General Gaming Diablo IV - Information Thread, update: "Season of the Construct" announcement trailer (January 23)

[JPDunks4]

2 hours ago, atom631 said:

@JPDunks4 what build are you running on your Druid? I rolled a druid too and running a storm build. Im only level 19 right now. I can melt mobs and get through most dungeons pretty easily…but the final bosses in the dungeons are destroying me. Ive had to just leave a few of them bc Im getting worked over. 

 

Im finding that resource generation is really lacking in this game. Im 6hrs in and I havent seen a single piece of gear with a resource regen affix on it. Or even life on kill/hit. and there doesnt appear to be much of that in the skill tree either. 

 

my issue with the druid is you need to get in for melee to generate spirit and then blow through it so fast that you have to melee again. getting close to these bosses is not easy. so ive focused on movement speed and adding an extra evade. so I can kite around a bit get a few shots in to generate spirit then do it again. its making for very slow fights. 

 

My Druid changed a lot as I experimented with different skills I'd get through +1 items.

 

I've ended up

 

Basic Skill - Claw

Core Skill - Pulverize

Defensive Skill - I was using Blood Howl to have an extra heal, but recently switched to Earthen Bulwark cause of a Legendary item I got drop.

Companion Skills - I went Ravens here initially so I'd have something that can be cast at Range and do decent damage.  I then got a +1 for Poison Creeper, and ended up loving at that also played, so I am running both Companions.

Wrath Skills - Hurricane as it has pretty good range, can throw it on while dashing in and out of combat.

 

Between Ravens, Poison Creeper, and Hurricane all doing good AOE damage, I can set all 3 off while protected by Earthen Bulwark to get in close and pulverize while they are all weakened and getting damaged.  Also will stun them occasionally.

 

It's been working decently well so far.  I never look at Build Guides as I enjoy trying to come up with stuff on my own so I have no idea what the go to is for Druid.  I've pivoted my build a few times due to the items I've had drop with different perks on them.  I currently am not using an Ultimate cause 2 Companions.

 

*Also make sure to do the Druid story stuff to unlock your Class Perks, the Spirit Boons.  Very helpful.

 

[JPDunks4]

If anyone wants to add me, JPDunks4#1414 is my BNet

[Firewithin]

so ive been working my way through this build.  level 37 or 38 right now i think.

 

 

its basically chain lightning build but at lvl 30 i take the firebolt enhancement that puts burning on all enemies that take damage from any ability (which is all of them lol) and then picking up fire passives, like when a burning enemy dies you get mana regen and so forth since basically everything will be dying with burning.  so far its been working out with no real issues 

[Dexterryu]

Just hit 49 on my Necro last night before logging of. Currently in WT2, Act 3. I've been doing a bunch of side quests and the dungeons that have aspects for my class so I'm probably much higher level than I should be at this point in the main story. Really enjoying myself so far but I do have some gripes that I'm going to share with the devs via Reddit and the official forums.

Gameplay stuff:
1. Corpse explosion w/shadow damage modifier - need to make this more transparent. Can't see what's going on at all whether it's my character that does it or someone else. I like this version but can't stand using it due to the visibility issue.

 

2. Some side quests seemed designed to unnecessarily waste time. Example... Start quest at an Inn. Run to the very bottom of the map -> back to the inn (thankfully I can portal there) -> quest giver says one sentence to meet them at another far away spot -> We kill some stuff -> "Meet me back at the inn"-> One more sentence -> "Let's meet at this other place" (that was right next to where we just were)-> Run there, fight, finish. Lots of pointless running.

QOL stuff:
1. NPC Vendor placement - Why are they so spread out in the town. Can these be consolidated? Pointless running around.
2. Gems - Like the mechanic (a staple since D2), but can we get an Inventory tab for these? Time waster to keep dropping them off in the stash and taking up unnecessary inventory space. Takes away from the combat which is the fun part of the game.

 

[CitizenVectron]

So what's everyone's most-fun class so far? I usually run Barb, but thinking of starting Necro or Sorcerer this time.

[Dexterryu]

3 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

So what's everyone's most-fun class so far? I usually run Barb, but thinking of starting Necro or Sorcerer this time.

 

They're all fun. They're already getting buffed/nerfed so don't make a choice based on current balance as it is changing. They all have some things that are challenging about them and things they do really well. So play what you think sounds/looks the coolest to you.

[CitizenVectron]

2 minutes ago, Dexterryu said:

 

They're all fun. They're already getting buffed/nerfed so don't make a choice based on current balance as it is changing. They all have some things that are challenging about them and things they do really well. So play what you think sounds/looks the coolest to you.

 

Thanks! One question about Barb this time around—since you pull out a few different kinds of weapons for different skills, does that mean you need to keep all those weapons levelled up? Or does your attack damage pull from the strongest weapon? Main concern is that I'll need to focus too much on hunting down/keeping up with a bunch of different weapons compared to other classes.

[stepee]

4 hours ago, BasemntDweller2 said:

 

There is an easier difficulty. I'm guessing most of us are playing on world tier 2 though. 

 

Can you switch at any time? Or can I only coop with someone in tier 2 if I’m in the same tier the entire time?

[AlwaysDyingX]

Just now, stepee said:

 

Can you switch at any time? Or can I only coop with someone in tier 2 if I’m in the same tier the entire time?

 

You can switch at any time.  I dont know the answer to your second question since I have not done co op yet 

[stepee]

Just now, BasemntDweller2 said:

 

You can switch at any time.  I dont know the answer to your second question since I have not done co op yet 

 

Should be fine I think if you can switch at any time! Maybe regular isn’t too hard but some peoples posts here scared me a bit

[AlwaysDyingX]

2 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

Should be fine I think if you can switch at any time! Maybe regular isn’t too hard but some peoples posts here scared me a bit

 

I'm pretty bad at games and Im enjoying the challenge of Tier 2. I think Tier 1 would be cake. 

[JPDunks4]

You can switch at any time, go to the Tyrael Statue in the main city.

 

Whoever is hosting will drag the other player to their world I believe, so it'll be that persons difficulty.

[Amazatron]

I always default on starting with some sort of bow character in ARPGs. Having a blast with my barrage rogue, still messing around in Act 1 at level 26. Haven’t focused at all on survivability so far, so pretty much a glass cannon flipping around.

[Brick]

As someone who has never played a Diablo game before, is there a good summary I can watch of the story so far so I can get caught up, or would it actually be worth it to play through the previous games quickly? 

[Mr.Vic20]

5 minutes ago, Brick said:

As someone who has never played a Diablo game before, is there a good summary I can watch of the story so far so I can get caught up, or would it actually be worth it to play through the previous games quickly? 

 

 

[Dexterryu]

3 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

Thanks! One question about Barb this time around—since you pull out a few different kinds of weapons for different skills, does that mean you need to keep all those weapons levelled up? Or does your attack damage pull from the strongest weapon? Main concern is that I'll need to focus too much on hunting down/keeping up with a bunch of different weapons compared to other classes.

 

One of the Pros/Cons of the Barb is that they have an extra gear slot that other classes do not have. The pro is that once you are geared up, you are stronger. The con mostly is this will make you feel a little weaker early game. Gear drops fairly regularly so keeping it up is not terribly difficult... generally. Min/Maxing might be a little harder at end game.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Updated the Fextralife endgame class builds post.

[nublood]

I just got bounced after picking up my first legendary chest piece  Now I’m stuck in queue. You would think that the company that has been running the most-played MMO for nearly two decades would actually have learned a few things about server capacity management. But I guess they continue to buy their servers at Dollar General. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[Brian]

 

Diablo IV becomes Blizzard Entertainment’s fastest-selling game of all time - Gematsu

WWW.GEMATSU.COM

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Diablo IV has become Blizzard Entertainment’s fastest-selling game of all time, recording its highest ever pre-launch unit sales on both console and PC, the company announced.

 

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Diablo IV has become Blizzard Entertainment‘s fastest-selling game of all time, recording its highest ever pre-launch unit sales on both console and PC, the company announced.

 

While Diablo IV only officially launched for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Battle.net today, in the four days since early access began on June 1, the game has been played for over 94 million hours—or over 10,000 years.

 

“This is a moment years in the making for the Diablo IV team,” said Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson in a press release. “We’re extremely proud to offer players the richest story ever told in a Diablo game. Players have a range of choices, including personal character customization, equipping personalized skills for battling horrific demons, or collecting Legendary loot to support your playstyle while discovering new ones. Since the game was first announced in 2019, the support from millions of players around the world drove us toward this release of our dark vision of Sanctuary. Hail Lilith, Blessed Mother.”

 

 

[Firewithin]

does the butcher only spawn on certain world tiers?  im level 38 so far and have done several dungeons but have not gotten to meet him yet

[atom631]

I cannot beat the stronghold to unlock aspects. ive tried now a dozen times. ive tried different builds and it just gets harder as I level up. 

 

this is a glaring issue with this game. in previous diablos, you level up, get better gear, more skills then go back to areas where you had trouble and you can wreck them. with the scaling in this game, you never get that sense of feeling overpowered, which is the core of what makes playing these types of games feel good.   

 

super frustrating. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

It hasn't gone unnoticed that Blizzard didn't provide any actual numbers to substantiate its claim

 

 

Activision touts Diablo 4’s fast-selling launch — but what does that mean?

WWW.POLYGON.COM

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The devil is in the details... of course

 

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So just how big a launch is this? Perhaps we’ll find out when Activision Blizzard next reports its quarterly performance to investors — which for a June release would be around September. It still fairly raises the question, did a multiplatform, day-one launch of Diablo 4 deliver sales that were huge multiples of the 3, 4, and 5 million sales Activision Blizzard earlier quoted? Did it barely edge them out?

 

It’s all a matter of setting and beating expectations. We’ve reached out to an Activision Blizzard representative to ask about Diablo 4’s unit actual unit sales. This bears watching.

 

 

 

Blizzard says Diablo 4 is its fastest-selling game... but weirdly won't share the numbers | PC Gamer

WWW.PCGAMER.COM

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"This is a moment years in the making for the Diablo 4 team".

 

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Diablo 4 is now in the wild, and Blizzard has announced it is the fastest-selling game in the company's long and storied history. To give that some context, this thing has sold faster than the likes of Starcraft 2 and Overwatch (as well as its own predecessors) though what that actually means in terms of hard numbers remains a mystery for now, with Blizzard opting for vagueness amidst the celebrations.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

Booo they nerfed adding aspects to rare gear. Now every piece requires some rare item obtainable from dismantling legendary gear. Lame!

[Keyser_Soze]

Megan Fox will read your eulogy

 

 

[legend]

I'm not really a fan of how many significant changes they're making so quickly after the game's release. You can't really plan your build when it's all going to go to shit in two days when they change some critical piece.

[stepee]

I really like how you can be a bear

[Firewithin]

hit 41 and only finished act 2 lol. I need to knock out act 3 real quick and get my mount

[JPDunks4]

I am 47 and trying to mainline the campaign right now.  Act 3 has been long.

 

The enemies scaling I think could have been handled better but hasn't been a big issue for me yet.

 

You def do lose some of the natural feeling of progression though.

[XxEvil AshxX]

I don't love the fact that enemies scale....

 

But at the same time, I can totally see myself running up to a group of enemies and starting to hack at them, only for some lvl 50 Sorcerer to run by and kill them all in .5 seconds and not even stop running. That shit used to happen in WoW. It used to happen in Elder Scrolls Online (before they went to scaling) and it used to happen A LOT in Final Fantasy XI. (In FFXI whenever you engaged with an enemy, it was "your" enemy to fight, unless you called for help... BUT people used macros, so if you were waiting in an area for like, 20 minutes waiting for a rare mob to appear, they'd kill it before you even had a chance to react to its appearance.)

 

I can't really say I miss that.

[Keyser_Soze]

Got some twitch drops for the Azurehand Dagger Recolor and Azurehand Sword Recolor. Too bad I don't have the game.

[XxEvil AshxX]

10 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Got some twitch drops for the Azurehand Dagger Recolor and Azurehand Sword Recolor. Too bad I don't have the game.

 

But you will! (You will.)

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Diablo 4 tested: a great experience on all current-gen consoles

WWW.EUROGAMER.NET

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Some eleven years after Diablo 3, Blizzard is back with another barnstorming hack and slash adventure. Diablo 4 is a re…

 

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Some eleven years after Diablo 3, Blizzard is back with another barnstorming hack and slash adventure. Diablo 4 is a return to the dark, realistic stylings of the first two series entries, with modern rendering tech and a focus on current-gen consoles and PC. At a glance, it's definitely a pleasing effort, especially when you consider the colossal visual leap from the prior games - but can it sustain the 60fps delivered by its predecessor? Do the new visuals take special advantage of the latest console hardware? And what about last-gen consoles?

 

The most impressive aspect of Diablo 4's visual presentation is the lighting. Essentially, most lights within the game world are shadow-casting, and the player gets a sort of soft frontward-facing light to illuminate the area around them that also casts shadows. The subtle play of the shadowmaps as you move through each interior space is very cool, very attractive, and very atmospheric. Light just dances through dark spaces in a really pleasing way, with softly diffused shadows moving in concert with the player character.

 

There are some interesting tricks going on here as well. Certain light sources showcase a kind of variable penumbra effect at times, with shadow detail falling off at range. And in some circumstances the lighting can cast multiple shadows at once off the same object. Diablo 4 isn't pushing any boundary-expanding tech here as far as I can tell, but a lot of attention has clearly gone into lighting the game, especially in the game's softly-lit, dark dungeon interiors.

 

 

 

[Keyser_Soze]

The first Diablo 4 character to reach Hardcore level 100 has died after a disconnect | VGC

WWW.VIDEOGAMESCHRONICLE.COM

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The 82-hour playthrough has ended through no apparent fault of the player…

 

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The first player to reach Hardcore level 100 in Diablo 4 saw their character die after the game disconnected.

 

As reported by PCGamesN, Twitch streamer Souaïb ‘cArn’ Hanaf recently reached level 100 in the game’s most difficult mode, and was recognised by Blizzard as the first to do so.

 

However, as cArn continued to play the game to try and reach the final boss, the game disconnected from the server.

 

If a player dies in Hardcore mode, their character is permanently killed and they have to start all over again from experience level 1.

 

Because a player could potentially deliberately disconnect when their health is low to avoid dying, the game treats a disconnect as a death.

 

As such, when cArn rebooted the game, he found that his Hardcore level 100 Barbarian character, which he had been playing as for 82 hours, had died.

 

Despite the obvious disappointment this will have caused, cArn has nevertheless been acknowledged by Blizzard as the first player to reach level 100 on Hardcore mode.

 

As such, his will be the first name etched onto a statue of Lilith as part of a challenge set by Blizzard.