Torment 3 is too big of a wall

PC General Discussion
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Xpac overall has been a blast so far. The game’s made huge improvements, and the grind, world, and dark atmosphere have been really satisfying. But there’s one thing that’s starting to get on my nerves: meta builds.

Here’s the deal: For my current char and build Torment 2 is a cakewalk. Everything just falls over. But then you hit Torment 3, and it’s like you slammed into a brick wall. Suddenly, if you’re not following a meta from Maxroll or somewhere else, you’re stuck. The difficulty spike is huge, and it feels like you either play one of a handful of meta builds, or you just can’t progress. There’s no in-between.

Take my attempt to kill Zir in Torment 3. I was running my own build, which was doing fine up until then, I could barely scratch him. After struggling for a while, I finally asked in chat for help. Some guy with a Quill Volley meta build shows up and just nukes Zir in about 5 seconds. It really hit me then how imbalanced the game feels when you’re not using meta builds.

I get that meta builds are always going to be part of the game, and maybe you do need them for the super high-end content like blasting T4 Uber etc. That makes sense. But needing a meta build just to progress through the Torment tiers? That feels off. It shouldn’t be that extreme.

Some paragon nodes, skills nodes, conditional glyphs and aspects have multipliers that feel like they are 150 times better than others. If you’re not using them, you’re going to struggle way more than you should. I like making my own builds and experimenting, but in Diablo 4, it feels like you have no choice but to follow the meta if you want to stand a chance in the later Torment difficulties.

Compare this to Path of Exile. Sure, it has metas too, but I’ve cleared a lot of the game’s content with off-meta builds. Maybe it’s not as efficient, but it’s possible. I’ve killed the Shaper with builds that weren’t cookie-cutter. In Diablo 4, though, that same flexibility just doesn’t seem to exist as you climb in difficulty.

Anyone else feel like you’re being funneled into meta builds way too early? I’d love to hear how others are navigating this or if anyone’s managed to make their own builds work in Torment 3+ without sticking to the meta.

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Agreed. This was the issue I saw coming the moment they introduced multiple torment tiers. People will tell you “you can get everything in Torment 1, you dont have to do T4.” Sure, I can gear in T1…if I wanna take 10x longer to get gear. Their needs to be systems for the super hardcore playerbase, but that should be stuff that rewards cosmetics, titles, etc. Not stuff that gives player power. Basically Blizz is just rewarding people for playing the same exact builds now.

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You are aware it’s day 3 of the season…right?

I know some can’t accept it, but you aren’t supposed to be farming the hardest difficulties before the end of the first week.

That seems to be what 99% of the complaints are.

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Some people have already played for 50 hours, which is the average expected playtime for a season.

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That doesn’t change anything I said.

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Well, depending on your build, lacking one particular item means you’ll not be doing enough damage to break through T2, and to breeze through T3, one might need a meta build, every build defining uniques and aspects and/or mythic items, as well as higher paragons (130+?).

It’s not too bad though. I’m managing fine at T2 for now, T3 would take too much time farming. I don’t know, I’m still figuring that out. It’s early, and I’m not following any guide/meta build or whatnot.

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That quills SB can do content that other builds require 5x the gear and paragon levels for.

You are naive if you think any build with enough time played can reach T4.

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I’m playing sorc and I can already tell that only lightning spear builds can do T4, although they are still very weak compared to spiritborn.

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Do you have a source for this data?

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Common man… Just play your own way. Listen:

https://youtu.be/VQtOIeKRXaY?si=aYriLEND-SzFJa4z&t=28

Everything’s gonna be alright!

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Yep I was hoping class balance was improved……maybe one day

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Haven’t T3 yet but I’m not surprised actually. Streamers say there are a handful(among guides prepared by professionals) of builds that are T4 viable, so It’s pretty understandable that T3 also excludes non meta builds.

Last season I had 4 characters who could farm T8 hordes casually, but once I tried changing builds on some of those characters, their performance fluctuated. Only top meta builds can farm T8, same builds that could push pit 121 and above. Lots of people weren’t able to do T8’s easily so they opted for T7’s.

Bar is higher this season. Once you hit like paragon 50, and are in T2, it’s about time you gotta be reading a guide. Otherwise you’ll be left out.

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Sadly it’s been like that. So that’s nothing new. Do I want it to be improved? BIG YES.

Anyway, in regards to the wall, I am betting you need to improve your gear, build, paragon etc. When I started with my Centipede build Penitent was a wall. Then it became easy. Same story for Torment 1. Same story for Torment 2. And here I am Torment 3. Definitely Torment 4 is a wall but I will get there and beat it for sure.

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T4 Dark Citadel is the big endgame feature this season and it will only be done by spiritborn and MAYBE a really optimized LS sorc.

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Probably need to be paragon 300 with hella maxed glyphs to judge if something is too much of a wall. We do need to play for 3 months not be done in a couple days.

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If you are at paragon 200 with legendary glyphs, you already have something like 90% of the power that comes from the paragon system. The power gains slow down a lot.

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This just in, Johnny Homebrew’s build sucks.

More at 10

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It doesn’t matter if it’s day 3 or day 300 of the season – the numbers don’t change based on the amount of days played…lmao.

I’m in torment 4 right now, and I can tell you with 100% certainty: if you do not play the meta build, you will not go past Torment 2

This season has the worst balance I’ve ever seen.

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You build up to end game by farming gear and materials to increase your power, you aren’t supposed to do it the first day.

Edit: as for meta builds being required at the extreme end game. That sadly has always been a reality of ARPG’s. If they made it so easy every home brew build can do it, it would be too easy for more serious players.

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You’re not understanding how big of a jump T2 to T3 to T4 is.

No amount of gear farming will solve you not playing the meta this season. You will barely be able to overcome T2 using a non-meta build, and it will take you half an hour to kill bosses in T3.

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