I’ve just started the game and got to lvl 35. Actually I like the game, definetely much better than D3.
But I have some strange feeling that it is not Diablo. Stats don’t matter, at all. The difference between Str 100 and Str 200 is 10% of additional damage, which is close to nothing.
Gems are useless junk which are better left in the stash. It increases a bit overpower damage, which triggers once per hour? Who cares?
Look, I got legendary ring with all res 2.7%, and before I had 2.4%. Both are completely useless, I can throw all those rings away and won’t feel even the slightest difference.
You constantly get upgrades +0.5% or +1%, and don’t feel any difference. At all.
It is interesting game but feels more like adventure game, with all those stats and loot being more like decorations, which is quite unusual for the series.
Gems become more useful later as their level grows and the resistance penalty for WT3 and WT4 kick in. Early on resistances don’t really matter.
STR adds armor, also when you hit paragon it can help you gain some of the bonuses for rare nodes. (not really about damage)
Each attribute adds to something, hover over it on your character sheet to see what it adds.
Those implicit attributes on rings go up when you upgrade…again the early game is pretty easy so you are not tested at all, one of the flaws in the game teaching you mechanics properly in my opinion. But what it is currently
You will hit a point where you will need to upgrade gear and maintain your resistances at 70 later on.
It’s 10% multiplicative, which is quite large when you start adding in other sources. You’ll get there with Paragon.
Again, some gems are quite massive. Each Ruby for example, gives my Barb massive life. Sapphires yield massive Damage Reduction on my Druid. Gems are also being overhauled next patch.
They add up. Later, you’ll be begging for those Resists and crying when a enemy fireball splatters you. Then you’ll be back on here wondering “Why I die?!?”.
What you’re saying is absolutely true, from a level 35 perspective. Your perspective will drastically change as you reach the endgame and higher levels though. Continue to have fun, don’t worry about stats on gear until you hit WT4, then you can start to min-max your build.
I compare to Diablo 2, where you find some good unique item and feel like god for several levels. Or stuff rubies in three socket bow and burn everything. Or put every point in strength to be able to wear some cool armor.
It is all on low levels and you definitely feel every upgrade.
Decent take @OP but most if not all of your criticism comes from itemization
That being said, is gonna get fixed soon, in fact there’s a PTR starting from tomorrow already
Welcome 
Well good news for you, this is changing in May, and you can find Uniques at lower levels. Currently you can’t though, so you’ll have to wait a little over a month until the next big patch hits. Lots of changes coming. Sadly it was the worst time to join the game right now, because we’re in the limbo stage of waiting.
Totally different games Bob.
WoW has a sub and is an MMO with grouping controls, raids, AH, flying mounts and so on.
This is an ARPG and has none of that.
You dig Bob?
Oh wait, you be trolling. I’m an idiot, sucker for it every single time!
That’s the problem.
Take it further than lvl 35 and you’ll see the difference, I hope anyway.
Also S4 has all kinds of changes coming, so stay tuned.
Good news for you! S4 opens up Uniques far earlier, and gems are getting an overhaul. Wait about a month…
Yeah, gear is pretty pointless (as in that they don’t matter all that much and you don’t need to pay much attention to it on order to beat the content) in D4 until you hit higher level in World Tier 4. Sadly, D4 is getting easier and easier every season.
Some of the powerful bonus in your paragon board require minimum stat to activate. Therefore they are important even that is not your main stat like Will power. You need to check which are the paragon board has the bonus you need, activate them first and if you put them at further of your base board the bonus requirement will increase.
Also when you build your paragon, select the node belong to the stat you need on every path to min max.
With the patch that should arrive on May 14, the stats will be changed to be simpler, general and larger. Along with this the items will also have less stats to balance, but overall it should be much better.
As you have already been told, this patch can be tested tomorrow (April 2) during the first Diablo 4 PTR.
Now, at low levels it is quite normal to ignore stats. The same thing happens in Diablo 3. For example, in Diablo 3 critical damage has no impact until you reach level 60 and resistances to all elements are not important below T4. (I’m talking about the current Diablo 3 and not vanilla Diablo 3).
PS: Oh, and don’t let it affect you when others say that you have a very low level. First impressions are important. It’s the difference between playing 1 hour and playing 1000.
(Obviously first impressions are like book covers, and you know what they say about that 
)
Thanks for playing till lvl 35 before heading to the forum to post.
We at blizzard at targeting everyone to give us full game review after lvl 35.
I tried WoW and didn’t like it much. My biggest issue was combat, which is understandable, because back in the days when WOW was in development, 56K modems were pretty much alive. Spaming abilities was the only option, because everything else wouldn’t work due to tremendous lags and crawling internet speed.
And Diablo 4 combat is good for diablo like game. WW barbarian play definetely feels more complex than D2 or PoE.
You are still early level. Get back to us when you hit WT4 and are getting destroyed by mobs because you have low life and no resistances due to not having those “useless” gems.
I know how you feel… Gear/affixes are important in late game. + We will get really major overhaul of itemization in S4…
But yeah you are right now. Anything under lvl 70 is pretty homogeneous and almost nothing matters.
Early game should get some love.
You just use any new item with green number and don´t care.
Lots of things don’t matter at level 35 that matter a lot at level 70+ when you get to world tier 4. Since you won’t be level 35 for more than an hour (tops!) there is no reason to worry about it. Glad you are enjoying the game though, just don’t get used to all the weird itemization afixes because they are all about to change.
This is why the gamepass should have waited until next season. New players will be confused because the system they just learned got changed in just a little over a month.
Yeah, if this had been an MMO I wouldnt have touched it and neither would many others.