Uno's Diablo IV catchall.

[Unorthodox]

Tomorrow is launch.  My battle.net ID is Ulias#11675 if anyone out there wants to hook up for a game. 

[Unorthodox]

Just cleared act I, so just barely getting past where I was in the betas.  Taking it slow and mostly playing with my sons. 

Necromancer does feel quite reminiscent of Diablo II still, but at the same time there's hard decisions with so few skill slots available.  Rolling full zookeeper summon build...which is probably pretty stupid from a best in slot perspective, but it's working extremely well for our grouping.

Story wise, it keeps trying to tell me how bad it will be if Lilith wins and we must stop her....but narratively, I would actually rather HELP her. 

[Unorthodox]

Started a secondary character now, so have both a sorceress and a necro to level 34. 

I'm not being "smart" on either one, doing what I find fun even though it's clearly not optimal.  I'd guess I'm about half way through Act 2.  Not really beelining but trying to focus on story line as I go.  There's 5 areas on the map, presuming there's an act per area, and theoretically one in Hell as well, I'm kind of shocked at the size of this game. 

There's been a noticeable dropoff of other players in my areas.  I get the sense that's more to do with people getting through faster than me more than a decline in playerbase.  I do find a lack of obvious party making system a bit odd.  Otherwise it kinda feels like the original Guild Wars in a lot of ways. 

Legitimately, I'm going to be playing this for years, likely.  At the same time, I can see areas that probably aren't for anyone, and some areas that will hopefully get improved on over time.  This is a launch state after all, and Diablo II and III at launch were vastly different than they ended up. 

[Unorthodox]

According to review bombs, apparently Diablo IV is woke trash because they have finally animated Lilith officially and made her the focus here.  (she was in some Diablo II content that never released and referenced in Diablo I.  Not terribly sure about III as I didn't do much lore in that one)

Whatever. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Why would they send the woke trash here?

[Unorthodox]

An Unorthodox Halloween officially formed a clan yesterday as there were issues finding each other cross platform.  It all worked fine finding the clan.  Anyone is welcome to join.

I've finished act 3.  So about half through the campaign. 

Me being me, I really want to start other characters and try more stuff out, but trying to focus until I finish. 

[Unorthodox]

It was stated at points in marketing you should be finishing the campaign at around level 50... I've got at least 2 acts left to go. 

The lightning sorceress has really come into it's own with a good skill rotation.  It's a little random, though that's always been lightning in Diablo.  I do miss the crit fishing style of Diablo 2, but this random proc style is fun in it's own way. 

My necromancer is only played with my boys, because I was *technically farther* into the main quest with the sorceress.

The Paragon system (leveling after 50) is simpler than people are making it out to be. 

*My one real complaint so far on the game is co-op on the main quest line.  If you are not EXACTLY the same spot together, there's a good chance one of you isn't getting credit for the quests.  My necro has had to do a lot of things twice just because he's the one I'm playing with the kids on, and often we're at different sections when we start so my character just doesn't get any credit even if we get to where he was.  So, when we'd played Saturday and I realized I had about 2 hours of main quest to re-do I just went to the sorceress. 

The good is it still LETS me pay with the boys anyway, and I'll take that over some gate preventing the party from moving forward.

We also had a severely bugged main quest mission we had to google a work around for, but that's just a known bug at this point and I'm sure will be fixed. 


One thing that is EXTREMELY SLICK and, I don't really know how they are pulling it off, is the coop between extremely disparate characters.  Kyle's SO joined us Saturday, and he'd rolled a new character with her.  They were level 18, while Alec and I were level 36.  The system scaling is essentially seamless.  Alec and I were 'fighting' level 36 mobs on our end.  Kyle and Erin were fighting level 18 on theirs.  And it didn't feel at all like either side was gimped or being carried.  I honestly don't know how they do that in the back end but it is definitely slick as hell. 

[Unorthodox]

Closing in on the end of the campaign. 

I think I've spoken before about the old original plan for Diablo III and scrapped game.  I can still see the bones of some of that, and really wish I had the option to choose sides like the original plan was. 

I've moved on to the paragon system and can see what they're trying to do, and it should be meaningful up to level 70-80 or so where it would likely become minor tweaks instead of feeling of actual growth. 

It's been really weird the fan feedback on this game.

The number and type of complaints have me scratching my head. 

Vendors are too far from the waypoints.  Dungeons you have to walk to.  It takes too long to get to 'endgame' level 100 (I think this stems from Diablo III players where the game didn't really start til you hit max level, where this is much more like diablo II and a journey not a destination).

The latest being upset that the season system will require you to make a new character for season content...which every other diablo game with seasons has done. 

I really don't know what the heck people want.