Diablo IV - Beta Impressions

[Dirty Hipsters]

if it makes you feel better D4 is better alone right now. Grouping causes weird lag because the sync between player worlds is weird.

Really? I played with friends on Friday and Sunday for 3 hours at a time (a group of 3 and a group of 4) and the only time I experienced lag was when going through town portals. Other than that everything ran smooth and was a great coop experience. No one in our group had any complaints about lag.

It's possible there was lag and I just didn't notice. I mean, this isn't a twitch shooter where a difference of 20ms ping might be the difference between winning and losing a fight though.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Really? I played with friends on Friday and Sunday for 3 hours at a time (a group of 3 and a group of 4) and the only time I experienced lag was when going through town portals. Other than that everything ran smooth and was a great coop experience. No one in our group had any complaints about lag.

It's possible there was lag and I just didn't notice. I mean, this isn't a twitch shooter where a difference of 20ms ping might be the difference between winning and losing a fight though.

Did you progress the world the same?

There seems to be problems when one player has more strongholds or other world events completed that change the world for them but not the other player and it causes lag issues. I dunno why.

If you play together from the gate and do the same shit, that doesnt happen which is why it wasnt a problem for the streamers racing because they did everything together.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Did you progress the world the same?

There seems to be problems when one player has more strongholds or other world events completed that change the world for them but not the other player and it causes lag issues. I dunno why.

If you play together from the gate and do the same shit, that doesnt happen which is why it wasnt a problem for the streamers racing because they did everything together.

2 of my friends are way ahead of me. I'm currently level 25 in Act 2 and they're both level 50 in Act 4.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Jesus Christ, isn't that 19 hours per day? Don't you eat? Sleep? 0_0

This is why I had faith that CG would finish their FF retrospective in a timely manner while other people thought it would take years.

 

[CriticalGaming]

This is why I had faith that CG would finish their FF retrospective in a timely manner while other people thought it would take years.

I appreciate the faith

 

[Elijin]

Holy orders dont fit the launch because a chunk of the story is the decline of faith and breakdown of the church and holy orders. An expansion could follow up on trying to fix that, but it doesnt vibe with base story.

Also critical is too caught up in humanity to see Lilliths motives. Humanity is a byproduct of her world, she isn't saving sanctuary FOR them, she's saving it with whatever tools are native to it. The entire assessment of her being evil is based on morality of humans. She regularly expresses people should just do whatever feels good, rather than be constrained. So.. exactly what a war tired, neutral demon would be. She didn't switch sides, she sailed for uncharted water.

 

[BrawlMan]

Diablo 4 is Blizzard’s ‘fastest-selling game ever’ | VGC

It was reportedly played for 93 million hours during its four-day early access period…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[CriticalGaming]

Diablo 4 is Blizzard’s ‘fastest-selling game ever’ | VGC

It was reportedly played for 93 million hours during its four-day early access period…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Basically every Blizzard game. But the longevity of their games has fallen off a cliff.

Blizzard games are really fun at the start, then the novelty wears off quicker than ever and that's really sad because they used to be games worth playing for years. Now you might get a few weeks or maybe months out of them depending on how hardcore you play, and then you're done. Sad really.

 

[BrawlMan]

Basically every Blizzard game. But the longevity of their games has fallen off a cliff.

Blizzard games are really fun at the start, then the novelty wears off quicker than ever and that's really sad because they used to be games worth playing for years. Now you might get a few weeks or maybe months out of them depending on how hardcore you play, and then you're done. Sad really.

Explains why I never really bought into them, nor stayed too attached to them. I played Diablo 2 back in the day, but it wasn't even my copy. It's why I hesitated to pick up Diablo 3, even though it's at a cheap price and on Switch has some extra features.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I really enjoyed D3 but played it a while after release when everything was tweaked for the better. I’d bought the CE which I still have (it’s just that badass looking). Will probably just get D4 on a Steam sale someday though. I’m sure it will be as fun but I have quite a bit less time to play much these days.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Will probably just get D4 on a Steam sale someday though.

A what sale?

 

[BrawlMan]

​

 

[Hawki]

Basically every Blizzard game. But the longevity of their games has fallen off a cliff.

Blizzard games are really fun at the start, then the novelty wears off quicker than ever and that's really sad because they used to be games worth playing for years. Now you might get a few weeks or maybe months out of them depending on how hardcore you play, and then you're done. Sad really.

Um, what?

Okay, if we're defining longevity as "time one enjoys playing a game" (as you seem to be) then that's subjective with no right or wrong answer from anyone, but that really doesn't gel with my experience. SC2 had more longevity than SC1, D3 had more longevity than D2, HotS was the only MOBA I ever enjoyed, Overwatch is the best hero shooter I've ever played and only one I've ever come back to, etc. If anything, a lot of Blizzard's older games (e.g. WOW) have less (subjective) longevity, not more.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

A what sale?

Oh that’s right, Battlenet. Ugh.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Welp, I got the game, and started with Barb as my first class. Everything was going fine until the first Act 1 boss, Vhenard. This was the boss I struggled against during beta as Druid, and I finally figured out why. Both builds are pretty much physical, and I have to get up close to everything. This means I have to tank all the damages. IT took around 20 tries as Barb, and I only did it by switching the build for bleed.

Personally, I do think Vhenard is a terribly designed "boss", because all she does is throw a wave after wave of mobs at you, while casting some annoying spells you need to dodge. And if you take too long to reposition, she summons more mobs! Did anyone who used a ranged build struggled against her? Strangely next boss I faced after her in the Horadrim vault was very manageable to deal with even after switching back to my original build.

I just unlocked Death Blow skill, and I have a feeling this will become my best tool for wave clear. Not so great against bosses, tho

 

[CriticalGaming]

Welp, I got the game, and started with Barb as my first class. Everything was going fine until the first Act 1 boss, Vhenard. This was the boss I struggled against during beta as Druid, and I finally figured out why. Both builds are pretty much physical, and I have to get up close to everything. This means I have to tank all the damages. IT took around 20 tries as Barb, and I only did it by switching the build for bleed.

Personally, I do think Vhenard is a terribly designed "boss", because all she does is throw a wave after wave of mobs at you, while casting some annoying spells you need to dodge. And if you take too long to reposition, she summons more mobs! Did anyone who used a ranged build struggled against her? Strangely next boss I faced after her in the Horadrim vault was very manageable to deal with even after switching back to my original build.

I just unlocked Death Blow skill, and I have a feeling this will become my best tool for wave clear. Not so great against bosses, tho

20 tries? Sounds like a build or a gear problem tbh. You shouldn't be dying that easily. I face-tanked most of the campaign on my barb, you just gotta pay attention to the gear and keep upgrading.

 

[FakeSympathy]

20 tries? Sounds like a build or a gear problem tbh. You shouldn't be dying that easily. I face-tanked most of the campaign on my barb, you just gotta pay attention to the gear and keep upgrading.

I was lvl 15 at the time and pretty much upgraded to the best of my ability. I think it definitely was a build problem, on top of phase 3 where she summons a bunch of damage sponges. I think it came down to keep using a build designed for wave clear vs switching to deal as much damage as possible to a single target, plus a side of defense buff. I think that's one thing the game does well; the flexibility with the skill tree resets.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Also, NYC has Diablo IV ad AND a huge air pollution issue. The timing is amazing

 

[Samtemdo8]

Also, NYC has Diablo IV ad AND a huge air pollution issue. The timing is amazing

Implying they knew there would be forest fire and the resulting smog on the day the wanted the game to release.

Me, I'm amazed they got away with that image in plastered in Time Square at all.

Christians that just happen to be walking in Times Square must have been horrified.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Implying they knew there would be forest fire and the resulting smog on the day the wanted the game to release.

Me, I'm amazed they got away with that image in plastered in Time Square at all.

Christians that just happen to be walking in Times Square must have been horrified.

Christians are fickle folks. I saw a Chrstian on twitter yesterday happy about a chruch burning down because it decided to have a pride flag out for this month.

So i dunno. Maybe Lilith looks like Jesus to them.