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Diablo 4 GM confirms “annual expansions” for the game - Dexerto
In an exclusive interview with Dexerto, Diablo 4's general manager Rod Fergusson has referred to future expansions as "annual" releases.
The Core of Diablo
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O_Bruce
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Aramaki the Druid
Nightmare Difficulty part 1
Long time since I've done any update here. So, to refresh the memory of what this character is about: he's using Arctic Blast as the main attack, he supplements it with summons for physical damage and a mercenary for the fire damage. The run doesn't allow grinding (only clearing the areas once) and requires Aramaki to activate any waypoint and visit every side area.
Unfortunately, due to my last involvement in the run taking place so long ago, I don't have too much to say of how Act I to III in Nightmare Difficulty went. I have some screenshots still, but more often than not I am not able to tell why they were taken and what I wanted to say about them. So, I guess I'll just describe what I found before sharing the recordings from boss battles.
The first notable find was Manald Heal ring, with its life bonus and mana regen bonus. I don't think it will stay on Aramaki's finger for too long though.
In Act II, Aramaki got a new weapon a shield. First, he created Rhyme runeword in a shield, resulting in a bonus to all resistance, the inability to be frozen and some magic find, among other goodies. Then, Aramaki found a good base for Spirit Runeword, although in a sword that needed 39 dexterity points. Since Aramaki hasn't really increased his dexterity, he hold on to the sword for several levels before creating Spirit Runeword in it. Due to the nature of this run, it was debatable a better alternative for a base would drop.
Interesting find, right before facing Duriel, was Heavenly Garb. Defense aside, its bonus to energy, mana regeneration and bonus to all resistances are quite useful for a spellcaster such as Aramaki.
In Act III, Ormus awarded Aramaki a rare ring for delivering the Gidbinn to the Kurast docks. The ring gave +20 to life, +7 to all resistances, an additional +7 to lightning resist and some other minor benefits. Nice. Later on, Aramaki found Tiamat's Rebuke, a unique Dragon Shield. It is a good drop for melee fighters, but Aramaki was not one.
So, how the boss fights have looked like?
So, Aramaki stats are like this:
However, as you can see from the fight against bosses, Arctic Blast damage is lagging behind more and more. 641-701 might not look too bad for Act IV Nightmare, but this requires channeling, which isn't safe for hardcore playthrough. And summoned animals don't necessarily make up for lack of damage. On top of all, it's not really a playstyle that's thrilling to watch, isn't it?
So I decided it would be best to respec Aramaki to a more typical wind Druid, with Hurricane and Tornado as main damage dealers, and with the Oak Sage to increase Aramaki's survivability. Here are stats:
So, Tornado itself deals over 1000 damage per shot, with the Hurricane being more devastating than Arctic Blast and not required to be channeled. In fact, both Tornado and Hurricane damage can be applied at the same time, which is a huge DPS improvement.
With this respec, you can notice Aramaki's health has lowered in favor of having more mana. This is for a) convenience, b) because Oak Sage will increase my life pool anyway to above what Aramaki had before. One last thing to notice is resistance - the latter screenshot was made on the normal difficulty, rather than a nightmare.
Nightmare Difficulty part 1
Long time since I've done any update here. So, to refresh the memory of what this character is about: he's using Arctic Blast as the main attack, he supplements it with summons for physical damage and a mercenary for the fire damage. The run doesn't allow grinding (only clearing the areas once) and requires Aramaki to activate any waypoint and visit every side area.
Unfortunately, due to my last involvement in the run taking place so long ago, I don't have too much to say of how Act I to III in Nightmare Difficulty went. I have some screenshots still, but more often than not I am not able to tell why they were taken and what I wanted to say about them. So, I guess I'll just describe what I found before sharing the recordings from boss battles.
The first notable find was Manald Heal ring, with its life bonus and mana regen bonus. I don't think it will stay on Aramaki's finger for too long though.
In Act II, Aramaki got a new weapon a shield. First, he created Rhyme runeword in a shield, resulting in a bonus to all resistance, the inability to be frozen and some magic find, among other goodies. Then, Aramaki found a good base for Spirit Runeword, although in a sword that needed 39 dexterity points. Since Aramaki hasn't really increased his dexterity, he hold on to the sword for several levels before creating Spirit Runeword in it. Due to the nature of this run, it was debatable a better alternative for a base would drop.
Interesting find, right before facing Duriel, was Heavenly Garb. Defense aside, its bonus to energy, mana regeneration and bonus to all resistances are quite useful for a spellcaster such as Aramaki.
In Act III, Ormus awarded Aramaki a rare ring for delivering the Gidbinn to the Kurast docks. The ring gave +20 to life, +7 to all resistances, an additional +7 to lightning resist and some other minor benefits. Nice. Later on, Aramaki found Tiamat's Rebuke, a unique Dragon Shield. It is a good drop for melee fighters, but Aramaki was not one.
So, how the boss fights have looked like?
So, Aramaki stats are like this:
However, as you can see from the fight against bosses, Arctic Blast damage is lagging behind more and more. 641-701 might not look too bad for Act IV Nightmare, but this requires channeling, which isn't safe for hardcore playthrough. And summoned animals don't necessarily make up for lack of damage. On top of all, it's not really a playstyle that's thrilling to watch, isn't it?
So I decided it would be best to respec Aramaki to a more typical wind Druid, with Hurricane and Tornado as main damage dealers, and with the Oak Sage to increase Aramaki's survivability. Here are stats:
So, Tornado itself deals over 1000 damage per shot, with the Hurricane being more devastating than Arctic Blast and not required to be channeled. In fact, both Tornado and Hurricane damage can be applied at the same time, which is a huge DPS improvement.
With this respec, you can notice Aramaki's health has lowered in favor of having more mana. This is for a) convenience, b) because Oak Sage will increase my life pool anyway to above what Aramaki had before. One last thing to notice is resistance - the latter screenshot was made on the normal difficulty, rather than a nightmare.
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Nice! That was exactly my druid Yahiko before my old PC died (5 years ago), and all the progress died with it. Let's hope Aramaki will continue Yahiko's adventure and beat the game.
O_Bruce
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Aramaki the Druid
Nightmare difficulty, Act IV
Well, the build change definitely made things easier. Much easier. So much easier, that hell itself doesn't
bother Aramaki one bit.
"This is fine" - Aramaki, probably
I mean, really. The damage boost that resulted from the build change is so significant that Act IV was a breeze. Just ask Izual and Hephasto:
The Hellforge drop was Io rune, besides that I was happy with the flawless amethyst
3 Io runes could be combined with Flawed Topaz in Horadric Cube to create Lum rune. This would be good for creating Smoke runeword (Nef + Lum), because of bonus to defense, massive bonus to all resistance, Weaken curse charges, energy boost and some other minor properites. I just need to hope Aramaki will be able to find a nice base armor for it.
Also, Aramaki needs to be aware for Shael + Thul + Amn runeword and a nice armor for it. It would serve the Rouge archer well.
As for the flawless amethyst, thanks to it soon Aramaki was able to craft a perfect amethyst, then combine all basic perfect gems with a random magic amulet to create:
+16 to res isn't perfect, not to mention lightning damage as the secondary bonus is rather useless. But still, it's better than nothing. For now, though, the amulet was stored into the stash for later use.
When exploring the River of Flame, Aramaki found a nice bow for his Rogue mercenary:
In total, that is +3 to Exploding Arrow, something the Rogue is actually using. Nice.
The Chaos Sanctuary went almost without any problems. I say almost because for some reason, the damage from magic-projectile wielding Oblivion Knights was really insane nad made Aramaki use Full Rejuv. No other variant of Oblivion Knight (that is, ones with Poison/Fire/Cold projectiles) was so devastating and I don't remember one variant being significantly stronger than the other. Regardless, it's Diablo time.
Onto Act V!
Nightmare difficulty, Act IV
Well, the build change definitely made things easier. Much easier. So much easier, that hell itself doesn't
bother Aramaki one bit.
"This is fine" - Aramaki, probably
I mean, really. The damage boost that resulted from the build change is so significant that Act IV was a breeze. Just ask Izual and Hephasto:
The Hellforge drop was Io rune, besides that I was happy with the flawless amethyst
3 Io runes could be combined with Flawed Topaz in Horadric Cube to create Lum rune. This would be good for creating Smoke runeword (Nef + Lum), because of bonus to defense, massive bonus to all resistance, Weaken curse charges, energy boost and some other minor properites. I just need to hope Aramaki will be able to find a nice base armor for it.
Also, Aramaki needs to be aware for Shael + Thul + Amn runeword and a nice armor for it. It would serve the Rouge archer well.
As for the flawless amethyst, thanks to it soon Aramaki was able to craft a perfect amethyst, then combine all basic perfect gems with a random magic amulet to create:
+16 to res isn't perfect, not to mention lightning damage as the secondary bonus is rather useless. But still, it's better than nothing. For now, though, the amulet was stored into the stash for later use.
When exploring the River of Flame, Aramaki found a nice bow for his Rogue mercenary:
In total, that is +3 to Exploding Arrow, something the Rogue is actually using. Nice.
The Chaos Sanctuary went almost without any problems. I say almost because for some reason, the damage from magic-projectile wielding Oblivion Knights was really insane nad made Aramaki use Full Rejuv. No other variant of Oblivion Knight (that is, ones with Poison/Fire/Cold projectiles) was so devastating and I don't remember one variant being significantly stronger than the other. Regardless, it's Diablo time.
Onto Act V!
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Nicely done. Laughed at the comment inside the video 
What I didn't know is that you can (?) set up the difficulty via the in-game console now?
Interesting that you're going for the Dex-low build. I usually play with Dex builds, feeling uncomfortable at 95% chances to get hit.
What I didn't know is that you can (?) set up the difficulty via the in-game console now?
Interesting that you're going for the Dex-low build. I usually play with Dex builds, feeling uncomfortable at 95% chances to get hit.
O_Bruce
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@Antimatter The difficulty is nothing other than /players command. It is also available from the game options menu. For clarification, Aramaki's playthrough is done at default difficulty, players 4 was done on my other character.
About low dex built, it is a matter of what I am used to when playing casters. Most of the time I tend not to invest in dexterity, especially if I want to have Spirit runeword in shields later on - and 156 strength required to wear the shield is a lot of stat points. Another factor is, that casters rarely are even in situations when the rolling defense in melee combat matters, and physical projectile attacks can be treated as enemies' spells - meaning they can be dodged by manevouring the character.
Aramaki the Druid
Nightmare difficulty, act V
"Me and the boys out to kill Shenk the Overseer" - Aramaki, probably
Act V started mostly smoothly, with only issue being skeletal archers in two first areas of the act. They can do a lot of damage it their arrows aren't avoided. The other interesting thing is, the game wants me to play melee character:
Ripsaw could be nice for Barbarian when upped up to exceptional item
Anyways, after freeing the barbarians in quest two, Aramaki has reached the point in the game where he could use Full Rejuveation potions more liberally than before, as Champions and Unique monsters started dropping those after being disposed of. So, Aramaki wasn't shy of using them against Succubi in the Frozen River, who can be very dangerus with their projectiles and the amplify damage curse. But al lin all, Aramaki saved Frozenstein from Anya (or other way around, I don't really remember) and got "thanks" as a reward:
The funny thing is I can still end up using this helmet in hell difficulty just because of its resistances. But a good thing is, Elexa - the rogue mercenary - had some good things happening to her. First of all, Aramaki managed to prepare Lore runeword for her:
Second, while exploring Nihlahtak's hiding place, a good bow dropped for her:
Elexa was now doing more Fire damage, and that is her primary job. With Aramaki covering for Physical and Cold, and dire wolves with grizzly bear pretending to do any damage at all, it is sufficient coverage in damage types for Hell difficulty.
Before getting to Nihlathak, I decided to to a pro-gamer move and it was something I haven't done in a while. I decided to spend two skill points from level up to get... Carrion Vine. This thing can die pretty quickly, but is actually a so-called "1-point wonder". It destroys the corpses on the battlefield and by doing so it restores percentage of Druid's life. Meaning even at level 1, with +3 bonus to all skills, the Vine restores 7% of Aramaki's total HP. wih over 1000 life with the help of Oak Sage, that means over 70 life points per corpse. And there a lot of corpses. I think it was worthy investment for Aramaki's survivability, especially considering the no-grinding rule!
Also, since the Carrion Vine destroys corpses, it prevents Nihlathak form using the corpse explosion on me. Or at the very least, decreases the number of coprse explosions.
Nothing too interesting after that and before the Ancient Ones.... so:
After that's done, Elexa found a enemy to test her mettle:
And she did well enough. Let us see how Aramaki dealt with the Lord of Destruction...
About low dex built, it is a matter of what I am used to when playing casters. Most of the time I tend not to invest in dexterity, especially if I want to have Spirit runeword in shields later on - and 156 strength required to wear the shield is a lot of stat points. Another factor is, that casters rarely are even in situations when the rolling defense in melee combat matters, and physical projectile attacks can be treated as enemies' spells - meaning they can be dodged by manevouring the character.
Aramaki the Druid
Nightmare difficulty, act V
"Me and the boys out to kill Shenk the Overseer" - Aramaki, probably
Act V started mostly smoothly, with only issue being skeletal archers in two first areas of the act. They can do a lot of damage it their arrows aren't avoided. The other interesting thing is, the game wants me to play melee character:
Ripsaw could be nice for Barbarian when upped up to exceptional item
Anyways, after freeing the barbarians in quest two, Aramaki has reached the point in the game where he could use Full Rejuveation potions more liberally than before, as Champions and Unique monsters started dropping those after being disposed of. So, Aramaki wasn't shy of using them against Succubi in the Frozen River, who can be very dangerus with their projectiles and the amplify damage curse. But al lin all, Aramaki saved Frozenstein from Anya (or other way around, I don't really remember) and got "thanks" as a reward:
The funny thing is I can still end up using this helmet in hell difficulty just because of its resistances. But a good thing is, Elexa - the rogue mercenary - had some good things happening to her. First of all, Aramaki managed to prepare Lore runeword for her:
Second, while exploring Nihlahtak's hiding place, a good bow dropped for her:
Elexa was now doing more Fire damage, and that is her primary job. With Aramaki covering for Physical and Cold, and dire wolves with grizzly bear pretending to do any damage at all, it is sufficient coverage in damage types for Hell difficulty.
Before getting to Nihlathak, I decided to to a pro-gamer move and it was something I haven't done in a while. I decided to spend two skill points from level up to get... Carrion Vine. This thing can die pretty quickly, but is actually a so-called "1-point wonder". It destroys the corpses on the battlefield and by doing so it restores percentage of Druid's life. Meaning even at level 1, with +3 bonus to all skills, the Vine restores 7% of Aramaki's total HP. wih over 1000 life with the help of Oak Sage, that means over 70 life points per corpse. And there a lot of corpses. I think it was worthy investment for Aramaki's survivability, especially considering the no-grinding rule!
Also, since the Carrion Vine destroys corpses, it prevents Nihlathak form using the corpse explosion on me. Or at the very least, decreases the number of coprse explosions.
Nothing too interesting after that and before the Ancient Ones.... so:
After that's done, Elexa found a enemy to test her mettle:
And she did well enough. Let us see how Aramaki dealt with the Lord of Destruction...
Aramaki's pre-hell stats:
PS. Moo
PS. Moo
O_Bruce
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Okay. There is some valid information in the video, but I can't begin to understand what's hilarious about it. Maybe for some people, he is funny, but for me this guy is cringeworthy. Like any other YouTuber ever, he also can't understand that disliking his content is not the same as disagreeing with him. Just for the cringe way he conveys the information, he deserves a dislike, even if he makes some good points.
Personally, I like people like Rhykker or MrllamaSC, who can look at things in a more level-headed and balanced manner. Regardless if they like D4 (Rhykker) or not (MrllamaSC).
I also think I can provide one bit of context to one point about little changes taking a bit more time. This is because D4 is essentially a live service game, which means a pre-planned workload for it. That very workload delays any non-planned changes to the game. The result is such unplanned changes are likely to come out along new seasons and no earlier. This sucks, I don't like it, I wish it wasn't that way. But it is.
Personally, I like people like Rhykker or MrllamaSC, who can look at things in a more level-headed and balanced manner. Regardless if they like D4 (Rhykker) or not (MrllamaSC).
I also think I can provide one bit of context to one point about little changes taking a bit more time. This is because D4 is essentially a live service game, which means a pre-planned workload for it. That very workload delays any non-planned changes to the game. The result is such unplanned changes are likely to come out along new seasons and no earlier. This sucks, I don't like it, I wish it wasn't that way. But it is.
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m7600
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To be fair, Diablo 4 looks like the paragon of virtue if we compare it to Diablo Immortal. I was hesitant to share this next video, because I already shared two videos between this thread and the one that I started about the rise and fall of Blizzard, and I don't want to test people's patience. But I think it's a worthwhile video to watch, because it goes into the details of the monetization aspects of Diablo Immortal. This game is actually banned in some European countries like the Netherlands and Belgium, because the loot boxes in this game are essentially a form of gambling.
Man, how far we are from Diablo 2...
Man, how far we are from Diablo 2...
O_Bruce
Habitué
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Aramaki the druid
Hell difficulty, Act I
Let's start with showing up Aramaki's stats in Hell difficulty:
As you can see, Aramaki has a whipping 0% res to lightning. This can be mitigated by swapping the shield from Rhyme (+25 all res) to Ancient's Pledge (+43 all res) at the cost of some Magic find. For now, due to being protected by Cyclone Armor and not encountering many lightning-damaging enemies, Aramaki will stick to more magic find. Later on, he will swap though.
Very early on, Aramaki found an enemy only Elexa could defeat:
And she did a good job at that. Aramaki continued his adventure, clearing all main and optional areas along his way.
On his way to face the Countess, Aramaki encountered a very thrilling opponent:
Immunity to both physical damage and fire means that only the cold damage can kill it. This means activating Hurricane and just... standing there. Thrilling indeed.
Ort + Sol runes can be nice if Aramaki manages to find a good Pelt for it with nice +skill bonuses. Otherwise, the drop is rather disappointing for Hell difficulty.
While exploring the jail under the barracks, Aramaki found a straight-up upgrade for his amulet:
More resistances are a plus. Additionally, the replenish life affix is still more useful than the additional 1-22 damage to melee attacks Aramaki isn't using.
Andy time!
Aramaki's stats and loot can be seen in the video above at the end
Hell difficulty, Act I
Let's start with showing up Aramaki's stats in Hell difficulty:
As you can see, Aramaki has a whipping 0% res to lightning. This can be mitigated by swapping the shield from Rhyme (+25 all res) to Ancient's Pledge (+43 all res) at the cost of some Magic find. For now, due to being protected by Cyclone Armor and not encountering many lightning-damaging enemies, Aramaki will stick to more magic find. Later on, he will swap though.
Very early on, Aramaki found an enemy only Elexa could defeat:
And she did a good job at that. Aramaki continued his adventure, clearing all main and optional areas along his way.
On his way to face the Countess, Aramaki encountered a very thrilling opponent:
Immunity to both physical damage and fire means that only the cold damage can kill it. This means activating Hurricane and just... standing there. Thrilling indeed.
Ort + Sol runes can be nice if Aramaki manages to find a good Pelt for it with nice +skill bonuses. Otherwise, the drop is rather disappointing for Hell difficulty.
While exploring the jail under the barracks, Aramaki found a straight-up upgrade for his amulet:
More resistances are a plus. Additionally, the replenish life affix is still more useful than the additional 1-22 damage to melee attacks Aramaki isn't using.
Andy time!
Aramaki's stats and loot can be seen in the video above at the end
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Your comments in the video are really funny. Aramaki is very methodical in his casting. But pace doesn't matter much in this case. Good job!
alice_ashpool
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I bought D2R, its's pretty good fun. ran a HC Poison Jav and HC Summon Druid, both very fun.
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That's really nice, @alice_ashpool!
Seems like everything else around Blizzard has been rather lackluster:
www.pcgamesn.com
Seems like everything else around Blizzard has been rather lackluster:
Blizzard removes Diablo 4 Season 2 video filled with major blunders
Blizzard deletes a Diablo 4 Season 2 changes video from its social channels after several mistakes were spotted throughout the Season of Blood teaser.
www.pcgamesn.com
alice_ashpool
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Lol. I have no interest in playing D4 but I can admit to a certain degree of schadenfreude as I watch videos about D4 
O_Bruce
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There is something funny about Diablo 4. It excels on audio and visual levels. It is the only Diablo game with a great story. It has the potential for a great game, but it needs to have more work done in the form of gameplay adjustments, bugfixing etc. from the developers to meet the expectations, especially considering the game's price and battle passes. But the funny thing is, even if the developers do something really good (like the next big patch), the "marketing team" still fails to portray it. Because, holy hell, they won't even double-check whether the info they share is correct.
How?
How?
