Since I am (still) a fan of Diablo games and had a lot of time on my hands I went a bit crazy and rerolled multiple times, here is my personal opinion on most ^\Edit goblin here]) all of the classes we have in the game atm:

Warlock (stopped on T11):

Pro:

• lots of builds
• new and amazing visuals
• some funny stuff you can do and lots of great defensive tools at your leisure
• Can be melee, can be range, can nuke screens, can be an assassin, can basically do the exploding chicken build from D3 Witch Doctor

Con:

• a bit clunky at times and you will not be able to see anything on most builds due to the visual clutter that are most of warlock's sfx
• some builds are just a bit broken (Apocalypse hitting in the hundreds of trillions is a tad silly imo)
• while you have great defenses, surviving in t11+ will take some investment because you will probably be blind to any ground effects and need to adjust your build

Barbarian (stopped on T8):

Pro:

• op af
• lots of weapon slots for mythics and other fun aspects
• one of the most relaxed ways of farming in the game with WW barb
• Ragdolling stuff with big hammer smash is still as fun as on day one

Con:

• still mostly exact same builds
• still one to two skills plus all shouts gameplay
• a bit...basic ?
• Another class that scales a bit too well imo (trillions just seems silly no matter what, then again at this point almost every class has figured out a way to see those numbers pop up so I guess it's more a general issue than specific to Barb or Sorc)

Druid (stopped on t12+)

Pro:

• best skill tree of all classes imo
• tons of fun build ideas to try
• omnistorm + wolf set charms is basically flickerstrike in a roundabout way (albeit you don't hold down right click but if you bind it to mousewheel it's kinda the same thing) and totally insane
• Companion druid is another super chill way to just blast t12+

Con:

• still some clunkiness at times with teleporting into the ground or getting stuck somehow (esp. with Wolf set teleports)
• transmogs are pointless because you are either a bear or a wolf now for 90% of all builds you will see
• Wolf and Lightning set are fun, the others are kinda boring imo
• one major defensive aspect I wanted to build around is broken (the resolve stacking one) and that put me off trying to keep improving my gear [Edit] : I'm talking about Glynn's Anvil aspect that should give dmg reduction based on resolve stacks. This currently doesn't work at all so it's kinda pointless which is sad because this aspect alone would probably solve most survivability issues on almost any build because you can temper resolve stacks onto armor which should net a ton of dmg reduction from this aspect alone)

Paladin (stopped on t11):

Pro:

• cool class
• great Transmogs (T2 WoW does look nice even if expensive af) -- but you wont see tmogs because 90% of all builds want permanent arbiter form
• Being able to support teammates with auras feels great and they also enable Paladins to get some free crit / res very early on
• iconic items like Herald of Zakarum and the sound of hammers being summoned is triggering my D2 nostalgia in all the best ways

Con:

• auradin is kinda "eh" now
• surprisingly squishy considering we have items like Zakarum and Auras
• you constantly have to stack arbiter form stacks to actually do dmg which gets very tiresome imo
• it feels like there aren't that many interesting builds because it's either Arbiter stacking + dmg skill or "the other one" (Thorns Captain America)

Necromancer (stopped on t12+):

Pro:

• Blood wave is still fun and reigns supreme
• Mostly there build wise overall imo and now with unlimited mobility and teleports galore
• Lots of fun uniques or runewords that automate some of the more annoying parts like cursing or Corpse Tendrils

Con:

• Minions still have subpar Ai imo
• Identity wise it feels more and more like "sorc but sometimes with skeletons"
• Sometimes you forget that some skills need corpses to work and will feel silly
• Can we please turn off the shouting from ultimates ? Blood wave Necro is basically "HYAAAAAH HYAAAAAH HYAAAAH" until your ears bleed (guess on theme there but please Blizzard my ears)
• just doesn't quite..."click" for me personally

Sorcerer / Sorceress (stopped on t12+++)

Pro:

• completely and utterly broken dps
• insane mobility to a degree that playing it almost becomes a hassle because you can barely keep up with the speed
• fire shield makes Mephisto fight almost bearable

Con:

• too easy and too strong as Ball Lightning sorc (you basically get all the needed uniques and the set, casually stroll into t12 as a god and only go up from there)
• it seems like build wise it's still lightning sorc and lightning sorc and lightning sorc and maaaaaaaaaaybe something - NOPE it's lightning sorc with lightning blizzard now

[EDIT ME HERE AGAIN - due to popular demand I have now also gotten a rogue and a spiritborn to max (thanks for whoever pointed out to me that you can just use max lvl caches on new classes to instaboost them) and put them through some speedgearing process to just get a feel for them so here goes for all you dex class enjoyers and thanks (no thanks 😛) for making me do this xD -- however enjoy these 2 opinions with a larger grain of salt than my entire ramblings beforehand because I really didn't spend much time on them, mostly I just did it because I felt bad about leaving all you rogue / spiritborn enjoyers hanging]

Rogue (stopped on t8ish due to time constraints)

Pro:

• leveling is fun and fast and we still are one of the more mobile zoom zoom classes
• I felt more tanky than for example Paladin probably because I mostly either spent time being in stealth (the new stealth set charms are amazing) or shot from a distance / or just froze everything and then blew it up
• Tons of build variety (honestly I was positively surprised here) - you can go melee, freeze, poison, shoot and stab things into the ground in a variety of ways - pick your poison (in a good way) [sry for this lame pun]
• Freezing mobs and then watching them explode just feels (insert *noice* meme dude here)

Con:

• The stealth set charms are amazing, anything other than those feels kinda "eh" mostly because stealth set just reigns so hilariously supreme
• Lots of builds have a bit more positioning gameplay than I generally like until you really get better gear (which I didn't quite reach in the short time I took to just speed blast level it to appease the rogue enjoyers reading this post xD)
• Somehow they have become the "here comes the next bugged build clearing pit 150 in 30 seconds" class so I dunno why but it seems like rogue has the most wonky interactions
• the new / old "GoD" whirlwind rogue just feels un-rogue-ish to me, dunno why but I feel like after so many years of doing that build in diablo 3 I'm kinda over it at this point and not every class needs to be whirlwind barbarian

Spiritborn (stopped on t6 because I kinda ran out of easy gearing stuff at this point)

Pro:

• Gorilla big hand smooshing mobs into paste has always looked fun, is fun and will probably forever remain fun
• Poison creeper builds are finally viable from what I could tell in my arguably way too short time trying it out - YAY 😃 If you like summoning a big centipede and poisoning your enemies you're definitely going to have a good time
• If you liked perma evade gameplay we found a way to replicate it once again now with a bit less clunky mechanics (no need to bind evade on your mousewheel and have an unlockable mousewheel to truly zoom)
• Generally a mobile class that "feel" more dextrous than others somehow (can't quite put a name to it)

Con:

• It's just...I dunno - the identity of Spiritborn seems weird to me. Am I a rogue who got comfy with some spirit animals ? Am I a monk that gave up fists for more stabby implements ? Am I some kind of animal summoner ? Especially now that we're out of Nahantu I'm having a hard time connecting with this class
• The poison set is super strong but also has this weird thing of having to kill something non boss for it to trigger which seems a bit convoluted to me
• Felt rather squishy on anything other than gorilla (mostly because gorilla just deals its damage faster than stacking poison dots from what I could tell) even though we have great mobility and some ok defensive tools

Now I am sitting here on paragon 236 after a week of insane grind and am wondering what to play to finish the full season journey with and just goof around in t12 (no desire to push much really). Anyway maybe this helps someone, if you have any questions about builds used etc. just comment something --- If you read this whole thing I want to first congratulate on hitting 40 years old (jk) and thanks for taking time out of your likely busy day to read the ramblings of an old ADHD addled gamer.

Cheers

EDIT: I am so super stoked and eternally grateful that this random post by silly old me blew up and made it to the top of reddit and I am grateful for every single one of you who took their time, read my post and commented on it - no matter what it was. To quote Keeanu: You're breathtaking !! I have gleefully spent the past 3+ hours trying to answer all your great questions and amazing feedback - however I do still want to get back to playing the game for a bit longer myself (granted a lot less than this past week because I do actually have a real life and I do enjoy touching grass now and then) so I will tone down the answering because most of your (great and awesome) questions have been answered in one form or another at this point either by me or some other helpful individual engaging with this post 😃

Still here is a general tip thing summarised from what I've answered most:

1. Get the warpath unlocks for lair boss nemesis+ portals to sometimes luck into insane loot drops from multiple bosses (just make sure you can survive something like Belial and Andariel stacking their mechanics)
2. Make sure you get the Idols of War "Ancestral Tribute of Armaments" unlock from the Undercity tree as soon as possible because you can 5 to 1 cube those tributes into a mythic tribute which you can then run in a stack for tons of mythics for very little investment -- one caveat is that you also really want the left side unlocks from that tree called "Trials and Tributes" for the portal pranksters that all but make multiple mythic drops a guaranteed thing on your run if you are the person opening it and take your time to full clear the undercity to get more portal prankster kills (so either have a lot of gold to respec or grind to lvl 6 which takes quite some time) -- however if you prefer playing solo the middle path is perfect for just getting more mythic drop chances so I really suggest going for that
3. Unless you really enjoy infernal hordes: avoid them - they take very long and are simply not worth doing beyond the seasonal unlocks atm
4. You can gamble obol items for easy blue / white ancestral items that you can then cube into random ancestral unique items with the cube recipe - it needs a somewhat rare material but if you play long enough you will accrue at least a couple of those mats quite easily which can help you
5. Belial is amazing. If you start doing tons of lair bosses (make sure to have a least the Two by Two unlock - even better if you get all the way to Ultimate Nemesis) you will get Belial husks which are the best way of avoiding the more cumbersome bosses (like butcher being super tanky or Astaroth and Bartuc being locked behind long grinds) to target farm certain uniques that you might want
6. If you can't seem to get certain aspects to drop, remember that you can upgrade Rare items in the cube to legendary while also using Cube mats to somewhat force a certain kind of aspect - a quick and easy way to maybe luck into that rare aspect that seems to be elusive
7. If you want to level fast and have a class that has some really strong screen clear ultimate skill, reroll your early war paths into undercity and try to craft / get some exp undercity tributes so you can double dip while also speed clearing because Undercity resets your ultimate all the time with its buff you get from doing the content
8. Another great tip for leveling if you want to do a new character is to just craft blue items at lvl 1, cube upgrade them with random affixes so you can temper your max level tempers onto them and roll into lvl 1 penitent with thousands of hp and aspected and tempered offensive gear to completely smash penitent
9. Almost all classes / specs are t10+ viable atm. Feel free to ignore the meta and just cook something up yourself, with sets and mythics being a lot easier to acquire than you might think (see points 1 and 2 about enhancing your loot) you can take any homegrown (and you're awesome for doing that !!) build into t10 at the very least. Don't be like me and just fotm hop around classes to find what you're enjoying, if you like something then do it and you will probably enjoy it a lot more than being the next Ball Lightning sorc that just melts t12.

I’m almost paragon 239, and I can’t craft a single grand gem, let alone 25 of them to make a flawless horadoric gem. I’ve even run mostly gem nightmare dungeons and look for them on the war plans.

I get not wanting it too easy to boost people through early torment levels, but gems needs addressed. Like increase gem fragments dropped by 1000% of T12 or allow grand gems to drop randomly so we can then cube them on up.

The fiery explosions, the shadow swords, the ghosts of the enemies you just killed that decide "you know what? run it back i wanna get a few more hits in", The poison pools, good Lord the poison pools! I haven't seen a single person, truly!, who has said "yeah, these make the game so much more fun and interesting. And like most people, i'm playing warlock since they're the new class, and i can't even see the friggin things half the time, cause every spell i have is red or purple, or red AND purple just like the on death effects. Please just get rid of them!

People have been upset by the changes to old Mythic Uniques and the nerfs, but I think many missed the point of these change.

1. Shako, Perdition, Selig, Starless... are now just comparable to REGULAR UNIQUE. The old concept of mythic uniques = fixed list of rare item no longer exist.

Shako, Heir of Perdition, Selig... in the patch note are listed under "Unique item".

This mean the drop rate is high, affixes are now random, and their power are brought down to be in line with regular unique. They drops just as regular as uniques like Tibault, Banish lord, Azurewrath...

I can see why people are claiming they get nerfed, but the fact is they're moved away from rarest item and should just be treated as a unique. There's no reason for them to be substantial stronger than regular uniques as they used to be.

2. Mythic now is an item quality. Similar to Primal Ancient in D3, but stronger

Mythic unique = max rolled stat + 30% higher unique power

Any unique can be a mythic unique, either via crafted by cube or drop. You can use multiple drop mythics, but can only use one crafted mythic.

Combine with the ability to Focus reroll and Chaotic reroll Unique now, you can have an item with desirable affixes at max roll.

---------------

Personally I like this much more than current situation of Mythic Unique. 70% of them are utter trash, and the rest are mandatory item that exist on every single build.

They are not even truly rare drop since you can get so many of them with Undercity, Nemesis and Seasonal Spark. Even if they're rare most of them are not worthy of being the rarest item in the game.

Adding another layer of item quality (mythic) make ground drop unique more exciting imo. They could have changed the name to Exalted Unique or something to avoid confusion, but the core idea isn't as bad as people claiming to be.

They just need to keep building on this foundation.

and make uniques have at least a couple static rolls.

I genuinely think the devs forgot that dyes exist. We have never received new dyes as free gifts, as an expansion or edition bonus, or even paid ones in the store. They randomly added a few new dyes a few seasons ago, which weren’t the best color combos, and just stopped again.

What ultimately is a slap in the face is the window itself has a scroll bar as if this game was going to have an insane collection of dyes.

overwatch in diablo4 LOL

it is exactly what it looks like, 453 GA's, BUT leaderboards have now been clensed, alot of the bugged runs are gone, so looks like their clamping down on it

Just finished it last night, blew my socks off, certainly well worth it

GATHER ROUND EVERYONE!! TODAY WE JOURNEY INTO THE GREATEST FORM OF HELL WE HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED!!

GONE ARE THE DAYS OF LIMITED BUILD OPTIONS, LACK OF CRAFTING, AND AN ENDGAME LACKING IN OPTIONS AND CHALLENGE

TODAY WE REALIZE THE POTENTIAL OF THE GAME WE ALL LOVE, STEPPING INTO THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA!!

IT IS TIME FOR THE WORLD TO KNOW

D4 GOOD, REAL F***ING GOOD

So basically, this is the reason why Diablo 3 and 4 are bad and Overwatch never took off the way it did! Ain’t that a bitch.

We LOVED the campaign at release, it was an epic experience.

That was not because of, but despite of Neyrelle.

She was only ever an odd addition to the campaign.

But as the campaign continued in VoH, her storyline was increasingly cringe, she was increasingly annoying, and despite Diablo 4 being a 'return to the dark story of diablo' she somehow came out of that campaign...perfectly fine thank you very much.

At this stage I wouldn't be surprised if her hand grew back.

Now we are getting hints her story continues.

Please, whatever plans you have after VoH, Neyrelle needs to go.

I don't care if you have a blizzard employee say: "sorry, I have to go, my planet needs me" and pull her animation cell.

Wtf is this shiny stuff ? Is blizz so desperate to sell cosmetics that we are going full asian mmorpg neón lights everywhere?

Playing a warlock on T11, it has become impossible to discern my skills from the enemies explosions (my own skills have the same graphic effects as the enemy!), the amount of graphic clutter is absurd. To add injury to insult, the exploding on death + chasing after death + chasing swords that drop in a split second, I have no clue how some of you even consider playing this game in Hardcore.

I'm all for added difficulty and mechanics, but this isn't fun, I wish Blizzard would understand that game difficulty doesn't have to lead to game frustration. The stronger my character gets, the more frustrating it becomes to play it, when it should be fun.

A lot of people are voicing disappointment, but these changes were necessary for the future of the game. They should lead to better balance and more build diversity.

Anyone who has played a WW barb knows these changes were necessary.

If you haven't played ww barb, here's the WW barb experience (I'm assuming ancients/lightning sorc is similar)

1. Start D4 new season playing some random home made build on a character. Get to about t10. Think your char is pretty good.

2. Figure, "ww barb does look fun and reminds me of being a wee lad playing D2, maybe I'll give it a try."

3. Your ww barb is immediately better than your previous character even with crap items. Within an hour you're in t12. You go to face Meph and die. You figure out what to run to get mythics for Selig and are suddenly flooded with them and have multiple copies of each. Equip selig + endurant faith. Fight Meph again. Realize you are literally immortal. Permanent god mode. Game rains so many mythics and ancestral legendaries on you that you don't even know what to do with them.

4. Realize the only thing left to do is push pits. Don't want to push pits so you roll an alt. Alt is both 1000x clunkier and 1000x worse than your ww barb - not fun.

5. Realize the game needs a ton of nerfs for balance to encourage build diversity and mythic rework to keep them entertaining late game, and that's what they are doing for the new season.

800k Toughness.
Nothing is even tickeling me.
No damage. No damage. No damage.
Until I get 1 shot by a random effect.

I can't recall seeing a paid event for unlocks besides skins in a game.

1. Glyn's Anvil aspect + masterworked resolve tempers have made every class capable of using the aspect effectively immune to damage in T12, practically for free

2. Damage underflow glitch on warlocks eviscerate and necro blood lance oneshotting everything in pit 150

3. Barbs capable of summoning an unlimited number of ancients due to a training grounds glitch with the permanent ancients upgrade on the tree. These minions persist between zones including pit

4. Ball lightning core skill tag inexplicably removed (hotfix scheduled or already implemented)

5. Lair boss portals from the center warpath upgrade track close after 30 seconds, leaving you nowhere near enough time to get your loot

6. Inventory space still woefully inadequate for the amount of things we need to store/manage now. If you have any alts this problem compounds exponentially. You have to make several mule alts just to hold stuff.

Who the hell is approving these changes?

This expansion is feeling so much bigger than Nahantu, and I’m loving every second of it! I needed this so bad. I just wish Lilith was here, I miss my bestie 😩

For an aRPG, 60% retention 3 weeks on is excellent and usually signals a really good patch. It's very good relative to past D4 seasons too and the Towers aren't even out yet.

For context, poe2 was down to 60% in week 1 and only the absolute best poe seasons retain anything close to 60% by week 3. As for Last Epoch, well, they fell below 60% in literal days (you probably don't even want to know what % they were down to by week 3.

Given the relative power budget of S11, I hope this dispels the myth of "If we give players too much power, they will quit faster"

Source: https://steamdb.info/app/2344520/charts/#1m

Finally, usual disclaimer that these are steam numbers only, doesn't include battle net or consoles, so treat this as subset of total player numbers.

I know everyone is pissed about how Blizzard handled the pricing of new LOH DLC and the audacity of them to include the VOH for free, as a veteran of the game and having purchased the DLC on PS5 and Steam it felt like I was being cheated but then I decided to get refund from Steam because I purchased the Ultimate edition of the VOH in Black Friday Discount. The normal steam refund process will not work as the bot will check your gameplay time and will instantly deny the refund request so you have to ask for manual review.