performance red lining them.
I didn't undervolt for a long time. But after finally researching into it, I found out just how simple it was and the improvements are staggering. The only concern would be crashes due to the component not being able to maintain the frequency you're attempting at the lower voltage. But since the voltages are lower you can't kill the chip due to excess heat and power draw since both of those are lower.
Den mother kicked my ass too hard, she slaps like 50% off my health bar per hit??? Also I don't understand why dungeons give aspect to only certain class and not something for the class finishing it...
on my 4090 i'm able to run it at 200% resolution with all the other settings maxed, no DLSS enabled, and I'm getting 120+ fps. It looks fantastic. Rest of my specs are 10700k, 64GB Ram, nvme storage, 1440p 240hz samsung curved ... odyssey g7 or something like that with HDR
Really enjoying the game. Wish crusader or paladin was in it but I'm sure that will be the inevitable DLC
I took off all my gear at lvl 25 and first boss I tested one shot me. Could the lvl scaling be better? Sure, but that’s not the same as the gear doing nothing which is what you stated.
Veteran difficulty is only the 2nd difficulty in the game and honestly it sounds like it’s difficult for some and easy for others. Sounds fairly balanced to me. Class balance needs work, but wanting the game to be super difficult at the beginning for a game that isn’t trying to be Dark Souls makes no sense.
Note: I enjoy both D2 and D3. I appreciate D2's commitment to grind but D3 is just a much more polished and fun game to pick up from time to time.
Story and atmosphere – clear return to form. D4 is much closer to D2 (reference) in graphics and art as well as story delivery. There is a lot to like about D3 story on paper, but the way dialogue was written coupled with cartoony graphics made the game unbearable. (D3 cinematics still hold up though) So far Diablo 4 is oppressively grimdark both from graphics perspective and from story perspective. The cutscenes are great and gone are pure exposition-dump characters. After finishing Act 1 – damn, if this keeps being this good it might be one of the better videogame stories for ARPGs.
The one that really got me was a small succubus subquest. Wife asks to find her husband who went with another woman into the woods. We find his skinless corpse, flayed alive and still breathing, begging for more like a maniac hanging from chains while his wife is watching him. We kill the succubus and return to the wife who lets her husband just hang in there letting us put him out from his misery by taking the dagger out of his torse if we want. That’s some sick stuff for a 5-minute sidequest and others are not much better.
Combat – it’s slower, more methodical and (so far) more grounded D3 combat. To me – it’s a major win. Whatever flaws Diablo 3 had - it got combat right. All the D2 purists who spam 2 spells over and over can go play Resurrected. Diablo 3 today feels better than any other ARPGs and D4 keeps it going: abilities are chunky, feel great, monster reactions are on point, just excellent stuff. Abilities generating, consuming mana, abilities with cooldown - it's all in there. Boss fights are a major improvement and can get hairy fast. You have to position yourself well and there is some skill involved. Hopefully it doesn’t become ability spamfest of D3 nephalem rifts at later level, but itemisation seems to indicate that it shouldn’t be the case.
Abilities and itemisation – so far so good? Yes, it’s closer to D3 again than D2, but without crazy multiplicative effects and set bonuses. Early progression is very straightforward – higher number, while-blue-yellow – better item, which is expected. Once you get a full set of yellows/oranges, then things start to get interesting with different stat, skill bonuses and other affixes to mix and match. There are fire/cold/lightning damage boosts, close vs far enemy boosts, vulnerability status and plenty of other concepts that I hope will create an interesting gear game towards level 50. I didn't dive too deep as I want to experience the finished version but I have hope.
As for the skill tree – early game decisions can be easily changed for a pittance and the tree is not very deep, which is also a plus in my book. I do not think having a dozen options makes the skill tree better, it's just another thing for theorycrafters to optimize. That's what PoE is for.
Social events work great. Seeing a few people in town is cool, random events for 1-4 people work well and world boss fight was epic. At the same time in open world and dungeons I was blissfully alone, so it’s not a concern for me. I enjoyed the variety and seamless social interaction.
A few downsides – some abilities feel clearly stronger than others and melee classes are once again undertuned compared to sorceress or archer rogue. Barb especially without gap closers is painful to play while a sorc with teleport and dodge can dish out so much more damage from 2 screens away. But even within same class – fireball is much worse than frozen orb and hydra is just OP compared to any spell on the same tier. Single target damage needs a major boost compared to AOE otherwise we’re back to farming sorceresses only.
Character customization is somewhat limited, especially hair and face variety. All the budget probably went to tattoo designers because those are exquisite.
Clearing out dungeons grants account-wide powers. First – I don’t like knowing which power each dungeon unlocks. I may be in minority on this, but it ruins the exploration aspect, especially when you play as sorc and the dungeon on minimap shows the unlocked ability applicable to druid only. It ruins the immersion and after Elden Ring I’d rather have that info just hidden. Also – the unlocked abilities seem quite niche, however as those are apparently account-wide unlocks I see how devs don’t want to make them too OP.
Performance is all over the place – mostly stuttering. I play on RTX3080 UW1440p and the game goes from 80FPS down to 40 with intense stutter all the time. Blizzard did say the build is not optimized so it’s at the end of my list.
Overall, bring on 6th of June (more like 10th of June once servers have stabilized), it seems like this one is a winner. A balancing and polishing pass in the next 3 months should clean up all my complaints. People loving D2 or PoE will not like this and it's fine. This is more streamlined, less overwhelming but - so far - much more fun.
really enjoying this game , gameplay and feel of it fantastic on both PS5 and high end PC pretty much identical other than PC allows you to hit 100fps plus regularly.
Question on pre orders, if I pre order the ultimate edition or premium edition on PC then get the reg edition on PS5 do all the extras and progression boosts transfer over? Are they account linked or platform linked?
I've only ever casually dabbled in the ARPG genre over the years. I did play Diablo 2 back in the day and really loved it and have fond memories. Diablo 3 I enjoyed well enough as a good time to do something with buddies. But other than the occasional Dawn of War and Diablo 3 or brief time with Path of Exile, I've not touched the genre. Definitely haven't played it of any consequence to consider myself and expert in the genre.
A buddy of mine and I were talking and we both kinda mentioned that it felt like an adult version of Gauntlet Legends: Dark Legacy back on the N64....or Diablo 2. I've VERY much enjoyed DIablo 4 as a casual fan of the genre and can't WAIT to play more and try out other classes.
I really like how easy it was to change your build and test out new things very quickly. It made me trying new things out very satisfying and interesting to try.
I don't understand all the systems and numbers in play, but I can say that I'm just interested enough to stick around and learn more.
I have been playing a lot of World of Warcraft with my wife these last 6 months or so and I see a lot of design influence and layover from the best bits of WoW in here and I like that. I essentially got to recreate my WoW character in Diablo and it was very fun to play. I really dig this combat. I feels just right for me.
The setting/tone and presentation in the game is very well done and feels very cohesive.
I've only ever casually dabbled in the ARPG genre over the years. I did play Diablo 2 back in the day and really loved it and have fond memories. Diablo 3 I enjoyed well enough as a good time to do something with buddies. But other than the occasional Dawn of War and Diablo 3 or brief time with Path of Exile, I've not touched the genre. Definitely haven't played it of any consequence to consider myself and expert in the genre.
A buddy of mine and I were talking and we both kinda mentioned that it felt like an adult version of Gauntlet Legends: Dark Legacy back on the N64....or Diablo 2. I've VERY much enjoyed DIablo 4 as a casual fan of the genre and can't WAIT to play more and try out other classes.
I really like how easy it was to change your build and test out new things very quickly. It made me trying new things out very satisfying and interesting to try.
I don't understand all the systems and numbers in play, but I can say that I'm just interested enough to stick around and learn more.
I have been playing a lot of World of Warcraft with my wife these last 6 months or so and I see a lot of design influence and layover from the best bits of WoW in here and I like that. I essentially got to recreate my WoW character in Diablo and it was very fun to play. I really dig this combat. I feels just right for me.
The setting/tone and presentation in the game is very well done and feels very cohesive.
I also love the fact that respecs are easy and costs nothing. This makes changing builds when you find a powerful weapon that is geared towards a build.
I took off all my gear at lvl 25 and first boss I tested one shot me. Could the lvl scaling be better? Sure, but that’s not the same as the gear doing nothing which is what you stated.
Honestly, I wouldn’t even waste my time engaging with him. He reeks of someone who went in looking for a reason to hate the game and latched onto “rreeeee leVeL sCaLiNg SuX”, then attacks anyone who disagrees by saying they’re in some magical “honeymoon phase”.
He went in looking for an axe to grind, found one, and is spending more time here bitching about it than playing. He’s done this for several pages and anyone who has played the game more than an hour knows his claim that “gear doesn’t matter” is utter bullshit.
Honestly, I wouldn’t even waste my time engaging with him. He reeks of someone who went in looking for a reason to hate the game and latched onto “rreeeee leVeL sCaLiNg SuX”, then attacks anyone who disagrees by saying they’re in some magical “honeymoon phase”.
He went in looking for an axe to grind, found one, and is spending more time here bitching about it than playing. He’s done this for several pages and anyone who has played the game more than an hour knows his claim that “gear doesn’t matter” is utter bullshit.
Not worth engaging with someone stating that gear doesn't matter in this game. You can mow through mobs without any effort when you finally find that piece of gear for your build.
I found a legend item that makes my frozen orbs explodes twice and since then, my sorc feels just like a D2 sorc mowing cows in hell in every dungeons
Not worth engaging with someone stating that gear doesn't matter in this game. You can mow through mobs without any effort when you finally find that piece of gear for your build.
I found a legend item that makes my frozen orbs explodes twice and since then, my sorc feels just like a D2 sorc mowing cows in hell in every dungeons
I mean...that's kind of the point to some degree isn't it? Reroll a different character and see how a different build plays. Legendary weapons play a big role in how you can drastically spec your chracter and THAT's what is interesting to me. I want to find out what unique charateristics I can find on gear.
I have a few legendarys that made me completely respec my rogue into a primary trap/vanish character and it's completely different to how I was playing before then and I find it very interesting at the possibilities now. And with how easy it is to respec, I can pop the gear on, respec, try it out for a bit, and if I didn't like it, go right back to what I did like.
Ran into a certain Diablo 1 enemy The Butcher himself in a random cave. Managed to fight back for about 20 seconds and then he murdered me and disappeared
Yeah I think I'm gonna be hooked on this game when it's released.
The easy respec ability saved my butt playing solo as a barb because I was able to switch my build from DPS to tank fairly easily. Stacking fortify health and damage reduction is pretty effective.
The easy respec ability saved my butt playing solo as a barb because I was able to switch my build from DPS to tank fairly easily. Stacking fortify health and damage reduction is pretty effective.
I wouldn’t get too used to doing that. It may work in the lower levels but, in a November IGN interview (9:25 mark if the link screws up), Rod Fergusson stated full respecs will reach a point where they’re so expensive that you’d be better off rolling a completely new character and starting over.
I wouldn’t get too used to doing that. It may work in the lower levels but, in a November IGN interview (9:25 mark if the link screws up), Rod Fergusson stated full respecs will reach a point where they’re so expensive that you’d be better off rolling a completely new character and starting over.
It is not. In D4 you have the option to spend stupid amounts of gold and respec. Is up to you if you want to do it. You have the option of investing on it, but you also want to be more careful in what you doing.
If you'd have free respec like in D3, then you end up having a dressing simulator rather than an RPG.
In D3 you just have the same character do everything because there's absolutely no incentive for you not to be fucking around since you're not tied to anything but your Set Items.
The direction they went with this is interesting, as there are not as many easy ways to regen life while in combat as there are in D2 and D3. You need to think more about your max life pool and damage mitigation. Well, with the early skills. I'm not sure what end game will look like.
I don’t want respec to be free (or so cheap as to be meaningless) like in D3, but I also don’t think it should become so cost prohibitive at end game that the alternative is to ditch the character you’ve spent dozens or hundreds of hours on and reroll a new one just to try a different build. That feels a bit too disrespectful of player’s time.
I can’t control gear drops and if I get an end game set for a build I’d like to switch to, I shouldn’t have to debate if it’s worth the expense, or grind up a second character of the same class.
Respecs should be neither cheap nor feel punitive.
His scaling complaints make no sense because difficulty tiers still exist, so if you want an easier time you play on the easier difficulty, where if you want a harder game you raise to the next difficulty level. It's not like there is just scaling and you have to play the same tier forever. If difficulty options didn't exist the scaling complaints would have merit, but they do exist.
This video doesn't back up your comment that you can wear level 1 gear and be fine because scaling is messed up, so I'm not sure how this helps your point. He literally never comes close to saying anything similar. In fact he never says scaling is messed up, he just says he doesn't like scaling.
Interesting. I never felt weaker or stronger. It was like I was the same power level the whole way through . Legendaries would give me insane burst DPS for certain skills, but if I wasn’t utilizing that my character at level 21 felt the same as he did at level 5.
Interesting. I never felt weaker or stronger. It was like I was the same power level the whole way through . Legendaries would give me insane burst DPS for certain skills, but if I wasn’t utilizing that my character at level 21 felt the same as he did at level 5.
When you say level scaling, is it scaled 1:1 so it's equally as tough as before? Or is it partially scaled so its a bit harder, but you'll still handily beat the monsters?
When you say level scaling, is it scaled 1:1 so it's equally as tough as before? Or is it partially scaled so its a bit harder, but you'll still handily beat the monsters?
Mostly it's 1 to 1 - if you are level 7 and then dinged level 8, then they are level 8. There are however, areas that are strictly a certain level without scaling. Kol Dogaran stronghold is always lol 25. My dumbass walked in there on my level 14 Hardcore Barbarian because of curiosity and stupidity, got locked in because it activated an arena wave and died.
Also, to answer your question - scaling becomes an issue when you level up 5 levels and still don't have a new weapon to replace your old one. You start doing shit for damage, enemies become bullet sponges and they hit you like a truck. Was very rough on my Barbarian on HC, I had to either A) Get lucky with loot, B) upgrade my weapon at the blacksmith or C) turn down difficulty from World Tier II to World Tier I.
I never felt starved for upgrades. It was like the game was purposely feeding me upgrades whenever I was due. I’ll have to see if the same happens when I level a Necro next weekend.
Seeing Diablo 2 fans talk about Diablo 4 repetitiveness and level scaling being bad when they just came from doing Mephisto for the umpteenth time in the same day is laughable and sad at the same time.
I never felt starved for upgrades. It was like the game was purposely feeding me upgrades whenever I was due. I’ll have to see if the same happens when I level a Necro next weekend.
Describes perfectly my gripe for like 99% of MMOs and other open world lite action rpgs.
Give me (at least some) areas that require a real thought-out build and equip or let me blast through it when I'm like 20 levels above. (and not a difficulty/world tier slider I can just turn down together with rarer loot I won't be needing any ways if the game allows to dial back the difficulty. So many games are just going in circles.)
I grew up up with (hack and slash) RPGs (Nox, The Revenant, Gothic, Fallout, Diablo 1) that never had any form of scaling. It's really immersive when an NPC tells you to REALLY watch out for that road or beast because it's fucking menacing. And then it really is. So many games are but power fantasies, which I don't mind by default but let me work towards it, especially if I already choose the higher difficulty setting.
The open world in the beta is more annoying than it is interesting and presents the same type of tedium that you'd find in a Musou game. I rarely use fast travel in open world games as I think that mostly defeats the purpose of playing that style of game, but I did so constantly in the beta as to not have to run past hundreds of mobs. Drops in D3 could drastically change your power output. I got a ton of good drops in D4 and it didn't seem to make much difference at all save for enhancement (%chance of magical bubble when hit and not healthy, extra hydra when healthy, etc.).
His scaling complaints make no sense because difficulty tiers still exist, so if you want an easier time you play on the easier difficulty, where if you want a harder game you raise to the next difficulty level.
That doesn't solve the problem of a lack of feeling of progression. Leveling up should make you feel stronger, that you suggest to turn down the difficulty to get this is silly, it should be tied to leveling up.
It's a shame Diablo doesnt have stat upgrades like Elden Ring when leveling, the customisation in that game is so much superior.
Kept playing as barb, had an easier time than with rogue.
Barb needs a lot of protection buffs (I have the taunt one), and I'm doing a rend/bleed build with thorns, so far just melting through stuff. Only level 13 though, maybe it gets bad at higher level.
But technically, as enemies scale with your level, you become weaker when leveling up.
