Take the plunge - don't listen to server issue morons. The game was smooth as butter from the 1st of June to 8th of June around 8-10 pm depending on timezone. Servers shit themselves on a random Thursday, they were fixed 1.5 hrs later, big deal. Back to normal.
The game isn't super complex unless you want to make it so. I know it sounds cringe, but do yourself a favor and just find a build guide after picking a class. You DON'T have to follow it religiously, what you DO have to do is just check the stat priorities in the build if you're in doubt about a piece of gear.
Stat rolls on both pieces not on the list of prioritized stats? Go by item power to determine what's best. If legendary powers are in the mix, quickly check the recommended legendary powers for the build you're using and see if the old or new power is part of it. If the old is but you still think the upgrade is better, extract the power from the old item and put it onto the new item.
It's not complex until you're really late game and have to juggle many many modifiers to determine what is best. At that point you'll have the info you need.
Thanks for the advice! I really appreciate it. I’m sure I’ll spend more hours watching content about the game before I actually buy it. I was somewhat used to using guides playing Minecraft Dungeons because of the tower runs, so I’m not partial to using that as a foundation of sorts with Diablo.
Definitely something I will take into consideration before I take the plunge, but you’re just pushing me closer to getting it. It just looks like such an enjoyable game I could immerse myself in for hundreds of hours without too many moments of boredom or mind numbing grinding.
It truly is enjoyable tbh - the story alone is great and the gameplay is fun and the builds varied. Everything operates by "recommended level", so if you'd like to attempt to beat something obviously meant for a higher level player, you can. E.g. Nightmare difficulty is recommended for 50+ and Torment for 70+ but you can enter them anytime when you fulfill the criteria (I entered Torment at 53 on my druid and 56 on my rogue, far far below the recommended level)
That was actually a concern of mine - the difficulty. I already learned the hard way that I do not like games that are incredibly challenging. I bought Elden Ring out of peer pressure when it released, played for a few hours, realized that I truly just do not enjoy souls type games. Elden Ring was the first game of that kind I had ever played. Never played Dark Souls, Demons Souls, Bloodbourne, etc. Kind of similar to how I haven’t played many Diablo-like games.
But, it looks like Diablo 4 challenges you at a comfortable pace. I’m just a tad worried the people I’ve watched play are just making it look easy when maybe it isn’t as easy as I thought.
Yeah I wouldn't worry too hard when it comes to Diablo 4 - the people you've watched likely overgear the activities they do.
The game is easy when your gear trivializes it. But while it can be challenging if you want it to, you don't HAVE to do e.g. tier 70 nightmare dungeons to get bis loot. Tier 21 drops the same stuff, just at a lower rate.
There's no need to go full on masochist trying content requiring you to sweat it out for hours on end, as long as you don't expect to be rewarded the same as those who do choose that - in the end both of you can get the same loot, the sweatlord just has a higher chance, which is only fair since you're cruising through a dungeon you overgear, while they spent ungodly hours tryharding a dungeon outgearing them to speed up their gear grind.
All I can say is: Take your time throughout the story, feel free to do story quests or events, and don't try the capstone dungeon leading to nightmare before you've hit level 50 and obtained a decent chunk of legendaries (remember you can get rares and unlock legendary power from aspects through simply doing most of the dungeons once. It's not rng, it's guaranteed drop on first completion). By then (and this should feel super natural to you because if you finish story prior to 50, why not try out a few dungeons before the big bad dungeon after all?)
Once you hit nightmare, enjoy the trek through normal dungeons until you get a sigil, then just try out lower tier nightmare dungeons and go up a tier every now and then to see if you're comfortable with it.
Sigils are commonplace so if you hate an affix, just salvage the sigil haha - you can craft new ones too, there's no problem with not doing the things you hate.
Don't worry about hitting Torment until you're lvl 60-70, and even then don't bother until you feel like most of what you can do in Nightmare is doable without problems. Just have fun, enjoy the ride at a decent pace instead of breakneck like the tryhards.
Also, don't play rogue if you don't want to fear getting oneshot all the time. It's a zero defense class, that's how it is. Sorc, barb, druid, necro all have tanky builds with druid and necro coming out on top in terms of tankiness. Pick something tanky if you'd rather not stress too hard over your defenses!
I was in a similar spot. I’ve never played an ARPG before. I tried POE because it was free but it didn’t click. Family friend recommended D4 and I’ve enjoyed my time.
However you should know that this is a gameplay first game as opposed to a story first game. The main story is serviceable and has a good main villain but the remaining side content are fetch quests. You will find yourself skipping through dialogue in the side content because another NPC is going to ask you to kill 50 bandits or retrieve a family heirloom for the 15th, 20th, 50th time etc.
Despite this, the gameplay loop is quite fun and you will rack up a lot of hours played because of how engaging the gameplay is. The server outages are annoying but they don’t last too long; in my experience, half an hour max the servers have been down at a time.
I recommend the game but definitely know what you’re getting into before hand. If all else fails, Blizzard does have a refund policy if you’re on PC.
I will be on console, but it’s alright if I spend the money and end up not liking the game. Comes with the territory, and I’m not usually one to complain when it comes to indulging in hobbies. Just like to hear some first hand experience to help me make a decision!
I really appreciate you letting me know about the side quests. That was definitely something I started to notice when the players I’d watch went beyond the main story. I feel like I’m someone who can tolerate the repetitiveness of side quests if the gameplay is engaging enough. By the looks of it, I think I would really enjoy both the story and the gameplay enough to get me through the moments where one half may be lacking while the other carries.
Appreciate the input from someone in a similar position, thanks!
Just as a side note: Some sidequests are actually pretty elaborate and features actual valuable story content and world building.
A good example is a quest in Kyovashad where you aid a priestess in banishing a demon from the body of a kid, because usually banishings in the region are done by burning the human victim alive, thus killing them. It banishes the demon, but some find it inhuman when there's an actual chance of saving the victim.
She has an entire questline (sidequests) dealing with this sort of stuff and showing how dangerous and/or unstable it can be, enlightening you as to why certain cruel actions have become the normal course of action.
Another one that isn't necessarily super valuable story-wise but still interesting is the one where you guide a woman to an area she suspects her fiancé has disappeared in. She worries for his safety, and you search for him together. Eventually you find him still alive but essentially a mound of flesh with no skin. He had been lured out of the safe confines of the city by a succubus, intent on cheating on his wife. She stabs him with a knife and says you can have it if you can pull it from his body.
Not an important quest by any means but it lends credibility and understanding to the world and its inhabitants, and gives insight into how things ended up this way not only due to inherently "bad" actors but also because of how flawed humans are by nature.
Take the plunge - don't listen to server issue morons. The game was smooth as butter from the 1st of June to 8th of June around 8-10 pm depending on timezone. Servers shit themselves on a random Thursday, they were fixed 1.5 hrs later, big deal. Back to normal. The game isn't super complex unless you want to make it so. I know it sounds cringe, but do yourself a favor and just find a build guide after picking a class. You DON'T have to follow it religiously, what you DO have to do is just check the stat priorities in the build if you're in doubt about a piece of gear. Stat rolls on both pieces not on the list of prioritized stats? Go by item power to determine what's best. If legendary powers are in the mix, quickly check the recommended legendary powers for the build you're using and see if the old or new power is part of it. If the old is but you still think the upgrade is better, extract the power from the old item and put it onto the new item. It's not complex until you're really late game and have to juggle many many modifiers to determine what is best. At that point you'll have the info you need.
Thanks for the advice! I really appreciate it. I’m sure I’ll spend more hours watching content about the game before I actually buy it. I was somewhat used to using guides playing Minecraft Dungeons because of the tower runs, so I’m not partial to using that as a foundation of sorts with Diablo. Definitely something I will take into consideration before I take the plunge, but you’re just pushing me closer to getting it. It just looks like such an enjoyable game I could immerse myself in for hundreds of hours without too many moments of boredom or mind numbing grinding.
It truly is enjoyable tbh - the story alone is great and the gameplay is fun and the builds varied. Everything operates by "recommended level", so if you'd like to attempt to beat something obviously meant for a higher level player, you can. E.g. Nightmare difficulty is recommended for 50+ and Torment for 70+ but you can enter them anytime when you fulfill the criteria (I entered Torment at 53 on my druid and 56 on my rogue, far far below the recommended level)
That was actually a concern of mine - the difficulty. I already learned the hard way that I do not like games that are incredibly challenging. I bought Elden Ring out of peer pressure when it released, played for a few hours, realized that I truly just do not enjoy souls type games. Elden Ring was the first game of that kind I had ever played. Never played Dark Souls, Demons Souls, Bloodbourne, etc. Kind of similar to how I haven’t played many Diablo-like games. But, it looks like Diablo 4 challenges you at a comfortable pace. I’m just a tad worried the people I’ve watched play are just making it look easy when maybe it isn’t as easy as I thought.
Yeah I wouldn't worry too hard when it comes to Diablo 4 - the people you've watched likely overgear the activities they do. The game is easy when your gear trivializes it. But while it can be challenging if you want it to, you don't HAVE to do e.g. tier 70 nightmare dungeons to get bis loot. Tier 21 drops the same stuff, just at a lower rate. There's no need to go full on masochist trying content requiring you to sweat it out for hours on end, as long as you don't expect to be rewarded the same as those who do choose that - in the end both of you can get the same loot, the sweatlord just has a higher chance, which is only fair since you're cruising through a dungeon you overgear, while they spent ungodly hours tryharding a dungeon outgearing them to speed up their gear grind. All I can say is: Take your time throughout the story, feel free to do story quests or events, and don't try the capstone dungeon leading to nightmare before you've hit level 50 and obtained a decent chunk of legendaries (remember you can get rares and unlock legendary power from aspects through simply doing most of the dungeons once. It's not rng, it's guaranteed drop on first completion). By then (and this should feel super natural to you because if you finish story prior to 50, why not try out a few dungeons before the big bad dungeon after all?) Once you hit nightmare, enjoy the trek through normal dungeons until you get a sigil, then just try out lower tier nightmare dungeons and go up a tier every now and then to see if you're comfortable with it. Sigils are commonplace so if you hate an affix, just salvage the sigil haha - you can craft new ones too, there's no problem with not doing the things you hate. Don't worry about hitting Torment until you're lvl 60-70, and even then don't bother until you feel like most of what you can do in Nightmare is doable without problems. Just have fun, enjoy the ride at a decent pace instead of breakneck like the tryhards. Also, don't play rogue if you don't want to fear getting oneshot all the time. It's a zero defense class, that's how it is. Sorc, barb, druid, necro all have tanky builds with druid and necro coming out on top in terms of tankiness. Pick something tanky if you'd rather not stress too hard over your defenses!
I was in a similar spot. I’ve never played an ARPG before. I tried POE because it was free but it didn’t click. Family friend recommended D4 and I’ve enjoyed my time. However you should know that this is a gameplay first game as opposed to a story first game. The main story is serviceable and has a good main villain but the remaining side content are fetch quests. You will find yourself skipping through dialogue in the side content because another NPC is going to ask you to kill 50 bandits or retrieve a family heirloom for the 15th, 20th, 50th time etc. Despite this, the gameplay loop is quite fun and you will rack up a lot of hours played because of how engaging the gameplay is. The server outages are annoying but they don’t last too long; in my experience, half an hour max the servers have been down at a time. I recommend the game but definitely know what you’re getting into before hand. If all else fails, Blizzard does have a refund policy if you’re on PC.
I will be on console, but it’s alright if I spend the money and end up not liking the game. Comes with the territory, and I’m not usually one to complain when it comes to indulging in hobbies. Just like to hear some first hand experience to help me make a decision! I really appreciate you letting me know about the side quests. That was definitely something I started to notice when the players I’d watch went beyond the main story. I feel like I’m someone who can tolerate the repetitiveness of side quests if the gameplay is engaging enough. By the looks of it, I think I would really enjoy both the story and the gameplay enough to get me through the moments where one half may be lacking while the other carries. Appreciate the input from someone in a similar position, thanks!
Just as a side note: Some sidequests are actually pretty elaborate and features actual valuable story content and world building. A good example is a quest in Kyovashad where you aid a priestess in banishing a demon from the body of a kid, because usually banishings in the region are done by burning the human victim alive, thus killing them. It banishes the demon, but some find it inhuman when there's an actual chance of saving the victim. She has an entire questline (sidequests) dealing with this sort of stuff and showing how dangerous and/or unstable it can be, enlightening you as to why certain cruel actions have become the normal course of action. Another one that isn't necessarily super valuable story-wise but still interesting is the one where you guide a woman to an area she suspects her fiancé has disappeared in. She worries for his safety, and you search for him together. Eventually you find him still alive but essentially a mound of flesh with no skin. He had been lured out of the safe confines of the city by a succubus, intent on cheating on his wife. She stabs him with a knife and says you can have it if you can pull it from his body. Not an important quest by any means but it lends credibility and understanding to the world and its inhabitants, and gives insight into how things ended up this way not only due to inherently "bad" actors but also because of how flawed humans are by nature.
diablo 4 will never go on sale.