Saturday Morning Gaming: A few more moments with Diablo IV

After last weekend, I thought that I wouldn’t be playing Diablo IV until its release date (or, probably, a week or two after its release date).

But they’ve not only given another weekend with the beta, THEY HAVE MADE THE NECROMANCER AND THE DRUID PLAYABLE.

And I already hate the Druid.

So far, playing him he’s fragile as heck even though I am using the bear form. I like how the bear’s swipe has an area of effect so you’re good at crowd control, but one on one vs a big boss, you’re at a disadvantage. Maybe he’d be better in a group.

But here is his tree so far:

First thing, you can put points in bear or wolf form. So you can be a bear in the first few seconds of playing the game.

Which brings me to the main thing that I’ve noticed they’ve changed about the game. They’ve given the stuff you build your build around right up front. You’re making a frenzy barb? We’re not going to make you wait until level 24 anymore. Werebear? No need to hit level 6, just go for it.

Now, there is a bunch of stuff that they keep from you until you hit the higher levels… various skills and various passives. But you no longer have to wait to make your build. You can just make it.

Pity that the Druid kind of sucks single-player, though.

The good news is that the Necromancer is *AWESOME*.

They let you summon skeletons from the get-go and you get *4* of them. You start out with mere sword-carriers but, as you go up levels, you can give your skeletons shields or scythes and you are allowed to pick either a particular upgrade *OR* get a bonus for not having skeletons at all. (You don’t want to be a summon build? You don’t have to be one! Get a bonus to damage instead!)

So I like that *A LOT*.

I’ve also stumbled across an interesting failure in how stuff is calculated. Like, it’s possible to get an up arrow for two items that go into the same slot:

So you actually have to do math to figure out which item you’d prefer.

Which is good. I kinda hate the green arrow thing. Make me think about which item I want!

I’ve concluded that I am definitely going to get this, but it doesn’t need to be Day One, and I doubt I’ll be playing it six months after (unlike my experience with Diablo II).

So… what are you playing?

(Featured image is a screenshot of the character select screen. All screenshots taken by the author.)