D4 Open Beta Available for Early Download

That was one issue with the beta, I made multiple characters across many hours and I only died once or twice... a little too easy, hopefully the higher difficulties are much harder.

EDIT: People are saying that the barb and druid are weaker, and that is true, but even with them I had no trouble. It took longer to kill but I still didn't die.

Lol, the game is way too easy for necro.
Blood Mist + explosive Mist from legendary aspect trigger Corpse Explosion.
So you can span automatically Corpse Explosion without caring about FCR.

No more corps? An enhance of Blood Mist generates 1 corpse every 1 second for you!

I found a legendary item that has that aspect at lvl 12 only.
By leveling to lvl 18, haft of my gears are legendary items. Not quite legendary!

davme_mcreg wrote: 3 years ago

Apparently the devs have replied about various complaints about the game, notably the barb being underpowered. Rhyyker goes into what he got here at 4:05

Druids supposedly have it even worse.


I'm not really concerned with class balance tbh. We never really had that in D2 and the reasons behind it are also something that keeps the game interesting.

mockingbirdreal wrote: 3 years ago

So you can span automatically Corpse Explosion without caring about FCR.

And it doesn't even require essence.

So my impression from playing the necro to 25 in the open beta.
The gameplay itself is well done apart you being restricted to 6 skills (4 hotkeys and 2 mouse).
Mob density is low compared to d2 I only hope they up that in the later game.
It feels very D3-ish, you've got these gimmicks from elite mobs like walls, those rotating spikes and acid pools. Boss fights have the avoidance indicators.

Oh and there are treasure goblins.

The campain's story is good. The presentation is not. Most are npc escorts and the dialogue happens not while walking through a section without mobs (of which there are many) but at certain checkpoints.

Itemisation and character building is also very closely linked to D3. Weapon damage == skill base damage for casters and physical builds, weapon speed == fcr. You can spend multiple points into the same skill but it's mostly outclassed by weapon damage, except for passives you can't get otherwise.
You can't spend stat points, stats come from items. It was said to be tuned down a bit compared to D3 but you're still are seeing stats on items in the lower double digits and since this is early game I honestly can't see a practical difference to D3.
There are other bonuses though, a bunch. Overpower, vulnerable, cooldown reduction, etc.. In the end it's just part of the dps calculation. There are specific skill modifiers that take advantage of these bonuses though, so at least in that regard gear choices matter when it comes to build.
Many or most legendaries give you an extra skill modifier which you can extract and craft onto a rare, this could be a first hint at what the lategame itemisation might look like. So in that regard it also beats D3. If it's close to to what we have in D2 remains to be seen.

I did find the mmo and open world aspect mostly annoying. Many campaign quests require you to grind a certain item from a specific location and depending on when you're playing you have to compete with others to kill the mobs that spawn them.
You also have to collect herbs, scrap and other resources to spend at vendors for crafting. Finally the thing that made me cringe is you have to "upgrade" your potion with the herbs you pick up at a vendor. (Gladly just once per character and threshold)

So this how I ended D4 beta, I only did one build