Thread by @NeverSinkDev

I wanted to expand on my initial impressions with the #DiabloIV beta.

After playing the sorceress until level 25 and also playing the barbarian until level 18, here are some of the highlights and problems for me.

I'll try to stay as objective as possible:

1/n

Visuals and audio:

I'd really like to highlight again how good the game looks. The effects on the snow, the armours and NPCs and the animations are all top notch.

The music is sad, dark, dramatic, adventurous and cold. It fits the atmopshere of the icy regions

2/n

Physics:

After playing the barbarian I also really started to appreciate the physics engine in the game.

The impact of an 'upheaval' attack on a group of enemies is amazing. The weight, sound, knockback, corpse rackdolling is very very well done.

3/n

Pacing:

Leveling the second character and skipping all the cutscenes felt good. Some of the cutscenes are well done, but almost half of the first 2 hours are diologues and walking.

That made the second playthrough much more enjoyable.

4/n

Monster density:

I believe the monster density is way too low. For instance, the final dungeon in the beta had very low density and it was severely noticable.

I sometimes went 30-40 seconds without encoutering a pack.

5/n

Difficulty:

On the barbarian I noticed how much easier the sorc. is at the start! The barbarian catches up by level 18+ when fury generation becomes easier and 'death blow' with 2+ upgrades kicks in hard.

Barb needs a lot more potions and I had some close calls

6/n

Bugs:

Overall I experienced a few bugs.
No disconnected or connectivity problems today.

- There were a few broken events.
- The world boss didn't spawn :(

Rest was working fine

(screenshot: players waiting for world boss)

7/n

Overworld pacing:

I'm still a bit sceptical of the open-world acitivities.

World events and side quests are a mixed bag. Some are fun, some are downright boring and unchallenging.

Skipping dialogues is almost necesary to make sidequests feel alright - a problem by itself

8/n

Dungeons and content:

There are goblins, cursed chests, small bosses, random events. Overall there are enough activites that are fun, even during the campaign, which is definitely good!

9/n

World 'Fortresses':

The world contains some areas, where you have to kill a boss (by yourself) and do a small quest t
'cleanse' the area and turn it into a town.

These are well done and I enjoyed them quite a bit.

10/n

The world activities also grant skill points or additional potion charges, that are shared across characters on your account!

These seemed reasonably easy to unlock while leveling and are somewhat replacing the 'skill-side-quests' we know

11/n

In a sense you can generally think of Diablos open world approach to be a replacement to the sidequests for skills you know from D2/POE.

So far I don't think/feel that it's a daily-grind like in Lost Ark - which is (for me) good news!

12/n

Itemization is still in a slightly weird spot. You're mostly looking for damage/armor upgrades. Base stats (int/str etc) don't play ANY role while leveling as they're balanced around endgame numbers.

All your int might give you 5% damage for instance.

13/n

Items generally come with a 3-4 semi-random stats, such as "3% crowd control effect reduction", "4% more damage to enemies up close".

While leveling these barely matter and are mostly ignorable. I don't think it's a good thing

14/n

Class Balance:

I have not played rogue yet, but the sorceress feels superior to the barbarian until around level ~18, since she can unleash strong burst AOE attacks with passively replenishing mana, while the barb has less aoe and needs to charge up fury

15/n

The Barbarian:

Overall the class feels quite good after a few levels!

It's a bit weird, that he has so few core attacks/resource spenders compared to the sorc:

- rend
- double slash
- whirldwind
- hammer of the ancients
- upheaval)

16/n

The Barbarian #2:

Additionally most core attacks felt fairly weak to me or had major flaws for single target/aoe.

Luckilly upheaval felt so good that I was weilling to forgive all that.

Also there's huge assortment of utility and cooldown skills, which are quite neat!

17/n

Crafting:

Diablo includes ore and herbs and pelts. This initially scared me as I was being afraid of it turning into a full profession system like WOW.

Luckily, ores/herbs behave like instant chests with auto-pickup and there's no professional leveling.

18/n

What else is there to say?

Overall my impressions today were more positive, than the ones on the first day.

It's likely due to skipping most dialogues, lack of disconnects and the glorious barb gameplay.

19/n

I enjoyed leveling the barbarian, the dungeons were fun and if the density of the monsters and quality of item stats improves in the endgame, I can well imagine Diablo 4 being at least a very decent game!

20/n

Update: Ashara world boss issue was just fixed and is about to spawn.

I'll post an update on the fight and loot and feel in 30 minutes

Thanks for reading so far!

21/n

Thanks for reading!

Update on Diablo World Bosses:

Just defeated Ashava on Beta. Hard, but fun world fight. Died couple of times, super critical to dodge his attacks. Dropped 3 legendaries.

Enjoyed it!

Nvm 7 legendaries, there were 4 in a box it dropped!