Various Thoughts

Found out was wrong with the bombardment build mentioned earlier after running through the game with a newly created hardcore character to snag that version of the 50-mil gold conquest: While I had the raw equipment, the stats were notably subpar and not enough of them were ancient. After addressing those issues it was able to handle T13 easily enough… but not fast enough to clear the last two seasonal hurdles (Urzael in 20 seconds and T13 Rift in 4 minutes).

So, I made a Vyr’rasha Wizard. Though the Lightning Hydra version melted Urzeal quite effectively, the 4-minute T13 rift took much more time to clear due to the glass-cannon and luck-heavy nature of the build. Two things which make it not all that much fun to play honestly. Now that all the season rewards are won I’m going to test out the Spectral Blade build instead, as that seems less twitchy.

Something else I tested out earlier was a way to make the Corrupted Ashbringer, a 2H-sword with quite a bit of flavor, effective. The only thing that came to mind (other than a Diablo II style dual-wielding Barbarian, which apparently isn’t possible here) was to adapt a Crusader Hammerdin build. And it didn’t take much adapting. Simply replace Fervor with Heavenly Strength, J’s Argument with Ashbringer (moving the former to Kanai’s Cube), Sacred Harness with Blessed of Haull, and Falling Sword & Provoke with Justice (Crack) & Shield Glare (Divine Verdict). Bane of the Trapped can also arguably be swapped out for Zei’s Stone of Vengeance, and with a Ring of Royal Grandeur Aquila Cuirass can be rotated in for higher survivability if necessary (the bracers can stay as either Nemesis or Gabriel’s).

It’s not exactly a fast build, but it can handle T13 without issue and it’s kind of fun to have Hammers flying everywhere without having to constantly worry about finding groups of enemies to jump into or resource concerns; it’s more laid-back and measured.

Despite my earlier misgivings, the facts remain that I both love collecting loot and don’t much mind mindlessly clicking things. So I went and bought the game+expansion (not the Necromancer though… not yet).

Seeing a new season had started and that there were item rewards for participating in it, I went and made a Crusader and started playing through the campaign. Only at the end of Act 1 did it become apparent that the Season Acts do not match up with the Campaign Acts; you’re supposed to play seasonal characters in Adventure Mode (which was helpfully auto-unlocked). So that’s what I did.

Despite wanting to make a Hammerdin, the loot table was having other ideas (Ancient Gyrfalcon flail) and I first ended up with a fire-based Blessed Shield build which was used to clear the first few seasonal hurdles and get the free loot. Seeing more ranks awaited and wanting to get to Greater Rift level 70 to unlock ancient primals I decided to keep going.

Eventually the Hammerdin drops appeared, which let me switch to that and quickly hit GR70 at about Paragon level 512 with only 3 pieces of ancient equipment. There progress stalled a bit as further ranks required completing conquests, with all except the GR75 seeming out of reach. But then I realized there was a trick to completing the 50 million gold one: Just open 46 Horadric Chests at once, since each contains 1.1 million on Torment 13 difficulty. Since they were needed anyway in order to extract more legendary powers (awesome feature) and upgrade my gear enough to reach GR75 it wasn’t even a hassle.

So here I am now with the season’s Conqueror rank completed at Paragon 643. The last rank requires completing three conquests and clearing a T13 Rift in under 4 minutes, so I’m pretty sure this is the end of the journey (while I do have the equipment for a speedy Bomber build, for some reason it only seems to be able to handle T10 easily). The last reward is only a portrait frame anyway, so it’s not like I’m missing anything. Now it’s time to go play the campaign and find out the answers to all these questions that have been raised by jumping around from area to area out of order.

After ignoring this game for many years I decided to see where it was currently at… for reasons I don’t recall. After seeing that a trial version was available in addition to new DLC having recently been released, I said to hell with it and installed it.

After nearly exhausting the trial with the Monk and playing a bit with the Demon Hunter and Wizard I’ve come to the following conclusion: If you want an immersive experience go play Titan Quest instead, if however you just want to mindlessly click on things while collecting loot then this game has you covered.

The problems here (cartoony zoomed-in visuals, limited abilities, non-existent leveling options) all seem traceable to having a ‘console-first’ strategy. There’s some severe oversimplification, to the point that I don’t see much reason to play different classes beyond experiencing the specialized voice acting and flavor text (which, admittedly, is a nice touch). Regardless of the class you pick the combat cycle is going to be the same: Use one skill a bunch to build up resources then a second to spend them, while maybe tossing off a cooldown skill from time to time.

Compounding matters is that skill damage is based on weapon damage. All skill damage. Use a skill to punch someone with a monk while wielding a club? That’s fine; the club’s damage will be used. Playing a Wizard? Go right ahead and equip a longbow or sword since your spells all use their base damage for some reason. A Demon Hunter? The arrow-based skills require wielding a bow at least… which ends up being not much of a requirement since the other skills (Throw Knife for instance) have no problem using bow damage. Moreover, what’s even the point of having all these different weapon types when you can’t make basic attacks in the first place? Cosmetic concerns I guess?

The entire experience just leaves a bad aftertaste.