I plan on playing necromancer. As it was not out this weekend i decided to get use to ranged combat in D4 as opposed to D2/3 with a Sorc.
I played a Wizard in D3 and it felt extremely nostalgic to play the Sorc in D4. With that being said, i Did lean away from Wizard in D3 and headed into Necromancer to which every season after it was released was Necro.
Everything said here will be after level 15 as that is when you unlock your class power for Sorc
Take everything i am about to say Sorc Related with a grain of salt as it might just not be my preferred character any more.
My build is a Icy Blade build.
Frostbolt 1/5 with choice node of Glintering Frost Bolt (honestly can be dropped to just be base frostbolt with first talent afterwards)
Frozen Orb 6/5 with the choice node of 25% chance to make Vulnerable
Ice Armor 5/5 with Choice node of Vulnerable increases shield size
Frost Nova 1/5 (from gear)
Icy Blades 6/5 with choice node of 50% cooldown for all skills
Icy Veil 1/3
Cold front 3/3 OR Snap Freeze 3/3 (honestly a choice, didnt notice any difference between them.
Deep Freeze and both follow up talents.
Enchantment Icy Blades
This is basically a cooldown reduction build. Every time Icy blades strikes a target it reduces your other cooldowns by 0.5seconds. This makes a new icy blade spawn every 20seconds of cooldown reduction you have gone through. Stack that with Deep Freeze 50% cooldown reduction talent and you basically have 8-10 blades at a time slashing targets dealing immense damage while you spam Vulnerable on targets with Frozen Orb and regen with Frost bolt or while in Deep Freeze.
I did dabble with Lightning and Fire builds and found them to either be extremely unengaging (lightning) or Not doing enough damage (fire). I tried both of them again at level 25 with full legendary powers supporting them and it was the same, they couldnt keep up with frost and at times Struggled with Cooldowns between packs.
Fire did out perform on a few Dungeon bosses as once you get that burn stacking, Incinerate makes short work of them. Once you get Two Hydras (unsure if you can get 2 extra of if the staff specifically rolls 1) Fire becomes extremely competitive.
Lightning just struggled to keep the attention going, didnt really do much and once the Ultimate was unlocked, felt really lacking in the damage department. Half the time it felt like the Lightning Ultimate was ignoring Conjuration school and that would of been what actually saved it. Charged Bolts needs an immediate rework as they are slow and dont really do much damage wise. I understand the concept of going for unique skills between fire ice and lightning might seem like it doesn’t really offer much, Maybe replaced Charged bolts with something from D3 like the Nova abilities for Archon, but just do it lightning. This would offer the melee Mage a more of an option since for some reason we have that one Lightning melee frontal that i dont think any one will use.
So now that thats said ill say there are some things i would suggest changing with the Talents in Sorc Tree to make other options more appeasing or legendary powers to offer more advantage. More on that in Talents and Legendary Powers section.
First though.
COMBAT :
I only played on Veteran Mode, It seemed a little to easy to level with. I understand nobody wants Nightmare mode from D3 to return but when encountering packs of mobs it didn’t really seem like they posed any threat with certain skills, and i’m not even talking Ultimate skills. Frozen Orb damage is exactly where it needs to be, it does the correct damage amount at later levels with higher pack counts and those rare encounters where you pull 3-4 packs at once it doesn’t 1 shot them but also doesn’t seem “dangerous” to do.
Mob Density seems extremely low even for lower levels. I encounter packs with 3-4 things in it that were 1 shot for all of them with white gear on after the first boss.
After 15 i noticed that mobs started to get a little more chunky but soon noticed it was because my gear was still level 8 as i hadn’t gotten any “upgrades”. Once i focused on Upgrades and a few legendary powers i wanted things just fell over again til level 25 when i had a slight issue again so i upgraded again and same thing happened.
Elite packs came with basically no threat at all, and the “champion” encounters were nearly non existent. Random Goatmen with big axe is only what made me change my play style as it took all of my skills to control and kill them instead of just 2-3. I came to understand, big axe, big kite.
While you only start to encounter 4 affix mobs around level 24-25 i started to notice unless it had something like a shield mechanic or a ground effect that was really hard to see in combat, damage never happened. If it wasnt the encounter it was the mob type, a Giant goatman with a giant health pool 3 levels before caused problems while a ghoul with the same affixes was literally a push over. I assume that further into the game more affixes will start to happen and hopefully harder ones.
The following Affixes should come back if they are not already in.
- Explosive
- Swarming
- Juggernaut
- Electric
New Affixes that could come into higher levels.
- Sanguine (WoWs Version from M+)
- Grevious (WoWs Version from M+)
- Burning - Affix to set players on fire while within Melee range.
- Lightning Storm- Ranged Lightning bolts rain from the sky after2second. Splash puddle
- Frozen - Physical Damage causes you to freeze.
- Webber or Trapper - Spider boss in one of the dungeons was spamming webs to hold people down.
As they are just suggestions to make the game harder with out knowing what is coming, it could not fall into line with later levels of progression and end game.
TALENTS:
While we finally get something that resembles a talent tree, There are certain things that should be looked at that related to talents all the way into legendary powers and how to obtain them.
Here is Feedback on all the Talents excluding the primary ones.
Incinerate:
Incinerate seems really lack luster, its damage over time and choice nodes need some reworking. I know its suppose to represent the Fire beam from D3 but i can tell you it is just a pretty animation with no damage behind it until you get the legendary. Making it so the incinerate beam actually leaves a damage over time on them either from a choice node or from base spell would feel so much better for DoT builds.
Fireball:
Fireball is probably the most near perfect spell you have created for Sorc. I would probably say make the animation about 20% larger so really imply its something of value. It should leave a damage over time on the target aswell. Be it Choice node or just baseline (id say baseline as both choice nodes are perfect)
Frozen Orb:
Frozen orb is king with no gear and with gear, its chill effect and ability to just Freeze or Vulnerable on demand is probably the most broken thing in the game right now. Greater Frozen Orb says its explosion has a 25% chance to make targets Vulnerable but i can tell you its more like 10% chance. This should honestly be a Legendary Power and replaced with something to increase Chill Chance or Frozen Chance when Vulnerable.
Ice Shards:
Ice Shards might need a slight damage increase and probably not be a straight line. Its a skill shot, and i get that, but even with all Legendary powers supporting it at 6/5 it lacks the damage to even keep up with any other kind of ability on this list outside of Charged Bolts which is miles behind to begin with. I will say that if you land all 5 of those shots on something frozen it is really satisfying watching it delete but since you cant solid freeze most Hard enounters more then twice its damage on the side is really not interesting.
Chain Lightning:
Chain Lightning is near perfect, and because of that it puts me to sleep. I dont really want any changes to the skill outside of probably the ability to bounce back on each other. But i would want to see a better animation going forward. Replace Greater Chain Lightning with something like: Feedback: Chain lightning can not hit targets its already hit before and leaves a 20% damage over time on them afterwards. 90% of the time you will take Crit build with Lightning builds but there might be something unique about it if you diversified its choices a little.
Charged Bolts:
Charged bolts needs to be removed honestly. It is great in concept, but it doesnt actually do much. They are extremely unreliable on hitting anything that needs to be hit, when they do it doesnt seem to do anywhere near the damage of Chain Lightning or Frozen orb or Fire ball. As a secondary choice goes, Ice shards and Incinerate completely dominate it. The replacement is actually mentioned in their first talent choice afterwards. Lightning Nova.
Fire Shield:
Fire Shield is near useless. Its immunity is 2seconds long, It will save you from 1-2 hits from a dungeon boss but outside of the movement ability or the Heal over time talent choices, I never personally would take it and cant see why anyone else would with other choices available.
Teleport:
Teleport. This one is a complex one so try to stay with me. Teleport is extremely good, i never take it for two reasons. The first reason is that combat doesnt’ require you to move enough to get out of range anything more then a Roll would. Teleport should just be the Sorcs Roll ability like it is when you use Enchantments for it, Which nobody should be doing. Second The limited points offers no reason to take it over just getting glass Cannon. I’m sure later on when points are more scarce Teleport might come into its own but i think the solution here is to offer Teleport being the Sorceress roll (blink) ability to give them some Uniqueness and replace Teleport with an ability called Lightning Grasp: Grapples targets to the ground for a short period increasing their Crit chance taken. If the target is immune to Root effects they have a 100% crit chance to strike the target on the next Lightning ability to effect them. Node after being Teleporting onto targets stuns them and refreshes Grasps Duration up to 50%. Choice node 1 being While Grasped Disables all ranged attacks, Choice Node 2 being When a target takes Lightning damage while Grasped it radiates Lightning Damage for 2seconds.
Ice Armor:
Ice Armor is king. In a world where you have to make the choice between a 2second immunity a teleport that does basically nothing for defense a spacebar couldnt do and a world where it has to compete with Frost nova for some reason. Ice Armor is just the stand out winner. Paired with Ice abilities and hitting targets who are Vulnerable which is basically always thanks to Icy Blades and the random proc from Frozen orb you never die, 500 health might aswell be 2000 health with Ice Armor Active.
Frost Armor:
Frost Nova is in a weird spot here. It doesn’t belong here, but then again it doesn’t belong anywhere on any of the grids. The legendary to make it two charges is nice and getting it on gear is the only reason i use it. What i would personally do going forward is redesign Ice Armor to replace the Passive in Ice Armor to randomly Freeze Enemies to randomly Ice Nova. While its not something i would personally ever take it would probably end up being a playstyle with a melee build for sorc.
Hydra:
Hydra is fantastic, i think it should always be 4 heads and the talent after should be reworked as i didnt really have a problem staying healthy, but once i dipped below the health bracket and used hydra before a potion the 3 headed hydra had to be recast as it was a waste to have a 3 head out when a 4 head hits so much harder.
Icy Blades:
Icy Blades needs a slight nerf imo, it shouldnt spawn 2 to begin with as once you get your cooldown build rolling, after combat there is just 8 blades chilling around and you took 0 damage through out the encounter. Lowering the attack speed would cause problems with the clear cooldown build they are built for and the enchantment shouldnt be 20seconds it should be 20seconds of OTHER cooldowns not including Icy Blades.
Lightning Spear:
Lightning Spear is interesting to say the least. I have noticed cases where it goes through a target and doesnt do damage, then goes through the target on a different encounter and it hits them 2-3 times. As far as cooldown skills go, it is a really good one and id say should stay the same if not just clean up the clear bugs with it. Maybe it always target the highest health in the area would be great aswell.
Blizzard
Blizzard Damage seems extremely low. it does less damage then 6/5 Frozen orb. I took it to 6/5 with one and it was roughly equal damage to a 6/5 frozen. For a cooldown ability its kind of lack luster. It should also have a talent after it to increase its Size by 50% as it is tiny. More on that suggestion in Legendary section.
Meteor:
Meteor needs a larger hit box and faster cast time, the 30% node should be baseline and the node should be replaced with Meteor Shower from D3. outside of that, i think its damage is fine
Firewall:
Firewall, Where to begin with firewall. its clunky, and slow, and things just walk straight through it. Keeping things in it is hard, the damage over time is only when they are in it (if you dont have the node that makes it 3seconds afterwards) and there is no reason it shouldnt be better. There is a suggestion at the end that would probably fix the problem of Firewall.
Lightning Orb:
Lightning Orb needs a larger hit box, some times it seemed like things directly next to it were not getting zapped, and since the whole thing about lightning spec is a charge system that zaps people from what seems like half the screen away, You would think that Lightning Orb would hit stuff. It also seems to have a tick rate and if something moves through it before the tick rate ticks again, it ignores the target, that feels really unrewarding.
Deep Freeze:
Deep Freeze is great, doesnt do to much damage, 4second immunity with high damage and targets are usually chill slowed for 3seconds afterwards. Wouldnt change
Inferno:
Inferno animation is fantastic, Embrace that inner Slytherin. It is right on par with the Enchantments and Talents of most Fire based abilities and who ever designed its after talents, give them a a big box of cookies (make sure to post it on twitter so we know you did it).
Unstable Currents:
Unstable Currents, i want this to be good, i need this to be good. If i ever decided to play a sorc on the Live game id want this to be good. It seems to favor spells you only have equipped. So if you have something super powerful, you can just stack cooldown reduction and go in, use this ability and it will throw out a million lightning spears and Chain lightnings. Sadly i think there is a bug with this as when you have your bar full of lightning skills it ignores Conjuration completely. Lightning spear being your top damage.
Frost Spec General:
Frozen Talents imply the target can be “frozen” like Frost Nova does. Same with Frost Nova Enchantments. This was either not happening or not doing the animation to happen. I understand that the graphics engine applies the animation of Frozen from the detonation point of the attack of the icy blades or the hit of the Fire Hydra or the Lightning Spear hit pointer, but it just doesn’t seem to happen. Spent hours trying to figure out if it was working to come up with 0 conclusion or evidence it was happening or not. It could be a bug so ill put it in the bug section at the bottom.
Fire Spec General:
Dots are slow to apply, slower to tick, either Incinerate isnt working with its legendary power or its just not enough even with 85% damage over time damage. It might scale at higher levels with Intellect but i think its to late to change the tick rates of stuff with out breaking the game. I would personally make Hydras damage over time node 40% not 12% just to apply the dots.
Firewall and flame shield. I would say be gone with Flame shield and replace it with Firewall. bake it in to a talent to apply 2seconds of immunity. Targets moving out of Firewall is the most Frustrating thing, and in solo play it is near impossible to use it. In group play atm there is no reason to drop it because things die near instantly any way.
Fire is really lacking in the group play department, even the world boss which is a good 8-10 minute encounter the fire dots do nearly nothing. You cant even notice it.
Lightning Spec General:
Boring. It offered no actual excitement to spell hits, its animations are small and its damage is large. Using chain lightning was clunky but once you start landing nearly all your shots it feels like nothing its happening when really everything just falls over dead. I dont recommend this as in 2 days ive fallen asleep three times playing it. it is actually my go to bed spec.
Charged Bolts needs a solid rework or replace, most of the time for a spender you are missing your shots, waste of mana.
Teleport needs to be the Sorcs base Roll animation. It only makes sense and the talent needs to be replaced with a root ability to make not only Ice Nova not stand out as much but to let Lightning control the field better.
I found myself most of the time killing everything but dungeon bosses with just chain lightning, for those affix encounters Lightning spear cleaned up any problems i had. If i couldnt 1-2 shot them it would be a long encounter and i ended up either kiting for half the dungeon or just jumping past them to ignore them.
Talents in general:
While i welcome the return of talents i don’t think talents in general are what is wrong with the Sorcs choices out of its apparent 3 builds. The sorc seems extremely lack luster when it comes to talents, you build Fire, ice, Lightning, there is no Mix and match build that stands out. Im sure Legendary items later will help but its all the same. Frantic throwing of spenders and cooldowns, killing packs, moving to next pack. There is nothing stopping things coming close to you outside of chill which is why Frost is king atm. Fire doesnt burn hard enough nor slow so thats dead. And lightning hits extremely hard, but if it doesnt kill the thing on its first cast, its a kite till you can do it again.
We did not get to play with Mastery talents nor the Paragon Grid, i assume since no set bonuses we are building sets out of the Mastery and Paragon section which could be great, or could run into more of the same problems.
Talents should have a load out option so you can preview changes made before commiting, The gold cost for a misclick cos of a frame drop is really punishing. Early on its cheap but later it will apparently be in the millions.
Loadouts will fix this. Still costing gold to commit the changes but letting you save your favorite builds. D3 later in life introduced the save Cupboard, best thing they ever did, Multiple builds saving multiple loadouts, 1 click and changed.
Enchantment system:
What i can tell you, this system is basically just set bonuses with less effort. When i was thinking Enchantments i was thinking putting Frost Nova on a Fireball spell makes it cast Frost nova when the fireball hits. Putting Frost nova on a Meteor makes it a frozen Meteor. What we got instead was, This spell gives this buff, this spell gives this buff. This buff is useless to you, so you have to pick this spell. No frost Hydra or Frost Meteor for you. Kinda lacking imo.
What we should of got was 5 slot choices starting at 5 15 25 35 45 and a final passive one at 55 all changing how spells appear and perform. The passive one at 55 should be for your movement ability which again should of been Teleport.
Legendary Powers and how to gather them:
First up, great system, making people go out into the world to do things is a great choice. Those choices being account wide, also a great choice. What i would change about it tho is what powers are within the Dungeons and what powers are within the world boss loot.
Legendary powers are suppose to be unique and build upon a character and in diablo 4 it seems to have missed the mark slightly. Dungeons offer mostly bad Legendary powers for Sorcs while offering what seems to be build creating powers for the rest of the classes. Sorcs get Incinerate legendary power from a dungeon but then the other option is, Ice Shards pierce but deal 20% less damage when they do. Outside of going for 100% in the game i wouldn’t take the ice shards legendary at all. Meanwhile you got two ice spikes legendary staffs that seem to be mandatory for Blizzard and Ice Armor spells.
The world boss legendary Drops seem to be really lack luster and offer nothing unique at all. Meanwhile Druid Necro Barb and Rogue all have extremely game changing Legendary powers starting in the beta zone.
The legendary powers like Splintering Energy should be 100% chance to split, but the second one has 50% reduced damage. Instead its has a 11% chance to split which is basically never.
Meanwhile we have nothing for Frost based abilities, but plenty to cover them in general. Frozen and Vulnerable have some of the most representation and the only actual abilities with Legendary Powers attached to them are Blizzard and Ice Shards. both of which imo are extremely low damage.
Fire has the most representation with i think i counted 4 Damage over time Legendary powers and 1 hydra, 1 Incinerate , 1 Meteor. still lacking at 7.
One of our powers seems like its in the wrong category, which is weird to say outloud. Aspect of Inner Calm increases your damage while you stand still… In a world where you have to stand still to cast, cant stay standing still cos mobs just rush you down and only increases it by 3% stacking up to 30%. I would love to see gameplay of some one standing still on a Sorc for 10seconds and not having to move cos they either killed everything with ice combat, or 1 shot everything with lightning.
Legendary Diversity is what will keep this game alive and at this point i feel that automatically picking necro cos of its unique description of play style was the correct choice.
BUGS!!!:
What i have encountered so far is the following bugs.
Lightning spear Struggles to decide if it is going to do damage or not.
Enchantment for Frost Nova seriously doesnt seem to work.
Blizzard some times doesnt deal damage fast enough and things can just walk right on through even tho things next to it get damaged and chilled.
Chain Lightning choses to bounce off the furthest target only to not have a target to jump back to and then fizzles out.
Frost Nova doesnt freeze on Certain Dungeon maps.
Incinerate fails to utilize its legendary power.
General Opinion of D4
Would i recommend the game to anyone in its current state. Not at all, it seems extremely casual with a hardcore aspect stapled in. You have a Legendary system that seems to not work very well for certain classes and wonders for others.
The combat is slow and unengaging, most of the time outside of the first hour or 2 of playing i was getting bored.
The questing is Great, the MMO feel is great.
Farming gear for the correct stats and farming for upgrading is great, but then changing those gear pieces into legendaries with no unique idenity cos its a 2% damage increase isnt so great.
From a ranged caster perspective its a melee players game, we are just living in it. Casters dont do extra damage to make up for the fact they cant take a hit like melee and they dont have the cooldowns to match either.
