The illusion of being able to create original builds has been lifted with this DLC. Literally everyone is copy and pasting a build they saw on youtube and now this idea that I can maybe make a powerful original build has turned into resentment. The meta wall is very real.
At first when I was trying to find a rune for my poison build I was asked if I had any Lith runes to trade. Ofcourse I did I didnt have it in my build, but then when the 10th person asked me for the same rune it became apparent that everyone was copy and pasting a build they saw on youtube. And now in Tormented 4 i have to hitch hike in higher pit levels with everyone using the same jaguar/eagle esque build. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone use the Gorilla ultimate once this whole time since release.
When I ask in the local chat room in game for tips on how to make a late game DoT build with poison no one has any idea. Ofcourse they don’t. I doubt anyone really knows how the system in the game works now. You even see PIT dungeon rooms with the Title: Meta.
Today to be a good Diablo 4 player you have to copy meta builds, and being a bad player is playing the game without guides hoping RPG elements in the game are good enough for you to break through the meta wall.
After many years playing Diablo I thought that the math might be complicated, that meta in the game is a skill issue at Blizzard because of the complexity with creating so may moving parts, but now I’m 100% convinced this is intentional. Maybe in the 90’s when people didn’t communicate online as they do today the illusion of being able to make original builds in their games added an addictive quality. But now knowing that this is intentional on their end, I’m wondering if they’ll ever adapt to modern mechanics and break that off. It would be better to see competing builds instead of variations of the same exact ones. The problem with this meta approach is that everyone knows what the Meta build is before the game even releases because of influencers.
This DLC has made meta builds abnoxious and in your face. I guess I’ll wait and see if POE2 really is a game that offers variety in builds.
Overall i did enjoy the DLC, the story, and trying out the spiritborn. But if another isometric ARPG comes along that offers me a more enriching experience in gameplay, I’m definitely up to jump ship.
60 Likes
while i agree that i would prefer a slightly better balance (i mean, i dont care a lot for balance, but every class should have 1 option in the S Tiers) i think this whole discussions gets a little worn out.
we got 4 Torment tiers. pretty much every build is able to do tier 3. At the end of the day people should switch their focus from “whats strong?!?!” to “what do i enjoy?”.
the game cant, and never will be absolutely balanced. there will always be builds that will be able to do, or clear something a lot faster than you can. It is extreme this season i agree, but still no reason to get worked up over it.
to be honest, im actually glad im not playing spiritborn. i think itd be bored way too fast.
13 Likes
Which is why I play solo exclusively. Here is a like.
8 Likes
kinda a shame really. I don’t follow meta but however i do look at some for inspiration in crafting my own build. I don’t care if i reach the top of a computer game. I play computer games for entertainment and nothing more.
9 Likes
All of the good stuff is locked behind T4. If most builds can’t scale up their damage enough to do T4, it’s simply means that the balance is bad.
There is no reason why the spiritborn should be doing trillions of damage while other classes struggle to scale up to a billion.
11 Likes
not true. all the good stuff is locked behind t1 upwards.
The only thing thats truly locked to t4 are the cosmetic rewards for the citadel which differ between t1-3 and t4. The rest is perfectly achievable from t1 onwards.
so if we are just talking about gear, you are absolutely good to go with t3 for example, which pretty much every build can do.
10 Likes
That is being optimistic at this point of the game.
2 Likes
Blizzard wants to sell the expansion. I wouldn’t have thought they would give spiritborn such a headstart, making everyone else quit other league starters because you are basically not competitive in any sense of way.
Anybody who’s defending the current state of balance has no idea how balance in a game should work in general.
10 Likes
So most builds should be barred from farming the game’s only aspirational endgame content because they happened to pick the wrong class.
3 Likes
I didnt say that. as you can see i said i wished that every class had an S tier build. But i also say its not an issue to not be able to do t3 with a build. What if every class had an S tier build, but you just dont like those?
That being said my necro does farm t4 comfortably. I cant talk about the other classes.
2 Likes
Farming it comfortably? Or getting boosted by the spiritborn comfortably?
1 Like
feel free to add me and i show you.
Ill be online in a few hours and you can hit me up.
1 Like
Intentionally sacrificing the health of their overall product to make a quick buck, should tell you all you need to know about their intentions.
15 Likes
I’m done playing this season, only farming the Dark Citadel weekly for cosmetics.
I can effortlessly farm anything in T4 on my LS sorc as well. The problem is that as soon as there is a spiritborn in the group, my contribution drops to 0 because the bosses’ HP bars get melted quicker than I can even conjure 12 lightning spears to start doing damage.
3 Likes
The aim is unquestionably short term gains.
Long term gains prolly never cross their collective minds
3 Likes
where is your issue exactly then when you can get your stuff done nicely. It rather sounds like jealousy there.
Spiritborns will get a nerfhammer soon enough (just like the LS sorcs for that matter). as with every season, let the flavor of the season have their fun.
2 Likes
I can’t play any other sorc builds like arc lash or chain lightning.
Also, LS sorc wasn’t nerfed. It only seems weaker this season because the spiritborn is beyond overpowered.
What’s the point of “play your way” if I’m just copying meta builds every season?
4 Likes
you can absolutely play your way, hence why there are different difficulty levels.
Play your way doesnt mean everything you do is equal to what others do.
Heck, lets remove damage scaling all together. we all do 1 damage no matter what we build. There we go, perfect balance. No class feels left out.
2 Likes
Maybe I’m wrong, but my interpretation of “play your way” was that we would have several competitive builds for each class and we would see those builds have real competition on the ladders (or the Pit or whatever).
When the difference between builds is 1000x or even 10000x, there’s no competition to be had. You just play the meta and farm marginal gear upgrades.
11 Likes