So, folks who played the end game closed beta... could you discern any changes to the game between then and the beta weekends? I know the content was far more limited, but I'm just wondering if you could tell any differences to the game overall or in the early game specifically.
It is still under NDA. They eventually lifted the press NDA, and said they would be talking about endgame soon so… soon?
a quick jaunt over to the official forums showed many people complaining about how 'woke' the character designs are so maybe they're improving?
The first "Select Your Class" screen definitely likes to throw a lot of non-generic-white-fantasy-race looks at you from my experience. That's the first thing I would assume is being complained about. Overall they seemed to be doing pretty good on the "diverse options for your character" front.
+2
surrealitychecklonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered Userregular
the character designs are way better*
*abs
+4
KwoaruConfident SmirkFlawless Golden PecsRegistered Userregular
What is the state of the Blizzard Cringe-o-Meter of Problematicness these days?
I’ve been avoiding giving them any money for a couple years now, should I carry on or is it safe to get hype for a new Diablo?
As far as I am aware Blizzard is still a crap company that doesn't seem to have really resolved any of the issues that came up over the last couple years, if thats what you mean
Still not enough minions. I want a skele Necro to feel like playing an rts. Double the amount you can have and let us use the world boss zoom out at all times.
So, folks who played the end game closed beta... could you discern any changes to the game between then and the beta weekends? I know the content was far more limited, but I'm just wondering if you could tell any differences to the game overall or in the early game specifically.
It is still under NDA. They eventually lifted the press NDA, and said they would be talking about endgame soon so… soon?
Still not enough minions. I want a skele Necro to feel like playing an rts. Double the amount you can have and let us use the world boss zoom out at all times.
I really want them to let us zoom out more.
The first character I went with was bow rogue and the zoom level was really frustrating.
Still not enough minions. I want a skele Necro to feel like playing an rts. Double the amount you can have and let us use the world boss zoom out at all times.
I really want them to let us zoom out more.
The first character I went with was bow rogue and the zoom level was really frustrating.
Yeah, it’s weird that you can target enemies off-screen, but I was doing it anyway.
So, folks who played the end game closed beta... could you discern any changes to the game between then and the beta weekends? I know the content was far more limited, but I'm just wondering if you could tell any differences to the game overall or in the early game specifically.
It is still under NDA. They eventually lifted the press NDA, and said they would be talking about endgame soon so… soon?
Ah, I didn't realize the NDA was still going.
I am totally changing the subject and absolutely not answering the question you asked.
It is completely unrelated.
There's a lot of people complaining about the simplicity of dungeons and how repetitive the objectives are. I just think that's something that is interesting. How cool they look might not be a sufficient replacement for diversity. But consider GRs in D3, and how some changes to hue, lighting, and enemy types can help reduce repetitiveness, and how having higher fidelity in the designs and a somewhat larger base pool of visual designs might be beneficial, and help mask the reality that is diablo games where you spend inordinate amount of times going through a shuffling set of rooms doing mostly the same thing.
From the open beta it sure seems like there might not be a lot of variation in their procedural tiles. Whether this is true or not, I think it would help to remember that if you've played any significant amount of D3, how few "chunks" any given map type has is actually extremely limited.
And whether or not D1/2s style of map generation is/was better or even remotely interesting and not just a visual mess of grids, is purely up to personal taste.
Also, not at all related to that, it's pretty cool that even if it is ultimately repetitive like anything in arpgs eventually become, it's nice that D3 has the end game objectives pretty easy to understand and complete, so you pretty much never feel unsure of what you should do next. For sure different players will vibe with that differently, but I personally think that's pretty universally better than "ummm...I guess Baal?" It would make sense for them to carry on clear objectives in future live service games.
These are just some stray observations that I'm posting, and quoting your post was mostly an accident, and no reason to think what I'm talking about is at all related.
All in all I think, tangentially, that it's important to remember that the moment to moment gameplay is far more important than the fine details of what specific color or shape the dungeon that you're slaying demons and zombies in.
Still not enough minions. I want a skele Necro to feel like playing an rts. Double the amount you can have and let us use the world boss zoom out at all times.
I really want them to let us zoom out more.
The first character I went with was bow rogue and the zoom level was really frustrating.
Yeah, it’s weird that you can target enemies off-screen, but I was doing it anyway.
I'm kinda confused why I've seen some variation of this several times.
Off the top of my head, my first thought is in D3, sentry DHs where you are trying to throw them out at the edge to keep enemies away from you. Heck, that's how you do one of the set dungeons.
And in D2, if you played a minion Necro (not viable once immunities come into play, alas) or even a hydra Sorc, your things are constantly shooting and chasing things off screen. It's the least irritating way to handle the damn flayers in act3.
I know for sure even back in D1, you could toss fireballs everywhere and regularly kill things you couldn't see.
It's not really a new thing, and isn't that unusual and I'm genuinely confused why folks are thinking it's weird.
Still not enough minions. I want a skele Necro to feel like playing an rts. Double the amount you can have and let us use the world boss zoom out at all times.
I really want them to let us zoom out more.
The first character I went with was bow rogue and the zoom level was really frustrating.
Yeah, it’s weird that you can target enemies off-screen, but I was doing it anyway.
I'm kinda confused why I've seen some variation of this several times.
Off the top of my head, my first thought is in D3, sentry DHs where you are trying to throw them out at the edge to keep enemies away from you. Heck, that's how you do one of the set dungeons.
And in D2, if you played a minion Necro (not viable once immunities come into play, alas) or even a hydra Sorc, your things are constantly shooting and chasing things off screen. It's the least irritating way to handle the damn flayers in act3.
I know for sure even back in D1, you could toss fireballs everywhere and regularly kill things you couldn't see.
It's not really a new thing, and isn't that unusual and I'm genuinely confused why folks are thinking it's weird.
This time it felt really apparent as I was shooting at a minion while I would’ve rather shot at an elite off-screen. I had the impression in the previous games that there was a little bit more range that you could see. I have played quite a few games that have a maximum targeting range circle around you, and for some reason I was missing that, making it feel like I was closer to everything else.
It was weird going into a cellar, shooting something with multiple shots and seeing “cellar cleared” when I never saw an enemy.
It was nice, but felt weird.
Still not enough minions. I want a skele Necro to feel like playing an rts. Double the amount you can have and let us use the world boss zoom out at all times.
I really want them to let us zoom out more.
The first character I went with was bow rogue and the zoom level was really frustrating.
Yeah, it’s weird that you can target enemies off-screen, but I was doing it anyway.
I'm kinda confused why I've seen some variation of this several times.
Off the top of my head, my first thought is in D3, sentry DHs where you are trying to throw them out at the edge to keep enemies away from you. Heck, that's how you do one of the set dungeons.
And in D2, if you played a minion Necro (not viable once immunities come into play, alas) or even a hydra Sorc, your things are constantly shooting and chasing things off screen. It's the least irritating way to handle the damn flayers in act3.
I know for sure even back in D1, you could toss fireballs everywhere and regularly kill things you couldn't see.
It's not really a new thing, and isn't that unusual and I'm genuinely confused why folks are thinking it's weird.
Being able to attack things offscreen isn't new.
But I think feeling like the camera is kinda too close and that long range feels almost pointless probably is.
And in D3 related news, the Gibbering Gemstone can go to hell (insofar as you can in a Diablo game, given you are probably there already). Evening 2 of grinding is producing nothing so far.
And in D3 related news, the Gibbering Gemstone can go to hell (insofar as you can in a Diablo game, given you are probably there already). Evening 2 of grinding is producing nothing so far.
I believe the Gibbering Gemstone took me from Paragon 900 to 901, just running towards that cave and checking inside. A whole paragon level!
Still not enough minions. I want a skele Necro to feel like playing an rts. Double the amount you can have and let us use the world boss zoom out at all times.
I really want them to let us zoom out more.
The first character I went with was bow rogue and the zoom level was really frustrating.
Yeah, it’s weird that you can target enemies off-screen, but I was doing it anyway.
I'm kinda confused why I've seen some variation of this several times.
Off the top of my head, my first thought is in D3, sentry DHs where you are trying to throw them out at the edge to keep enemies away from you. Heck, that's how you do one of the set dungeons.
And in D2, if you played a minion Necro (not viable once immunities come into play, alas) or even a hydra Sorc, your things are constantly shooting and chasing things off screen. It's the least irritating way to handle the damn flayers in act3.
I know for sure even back in D1, you could toss fireballs everywhere and regularly kill things you couldn't see.
It's not really a new thing, and isn't that unusual and I'm genuinely confused why folks are thinking it's weird.
Necromancers get a curse at level 1 that breaks physical damage immunity. Summon necromancers are one of the few builds that can kill every enemy on Hell difficulty as a result -- it's still fairly slow going on the phys immunes, but they're not immune to your skeletons' damage once you cast amplify damage on them. The standard melee skeletons build typically takes corpse explosion as well, which is 50% fire damage (and if you're not doing that, probably skeleton mages which aren't great but hey different damage types). They're super viable in Hell.
Played rogue this weekend and got them to level 20. I did enjoy what I saw so far, lots of little things to collect and unlock that will make leveling alts later on much quicker but I didnt see anything ground breaking.. I liked the change to town portals and potions.. not quite sure how I feel about the event currency that drops. Do we know if we will always end up seeing other players in the hub city/events because that is when the game really chugged for me. Out in the open world it was fine but as soon as another player showed it I would get hitching and what not (probably didnt help that it was always a necro and their entourage)
Did get a couple legendaries including a bow (which turned the Rogue melee ability into a 360 attack which did 20% more damage) I thought it was weird that it did that especially on a bow but then remembered that it was always equipped so you would get the perk if you werent using it.
I ended up mainly as a bow rogue and played with the caltrops and poison trap (which work great together I found) but I had also played necro for a little and that was just facerollingly easy.
I liked it enough that I felt I could get good bang for my buck so I did preorder it which I sort of hate myself for since I really cant stand Activision/Blizzard anymore. Diablo is like that one thing that I have played since it first came out and aside from the real money auction house in 3 and immortal which I never bothered with I always enjoyed.
Switch SW-6182-1526-0041
0
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
I was wondering if the camera being closer in was a game designer reaction to the really nice character skins? So you can see them better.
That and to help invoke the sense of claustrophobia.
+2
Kane Red RobeMaster of MagicArcanusRegistered Userregular
We really enjoyed the diversity of body types the characters have. Having the Druid be a figurative bear who turns into a literal bear is aces ("I want to scale him like a mountain" -Mrs. Red Robe). I really enjoyed that the necromancers are gaunt as fuck, when was the last time a female character archetype was flat chested without being a kid (or a thousand year old who just looks like a kid, sigh)?
As a fat guy who really doesn't want to be fat, the fixed body types do mean Druid is just Not An Option for me to play, but that's fine. If you're not going to let us choose then it's good that the fixed options are diverse.
+3
MonwynApathy's a tragedy, and boredom is a crime.A little bit of everything, all of the time.Registered Userregular
I played this for a few hours, is this game secretly just Diablo 3?
The gameplay is just so so similar.
It hits half of my wishlist for a Diablo game but I am starting to think my gameplay wishlist my have been more important then my narrative and tone wishlist. Is it possible to make a Diablo that actually has interesting combat or is that anathema to the ARPG loot grind?
You be clear I will probably buy this and play the hell out of this. It just feels like there is a much better game out there that learns from what From has been doing and makes a game with more challenging and engaging combat.
From isn't making ARPG loot grinds. I really don't understand the comparison here. I say this as someone with 150+ hours and 100% cheevo's in Elden Ring. They aren't even remotely comparable games. I don't want challenging combat in Diablo, I want to create a murder machine that eventually moves through the hardest difficulty levels like a blender sopping up the orange/green loot to try and min/max my build to do it two seconds faster the next time. That's the point of these games.
I get it, that is what you’re coming to the game for, and obviously a lot of folks agree with you. It’s nice to not have every game require full engagement all the time. But for me modern Diablo edges the line between relaxing flow state game and slot machine, add in modern Activision monetization and that line starts to shift too much to cynical slot machine.
It’s also not what Diablo has to be. Diablo 2 has normal enemies that are super dangerous and require you to pay a little more attention. Diablo 1 has methodical combat that is more dependent on positioning and loot that is more sparse and meaningful. The style of Diablo we are seeing in 4 is very much a continuation of the design philosophy of 3.
As for the From comparison, I don’t think they are dissimilar as you may think, but more specifically the thing those games nail is that the moment to moment combat is interesting and engaging. Additionally the balance of player skill to character level and loot is balanced to make player skill much more important.
Maybe it’s something best left to indies to explore, but I feel like going back to the earliest reveal of 3 Blizzard teased a more player skill oriented version of the Diablo 3 combat loop that they must have shifted away from.
Eitir below is a good example of what a more player skill tuned isometric ARPG could look like,
<snip>
I barely remember Diablo 1, so I can't speak to that. Diablo 2 though was absolutely a blender loot fest once you got your build done. Top tier characters in that game were all about waltzing through the hardest content as fast as possible for drops, farming the bosses at speed, etc. Diablo 3 did not create that game loop. The faster you could get a build to "ignore mechanics, mulch everything" the better. Loot based ARPG's, even shooters like Destiny, have come down to "how fast can we puree this content?". I'm sure some indie games have done other things in the space, that's awesome...but I think there is some rose tinted goggles going on here if we're going to try and retcon D2 as some kind of deep combat game that didn't devolve in to pure John Deere mode.
As someone going through D2R solo self-found right now, there are absolutely regular-ass enemies that will fuck you up - Gloams, pygmies, the fucking scarabs, even the liches can be annoying in large enough groups. The thing that gets overlooked is that once you're in "farm for drops" mode you mostly teleport past all that crap, either because you're natively a sorc or because you have either Enigma or a staff with teleport charges on it.
You can run past things or just tele past if you take the time to get a tele stick once you are in nightmare if you want. Those mobs never really are an issue unless you are trying to do the whole story.
Jubal77 on
0
MonwynApathy's a tragedy, and boredom is a crime.A little bit of everything, all of the time.Registered Userregular
The character creation campfire seems to either be randomly generated, or perhaps it loads from a preset pool of options.
Either way, I definitely took notice the first time I pulled up character creation and all 5 members around the campfire were black. Of course, I'm not a racist, and don't have a problem with representation of different groups of people, so my response was "hey, everyone around the campfire is black" and not one of outrage. My response was casual observation. And the people who are responding to things like that with outrage... well... they're the problem.
I just want to throw an endorsement out there for Last Epoch as a "while you wait" game. It just hit 0.9 in Early Access, they added online play and they are not wiping characters for 1.0 release (although it sounds like they're doing seasons). It has 5 classes, each with 2-3 'mastery' classes (a few are NYI). My favorite things:
Skill specialization: each skill has its own skill tree. Sort of like runes but way more. Change from physical to cold damage, add more projectiles, decrease the AOE while increasing the damage, add bleed stacks, all kinds of options for each skill. You only get to specialize 5 skills total and have 5 bar slots, so that's basically what you're running with.
Loot filter: A really detailed system for making your own loot filter. Hide all commons. Hide all magic items UNLESS they have affixes A,B,C or D. Show all rares with affixes greater than tier 3. Highlight (big red text) rares with certain affixes. It's kind of too much, but luckily you can import filters too.
Throwing builds are good?! At least 2 classes have viable throwing paths.
The devs are clearly plugged into what's going on with current and former action RPGs, I've seen them talk on dev streams about how the D4 release is going to heavily impact their own release.
I just want to throw an endorsement out there for Last Epoch as a "while you wait" game. It just hit 0.9 in Early Access, they added online play and they are not wiping characters for 1.0 release (although it sounds like they're doing seasons). It has 5 classes, each with 2-3 'mastery' classes (a few are NYI). My favorite things:
Skill specialization: each skill has its own skill tree. Sort of like runes but way more. Change from physical to cold damage, add more projectiles, decrease the AOE while increasing the damage, add bleed stacks, all kinds of options for each skill. You only get to specialize 5 skills total and have 5 bar slots, so that's basically what you're running with.
Loot filter: A really detailed system for making your own loot filter. Hide all commons. Hide all magic items UNLESS they have affixes A,B,C or D. Show all rares with affixes greater than tier 3. Highlight (big red text) rares with certain affixes. It's kind of too much, but luckily you can import filters too.
Throwing builds are good?! At least 2 classes have viable throwing paths.
The devs are clearly plugged into what's going on with current and former action RPGs, I've seen them talk on dev streams about how the D4 release is going to heavily impact their own release.
Seconded. Plus you can make a very strong hands off necro which is really nice because even in d4 they are trying to get you too push more buttons.
I really wish they would open up the body type options for the classes. The variety is awesome, but "big burly dude" just isn't my druid character fantasy (same with WoW where the Kul'Tirans get super cool druid forms but I'm just not into the human model's look).
On that note -- are there only two different voice actors? My Necro and Sorcerer looked and sounded exactly the same, but I didn't try out the other classes.
Part of me really wants my usual trio to have diversity amongst the classes.
Part of me is deeply amused by the fucking ARMY that would be unleashed on the game by a duo or trio of Necromancers.
With the right Necronomicon options and legendaries I was rocking 7 skirmishes, 5 mages, a golem, and yours truly.
Times 3 or 4?
Absurd.
When something dies in a necro party, is each necro able to use the corpse individually? Or is it D2 style where first to the cast burns the corpse?
Corpses are individual per Necromancer, for the brief moment I was partied up with another Necro we tested it and we could each explode each corpse individually. We're not 100% certain but we think corpses generated by your skills are only there for you as well.
So, folks who played the end game closed beta... could you discern any changes to the game between then and the beta weekends? I know the content was far more limited, but I'm just wondering if you could tell any differences to the game overall or in the early game specifically.
The end game beta was focused around doing end game stuff and gave you a higher level character, so no idea about the early game. In terms of skills, affixes and aspects being changed/new, there really wasn't anything different that I could discern from my time in closed. The only thing I did notice is that Vine Creeper still randomly stops working until you relog, so that hasn't been fixed for months... The classes that felt good at higher level also felt good at lower level during this open beta, though maybe that's just my personal preference showing.
With five more acts after the one in the beta as per the achievements list, and five more zones to match, I think we'll more than cap by the end of a run through unless XP is drastically lower in release.
My guess is that 50+ is going to take much longer. The paragon board is an endgame progression system, not something I'd expect to be completed in a single run through the campaign.
Yeah, you are not going to hit lvl 100 by the end of the campaign. 50-100 is much more grindy.
Kane Red RobeMaster of MagicArcanusRegistered Userregular
I'm a bit annoyed that the higher difficulty tiers appear to be locked behind completing the campaign. Tier 2 was definitely not sufficiently challenging.
The "mark as junk" feature seemed largely useless to me. I think the opposite might have been more useful for me, the ability to mark something as not junk that prevents it from being mass salvaged.
I'm a bit annoyed that the higher difficulty tiers appear to be locked behind completing the campaign. Tier 2 was definitely not sufficiently challenging.
It seems like there's a lot of things like that, for all practical purposes you will probably need to take at least one character through the entire campaign.
I mean I hope its only one and unlocks for everyone else on the account, because even mounts seem to be campaign locked well past act 1.
rahkeesh2000 on
+1
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
I'm a bit annoyed that the higher difficulty tiers appear to be locked behind completing the campaign. Tier 2 was definitely not sufficiently challenging.
Also note that besides any other tuning legendary drop rates were increased in the beta. So that would also have an effect on difficulty besides just being the first act which would normally be the easiest part anyway.
I'm a bit annoyed that the higher difficulty tiers appear to be locked behind completing the campaign. Tier 2 was definitely not sufficiently challenging.
The fact that the tooltip for Tier 3 stated it was for level 50-70 players makes me think even if you unlocked it, it might not be playable when leveling up a character. I guess we'll have to see if it's like the modern D3 high difficulties (up to T6) where they are technically doable while leveling if you have good enough twink gear.
Also keep in mind that supposedly gear drops were tuned way up for the beta. I suspect leveling your first character at launch in Tier 2 will be more challenging than what we experienced in the beta because you, on average, won't have as good of gear for your level.
Posts
It is still under NDA. They eventually lifted the press NDA, and said they would be talking about endgame soon so… soon?
The first "Select Your Class" screen definitely likes to throw a lot of non-generic-white-fantasy-race looks at you from my experience. That's the first thing I would assume is being complained about. Overall they seemed to be doing pretty good on the "diverse options for your character" front.
*abs
As far as I am aware Blizzard is still a crap company that doesn't seem to have really resolved any of the issues that came up over the last couple years, if thats what you mean
I find it hard to see Diablo 4 lacking ambition and reports of higher turnover of talent driven by poor working conditions as unrelated.
Part of me is deeply amused by the fucking ARMY that would be unleashed on the game by a duo or trio of Necromancers.
With the right Necronomicon options and legendaries I was rocking 7 skirmishes, 5 mages, a golem, and yours truly.
Times 3 or 4?
Absurd.
Even without the summons you're powerful, and then the summons themselves are real tough and do decent damage. You just steamroll over everything.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
I really want them to let us zoom out more.
The first character I went with was bow rogue and the zoom level was really frustrating.
I am totally changing the subject and absolutely not answering the question you asked.
It is completely unrelated.
There's a lot of people complaining about the simplicity of dungeons and how repetitive the objectives are. I just think that's something that is interesting. How cool they look might not be a sufficient replacement for diversity. But consider GRs in D3, and how some changes to hue, lighting, and enemy types can help reduce repetitiveness, and how having higher fidelity in the designs and a somewhat larger base pool of visual designs might be beneficial, and help mask the reality that is diablo games where you spend inordinate amount of times going through a shuffling set of rooms doing mostly the same thing.
From the open beta it sure seems like there might not be a lot of variation in their procedural tiles. Whether this is true or not, I think it would help to remember that if you've played any significant amount of D3, how few "chunks" any given map type has is actually extremely limited.
And whether or not D1/2s style of map generation is/was better or even remotely interesting and not just a visual mess of grids, is purely up to personal taste.
Also, not at all related to that, it's pretty cool that even if it is ultimately repetitive like anything in arpgs eventually become, it's nice that D3 has the end game objectives pretty easy to understand and complete, so you pretty much never feel unsure of what you should do next. For sure different players will vibe with that differently, but I personally think that's pretty universally better than "ummm...I guess Baal?" It would make sense for them to carry on clear objectives in future live service games.
These are just some stray observations that I'm posting, and quoting your post was mostly an accident, and no reason to think what I'm talking about is at all related.
All in all I think, tangentially, that it's important to remember that the moment to moment gameplay is far more important than the fine details of what specific color or shape the dungeon that you're slaying demons and zombies in.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
I'm kinda confused why I've seen some variation of this several times.
Off the top of my head, my first thought is in D3, sentry DHs where you are trying to throw them out at the edge to keep enemies away from you. Heck, that's how you do one of the set dungeons.
And in D2, if you played a minion Necro (not viable once immunities come into play, alas) or even a hydra Sorc, your things are constantly shooting and chasing things off screen. It's the least irritating way to handle the damn flayers in act3.
I know for sure even back in D1, you could toss fireballs everywhere and regularly kill things you couldn't see.
It's not really a new thing, and isn't that unusual and I'm genuinely confused why folks are thinking it's weird.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
It was weird going into a cellar, shooting something with multiple shots and seeing “cellar cleared” when I never saw an enemy.
It was nice, but felt weird.
Being able to attack things offscreen isn't new.
But I think feeling like the camera is kinda too close and that long range feels almost pointless probably is.
I believe the Gibbering Gemstone took me from Paragon 900 to 901, just running towards that cave and checking inside. A whole paragon level!
Necromancers get a curse at level 1 that breaks physical damage immunity. Summon necromancers are one of the few builds that can kill every enemy on Hell difficulty as a result -- it's still fairly slow going on the phys immunes, but they're not immune to your skeletons' damage once you cast amplify damage on them. The standard melee skeletons build typically takes corpse explosion as well, which is 50% fire damage (and if you're not doing that, probably skeleton mages which aren't great but hey different damage types). They're super viable in Hell.
Did get a couple legendaries including a bow (which turned the Rogue melee ability into a 360 attack which did 20% more damage) I thought it was weird that it did that especially on a bow but then remembered that it was always equipped so you would get the perk if you werent using it.
I ended up mainly as a bow rogue and played with the caltrops and poison trap (which work great together I found) but I had also played necro for a little and that was just facerollingly easy.
I liked it enough that I felt I could get good bang for my buck so I did preorder it which I sort of hate myself for since I really cant stand Activision/Blizzard anymore. Diablo is like that one thing that I have played since it first came out and aside from the real money auction house in 3 and immortal which I never bothered with I always enjoyed.
Which I am always in support of!
Seeing my sweet character model in any game is always of utmost importance to me.
That and to help invoke the sense of claustrophobia.
As someone going through D2R solo self-found right now, there are absolutely regular-ass enemies that will fuck you up - Gloams, pygmies, the fucking scarabs, even the liches can be annoying in large enough groups. The thing that gets overlooked is that once you're in "farm for drops" mode you mostly teleport past all that crap, either because you're natively a sorc or because you have either Enigma or a staff with teleport charges on it.
Either way, I definitely took notice the first time I pulled up character creation and all 5 members around the campfire were black. Of course, I'm not a racist, and don't have a problem with representation of different groups of people, so my response was "hey, everyone around the campfire is black" and not one of outrage. My response was casual observation. And the people who are responding to things like that with outrage... well... they're the problem.
Skill specialization: each skill has its own skill tree. Sort of like runes but way more. Change from physical to cold damage, add more projectiles, decrease the AOE while increasing the damage, add bleed stacks, all kinds of options for each skill. You only get to specialize 5 skills total and have 5 bar slots, so that's basically what you're running with.
Loot filter: A really detailed system for making your own loot filter. Hide all commons. Hide all magic items UNLESS they have affixes A,B,C or D. Show all rares with affixes greater than tier 3. Highlight (big red text) rares with certain affixes. It's kind of too much, but luckily you can import filters too.
Throwing builds are good?! At least 2 classes have viable throwing paths.
The devs are clearly plugged into what's going on with current and former action RPGs, I've seen them talk on dev streams about how the D4 release is going to heavily impact their own release.
Seconded. Plus you can make a very strong hands off necro which is really nice because even in d4 they are trying to get you too push more buttons.
On that note -- are there only two different voice actors? My Necro and Sorcerer looked and sounded exactly the same, but I didn't try out the other classes.
Corpses are individual per Necromancer, for the brief moment I was partied up with another Necro we tested it and we could each explode each corpse individually. We're not 100% certain but we think corpses generated by your skills are only there for you as well.
The end game beta was focused around doing end game stuff and gave you a higher level character, so no idea about the early game. In terms of skills, affixes and aspects being changed/new, there really wasn't anything different that I could discern from my time in closed. The only thing I did notice is that Vine Creeper still randomly stops working until you relog, so that hasn't been fixed for months... The classes that felt good at higher level also felt good at lower level during this open beta, though maybe that's just my personal preference showing.
Yeah, you are not going to hit lvl 100 by the end of the campaign. 50-100 is much more grindy.
It seems like there's a lot of things like that, for all practical purposes you will probably need to take at least one character through the entire campaign.
I mean I hope its only one and unlocks for everyone else on the account, because even mounts seem to be campaign locked well past act 1.
Also note that besides any other tuning legendary drop rates were increased in the beta. So that would also have an effect on difficulty besides just being the first act which would normally be the easiest part anyway.
Also keep in mind that supposedly gear drops were tuned way up for the beta. I suspect leveling your first character at launch in Tier 2 will be more challenging than what we experienced in the beta because you, on average, won't have as good of gear for your level.