Diablo 4 Season 1

[Rolfil]

So I started playing season 1 on Sunday. Having completed the Campaign and got all of the Altars my character started with some extra skill points which made me feel a bit more powerful early on.
However you don't have enough Renown in two regions to get the extra skill points there.

I started playing a Necromancer using the Sever skill but it just wasn't as fun as Bone Spear and I'd already played that. Having reached 23 I decided to change class to a Druid.

Worked a bit on getting Renown, As my map was fully revealed I just went to an unclaimed waypoint and did any of the side quests around that area.

Druid levelling is a bit slower and I slogged on to about level 30, doing a bit of the new season story. Felt a lot different as I was fighting up close and was more tanky. I then went on and a bunch of Druid dungeons.

Then around level 35 I discovered Legion events. These occur around every 20 minutes and are very quick to complete. They give a huge amount of XP and some Obols.

Having already maxed out my Obols (600) I spent a load and got some nice legendaries.

I just completed mostly Legions to 40 and then went and finished the Season story. The boss seemed very easy, just was a longer fight than other normal bosses.

I got all of my Druid spirit completed, carried on using Legion events to level to 45 and then went and fought my first World Boss.

Doing it in the morning in the UK was probably a bad idea as there was only 9 of us. I died twice but that was a LOT less than most of the other players we still completed it with around 3 minutes to spare. The rewards are really not great.

What is annoying about the season is that I keep get popups saying I've completed something but they must be for a stage of the season progress I've not yet reached. So I've no real idea what progress I've made!

 

[Colif]

The reason I haven't looked on season is.. well, there are 2 reasons.
1. is my latest necro feels right enough to go to tier 4, its just hard to get anyones attention who is playing season now. Might try it tomorrow once I hit 73.
2. I have no free character slots. I will have to delete my barb to make way for a season character. I also have a druid but he is full. Most of my characters are full, that is main reason I can't delete them. '

If they ever sort the storage situation out, I will have free space to actually play more than one class.

I just got a black screen in D4, closed client via task manager, now getting 300 errors on start. Funny, I was about to delete my Barb, game trying to tell me not to?

I probably play a necro again. How much is bought over? I only have 2 strongholds I haven't cleared on Eternal now.

 

[Rolfil]

The only thing that is carried over is Altars and map exploration. This gives I think +6 skill points and maxed out 9 potions which is really nice.

Skipping the campaign also means you start with your horse.

I've had a few slowdown/crashes recently due I think to audio issues. Seems to happen more often if I'm listening to podcasts/music in Spotify at the same time as playing.

 

[Colif]

questions: do you just sell the extra malignant hearts at low levels? I seem to have duplicates.


I already have lvl 3 in one zone. it doesn't take long with the fact you get 30 rep per quest now.
Riding around map "rediscovering" way points.\
Already have one aspect I need for build, shame I don't have the skill yet.

lvl 23 already. Whispers help. Every region being my level helps - its not like that on Eternal, some regions way higher.

Sad that Vyeresz is a lvl 40 stronghold, I want my music back

What is annoying about the season is that I keep get popups saying I've completed something but they must be for a stage of the season progress I've not yet reached. So I've no real idea what progress I've made!

did you press U and click on the Season Journey button? it should show in there. I only have chapter 1 in progress still. I can't do main story until I do a bunch of busy work

Some of the season challenges lack descriptions, even on this server. They no better on eternal.

 

[Colif]

start chapter 3, wants me to do a bunch of strongholds... I see a wait signal. Sigh, have to do other things until then.

Went into a malignant tunnel and finished it, then game wouldn't let me portal out of tunnel, kept putting me back in again. So I ran to entrance... exiting just puts me back in tunnel. I think they doing maintenance as I am getting an update.

Before I started playing season, my lvl 73 stomped on the Butcher... but then he was only lvl 66, I was doing a side quest and he showed up in a dungeon. I thought he kill me but then i noticed it was his health bar going down, not mine.

I wish I had my veiled crystals from Eternal, I have 1100 over there... 20 here. Sucks collecting all my aspects.

Funny, I do a dungeon for an aspect and then game gives it as a reward in chapter 1.

 

[Colif]

Currently lvl 35. Not bad for one night.
Missing so many aspects... missing my unique gloves... but then they lvl 56. maybe i get them again.
Tried to do one instance and they kept killing all my minions. Lack of aspects is to blame. Minions only there until lvl 50 anyway, I swap to solo then. Hope game gives me more of the aspects I need.
I need an aspect out of there, tempted to go to tier 1 to do the dungeons I need aspects from.

I have 8 necro worth of gear to use on Eternal, I miss my stash. Game so easy if you get to 25 and can put all the aspects you need on gear. Also helps if you have gear waiting for you at lvls. I feel naked... at least it remembers all my transmogs from eternal... so she looks like she wearing much better than what she is.
Need to keep salvaging everything for mats. I hate starting afresh.

wish i knew you could salvage hearts, I sold some not knowing... Guess I learned fast enough. I only sold the lesser powerful ones. I won't do that again.
edit:
I went to tier 1 for one of the aspects and it was only cause I have 9 potions that I survived the boss. I really hate the fanatics that explode. Apart from the Butcher, they the only thing that has killed any of my characters... apart from a fire ball at a whisper hand in spot. Game would be way better without them. I wouldn't need to worry.
Champions Demise wasn't looking any better. Only need 3 imbues for the lvl 1-50 part of build. Other part will take game being nice and giving me the drops. It might be because I used whispers to get me to lvl 37. lacking a ring that makes the pets tougher.

Can't see the minions helping much in the strongholds needed to do more of the season quest so it might wait until after 50.

 

[Colif]

I finished chapter 3 of season, already have some mats for making tier 5 gear... just the U button, not Comody's chain of quests. Thats sitting asking for strongholds. Why those 2, they so boring.,.. and nothing there. I cleared the Pyre last night on Eternal... on way to killing Anderial again for Taissa.

At lvl 43. Not bad effort for one day, but I recall doing similar before. On a character I swapped builds at 50 and hated it. Might still have that character. This one is a copy of the lvl 72 less equipment choices. Need to wait for game to give me aspect of the Void again.

Won't be starting chapter 4 any time soon as its all tier 3 related. I naturally had already done some of things asked of me, just by playing.
Have lvl 3 rep with 3 of the areas, the last 2 are harder as there are seemingly less quests or if not, they all in the PVP zones that might as well not exist. You can however max them all out now without doing every quest. I will have to a world discovery tour of strongholds, not sure when. Not before 50.

Game slowly giving me more of the aspects I need to make next stage. Build runs with minions until 50 and then goes solo. Minions are fire and forget weapons, but they are too grabby. They can't just walk past monsters without saying hello. I don't need the attention, I am normally going somewhere and don't want to kill everything on the stage. That and they take too much effort to make tanky. Even with all the paragon points put in, you spend too many points keeping them alive, when you could be doing damage instead.

Still have questions about the hearts. I assume the epic ones are in nightmare dungeons? I only ever seem to get the same ones. I assume its aimed at your class? Rogues don't get Barb ones? Or rarely. Not sure as some mention barriers and although there is Necro aspects that create a bubble (Aspect of Defender for one) there isn't a skill as such.. Its just another useless stat on gear. They trying to make it harder to get good stuff.

Was price of upgrades always same or is it just me feeling poor with only 130k when my lvl 72 has 45 million. I upgraded some gems and lost half my money. Selling a legendary made it all back but its not like I have 9 other characters acting as banks for her... she has to find them. I went to imbue a sword and it was going to take most of my cash... I just went with a ring instead.

Why are hearts in your inventory? Why aren't they just a line on a page, and not another thing making keeping anything highly difficult. Gems and Hearts... and rings/amulets with sockets for the hearts... I don't have any space for anything else in bank. I only have 1 tab so far, they 100k each so I just ignoring it until I have enough cash that 100k isn't a big price. I won't be making another season character (I have 9 necros and 1 Druid, No space) so she can pretty much sell anything that doesn't work.

 

[Rolfil]

I got to chapter 5 of the season and it's mostly post level 50 activities. Nearly 51 but won't get to play anymore till Sunday. Doing level 55 legion events when your level 49 is cool as you get so much XP. I did that and then side quests in Hawezar in between.

Thankfully I didn't go past level 52 pre-season so it's all new from now. Started to collect some Sacred rares that are better than my current Legendries so I can extract the stuff that is decent and sacrifice the others for mats.

 

[Colif]

Its all about item power. And the break points between tiers. I need to work out where they all are at lower levels but Sacred items are all above 600 item power, max is 720 with a few exceptions - Here is one

So yes, most Sacred items are better than rare to point I just stop picking up rares. It pays to pick up all sacred just to look at its item power, if its close to 710 it can be upgraded into ancestral territory. I got a nice new weapon only recently.I am trying to stop picking up items as my bags are always full, seem to spend more time selling than killing.

Best items in game are lvl 830 I think. But they are tier 4.

I didn't see any legion events today but they did run maintenance.

Something I forget. You can use a sacred lvl aspect to upgrade a rare to sacred, and it gets 5 upgrades, so if you have a nice ring, you can keep using it.

 

[Colif]

Funny, he likes the heart that auto casts corpse skills. I don't, my main source of damage is Corpse Explosion (actually its shadowblight but its a passive and needs something to spread the love), I don't need a amulet doing it for me. It sounds great for pet builds, I didn't realise it auto spawned your minions if they were dead. Thats nice but the heart doesn't work well for everyone.

Hearts still confuse me, not sure where to get some.

How to (Easily) Get Wrathful Hearts in Diablo 4 Season 1 - Icy Veins

Here are a couple of easy ways to get the very powerful Wrathful Caged Hearts in Diablo 4 Season 1, to get those seasonal builds going!

www.icy-veins.com

2nd method reminds me of how you get to 50 in 3 hours... reseting things to keep farming them.

 

[Rolfil]

This map https://maxroll.gg/d4/map-tool has spawn timers. Sometimes the Legion events are difficult to see but usually appear on the in game map 5 minutes before they start.

 

[Colif]

I wonder if Helltides have same timers on both servers

Diablo 4 Helltide Event Timer and Chest Locations

In Diablo 4, Helltides take place every two hours and 15 minutes. In that time, one hour of that interval is taken up by the event itself.

www.icy-veins.com

got my first wrathful. Answered my questions myself.

Breakpoints for gear

1. 1-149
2. 150-339
3. 340-459
4. 460-624
5. 625-725 Sacred
6. 725+ Ancestral

I have not seen a tier 4 item over 600 before. I thought it stopped at 600. I also have a sacred item over 725 so I have questions.
Handy to know if you have an item close to a breakpoint, its stats may drastically change if it crosses line. Sometimes to the negative. Not all upgrades are good.

this article on an unknown website helped with one quest. At least you only have to do one stronghold

How to complete A Prayer for Salvation in Diablo 4

Help Cormond collect three mysterious objects from across Hawezar.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Rolfil]

So over the last few days I levelled from 51 to 61.5. At level 50 I tried a Helltide and got completely destroyed by it so went and did some Dungeons for Codex's and some Legions.

Was very slow so I started to do a few Nightmare dungeons which seem reasonably easy.

At 60 I replaced a ring which had "Tornado seeks out 1 opponent" and tried a Helltide again and it was so much easier. Also I made sure that my equipment was upgraded 3 times. I had lots of mats for this and found it well worthwhile. The upgraded Paragon boards seem to help a lot.

I know what you mean about not bothering with ground gold. A simple Magic item can sell for like 15-20k. When I get a full inventory I just check Legendaries and Sacred Items. The rest gets instantly sold. Most Legendaries are pretty useless so get salvaged.
I now have almost 12 million gold

 

[Colif]

Legendary items sell for more than rares do. I had to start breaking down legendaries as I needed one thing to upgrade another. It took a few to get one.

They also changed the mats you get from them, to lost souls. So its easier to upgrade to tier 5. But if you after another mat, like Veiled Crystals, it can suck. I got a lost soul earlier at lvl 27. I wasn't expecting it that early. Its only a change on season side as that doesn't happen on eternal. Some think they trying to restrict certain mats.

Everything in helltides is 3 levels above you, I did find them easier after running lvl 20 nightmare dungeons. That and being lvl 72 when their max lvl is 72...

The level of monsters in Nightmare Dungeons depends on the level you run. Tier 1 they are lvl 55, tier 20 they are lvl 74. So they can be as easy as you like. Once you get into Tier 4,, there is no cap. Max in Sacred is tier 20. I was starting to get ancestral ones on my lvl 73. Just very few left over there to help me get into tier 4. I should just try myself but the boss looks interesting.

First there was Bubble Boy

Then there was .... Bubble Horse?

I am not sure it works to stop me being knocked off, I think its just a graphical glitch. Its the result of a wrathful Heart that every 40 kills will swap to a Bubble. The necro heart that auto fires corpse skills isn't bad if you don't use one as your main weapon. auto firing corpse explosion as I run over bodies. Handy as this build drains essence. But if I constantly setting off explosions, that doesn't matter so much. That and the explosions give me essence.

Started new Necro. This one is Blood, been here before... the last one had to be picky about what Nightmare Dungeons it could run. to point I was running out of sigils. And dust. This one wants to try to do them all. Though some of them are annoying, Blood Blister might just be skipped. But I try rest.

He only lvl 28, taking time this turn around, someone has to work on rep... and might get some drops if I do something other than whispers.

I only have about 1.5 million but then I have 2 characters and one has been causing a dip in balance. That will stop once he gets more gear. I have most of the aspects he needs from building first character.

Got first unique last night (it was funny, I had just commented about not getting any yet). Alas, I wish I got them next week as its a pair of boots where next week, one stat gets changed from intel to walk speed... but change isn't retroactive. My pair always be slow. Might need to buy 4th bank slot soon. Only as its a squeeze running 2 characters out of one stash.

 

[Rolfil]

So the changes to Monster Density in Nightmare Dungeons and Helltides are fantastic. I'm drowning in Legendaries and almost all Yellows are instantly sold.

Unfortunately for me the Tornado build I was playing lacked two things, the Tornados seek out (1-3) targets Aspect and the Tempest Roar unique helmet. I have to say I didn't realise the build just didn't work that well without these.

So I switched to a Shred build and it is so much fun. Took me a while to get some half decent boots and I still haven't found any good Ancestral Pants.

Darting back and forth through enemies and mostly one shoting them is excellent.
Then this morning I found both a Legendary with the Aspect I wanted and a Tempest Roar helmet

Now at level 80 and starting to push Nightmare dungeons more to level my Glyphs. Level 24's seems easy at the moment so I think I can easily skip to 30+ ones

 

[Colif]

I have started selling unique items. Legendaries been sold/salvaged since the start. It took me a long time to convince self to sell any legendaries, as until I realised they aren't really legendary, they felt special. Now I hardly even look at them when they drop. I should just start ignoring them as game will still put them in bag overflow area if I don't pick them up. The only thing I look at is aspect now. And since I can't save all of those, its just to see if the new item has a better version.

Unique items are almost as bad now. There aren't enough of them to make them a special thing to pick up. I can guess what they are without looking. They aren't rare enough to make them a special moment... I mean, nightmare dungeons, I have received 2 uniques as a reward at end, on multiple occasions.

Now at level 80 and starting to push Nightmare dungeons more to level my Glyphs. Level 24's seems easy at the moment so I think I can easily skip to 30+ ones

they would be... I mean, my lvl 71 is doing lvl 20 glyphs in Tier 3. By lvl 80 you should be close to doing lvl 30 ones easy. 24 is too low. I am getting lvl 22 ones I can't do yet until I convince self to try the tier 4 entry exam.

I haven't played for a week as I am acting as a carer for my mother who is recovering from Knee replacement surgery. Maybe in a few weeks time I will return.