Vessel of Hatred (D4 first DLC)

[bbr]

So, first impressions?
Is anyone playing it?

[Fencers]

More of the same, but better executed. I am enjoying the story thus far. Being able to skip a lot of BS is greatly appreciated.

[Maljinwo]

Hopefully the story doesn't make me sleep this time

[Fallen Angel]

The new difficulties are great. Spiritborn is a fun class with some great mobility. I’m enjoying the story and one boss was rocking my world on hard around level 30.

I’ve had a couple of crashes and some lag but overall my experience has been good.

[Iliena]

I'm also liking Spiritborn, but I think I will give this a miss! :



I'm annoyed with the DC's and that Subo is busted! I was hoping to get well stocked for mat's while lvl'ing with him highlighting all the nodes.

[Fencers]

The new difficulties are great.

Yeah. The balance was so wildly off before the changes. The new tiers make a lot more sense and feel progressively challenging whereas the game was a complete joke previously.

I think so far the Mercs are useless. There isn't any depth to them mercs and they just become a cooldown. It's also annoying to me to interact with them and mess with their progression system. Too simple and basic.

[Liftbrul]

Not feeling it. I get they don't want to tread the same path four games in a row, but I can't imagine a Diablo game without some sort of holy warrior/knight class. Paladin, crusader, you name it. I'll probably come back when they get to it.

[Fencers]

Not feeling it. I get they don't want to tread the same path four games in a row, but I can't imagine a Diablo game without some sort of holy warrior/knight class. Paladin, crusader, you name it. I'll probably come back when they get to it.

To be fair, only one Diablo game had a Paladin to start. D3 added Crusader almost 2 years after the launch and was only thematically similar to Paladin.

A bit of misplaced nostalgia or expectation here. An "armored warrior" has existed in every version of Diablo; Warrior (D1), Barbarian (D2), Barbarian (D3), Barbarian (DI), and Barbarian (D4).

[Fallen Angel]

Kinda disappointed with the final boss. I was expecting something completely different.

The fight itself was fantastic, just the result was disappointing.

[Iliena]

The campaign was mid at best and worse than Reaper of Souls IMO. It managed to feel both short and bloated at the same time with too much pointless dialog and actions that did fuck all just made the campaign longer.

The ending was meant to be a cliff hanger... It missed!

[Fencers]

The ending is super weak.

[Zelk]

When does the second half of the campaign release? I wasn't aware the campaign was timegated when I bought the expansion.

[everydaygamer]

I liked the story but it just ends up feeling like part 1 which is just annoying.

[Daedius]

Spiritborn class just feels like I'm playing the Monk...

Been almost a year since I last played, doing a refresher playing the Campaign again with it.

I've affectionately named him "MickJaguar", even looks like Mick Jagger with the face and hair...

- - - Updated - - -

Not feeling it. I get they don't want to tread the same path four games in a row, but I can't imagine a Diablo game without some sort of holy warrior/knight class. Paladin, crusader, you name it. I'll probably come back when they get to it.

Nice class will be a Templar...

[Beastiel]

Mercenaries feel just like they did in d3.

Very bad. Like maybe they have a crowd control cooldown that's vaguely helpful once in a while but otherwise just serve no purpose mechanically. It's unfortunate because I appreciate some of the personalities but they're pretty much just extra screen clutter.

I understand why they're like this - if the mercenary is actually pulling weight then it feels like you're playing a game where every class is a summoner and there are people that don't like that and you also don't want to punish people too harshly for not wanting to engage with the system because they prefer the atmosphere of soloing

But so then why is this series so persistent with their inclusion. I really just don't think they're a good fit.

[Ereb]

Is the entire campaign not even included in this DLC like I am hearing?

[everydaygamer]

Is the entire campaign not even included in this DLC like I am hearing?

It is it just doesn't feel like a complete story. It's very much part 1 of a greater narrative.

[Trifle]

Mercenaries feel just like they did in d3.

Very bad. Like maybe they have a crowd control cooldown that's vaguely helpful once in a while but otherwise just serve no purpose mechanically. It's unfortunate because I appreciate some of the personalities but they're pretty much just extra screen clutter.

I think they're ok, they're not meant to be a huge deal. I'm using Subo atm and have him specced to apply vulnerability for me while I level, since my abilities don't. Then have Raheir as a reinforcement who pops in to cast his vortex ability to group enemies up which is pretty handy.

Only thing that's a bit annoying is Subo's "passive" to show enemies and resources on the minimap (main reason I'm using him tbh) seems pretty inconsistent.

In diablo 2 the main use of mercenaries was as a paladin aura bot.

[Mojo03]

I don't know what that campaign was

Easily the worst Diablo campaign. 20% was fairly good and the other 80% was just "huh"

So much unnecessary/bad dialogue, flaccid story, "thats it" ending

Do these people not know there's a lot of lore they can pull from? It feels so amateur/hacky and like the people writing it don't know the lore of IP they're writing for of which there is a lot they could pull from (of which they pull from basically none of it and just make up their own thing)

Otherwise, the game feels pretty good other than bugs preventing me from progressing

[Nzx]

I'm having fun, but I feel like the time I took to left-click skim read all the storyline rather than just esc-skipping it was a bit wasted in the end. I was expecting a lot more of a definite ending with a loose thread to lead into the next one than a complete cliffhanger.

I also think I managed to skip the final spoken line of the story, because what I got was "Make me a promise, X" and then straight to the recap cutscene. Is there ever actually a response/follow-up ine to that "make me a promise", or is it intentionally ended there?

Something I'm struggling with gameplay wise is gearing. I think it's intentional and I just wasn't aware of it, but hitting a wall at 750 gear before you even get into Torment difficulties feels like I'm "out" of scaling options that aren't just farming paragon levels, and there isn't really a clear path from ending the story -> ... something like there used to be. I know people didn't like NMDs but at least you could just push through tiers of those and feel like you were making progress. Now I log in and wonder if the Pit, or NMDs (which now seem completely pointless?), or Undercity, or helltides, or world bosses, or whispers, or something else I should be spending my time on. It's an infinitely better problem that having no content to engage with but I'm really struggling to understand WTF the priority order is of all of this content so that I can come up with a gameplay loop.