TL;DR
I wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts and experiences regarding the recent changes in the game. First of all, let me start by expressing my genuine love and appreciation for Diablo 4. It has been a source of joy and excitement for me, especially since I live in a foreign country without my friends and family nearby. The game has become my social life, connecting me with online friends whom I’ve known for years.
Recently, I’ve been focused on my Bone Spear Necromancer build, and I must say, it has been an incredible journey. I started out playing with the Minions build since the Betas, but as it wasn’t viable for high-tier content, I made the switch to Bone Spear around level 50. Admittedly, I was skeptical at first, as a Necromancer without minions didn’t feel right to me. However, over time, I grew to love it. It became the only viable build for Necromancers, as I saw in various streamers’ tier lists.
For a while, the rankings didn’t bother me. As long as my build allowed me to conquer content without struggling, I was happy. I invested countless hours in leveling up my Necromancer, and even before the recent XP boost, I enjoyed the slow grind, I reached level 95 with no issue before that boost. However, I also believe in being rewarded for the time I put into the game, rather than feeling punished for it. The 80% increase in ND XP was a bit excessive for my taste, but I understand the intention behind it.
My journey involved farming for aspects, leveling up glyphs, and meticulously re-rolling my items for the perfect stats. Gold became a precious commodity, and I remember reaching my highest amount, a mere 90ML. It took me 27 levels to find a decent weapon, and I must admit, the struggle was real. But finally, I obtained the perfect sword with the stats I needed, thanks to several million gold spent on re-rolling and extracting/imprinting aspects.
In total, I’ve spent almost 350+ hours since the early launch, with half of that time dedicated to my Necromancer build. The other half was spent goofing around with friends, helping them get ready for S1, and attempting to organize my limited inventory to accommodate multiple builds, minions, and bones. Just this week, I was excited to have made progress toward fighting Uber Lilith. I dropped an item that provided me with the necessary stats for the Evulsion Passive (+3), and it gave me hope.
However, I must confess that defeating Uber Lilith as a Necromancer using a controller is no easy feat. Necromancers lack movement speed, making it challenging to dodge the fire waves. Moreover, the casting of corpse tendrils often activated the ones closer to my character instead of those closer to the enemy. PC players have the advantage of selecting exact corpses with their mouse, which can make a huge difference. Despite these obstacles, I persevered, relying on the damage output of my Bone Spear build.
That’s why I felt disheartened when the recent changes decimated my build. Now, I can’t even get Uber Lilith down to 50% health easily, and the fire waves obliterate me. I never reached the 15ML damage mark, unlike some streamers and professional gamers. But with around 300% critical damage, I still managed to deal decent damage and came close to defeating her in phase 1. All the hours I invested in farming this build suddenly felt wasted.
I want to emphasize that I don’t want to be a hateful or toxic player who disregards the hard work your development team puts into the game. I understand that game development is an incredibly challenging process, and it’s impossible to make everyone happy. I genuinely appreciate the effort your team has put into Diablo 4, and the enjoyment it has brought me thus far. However, I can’t help but feel that the recent patch was a lot to handle, particularly for someone like me who worked tirelessly on a specific build for so long.
Perhaps these changes could have been implemented gradually or balanced in a way that wouldn’t have such a significant impact on existing builds. I understand that it’s a delicate balance, but I wanted to share my perspective as a dedicated player who has poured their heart and soul into the game. I hope my feedback can contribute to the ongoing improvement of Diablo 4.
