Diablo 4 Midseason Update Sees Vampiric Powers Return and New Endgame Gauntlet Dungeon | MMORPG.com

System · March 2

Diablo 4 Midseason Update Sees Vampiric Powers Return and New Endgame Gauntlet Dungeon | MMORPG.com

The Diablo 4 team held its latest Campfire Chat stream yesterday, detailing the Season of the Construct's midseason update. Vampiric powers have been improved and make a return, and we get more on the new Gauntlet, and Leaderboards coming next week.

Read the full story here

AZHokie54 · March 2

I can't even make it to level 20 in this game anymore without quitting. So disappointed in how it turned out.

Gorwe · March 2

Well, time to enjoy Last Epoch, I guess. D4? Look, D3 was at least fun. This is ... /whatever.

angerbeaver · March 3

Enemies are NM T70, so not really a challenge in itself, but more to kill as much against the timer. Not something that will draw people back to the game and not something anyone will care enough unless they are very close to the top scores.

Very niche event in the sense, it will not be many people playing this repeatedly. I think a lot of people might do it a few times and then who really cares.

I love that in the Dev demo, their construct, which was their big seasonal mechanic, wasn't even on screen helping in the least because he was killing and moving faster than it could keep up. Brilliant design and idea for a seasonal mechanic, something completely useless at end game.

peewee78368 · March 3

... Crazy thing is. I played diablo 3 on PC then Ps3 then Ps4 then again on Ps5... I played alot of diablo 3... Why because it was FUN!!!!! Also Being able to play with a friend who can pick up a controller and we play together all the time even till this day my friend comes over and he like bro new diablo 4 came out can we play it together on ur PS had to tell him we cant so what did we do we went right back to diablo 3 having a BLAST... I still aint beat diablo 4 its just so bad and boring MTs filled battlepass BS

Ancjoo · March 3

Diablo4 isn't a very good game.. I am enjoying Last Epoch so much more...

Imo Diablo4 is very shallow..

vonryan123 · March 5

Ancjoo said:

Diablo4 isn't a very good game.. I am enjoying Last Epoch so much more...

Imo Diablo4 is very shallow..

Played both and as much as I want LE to do good I would rather play d4 and in fact do when I get the arpg itch. LE is a real mess and ran better over a yea ago then it does now.

KnightFalz · March 5

The vampiric powers were quite good so that will be nice at least. Combined with the robot there will be plenty of customization to explore.

Gorwe · March 5

I can only wish D4 was as fun as LEpoch. God damn, they(Blizz) really did take a wrong turn at Albuquerque, have they not?

Angrakhan · March 5

vonryan123 said:

Ancjoo said:

Diablo4 isn't a very good game.. I am enjoying Last Epoch so much more...

Imo Diablo4 is very shallow..

Played both and as much as I want LE to do good I would rather play d4 and in fact do when I get the arpg itch. LE is a real mess and ran better over a yea ago then it does now.

"Real mess" is a completely bullshit criticism. How exactly do you quantity that? D4 is a real mess. There, debate me on that and prove I'm wrong. You can't because "real mess" is unquantifiable. Can't be measured. It's pure subjectivity masquerading as a logical argument. Be specific.

You're going to need to provide some factual benchmarks on the "ran better a year ago" comment as well. If you're referring to the server latency it's because a year ago it had 1500 concurrent players. Now it's hitting 150,000. Just a bit of a difference in load. I played it last night and largely that's all been sorted out.

LE for sure has things that can be criticized. To show I'm not some white knight here's a few:

The story isn't finished or even close to being finished. Even when they do finish the story it's largely forgettable and seems like some flimsy cocktail napkins scribble the dev team came up with over drinks. End game devolves quickly into just grinding monoliths aka random maps for better loot so you can grind harder random maps.

Now let's talk D4. The story and delivery of the story is better than LE but is the weakest of the Diablo Franchise. You're kinda rooting for Lilith because Innarius is a dick. The cut scenes make for great marketing material but in context of the game it's pretty snooze worthy. The fact they have an adventure mode indicates the dev team is quite aware of that. You don't feel like a hero fighting for the side of justice and right like you do in D3. You feel like some mercenary caught in a political game of thrones between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Neither side is palatable. The build customization is extremely thin. On an ability you have one of two options for how it should work. Even D3 had more. LE completely kicks D4's ass here. D4 only has 5 classes compared to LE's 15 with LE having many more build possibilities with each. The mortal sin of D4 is the itemization. ARPGs are all about loot and D4's loot is incredibly boring. By the time you gear up in world tier 3 you've pretty much seen it all and it's just grinding+1 versions of the same gear you already have. This happens pretty consistently around level 55 or so. That's a lot of boring grind to 100. I never made it past 88 personally.

LE is not perfect but many players find it more to their liking than D4. LE will never surpass D4 in numbers but just because a game is bigger doesn't mean it's better. D4 is still riding on a lot of nostalgia from decades worth of people playing D2 and D3. LE is a new IP and hasn't had the time necessary to build such a following.

KnightFalz · March 5

Gorwe said:

I can only wish D4 was as fun as LEpoch. God damn, they(Blizz) really did take a wrong turn at Albuquerque, have they not?

I find DIV satisfactory. I have not played Last Epoch so am unable to say if t would be more fun to me. I may yet purchase it as I have many such games but am in no rush to do so. If it goes on sale my urgency will escalate I expect.

ValdemarJ · March 5

KnightFalz said:

Gorwe said:

I can only wish D4 was as fun as LEpoch. God damn, they(Blizz) really did take a wrong turn at Albuquerque, have they not?

I find DIV satisfactory. I have not played Last Epoch so am unable to say if t would be more fun to me. I may yet purchase it as I have many such games but am in no rush to do so. If it goes on sale my urgency will escalate I expect.

You should try it when it comes on the next Steam sale, if it's 50% or better. It's about the same quality and grade as say Wolcen or Warhammer Chaosbane.

It isn't better than D4 by a long shot, but the two have different issues they struggle with so I see people comparing them along different lines, but a direct comparison doesn't really work.

The campaign in LE is about as forgettable as an ARPG plot could be, but the combat is decent so the story is easy to ignore. The time shift gimmick is just that. It's fun at first, but gets stale quickly. The skill tree is overly complex for what it should do and the learning curve asks a lot for the amount of content they've made.

The classes and combat play well and that's the most fun part in my opinion. Itemizing is hit and miss, kind of like Grim Dawn but much less interesting. They do throw a lot of loot at you, but there isn't a lot of interesting stuff unless it fits your build. With the complexity of the skill tree, it isn't as practical to tweak or change the build to incorporate new drops, in contrast to D3 which is highly flexible regarding gear and builds. That makes loot a lot more interesting in D3 to me personally.

Take my opinion with a grain of salt. I've been playing it a long time and have seen a lot of changes and iterations so I'm way past the honeymoon phase.

FrodoFragins · March 5

So I recently got Diablo 4, for free thanks to an insurance rewards card, after skipping it due to boredom in beta. It's still boring leveling for reasons I'm not exactly sure. My guess is that the combat is too slow for my tastes and the backtracking in dungeons gets old fast. The world feels super empty and the mobs are pretty dull. I've never heard a single "Rakanishu"!

Oh and always using generator, generator, spender isn't fun at all. I'm sure that can get better with gear.

I know the itemization will prevent me from caring about endgame, especially knowing how the duriel runs work to try to get Uber gear.

I plan to farm renown since they are permanent. I also want to try all of the classes. I'm currently playing a HOTA barb levelling build.

I do have a small amount of faith they can make the fun very good, but only if Rod Fergusson is dumped and they also get a design lead that lives and breaths the genre. As far as I can tell, Joe Shely is not a die hard ARPGer.

KnightFalz · March 6

ValdemarJ said:

KnightFalz said:

Gorwe said:

I can only wish D4 was as fun as LEpoch. God damn, they(Blizz) really did take a wrong turn at Albuquerque, have they not?

I find DIV satisfactory. I have not played Last Epoch so am unable to say if t would be more fun to me. I may yet purchase it as I have many such games but am in no rush to do so. If it goes on sale my urgency will escalate I expect.

You should try it when it comes on the next Steam sale, if it's 50% or better. It's about the same quality and grade as say Wolcen or Warhammer Chaosbane.

It isn't better than D4 by a long shot, but the two have different issues they struggle with so I see people comparing them along different lines, but a direct comparison doesn't really work.

The campaign in LE is about as forgettable as an ARPG plot could be, but the combat is decent so the story is easy to ignore. The time shift gimmick is just that. It's fun at first, but gets stale quickly. The skill tree is overly complex for what it should do and the learning curve asks a lot for the amount of content they've made.

The classes and combat play well and that's the most fun part in my opinion. Itemizing is hit and miss, kind of like Grim Dawn but much less interesting. They do throw a lot of loot at you, but there isn't a lot of interesting stuff unless it fits your build. With the complexity of the skill tree, it isn't as practical to tweak or change the build to incorporate new drops, in contrast to D3 which is highly flexible regarding gear and builds. That makes loot a lot more interesting in D3 to me personally.

Take my opinion with a grain of salt. I've been playing it a long time and have seen a lot of changes and iterations so I'm way past the honeymoon phase.

I have it on my wishlist to ensure I'll be aware when it goes on sale. I have Warhammer Chaosbane which I enjoy so I'm not adverse to something with similar quality. As it is a genre I quite like I have several other games as well. I'm curious about LE so it is more a matter of when than if I will pick it up.

Gorwe · March 6

ValdemarJ said:

KnightFalz said:

Gorwe said:

I can only wish D4 was as fun as LEpoch. God damn, they(Blizz) really did take a wrong turn at Albuquerque, have they not?

I find DIV satisfactory. I have not played Last Epoch so am unable to say if t would be more fun to me. I may yet purchase it as I have many such games but am in no rush to do so. If it goes on sale my urgency will escalate I expect.

You should try it when it comes on the next Steam sale, if it's 50% or better. It's about the same quality and grade as say Wolcen or Warhammer Chaosbane.

It isn't better than D4 by a long shot, but the two have different issues they struggle with so I see people comparing them along different lines, but a direct comparison doesn't really work.

The campaign in LE is about as forgettable as an ARPG plot could be, but the combat is decent so the story is easy to ignore. The time shift gimmick is just that. It's fun at first, but gets stale quickly. The skill tree is overly complex for what it should do and the learning curve asks a lot for the amount of content they've made.

The classes and combat play well and that's the most fun part in my opinion. Itemizing is hit and miss, kind of like Grim Dawn but much less interesting. They do throw a lot of loot at you, but there isn't a lot of interesting stuff unless it fits your build. With the complexity of the skill tree, it isn't as practical to tweak or change the build to incorporate new drops, in contrast to D3 which is highly flexible regarding gear and builds. That makes loot a lot more interesting in D3 to me personally.

Take my opinion with a grain of salt. I've been playing it a long time and have seen a lot of changes and iterations so I'm way past the honeymoon phase.

Wolcen? Yeah, I can see LE being just at that quality level. Wolcen had so many nice ideas, but the further you went, the more dire situation became.

LE? More than fine, but don't really feel like a 2024 aRPG. But more like a logical continuation of PoE / GD cycle. D4 really missed not only the goal, but the entire stadium!

It is better than Chaosbane though. CB is fun, but it's really not of a high quality.

vonryan123 · March 8

Angrakhan said:

vonryan123 said:

Ancjoo said:

Diablo4 isn't a very good game.. I am enjoying Last Epoch so much more...

Imo Diablo4 is very shallow..

Played both and as much as I want LE to do good I would rather play d4 and in fact do when I get the arpg itch. LE is a real mess and ran better over a yea ago then it does now.

"Real mess" is a completely bullshit criticism. How exactly do you quantity that? D4 is a real mess. There, debate me on that and prove I'm wrong. You can't because "real mess" is unquantifiable. Can't be measured. It's pure subjectivity masquerading as a logical argument. Be specific.

You're going to need to provide some factual benchmarks on the "ran better a year ago" comment as well. If you're referring to the server latency it's because a year ago it had 1500 concurrent players. Now it's hitting 150,000. Just a bit of a difference in load. I played it last night and largely that's all been sorted out.

LE for sure has things that can be criticized. To show I'm not some white knight here's a few:

The story isn't finished or even close to being finished. Even when they do finish the story it's largely forgettable and seems like some flimsy cocktail napkins scribble the dev team came up with over drinks. End game devolves quickly into just grinding monoliths aka random maps for better loot so you can grind harder random maps.

Now let's talk D4. The story and delivery of the story is better than LE but is the weakest of the Diablo Franchise. You're kinda rooting for Lilith because Innarius is a dick. The cut scenes make for great marketing material but in context of the game it's pretty snooze worthy. The fact they have an adventure mode indicates the dev team is quite aware of that. You don't feel like a hero fighting for the side of justice and right like you do in D3. You feel like some mercenary caught in a political game of thrones between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Neither side is palatable. The build customization is extremely thin. On an ability you have one of two options for how it should work. Even D3 had more. LE completely kicks D4's ass here. D4 only has 5 classes compared to LE's 15 with LE having many more build possibilities with each. The mortal sin of D4 is the itemization. ARPGs are all about loot and D4's loot is incredibly boring. By the time you gear up in world tier 3 you've pretty much seen it all and it's just grinding+1 versions of the same gear you already have. This happens pretty consistently around level 55 or so. That's a lot of boring grind to 100. I never made it past 88 personally.

LE is not perfect but many players find it more to their liking than D4. LE will never surpass D4 in numbers but just because a game is bigger doesn't mean it's better. D4 is still riding on a lot of nostalgia from decades worth of people playing D2 and D3. LE is a new IP and hasn't had the time necessary to build such a following.

Only read about half that wall but in short I will ask this.
How's the story in LE?..not finished
How's the aucti.....sorry they removed that
How's the skill tree?....not finished
How's the trading?
How's the lag and DC issues?
I can go on and on....how about all the crap they promised before launch or the list of "features" they said would be in or working before 1.0....
Like I said it's a mess.

cheyane · March 8

I stopped around level 75 (or was it 73 I cannot be bothered to even launch it to check) in D4 and have not gone back. I hope they improve the game but it was really boring outside of the story but the story had all those lovely voices and the art so there is that. As an ARPG it failed for me.

KnightFalz · March 8

Angrakhan said:

Now let's talk D4. The story and delivery of the story is better than LE but is the weakest of the Diablo Franchise. You're kinda rooting for Lilith because Innarius is a dick. The cut scenes make for great marketing material but in context of the game it's pretty snooze worthy. The fact they have an adventure mode indicates the dev team is quite aware of that. You don't feel like a hero fighting for the side of justice and right like you do in D3. You feel like some mercenary caught in a political game of thrones between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Neither side is palatable. The build customization is extremely thin. On an ability you have one of two options for how it should work. Even D3 had more. LE completely kicks D4's ass here. D4 only has 5 classes compared to LE's 15 with LE having many more build possibilities with each. The mortal sin of D4 is the itemization. ARPGs are all about loot and D4's loot is incredibly boring. By the time you gear up in world tier 3 you've pretty much seen it all and it's just grinding+1 versions of the same gear you already have. This happens pretty consistently around level 55 or so. That's a lot of boring grind to 100. I never made it past 88 personally.

Yes, they changed from having stories of simplistic black and white to one with a more sophisticated variance of grey. I quite enjoyed it.

D3 also has an adventure mode. It's just something they do now.

Build customization isn't confined to the two options for each ability. A great deal of it is in the Paragon system which is greatly enhanced over that in D3.

Gear would benefit from more variance in D4 to be sure.

Gorwe · March 11

If an aRPG wants to be competitive, it needs singleplayer / offline. In the modern scene, not even Diablo IP or Blizzard can save you if you don't have one.

KnightFalz · March 11

Gorwe said:

If an aRPG wants to be competitive, it needs singleplayer / offline. In the modern scene, not even Diablo IP or Blizzard can save you if you don't have one.

D4 had plenty of sales, so this isn't true.

FrodoFragins · March 12

Gorwe said:

If an aRPG wants to be competitive, it needs singleplayer / offline. In the modern scene, not even Diablo IP or Blizzard can save you if you don't have one.

D4 is the biggest ARPG on the market and POE is #2. Neither has offline

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