Diablo IV Beta Impressions w/ DatModz | Dropped Frames Episode 344

[@shadow12k]

This was the no frames edition of dropped frames Edit: was it just me or whenever they said “modz” your brain waited for chat to give them an answer

[@jydmu]

Happened everytime

[@Anelikital]

I was listening to the audio version on Spotify so it happened all the time for me lol.

[@Mindofthequill]

I gotta say I appreciate you guys getting DatModz in here. I love the guy and I think he's perfect to bring in for when discussions are Diablo oriented. I hope you can get him on here in the future too once D4 is officially out!

[@SuperSoulSpark]

I didn't think we would ever see speedrunning like this on Dropped Frames.

[@pilot7350]

pretty sure we had tytykiller poe speed runner on a few years ago

[@thequatropus]

So for the D4 part, I mimic some of the criticisms about the classes but have noticed some things that really work and don't work if you're not going meta on the build. I've died the most on my druid early game but as I got around 25, I've really just been using my two wolves, my werewolf normal, and lightning storm. Found a legendary that said "Hey those wolves you specced in are now werewolves as well and do 200% more damage". Started also building around health gain on kills and now has become pretty fun. Necro, I went bone build for the vulnerable damage but I did a boss today that has a lot of Frost AOE that eats through the skeletons so quickly and there's no corpses to raise from so at some point you're just running and dodging. I died two times here. Sorc was fun but I feel the fireball is not as fun as some of the other things you can spec in. Hydras are really cool though and so is the big fire snake.

[@esaedvik]

I think Cohh forgot when Vanilla Ice was exploding as Vanilla Ice, that was the 90s, not early 00s. To The Extreme was one of my first tapes I ever got as a present as a kid, with MC Hammer :D

[@PsychMike]

2:32:13 I know this was probably a chaotic moment on JP’s end but the emotional rollercoaster it took me on was very entertaining, lol

[@Roffet]

zeke blue check joke in his shoutout😭

[@BartvG88]

I only got the chance to play a druid. I had a great time. My basic attack was turning into a bear and mauling, building armor and spirit. My spender was rend, which damages, poisons the enemy and heals you. Also, you turn into a werewolf. I noticed that the lightning storm drained my spirit a little too fast, but then I discovered the boulder ability. You summon a giant rock, rolling it away from you, pushing and damaging enemies. Especially in narrow passageways, it feels amazing. My ultimate was turning into a werewolf and attacking 10 random targets. It was a little underwhelming, It's like a lesser version of seven-sided-strike. I'm curious how the other classes play.

[@swedishZ0mBi3]

I love Diablo but I'm sceptical about D4. Will keep my eye on the game but no preorder. Great podcast as always!

[@nicholasg.5441]

The director of D4 was also the lead on the console version of 3, so its no surprise to see a more console leaning. Also, i really feel like skill trees are an illusion of choice. After one season barely being able to.progress in PoE, everyone will just go for the top builds with very little variation. Everyone will have one skill in a 6 link that they mostly just spam. I guess theres merit in being allowed to screw up, but not many want that in an online game, especially as a streamer, and when it would take a couple dozen hours or more to realize they just straight up cant do some content because they chose what sounded cool instead of what synergizes and works

[@anandparera]

The guest DatMods' accent is like those cliché surfer teenagers we used to see on TV in the past

[@esaedvik]

Twitch's time of "good will" amongst streamers and viewers is over, the "bleed purple" thing died ages ago. No one wants to bleed for Amazon; not employees, not contractors, not viewers...no one. The fact that they're so out of touch as to still push Guest Star, just shows how ear to the ground they are.

[@bobbob-cd9yl]

No coverage of the chris avellone news?

[@seekyunbounded9273]

Who dat

[@eirik1068]

To be fair. The did not cover a lot of other stuff too. So probably next time :D

[@bobbob-cd9yl]

@@eirik1068 yeah I understand they had to cover diablo 4 just hope they cover it just bc I feel it's important for how huge a figure chris avellone was in the industry

[@rogerbabin8175]

I don't get the gaming community sometimes. As Hogwartz comes out Dropped Frames and everywhere else goes hard on correctly informing gamers about the real life harms surrounding the game. Diablo 4, which argue has worse harms surrounding it, is coming out and we don't hear a peep from anyone in this episode. Activision/Blizzard has a horrific record with regards to the treatment of their female employees. Soo many awful stories have come out about it. Their CEO has allegedly instigated a death threat. Upper, middle and lower management are all responsible for what sounds like over a decade of abuse and mistreatment of woman. This is all before how poorly Blizzard pays everyone while spending millions upon millions in union busting and other more 'normal' tactics of major corporations. How this isn't a major part of the discussion every time they talk about Diablo or CoD but Rowling benefiting from the IP license and no other part of the game development is enough to boycott doesn't compute with me. Either way...this isn't to say they did Hogwartz wrong...they didn't. Companies NEED to be called out for their shit. Likewise companies NEED to be called out when they have a great history. This is good information for consumers to make decisions with. Just to proactively address a possible critique. Don't assume Diablo players know everything about Activision/Blizzard. This is a nostalgic casual property. People get hyped for this game in the same way they might get hyped for a CoD, Madden and Fifa. There are probably newer listeners to dropped frames and these 4 content creators who genuinely don't know how bad Blizzard/Acitivision is and just what their money is supporting. Its worth educating them and its worth putting pressure on these companies to correct their bad behaviors.

[@Dopesaur]

My own perspective is somewhat simple compared to your comment. I saw the backlash of people against Hogwarts as a consequence of it's mainstream appeal. Harry Potter has way wider appeal and way more people know about it, so the outrage had way more surface area to attach itself to. I don't mean to say that Diablo is obscure, but it is in my opinion way more obscure for anyone outside the gaming space. Thus, the potential for the outrage surrounding Hogwarts had way more people spreading it that didn't ever even hear about the game, they just saw a twitter post about a J.K. being horrible and decided to relay the message forward. I would guess that this was the first time a lot of people heard anything about Rowling's views and were then surprised and appalled. In my opinion, reasonable minds can see a video game that is being developed by passionate people excited to make a cool RPG and separate that from the original creator of the property. In a way, more progressive viewpoints necessitate a mindset where you separate the art from the artist. It's just somewhat normal that people way back when had not so great views compared to today. That's the whole point of being socially progressive, to be on the spearhead of change (Hopefully towards a better world). With my thoughts on this laid out, my actual opinion on what you said. As I see it, their tendency to sweep Hogwarts and it's associated controversy under the rug is a way too careful approach to big things happening in the industry. I still think their general reasons not to really support it are justified, but I felt that they needed to clearly state their position on the matter instead of avoiding talking about it. I think they shouldn't shy away from it because they don't discuss politics in their show or whatever. In conjunction to this, the way they don't directly confront the not so great parts of Activision-Blizzard when talking about Diablo is just them liking Diablo more. They're willing to talk about Diablo and discuss it regardless of anything happening at blizzard just because they're not as apathetic about Diablo as they are about Hogwarts. In my opinion, it's not sinister or anything like that. It's just that they like it more and so want to actually enjoy the thing they're excited about. Sort of similar to what Cohh's stance on Bethesda and Starfield is. He is direct and open about some of the things he finds horrible and scummy about their practices, but also states that it will have very little effect on his enjoyment of Starfield. That is to me, completely consistent. That's all, I realize that I sort of spoke past your original comment, but I dunno, it just sparked a desire to respond. 'Tis just my opinion. Have a good day.

[@rogerbabin8175]

@@Dopesaur Thanks for taking the time. Your not wrong. Especially when it comes to the remark that they like and are hyped for this game where they were indifferent about Hogwartz. Its kind of shit that this is the key point at the end of the day...that and the perceived business backlash of support Hogwartz vs Diablo of course. I just remember the story around the Bill Cosby suite stuff in particular and its hard to just look past that. To point out my potential hypocracy....I'm probably buying Diablo 4 at some point. My personal stance has always been that hundreds if not thousands of good people work at these places and I'm fully okay financially supporting them despite knowing that some very bad people will profit more. I'm not planning to boycott Diablo 4. I don't expect anyone else to. I do, however, strongly believe in the value of informing consumers so they can make up their own minds based on their own values.

[@nelliott500]

I see one major difference: people associating with Hogwarts Legacy were being targeted by folks online. There was so much drama surrounding it, some online personalities just decided it was best to avoid it. With Activision Blizzard, the majority of people that have a problem with the company are upset about poor quality games or the way they handle monetization. it's only a small percentage of folks who are vocal about the shitty management and business practices. Specifically with Dropped Frames, there was very little or no interest for JP, Cohh, and Zeke to play the game. Couple that with the drama issue and it seems they simply chose to move past it and talk about other topics.

[@WadeDMcGinnis]

It's strange D2 use to be simpler but the remake, with controller, allows for so many spells to be played. I wonder why D4 did not follow Vicarious Visions on the controller redesign. Now I cannot go back to M&K.

[@TheWindwall]

Good show. Thanks.

[@_ryju_]

Looking on the bright side, people can still play Diablo II. Mindblowing right?!

[@ronykarlsson176]

the gate is not bugged. it's loading. since we dont have loading screens u get stupid ass loading in game so u cant move past the point before it loads.

[@dudeonthasopha]

Since your power is mostly gear dependent like D3 if you give people exp boost and you outpace your drops, you'll get to a point where it takes forever to kill cause you couldn't keep up with scaling.

[@oplawlz]

D4 is a prettied up cash shop. ARPG fans just went back to last epoch, since the multiplayer is in now.

[@LodvarDude]

The UI needs a real overhaul. I really hope this build is a REALLY old one. If not, the team has a crazy grind before them to get this thing done in two months. Also, we can't really judge this game before we see the store, the battle-pass and how it integrates into the gameplay. How intrusive is it? Does it affect gameplay? I don't trust Blizzard an inch on the monetization-aspect either. Consider this; they have said that re-speccing will become most impossible after a while and that it is much better to do a new character. And, they sell a battle-pass with xp-boost. I also wouldn't put it pass them to sell quality of life stuff like more character-slots for money. It's also an obvious mechanism to keep MAUs high, keep you in-game for as much as possible (to grind new toons) and subject you to the store as much as possible.

[@dsagent]

I started laughing when they were talking trash about twitch and everything froze.

[@pilot7350]

Most games lately seem tested on great PCs. and makes low or medium pcs struggle with lagg and FPS. Dibalo 4 for me was pretty buggy and laggy maybe cause of the online only thing, i was rubber banding quite alot,also eveytime i use the hand teleport that game would disconnect. this is why i dont like online only. POE and Last Epoch ran fine though no problems, hope the full game is much better.

[@zephron28]

If the new Twitch CEO is anything like other CEO's ... then he will talk his ass off and nothing will actually happen for the benefit of the creator. That is what CEO's do, don't let them fool you their job is to be the deflector. They are charismatic people who trick you into believing the garbage they sell you.

[@mickeyfrknmouse6673]

Just use scythe skeletons with the flesh attacks...melts bosses

[@Drakoni23]

Only 20-40 min queue? On EU Servers everyone I've watched in week 1 got DCd at least once, with error on rejoining only way to fix that is restarting the game and wait 1h - 2h queue. I had that timeout issue yesterday and only got it fixed by updating drivers (weren't very outdated)

[@eirik1068]

I played both weekends. And only got a queue longer then 20 min 1 times combined on both weekends. So someone was definitely luckier then most. Or I just hit the right times to play I suppose. Who knows.

[@Drakoni23]

@@eirik1068 Oh lucky. My queues on both Fridays were at least 1h.

[@FlexxibleFree]

Description of rogue abilities is just a Trickster build from PoE, huh

[@Sleepgarden]

Modz looks so much like the Nirvana bassist

[@Morden97]

Rogue is honestly great. I ended up by chance on the exact same build as cohh and its just... fun. A lot of fun.

[@spwolftech]

don't know if anyone cares.. but for me, twitch killed itself. 2 years ago i was watching 2 or 3 streams a day, depending on my free time, and would browse to see if there was some one new if one of my regulars not on when i wanted to watch (i have bad insomnia). Now thanks to all the massive ads all over the place, i watch the 1 channel i prime sub to watch some vods on KZbin if i can as i have premium here. For the most part thanks to there practices Twitch is mostly a dead site to me.

[@yungguattari4924]

I don't know what about Lost Ark made me play it so much (must be the gameplay) but never spend a dime and never pvped' and still had fun. Might install it again now that you guys brought it up.

[@wolvie90]

Diablo 4 is gonna occupy the same space Diablo 3 has been the past few years, it will be fun for a weekend or so when they do a new league/season, but it will not wrestle away a meaningful portion of the PoE crowd. The character building and itemization is way too basic for that, which is not necessarrily a bad thing, but this will not be the game to sink thousands of hours into. I also started the beta as Druid, thought "man this is a slow game, not too many mobs but they take ages to kill". At level 15 or so I caved and just looked what streamers had said, yeah it's just the class that sucks, started a Necro instead and it was night and day difference. My rando skellies do more damage than the Druid ever did and I have zero investment into minions.

[@konstantinkrastev4478]

they fired the people with high salaries

[@Ghrimtactics]

so... its basically just Diablo-x-Lost Ark

[@sumireravenclaw8034]

It depends Jp, necro even in diablo 3 is broken and bugged and even since it came out was never once patched. so my guess is it could easily still be in the main game when it launches

[@jingo1410]

my thinking is that this game has PvP so they will try and tune the classes to be closer in power.

[@seekyunbounded9273]

Shake that money maker (beared)

[@yungguattari4924]

Sorry, but saying that you play in hardcore mode just for bragging rights is a deservice to the experience. It's all about the experience immersion wise, the mode sets the mood of needing to really focus in how you build a character, how you play and position, it's not like a difficulty pike, it's more like a mindset. In games like D4, I only play not-hardcore to lab and almost never finish the game. Jeez, fcs, I have played more Torchlight II than any Diablo because modding has made that game a hardcore player paradise with so many classes and UI enhancements.

[@BradKallhoff]

I was part of the early music scene on Twitch, streaming mostly from 2015-2019. I think the 2018 TwitchCon is when they were really pushing the Twitch Sings thing, so there was a big karaoke party and Emmett was there. He seemed so out of place and like he didn't really know what to do, so one of my friends called out to him and he came over to our cocktail table and hung out for a bit. I really like him. He seemed really genuine, if maybe a touch aloof. Big companies change CEOs depending on what needs the company has at that time, so I get why the change came. I'm in the boat thinking this era of twitch wasn't really Emmett's skillset, but I'll miss feeling like there is someone that genuine up top.

[@netsquall]

34:10 NCSoft destroyed City of Heroes and for that I refuse to this day to buy a single game under their umbrella. -.-

[@AwesomeNuke]

I'm surprised there was no segment on Dark and Darker! Next week hopefully

[@nelliott500]

Cohh mentioned that towards the end and JP said they'd talk about it next week.

[@Huckleberry42]

Zeke looking like a viking

[@benjaminmatheny6683]

After I got burned by Diablo 3, I wont buy any Diablo title on launch. And with just how unrepresentative the beta for it was, I consider most discussion of Blizzard Beta's to be nothing more than hot air. They have already proved that they are able and willing to deceive reviewers to build hype.

[@Shibby]

Love me some Modz!

[@Critage91]

they should bring back real money AH like they did in the launch of diablo 3 man i was able to pay my rent a few months for just playing and having fun!

[@sumireravenclaw8034]

I mean there's good class builds and bad class builds. when a barb takes like a min to kill a boss but sorc kills a boss in like 10 seconds. it's clear that sorc is 2nd in OP and necro is first.

[@mickeyfrknmouse6673]

The devs said they were doing all 3 games seasons, d2r...d3...d4

[@ruibarian5187]

I'm pretty sure this was an old but stable build of D4 and they were almost exclusively doing server load testing. We've already had months and months of balance and endgame test betas, it's not really necessary to have more feedback on it at this point.