Characters Tested
Sorcerer (Level 100)
Build: Blizzard and Frozen Orb
Gear: All glyphs at level 21, at least one GA per item with BIS or highly desirable stat rolls
Druid (Level 100)
Build: Pulverize and Wind Shear
Gear: All glyphs at level 21,at least one GA per item with BIS or highly desirable stat rolls
Rogue (Level 100)
Build: Heart Seeker and Rapid Fire
Gear: All glyphs at level 21, several Triple GA items master worked to level 12 with BIS stat rolls.
Barbarian (Level 100)
Build: Bash and Whirlwind
Gear: All glyphs at level 21, at least one GA per item with BIS or highly desirable stat rolls
Necromancer (Level 100)
Build: Summon Golem
Gear: All glyphs at level 21, at least one GA per item with BIS or highly desirable stat rolls
Main Character: Heart Seeker Rogue
The Heart Seeker Rogue was the primary focus to evaluate the “fix” with Victimize. The character’s performance was still impressive, especially in Nightmare Dungeon (NMD) level 100s, which were completed in just a few minutes. The build excelled against bosses, champions, elites, and trash mobs, as expected with a well-geared character featuring multiple Triple GA items master worked to level 12. The rapid fire version of the character felt great as well, I even had a chance to test the resource help instead of using my shako, definite power boost! maintaining the 125% damage was easy and the resource management never became an issues between cycling my basic attacks to gain combo points.
Gambling and Farming
I created approximately 100 new characters to farm obols and was pleased to discover that mythical items could indeed be gambled. This added a fun layer to the farming process, not sure if the drop rates are higher on the PTR but if they reflect what is supposed to be on retail version it seems like you get a unique around every 12k obols and a mythic after around 40k obols (your mileage may vary)
Hell Tides
I participated in three separate Hell Tide events, farming around 50 chests. The pace of mobs, including random spawns and those from the threat meter, felt well-balanced. Across these events, I received one random mythic drop and several unique items, which was a satisfying yield. This felt really good! IF the drop rates stay around here I would be surprised, again I feel like they have buffed the unique drop for PTR purposes, but perhaps I just had good luck.
Uber bosses
Tested all of the bosses, and their UBER versions. beast in ice still makes a sigil to nobody’s surprise. Otherwise 10x uber of each boss and I did find a higher Mythical drop rate… again closer to around 16-18% which seems higher than the retail version but again I could just be getting lucky.
Nightmare Dungeons
Running a dozen different NMD Tier 100 sigils, the experience was smooth with no significant bugs encountered. The drops were consistent with expectations, providing a rewarding experience.
PIT
This is where some issues emerged. Before the PTR, I was able to clear PIT level 115 in around four minutes. However, post-PTR, I struggled to finish GR 90 within the time limit. Additionally, exploit glyphs had odd interactions with regular mobs, causing random executions, which was frustrating. I think staff must be aware something is wrong with PIT… so long as its fixed before we go live on next season I and all others will be happy.
Leveling Experience
Leveling felt similar to the current version, providing a comfortable experience. However, I have mixed feelings about the seasonal mechanic starting in World Tier 3 (WT3). While it seemed like an attempt to make WT3 more viable, the rewards and time investment did not feel beneficial for leveling. After completing the initial quest line, it was more efficient to focus on Hell Tide and NMD for glyph experience. I wish they could find a way to make the lower versions give you the build defining items early on to help you get started and make WT3 feel like a more important step towards unlocking WT4 but in the current iteration it doesn’t do that.
World Tier 3 Seasonal Mechanic
The compass upgrade system was another point of contention. Despite extensive gameplay, I couldn’t upgrade my compass beyond level 3. The level three compass rewards, such as receiving an item with a single GA affix after 250 Aether, felt underwhelming compared to farming in Hell Tide, PIT, or NMD, where the yield of GA items was significantly higher.
Conclusion
Overall, the PTR for Diablo 4 Season 5 has some promising aspects, the new items do create opportunity for new builds and I will continue to theory craft as I have some clever ideas on how to leverage these items in combinations that have yet to be seen before! However, there are areas that need improvement, particularly with PIT and the seasonal mechanic in WT3 and in WT4. The reward system for the new mechanic feels unbalanced compared to other farming methods. Hopefully, further adjustments will enhance the gameplay experience.
Thanks to the entire D4 dev team… really awesome stuff so far and I hope to give more feedback after I try some of the new build ideas I have in store!
Cheers
Levi