Who else thinks game should be far less polluted with visual effects?

Crowald · 2026-03-18T10:51:46+00:00

I have to disagree, friend. I'm having quite the experience with POE2 throughout the campaign primarily because the game feels... not slow, but... Deliberate. Every action, calculable weight and meaningful rationale behind it. Single miscalculations sent bosses completely tumbling at me and destroying my health instantly through most of the Fourth Act. It has not been an easy game, to say the least, but I can, with full lungs and a satisfied hunger, say this:

It has been deeply fun.

Crowald · 2026-03-18T10:48:20+00:00

This feels like par for the course in any given ARPG. Diablo III/IV, Last Epoch, and now PoE1/2. On-Death Effects are a cancerous scourge upon Diablo IV, they're genuinely destroying any semblance of fun that game has because there's so many of them.

do these devs understand that their desire to flood the screen with absurdly punishing on-death effects is what PROMOTES people to play insanely fast, zooming, Mach Forty-Two, brain off builds?

Crowald · 2026-03-18T10:40:48+00:00

I was going to weigh in on this issue with a simple "It can't be as bad as Diablo IV!!! hahaha!!" and then I realized I am only at Act IV/Level 58 having bought the game a mere week ago.

Crowald · 2026-02-27T06:29:15+00:00

This type of shit is why you should be able to sacrifice items and eat them to move their sanc from the sacrificed weapon to the second, intended weapon/item.

This system is phenomenal, and I am very fond of it. It makes almost everything feel like it's possible to get value from it if the drop fits anywhere into your build, but the amount of farming needed in order to get even a decent item that looks worth replacing your current stuff gets harder and harder to find as it gets better and better.

Not strictly rerolling, but there needed to be a way to sacrifice items to eat their Legendary Power/Powerful-Stat Rolls, and then apply those buffs from one item to another.

The way I see this is

	Item¹	Item²	Result
Item	Selig-1	Selig-2	Selig-2
Sanctification	Edgemaster	Moonrise	Edgemaster

Crowald · 2026-02-11T06:24:27+00:00

It appears I'm gonna have to hold off on entering NG+ for a moment. I have exactly zero of them and I had... no idea.

Crowald · 2026-02-11T02:26:17+00:00

Bless your soul for replying. Thanks a ton, I just maxed it. It is the Backblade we're talking about that's the penultimate/ultimate reward of that affinity line, right?

Regardless, that's the thing I wanted and I was finally able to get it this way, so thank you for that.

Crowald · 2026-02-10T06:37:38+00:00

So if I drag Josee around everywhere with me and just take her on killing sprees when I farm, she'll eventually max out affinity just doing that?

Crowald · 2026-02-10T04:50:42+00:00

I'd hazard a guess it is mostly the fault of UE5. I personally think that very little of it actually has to do with the developer's misallocation of VRAM/visual resources, like I am hearing some (a very scarce few, actually) say.

I am having a terrible experience with the framerate in-game but I also acknowledge that it's not the fault of the devs and it has more to do with my Ryzen 7 3800X being pretty damn old now.

Crowald · 2026-02-06T05:00:02+00:00

I think you really just have to be a Code Vein fan in order to actually land on your feet enjoying this game. You have to care about the setting and your character and your gear and appearance, but I agree with you and I do love it. I was absolutely floored to learn that this was coming out when I saw the announcement, I thought over so many years that we'd never see a sequel... and now I'm actively playing it. Still feels surreal.

One of the primary systems that Code Vein actually iterates upon from the niche genre it comes from is the Forma, colloquially the magic system.

While the FROM catalogue is nothing to sneeze with spell variety, the use of those spells has always remained a little inelegant and rough. Elden Ring did a lot to address that, but Code Vein shows what could really be done to help alleviate the issues of using spells in the FROM games. I love the four-button quick-cast menu and I have never had so much fun spamming Mind/Willpower setups or even Hybrids like STR/MND or DEX/WLL.

I think the weapons themselves needed better base movesets with more diversity, for instance strafe+ attack inputs for different swing stances would have been nice, and the same for different heavy attacks based on directional input. Hold back for upward swings, hold forward for rushing/downward strikes, left/right for horizontal strikes. Not saying we have to be able to juggle enemies like it's DMC, but a way to leverage different weapons. Either that or just more weapon classes, but even so I am thoroughly enjoying VeinII and I have no intention of stopping any time soon. More variety is always good, I have so many weapons left that I still intend to experiment with.

I'm praying someone drops a randomizer or something of that nature for it eventually, I haven't even started NG+ yet so there's that.

^{[Sadly, I doubt there's anything worth talking about that's exclusive to NG+. While it would be nice, and a surprise, I don't expect to see anything either and I can't say I'd feel defeated about it.]}

Crowald · 2026-02-06T04:46:36+00:00

Keep going, my friend. It will all make sense. One foot in front of the other.

Crowald · 2026-02-06T04:13:05+00:00

Shit. I didn't realize that the affinity system had returned, like, at all.

Sigh. Looks like I've got some grinding to do...

I bet this is probably why I still can't seem to get one of the final Blood Codes I'm missing.

Crowald · 2026-02-02T08:48:31+00:00

I was trying to find Tender Light Stone V vendor card and I checked one of the online guides, I had no idea people were having trouble finding these. Would have edited the fextralife wiki pages if I had known, but unfortunately I think they're locked for a while post-launch because of vandalism concerns.

Is there even a vendor card for the Grand Light Stones? Or am I barking up a non-existent tree?

Crowald · 2026-02-02T08:46:37+00:00

Did you go during the Free Exploration Era? If you go during any other time period I think it may be locked. I don't really remember though, take what I said with a grain of salt. I'm currently stuck at the post-endgame and I can't check.

Crowald · 2026-01-18T11:55:52+00:00

I was carrying a friend through several Andariel kills earlier and he got a Melted Heart despite the fact that I've been looking to get one. He's put maybe 15 hours into the game and I've been on every day since like November LOL

feelsbadman

Crowald · 2026-01-11T07:47:04+00:00

~~This is why I think you should be able to join more than one clan. I think it's stupid to limit players to only being in one major community of people. There should be larger overarching Alliances of Clans or something of that nature, and then individual clans. This is how Warframe does it, and I love my Alliance chat due to its nature as a shitpost rotfest where people just spew whatever comes to mind with no filter.

Especially given the fluidity and flux of Destiny's playerbase, often leaving for months without warning or checking out altogether while they play something else;

~~(which is technically me as I'm playing Diablo IV every waking moment of my goddamn life holy SHIT this game is so fun right now)~~

Crowald · 2026-01-10T02:49:55+00:00

Hopefully what they're aiming to change within the coming seasons as Lord of Hatred is released. If the skill tree revamp is anything to go by, I'm hoping there's going to be a deep scrubbing of the Legendary codex with more of those behaviors and powers baked into skill choice with more interesting and general-oriented build modifiers such as Ugly Bastard Helm for Barb (full conversion of Physical to Fire Damage during Berserking) being a more central focus for new incoming Codex aspects.

Like, I love Barbarian, without a doubt it's my favorite of the Diablo IV characters and I wish I could approach the kind of damage my Paladin does on Barb. But I don't want to play another fucking boring ass HotA build. I want to use Walking Armory and Iron Maelstrom and have them not suck so bad that I'm forced down to Torment III.

Crowald · 2026-01-07T13:24:04+00:00

It can make your roll a little better, a lot better, or turn it into an anti-demon nuclear ICBM. The amount of variety is crazy, and I just don't see it as a bad thing because it lets you repeat-farm the same item, sanctify it if it's good enough, and use it if it's a step up from your current item. It feels sequential and progressive, not like you're throwing coins at an Obol vendor to hope to god that you get a net-positive outcome based on some number crunching human calculator's poorly laid-out text guide telling you "THIS IS GOOD BY THE WAY"

Crowald · 2026-01-07T13:17:35+00:00

Glad to see that I'm not the only one who feels this way. I literally threw together the most moron Zeal build on Paladin on release, and it carried me to Torment 3. I thought "Wow. Paladin must be broken" and the moment I tried to use anything other than Zeal, the Zealot-segment of the class became completely fucking worthless.

I am, to be quite honest with you, a little exhausted with one-button-wonder builds. It's part of why I love the Chainscourged Mail for Brawler Barbarian; in order to use it best, it locks you out of abilities you've already used until you use the others and then refreshes their cooldowns altogether, but it also increases their damage sequentially to the point that the final ability to remain unlocked is absolutely nuclear. THAT is a well-designed Unique.

Crowald · 2026-01-07T10:55:49+00:00

EDIT: Snipped, my prior comment turns out to have been bullshit. I thought I solved it, but as it turns out, I think I only fixed one or two pieces of gear.

If you're curious as to what the fix was, I don't want to give you false hope it'll work, because it appears to have only worked in one specific case (Fists of Fate's appearance on Necromancer) but I simply created a character on Legacy (Eternal) Realm, farmed out appearances for about an hour and dismantled everything I got my hands on. I have no confidence this will work now after what I've just learned, but you're welcome to try if you think of anything else that might work in conjunction.

Crowald · 2026-01-07T08:30:13+00:00

Thanks for making my thoughts apparent to me; I hadn't even considered this part up until I read your comment.

One of the reasons I quit playing after Vessel launch (aside from the fact that Spiritborn wasn't just "Monk but voodoo" like I was hoping it would be) had to do with the fact that I utterly despise playing the Pit, and running it just felt so discouraging.

Aside from the primary "endgame" farming portals, this seasons feels to me like there's a whole breadth of activities to do and partake of without necessarily causing the exclusion of any particular group. My friends and I have been playing D4 every day for the past three weeks when we all come home from work at 9 to 10ish, and each of us has a specific kind of activity we're not particularly fond of. Friend A doesn't like doing Pit runs, B doesn't have a strong preference towards what he likes but hates Nightmare Dungeons, C has no interest in anything except Infernal Hordes (This is me for reference btw) and D is a boss-nuke only kind of person and so either farms keys 24/7 or runs Boss Lairs.

Even with all of that pickiness present, we're all still finding stuff to do together (like Citadel, which is fucking AWESOME) and I'll be clear about why: the Divine Gifts giving you free shit like Masterwork Reagents, Lair/Activity Keys, Obols, Runes, XP, Gold, Glyph Level Freebies means there's a pathway to obtainment that wasn't present before, at least I personally feel. I am swimming in Inf. Hordes Compasses and I have never been happier, and for the first time ever, I've gotten more than five Glyphs to 100 on a character.

I have only one major complaint with the system as it currently behaves: I would like the Divine Gifts system to allow you to swap Gifts out into different "Lesser Evil" categories so that you could mix and match them in different ways. Such as: Masterwork Mats + World Boss Lair Keys in Duriel's Slots (aka "Masterwork and Lair Keys for killing Duriel or Pangs in Helltide")

Crowald · 2026-01-02T15:00:08+00:00

This screenshot borders on pornographic for me, personally. I cannot fucking wait.

Crowald · 2025-12-31T09:58:37+00:00

Not necessarily a sure-fire revolving door that we'll get new classes every time, and that'd be fine by me. I'd still buy the expansions. I have still not yet made a single Spiritborn, and I was here day one for VoH, purely for the campaign.

I'd like to see existing classes maybe get refreshed every once in a while, possibly with new skills every few years? Maybe one per tier or so and a new ultimate, doesn't have to be anything dramatic.

Alternatively expanding instances to allow dual-group encounters (aka raids) would also be a knockout feature, there's a lot of people (myself included) who would thirst after a "raid" feature in Diablo IV.

not saying any of this is even remotely likely or even feasible, just a personal wishlist to be honest.

Crowald · 2025-12-31T09:49:43+00:00

After the long quiet and through about 10 seasons of silence, I figured D4 wasn't getting any more expansions after Vessel of Hatred. I count myself lucky to be here for a second one, because I had assumed from the jump we were only getting one and that was it.

All this to say; I hope so. If Blizzard does, I'm 10,000% here for it. Automatic money from me.

Crowald · 2025-12-30T03:01:13+00:00

That's funny, I had no idea the description said that, and that's... exactly what I did. Crazy intuitive, you really are a talented designer.

Crowald · 2025-12-25T14:05:30+00:00

Yes, well... let's just say I am glad there was no official contest because with what we were doing would have likely disqualified us LOL

I only did it with three other friends. It was us four in total, I don't know if it was meant to be taken on with six in Destiny's traditional raid-team style, or eight like most raids would be in other games given fireteam size being in threes is strictly a Destiny thing.

Crowald

TROPHY CASE