I don’t particularly find it a problem, but there’s a difference between having the world auto-scale and actively choosing to up the difficulty (and rewards) after it becomes too easy. The latter directly feeds the power fantasy.
Let’s say you are at power level X. When you level up, enemies get 10% more stats or some arbitrary number. You might get one node for extra 3% crit or something similar (this is 35+). Then you play catchup with gear, and by the time you make some reasonable upgrades you already got another 3 levels, and enemies kept getting stronger for each.
Isn’t that the same as D3 Adventure Mode? Or a lot of the genre? You find some gear and it makes you significantly more powerful for the next dozen levels. Then you get even again or a bit behind until that next big loot upgrade comes. I don’t usually attribute level as power in these game (unless some level was a lock on a particular new loot tier).
The only difference I am maybe seeing is that D4 keeps you closer to “power X” whereas D3 seemed to keep you well above “power X” at all times.
I didn’t play D3 much so I cannot comment on that. But in PoE for example you can get bonkers gear at lvl 70 and keep it all the way. And you can easily get to endgame on mid-tier pieces.
D4 feels too controlled, and expects you to slog through content before you get out of the mud again with a decent upgrade.
Thanks! Things have been going better since I brought the teleport enchantment and slotted it in ice shards, as you just suggested.
I also started moving slower and casting more conservatively.
I was able to complete the cathedral dungeon and just cleared a side dungeon on nightmare, got a few sacred armor pieces,
More armor than what I have, but less good aspects. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to handle nightmare so I’m relieved 😅
Have to say, this Rogue trap-build that I’ve got going really came into her own in these levels 50+. Suddenly, the only boss that is of any consequence seems to be The Butcher, which I find very weird and a bit frustrating. I blew through the rest of the campaign since my last post about it, barely popping potions where I used to have close battles with bosses. After the campaign was over, I did the Tree of Whispers bounty for a nice reward (although nothing that matched my build, unfortunately). Now, I guess I have to do that capstone dungeon to head into WTIII, or do some more stuff in WTII, whatever works best.
Maybe I’ll start another character. I’m in a groove with this rogue, which I’ve never had to respec a single point on. Those deaths to Andariel and The Butcher were the last. Not sure what would await into the higher levels, but I’d like to at least take on a World Boss with this character and unlock Nightmare, so those are some minor goals to aim for. I found it amusing that I fought Ashava single-handedly in my trek to Lilith. Must be the little cousin.
The story is probably one of the best for any of the Diablos. I’d happily run the campaign itself again with each of the classes to come. And I love how fleshed out the side quests are, even if most of them follow the same sort of fetch or kill type styles.
i literally did the dungeon to get edge masters last night.
It’s funny how much different we see this game. I’m playing a earth magic Roy Munson Druid on T2, poison creepers and then bowl down the mobs with my rock (earth spike, landslide, no pets or transformations). I am level 40 and just finished Act 1. I don’t find it a slog at all and am having a blast. There is so much more to explore in the first area let alone all the other areas. The legendary’s seem to drop at a fair rate. With Elites it can get very chaotic and dangerous which is exactly what I want. Sure I die a little but it never feels unfair. D4 is great to this guy,
It took me a bit to find a Druid build that was my personal play style. I use the bear basic, pulverize core, wolf and bear defense, and wolf and creeper companion. Pulverize scales with health and with fortify. I’m almost always at healthy, feel tanky, but can really lay out some hurt on cooldowns.
Not exactly. Leveling to the cap (70) was only the beginning in D3, and Adventure Mode was where you spent nearly all of your time. You had a lot of direct control over overall difficulty (Torment I-XVI) and Greater Rift difficulty (1-120 or so).
Perhaps the biggest difference is that in D3, most of your time was spent split between bounties and rifts, skewing later on towards nearly all Greater Rifts. In rifts, mobs and map sets were pulled from any and all acts, and difficulty would range from cakewalk to insane, even within the same Torment or GR level. That was because it was all about affixes. While as you got more powerful (more Paragon levels, but more importantly, more of the top-end gear) you could still have tough fights, you could easily find a sweet spot for grinding or just blowing stuff up by adjusting the Torment/GR levels, or by getting lucky with affixes. In general, except for the really extreme stuff (and doing Hardcore), you felt like a walking death god usually.
D4’s system may well pan out nicely. At the moment, I think there is some compression of the experience as we haven’t even hit the first season yet, a lot of people are still leveling, and there is little data really on how the masses are going to interact with the game when everyone is in adventure mode.
Yeah, exactly how I feel. I got my Sorc to lvl 30 this evening, just by doing (part of) the main quest, and I am very much digging it. I seriously doubt my build (which is mostly Crackling Energy Lighting with some frost on the side) is in any way optimal, and yes: things get hairy occasionally and I may even die every now and then. which is exactly what I want: I don’t want to breeze through stuff, I want to feel like I have to work for it, and that there is a certain amount of risk of dying involved. In retrospect, this is what made me bounce of WOW: I knew I just could not die from regular mobs, so I had to kite a load of them to even have a bit of a challenge. Not so in D4: I need to be on my toes (which, as described above, leads to dry eyes because I don’t blink enough).
Anyway: still in act 1, only lvl 30, and after that: loads of other classes to try, and I haven’t even touched the Fire Sorc yet, so lots of other builds to try as well. So for me: perfect game. But I guess I’m not the regular audience here…
I find nearly all half-way decent ARPGs are fun to level up in, and that’s where I generally have the most fun. Diablo is a bit different, as my years with D3 have conditioned me to view the initial leveling as a one-time gateway to get to the long-term game of gear grinding. I still enjoy the leveling a lot more though, for one play through at least.
25 Druid. Enjoying very much on WT2. Dying occasionally but have got my rotation down and really enjoy it. Can stay back with my wolves or go all tanky with Pulverize and some other melee skills. Love exploring and doing side quests. Having a really good time. Finished Act 1 and onto 2. Can see replaying this campaign mode compared to D3. Just the open world aspect makes it more enjoyable.
I think there is a vocal minority that are dragging some baggage from past Diablo’s or personal expectations and while there is some amount of criticism from even players enjoying the game, most seem to be okay with it. Maybe some don’t want a honeymoon or only want 1 day of one, the rest seem to be having a good time for what it is.
The grind for better gear is usually the least enjoyable aspect of the game for me. It’s one reason it was so strange that D3 Adventure mode and bopping up the Torment levels was something I really got into. It wasn’t for gear as much as it was the visceral feeling of combat.
Right now, I get that same feeling in D4 dungeons. I just capped off (pun intended) the weekend by completing the WT2 capstone dungeon. My rogue absolutely shredded it.
Then I took the opportunity to battle Avarice, a world boss. No deaths and our group seemed to easily manage it on WT2.
So, I still enjoy the low level advancement and gear changing, but I get the feeling the higher level dungeon runs are going to be the new Adventure mode.
I am having a blast playing my barbarian. I’m only level 36 but just taking my time and playing when I can free up a few minutes. I think I am doing Act II and III at the same time and that is my only complaint. I had no idea I was doing Act III - was just following the yellow exclamations. But the good news is that Act II seems pretty easy now, hehe.
So, this game seems very packed with content. Is everyone just racing to endgame or doing all the events, dungeons, and side quests?
My Necromancer is level 28 and I’ve already done a ton of stuff and yet it still looks like I’ve only seen a small portion of the map, and got totally sidetracked from the main storyline.
I’m just going along doing side quests as I find them, and eventually moving the campaign forward. I just hit level 39 and finished act 2 this afternoon. I also do the world events I com across, and have done about 7 dungeons so far. I also did my first stronghold today.
I try to generally be heading towards the next main quest but I pick up every sidequest I come upon and tend to complete any that are in the area I’m traveling. Doing dungeons here and there if they have aspects that seem like they’ll be helpful for me too.
Im targeting the campaign solely, am about a 37 barb who is half way through act V. After that side quest to 50, world tier 3, and then start going around the maps.
Am I right that it is best to always do side quests before dungeons as sometimes the side quest will require being in a dungeon?
Ive made up my own bleed build and really enjoy how much thinking and variety is required to tackle different packs/bosses. If a build involves a deterministic button combo every single time I get bored quickly. I tried switching to a meta whirlwind build to see how it goes and surprisingly it performed pretty bad relatively. Maybe it needs certain aspects to shine.