I am at the point on my Barb that I haven’t seen any upgrades in over a week and my gameplay loop consists of trading baneful hearts for money and having zero upgrades to show for it. Ironically the best way to upgrade my character now is playing alts for the guaranteed resplendent sparks to make an uber unique.
FYI If you are looking to level a new character for the resplendent sparks those bags the treasure goblins are dropping that give 925 default to the lowest possible level for ancestral equipment when opened on a low level character, which is lvl 55. It drops greater affix equipment quite regularly also. Makes leveling a lot easier.
Thanks for the tip!
We are level 86. I was just reading about the resplendent sparks and Uber uniques today. We aren’t there yet. We went for Uber Lilith and were immediately flattened. I’m hoping we naturally get stronger as we work our way through the season.
I am hitting for tens of millions per auto attack and uber lillith is still not an option. You do naturally get stronger as you make your way through the season, you just eventually hit a wall when upgrades are extremely rare and you are no longer incrementally improving little by little every time you log in.
It sounds like they still have some work to do on the endgame.
It’s not so bad, that is the only thing I still have left to do. Besides high level pits. Some guy ran into me in the pvp area and he exploded in one hit.
Okay, no offense to the people who love D4, but my limited desire to come back after some of the improved mood in D4 was officially brutally murdered in it’s bed this morning by Acti-blizzard.
The next section of paid D4 content is being released October 8, 2024, which is fundamentally a DLC continuing the story, not a brand new game. And yet, the pricing is brand new game / brand new expansion of WoW.
So the most basic version is $39.99 (US), up to $89.99 for the “Ultimate Edition”.
This is an INSULT IMHO, considering the patience the player base has had with the game over the (comparatively) short time since it’s been out. And (again, to me) a blatant cash grab.
This isn’t a new game, it’s adding one new class, a continuation of the story, and a new region. Sure, there are other bits, but at this price? Maybe, maaaaaybee I’ll wait until it drops to $10-15 in a few years, but I’m actively livid right now.
You would not be happy about the pet thing. They said pets were available today and you can alter your pet’s appearance at the wardrobe. So I picked up my mangy dog and went to the wardrobe to see what my options were.
All four alternative pet variations can only be accessed through buying the expansion. 
I’m growing to like the game this season, but it just boggles my mind how utterly they failed to understand what makes a game fun.
My husband wanted to wait until January to buy the expansion, to make sure it doesn’t suck. I told him my FOMO is too bad to wait that long unless it’s truly trash.
His response: “FOMO about who? The three people on the Straight Dope still playing this game?”
I proposed we see how the next season does and decide then. It’s going to take a lot to rebuild my faith and I think this was optically a really bad time to go for a cash grab. They should be putting all their energy into rebuilding trust, IMO.
On that other hand, I am so motivated by having a pet I might succumb. They pick up gold and materials really quickly which helps a lot with battles. But I want like a gargoyle or something. Not a cute fuzzy thing.
That’s what pushed me away from the Destiny franchise. I played both Destiny games and it happened both times.
I paid a pretty good amount of money on Destiny 2, buying the base game and some kind of season pass. Today if I wanted to play the game I’d have to buy it again. I don’t mean I have to buy the DLC, I have to literally buy the base game in a package that includes the new content as well, because what I own currently is too dated. It was like buying a carton of milk that eventually expired. I mean, it’s almost getting into the area of calling it a scam.
D4 doesn’t seem that bad yet, but it looks like they’re heading that way. That’s a huge disappointment to me because one of the big selling points of the game was that you pay a flat fee and that’s it, you have the game, and all of the microtransactions were for cosmetics. And that made the high initial price easier to swallow. I was tired of getting gouged in Diablo: Immortal left and right to play a “free” game (beware of games that pretend to be free) and it felt like a refreshing change. We see how long that lasted.
I can’t stand freemium games. I’m willing to pay a more substantial upfront fee than to constantly be bombarded with shit that costs money. I’ve been disappointed by the monetization of D4 but I don’t think it’s anywhere near as bad as what I’ve learned about Diablo Immortal. That’s not setting the bar too high though.
That’s standard premium game expansion cost this days. The pet is cute and convenient but hardly game changing. I did have to laugh at Blizzard dropping that extremely gory trailer and then going “buy now and get a free kitten!”.
Somewhat disagree, lets use Cyberpunk 2077’s (which also had a lot of issues) Phantom Liberty DLC - no new class (not that there are classes) but one single new huge area, lots of new quests, many new hours of play - $29.99
Sure, it’s not as “new” as D4, but that’s around what I’d expect for a Major DLC for a Premium game. I’d have liked it to be less (same for D4) after the issues they had, but yeah, that didn’t happen either.
So D4 is basically $10 more than the norm (33% in terms of raw cost) for a premium DLC IMHO. And that’s the “basic” version. As I said, that’s fundamentally the same price they charge for an entire expansion of World of Warcraft, with almost identical pricing tiers and very similar benefits, although with far less content.
I won’t speak to Diablo Immortal pricing, although I heard it’s brutal.
Yeah Spouse Weasel thought it was all kinds of wrong for you to go about in this grimdark hellhole and then adopt a cuddly pet. I’m just holding out for the weird ones. Like in D3 you could get one that was just a hand, like Thing from the Adams Family.
But I don’t mind a dog I guess. For now.
It routinely cracks me up how over the top Diablo is about this scaaaary horrible no good world. In case you didn’t realize how dark we are, here’s this side quest where a guy gets catfished and flayed! I can’t take any of it seriously. So sure, why not a dog? The whole thing is absurd.
I love the Diablo games that I’ve played, and I like the art style. I really liked Lilith’s design. In D3 I loved the hell taking over heaven aesthetic. So I appreciate that part of it. But I do not take any of it seriously at all.
In theory it’s free, but if you want to be competitive in the end game in guild/warband competition (which is the main point of the game) you need quality gems, which you either need to dump a lot of money into a gambling system to get, or trade for player-to-player (with premium currency you need to spend real money to get).
And if you want to be among the very top of your server with the best gems it costs THOUSANDS of dollars. Before I quit I socialized with the top guys, because I had a good build, some luck, and spent some cash, and was able to get into one of the best guilds. And they told me they’d spent enough on the game they could have bought new cars.
I mean, if you can afford it and it makes you happy more power to you but damn.
I did pre order and get the kitty, but i am currently playing a druid that runs with two wolves so the dog just joined the pack. Apparently there is a bug that is making the pets count as minions for necromancers and druids.
I think we’re gonna pre-order.
Been playing Diablo 4 since it hit game pass a month ago or whatever it was. I’ve always loved the Diablo games and I have to say I’m digging this one too. The latest seasonal update has been pretty good I’ve got to say. I’m loving the new loot systems, particularly the streamlining of the equipment upgrade systems. Currently running a solo rogue where I believe I’m level 54 or 55 right now. Just hit world tier 3 for the first time.
Re: the newest DLC that was just announced
I too had to do a double take when I saw the $89.99 sticker. That’s ridiculous. $39.99 is better but still seems kind of high to me. Money is not a big issue for me at the moment so I will definitely be getting this but it’ll be the base version as I’m not paying $90 for DLC that’s freaking insane. Can’t wait to try out the new class and see what the new region looks like though.
I went ahead and did it too but I agree $90 for DLC and ONE new class is ridiculous so I got the cheapest option.
I’m also peeved there’s no Paladin yet. “We wanted to try something new.” Yeah, you should be trying something new and bringing back the Paladin.
Also, pro-tip I JUST discovered, on accident, at level 92. Each ancestral item has two tempering slots, not one. 
We’ve been running around this entire Tier at a total disadvantage all this time.
I’m now experiencing the full frustration of bricking an item. I found a ring with the maxed affix 90% overpower damage. I miraculously spun a 28% damage bonus on the first try rerolling a garbage stat. I then promptly tempered it with 100% damage to distant enemies, which if the one kind of damage I don’t do.
Can’t disagree. A crusader was my first class in Diablo 3. (That’s what paladins were called in three right?) I’ve always gravitated toward them myself. It just feels appropriate to play as a paladin in Diablo.
I haven’t even seen an ancestral item yet! I just very recently started seeing uniques. I will definitely keep that in mind!
All the items it seems like I’m getting now also have the word “sacred” appended to them and I’m not exactly sure what that means? I think it might have started when I switched to tier 3 but I can’t be 100% certain about that.
Yes, they start showing up once you graduate to World Tier 3.
Sacred just means that an item is more powerful than an equivalent item of the same level and rarity. It generally has more power, more effects, and sells for more at a vendor.