Can we please, please lose the bloody sword-dropping-from-above mechanic? Look, I’m very bad at this game, I make no secret of that. And yes, I have just repeatedly died at the point of these things so absolutely this is a salt-and-sour-grapes post written in the moment.
But the calming down I’ll certainly do after posting this still won’t make me think this is a good mechanism for adding difficulty. I don’t mind games being difficult if they’re meaningfully difficult. A mechanic that just executes random—or random-seeming—one-shot kills on you out of the sky is not meaningful. It’s… I don’t want to say ‘lazy’, because I don’t think this is a lazy game for the most part. But let’s say it’s a low-difficulty way to add difficulty, if that makes sense.
Make a game difficult by giving opponents better intelligence. Make it difficult by putting in puzzles that are hard to figure out. Bake the difficulty into the actual game systems themselves. Make overcoming the difficulty a matter of sustained and consistent skill. I have no problem with any of that—though I’ll be honest, I’d still be no good at it. That’s not the point.
The point is there’s a difference between making a game hard via coherent, consistent methods and making it hard ‘artificially’ (yes, I know video games are fundamentally artificial, but I’m sure you see what I mean).
Personal saltiness or not, I just don’t think Diablo 4 would be any the worse for having this particular mechanic taken out.
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They promised “intelligent monsters” but nothing happened.
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Well, to be fair, they only promised updated monster AI.
I guess the emphasis is on the Artificial part of the AI. 
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The only thing i die to in the pit (140’s) are these aoe effects that do ridiculous amounts of damage that no defense can outscale.
Same with the swords, the lightning goblins, the fire orbs and certain abilities from bosses like poison or frost.
It’s just one shots.. or at least more than my selfhealing can keep up with
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The hard part of this conversation is that there’s a real difference between “one-shot mechanics” and your defenses simply being overwhelmed. Your defenses being overwhelmed is part of the game and isn’t “fixable” in the sense that there’s anything to do but grant you GUTS*. It’s a stat issue that at some point is designed to not be something you can overcome because that’s the only way for you to lose.
The problem with giving enemies better intelligence or creating craftier mechanics is that it ironically compounds the issue and makes it even worse. A “stupid” sword which doesn’t follow the player would be much better than a “smart” sword that seeks the player when you defenses will be punched through either way. This doesn’t mitigate the stat defense issue. There’s never going to be a point in this game, or most games in this genre, in which your dexterity outpaces your inherent ability to simply take a hit because in most of these horde type games you are, by design, going to take a hit.
*GUTS is a mechanic in which after you take a lethal hit you are left with 1-HP. It’s sort of like the Shroud of False Death is now.
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at least sword is avoidable.
the lightning enchanted guys who shock everywhere when hit is literal death if you lack durability as by time you know its happening you likely dead.
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That’s fair. And to be honest this has long been a problem for me: I get hyperfixated on doing as much damage as possible and neglect other mechanics, and end up a glass peashooter. 
In the end, yeah, it’s down to knowing how the thing works, and I don’t, well enough. I have to admit to a pretty casual play style and even after a fair few years I’m still something of a novice.
It was mostly just tetchy rant, like I say. I’ll go look into ways—if there are any for sorcerors—to soak large sudden impacts, and maybe try and get things balanced out a bit better.
Thanks for the replies; I appreciate your thoughts.
(Also, my apologies for yet another replication of the “I don’t like the swords dropping on me” post. I hadn’t realised there were quite that many already…)
Are we talking about that sword that tracks you and then crashes down on you?!
What a moronic idea from the developers.
The developers have absolutely no clue how to handle difficulty in Diablo 4. Just the boss fights alone make me sick.
I don’t know who in the Diablo community said fighting bosses was fun, but you shouldn’t always listen to idiots…
The Mephisto fight is absolute garbage. There are phases where he deals zero damage, and then the next moment—bam—you get one-shot.
It’s the 14th season of Diablo—after three previous games—and they still haven’t grasped that one-shot mechanics shouldn’t exist.
Hack-and-slash isn’t a genre based on dexterity and dodging attacks…
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Executioner Swords are easy to dodge when you can identify the enemy at a distance, it does not die immediately, and you are not standing on top of the enemy when it dies.
When you cannot even see an enemy has Executioner Affix and it dies immediately, if you see it coming you can just kite it and drop it somewhere. If you happen to be on top of the enemy when it dies though, the Executioner goes off almost instantly, which has a very high likelihood to kill you no matter what your defensive values are. Couple this with the entire Elite pack having that Affix shotgunning and even MULTIPLE packs doing that and no amount of git-gud fixes bad RNG.
This is in a vaccuum, in reality it is much worse because you also have Pools, the impossible to see Shadow Quakes, exploding Lunatics, and Fire Enchants among other particle effects that are either not telegraphed or so cluttered they could just as well be invisible.
Of course if you completely trivialize the content, this does not matter but during progression and a period of friction it is outright annoying.
Any Elite that has an “affix” on it I normally never see.
Master Blasting through everything without a second thought. As a player we have to deal with the consequences when that elite dies.
shrugs I don’t like those falling swords either.
At least those electric mobs that explode have been dumbed down
I dislike the falling swords too. My tip is this. It’s called Executioner so when that enemy with that affix tag dies it will spawn a sword. The swords are physical damage as tested by Wudijo, so Skulls in your rings and amulet will help with physical resistance. If it’s a three pack each enemy in the pack will spawn another sword when it dies.