Since my character was getting nuked
so you can’t experiment or “bookmark” a location for Diablo IV Gold later. It feels a little sour in the context of an open-world MMO where player creativity should, theoretically, be encouraged.
On the unintentional front, the review build was spectacularly buggy — I had to re-clear several major quest areas multiple times for the game to log my progress. Events also glitched out, and I helped a colleague fix a bug that required him to party up to leave his server. Occasionally, you’ll come out of town and see someone riding an invisible horse. It was half amusing, half frustrating waiting to see if I was lagging or the game was crashing; the silver lining was that I was using a temp account for this review and going to lose everything anyway.
Since my character was getting nuked before launch, I decided to stick to one class, the Sorcerer (for the open beta, I rolled a Necromancer). Playing around with classic staples like Frozen Orb and Blizzard was pleasantly nostalgic, and I tried various mediocre multi-elemental builds until I found a pyromancy-boosting legendary staff that prompted me to go all-in on fire. By the time I hit level 40, my boosted Meteors and Inferno (the pyro’s “Ultimate” skill) easily obliterated most bosses, and I was able to complete the first Capstone dungeon, the Cathedral of Light, several levels below the suggested 50 (albeit very carefully). The new skill tree also took some getting used to, mainly until I realized I could hit S and see my current build in one neat window instead of an interminably long, zig-zagged scroll.
The new legendary system is also an acquired taste — in Diablo 3, legendaries were basically collectible items with powerful aspects that could be extracted using Kanai’s Cube. Most seasonal meta builds revolve around specific synergies between legendaries and other gear that define the endgame experience. In Diablo 4, you can still extract their aspects and imprint them onto rare items with better stats. But instead of being stored in a permanent “library,” these aspects now reside in a special inventory tab as one-time consumables.
For instance, if I find a Runic Orb of cheap Diablo 4 Gold Engulfing Flames — a legendary off-hand weapon that gives extra Burning damage — I can extract its