Diablo IV Weekend!

Mr. M was off on Friday, and we made the most of it by spending basically the entire weekend playing the early beta of Diablo IV. We’re both huge Diablo fans, and even though a lot of fans hate on Diablo III, we’ve played literally hundreds of hours of it because while the story might not be the best, it’s soothing to click on monsters and have loot pop out.

So to say we’re excited for Diablo IV is a massive understatement.

And I’m happy to report, that despite the troubling rumors from development, it’s a lot of fun! There are bugs and issues, as with any beta, and I’m doubtful they’re going to get them all ironed out in the next two and half months, but it’s totally playable.

Especially after they fixed the queuing issues from Friday that saw us sitting in 70- and 90-minute queues to login. That was less fun, but by Saturday, the queues were generally less than a minute, so they either fixed the issue or threw a whole lot more servers at it, and either way, good job Blizzard.

They’ve definitely leaned in to the horror side more with IV than III. Or maybe I’m just used to playing III in adventure mode without the cutscenes, but the early cutscenes in IV were very pretty and very horrific (in a good, scary-movie kind of way). If you have a weak stomach for blood and gore, you may want to tread carefully.

We hit the beta level cap of 25 and made it all the way through Act I with one character and hit the level cap with another. I played Barbarian and Rogue, and Mr. M played Sorcerer and Rogue. Character design is still kind of limited, but it actually exists now, and look how cool I looked with just the basics!

Screenshots from Diablo IV showing a barbarian in purple leather armor with a two-handed hammer and a rogue in red hooded armor with a fancy bow.

I think cosmetics are going to be one of the real money items, and they’re probably going to get some of mine, because I do love to make my characters look nice.

I generally prefer melee characters, which is why I started with the barbarian, but the rogue was waaaaaay easier. I’ve heard that barbarian gets better at higher levels, but I felt like I was doing no damage, while Mr. M’s sorcerer killed everything in like two seconds. So most fights were me face tanking whatever we were fighting while he killed it from afar, which is our normal style, but usually I’m doing at least some damage, and it didn’t really feel that way with the barbarian build I was using.

Next weekend is the open beta, no preorder required, so we’ll see if the extra people bring back the queueing issues. They’re also opening up the Druid and Necromancer classes, so it’ll be fun to see how those play.

Since we play co-op, I usually play a paladin-type class that tanks and heals and does some DPS, while Mr. M plays a glass-cannon ranged DPS class. If you don’t play games, those words probably don’t make sense, but it basically means my character has a lot of armor and resistance, so I stand in front of enemies and keep their attention while Mr. M attacks them from a distance. He’s the one that deals most of the damage, but if his character gets hit, he dies, so it’s my job to keep the enemies focused on me. Barbarian fills that role, but it’s not my first choice, so I’m excited to try the other two classes.

This year is shaping up to be a big year for gaming, assuming the dev schedules hold, which is always iffy. We’ve got Redfall, the new Zelda, Diablo IV, and Starfield just to name a few. Are there any games you’re looking forward to this year? Did you happen to play the D4 beta? Let me know your thoughts!

5 thoughts on “Diablo IV Weekend!”

  1. Really enjoying the beta! It’s been really fun to be back in Sanctuary, working on a up close sorcerer build. Can’t wait for Starfield too.

    1. Mr. M’s sorcerer build just annihilated everything. Wizard/sorc is usually my last choice of build, but his character got to wear fancy robes and mow down enemies, so I might have to give it a shot! :)

  2. I haven’t tried playing any of the games yet but I’ve gotten used to the terminology from reading a couple of series by Tom Larcombe. Bottom line, I understand what you mean. 😀 Sounds like fun.

  3. Not playing the beta, but just killing EVERYTHING in III. :) It’s great, put down a sentry and because of my armor, it does 12,000 percent damage. yes. 12,000 percent. It’s awesome. Does IV let you play from the same couch or is it an online only type deal?

    1. We play on PC, so we don’t play couch co-op, but I think the console versions will let you do that in IV. You may still have to be online, since it is a MMORPG, but you can mostly ignore the other players around you and co-op with your group, since dungeons and such are instanced to the party.

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