D4 had over 1 million closed beta access players, with multi-millions expected this weekend. Wow.

I've finished playing my barbarian at level 82. There's nothing major left to upgrade and I finished the renown grind. Whirlwind feels amazing once you get the base items and get your glyphs to the point where you get fury on kill. Before then it's kinda eh. I played with 2 shouts and deathblow to level but in the end the triple shout gameplay is the only way to go. Putting together the gearset with proper CDR, fury cost reduction, movement speed, and crit/vulnerable damage felt decent but itemization in general is messed up.

PoE is safe because Diablo 4 doesn't have much of an economy and there's no proper gear scaling. I got 3 of my endgame items from shop vendors lol. If you're level 100 all of the items you find have a level 100 requirement to use them so when I looked on the Discord for items there was nothing I could spend gold on even if I wanted to.

The renown grind sapped my initial motivation to play but with no altars, no forced story mode, and no map exploration it shouldn't be that bad in season 1. The game will die long term without a shared stash that is 10x the size or the ability to store an unlimited number of aspects. Lots of work for them to do to compete with PoE.
"
DiabloImmoral wrote:
I've finished playing my barbarian at level 82. There's nothing major left to upgrade and I finished the renown grind. Whirlwind feels amazing once you get the base items and get your glyphs to the point where you get fury on kill. Before then it's kinda eh. I played with 2 shouts and deathblow to level but in the end the triple shout gameplay is the only way to go. Putting together the gearset with proper CDR, fury cost reduction, movement speed, and crit/vulnerable damage felt decent but itemization in general is messed up.

PoE is safe because Diablo 4 doesn't have much of an economy and there's no proper gear scaling. I got 3 of my endgame items from shop vendors lol. If you're level 100 all of the items you find have a level 100 requirement to use them so when I looked on the Discord for items there was nothing I could spend gold on even if I wanted to.

The renown grind sapped my initial motivation to play but with no altars, no forced story mode, and no map exploration it shouldn't be that bad in season 1. The game will die long term without a shared stash that is 10x the size or the ability to store an unlimited number of aspects. Lots of work for them to do to compete with PoE.


The only way the game dies is if the vast majority of players want to play more than 100-150 hours a season.

It's just was never going to be PoE in terms of logging outrageous hours. They don't even want to compete here. They are quite willing to accommodate 10x the number of average / casuals, than try to please the very fickle elite player.

D4 will be fine, and I'm looking forward to whatever live service they have planned with seasons.
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."
- Abraham Lincoln
The sheer number of Wanderers who were genuinely surprised that seasonal play demands a fresh character serves as the perfect proof of how large the divide is between them and your average Exile. People aren't going to be "done" with DIV for ages.

For me it's already a sort of Other game. I love knowing that I can boot er up any time and play whichever character I am in the mood for. I am sure updates will affect that but certainly never on the scale of PoE's demand to keep up. It's there when I feel like getting lost in a lootkill loop with some dark shit serving as the aesthetic packaging.

Which is all I ever want from a Diablo game.

--

Oh boy Fireball enchantment is a doozie. Some of them are a little vanilla and too dependent on RNG but who doesn't love a good old 100% chance for enemies to go boom with life-percentile damage? CE eat your messy heart out.
The name says it all.
Season 1 coming so soon is a bit of a downside no doubt. It won't matter much in subsequent seasons, but right off the bat, it's a hurdle.

They would have been better off launching with Season 1, or waiting 3 months for it. It certainly puts pressure on casuals or new players that didn't understand the resetting that would occur quarterly.

Having the map and altars permanent helps, but the dungeon unlocks and renown grind are fairly significant time investments.

If the S1 content is good however, I suspect this will be mostly overlooked as inconvenient at best.
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."
- Abraham Lincoln
Diablo IV got me hooked with the social interactions. It's too much fun spamming "Look!" with others while waiting for world bosses to spawn. 10/10 game for that reason alone.

Edit: Sarcasm.
Streaming Path of Exile on Twitch: Twitch.tv/ActionRPGs

“There are only two great tragedies in life: one is not getting what you want and the other is getting it.” ―Oscar Wilde
Last edited by Exhumer1 on Jul 16, 2023, 2:47:40 PM
I feel weird saying Hello to everyone but good doggo is good.
The name says it all.
Well fuck me drunk. Even Yahtzee liked the story of Diablo IV.

Honestly, where do we even go from there?

July 20th is weirdly close.
The name says it all.
"
鬼殺し wrote:


July 20th is weirdly close.


Clearly the D4 Devs / Decision Makers and Blizzard don’t give a single fuck what GGG is doing or planning. The season vs league dynamics should be very interesting as we move along.
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."
- Abraham Lincoln
"
DarthSki44 wrote:
"
鬼殺し wrote:


July 20th is weirdly close.


Clearly the D4 Devs / Decision Makers and Blizzard don’t give a single fuck what GGG is doing or planning. The season vs league dynamics should be very interesting as we move along.

The timing works well though - July 20th D4 season and Aug 18 PoE season gives more than enough time to play both.
"
Xyel wrote:
"
DarthSki44 wrote:
"
鬼殺し wrote:


July 20th is weirdly close.


Clearly the D4 Devs / Decision Makers and Blizzard don’t give a single fuck what GGG is doing or planning. The season vs league dynamics should be very interesting as we move along.

The timing works well though - July 20th D4 season and Aug 18 PoE season gives more than enough time to play both.


Not so much for the initial season, but it is right at the time of Exilecon. I don't think that was a mistake or coincidence. It will almost certainly steal some of the thunder for anyone that is interested in both. (not for those actually going to NZ however)

Moving forward, I can't imagine a scenario where Blizzard & GGG don't want to have a holiday-time release, but we will find that out VERY soon. (maybe even a PoE2 beta late Nov/Dec)
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."
- Abraham Lincoln

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